It was early morning by the time she landed and left the airport, it had taken her at least an hour just to get through customs but finally she was out, now all she had to was hitch hike her way to Cameron. Something that was a walk in the park to her, she must have hitched around most of America when she'd travelled.

It took a few hours to finally arrive, in total about four different people had taken her part of the way, but finally she'd done it. She got herself dropped off just on the outskirts of Cameron and knew from there, it was then only a few minutes walk. Suddenly before she knew it she was standing outside a large house that she knew so well. Abby stood on the deserted road for a while just staring up at the house, it seemed exactly the same as it had when she'd left it. It looked like time had stood still whilst she'd been away. Snapping herself out of her nostalgic thoughts she looked to her wrist at the time, it had just past nine. Looking up at the house once more, she sighed, she'd never felt so nervous in her life. But the only thing to do was to push it as much aside as she could, she took in a deep breath and then slowly let it out as she began to walk the familiar walk towards the front door. The short ten second walk to the door seemed to be longer than she remembered, her angst made it seem like ten minutes. She stood a waited for a second or two and then with her eyes closed she rand the door bell. Her heart started beating faster as she heard someone thunder down the stairs towards her.

Abby heard the door unlock then watched it slowly swing open to reveal a tall, sternly built man, his personality was expresses all over is body; his hair in different shades of blue and green, his beard shaved into patterns.

"Abby…" the man gasped after a while, Abby was the last person he expected to see, he had to look at her twice just to make sure he wasn't imagining things.

"Hi Jeff," she said to him, feeling like her heart was going to beat right out of her chest and onto the floor. "Long time no see…" she said to him coyly as she dropped her heavy bag on the floor next to her.

"Abby…" he said again, pure shock written all over his face. "What the hell are you doing here?" Jeff asked. But Abby didn't reply, her words just wouldn't come out. Jeff watched as tears started rolling from her eyes and down her cheeks, she had tried her hardest for this not to happen, she didn't want to cry she was tired from it, but it just couldn't be helped. Without saying a word he stepped towards her out into the morning air and took her in his arms. It felt like she was at home again, being in Jeff's arms had always felt like a safe place, a safe place that she hadn't thought about in years. "Here come on, lets go inside." He told her as he picked up her bag and led her into his house.

Jeff led her into the familiar kitchen, Abby noticed along the way that things were different and had been changed, but still, the layout was still the same; everything started to come back to her. In the kitchen Abby wiped her wet face with her sleeve as she sat down at the kitchen table. Jeff brought over a box of tissues and pace them down in front of her. Jeff then sat down in the chair next to her and took hold of her hand that was resting on the table.

"So, where've you been?" he eventually asked her casually, watching her wipe away her tears with a tissue now rather than her sleeve with her free hand.

"New York…"

"Oh yeah, ya know I think I read in the papers about the telephone shortage in New York." He replied to her sarcastically, squeezing her hand a couple of times to make sure she knew he was joking.

"I'm so sorry Jeff…" she said, as a new set of tears were released.

"You look really tired, have you travelled all night?"

"All morning," she replied thankful to him for moving the subject on. "I go out of Raleigh airport at about six then hitched to Cameron straight from there."

"You came straight here?" Jeff asked her sounding quite surprised.

"This is the only place I thought I could come too," she sobbed. "I'm so sorry for turning up like this Jeff."

"I must admit Abs you were the last person I was expecting to see when I opened the door. You being there isn't a bad thing though," he told her with a smile on his face, "What do you have to be sorry about?"

"I haven't been in touch for like the last three years, you must be at least a little irate with me!"

"I know, well there is that, but I never once decided to cut you out of my life Abby. Although that is kind of what you've done here." He said with a cheeky grin on his face. "Look Abby, I'm not gonna lie to you, me, Matt and Ames were pretty pissed that you just up and left but we all know what your like, you're a free spirit. I knew you'd be in touch if you were in trouble or needed us or something."

"Well I'm not a free spirit anymore…" she said to him coldly. "It seems like that has all be taken away now."

Jeff leaned back on his chair and looked at her, he admitted to himself straight away that's she'd changed. Not just the obvious like her accent and the way she looked but also inside, her entire essence had changed; Jeff could see straight away that she was thinking in a different way to how she had before.

"What's happened Abby?" he asked her quietly, leaning in again as he held on to her hand even tighter, "You can tell me you know, you can tell me anything. I'm not gonna judge you or anything."

"I know you won't…"

"Has something bad happened Abby? Are you in trouble?" he asked, getting more and more concerned.

She looked at him with hardly any expression on her face "It's nothing I can't handle myself though."

"What do you mean by it's nothing? There must be something then for you to be able to say that is nothing…"

"You never give up do ya Hardy," she told him, trying to joke, although it was pretty hard to joke with no expression in your voice. "I just got myself into a bad relationship, and I suppose something I found hard to get out of. I've done it now though haven't I? It was great when we first started out, but then I just turn into a mess. It's fine though now, he's in New York and I'm here, safe, with you."

"How do you mean though, 'turned into a mess'?"

"God Jeff you really don't wanna know…"

"I do, I wouldn't be asking otherwise would I?"

"Got my self a rock star life didn't I," she told him in a sigh, "Jackass boyfriend knocking me about, drugs, alcohol, the whole lot. Everything just seemed to deteriorate in front of my eyes. Things went from bad to worst and then continued to get worst every day since I left."

"You were taking drugs?" Jeff asked her

"Yeah, little bit of coke here and there… got my self off it in the end though, worst road I ever went down, that's the thing I regret most every day."

"What about your boyfriend? He beat you?"

"All the time…"

"Abby why didn't you just come home!"

"Don't worry about it Jeff…"

"Well what do you expect me to think? And drugs?"

"I'm sorry." She said solemnly.

"Abby I can't believe this; I can't believe that you of all people adopted this lifestyle. What were you thinking? Is this that Mark guy, who you met when we wrestled at Madison Square Garden?"

Jeff had got it in one, when Abby lived with Amy every so often she'd travel with Matt, Amy and Jeff when they were on the road. It jus so happened that the time they were in New York Abby befriended a guy named Mark, and over the few days they were they got quite close to him and eventually moved over there to be with him.

"It wasn't like this at the beginning you know. He wasn't always like that towards me."

"No he just lured you in to fucking false pretences!" Jeff replied, standing sharply up from where he was sitting. Jeff was now very angry, banging and throwing things about, "I can't believe I met this guy and didn't realise he was some idiot junkie…"

"He wasn't back then," she said quickly, almost defending him. "Besides Jeff you weren't to know, no one could have guessed it would have turned out this way…"

"Yeah but I didn't do a very good job of taking care of you did I?"

"Jeff please don't be mad, please, this isn't your fault!" she yelled getting up to join him, she got right up in front of him and touched his face with her right hand. "Thankyou…" she whispered into his ear as they hugged.

"For what?" he asked confused as he pulled away from he slightly as he questioned her.

"For caring! I thought I was just gonna get a door slammed in my face or something."

"Don't be stupid you know that I'd never do something to like that, anyway shall we take your stuff upstairs?" he asked leaving the kitchen to go and retrieve her bag that he'd dumped in the hall way. "You may as well unpack."

"Your letting me stay here?" she asked him sounding a little surprise.

"Yeah of course, where else were you gonna stay?" he laughed as he picked up the bag.

"What about Beth, won't she mind?" she asked before looking around the hall way at the missing pictures of Jeff with his girlfriend. "Where is Beth anyway?"

"Me and Beth broke up…" he said quietly as he started up the stairs.

"What? Really, when did this happen?" she asked following behind him.

"It's been just over a year now."

"Oh my God, I'm so sorry Jeff"

"Why? What have you got to be sorry about?" he asked as he dumped her bag on the bed in the spare bedroom.

"I should have been here for you; I should have been here with you whilst you have to go through all of that. All that time I was away, I was so selfish I didn't even think about you or what you might have been going through! I hate myself for this Jeff, I really do. I'm such a bitch and then there's you who's so perfect and have taken me in even after what I've…" Abby couldn't finish, Jeff had gently put his hand over her mouth prompting her to stop talking. She melted as he smiled at her.

"Abby, just shut up… I'll leave you alone for a bit so you can sort yourself out or what ever. Maybe get a bit of rest, you must be exhausted. I'm gonna phone Matt and Amy, how would you feel about seeing them tonight?"

Abby sat down on the bed and looked up at him; she was frightened of what they'd say to her. "Maybe we should wait a while…" she suggested nervously.

"Don't be stupid what are we gonna do, hide you when they come round? They're gonna be so happy your back. Abby listen…" he said sitting down next to her. "They aren't mad at you, I promise, there both gonna be so existed! If not I'll protect ya." She said nudging her in a flirty manor. "Don't worry, I'll hold your hand all night if I have too." She said showing her that smile again.

Abby threw herself back on the bed and sighed "I suppose so…"

"You're gonna have to see them eventually, hadn't it might as well be sooner rather than later?" he asked her, now standing at the door about to leave.

"If you insist…" she said, still lying down.

"I do! Now get some sleep…" Jeff demanded before disappearing out of sight.