A/N: How come so few people review this? It kind of hurts my feelings, but at the same time, I didn't expect many reviews anyways. I know a lot of people come by and read it...either that, or a few people are constantly reading it over and over again.

ENJOY!

Chapter 6:

Corrine eyed Josie who sat unmoving. She pulled herself to her feet, walked about the room. It was weird, Josie's silence. Josie was usually so talkative. But there was an almost innocence about the girl that was rare. The redhead flicked her head Corrine's direction, eyes darting back and forth fearfully alarmed.

"It's just me," Corrine whispered uncertainly. She didn't know what else to say or do. She couldn't imagine what it must be like going blind. Josie settled down slightly, closing her eyes and lowering her chin to her collarbone.

"What are you doing?" she asked a bit bitingly. Corrine flinched at the animosity in that voice.

"I'm bored," she answered in just as vicious a tone, "And I need to stretch my legs." She sighed after a moment of aimlessly wandering about the room, "I wonder what's taking them so long." Josie didn't answer, quirking her head away from Corrine. "Oh," Corrine murmured, "I see. You're just going to ignore me. Figures."

"What figures?" Josie snapped, and Corrine smiled smugly at her, fully taking advantage of Josie's lack of sight.

"Typical stubborn, Josie," Corrine continued, "We're in the middle of a black hole crisis, and you have to act like a martyr."

"It's better than acting like a jerk," Josie retorted, "What do you want me to do, Corrine? Talk with you about how completely terrified I am? Tell you about my deepest fear of the dark? Chat through this and all the while completely forgetting about what you said this morning? The black hole crisis has to be a hell of a lot bigger than this!"

"What about what you said this morning?" Corrine demanded, her voice shrill, on the edge of a shout, "Treating me completely like an…an incompetent, oblivious, idiot! And then…and then accusing me of being the typical hormonal bimbo! How could you think I was so self-centered that I would use your relationship - and I use that term loosely - with Lucas to make myself a victim!"

"But isn't that exactly what you're doing?" Josie cried, clenching her hands into fists, "You're the one accusing me of acting like a martyr, but you're the one who thinks she's the saint! Lucas and Vaughn are big boys, they can take care of themselves. And if that's how you go about protecting a friends feelings, I wonder how you go about hurting your enemies! "

"What kind of friend accuses you of being jealous of her?"

"Well what kind of friend accuses you of using people?"

"Well, maybe we shouldn't be friends, then," Corrine spat. She regretted it the minute it spilled from her lips, and she could tell by the way Josie flinched, that it hurt the redhead. Corrine felt sick at how satisfied that made her.

"Well, if we're not friends," Josie snarled in return, "Then we shouldn't be talking." She folded her arms over her chest. Corrine turned away from her.

"Fine. By. Me."

Neither girl noticed how Corrine's eyes grew brighter and Josie's dimmed.

-00000-

Lucas stalked into his room, throwing the closet open and shuffling through the different knick-knacks scattered about in it. Marshall closed the door behind himself, looking at his roommate and best friend with questioning, arms crossed.

"What are you doing?" he demanded. Lucas stared at a roll of wires in deep consideration before tossing it over his shoulder. Marshall barely dodged the flying object.

"We need a way into Pearadyne labs, and security has been boosted since my…escape," Lucas answered.

"Lucas…this is ridiculous," Marshall argued, "Sure we've broken into Pearadyne before…but we've never done so with the intention of taking anything! We can get in serious trouble for this. Breaking and entering is one thing but…stealing?"

"Oh, and what's Victor going to tell the police?" Lucas demanded, straightening and turning to finally face his friend, "These two boys broke into my lab and stole a file I was secretly keeping on one of them about an explosion he was in that involved one of my prototypes that I accidentally sent blueprints of via brainwave to his teacher who happened to build the thing! I think legal obligations are the least of our worries, Marshall."

"What about school obligations?" Marshall shot back, "We could get detention…or worse, suspension! My parents would not be happy."

"Well…Marshall," Lucas sighed, wheeling back to his closet, "We just don't get caught."

"Oh…don't get caught," Marshall chuckled, "That's brilliant, Lucas! Why didn't I think of that? Don't get caught. Perfect plan. Are you insane?"

"Why are people always asking me that?" Lucas asked in all seriousness as he picked up and stared with a scrunched nose at a half-finished long-wave radio designed with the purpose of hailing alien space ships universes away. Marshall rolled his eyes.

"We need more of a plan," he stated bluntly.

"I know," Lucas muttered, "What do you think I'm doing?"

"I don't know! I'm not even sure you know what you're doing!"

"Yeah…I really don't," Lucas admitted, turning back to Marshall, "I was thinking we could use the same method of breaking into the labs that you and Vaughn did but…"

"But Victor probably already suspects that the blown fuse box was how we smuggled you out in the first place," Marshall took over, "Or, at the very least, knows that it's the reason he lost all that data. Either way, he's undoubtedly got that area covered. There's no way we can get in using that method again."

"I know," Lucas sighed, "Not to mention, we don't have a storm overhead to cover for us."

"Lucas, here's an idea," Marshall started sarcastically, "Why don't we just ask Vaughn for help? He does have access to the Pearadyne estate, as well as, the labs."

"Can't," Lucas shook his head, crossing the room as he stroked his chin and thought the situation through.

Pearadyne labs was high on security. The best known entrance was through Victor's office elevator. But beyond that were security cameras, lab assistants, guards, and he didn't even know where the files were being kept. There was a possibility that Victor didn't even keep the files down in the labs but quite probably his own office. Which still posed a problem, as they would have to find a way into the Pearadyne estates and have time to look around.

"Why can't we ask Vaughn for help?" Marshall brought Lucas out of his musings.

"What?"

"Why can't we ask Vaughn for help?" Marshall repeated, tapping his foot impatiently, a raised eyebrow at his friend, "I mean, Vaughn's probably already got a hunch that you're going to want to see those files."

"Yeah…but…we can't ask him," Lucas replied.

"Why?"

"Because…because I…because he's not going to want to help me," Lucas answered finally, rubbing the bridge of his nose. Marshall's brow shot up at that.

"Why not?"

"Because he's not exactly thrilled about my date with Josie," Lucas told him irritably, running a hand over the back of his neck.

"Not a lot of people are," Marshall admitted, shrugging.

"What does it matter to all of them anyways? I like Josie," Lucas cried, "And I…think…I hope…she likes me. Why can't people just leave it at that? Why can't people just leave it up to us? It's hard enough figuring out this relationship without all these people giving commentary. Why can't this be easier?"

"I don't know, buddy," Marshall sighed, patting his friend's shoulder, "Whoever said war is hell has never had to deal with a high school romance."

"General William Sherman," Lucas mumbled.

"What?"

"He's the guy that said 'war is hell'," he explained.

"Oh, yeah. I knew that. But that's not the point," Marshall muttered, shaking his head, "I'm trying to be reassuring."

"And you're doing a wonderful job of it," Lucas inflected sarcastically, rolling his eyes.

"Look," Marshall growled, "If you and Josie let what everyone else thinks keep you two from hooking up…than maybe you're not supposed to be together. But if you guys overcome it and make things work, it'll probably bring you guys closer together."

"I guess you're right," Lucas sighed, "It's just hard is all. Especially when even our friends aren't supporting us." Marshall lightly punched his shoulder and offered a half-smile.

"Well, you know I'm on your side," he said and Lucas forced a smile himself, "I know how long you've been working on that crush on Josie, and personally…despite what everyone else says, I think you're way better with her than Vaughn. And I'm not being biased at all because you're my best friend…but…uh…don't tell Vaughn I said that."

"Thanks, Marshall," Lucas murmured.

Both boys fell into the awkward silence that usually followed when two males shared more emotions with one another than was considered natural. They drew in their breath.

"So…how are we going to get into Pearadyne?" Marshall spoke up.

"I was thinking Vaughn," Lucas started.

"But you just said we can't ask him for help."

"I know. We're not asking him for help. We're not going to tell him what we're doing. We need him to get into the estate," Lucas explained. Marshall raised a brow.

"Lie to him? We can't do that!" he cried, "Don't you think it's a little immoral?"

Lucas took a deep breath.

"I know that it's wrong to use Vaughn like this, but…I don't think he'd willingly help us…or, more precisely, me, and I really don't have any other plans. We just need to get Vaughn to invite us over, and then we can sneak off and get a look around Victor's office."

"Wow," Marshall stated blank-faced.

"Yeah, I know. Lame plan."

"Very underdeveloped. Is this what we've been reduced to?"

"I guess. You got anything better?"

"No… But!" Marshall snapped his fingers, "I still have a blueprint of Pearadyne labs. That could help us narrow down the probable place they have the hard copies stored in."

"Great thinking," Lucas grinned, "But how are we going to get Vaughn to invite us over?" Marshall looked thoughtful, but Lucas was the first to brighten with an idea, "His father's library. We could ask him if we could use his father's library to further research phosphors. Victor would probably have books on the subject, right? He wouldn't want to help me…but he would want to help Josie."

"That's good," Marshall conceded, "I'll get the blueprints." Lucas nodded, watching as Marshall set up the laptop and quickly went to work. He felt a sort of relief, but at the same time, his heart clenched. What would he find in those files and what did Victor have in store for him?

END A/N: Not getting reviews does bug me, but I don't mind so much. This was fun to write, like the last story, and I rarely just write things for the fun of it.

You know the drill, please excuse blah, blah, blah, and BLAH!

Thanks forblah-ing.