PASSING DAYS:

Since she returned to America, Jess suffered from sleepless nights. She tried to chalk them up to jetlag, but it seemed like homesickness beat out jetlag within the second day. Even though she was thousands of miles from home, it seemed that no matter where she turned, she would find something that would remind her of Joe. Somehow even mundane activities such as cleaning would remind Jess of Joe.

Jules and Stephen's progressing relationship didn't help matters either. Jules would often invite her friend with them, but many times Jess would decline, citing she had too much schoolwork to do. It was a rare day that Jess would join them, however she felt like the proverbial third wheel.

"Jess, what's wrong?" asked Jules as she walked into the room after dinner with Stephen one night in March.

"Nothing…why do you ask?"

"You expect me to believe that? Seriously Jess, talk to me. What's wrong?"

"I guess I'm just homesick…and I desperately miss Joe."

"Well that's the very reason you should be going out with me…it's not good for you to lock yourself up in our room all the time."

"Oh, I'd just feel like I was in the way…and I highly doubt Stephen would want me hanging around all the time. Besides, chemistry is going to kill me if I don't stay on top of it."

"Jess, you know just as well as I that you'll do fine in chemistry. And really, Stephen asks why you don't join us. He thinks you don't like him."

"Oh, I like him…I just feel like I should be somewhere else." Jess said as she twisted the ring on her left hand.

Jules had a feeling of what Jess was saying. She could only imagine the sort of inner turmoil her best friend was going through being so far from Joe. She thought to herself, that that moment could come this summer when she was back in England and Stephen was still here in the States. But then she also acknowledged that her and Stephen's relationship was not at the stage of Jess and Joe's. Jules realized she had done the right thing when she talked to Joe a few weeks after returning to school.

"Come on…let's go get some coffee or something…just the two of us. You need to get out of here. You've been locked up in here all night."

"Okay, but just for a little bit…I'm supposed to go online and talk to Joe in an hour."

"Sounds good to me, I have work to do anyway. We can get it to go anyway. Quick, grab your coat and we'll go."

They ended up sitting in the coffee shop for about an hour. When Jess and Jules returned to their room, Jess was far more relaxed than when they left. And with her clear and happy mind, she settled down to finish the little bit of schoolwork she had left. Within 40 minutes, she was able to go online and talk to Joe. It was toward the end of their conversation, that Joe brought some news to her.

"Joe, I hate to cut this short, but I'm really tired and I have a test tomorrow morning." Jess stated sadly. "Can we continue this conversation tomorrow night? Since tomorrow is Friday, I can stay up late."

"Jess, that's no problem, and you know that you never have to feel bad when you need to go to bed." Joe responded. "However I am afraid I won't be able to talk to you tomorrow."

"Oh…okay." Jess sounded upset. It was a very rare day that they didn't talk to each other. "So I guess I'll talk to you Saturday then."

"Most definitely. Unfortunately, I have to go out of town, and will be away from a computer, and away from a phone for a bit…but as soon as I can, I will get in touch with you."

"Is everything okay? It's unusual for you to have to go out of town at the last minute."

"No, everything is fine…it's just some business I need to take care of. But once it is taken care of, I'll return to you."

"Okay…let me know if it's anything I can help you with. I hate to do this Joe, but I need to get back to my studying and get some sleep. I love you."

"Love you too…and I'll talk to you as soon as I can. Sweet dreams, love."

Both turned their computers off, and reluctantly returned to their previous tasks. However Joe had a little more urgency to get his task completed. By the time Joe finished his packing and hopped in his car, it was 7am. He made the short drive to the Bhamra residence. He was surprised to see Tony's car there already. Joe was leaving his car at the Bhamra residence while he was gone. Joe picked up a few things from Jess' mother, and soon Joe and Tony were on there way to Heathrow.

"I can't believe that you're doing this Joe…and even more surprising is that Jess has absolutely no clue that you're on your way to California to see her." said Tony with an incredulous look on his face.

"Well it's taken some stealth on my part…but then I couldn't have had better partners in crime than you and Jules. I'm just glad she's a week long school break…but from what Jules has told be, Jess is all stressed out and hasn't been terribly social. I figure it's time to break her out of this funk."

"Well you make sure that you do, mate." Tony said with a laugh in his voice. "It's been like talking to a wet blanket when I talk to her. Do you have any set plans?"

"Not really…it's kind of hard to plan anything when the other person in question has no idea that there are plans to be made. My goal, is to get her to relax."

"Well mate, here we are. Safe travels, and take care of Jess."

"Don't worry about that Tony, as I believe that is the plan of this endeavor. Thanks for getting up so early and bringing me out here, I really appreciate it."

"No problem…well, I'll see you next Sunday."

Joe got out of Tony's car quickly, grabbed his suitcase and headed inside of Heathrow. He managed to get through the check-in line and security with relative speed. He only sat at the gate for a short while until he was joined for a brief moment by Mr. Bhamra. However, he had little time to spend with his future son-in-law, but he wanted to make sure Joe had everything he needed before embarking on his long Trans-Atlantic flight. Mr. Bhamra insisted that Joe take some money…as Mr. Bhamra said, to treat her daughter to some special outing, since he couldn't see his daughter until May.

Shortly after Mr. Bhamra left Joe to go back to his job, the flight that Joe was waiting for was beginning to board. Joe boarded the large aircraft as soon as his row was called. Even though he knew it would still be some time until the plane moved to the runway, he felt that the sooner he got on the plane, the sooner he'd be with Jess.

Joe settled into his seat, and managed to drift into sleep, complete with dreams of Jess. When Joe woke two hours later, the plane was high above the Atlantic.