Disclaimers: So far I only own Maria, so hands off! Don't own the F4 characters, so yeah…

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"Where are we going?" Maria asked Johnny. They'd completely left the city now, and the freeway. "Johnny, tell me now!" she screamed at him, shaking his arm.

Johnny ignored her, keeping his hands firmly on the steering wheel. He indicated, and turned left down a country road. He glanced at her quickly, she'd given up harassing him, and had gone back to resting her head on the window, looking at the scenery with a somewhat pained expression on her face. 'Wait, pained?' he thought, and looked at her again. She now had her eyes closed, as if the sunlight was hurting them. He looked outside and made sure the was no one around, and he pulled into a lay-by.

"We're here," he said, looking at her, hoping her face would smooth out, and he was worried over nothing. Maria lifted her head and looked out the front window, her face showing nothing of the pain that was etched across it before 'Whew!' Johnny thought.

"Where are we?" she asked sighing.

Johnny smiled a little, "You don't remember?" he asked. "Come on, it was only last summer!" he said.

Maria looked around, and then opened the door, stepping out. She slowly breathed in the air, and closed the door.

Johnny got out of the car too, and closed it walking around the car to join Maria. "I know it looks a little different," he said, "They cut down some of the trees," he observed.

Maria stared at him, "They've cut down all the trees!" she, and laughed a little. "And they've filled in half the lake!" she cried staring at the once crystal clear lake, now muddy and rocky. "Why did you bring me here?" she demanded, looking at Johnny accusingly.

"Hey, Maria, what are talking about?" he looked at her. Her green eyes were glazed with anger.

Maria looked away from him, and saw he was right, only some of the trees were cut down - but she'd just seen all of them, hadn't she?

She shook her head, feeling dizzy. Johnny saw her sway, and put his arms around her waist. "Hey, you ok?" he asked, pulling her closer to him. She laid her head on his chest, and he wrapped his other arm around her. His arms went nearly twice around her body, 'when did that happen?' he thought to himself. He stroked her brown hair, it was soft, "New shampoo?" he asked, trying to break a tension he could feel surrounding them.

Maria lifted her head from his chest, and moved away. Johnny slowly dropped his arms down to let her move away. She ignored his questions and moved to sit on the grass in the shade a of a nearby tree. Johnny slowly followed her, and sat beside her.

"What's going on?" he asked her.

Maria shook her head, "I don't know what you're talking about," she said flatly.

Johnny nodded, "Why don't we talk anymore?" he asked again, feeling like a broken record. "And what just happened?" he asked his voice stressed.

Maria closed her eyes, then snapped them open, "We don't talk anymore because you're now a hot head, literally!" she half shouted. "I don't know how to talk to you, I mean one minute you're my best friend and we hang out all the time, the next you're a superhero who's hell bent on saving everyone!" she got to her feet. "My dad is a rock, and I'm supposed to be ok with that?" she asked, feeling a brief pang of guilt. "My life has gone from sort of ok, to totally unreal, and no one has asked me if I'm ok," she was becoming hysterical now.

Johnny got to his feet slowly, "Hey, calm down," he put both hands on her shoulders.

She looked at him, "You're supposed to ask me if I'm ok," she said weakly.

Johnny looked down at her, her eyes had now filled with tears. "Are… you… ok?" he asked her slowly.

The tears Maria had been holding in began to flow down her face, her face crumpled as she shook her head, leaning into Johnny and he wrapped his arms around her, holding her tightly as she cried.

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End of chapter