Chapter 4

Author's Note: Another special thanks to everyone who reviewed! If you haven't done so, please do… I know that someone's reading and it keeps me writing! Anyways, some questions and pointers will be taken up in this chapter, while some of the others are going to happen later. Also, since this is now sortaAU then Jericho is now only 30! Yay! Thanks!

Seany groaned and opened her eyes, looking around the room. "Where am I?" She asked aloud, rolling over.

"Maine." Shawn replied from his side of the room, still underneath the covers, and obviously very much asleep before Seany had woken him up. "And it's 7:30. Go to sleep."

"I can't." She sat up, stretching out her arms and her back. She looked around and crawled out of the bed. "I'm going outside."

"You'd better get ready."

"I am." She stood up and threw a pillow at him; or what she assumed was his head underneath the pillow. With a smirk on her face she walked over to the curtains and threw them open, letting the light pour into the room and wake him up intentionally. "Morning Dad!" She sang, taking her bag in the bathroom to get ready.

An hour and a half later…

"Woman, will you hurry up?" Shawn asked from the outside of the door. Seany had to raise her voice to be heard over the sound of the hair drier. She usually was quicker, but she wasn't really in any hurry to see anyone.

"One sec, lemme get my hair finished and I'll be done." She yelled, and the sound suddenly stopped. She quickly ran a brush through her hair and opened the door, making a last few changes before walking out. "I'm going downstairs." She informed him as she pulled her hair back into high, loose ponytail.

"Alright, whatever. Call me if you leave the hotel." He muttered as he walked into the bathroom, shutting the door behind him. Seany smiled to herself and shook her head, grabbing her card key before walking out the door. She pulled it shut behind her, going through her purse with her back to the hall.

"Well, well, well… Who do we have here?"

She rolled her eyes to herself, turning around to face the voice that she recognized as Jericho's. She was still digging in her purse, looking for her cell phone. She could have sworn that she had put it in the bottom pocket.. "What do you want?" She asked, checking a few of the inside pockets.

"If you have to know, I was leaving my room when I noticed you had your back turned to the hall." He smiled leaned against the wall. "You could have been hurt, so being the kind, caring guy that I am-"

"Um-hm." She responded as if she didn't believe him. With a smile she pulled her phone out of an outside pocket. She knew she'd find it. "You decided to make sure my back side didn't get in trouble?" She asked, flipping it open and shut boredly.

He nodded proudly as if he were a hero. "Of course."

Seany smiled to herself and shook her head. "It's just my luck that you would be down the hall."

"Oh, I wasn't down the hall." Jericho said, tapping the door beside him twice. He smirked as if he had cheated to win a game. "I'm across the hall. Straight across, like you can just walk out of your room and go straight and-"

"Ok, ok… That's just… Great." She dropped her phone back into her purse and shut it. "Well, I'm alright now, so you can go do- whatever you were going to." She said as she put her purse on her shoulder.

He didn't protest, but merely shrugged. "Alright."

Seany rolled her eyes and walked over to the elevator, getting in and leaning against the wall. Unfortunately, Chris slipped into the elevator just before the doors closed. She looked at him questioningly, the silence broken by the ding of the bell. With a sigh she shook her head, deciding to leave him alone.

Another 2 hours later…

"I thought you said this would be fun." Seany asked plainly, rolling over onto her back. She had been stuck reading magazines on a couchsince everyone had started to workout, and was soon shegoing to run out of patience and magazines. "I've had to read the same article about Brad Pitt in 5 different magazines."

"Since when has that stopped you before?" Shawn asked, lifting a weight.

"Ha ha."

He smiled and shook his head. "I'm done… And going upstairs." He stood up, stretching out his back. "I'll be back in a while." No body said anything, but he knew that everyone had heard him. He rolled his eyes and left; the silence was broken when John caught sight of one of the magazines.

"You can always read about Nick and Jessica over and over again." John said playfully, only a few feet away from her. She rolled her eyes.

"I already have." She said, flipping another page. "And if I see another picture of Paris Hilton I'm going to puke."

"How attractive."

"Why thank you." She replied, dropping the magazine on the floor and resting her head on her hands. She looked over her nails. "I don't see how you guys can stand it."

"We don't now, but later tonight in the hotel room…" He trailed off, stopping the lifting for a brief moment.

"See, you've already broken my heart." She frowned as if she were sad.

"I'm so sorry 'bout that."

"I bet that's not what you told her."

"Then you bet right." Seany laughed at his statement, sitting up all the way. She rubbed her stomach, feeling like she was full of air. "Do you guys ever eat?" She asked, looking at her watch. It had been 3 ½ hours since she had gotten up. She never ate breakfast, but would always regret it.

"I do… Matter of fact, I'm leaving right now." Chris said, freshly showered and dressed. He had stopped working out a half hour before, and no one had seen him since. "But you'd probably rather wait on them. Knowing how you're so star struck when you're around me." He said, picking up the magazine she had dropped and throwing at her.

She grabbed her arm as if it had just been shot. "I can't believe you'd do that." She said, pouting at the magazine. "And I'd only go eat with you on one condition."

"What might that be?" He asked, raising an eyebrow. She carefully picked up the magazine and put it with the others on the table beside the couch.

"As long as assclown can be my phrase too." She put a hand on her hip, waiting for his response. He shrugged.

"Fine, but you'll have to go through assclown use training."

"As long as you're not my teacher."

"So I guess you're not going then?" Jericho asked, and she laughed only slightly.

She grabbed her purse and glared at him in a fake manner. "You're lucky that I'm hungry."

In the restaurant..

"How long are you staying?"

Seany looked up from the menu, not exactly understanding what he was asking. "Staying where?" She asked, looking back over the selection of drinks that the place offered.

"Staying on the road." He answered, leaning back against the booth.

"As long as I want to." She replied, glancing over their lunch section. "I like it so far." She added, putting her menu down after she had chosen what she was going to eat.

"How long did it take him to convince you to come?"

She smiled. "5 minutes," she confessed, laughing slightly at herself. "I know, it's pitiful."

"Didn't you have anything to keep you at home? A job? A man? A life?" He asked in playful disbelief.

"I did." She replied softly, as if she was trying to cover it up.

"Well, what happened?"

Seany shook her head. "Are you sure you care? You don't have to act like it."

Chris nodded, drumming his fingers slowly on the wood table. "Yeah, I do, if you don't mind."

"Well," She smiled as if she were about to laugh. "I was a cop." She stopped there to watch both of his eyebrows shoot up. "Yeah, and I was living with my boyfriend and everything was fine." She stopped and took a deep breath.

"So what happened? You sound happy to me."

She shrugged. "The budget cut for the station meant that someone had to get fired. So one day the big boss walks in and tells us that we're all fired." She paused, tracing circles on the table as she talked. "When I told Jesse," She looked up. "My boyfriend, he dumped me because I couldn't give him 'shopping money' that turns out to be drug money." She took another deep breath. "He had paid for the house because he dealt cocaine, and then later I found out that he had been cheating on me with my 'best friend'."

Seany sighed once more, trying to tell the story and forget what happened at the same time. "He asked me if I really thought that he would date a cop. So I was left homeless, jobless, and heartbroken." She sighed to herself. "So I moved back in with my dad, and what do ya know, 3 weeks later I get the chance to travel the world and forget about it all."

She finished, gently rubbing her forehead to try and forget it again. "So I've been sorta ditzy lately, 'cause it's like before I left for college, you know? I was at home with my housemaid and I could do anything I wanted. And I had someone to take care of me."

She shook her head once more. "I have no clue why I'm telling you this; I don't even really know you." She laughed a little at herself. "I'm weird like that."

It was a few seconds before Jericho broke the silence. "I think that you had just been holding it in, and had to get it out." He said, in a surprisingly genuine tone. She smiled weakly. "And for the record, I think you qualify to use assclown any time you want."

Seany laughed. "That was easy enough." She blinked, trying to dry her slightly teary eyes.

"Well, I think that after that little fiasco, I'm not really hungry any more."

She nodded, agreeing. "Yeah, me neither."

"I think you should get it off your mind." He said, getting up and dropping his menu on the table. "Since the service here sucks, I think we should have an assclown training graduation celebration." Seany blinked, not exactly following him. "We should go see a movie." He explained.

"Ah, ok.. That's a good idea." She pulled her cell phone out and opened it up, dialing her father's number. "You go ahead and pick which one… I'm going to reassure my dad that I wasn't kidnapped and raped then left to die."

He nodded and looked around the room. "That seems understandable."

Seany picked up the phone, taking a deep breath. Flipping it open she hit the speed dial and laid it on the table, turning it on speaker phone. She drummed her fingers on the table surface as it rang, trying to focus on what she would tell him instead of the story she had just confessed to Chris.

"Hello?"

"Hi daddy!"

"Where the hell are you at?"

"I'm in this kidnapper's trunk… I think he's going to the movies."

"Would this kidnapper happen to be Jericho?"

Chris sat back down and leaned his elbow on the table. "Hey Shawn."

"Seany, you need to come back."

"C'mon Shawn, I'm not going to bite," Chris tried to convince him, "You know me."

"Which is exactly why I won't let her go."

"Dad, please, I wanna get away for a while."

"Seany, I don't-"

"He knows about Jesse, Dad."

Shawn sighed over the phone as if he had just lost an important battle.

"Fine, but Chris,"

"Hmm?"

"You break her heart, I break your neck."

"Dad, we're not together."

"You're not?"

"Nah, we're just going to be friends." Chris reassured him, picking up his keys.

"Ok then, you two be careful."

"Somehow I feel like you're not done with me."

"I'm not."

Shawn responded to Seany's statement then hung up; leaving an aura of mystery and very slight fear for a few moments. She disregarded what he said and stood up, grabbing her purse. "So we're on the same page?" She asked, wondering if he had just gone along with what she had told Shawn.

"Yeah, I don't want to rush into anything, and obviously you're not exactly ready to be in another relationship after that idiot. Besides, any guy named Jesse is going to be an assclown." She smiled and hugged him halfway, glad that she didn't have to worry about committing to a relationship or being stressed over if they were cheating on her and where they were when they went out alone at night… "What movie are we going to see?"

"Batman, so you can fantasize about my body and my heroic skills while we watch it." She laughed and hit his arm playfully, adjusting her purse on her shoulder.

"Then we should leave, they usually have 3:30 movies, and it's 3:15."

During the movie…

"Can you smell that guy's cologne?" Seany asked in a whisper, referring to the man a row ahead and 3 seats down.

"No," Chris answered, absorbed in the movie. He took another handful of popcorn as she took a few pieces. What they didn't eat at the restaurant they were making up in popcorn, candy, and soft drinks. Seany tried to get comfortable and start to watch the movie again, but the stench kept coming back.

"God, that's horrible." She muttered, covering her nose. She leaned over, digging in her purse once more. "There," She said to herself, spraying a small dose of floral scented perfume in the air. She sighed with relief and leaned back, focusing on the movie once more.

An hour later…

Seany was awakened by Jericho's voice and her shoulder being shaken. Slowly she opened her eyes and yawned. "What happened?" She asked, raising her head off his shoulder.

"Please tell me you saw at least half of the movie."

"I just remember him saving her life… Did they get back together?" She asked, sitting up and trying to shake the invisible veil of sleep off of her mind. "They looked so cute together."

"No, she didn't like him being batman and said that when he quit she'd take him back." He said, standing up and stretching from being in the same position for a couple hours.

She stood up, pulling her hair down and then putting it back up in a high ponytail. "That sucks." She picked up her jacket and her purse, checking her watch. For some reason before she hadn't calculated how late she would have been out when the movie was over.

In the car..

"I'm so," Seany yawned, covering her mouth with her hand. "Tired."

Chris smiled, taking a turn towards the hotel. "I can't imagine why… It's not like you slept through almost all of the movie." Seany glared at him playfully and continued to look out her window. "Besides, you can sleep on the early flight tomorrow."

"Yeah," She leaned her head against the seatbelt. "I guess so." She remembered the last time she had been looking out of her window- in her dad's car on their way to the airport. Things sure had changed in a little over 24 hours.

Author's Note: Once again, thanks for reviewing! I enjoy both compliments and constructive criticism, and I'm also happy that people are reading! .