a/n: Be fairly warned: This author's note has spoilers.

So recently a girl got murdered in my neighborhood. She was at work at a fast food restaurant, only 17, and a random man stabbed her while she was washing tables; she died that night. It was scary knowing I've been in that fast food restaurant. I went to her myspace and saw how all her friends were commenting her, talking to her like she was still alive and reading. It's such a hard reality even though I didn't know her: People are killed every day, all the time, for absolutely no reason. Nobody is safe from death. This is what inspired me to completely recreate the purpose of the mystery man, although he won't really come into play for a while. I think I might post either a chapter at the end of this story or a one-shot that tells the original plot line. What do you think?

Also, I'm sorry this chapter is… blah. I really don't have any inspiration right now.


Rushed like always, the morning came and went quickly; Jude got up to find Tommy in the kitchen, already cooking something sweet, took a shower, ate, helped him finish packing, and spent about thirty minutes just laying with him and talking. The limo arrived at seven thirty with loud two honks.

"Limos can honk?" Jude asked curiously as she and Tommy lugged their suitcases down to their ride.

"Apparently." Tommy shrugged and waited as the driver got out and opened up the limo door. Inside sat a sleeping Kwest and clearly tired Damien.

"Are we the last stop?" Jude asked as she settled across from Damien and next to Tommy.

Damien shrugged and Kwest snored loudly. She giggled at this and turned to Tommy, who already had the limo schedule in hand.

"Apparently we're getting Lacey too." He said nonchalantly. No one really knew her, so it's not like anybody could complain.

The ride to Lacey's house was almost completely silent, with the exception of Kwest's little snorts and snores that erupted ever so often. Tommy and Jude dozed off on each other's support and Damien lied in the corner cushion of the limo.

When the limo snapped to a halt very suddenly, everybody, even Kwest, was jerked awake. Jude flew onto the floor and Tommy had to clutch the seat to stay upright. Damien was sprawled next to Jude and Kwest was up against the back end of the limo.

"What the hell?" Tommy muttered as he scooped Jude up.

Jude rubbed her sore neck and snuggled into his arms. "I wonder if we…"

"Crash!" The very aggravated limo driver suddenly flung the limo door open. He was spitting out obscenities as he pulled everybody out of the limo. "Promoted just last week and I'm already in a wreck! The boss will have my head on a pole…"

Jude blocked out the driver's rants and sidled up next to Tommy. They both peered at the giant wreck in front of them. The limo seemed to get the best of it, because about twenty or thirty cars were all squashed into each other in front of it.

Kwest yawned and let out a low whistle. "I really missed something while I was asleep, didn't I?"

Suddenly Jude's leg began to vibrate and a muffled song played from her pocket. She pulled out her cell phone and answered without checking the caller ID. "Hello?"

"Why aren't you guys at the airport yet?" Sadie's voice flowed through Jude's cell.

"Our limo got into a crash and we haven't even picked up Lacey yet." Jude sighed.

"Darius is raising hell, you know. The flight leaves in an hour and it's going to take an hour just for you guysto get through security."

"Looks like we'll be taking a later flight, cause we're stuck here until another limo can pick us up."

"I guess I'll tell Darius then. Be expecting his angry call."

"Bye Sades." Jude smiled at her sister's last comment.

"When is the flight supposed to leave?" Tommy asked as soon as Jude pocketed her phone.

"In about an hour."

He cringed. "Well, we all might as well start walking somewhere to sit and wait."

"Hey!" Jude shouted over at Kwest and Damien. They were examining the front of the limo and talking about cars.

"Yes, pop queen?"

She couldn't tell who said it, so she shot them both furtive glances. "We're going to go walk to a café or something until another limo can pick us up."

Tommy was over talking to the limo driver and giving him his cell phone.

"Sir," The limo driver spat, "we need you to pay for another limo."

"But the one we paid for got in an accident. It's not our fault." Tommy motioned towards Jude, Damien, and Kwest.

"I'm sorry, you can wait here or you can get another ride." The driver shrugged.

Tommy cussed at him a bit. "You can at least take our luggage to the airport."

"When we can." The limo driver sneered.

Tommy then walked back to the group huffily. "I better call D." He began walking and did exactly thus. The other three followed and listened to the conversation.

"T, what's going on?" Darius immediately asked before Tommy could even say hello.

"We got in a crash and driver can't get us a backup limo. We haven't even picked Lacey up yet." He stated bluntly.

"Great, I'll send someone to pick you up." Darius said something under his breath and continued speaking. "Can you get somewhere easy to find?"

Tommy looked around and saw a gas station and a few fast food restaurants across a small stretch of grass and another section of stop-and-go highway traffic. "Yeah, there's a McDonald's here. We're on highway 39."

"Ok, expect someone there soon."

"Thanks, D."

Jude picked up her pace and walked next to Tommy. She linked her hand with his delicately.

"Hey." Tommy smiled appreciatively down at her.

"Hey." She said softly in return.

A loud honk interrupted their moment; Jude had almost stepped into the now-moving transit.

"How are we supposed to get across?" Damien sidled up beside Jude and asked.

"We'll use our super powers to fly across." Jude said with sarcasm.

"I guess we'll have to wait until the traffic stops." Tommy sighed and squeezed Jude's hand a little to hard.

Jude winced. "Ouch."

"Sorry." Tommy smiled apologetically and placed a soft kiss on her lips.

For almost twenty minutes the four stood in awkward silence and waited for the cars to come to a halt. When traffic finally stopped, a smaller, simpler limo was waiting outside McDonalds.

The new limo driver, a taller, cleaner man, opened up the car door and nodded.

"Mr. Quincy?"

"Yes." Tommy forced a smile and climbed in.

The ride to the airport was almost as silent, except for a small conversation about what happened to Lacey Chabert. The four concluded that she had been picked up by somebody else and was already there.

The flight had already left when they finally made it through security. The next one to New York, New York was intwo hours. Kwest, very grumpily, exchanged the tickets for the later flight.

"You wanna go get some coffee?" Jude asked as Tommy slid into a seat next to her. They were all waiting outside the flight terminal quietly.

"And go through that security again? No thanks." He grinned and simply took hold of her hand.

"Well I'm going for a coffee run, anyone care to join?" Jude stared and Damien and Kwest. Damien was texting somebody on his cell and Kwest was dozing slightly. Jude kicked Kwest's thigh, causing him to snort and sit straight up.

"Yes?" He crowed.

"Get coffee with me, you need to wake up." Jude purred in return.

"Whatever…" Kwest mumbled as Jude dragged him outside the waiting area and into the rather large food court.

"Oh, Starbucks!" Jude grinned happily.

"Yay, Starbucks." Kwest chimed sarcastically.

"You know you want some."

"Yeah, because somehow I keep getting woken up. I might as well not try and sleep at all."

They found their place at the end of the long line.

"Why are you so tired anyways?" Jude asked him curiously.

"Busy night." A wicked grin appeared on his face.

She cringed. "Do I even want to know who?"

Kwest shrugged.

"Ok, you've got to tell me who." Jude's gossip-loving side, which rarely showed, peeked.

He just shrugged again and turned to the counter to order his coffee. "A tall vanilla mocha latte with non-dairy creamer."

"$3.27, please." The guy behind the counter spoke mechanically. Jude thought he looked familiarly, but shook her odd thoughts off.

Kwest paid and walked over the end of the counter to wait for his drink.

"A double shot espresso with soy milk." Jude eyed Kwest carefully as he looked at her with amusement.

"$2.84, please."

Jude handed him three dollars and dropped her change in the tip jar.

"Tell me." She begged. Kwest already had his drink so they were just waiting on Jude's espresso.

"If you must know." He sipped his mocha and smiled.

"Yes?" The man behind the counter handed Jude her drink as she spoke.

"Portia."

"P-Portia?" Jude sputtered a little and had to wipe her espresso off her chin. "As in Tommy's ex-wife?"

Damien and Tommy were coming into view. "Tom's got you now, like he will care."

"Flight 489 now boarding." A voice over the loud speaker called.

"That's our flight!" Jude exclaimed, running towards Tommy and Damien. She clung onto Tommy's hand and pulled him up and into the line of boarding people. As nice as it was in Toronto, Jude couldn't wait to be in New York.