"Seriously, how can you eat so much?" said Rosalind as she watched Tommy open his fourth bag of chips. "This is extremely unhealthy."

Tommy shrugged. "Probably, but we're in a hospital, so it's fine."

Rosalind snatched the bag from him. "That doesn't mean you should make yourself sick."

"Hey, give it back," Tommy protested.

"Nope." Rosalind stuck her hand in the bag. It was hers now.

Tommy grabbed for his chips, but Rosalind held them out of his reach. A couple fell to the floor, so he picked them up and popped them in his mouth.

Rosalind smacked his hand. "Gross."

Tommy grinned. "I have a strong immune system. I've trained it well."

"By eating off the floor?"

"Yep." He knocked Rosalind's arm and another chip flew from the bag and landed at her feet. "Do it. I'll give you five dollars."

"I don't want five dollars." Rosalind hid the chip under her shoe before Tommy could eat it too. He cracked open a Red Bull instead. "Tommy! Those are so bad for you. What did you do, buy everything in the vending machine?"

"Sorry, Mom," said Tommy with a laugh. "And yeah, pretty much."

"You are not allowed to call me 'Mom,'" said Rosalind with a bit of a shudder.

Tommy conceded that point. It was way too weird. He stole back his bag of chips.

"Just let me stress eat," he said before Rosalind could reprimand him again for his unhealthy habits. "How's Jeffrey doing?"

Rosalind didn't know how to answer that. Everyone else was waiting anxiously outside of Jeffrey's room. She and Tommy had strayed around the corner to escape all of their fretting. They were all struggling to figure out the best way to handle this. Jeffrey and Skye would want time alone together, but how much? When would it be intrusive to go back to see Jeffrey again, and when would they start wondering why no one had? It was impossible to balance. Everyone wanted to give them exactly what they wanted, but no one knew what that really was. And Rosalind had her own wants to consider. She wanted to hang in the room with them all day. She wanted to soak up how wonderfully at ease they were together, no longer fighting and instead looking like they had been a couple for years but were still no less in love with each other. She longed to tell Jeffrey again how worried she'd been about him and remind him of how insanely brave he was. Unless he was sick of hearing that. Then she would tell him something else, anything she could think of. She only wanted to be with him, and with Skye. Her sister had returned days ago, true, but it felt like Rosalind hadn't really gotten her back until Jeffrey was finally free as well.

"He's a lot worse than Skye," Rosalind finally said. "I don't understand it – how Dexter could hurt him like that. How anyone could hurt anyone like that, honestly, but especially Jeffrey."

"Don't try," Tommy advised. Her father had told Mrs. Tifton the same thing, but it was hard not to. The complete lack of reasoning behind Dexter's actions made them that much more difficult to deal with.

"He was happy, though. Completely himself, just...badly in need of a hospital." That was the least alarming way she could think to put it.

"I guess that's good." Tommy wadded up his empty bag and tossed it repeatedly in his hand.

"You should go see him," said Rosalind. He and Nick were the only two left that hadn't.

"I will. I'm just waiting a bit. I mean, we're kind of friends, but I barely know him. I want to give him time with the people he actually cares about." This time, when he tossed up his chip bag, he failed to catch it. He kicked it under his chair.

"That's sweet," said Rosalind. She stretched her arm under the chair to pick up his trash. She stuck it in the pocket of her leggings.

"If you say so. It just seems like the decent thing to do."

Rosalind crossed her legs in her chair and fiddled with her shoelaces. "Does it make you nervous?"

"Talking to him? A little, yeah. I don't know what to say."

Rosalind hadn't either. She'd rambled anxiously until Jeffrey had laughed at her and told her to relax. Tommy was more of the awkward silence type than he was a rambler. Rosalind babbled hopelessly. It had made for some interesting arguments between them.

"You were great with Skye," she pointed out. She hadn't been there, and Skye hadn't talked about it, but she knew it to be true. Of course he had been. Tommy was always great.

"That was different. We basically rescued her; I didn't have a choice."

"You did rescue her. Not basically," Rosalind corrected. "He'll want to talk to you as soon as he hears about that."

"That definitely makes me nervous."

"Why?"

Tommy shrugged. He pulled a candy bar from his pocket. He really was stress eating. "I don't know, it's not something I'm proud of. It's not like we did anything. We just followed Dexter's directions." He finished his candy bar, thinking. "I guess Nick did, since he impressed Dexter on the phone, which is weird, but whatever. I'll take it."

"So he figured out he's not a cop?"

"He said 'congrats on a good game' or something like that. He was like 'here's your prize,' and it was Skye."

Rosalind shivered. That was repulsive, even if it had brought her sister home in one piece. Skye wasn't Nick's prize any more than she was Dexter's. Tommy looked equally disgusted.

Rosalind looped her arms through his. "Well I'm proud of you if you're not. I'm glad you were the ones that found her. I think it helped."

"I hope so. I tried, but I didn't know what I was doing. I have no idea what that was like for her. For either of them. Awful, obviously, but that doesn't mean anything."

For about the hundredth time, Rosalind thought about Skye's Tommy analogy. "Tell me how you'd fucking feel, Rosalind!" she had said. Rosalind felt a twinge of very real panic just imagining someone hurting Tommy. Once after a football game, a player from the opposing team (bitter that Tommy had knocked him on his ass the entire second half) had jumped him in the parking lot and decked him. If he'd been alone, Rosalind was certain Tommy would have fought him, but she had been there, already in the front seat of his car. He'd jumped into the driver's seat and locked the door, flipping the guy off until he tired of banging on the window and shouting "I'll get you at the next game, Geiger. Watch your fucking back." When he'd finally left him alone, Tommy had laughed it off and said, "He's so not going to get me." Rosalind had cried for twenty minutes. In the end, the joke was on that asshole. Getting punched had actually worked out quite well for Tommy. Rosalind had hooked up with him right there in the parking lot of Cameron High School. She never, ever did anything in a public place, but she had been so upset and so worried about him that she couldn't wait. Tommy's face had been bruised for a week. He'd been annoyingly proud of that – he said it proved that he'd annihilated that guy – but the swelling had made Rosalind cry three more times that week, not to mention how she had bawled her eyes out describing it later to Anna. Tommy was fond of that memory. Rosalind was not. She hated football. That had happened two years ago, and still it was her most vivid memory.

Even thinking about it now made her upset. If Tommy was ever put through what Jeffrey had been, it would kill her. Physically kill her. She wasn't tough like Skye; she'd be dead. She missed just last week when she had been innocent and unsuspecting enough to believe that such things would never happen to anyone she loved. Now, she feared it would happen to all of them.

"No one hates you, right?" she said before she could stop herself. Tommy was about to make so much fun of her.

He looked surprised. "I don't think so." He thought about it a little harder and chuckled. "Although, last year Kelsey Stein did say if I ever talked to her again she would go full Carrie Underwood on my car."

Rosalind loathed Kelsey Stein. She had a nasty habit of making bold moves on other girls' boyfriends. She thought it was a game. Most of the time, she got what she wanted. Senior year, she had latched onto Tommy. He had been absolutely unaware until she she'd caught him behind the bleachers at a pep rally and, according to Tommy, hiked her cheer skirt up to her waist. How cliché. Another reason Rosalind hated football. Kelsey had seemed to be attempting to work her way through the entire team before graduation. Rosalind had seethed with a ridiculous amount of jealousy, despite the fact that she did trust Tommy, and she believed him when he said he'd walked away. It was the kind of jealousy that made her feel possessive, not angry – though that hadn't been much better. It was true that the first thing Tommy said when he saw her was "I have to tell you something," and it was true that he had been so worried and apologetic that it was cute, but it was also safe to say that her night had still been wrecked. They'd cuddled on the Penderwick's couch, watching tv, and about every hour Rosalind had bolted up and shrieked, "Bitch!" That is, until Iantha had come downstairs to tell her to please stop doing so before "bitch" became Lydia's first word.

Kelsey had been less than impressed that she had flashed Tommy her underwear and he'd still turned her down. That didn't really happen to her. She had spread a rumor around the school that he had "frightened her" by cornering her and "out of nowhere" asking her to blow him. After that, Rosalind had elevated her insult from "bitch" to "lying, evil bitch." Hardly anyone had believed it, though Rosalind had witnessed Kelsey tearfully telling her elaborate story to a horrified, gullible group of freshmen cheerleaders. "She has no self-respect at all, it's pathetic." Rosalind had later fumed to Anna.

They both had sat behind Kelsey in their AP Biology class. Anna had told her that she next time she was horny, she should try for a guy less completely in love with his girlfriend. She might have better luck with assholes. Kelsey had spun around and snapped back, "Oh, please. Rosalind, you've been dating since middle school, you know he's bored." Anna had called her a skank and said that it was funny that he still wasn't bored enough to get with her. Then she'd smacked her and been suspended for two days. Skye had found the whole thing absolutely hilarious. Tommy had not. He'd been monumentally pissed off. It was kind of sweet. Just to prove he was not at all bored, he'd started being embarrassingly blatant and open about dating Rosalind. He kissed her during passing periods and was overall so touchy that teachers had gotten in the habit of saying, "Hands off, Mr. Geiger," whenever they saw him, even if Rosalind was nowhere around. She'd felt like she was living in a cheesy teen rom-com.

Needless to say, Kelsey Stein was not a fan of Tommy. She probably did hate him, but that was not the kind Rosalind was referring to.

"I don't mean that, though fuck her," she said. "You don't have real enemies, do you?"

"Nope, I'm a perfectly nice guy," Tommy laughed. "Rosy, what's up with you?"

Rosalind wished he was better at picking up on what she was saying before she had to explicitly lay it out for him. That way, she might feel like less of a complete numbskull. "Skye got in my head," she admitted. A slight blush rose to her cheeks. "I keep imagining you being hurt like Jeffrey. She told me to, so I could understand how she feels. Now I can't stop."

Tommy didn't make fun of her. He pecked her cheek. "I'm fresh out of lunatic stepdads, if that's what you're saying."

"Any crazy uncles?"

"Nope."

It didn't comfort her like it should have. She was still scared that some psycho would come for Tommy next. The world was evil; there were far too many bad people out there. "Please don't get kidnapped."

Tommy smiled, but he wasn't laughing at her. "I don't plan on it."

"And don't get murdered," said Rosalind. "Or even beat up."

"You're adorable," said Tommy. He kissed her. "I'll try."

That kiss was over much too soon for Rosalind. She pulled his face back to hers and permitted herself to forget her silly worries and just be happy that he was there. She didn't know what she would have done if Tommy hadn't come to Arundel with her. The possibilities were truly frightening. Most of the time, she felt like it was she who reined in Tommy (he had more than a few reckless tendencies), but he deserved more credit for all that he did for her too.

She tugged his lip with her teeth, then teased his mouth with a sliver of her tongue. She knew exactly what he liked. She was rewarded when he slipped his own tongue between her lips and she dissolved in a tingling warmth. She felt limited by sitting down. Still kissing him, she crawled from her chair and pushed it away with her leg. She had to break away when she pulled him to his feet (he was 6'3 and nine inches taller than she was), but it was only for a second. She used that time to catch her breath. She pressed his back into the wall and stretched up on her toes to kiss him again.

She had never been so forward. It was completely inappropriate, but for the first time ever, she didn't care. Even the deepest corners of her mind were silent and lacked any insecurity. She sucked at his face like the only other person in the room was Kelsey Stein. As immature as it had been, Tommy hadn't been the only one flaunting their relationship the second semester of senior year. If Kelsey was around, Rosalind was all over Tommy, just to rub rejection in that lying, evil bitch's face. It was embarrassing, but if Rosalind saw her now, she'd probably do it again. Prom had been an entertaining, beautiful disaster. Rosalind had even gone out of her way to say hello to Kelsey, before Tommy had dragged her off to dance with him. He'd captioned his prom photos "never a dull moment" and probably half of the senior class had asked Rosalind if he'd done it on purpose (he had). As the star of the football team Tommy was already too popular for his own good, but the drama had turned them into Cameron High School's it couple. Jane had called the circling gossip "supreme."

But it wasn't just homewrecking cheerleaders that had rendered Rosalind and Tommy incapable of keeping their hands off each other. They had known they were about to break up, and neither of them had been as ready for that as they had hoped. Rosalind thought that was why they had fought so much after they had split. It was easier to act like they hated each other. Then they could fake having a genuine reason for breaking up. Rosalind had liked to pretend that ending things had been all Tommy's idea, but the truth was, she'd dangled the concept in front of his face until he'd had no choice but to grab onto it. And just a month ago, when they'd almost gotten back together? She'd ruined that when she told him to go to hell, so that was entirely on her. It had been ridiculously moronic. Who decided college meant the end of high school relationships? And why date other people if you knew you were already in love?

Tommy's hands slid down her side and around her back. He drew her closer so that each of her curves fit flat against his body. One of Rosalind's hands dropped and traced lightly over his chest, then the side of his abs. The other she kept firmly around his neck. Her lungs were starting to burn. She gasped for air with each second that their lips parted, but she wasn't about to stop to breathe. She sighed with satisfaction as she felt him get hard. Her wandering hand jumped back to his face. She grabbed him harder than she meant to, but she was desperate for him and out of her own control. She wasn't drunk. She wasn't frantic and hysterical. Rosalind was coherent, and she knew exactly what she wanted. She hadn't slept with Tommy in almost a year; that was about to change. Though perhaps, not this second. Damn their public location. She had half a mind to hunt down a bathroom, a closet even. If he kissed her much longer, she would do it. Her body throbbed with desire. She both hated and delighted in her incapability to curb it. It left her trapped with a passion so intense that she hardly remembered who she was. Six years she had dated Tommy, and returning to him still knocked her off her feet.

She nibbled his lip again. He stuck his tongue so deep in her mouth he probably found her tonsils. Rosalind melted.

"Oh, so this is what y'all are up to."

Curses rain down on Nick Geiger and blast him to hell. Rosalind painfully separated herself from Tommy. Nick was standing there with Jane, doubled over laughing.

"Told you," said Jane smugly.

Nick passed her an unspecified amount of cash.

Tommy squeezed Rosalind's arm to get her attention. "Wow," he mouthed, grinning and breathing hard. Rosalind flushed. They would finish that later. Her skin pulsated and twitched, shocked by the sudden, unwelcome lack of touch.

"Saucy, Rosalind," said Jane. She wriggled her eyebrows. "How scandalous."

"Shush." Rosalind had not yet regained the ability to breathe. Tommy slung his arm around her shoulders.

"Wild," he whispered before kissing her ear.

Careful that he was the only one that would hear her, Rosalind whispered back, "I'll show you wild later."

"Oh." He actually turned a little red.

Rosalind laughed. She did feel uncharacteristically crazy. If she was in the same mood that night, she might even try something new with him. She had shot down a few of his ideas in the past; she was open to reconsideration.

"Take a break, you two. Jeffrey wants to talk to us," said Nick. "Although, if you want me to tell him you're busy…"

"Shut up, Nick," said Tommy. "Jeffrey gets what he wants first."

Nick nodded in solemn agreement.

Rosalind could physically feel her lust being sucked out of her and scattered to atoms. Already she missed it. It was a much better feeling than worry. Thinking about Jeffrey did nothing but worry her. That, and make her want to cry.

Tommy pushed off the wall, his arm still around Rosalind. "Come with me," he said to her. "He won't mind."

"What, you scared of him?" asked Nick.

"Right now? Yeah," said Tommy.

Nick rubbed the back of his neck. "Fair enough."

Jane followed Nick and Tommy into Jeffrey's room as well. He hadn't said that he wanted to talk to them alone. When he saw them, Jeffrey propped himself up on his elbow, then winced and changed his mind. Skye lay next to him, both of them covered by a white bedsheet.

"Where have you two been?" he asked cheerfully, like he wasn't in great pain. As cheerfully as he could anyway, with his voice completely gone. It didn't deter him from speaking any. "I was starting to think Skye lied when she said you were here."

"I was waiting outside," said Nick. "Tommy, where were you again?"

"Shut up, Nick," said Tommy, for the second time in five minutes.

"Ri-ight, about to bang Rosy in the middle of the hallway."

Rosalind's face burned. She was starting to feel all the embarrassment and insecurity she hadn't felt before. "Nick!" she scolded fiercely. "It wasn't that bad."

"Oh it was pretty bad," said Jane. She clasped her hands over her heart. "I was so proud."

"Sorry to interrupt, then," said Jeffrey with a sly smile.

Rosalind kicked herself. The teasing would be relentless. Skye, thankfully, said nothing. She probably knew that if she did, Rosalind would fire back with at least her PDA hadn't been televised. She didn't regret kissing Tommy like that, but she did regret not stopping two seconds before Nick and Jane came around the corner. She needed a sixth sense to warn her of impending intruders.

"You interrupted nothing," Rosalind assured Jeffrey.

"Not nothing," said Tommy. He winked at Rosalind.

She rolled her eyes. This was exactly why she preferred to avoid initiating things. He gave her shit for it whenever she did.

"But it's cool, don't be sorry," Tommy added.

"Oh I'm not. I'm stuck here a while, you've got time," said Jeffrey.

Tommy whispered in Rosalind's ear. "You know there's a janitor's closet down the hall, when we're done—"

Rosalind smacked his shoulder. "Moment's over Tommy. I'm not doing that."

Tommy laughed. "Damn. Bucket list."

"Too bad. You missed your chance."

Nick grinned. "Ouch. Rookie mistake."

Rosalind snaked her arm around Tommy's waist. The moment may be over, but she would still absolutely kick Nick out of their hotel room that night. So long as her father didn't put tape on their doors again. He'd done that when Tommy had joined the Penderwicks on a winter trip to Martha's Vineyard. But they had been only sixteen at the time; Rosalind thought that she was old enough now that the odds were in her favor that he wouldn't.

"So you're back together, then?" Jeffrey asked.

They hadn't officially discussed that, but Rosalind and Tommy both said yes at the exact same time.

Jeffrey was more than satisfied with that response. "Glad you've stopped being dumb."

"Same you for two, it looks like," said Tommy.

"Same for her," Jeffrey corrected. He jabbed his thumb at Skye. "I'm clearly the smartest one here."

Rosalind came to the sudden conclusion that she desperately wanted to double date. As much as she cared about Jeffrey, he had always been more of her sisters' friend than hers. On top of that, she was always looking for more of a reason to hang out with Skye. They were drastically different, but Rosalind was confident that the boys would get along well enough. She couldn't think of a more perfect situation. She'd always wanted to find a couple that she and Tommy could hang out with – Anna hadn't once dated a guy Tommy had even remotely liked.

"So, will you be praising their heroism, Jeffrey?" asked Jane. It was obvious that she wanted him to. "Our knights in shining armor?"

Tommy shifted uncomfortably. Rosalind gave him a quick squeeze. He was a hero to her.

"Not heroism, Jane," said Tommy.

"Nope, just luck," Nick agreed. "I, for one, am no knight."

"Uh, what?" said Jeffrey.

"That's not what he's doing. I haven't told him yet. He just wanted to say hi," Skye explained.

"That's lame. Why am I here then?" said Jane.

"Um because you missed me, and I am a joy to be around?" Jeffrey suggested.

Rosalind's heart constricted every time Jeffrey opened his mouth. It hurt her throat just to listen to him speak. His neck was so purple. She was reminded again that Dexter was a demon incarnate.

"Haven't told me what?" Jeffrey circled back.

"That's okay, it's not a big deal," said Tommy. "Honest."

He was so insistent on not taking credit. That touched Rosalind's heart. Most people would brag. They would want to be recognized, perhaps on TV.

Skye sighed and summed up the story in a rush. Tommy stared at the ground and shuffled his feet. He looked like he was being scolded. He'd always been modest, about everything but football. Football he bragged about.

Jeffrey's lips parted in surprise. "Wow," he said when Skye had finished. "I never really thought about it. How you're here. I guess I just figured you got away somehow."

Skye shook her head. "Remember? I said he choked me unconscious."

Rosalind stiffened so she wouldn't make a sound. Tommy tightened his arm around her shoulders. Choked her unconscious? She kept making the mistake of thinking that Skye couldn't possibly reveal anything worse, and then she did.

Jeffrey blinked away some of his disbelief. "That's true. I don't know what I thought. Not this." He looked from Nick to Tommy, still looking positively floored. "How did you find her?"

"We didn't really. He told me where she was," said Nick.

"O-kay. Can't say I saw that coming." Jeffrey was even more confused.

"Yeah we didn't either. Kind of thought we were driving out to find her body," said Nick.

"How cheery," said Jane bitterly.

"He liked Nick for some reason," said Tommy. "For acting like a police lieutenant instead of an army one."

"Isn't that a crime?" said Jeffrey.

"I don't know, I didn't say I was a cop."

"Pretty sure it's still illegal."

"Yeah well, maybe they'll arrest me, and I can shank Dexter in the lunch line."

"Not a bad deal," said Tommy.

"I might turn myself in."

"What were you doing on my mother's phone anyway?" asked Jeffrey. "That was more than a little shocking. You're about the last person I expected to pick up."

Tommy relaxed beside Rosalind. It didn't seem like Jeffrey was going to thank them, and he preferred it that way. The air instantly became more comfortable to breathe.

"I didn't think she should answer it, so I did. She wasn't very happy with me."

Jeffrey looked ready to laugh, but he didn't quite. "That's not shocking. Probably smart though, she's uncontrollable."

"So I've heard. And she was distraught, so bad combo. I wanted to at least make sure he hadn't killed you first."

"Yeah," said Jeffrey, just barely loud enough to be heard. Then he did laugh. "The look on his face when you answered instead of her. He was so mad."

Skye grinned. "It was fantastic."

"Perfect," said Nick. "That's all I want to hear."

She hadn't realized she was speaking out loud until she got a response. She was talking to herself. Rosalind said, "I can't believe she talked to him. At all. On the phone or at the station."

"At the station?" Jeffrey repeated.

Skye stepped in to answer him for Rosalind. "You know when I threw the stapler at him?"

"Right, you did say he told her…what I said."

"Yeah. The FBI had her talk to him because they thought it would get him to give up your location, which he did, so good on them I guess. And her."

"Was she okay?" Jeffrey was more concerned than he was impressed.

"No," said Skye. "She was irate."

"She hit him. Raging motherly love and all that," said Jane.

"Did she really?" said Nick. "Jeffrey, your mother's a bad bitch."

A smile crept over Jeffrey's face. "Not the first time, either. She hit him a month ago, when she kicked him out."

"Like I said."

Rosalind felt truly happy. For once, it wasn't like her happiness was only a temporary mask concealing her many dark emotions. Those feelings were still there, but this happiness existed in spite of all that, not instead of. She wondered how long it would last. Hopefully until at least tomorrow.

A/N: okay ya'll why am I so insanely bad at typing? I was doing a little revising and I swear to god WHY CAN'T I TYPE THE CORRECT PRONOUNS?! The amount of times I say "she" or "hers" when it should be "he" or "his" I'm DEAD. And wtf why do I like forgetting words so much?

what's sad is I proofread every chapter twice before I post it AND THIS STILL HAPPENS

Probably cause I always type it out at ridiculous hours like 4 am like it is right now.