"Yeah, Serena I'm in here. Um," I rushed to the door. "Just give me a minute."

I looked at Stanton, panicked. What were we going to do? Would Serena suspect something? He motioned for me to come into the bathroom with him so Serena wouldn't hear anything. I wasn't sure if she could to begin with but I didn't want to take the chance.

He shut the door behind us and said quietly, "What should I do? Should I leave?"

"Yes, I mean no. You're supposed to be here protecting me remember?" I looked around the bathroom. I wasn't sure what I was searching for.

"So what then?" Stanton asked impatiently.

"I guess we'll just have to try our damnedest to pretend nothing happened." I looked at the mirror quickly behind Stanton.

You could tell that I had just been kissed. My lips had that used look, and my hair just seemed messed with. I quickly fixed my hair, and applied some lip gloss. It didn't really help me much, but I didn't have the just kissed look anymore.

I pushed Stanton out of the bathroom and we sort of stumbled out of there. I ran to the door, took a deep breath and opened it. Stanton sat on the couch nervously.

Serena looked at me and gave me a big hug, "I'm so glad you're alright!" Behind Serena I saw the rest of the Daughters. They pushed through the door and gave me a hug also.

I was a little freaked out by the hugging, but I gave them each a hug in return.

Vanessa was the first one to notice my bruises, "What happened to your face? You look like you've been beaten with a stick a few times." She meant it as a joke but the reaction she got wasn't what she expected.

"I was," I replied simply. They all looked at me shocked.

"Who did this to you?" Tianna asked amazed.

"My father. You could say he wasn't too happy with me," I tried to pass it off as a joke but no one laughed.

We stood there in silence as everyone studied me. I was getting uncomfortable under such a close watch and said, "I'm glad that you guys are all alright. I mean from what it looked like Blake did a number on you guys."

"I guess Stanton told you about us. Where is he? Shouldn't he be here with you?" Serena asked as she looked around the living room.

I looked towards the couch and didn't see Stanton sitting there anymore.

"I, he was right there." I replied pointing towards the couch. I looked around suspiciously. Where did he go to?

"Stanton?" I called out. There was no reply.

We all sort of broke up and began searching around the apartment. The others searched my bedroom and bathroom. I don't know why but I went to the kitchen first.

I realized I was a little hungry. I thought I'd pick up a snack before actually looking for Stanton.

Before entering the kitchen I could hear some shuffling in there. I paused before turning the corner. I peeked and saw Stanton rummaging through my fridge.

I turned the corner and leaned against the wall smiling slightly at him. He looked so cute, well actually I could only see his butt. He had a great looking butt.

I guess he could feel my presence because he suddenly looked up. He pulled one of my pre-made ham sandwiches out along with a coke.

"What?" He asked defensively.

I just smiled and shook my head. He came towards me and stopped right next to me, looking down at me with his big blue eyes.

The memory of our kiss flashed into my head quickly. I smiled slyly and wrapped my arms around his waist, pulling him closer to me.

I wasn't expecting him to be off balance though, and the slight tug made him fall forward. I hit the cold kitchen floor with a thud. He landed on top of me in a very uncomfortable position.

I started laughing hysterically as the girls came running into the kitchen.

"What's going on in here?" Jimena asked suspiciously.

I was still laughing as I pushed Stanton off me. The position we were in on the floor looked very compromising.

"Geez Stanton. You need to loose some weight. You almost crushed me," I said teasingly between laughs.

Stanton just glared at me in return and stood. He straightened out his clothes. Serena went to him and gave him a hug. He almost jerked away from her, but quickly gave a quick hug in return.

Serena looked at him curiously. I could tell she knew something was up. She looked at me in question and smiled back at her reassuringly. She seemed pleased with my response.

"I think we all need to talk about some things." I heard Catty said as she put her hands on my shoulders.

I agreed silently and followed them all to my living room. We all scatter about only three of fit on the couch and there was just one other chair.

Stanton took the lone chair and seemed really uncomfortable as Serena took her place on his lap. He looked at me desperately and I shot him a glare.

"So what's the plan?" Tianna asked enthusiastically.

"We need to figure out how to smuggle her to Maggie's," Serena offered.

Catty looked questioningly at me, "How did you escape? I know Stanton didn't help because he came to us panicked looking for you."

"Oh, I uh… Well you know how Selene blessed me and everything? Well she sort of also gave me some powers," I stammered out.

"What kind of powers?" Jimena asked.

"Have you always had them?" Vanessa studied me.

"Well, I can return people's hopes and teleport in this really wicked way. Oh and I'm an empath." I stated simply.

They all looked at me surprised.

"That must be awesome!" Catty finally said.

"Yeah, I've always had them but I just didn't use them because they made me sick. When my father stripped me of the powers he gave me he left me with the ones Selene had."

"The Atrox stripped your powers?" Vanessa asked in disbelief.

"He can do that?" Jimena asked confused.

"Yeah, you didn't know that? I thought it was obvious. You had seen it before right?"

They all looked to each other questioningly. Stanton jumped in, "Cassandra, she lost her powers. Remember?"

"Yeah… she did didn't she?" Jimena said quietly.

We sat there quietly for a moment. I looked towards Serena and Stanton. There was tension between them. I could tell they were having a mental conversation.

Suddenly Tianna jumped up, "Alright then. So you can teleport to Maggie's and we'll wait for you there. Just give us about half an hour. Stanton make sure she's safe."

Tianna looked towards him. He didn't seem to hear her.

"Stanton! Serena! Did you two hear anything of what we just said?" Tianna asked impatiently.

They both jumped and looked at all of us. "What?" Serena asked annoyed.

"We're going to Maggie's and meet up with Melanie there." Jimena said gently.

"Fine," Serena turned towards Stanton, "We'll finish this later."

Everyone got up and I followed them to the door. Tianna made sure that I would remember and left.

I let out a sigh of relief after I closed the door.

I looked at Stanton questioningly, "So what was going on with you and Serena?"

AN: Woowho! This is officially my longest story so far... & I'm not even finished with it yet! hehehe... Well, on Word this thing has gotten to be 53 pages, but see I'm just a little bit a head of you guys (wink)...

Yeah, well I hope you enjoyed the chappie, I just had to do my little happy dance that this story has become so long (wink again) Just a few more chapters and then I hopefully might have a surprise for you guys... You'll just have to wait to find out what it is it doesn't really have anything to do with this story (the plot I mean it does have to do with the story) in particular (big smile)

I just want to say I greatly appreciate all of my reviewers/readers and many kudos to you! Thanks for taking the time to read it... I'll probably repeat this later but now I won't go any further for fear of becoming to mushy on ya. Hope ya enjoyed it so far! Hahahaha it just occured to me how nasty the title for this chapter is but, eh! I couldn't help myself.