Yeah! So the hiatus is over, and as promised this will be a long chapter to make up for having to go on hiatus. This chapter kind of turned out to be massive so I had to split it into two parts. Oh and I'm on Spring break so hopefully I'll have more time to write now. A little of subject but I'm going to be starting a new story soon. So for all of you who read OC fanfics and are Summer and Seth fans it'll be a story for you all so keep your eyes open and it'll be a little different but I think you'll like it. Anyway enjoy the chapter and please read a review and I'll get an update out quick.

Downstairs Madison's front door opens quickly to reveal a blonde woman dressed in a tight black blazer with a white blouse underneath it also wearing very tight and form fitting jeans and stiletto black heels, with a long black coat on top.

"Madd's you here?" the woman calls out through the home as she closes the door and removes her jacket and hangs it on a coat rack beside the door.

Madison calling out, "Upstairs in my office." In the middle of picking out Ephram's next outfit as he stand uncomfortably waiting for her in his boxer briefs.

Ephram begins to speak to Madison as she has her back turned to him leaning over and looking at her clothes, "Uh who's that?" he questions her as he really isn't that comfortable with another person in on what their doing.

She turns her head toward him, "Oh just a friend of mine."

"Really?"

"Yea…I think," pausing for a moment, "yea you guys have met before."

"Do you think maybe you could go downstairs and talk to her, or ah," quickly, "ask you could ask her to come back later?"

Looking at him curiously as he tried to find an appropriate place to put his arms as he shifts from one foot to the other, "Oh come on Ephram she's great." Teasing him.

Ephram laughs, "And I'm perfectly dressed to met and entertain now aren't I?" he motions up and down with his hands; he then finally crosses his arms across his chest.

"What's wrong with what you're wearing?" she asks with a straight face trying to hold back a grin from forming on her face.

"Well it's more of the lack of clothing."

"I'm sure she'll appreciate it." She says jokingly.

"I know you do, so if she's anything like you I'm sure she will." Waiting for her reaction.

She turns back around to picking out something for him to wear and takes a deep breath ignoring his comment, "So let's see what's next."

Ephram whispers to himself, "Of course."

"I'm sorry?" Madison responds as she couldn't hear what he had said.

"Oh nothing."

The blonde walks into the room and notices Madison first as Ephram is in a corner slightly out of her view, she runs over and embraces Madison in a huge hug, "Girl it's been to long."

"That's the truth." Madison responds as they release each other from their embrace.

She begins to look around the office, "Looking good Mad's, you must be doing really well for yourself."

"You know me."

Noticing Ephram in the corner, "Well," raising her eyebrows and looking Ephram over from head to toe, then back at Madison. Ephram drops his arms down to his side and nervously pats the sides of his legs.

"Woah who's the hottie and can I have him." She says looking back toward Ephram.

"No!" Madison says wide eyes and giving her a disapproving face.

"Sorry I'm not used to walking into your office and seeing gorgeous half naked men," she looks Ephram over, "but I like it."

"Mindy!"

"What there's no ring on that finger, he's fair game, unless he's yours?"

"No."

"Good cause then I'd have to kill you and take him for myself."

"Well don't I get a say?" Ephram asks her.

"Not really."

"Of course."

"But he really is delicious eye candy Mad's where'd you get him."

"Excuse me; I'm not exactly something you buy from the grocery store. You really don't have to talk like that I'm right here in front of you."

"Oh…and he speaks, got a mind of his own, smart I'm liking you better and better."

"You haven't changed much well except for the hair; I liked the darker hair I'm more of a sucker for true blondes. One's that don't go through their friends phones to get there boyfriends number."

A light goes off in Mindy's brain, "Oh my god!" she looks to Madison for confirmation which she gets, "Jailbait?"

"The one and only."

"Wow!"

"Yea and you don't have to call me that anymore."

"Surprise, surprise someone's all grown up; you're a big boy now huh?"

"Mindy please." Madison says to her friend.

"What I can't have a little fun?"

Madison and Ephram say simultaneously, "No!"

"Okay, okay lets just double team the poor little fake blonde. Just give me a sec to catch back up. So you're Ephram?"

"Guilty as charged."

"New York did you good." She says as she admires his flawless body.

"Thanks uh u look good to I guess."

"What can I say. But now I'm beginning to see what Mad's saw in you those years ago."

"No you just see a hot half naked guy. You don't really know him like I did and do."

"Hot?" Ephram says.

"I remember enough, I couldn't ever get you to stop talking about how great he was back then. How he got who you were and was so mature yadda yadda." Mindy responds to Madison.

Ephram was learning a lot by just listening to them talk so he decided to stay quite.

"Enough already okay?" Madison says.

"I'm curious of why exactly he's here in Everwood and in your house half naked?" Mindy asks.

Ephram was about to answer but Madison beat him to it, "He's doing me a favor I needed someone to put on my clothes to photograph. As for why he's in Everwood he's on vacation."

Mindy sees the way Ephram is looking at her friend and knows that he's back for more than a vacation, "Vacation, um right." She winks at Ephram.

"First Delia, and now you what's up with all the winking?" Madison asks.

"He knows, don't you Ephram?"

Covering up what was really going on, "Can't say I do."

"Fair enough I'll let you play it your way."

"What? Stop talking like that you guys are confusing me." Madison says getting frustrated.

"Sorry, consider it dropped." Mindy assures her friend.

"Good." Ephram says a bit relieved that she dropped the subject which seemed to be clear to just about everyone but Madison.

A moment of absolute awkward silence passes and Mindy decides to speak up and break it, "So…you guys almost finished up here?"

Madison thankful for the save her friend had provided responded, "Yeah we're finished up."

"I thought you had something else for me?" Ephram questions.

"No I've changed my mind I think I've got everything I want."

"I don't think you do." Mindy says under her breath taking the comment in a more literal way and applying it to Madison's current life.

"Excuse me?" Madison looks at Mindy.

"I don't think you have everything you want." She says boldly.

"Really, what's missing?"

Ephram could definitely tell that these women were not talking about clothes anymore. He could see that Madison was getting defensive while it appeared Mindy was all to eager to go on the attack. Ephram didn't want to cause conflict or bring other issues up into the conversation. This wasn't something he should hear and knew that the friends should discuss this privately. He was going to interrupt and differ the talk to another subject although he wanted to hear exactly where Mindy was headed.

"Accessories!" he said as if the idea had just come to him, which it had.

Both of the women turned their heads toward him quickly each with their own surprised expression across their faces, trying to figure out where that random comment had come from.

Ephram looked Madison in the eyes, "That's what your missing, accessories." He looked toward Mindy now, "Right?"

"Sure." She gives deciding that now was not the best time to have this conversation and that she would talk to her friend later.

"Well I'm strictly clothing, shirts, and pants that kind of stuff." Madison responds with a confused expression on her face.

Ephram, "Oh, okay. I didn't know…that's good." Was all that Ephram could say because he wasn't really sure what to say.

"Well changing subjects, what are you guys doing now then?" Mindy asks.

"Well right now I'd be standing in front of two young blondes who by the way are fully dressed while I'm in my underwear. Not that it's the worst thing in the world but it's not exactly the most comfortable." He answers flashing one of those wide smiles that just makes women melt.

Mindy, "I'm pretty comfortable." She raises her eyebrows as she looks him up and down. Ephram's smile fades to an embarrassed look as he begins to blush slightly beyond his control.

"Oh right sorry Ephram I mean you can go get dressed." Madison says to Ephram ignoring Mindy's comment as he nods his head to agree.

Pouting, "So soon, I was really starting to enjoy myself."

"I'm so very sorry to cut your fun short." Ephram says.

He picks up his clothes and walks out the door as Madison can't help but follow his movements with her eyes and leaves them glued to a particular part of his body, his firm and pleasant rear end as he walks by.

"I saw that." Mindy says.

Madison snaps out of it and moves her eyes away from where Ephram's rear end had once been, "Oh, my God did I just do that?" She says as she lowers her head as her eyes now look toward the ground and she brings her right hand to her now closed eyes and then rubs them as if trying to erase the image from her mind although knowing full well she didn't want to and wouldn't be able to.

"Yeah you did." Mindy confirms although not really necessary but did so for Madison to get the full effect.

Madison opens her eyes and looks up to Mindy as she now has her hand over her mouth, she takes a deep breath in and then exhales and removes her hand, "That was rhetorical." She pauses and then continues, "I shouldn't have done that, I can't do that."

"Shouldn't, couldn't but you did."

"I know, I know!"

"Hey I don't blame you though I couldn't help myself either."

"But I can't be doing that." Madison says firmly trying to convince herself that what she did wasn't right.

"Why not? I mean that man really does have a nice butt." She says grinning.

"He really does." She says with an extra emphasis on really, "See that! That right there I can't be thinking that way."

"There's nothing wrong with that, you're a women he's a man, it's not unheard of."

"Mindy you know it's wrong. Actually I've been thinking a lot and doing a lot of wrong things when it comes to Ephram."

"Doing!" Mindy says both surprised and shocked at her friend's statements and she responds very loudly.

"No! No, not what your thinking, remember it's Ephram we're talking about he's not all about that, and keep your voice down." She scolds Mindy.

"Oh okay, wow. You had me worried there for a second. I mean you know you're not ready. But how do you know that he's still the same when it comes to that, that's its still true?" Mindy was trying to point out to Madison that she still had feelings for Ephram by provoking her to have to defend him. She'd judge by her response if Madison was getting deep back into it, into all the feelings and emotions that she had once had for him or if she was just attracted to him and still thought and worried about him.

"Because I can tell, because I've been able to see it and feel it for myself. I mean if he was so committed back then to saving himself when we had what we had and when I was right there more then ready and willing then I just know he's the same when it comes to that."

"I'm the same when it comes to what?" Ephram asks as he'd heard the last part of what she'd said as he walked back into the room now partially dressed.

"Jewish, you're still Jewish." Mindy says quickly just saying the first think that she could remember about Ephram and not really thinking.

He gives her a strange face, "Well it's not something you really change like your favorite color or something." He says as he starts to look around the room.

"Right." She says making a mental note to never ever say the first thing that comes to mind about him when she's talking to him, it never worked for her.

"I think my shoes are somewhere in here." He says while looking around the now extremely messy room. There were clothes everywhere which made it both difficult to really maneuver and find anything in the room.

Madison mouth's to Mindy as Ephram turns away from them, "Jewish?" using her hands for an extra effect.

Mindy shrugs her shoulders and slightly lifts her hands out in front of her and mouths back, "What?"

Ephram turns back around as he's found his shoes and is putting them on and is know fully dressed. He looks down at his watch, "Wow is it really one already?"

"Yeah it sure is." Mindy state's and while saying the words something comes to her, "Hey I've got the best idea." She says mischievously.

Madison knows that this can't be good, one of Mindy's ideas, there never ever good.

"Why don't you come out to lunch with me and Madd's it'll be great! I mean it'll give me a chance to catch up with her and find out more about you and what you're doing these days."

At the suggestion Madison knows that it's just an excuse to get to observe Ephram and how he acts around her and vice-versa. Mindy has this thing about people she could just read them so well and could always tell what their true intentions were. She was never, never wrong. Which in some cases is great, to have a best friend who can let you know which guy wants what from you and which ones are just really genuine. But she didn't want her to do the same thing to Ephram, to just analyze him like that, mostly because she didn't want to know. Well she wanted to know and she wouldn't be able to resist asking her so it was just better this way. Better that she didn't have the chance to spend any time with him and better that she wouldn't have the chance to be tempted to ask Mindy what she thought.

"Oh I don't know." Ephram responded hesitant to answer the question.

"Come on you've got to be hungry, I mean we were going to go out to eat anyway so I mean it's no big deal."

"I wouldn't want to intrude."

"No you wouldn't be I promise. I mean unless you already have plans or someone to meet?"

"Yea I'm sure he does, I've taken up enough of your time I'm sure you're ready to get out of here." Madison says.

"No it's none of that; you know I like spending time with you." He says while looking at Madison and then turns his head and attention towards Mindy, "To answer your question, no I don't have anybody to meet it's just me right now."

"See there you won't have to eat by yourself. You'll have us to keep ya company!" Mindy said excited that her plan may just work.

"Well…once you put it that way-" he was interrupted by his cell phone going off. Ephram looked down at the phone and sees on the caller id, "Doc." He decides he should take the call, "Oh ladies I've gotta take this I mean it's-"

Madison interrupts him, "Its fine go ahead and take it." She welcomed the interruption as it would give her a chance to stop her friend from fulfilling her horrible idea. Ephram smiles and nods his head and hurriedly walks out of the room and into the hallway closing the door almost all the way on his way out.

"What are you doing!" Madison questions her best friend.

"I'm hungry we're going to eat and he's coming." Mindy responds simply.

"No this is a bad idea. All of us out in public together, God I won't be able to control you."

Outside the door in the hallway Ephram's phone continues to ring and he looked down and couldn't help but wonder why his doctor was calling him and after a slight hesitation he answers the phone, "Hello."

"Hey I'll be a good girl I promise." Madison gives a disbelieving face. "Best behavior, seriously." She lies.

"Uh-huh, not gonna happen. Actually ya know what I think I'm getting a head-ache."

"Madison…" Mindy starts to raise her voice.

"Yea oh and ya know what I'm light headed too oh I think I'm gonna have to stay home and go to bed." Madison begins to act as though she's not feeling well as she puts her right hand to her forehead.

"No, no, no. Your coming I don' care if I have to drag you out while you're puking your brains out your coming."

"Mindy that's disgusting." She begins to lie down on the black couch in her office and proceeds to mess up her hair and pretend she's not feeling well. She starts to position herself on the couch in the best possibly way and contemplates the most believable position to be in for Ephram to believe she's sick. She didn't like the idea of lying to him, but she was actually saving him from what she knew would be a disaster so she didn't really feel guilty at all, ok well maybe a little.

"No what's going to be disgusting is me going out to lunch with Ephram anyway and flirting with him the whole time." She says hoping to get her attention.

Madison darts up from the couch and squints her eyes at Mindy, "You wouldn't."

"Oh yea, I'm feeling very friendly. I might just have to seduce him and get him really drunk and just take advantage of his extremely hot body, now won't I?" Mindy asks her.

"Ha, he doesn't drink."

"Oh well that just would've been fun to see but shoot he won't be able to resist this," Mindy unbuttons the first three buttons of her blouse, "Now will he?" She questions with a guilty smile plastered across her face.

Madison gets of the couch quickly and pulls Mindy's blazer around to cover her exposed body, "Stop, stop okay I'll go. You're awful you know that?"

"That's what friends are for," she buttons her shirt, "but I wouldn't mind taking him for a ride," pausing for a moment, "I bet he's great in bed." She said as she looked far off as if she were daydreaming.

"Enough! He's off limits got it, no flirting no talking about him in bed or anything dirty. He's just off limits!"

"There you go that's the fiery Madison I love to bother." Mindy said satisfied that she'd been able to get a reaction out of her.

"Yea the one that one day is going to murder you for going to far."

"I get it I'm backing off."

Ephram rushes into the room looking a little pale in the face as he fidgets with his cell phone in his hands, "Hey I'm sorry ladies but I'm not going to be able to make it to lunch I've really got to go." He spits out all very quickly which of course alarms Madison.

"Uh, no it's fine. Something bad happen?" Madison questions him as she points to his cell phone.

"No, nothing like that I've just," pausing to consider his words, "I've gotta be somewhere to pick something up. But uh we'll do it tomorrow or something, ah Mindy good to see you again."

"Yeah same here Jailbait but I'm leaving tonight so I guess I'll catch ya next time around."

"Oh okay," he turned to walk back out the door then turned towards Madison as he remembered something, "Oh, Madison I think I left my jacket over here the other night."

"Yea, yea you did it's in my bedroom hold on a sec and I'll get it for you." She moves to the door towards him and passes by him.

Ephram grabs her left arm gently as she walks past him stopping her. Madison surprised by his touch turns her head back towards him, "No, I've gotta get going I'm in a little bit of a hurry. I'll just swing by a little later." He gives her a smile as he loosens his grip on her arm and slides his hand down her arm to her hand to where he's slightly holding it.

"Tonight?"

"Yea." He answers.

"Sure."

"Great." He gives her hand a squeeze, "Thanks." He releases her hand and slowly moves by her through the doorway their bodies almost touching and their faces just mere inches apart as they remain focused on one another and her face follows the same movement as his.

Mindy could see the undeniable chemistry between the two and is determined to get them all together for lunch, she abruptly interrupts their moment, "Wait a sec there skippy."

"Skippy?" Ephram asks as he turns his attention towards Mindy.

"Whatever, but why don't we just drive you to pick up whatever you need and then that way we can all eat together. I mean I don't mind and I'm sure Madison doesn't mind either do you?" Not allowing her the chance to answer, "Of course she doesn't so that's what we'll do."

"No!" he reacts quickly surprising both women as their eyes grow large with confusion. Ephram tries to smooth over his outburst, "I mean, its just I gotta go right now and ah by myself. It was nice seeing you again Mindy and Madison I'll see you in a few hours." He calls back to them as he walks down the hallway and then disappears from there sight down the stairs and out the door all very quickly.

Madison looks towards Mindy, "That was, well weird."

Mindy moves towards Madison and grabs her arm and leads her out of her office door, "Let's go."

Madison allows herself to be taken out of the room and down the hallway moving quickly to keep up with Mindy's rapid pace, "What?"

"Oh come on, down the stairs let's go chop-chop!" she says as they descend the stairs.

"What are we doing?" She questions Mindy as they reach the bottom stair and are moving towards the door.

Mindy grabs her coat from the coat rack besides the door and slips into it and starts to button up the long black coat, "Following him." She says simply.

At that Madison freezes as Mindy's intentions blind side her," Do what!" She exclaims, as the thought hadn't crossed her mind.

"Come on you can't honestly tell me that your not curious." She says knowing all to well that she was.

"Well…"

"I knew you were cause I am too!" She takes Madison's coat off the rack and extends it to her. Madison pauses for a moment contemplating the idea and just gives in and takes the coat.

"That a girl, now let's go hopefully he's not to far ahead."

The two quickly run out the door and into Mindy's car and speed off hoping to see Ephram close by. Luckily for them Ephram had gotten caught by the light just outside Madison's neighborhood.

"Ah, there he is, are we good or what?" Mindy says looking to Madison in the passenger seat.

"This is crazy. Your crazy, and I'm even crazier for going along with this." She said shaking her head from side to side not believing what she's actually doing.

Mindy ignores her comment, "Okay so we wanna follow but not to closely because he could see us and not to far away cause we could loose him. We just wanna be a few seconds behind him in whatever he does."

Madison turned towards Mindy, "You sound like you've done this before."

Mindy just allows a smile to creep on to her face as she continues to drive and keep her distance from Ephram as they turn right on to a new road, "I have trust issues."

"Well I don't, I'm not the stalker type Mindy."

"Hey! I'm not a stalker I just like to protect myself and see what I'm getting into." She says defending her actions.

"Switch to the left lane he's turning." She points out to Mindy who had become a little distracted by their conversation.

"Yes ma'am." As she switched lanes Ephram made his turn and the two ladies got caught at the light. Mindy hits the steering wheel in frustration as they come to a stop and loose sight off Ephram, "Dang it!"

Madison looks around quickly finally paying attention to her surroundings which she had been ignoring as she was trying to keep track of Ephram and recognizes where they are, "Don't worry it's a dead end, there's just a bunch of little shops down there so he can't go anywhere. This is the only way out. Lights green," she announces.

Mindy begins moving again and slowly on to the streets as she begins to search through all the cars parked along the side of the road, "Look and see if you can see him or his car anywhere."

Excitedly Madison points out to Mindy, "Yeah found it. It's up parked in between the pharmacy and the bakery."

Mindy finds the perfect spot to park off to the side of the road towards the right which gives them a perfect view of the pharmacy and bakery down further to the left. She creeps into the parking spot and turns the car off.

"Not to far away so we can't see him and not to close for him to notice us."

"Yea you've definitely done this before, so now what do we do now?" Madison questions her experienced friend as she's relatively new to this type of thing.

"We wait. He's gotta come out sooner or later and then we can figure out what was so important that he just had to rush out and pick up."

While Madison was finding this whole little adventure out of her norm to be very interesting she knew that she'd probably never do it every again. It wasn't her type of thing; it was definitely a Mindy move. She always tried to believe the best in people and tried to think that not all people were un-trust worthy. While her friend on the other hand was very suspicious, maybe it was because she had been deceived a lot in the past and had gotten burned really burned before. It was interesting that her friend was so good at reading people when they weren't involved with her, because she always seemed to pick out and trust the wrong guy; it was kind of her curse. It made Madison feel really bad for her but she'd never known that Mindy was into following people, but she could see where her friend was coming from the curiosity and need to know could be so overwhelming, so this once she would see how it went. But she could already begin to feel how it could become addictive but decided she'd control herself more the next time her curiosity tried to get the best of her.

End Part 1