Walking into the lobby in their dress blues Chris was deliberately staying as far away from Street as she could. She had caught his glance in the carpark outside, seeing him try to smile at her, but she looked away from him, giving him nothing. She was still a little angry and hurt, Luca and Tan had been ribbing him all day about being so quiet the last few days and not coming home the last two nights that he must have a new girl or girls on the go. He had tried each time to explain that he had been dealing with his mom and not on a date or with a girl but each time something had happened, and he never got the chance to set the record straight.

She knew it was juvenile of her and she had tried to brush it off and ignore it telling herself 'so what if he was with a girl? it's a free world', but then she would stop and think 'hang on how dare he though… if he cares about me half as much as he says he does, after kissing me, jeez how dare he…. jack arse'. The rollercoaster of emotions went around and around as she then felt awful because she had been the one who had caused that kiss. She was the one who went looking for him that night, she was the one who had gotten drunk, drunk enough that all of her inhibitions were gone, then just like that had gone running back to Ty and Kira leaving him standing alone to pick up the pieces of his heart which she was sure she had shattered. It was unfair of her to expect him to never look at another girl again, but she was angry, hurt, guilty, sad and a complete mess inside.

She did an amazing job though of putting up her walls and hiding all of that from the world. Except to Street…... he could see she was hurt and scared, but as much as he tried to reach out to her. To talk to her, all he got was a cold hard emotionless block from her. Little did he know that it was like a thin shell barely holding it all in.

She made small talk with Tan once they got inside, in order to avoid any need to look at or speak to him. Tan asked her if she had heard about Streets mother going back to prison this morning. She swallowed hard, as Tan explained that Street had been the one on his own, last night, who found her high on a cocktail of drugs, half-dressed living with some strung out dude called Brian in a filthy meth house. Tan told her that Street himself had reported her for parole violations and handed her over to go back inside. Chris knew that would have absolutely broken his heart. She knew he would have needed her last night and still be needing her as his friend right now, she felt awful that she was not there for him. She had seen a message on her phone around 6pm yesterday. It had read,

"Hey, I have a lead on my mom, thought you would want to know"

She had ignored it, she had thought it was him trying to make conversation and pry the door a little so that he could get his foot in the door with her. Chris glanced over her shoulder at him, she knew that he was in pain and would be needing her. She was his support person and had been for a long time, but she just stood there frozen and expressionless, hiding her pain as she watched him. She looked back at Tan,

"How's he doing?" she said gesturing her head to Street behind her. Tan was surprised Chris didn't just go speak to him, the two were usually inseparable.

"Um" Tan said shrugging…. "He ah…was pretty upset when I spoke to him back at HQ earlier"

Chris looked down at her feet. She felt ashamed. She felt guilty. She knew that he needed her friendship, she needed him too, but she couldn't bring herself to allow it, she didn't trust herself to even talk to him right now. He had made her feel such profound things that she was sure the only way of her not doing anything else stupid was to cut him off. No talking unless absolutely necessary! No socialising or being involved in each other's lives outside of work.

Hondo moved the group along,

"Come on…... we need to get seated they are about to start" he said.

She saw Hondo shoo Street and Luca towards the row of seats at the front and she deliberately held back, waiting to see where he sat, so she could sit a few seats away. As they approached the chairs, she quickly moved to stand in front of one, bagsing it, as it was several seats away from him. Tan and Luca would sit between them and be her buffer. Over the noise of the room she heard his laugh, instinctively she glanced quickly, seeing him take a seat next to Molly Hicks. The two of them laughing about something and smiling at each other. It made her chest hurt, and she swallowed hard looking at the floor to hide her pain. Chris hated these feelings. She felt like this pushing him away wasn't working because she also desperately wanted to keep him in arms reach. Seeing him look at another woman and be flirtatious made a sharp pain shoot through her heart. Street had not been flirting with Molly though. They were only laughing at a joke Tan had made about her father Commander Hicks.

Street sat there hearing Deacons words "we are more than a team….". He glanced across at her, Street knew inside that she had taken that seat deliberately, so she wasn't too close to him. As he sat looking at her briefly, he said to himself 'yeah we are more than just a team I'm in love with her'.

The way their relationship was over the last three days though was causing him to feel physically sick. It was strained and awkward and the way she had rejected him and seemingly discarded him was killing him. Not being able to talk to her, look at her or even get a smile out of her anymore. It felt like parts of him were slowly dying on the inside, he didn't know if he could go on like this. He desperately wanted and needed her back, even if it was only as friends, he told himself he would accept that and just be grateful to have her in his life again. Chris didn't look back at him, she continued watching Deacon up on the stage. 'Stop staring' he said to himself dropping his glance back away from her and inhaling deeply.

Chris had felt his eyes on her. She fought the urge to turn and smile at him. 'don't look at him… don't' she told herself. 'No point giving him hope or allowing him to think you have left that door open even a smidge'. She continued to look ahead to Deacon. Her mind was barely hearing anything he said. She was battling with the emotions and trying to focus herself. She knew deep down that she was running scared from the things he made her feel, she knew running away from him was making her miserable, it was probably making him miserable too. 'Stop it' she said to herself. 'Stop worrying about him… you need to focus on you. You need to keep him at bay and ride this wave out. It will go away, you will stop feeling these things soon enough if you give him some space and just focus on you, on you Ty and Kira and forget about him'

As the ceremony ended, she hoped she could exit quickly. She didn't want to have to mingle and be put in a situation where he might start to talk to her. Twice now he had tried to get her to talk to him about that kiss, but she had pretty successfully slammed that door shut in his face both times.

"No way…. I love them too" she heard him talking to Molly.

"We should go and see them one weekend" she said to him, touching his arm. 'Crap,' Chris thought 'she is definitely flirting with him'. Street smiled and nodded at her and was about to say something when Commander Hicks joined them,

"Dad, I was just telling Street about the friend I have in the LA Band Battle circuit"

Hicks raised his eyebrows at Street, "Molly has a lot of friends, some I approve of more than others…" he said with a tone in his voice that Street instantly knew meant keep away from my daughter. Tan had heard this unfold and feeling sorry for Street had intercepted the conversation going any further by steering him away.

"You okay?" Tan asked as he walked with Street away from Molly and the Commander.

"Yeah… thanks for the intercept" he said patting Tan's back

"Molly is definitely one girl you need to stay away from" Tan said sternly

"I…... ah…. I wasn't going after her… she was talking to me… I was just trying to …"

"Trying to what?" Tan said

"Trying to be polite" Street said with wide eyes, "why does everyone assume the worst of me?"

Tan chuckled, "you know I think maybe I need to tell her to stay away from you, she seems to be feeling your vibe playboy…if you know what I mean"

Street flicked his arm and they both laughed.