Part 3

Will and Caleb's lips moved slowly…gently against each other's. Without breaking the kiss, Caleb untangled their fingers and wrapped his arms around Will's waist, pulling her against him, as she wrapped her arms around his neck. Moments later Will returned to her senses and pulled away from him. She raised her hand to her mouth, a look of panic on her face. What were they doing? Not only did Will have a boyfriend (for now, anyway), but Caleb was dating Cornelia, one of her best friends.

That thought occurred to Caleb at the same time, and he looked away from Will, attempting to catch his breath and slow his racing heart. When he heard footsteps he turned to see Will running out of the cavern. He walked across the cave and slid to the floor with his back against the wall.

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Will entered the room she was sharing with Caleb and sat on the bed crying. She pulled her knees to her chest, wrapping her arms around her legs. She had just done the one thing she never thought she'd do: she had cheated on Matt. Even worse, she had cheated with someone else's boyfriend…and she had liked it… And she wanted to do it again…

Will wiped away some tears, smiling as she remembered the way Caleb's lips felt against hers; kissing Matt had never felt like that. And the way their hands had fit together had felt…right. What was going on? Had she always felt this way about Caleb and just never realized it? Had he? Had their current situation triggered the change in their feelings? Was everything that was happening just a stress reaction?

Will wiped away a few more tears and sighed, wishing she knew the answers. She was so confused…

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Caleb sat hunched over with his head in his hands. What had he just done? Yes, he and Cornelia were having problems, but that didn't change the fact that he had kissed someone else…that he had kissed Will. He had like kissing Will…he wanted to kiss her again.

Will's image popped into his mind, and he forced himself to think about Cornelia, which worked for about 30 seconds. Then the image slowly changed back into Will. He started to try to change the image back into Cornelia, when he realized that it probably wasn't a good thing that he had to force himself to think about his girlfriend. Will returned to his mind. She really was something, he thought, so strong…so smart…so…beautiful… What was he going to do?

Hours passed before Caleb headed back to his room, and he wasn't surprised to see that Will was already asleep. He stood over her debating whether or not he should sleep on the floor. The last thing he wanted to do was sleep on the cold hard stone floor, and since Will was lying on one side of the bed with her back to him he decided to sleep in the bed, too.

Caleb toed off his shoes, pulled back the covers and gently slid into the bed, careful not to touch or jostle Will. Based on the way she ran away earlier he had a feeling that if he woke her up she would kick him out. After settling himself he glanced over at Will's back and sighed, then drifted off to sleep.

At some point during the night Caleb rolled onto his side and wrapped his arm around her waist. Will laid awake listening to Caleb's slow even breathing, trying not to think about the feel of his arm around her waist or his breath on her neck. She had woken up when she felt him climb into bed beside her, and she probably should have insisted that one of them sleep someplace else, but she couldn't. She like the way it felt to have him beside her.

Will sighed, wishing she could fall asleep. As comfortable as she was with Caleb next to her, she just couldn't seem to relax enough to sleep. She shifted a little, trying to find a more comfortable position, but after a few more minutes she gently slid out from under his arm. Will walked across the room and stood in front of a mirror fragment sitting on a shelf, staring at her reflection.

As she slowly fluttered her wings it occurred to her that this was the longest she had ever stayed in her Guardian form. Her Guardian form… As a Guardian she appeared older, and was more…developed. Will glanced over at Caleb in the bed and wondered if that was part of the reason for the change in the way Caleb looked at her. She turned back to her reflection, and realized she could find out by pulling out the Heart of Candracar and changing back into her human form. As she looked down at her jeans and t-shirt she wished that she had been wearing something nicer.

"Will?" Caleb called sleepily. He raised his head from the pillow and glanced over at her. "What are you doing?"

Will looked over at him, deciding she couldn't tell him the truth about why she had changed form. "Uh…the wings are kind of uncomfortable to sleep with," she finally answered. Well, that was partially true; the wings were uncomfortable to sleep in.

"I always wondered about that," he replied yawning. "Come back to bed."

Will glanced back at her reflection one last time before returning to the bed, and this time she was able to fall asleep.

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When Will woke up the next morning Caleb was gone. She pushed back the covers and glanced around Caleb's bedroom. Initially she had been surprised by the lack of personal items in the room, but then it had occurred to her that this was only half of his stuff. The other half was on Earth.

After a while she got up, wondering where he was. Will headed into the main gallery looking for him, and smiled at the sight in front of her. All the rebels were gathered around Caleb, and he was talking animatedly. Will crossed her arms and leaned against a column as he began pointing and drawing lines on a map that sat on a table in front of him.

Will had no idea how long she watched Caleb being the leader of the rebellion; he really was very good at it. Caleb stopped talking when he noticed Will watching him. He caught her eye and smiled at her before returning his attention to the battle plans. Eventually, he took a break and headed over to her.

After making plans to return to Earth that afternoon, Caleb went back to his battle plans, and Will returned to the cave where she had practiced using her powers the day before. She changed back into her Guardian form and eyed the boulder she had destroyed. She had used her full power on the boulder, but she wondered if it was possible to reduce the strength of her energy beams.

Will turned her attention to another boulder. Concentrating on reducing her power, she raised her arm and fired an energy beam. This boulder shattered as well, but at least the beam didn't bounce back this time.

Will turned towards another boulder, and tried to reduce her power level even more. This time she succeeded, and then proceeded to fire energy beams at boulders all around the cave. She turned in a circle looking for more boulders, and stopped when she saw Caleb leaning against the wall, his arms crossed over his chest, an amused smile on his face.

"What are you doing?" he asked curiously, trying not to laugh.

"Um…" Will, who hadn't realized she had floated up a few feet, lowered herself to the ground. She felt her face heat up in embarrassment; she was pretty sure she had been making sound effects, and possibly doing a little dance in mid-air. "I…uh…I was just practicing…so I won't have any more beams bouncing back."

"And the little dance?" Caleb asked, now openly laughing.

Will's face got even redder, and she covered her face with her hands. Caleb stepped closer to her and pulled her hands away from her face. Their eyes locked, causing Caleb to stop laughing. Will looked down at their joined hands.

"What's going on?" she whispered.

"Between us?" Caleb asked just as quietly. "I don't know."

Will ran her thumbs along his and looked back up to meet his eyes. She loved looking into his eyes, and the way his hands felt around hers, but what they were doing was wrong. There were too many people who would get hurt. "I don't know either, but…we can't do this. You're with Cornelia," she reminded him.

"And you're with Matt," he whispered.

"Maybe it's nothing anyway." Will pulled her hands out of his and stepped away. "Maybe it's just the stress of the situation. Once we're not together all the time it will go away."

Caleb nodded. "Maybe." He wasn't sure that was what he wanted, but she was right. It just wasn't the two of them; there were other people involved.

"We should probably get going," Will said after a few minutes of silence.

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Immediately after entering the restaurant Cornelia threw herself at Caleb, wrapping her arms around his neck. Caleb automatically wrapped his arms around her waist, but it was Will he was looking at. The others quickly surrounded them, asking questions about what had happened.

They avoided the girls' questions until they were sitting at a table with Will and Hay-Lin on one side, Caleb and Cornelia on the other, and Irma and Taranee sitting on the ends. Will immediately asked what they had told her mother and Matt hoping to distract them.

"We told your mom that we were all staying at Taranee's while her parents were out of town," Hay-Lin answered.

"And we told Matt that you went to visit family out of town," Taranee continued.

Irma looked at Caleb and Will curiously. "So, what happened?"

"Uh…we got trapped in the Infinite City," Caleb answered. Before they had left, both had decided not to tell them what had really happened. There was no need to worry them, and some of it they couldn't and didn't want to explain. In fact, a lot of it they wanted to pretend never happened.

"Did you know you can't a portal down there?" Will asked, and the others shook their heads. "Well, you can't." A fact they had discovered when they tried to leave that afternoon. "So, we had to wait until we could leave the City."

They all thought about that for a moment, and seemed to buy that story, except for Irma. She was the one they had been worried about.

"Then how'd you get a message to Blunk?"

Caleb glanced at Will unsure of how to answer. When they had thought up that story, they had forgotten to factor in Blunk. "A series of messages passed through various rebels," Caleb answered vaguely.

"But how-" Irma started.

"Irma!" Cornelia interrupted. "They just got back. I'm sure that they're tired, and don't really need an inquisition right now." Cornelia scooted a little closer to Caleb, and wrapped her arm around his.

Will saw that action, and it upset her more than she had expected. She needed to get out of there. "I think I'm going to head home. Talk to Mom, and hope that I'm not grounded for life." She stood and headed for the door, and glanced back at Caleb, meeting his eyes, and he tried to subtly remove his arm from Cornelia's grasp. "I'll see you guys tomorrow." She turned and left, grateful to be away from Caleb and Cornelia.

They were home, maybe now things would get back to normal. She couldn't wait to sleep in her own bed, and hopefully by tomorrow she would have her feelings under control again. Unfortunately, that night the nightmares began.

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Author's Note: I'm not entirely satisfied with this chapter. I knew where I wanted to go, but I was having a difficult time getting there. Therefore, this chapter may be rewritten sometime when I've had a chance to figure it out. It shouldn't affect the rest of the story though, so it might stay as is. We'll see. Thanks to all those who review. I really appreciate all your great comments.