(Author's Note: Here I go again . . . Chapter 14! I hope that you all are enjoying yourselves. I came to a scary realization today: We are seven chapters into Saturday and the day is only about halfway over. Yeah, I'm a little scared.

But enough about me and my irrational fears!! I have people to thank! Thanks go to MM, Anya Urameshi, Strata, Kris Ice and GoldAngel2 for reviewing chapter 13 and some extra Thanks go to GoldAngel2 for beta reading this for me. THANKS!

Also, GoldAngel2, I added a lot of stuff since last you saw it, so I hope you like the additions.

Since there's nothing I need to say about this chapter (other than it's a little shorter than usual), I figure it's about time we get to it. Enjoy! )

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Cathy stood at the grocery store check out and wondered if it had taken the woman in front of her as long to cut out all those coupons as it did for her to use them. Not that she saw anything wrong with using coupons - she used them herself - but would it have killed this woman to take the ones she was using out where she could get to them quickly? From the look of irritation on the clerk's face, he agreed with her.

Sighing, she looked over the items in her cart for the nth time and wondered, once again, if she'd gotten everything that she needed. Usually, she made up a list before she left the apartment and it wasn't an issue. Today, however, she'd been in too much of a rush to leave the apartment to even think of writing a list. That was completely Jet's doing. He had touched upon a very sore subject for her and it had taken all that she had not to snap at him about it. It had helped that she'd known that she had no right to get mad at him for asking about a private matter - especially not after she'd done the same exact thing.

But, even though she couldn't damn him for being curious, it still hadn't been easy for her to pretend that she'd completely gotten over his asking by the time he was ready to come out of the tub. She wondered if he noticed that she was only pretending before deciding that he probably hadn't - he was a man after all.

Of course, the worst part was when she'd realized that she'd offered to tell Jet about Daniel. She knew that she'd only said it as an excuse to end the conversation before she broke down in the bathroom but she wasn't about to tell Jet that she hadn't meant it. Cathy only hoped that he'd decide that he didn't really want to know after all.

She sighed again and the clerk spared her a sympathetic look, mistaking its cause. After smiling a quick smile in his direction, she let the frown fall back into place as she thought it. No. While she didn't know why Jet was so interested in hearing about Daniel, she did know that he was interested in knowing and that it wasn't likely that he'd let her off the hook. Especially since she practically promised to tell him in the first place.

Cathy pulled a People magazine off the rack in an effort to distract herself from this line of thought. Why get herself all upset when there was nothing she could do about it? She glanced through the pages at the underfed and overdressed models grimacing as they made the path down the runways and wondered if maybe, if maybe she'd looked more like they did -

She shoved the magazine back into the rack with more force than strictly necessary and swallowed hard. Why was she still doing this? It'd been two weeks now, more!, and she was still doing this! If it wasn't 'if maybe's about how she acted or 'if maybe's about what she'd said that night, it was 'if maybe's about how she looked!

This had to stop. She had to stop letting herself get so worked up about Daniel! The only way she could have made Daniel stay was if she'd continued to let herself be a doormat and she knew it. She knew it but there was a part of her that refused to believe it. That traitorous part of her that brought up all those 'if maybe's. That foolish part of her that wouldn't let her forget, even for a moment, that, whatever his faults, she had loved him. Still loved him.

Her eyes ached and she closed them, willing herself to stay calm. This wasn't the sort of place she wanted to make a scene in. She could do this when she got home -

- except that she couldn't because Jet was there. Maybe it wouldn't the first time he'd seen her cry, but that wasn't the point. She hated the thought of being so . . . weak. And it didn't help that she knew, compared to what Jet had been through, her pain was nothing.

That was one of the reasons that she wasn't looking forward to honoring the offer she'd given Jet about Daniel. She could barely think about Daniel without wanting to cry; talking about him was sure to be a nightmare. She was afraid that he'd think that she was just being a baby - heck, most of the time, that's what she thought too . . .

No! Cathy shut her eyes tighter as tears threatened to form behind her eyes. That's it, time to think about something else - anything else! Jimmy! Jimmy would home soon, right? She risked looking at her watch. Damn! Almost noon already. By the time she got out of here, he'd be home.

Damn. She'd really wanted to be home when he got there; not only to see Jimmy and let him know that she was okay, but, well, she was sure Maria would be less than friendly with Jet if he was there by himself. Poor Jet was going to be getting quite the tongue lashing if she couldn't get home first!

Cathy's lips quirked up of their own accord. Jet was a super cyborg; he was capable of handling the tirades of an old woman. Her smile dropped a bit as she recalled exactly what she'd said to Maria about Jet. She only hoped that Maria wouldn't say anything too hurtful before she got there.

Cathy still wasn't sure what she'd tell Maria; while, strictly speaking, it was none of her business, Maria was sure to demand an explanation for why Jet was in her apartment and Cathy had found out years ago that it was better to just give in to those demands when Maria was concerned.

The main reason being that, if Cathy didn't tell her anything, Maria was sure to come to her own conclusions and that woman was nothing if not . . . inventive. Whatever she would come up with was sure to be at least unflattering (for both Cathy and Jet) and she would be sure to tell it to anyone who would listen. It wasn't that Maria was malicious, she just couldn't bear to keep juicy news to herself.

But then again, for some reason that Cathy couldn't figure out, Maria had taken it upon herself to try and be Cathy's buddy; maybe that would be enough to make her keep her mouth shut. Cathy considered it for a few moments before deciding that it was just wishful thinking. And it probably wouldn't come to that anyway because there was a perfectly innocent reason for Jet to be in her apartment made all the better for it being true.

Now, whether or not Maria would believe it . . . that was the real question.

She looked ahead in line and saw that the woman still hadn't found the coupon she'd been looking for. Judging by the bulging coupon folder she was sifting though, it looked like she'd be there for quite a while longer.

Cathy bit back a sigh and, as she looked down at her groceries for the nth time, wondered if she'd bought enough.

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About a half hour later, Cathy stood in front of her apartment door. She thought that she'd heard someone yelling. She stood there a moment longer, listening. When she heard nothing else, she shrugged to herself. Maybe it was the TV. That made sense. Still, it was not without some trepidation that Cathy opened the door (which, considering the fact that she was busy juggling three bags of groceries in her arms when she did it, was a lot trickier than it sounded). As she stepped inside, she noticed two things immediately. One: Maria was already here and Two: Maria was not happy.

Maria was standing in front of the couch glaring at Jet as if he was being an affront to all things decent by merely being alive and, while Cathy couldn't see Jet from where she stood, she was almost positive that he probably was giving Maria a similar look. She didn't know what had happened to cause this but she did know that this was not good. Not good at all.

She had to put a stop to this. After thinking for a few moments about what she could say that wouldn't make this situation any more awkward and realizing that there was nothing she could say that would be able to make that happen, Cathy kicked the door shut behind her, hoping the sound would shake them out of this glaring contest that they'd gotten themselves into.

Maria looked up, startled at the sudden noise. Once she realized what it was, she relaxed and her expression became a strange mixture of annoyed and concerned. "Cathy! There you are." She came around the couch, her voice steadily gaining in volume as she spoke. "What do you think you're doing?" Maria snatched the bags out of Cathy's arms. "You were in the hospital last night - you should be taking it easy! I could have helped you with this, you know."

"I - uh, I didn't want to bother you." Honestly, the thought hadn't crossed her mind; even if it had, she probably wouldn't have contacted Maria anyway. If there was one thing that Cathy hated it was charity; she felt more comfortable taking care of herself. You never owed anyone anything that way.

Maria smiled and her voice softened, "It wouldn't have been a bother." Then she started towards the kitchen before turning back, looking almost hurt, "Can I speak to you for a minute, alone."

Feeling a little guilty and not really sure why, Cathy nodded. "I'll be with you in a second." First she wanted to check on Jet and find out where Jimmy was - if Maria was here, so was Jimmy.

Maria's eyes narrowed but she seemed to accept this. "All right, dear, I'll be waiting."

Cathy watched her shut the kitchen door behind her, wondering what it was that she wanted to talk about. Maybe Jet would know. And maybe he'd know where Jimmy was too.

She walked around to the front of the couch and immediately saw that Jet was not following her instructions. "Jet! You're supposed to keep that leg up." Putting the leg back into its former position, she looked up and saw that he was giving her that smirk of his. "What's so funny?"

He shook his head, "Nothing, just glad you're here." He sounded like he meant it and, considering the scene she'd walked in on, she couldn't blame him for that.

"What happened?" At his blank look, she clarified. "With Maria?"

Jet crossed his arms, not looking her in the face when he spoke. "I don't know." He seemed tense and uncomfortable and, though it was hard to tell with his face mostly covered by his hair, he looked a little embarrassed as well.

She wondered what had him so nervous. Cathy considered dragging the truth out of him before deciding that it wasn't worth the trouble when whatever had Jet so nervous was sure to be the same thing that Maria wanted to talk to her about anyway. Great, now she had another reason not to look forward to this conversation she was going to have with Maria. But before she was going to worry about that, there was something that she needed to know. "Where's Jimmy?"

He looked up at her, smiling and obviously more comfortable with this topic. "Oh, Jimmy, he's sleeping." Uncrossing his arms, he leaned forward, as if he was sharing a big secret. "I guess he stayed up late last night, worrying about you."

Cathy felt equal parts guilty and touched. "Okay." Jimmy really was a good little boy, wasn't he? All mothers thought that their children were good, but Cathy knew that her boy was really going to be someone special someday. He was really going to be something. At the moment though, he was sleeping and now that she knew where he was and she'd made sure that Jet was all right, there was no more putting it off.

"Okay," she said as she strengthened her resolve, "I'll be back." She started walking to the kitchen and couldn't help wondering, as she came up to the door, why she felt like she was walking to her own execution.

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(End Note: Well, not a note, per se, but a question. Do you guys think I should give these chapters fanciful names or just keep them the way they are? )

(Author Rant: Damn! Now won't let me do the periods that I was using to separate the Author's note from the main body of text. First the shift -8 stars and now this! When will it end?????)