AN: Sorry this took so long guys! I really hope you enjoy this chapter! and if you do, please leave review!

Jason sighed and slumped back into the seat of his car. He was absolutely exhausted. He had barely slept last night, tossing and turning all night from dreams that… weren't exactly nightmares, but just as disturbing. And then the school day had been long and strenuous and fighting the cogs and their current foe only a little while ago had not been helpful. He didn't even want to think about the day. He just wanted to go home and take a nice long restful nap… without any dreams.

But he couldn't. Because out of all the people that could have been asked, he had been the one. So grumpily, he turned on the engine to his car and buckled up, driving towards the youth center to meet Tanya and Adam and the kids from the shelter.

At least it's a hot day, he thought to himself. The water park won't be so bad, I can just kind of chill for a while.

He pulled into the parking lot of the youth center and saw the bus for the shelter kids there already. He grabbed his stuff and headed inside.

He looked around and saw many of the shelter kids just hanging around, and he tried to spot Tanya and Adam in the ruckus.

He found Tanya over by the counter, but he found someone else there too. She was standing there talking to Kat, who had her hair up and was wearing a pair of black shorts over her pink bathing suit. Jason smiled. Things wouldn't be quite so bad after all. At least he had Kat to talk to.

Tanya spotted him and waved, and Kat turned around and smiled. He waved and returned the smile, picking his way through the kids to get to them.

"Hey Jason," Tanya greeted.

"Hey guys, how's it going?" he asked in return, putting his hand on the counter behind Kat.

"Fine, we're just waiting on Adam now. He should only be a few more minutes." Tanya mused, glancing towards the door again.

"I'm here, I'm here." Adam said, coming up behind her, wrapping his hand around her waist and giving her cheek a kiss. Jason nudged Kat and rolled his eyes as Tanya giggled infectiously, and Kat nodded in amused agreement.

"Alright, then we should go." Kat said, grabbing her purse.

Tanya and Adam nodded and started rounding up the kids to get on the bus.

The water park was turning out to be hotter than she'd thought it'd be. Kat had just finished buying ice cream for her small group of kids, and she was enjoying her chocolate one, but it was melting faster than she could eat it. Plus, her shoulders were beginning to feel very sunburned. She decided to let her hair down to give her back what little protection it could offer.

There had only been about 30 kids from the shelter coming, so the four chaperons had split up for the first half of the trip to explore the park. They were supposed to meet Jason and his group over by the tower rides in another 20 minutes, so after they finished their ice cream they'd head that way.

The day was almost over. She and Jason would meet and take the kids on the water slides, and Adam and Tanya were taking theirs over to the lazy canal rides, which the others had done earlier. Then they'd all meet back at the wave pool for the last half hour. It sounded simple enough, but Kat was feeling the exhaustion of a long day under the sun.

They tried to sit in the shade and finish their ice cream before they headed over. Kat quickly reapplied sunscreen to almost all of them, letting the older ones do it themselves.

Finally they started walking to the water slides, and Kats stomach did a little lurch. She hated those things… maybe she'd just stand at the bottom and wait for the kids down there.

There wasn't much time to think about it though, because she saw Jason and the other kids waiting for her near the entrance to the taller slides.

"Hey, how's it going?" He asked her as she walked up. She wrinkled her nose at him and was surprised when it hurt, and she realized it was sunburned. Jason grinned at her.

"I've been better." She mused, touching her nose gently. Jason grabbed his bottle of sunscreen and dabbed some on her nose.

"I thought I was just taking care of kids today, not the chaperones too." He mused gently, and Kat smacked his arm and stuck out her tongue at him.

"How do you want to work this?" She questioned, gesturing to the slid.

Jason shrugged. "Let's just take the kids up and let them pick a slide. They can wait for us in the bottom pools." He mused. Kat hesitated.

"How about I just wait for the kids down here and you take them up?" She asked. Jason had already started towards the stairs.

"What for? You'll just be baking in the sun." He said, and Kat knew that was true. "Come on." He urged, letting the kids start the stairs. Kat sighed and followed him.

"There certainly are a lot of stairs." Kat mused some time later and Jason grinned at her over his shoulder.

"What's the matter, afraid of heights?" He teased. Kat shook her head.

"No, I don't mind heights." She said as they reached the top. "It's those I don't like." She pointed to the slides and wrinkled her nose at them.

Jason gave her his hand and helped her up, proceeding to help some of the kids onto slides after telling them to wait in the bottom pool or come back up for another ride.

He then proceeded to give her an incredulous look. "You don't like water slides? Why?" He asked as she helped Natalie into one of the big dark round slides.

They both watched her go down and heard the scream echo. "It reminds me of going down a black hole." She said sheepishly.

"Ever been in a back hole?" He asked ruefully. Kat glared at him playfully.

"You know what I mean." She answered.

"Well what about something like this then?" He pointed to the white slide with edges but no top, and Kat gulped.

"Alright, maybe I am afraid of heights." She murmured, taking a step back from the platform, and Jason laughed.

They helped a few more kids down, and several of them came back around, but once they had all gone it was nearly time to meet Tanya and Adam at the wave pool.

"Well, time to go." Jason mused, giving Kat a silly look. She backed away.

"I'll just take the stairs back and meet you down there." She said, starting for the stairs.

"Oh come on," Jason pleaded, grabbing her hand and preventing her from leaving. "I'll be right behind you." He promised.

Kat bit her lip. "I just don't like them." She said again, pulling away slightly.

Jason tightened his grip on her hand. "I'll go down with you." He pointed to the instructions on going down with two people. It was usually used for little kids who couldn't go alone. And while Kat knew she'd be embarrassed, it was better than going alone. Of course, being that close to Jason wasn't exactly a friend thing to do, but he'd offered…

"Okay." She said before she chickened out. Jason smiled brightly at her, and led her over to the black hole.

"Okay, get in and I'll get in behind you." He said, pushing her towards it. She gave him a look.

"You're not going to push me, are you?" She said suspiciously.

Jason smirked. "What's the matter? Don't trust me?" The look on his face was daring, and Kat climbed into the hole without further protest.

Jason climbed in behind her as he promised, his legs on either side of hers. They were pressed close together, and while there were other people on the platform it seemed as though they were the only ones. Jason cleared his throat slightly.

"Okay, cross your arms." And Kat did as she was told. Jason wrapped his arms around her waist gently. Kat turned her head just slightly and she was face to face with him. She smiled, and he grinned back. "Lay back." He said happily, and he pushed them off down the tunnel.

Kat screamed half way through, and she heard Jason laughing. His arms held her tightly against him, and she felt so secure she started laughing too.

They shot out the bottom of the tube before Kat even knew what was happening, and she swallowed quite a bit of water in the shallow pool. She sputtered and coughed and Jason came over to her laughing. He put his hands on either side of her arms.

"Are you okay?" He asked, smiling. Kat nodded, finding her voice.

"That was so scary!" She said, laughing just as hard as Jason.

"Oh come on, you had fun!" He teased. Kat tried to glare at him, but the smile on her face was too hard to suppress and she finally nodded.

"Yeah okay, maybe a little." She relented, knowing she actually had enjoyed herself. She wondered if it was as much because of the ride as it was because of Jason. "Thanks." She murmured.

Jason nodded, smiling fully at her, a strange look in his eyes. "Glad to help you face your fears." He responded.

They looked at each other for a minute, both smiling happily. Finally, Jason dropped his hands from her arms and they fell to his sides. Kat glanced away from him and cleared her throat. She looked at her watch.

"We'd better go find the others." She said quietly. Jason nodded.

"Wonder what trouble they got into?" Jason mused.

Probably not as much as us, Kat thought.

They reached the wave pool and the kids jumped in to enjoy their last half hour, and Jason wished he could siphon their energy back into him. He spotted Tanya and Adam sharing a tube out in the water and tapped Kat on the shoulder. She was the one who rolled her eyes this time, but they swam out to join them anyway.

Kat hulled herself onto a tube, but Jason preferred to stay in the water.

"I'm beat." She remarked to no one in particular.

"So am I, but at least the kids enjoyed themselves." Tanya agreed. Adam and Jason nodded in agreement.

"What're you guys planning on doing for the rest of tonight?" Adam asked. Jason shrugged, but Kat stretched up in a motion of relaxation.

"I'm going to go home, nurse my sunburn and have a nice long bubble bath." She mused, and Tanya murmured an agreement. Jason was glad he'd remained in the water.

"Sounds nice for you guys." Adam grumped. Tanya shoved him in the arm and he toppled off their tube. This unbalanced Tanya and she too fell off the tube and into the water.

Kat and Jason shared an identical look of amusement.