Opening Thoughts - Before you start to read this I'd like to thank, all that reviewed. To be straight with y'all I thought I'd have a really hard time coming back all this time, but you've all certainly proven me wrong and I thank you, and as always hope you enjoy!

Chapter One:

Three Years Later …

Book Café.

" Alright now, what I want you to do is take these corner points from the vertices you've just made and …" Reese Durkee looked up from the graph that he'd made, and across to the student that had begged him to tutor her in optimizing functions. Jessica Bennett was supposed to be listening to him because he'd talked his ear off about some quiz and if she failed, 'it would be like so totally bad.' She pouted and suddenly Reese Durkee found it impossible to say no.

But when he looked up at her once more and found the teenager searching his face with an intense look that spread through her largely rimmed eyes as if it was about to explode, Reese suddenly felt the need to stand and go back to his dorm where he was sure he could find a whole lot better things to do, then tutor the clueless extra that he sat across from.

"You know what you need Reese," She'd began breaking her gaze with his face, as she reached for a large black tote back.

"No Jessica," He replied in a tight manner. "Haven't a clue, what is that?"

He eyes the bag with the big letters of "MARK" plastered across it in italics and he couldn't help himself from rolling his eyes. Yes, of course he liked Jessica and everything she seemed to be pretty cool for a girl of her age, but still there was only so much of ten minute infomercials a man could take, a this point when he watched her lay out a various selection of skin care products he'd thought of her mother's tomato soup cake - and how appetizing the miss match of vegetable and desert seemed at this point.

When she was finished she crossed her arms outmost professionally, as she looked at Reese once more. "Now, Reese I'm only saying this to help you know that right?" He nodded, despite himself. "And, you know that constructive criticism is the best criticism, right?"

"Sure, why not?"

"Reese, you have terrible skin problems." Jessica commented analysing his colour tone thoroughly. It's completely uneven in colour, she contemplated in all seriousness, must be all that damned college food.

No I do not! " Jessica!" The young man screeched as he touched his face self-consciously, his skin was perfectly fine! He checked it this morning and he did that every-mourning, Neutrogena wash - even though he was convinced that it was for girls but his mother told him that if he'd only just try it that may be - the point is his skin was clear, better than it was in High School that's for damn sure. "I do not have a skin problem, Jessica." He spoke once more in that ever familiar tight tone of voice as he rose from his seat, " And I don't need a live ' Mark.' commercial, I've lead myself to believe I look quite alright and if it's all the same to you, I'm going to take my quite-alright self, and leave."

"But Reese," She whined secretly cursing herself, third time this week she was loosing a customer. Margaret would certainly fire her this time. She was half way packing up her things to leave as well until she saw Reese, stop completely a completely glazed over look crossing his face as the book café door opened and shut revealing none other than her sister Kay Bennett and Fox Crane.

Word on the venue was that Reese had a thing for Kay ever since they'd been kids, why Jessica would never firmly grasp - but whatever the case, turn a long story short Reese never gets the girl and perchance that's why he is who is today, at least that was how Jessica saw it.

"You're not over her." She said, her tone so sure that it was ripping the thoughts right from his head as he turned to her.

"What?"

"You heard me perfectly clear, Reese Durkee, you are still hung up on that High School crush you had - and still have, on my sister." She said, hitting an anger nerve in him she was sure. "There's no point in denying it. It's in everything you do, the look on you're face when you see her and Fox together … the way you've chosen to be a hermit to all who've known you, how cynical you've become…"

She was more than ready to say more, but the further she continued was the further Reese walked away, confirming to her that this was indeed the truth, and this was a truth that Mr. Durkee was yet able to face.

"Until next time," She whispered inwardly, her brown eyes left where Reese had just been and quickly scanned the rest of the café for her next potential 'Mark' customer.

Harmony Community Centre.

This was her, place.

Finally Simone Russell had found something that finally belonged to her. Never her superbly perfect sister, nor a meddling best friend - just her Simone Etta Russell. Of course there was always the shrill noise of children playing downstairs, and the ruined fashion the room looked but never the less this had been her place. She smiled proudly as the click from the door affirmed that she was finally inside, away from the rest of Harmony and she had now resided in her own world.

She stood in the middle of the room taking it all in as she took one last breath, and spotted her radio in the far corner.

A low sullen tune droned through the small space as she caught a glimpse of herself in the various dirty mirrors that scaled the room. Her hair was frazzled from the Autumn winds and her scarf practically was chocked around her neck. Simone watched her self as she set herself free from the customary seasonal clothing and all that was left was a plane shirt and sweat pants.

She took a breath as she made an effort to smooth her hair, and her outfit once more before her eye got caught in a glimpse with herself once more and at this point she couldn't help but stare at herself and move closer forward to get a better look at what she was seeing.

She looked the same. Drained.

Hello Simone. She thought sardonically, as she smiled broadly apparently proud nevertheless of the way she looked before making a full our turn around the dance studio, while turning the music louder. Not as good as you used to be, she thought quietly watching herself try to remember an old routine, but we could always work on that.

She needed this. Her body needed this she could feel it, in the ache that was suddenly released with every jerk and jive her hips made. She grinned somewhat as she swayed, and leaped remembering of younger days when Whitney wasn't the only star in the family.

Closing her eyes she could see a small stubble girl, hair pulled into a ponytail at the top of her head and hands tightly clung into her mother's. That was me … She said to herself, frowning deeply at the word was that seemed to bulge out in her thoughts apart from everything else.

"Mommy I don't want to go! I want to stay home with you, we could dance there. Can't we Mommy?"

"of course not , Sugar Bear." Eve would say as Simone's pout broadened.

"But I don't want to go to dance class, Mommy you can't make me go …" She'd stated as firmly her face as stern as her father's as she crossed her little arms, looking into her mother's eyes trying to be convincing as they softened just as quickly. "What if I'm not good enough,"

Eve smiled crossly as she knelt down to her daughter patting down her hair, and softly grazing her soft cheek. Her baby, she'd always think protectively. "You'll never know if you don't try. Besides, if you don't go now how are you gonna be the best ballerina in the whole entire universe,"

The best, that's what she had been out of all the class of mini ballerina's Mrs. Korsakov, her old ballet teacher, said that she was indeed the best out of all the class, you could really make it - I can see you in the ABC right now …

"Simone?"

But that never happened. Not meant to be, she'd thought mournfully before looking towards the voice that called to her. As the voice called to her time had past and beads of sweat had formed all around her body.

"John, hi. How - how long have you been standing there?" She stammered never facing him as she rummaged through her things looking for a towel as she stood, admiring the orange-brown foliage that cascaded to the ground, as she scrubbed the back of her neck letting the soft feel and smell sink in as she let out a satisfied breath.

"Long enough." He said flatly. "How long have you been dancing?"

Her brow rose as she turned to the man a small smirk playing on her face, as she knew where this conversation was leading to. "Long enough." She teased, watching the stern visage come upon his face as walked closer. "I don't see what's the problem with that, and when have you stopped being my friend and start becoming my keeper?"

John studied her a moment, the overt way she spoke of her stubbornness calling upon his memory as words took him once more. "The wedding practice was today-"

"I knew that."

"…And you weren't there."

Simone gave John a strange look before throwing her towel aside and moving past him to turn the music down. "I'm surprised you'd noticed seeing as you weren't there either." She countered somewhat vexed that she was being treated like such a child.

"I'm not Eve Russell's child." He stated plainly before facing her back. "My moth- Grace," He corrected himself quickly with the clearing of his throat. "Told me that Eve was pretty upset that neither of her daughter's showed up," He wanted that to affect her somehow, John hoped that the words he spoke might have turned Simone's opinions but it was so hard to tell how she felt. Simone was always so opaque, she always kept her true self hidden. Perfect example of this: Her being the dancer she was, in all the years of friendship this was the first time he'd ever seen her dance.

"And I'm supposed to care about that John?" She spewed her form now perfectly turned around the sweat adding to a certain glow that added to the flame that glistened in her eyes. "Let me remind you if you seemed to have forgotten: My Mother spent all of our existences trying to be our perfect example of perfection when in truth she was less than that. I don't think I need to remind you of what happened the tabloids can do that just fine,"

"Simone,"

"John I don't see why, I support a marriage that tore my family apart." Her eyes stayed in contact with his for a moment and he continued to give her that studied look once again. She hated that blank stare, it made her insides fell empty and cold. She wanted him to stop because every time he looked at her that way she felt as if he was seeing into her very soul, judging it verifying for truth in her words and honesty he had no right to be there in the first place.

He laughed which heightened her aggravation.

"You are from one strange make, Jonathon Hastings." She says before shoving her things back in her bag, no way in hell was she continuing to be in this conversation. "One minute you're digging into me about not supporting my mother's new found love, and now you're laughing like a damn fool. Call me when you've gained your senses,"

Her head shook from side to side as she adjusted her coat and scarf to leave, her hair beginning to ruffle at the slight breezes of the cold air wafting from an open door somewhere in the distance, as she thought of what she needed to pick up for her dorm only to shift her mind from the conversation.

"This is because of Chad isn't it?"

Chad. The sound having so much power on her as she stopped dead in her footsteps, as if the man himself had been peering at her back. She could still feel the heavy palpitations from her heart from just a mention. He was her keeper if she was ever to have one, the only man that could have ever really had her heart, but he was just like the moves her soul made once upon a time, never meant to be.

She never answered. Only stood at the threshold of the door, frozen as if in some sort of magical spell - mystical hold until she was set free, and at the moment she prayed that she would be set free.

"You didn't go, because, unlike you he'd be there to support his parents."

She heard the words echo once more as they did through out their talk, but this one hit her harder than anything. It had been so long ago, she should have been over it by now but she wasn't the wounds were still there, still fresh and stinging and her Mother and that man getting married as if all they'd done was fine, and they'd never hurt anyone by it.

And now she was being accused of still having feelings for Chad Harris Crane. "This doesn't have anything to do with me and Chad, this is about my Mother and her need to put her own well being above everyone else's. I mean, God! John you were there! She ran my sister out of town, when Chad was revealed to be her son with Julian. You saw how she broke my father's heart when he found out that she was the one that put an end to his tennis career in that car crash, not even to mention the affair she had with Julian even when they were together -" She found herself fall to a pause, as if the words finally set into her and the scenes of all her Mother had done had played vividly in her mind before John and the room they were in came back to her conscious.

"Chad is that farthest thing from my mind." She confided within a sarcastic laugh, finding the irony in the fact that a few years ago Chad was the one and only thing she'd ever been concerned about. Funny how things change …

It was bias, of him to say or even to think that he knew Simone or any woman in this town better than they knew themselves. But he did. It was hard not to figure out the true heart of a female Harmony resident because in truths when you got right down to it, they were all the same. He knew perfectly well Simone was lying. Lying about not feeling anything for Chad, lying about truly hating her mother - about everything. He could see it. He could feel it. "Right." He simply said with a nod before pursing his lips desperately not wanting to do what he always did when he was helplessly frank with a woman.

Yet however obviously the tone of which he said something so tangible vexed Miss Russell, the sarcasm mixed with sure pity in her lies made her wonder why she ever engaged in conversation in the first place, and why she was still here was beyond all her knowing.

"I don't need this." She hissed vehemently, while lifting her duffle bag once more. "Not today, and most certainly not from you John." He watched her turn away. Her black curls dwindling as she picked up a quickened pace. Simone paused once again, surprising him as she turned around. "Maybe we'll talk when this wedding's over. Don't be too mad, if you don't see me sharing the happy couple's special day."

Harmony Public Park.

She couldn't help but watch his figure leave all sight, before she turned to walk away. Reluctant smiles creeping up on her, as she pressed light fingertips upon her overly kissed lips. Lips, thou art now owned by Nicholas Foxworth Crane, Kay Bennett's mind giggled in a fake British accent. She could believe what this could do to her - the aspect of love possibly blooming. For her. In the legal sense, this time of course.

Here she was smiling like an idiot all alone in the middle of a park, because of him. Because he'd offered to take her home. She'd reclined, although everything inside of her wanted nothing more that to have agreed, as she would have had she not had her own obligations to take care of. Obligations she'd wished she hadn't gotten herself into in the first place, but that was just your regular Kay Bennett: Her only trusted friend, her worst enemy.

NO Tabitha! A thousand times over no. I'm not helping you do any more of your dirty work, not this time." Kay heaved as she paced around the isolated park. God! She'd thought she'd learnt her lesson to stay far clear away from Tabitha Lennox, yet here she was hissing at the wind which in some strange way was Tabitha's best method of retreat from Charity's wrath, whatever that could be. "I have lost too much already when I got exposed, know way am I going to help you ruin someone else's life like you did mine."

"Ruin?" The winds blew as Tabitha could be heard all around her yet no where to be seen. "I saved you from the Martha Stewart living gone wrong called your life, and now you're saying that I ruined your life ! Selfish ingrate hadn't it been for me, you'd be on the streets belonging to all the other teen statistics. You my dear should be bowing down to my feet -"

"I don't owe you a damn thing Tabitha," Kay howled, as she self consciously looked over her shoulder a few times. As angry as she was she couldn't help her words from sounding anxious as she tried not sounding to crazy yelling at the moon. However she figured she couldn't have been that bad considering this was in fact Harmony, "In fact the only thing you deserve is to be burned at the stake! If it hadn't been for you, I just might have moved on with my life - who knows I might have even realized on my own that Miguel never truly loved me, but NO! You kept on reeling me in with your lies, until my whole life was and still is RUINED!" Kay fumed, not wanting to admit to herself and the rest of Harmony that she was wrong when it came to Miguel's feelings for her.

"If you'd have only been just a bit more patient perhaps, you might have been the one Miguel married not Goldie locks," Tabitha's voice hissed around her, the sound so profound it brought mere chills to her bones. "But no, you decided to doubt me and what I could have done for you and now I have to play the damned fugitive to make sure I wont be ashes when your cousin finally realizes who I really am!"

Kay smiled wryly. She lived with Tabitha long enough to know that she was finally struggling, Kay did more evil work for her than she'd been able to do in years, and now that Kay had chosen to give up the dark side to start a new life with Fox, there would be no one to help her maintain proper balance of evil, no one as good as her that was for sure. "Oh, come on Tabitha, you wouldn't have given me what I wanted no matter how patient I was - You know the more I start to think of it the more, I know you would have never given me Miguel. Having him was just the bait you'd use to get me to do whatever the hell you wanted. Well no more Tabitha, I'm through. And if you I ever hear from you again I swear to God, I won't even hesitate telling Charity where you are-"

A laugh became of the winds as it picked up Autumn foliage, tossing it every which way in Kay's direction. "I'm frightened Kay, really I am - but I'm afraid you don't have any choice whether or not you want to be in the dark side. You are. You signed yourself over in your own blood it's irredeemable. You are owned by us, and you will do whatever I see fit or be damned to the consequences," The old witch said quite sternly. "And I'll tell you Miss Bennett, our friends downstairs don't take well to traitors."

Kay was close to returning a smart counter to the arrogant sorceress, when she heard a the distinct crimpling of leaves and damp grass from behind her. Please don't be Fox. She pleaded within whisperers in her mind, as she shut her eyes. It would have killed her to have Fox catch her yelling at the bushes and the winds let alone talking about her past doings, definitely she didn't want him to here her still having anything to do with the dark side.

"Charity? What are you doing here?"

….