Adrians POV

We still had a few hours left until we would reach our destination and Sydney had fallen asleep.

I was tired, too. It had been a long day. But I still felt charged from her blood, which was flowing through my body and decided to check in with Jill.

I was sure by now she must have gone crazy not hearing from me.

Of course she had been able to see through the bond that we were okay for now, but I still felt like I owed her this.

Besides, seeing Sydney and my physical relationship getting more and more heated, I also felt that I should check up on her regarding that.

It almost took me no time to reach her in her dream. I hadn´t really bothered with checking time differences but must have gotten lucky.

I choose the minigolf course we had visited an eternity ago, remembering how much she had liked the water.

The moment she saw me she ran up to me to hug me. I chuckled and took her in an embrace.

I really had missed her. I hadn´t realized how much up till now. But in my defense there had been a lot going on lately.

"Finally, I thought you would never show up. Do you have any idea how worried I was? There was nothing I could do. I told Eddie about it and he said… well never mind. I´m so happy you guys are okay. I think it´s a good idea you are heading towards court and maybe when you reach Philadelphia…"

"Jailbait, relax! Breath" I said and she blushed.

"Sorry. I´m just happy you are okay" he said.

"We are, for now. I hope we won´t be running into any more obstacles before we reach court. Besides, it´s not like we are already there when we reach Philadelphia."

She beamed at me and I tilted my head "Is there something you want to tell me?" I mused.

She nodded "Yes" she said "I was talking to Eddie, like I said and he actually has a friend from St. Vladimir who is assigned in Philadelphia and we were able to get I contact with him. I know it´s not much, but he will be meeting you there with a bit of money. You know, just to help you get there safely. I had been working on that plan from the minute Sydney's dad had interfered. I´m sure we would have found a middleman in other locations, too. But I didn´t know how to reach you." she finished a little breathless.

"You are the best" I said processing what she had just said.

I seriously had no clue how we actually would have been able to reach court.

The bus tickets had almost cost us all of our remaining money.

"Like I said, it´s not a lot, but it will help you get there. It will be enough for a hotel room and maybe a rental"

"Thank you Jill, seriously. This is helping so much" I said gratefully.

She nodded "You guys have gone through so much. It´s time to put an end to this" she said.

"Talking about going through things" I started and she blushed.

"I know what you are going to say. You´ll talk about me witnessing… stuff" she started and I nodded.

"It´s okay" she said and I frowned

"What do you mean it´s okay? I know I´ve been selfish with this. But it is definitely not okay" I concluded.

"It actually is" she said "See, since you´ve been gone I had a chance to talk to Miss Terwilliger .

"She gave me a bracelet that helps me to block you out if necessary" she said. "I mean it´s not like I told her why I needed to block you out in the first place but Sydney must have talked about it with her before she was taken and somehow after everything that had happened she must have forgotten about it. But I have it now" she finished.

"A bracelet?" I asked in disbelief "What kind of bracelet?"

"Yes. It´s charmed, somehow. I didn´t really understand how it works and at first I didn´t even believe it could be possible, but the other night when Sydney… helped you…" she stopped, blushing even more.

"Well I woke up, obviously. I mean I´m not blaming you… Or her" she added "Not at all. I mean…" she stopped again.

"Anyways, I put it on and it works Adrian. It actually works" she said clapping her hands happily.

A wave of relief swept over me. I hadn´t known how it would have made me feel, knowing Jill had witnessed Sydney and me.

I know she had already witnessed her fair share of escapades since our bond had formed and I knew it was not fair to her but with Sydney, it was different.

"It really works?" I asked, still a bit cautious.

She nodded "It really works. What a relief huh?!" she said.

"Sure is. I´ve been feeling bad you know" I admitted.

"For what? Being in love?" she asked.

"No, for playing X rated movies in your head" I said laughing.

"Well X rated is an exaggeration" Jill said.

"So the bracelet really works" I stated, otherwise she would be agreeing with me.

"It does. And believe me, I´m as happy as you are" she said "it´s awkward" she went on.

"Awkward doesn´t even start to cover it" I said.

Jills face grew serious "You know, I don´t know how long I´ve been asleep. So the guys name in Philadelphia is James, and he´ll be waiting for you at the bus stop. He is tall, blond hair, grey eyes. A guardian, you´ll know when you see him. He is expecting you" Jill said.

"Thanks again for this Jailbait. You are the best" I said again and she gave me a smile.

"Anything to help you guys. You know I´m sad I won´t be able to see Sydney yet, but I´m just trying to be positive and hope I´ll see both of you soon" she said.

"I know. We had other plans, too, but…" the scenery around us shifted and I watched Jill one last time.

"I´ll be in touch. Thanks again" was everything I could say, before she faded away in front of my eyes.

I was back in the bus and fatigue overpowered me. Sydney was curled up against me, her legs across my thigh, her head on my shoulder and I pulled her a bit closer to me and instantly fell into a deep sleep.

I woke up a couple of hours later. Sydney was already awake and munching on a cookie. My stomach grumbled. Food was definitely the first thing we would get when we reached Philadelphia.

"Take one" she said, offering me the box of cookies she was holding in her hand and I gladly took one.

"Good morning" she said with a sweet smile.

"Good morning beautiful" I replied, stretching my tensed up muscles. Sleeping in a bus was definitely something I didn´t want to repeat.

"We´re almost there" she said watching me stretch.

"Maybe you need a massage" she than said.

I smirked at her "From you?" I asked coyly.

She put the cookies down and put her index finger in her mouth, slowly licking up a bit of chocolate that had been there, her eyes still on me. My jaw almost dropped when I noticed a small smirk on her face "Anytime" she said and I groaned.

"Sage" I said warningly and she laughed.

"What? I´m just offering a massage" she said innocently.

I arched an eyebrow "Sure you are" I said, taking another cookie to distract me.

Then I remembered my conversation with Jill and reluctantly put images of Sydney giving me a hot oil massage aside to bring her up to speed.

I told her about Jills plan to let us meet James and then suddenly stopped when I realized I hadn´t told her about the bond yet. It hadn´t seem that important at the time. She had already a million things to process after I told her about everything. Adding a psychic bond had seemed too overwhelming.

"About Jill" I started and she was watching me expectantly. "There is one thing I haven´t told you yet".

She froze.

"Nothing to worry about" I reassured her and to my surprise she relaxed a bit.

"Remember I told you about spirit magic? And what spirit can do?" I asked. She nodded.

"Well I showed you what I did with the plant, right?" she nodded giving me an uncertain look. "I can also do the same to humans and animals. Heal them I mean. So with Jill… I actually brought her back from the dead" I finished.

"What?" she asked confused.

Sydneys POV

"I had to" he said, like that would explain it all.

"Like dead dead?" I asked stupidly. Maybe he was just exaggerating and she had been badly injured. Even that would have been something hard to swallow.

"Yes. And doing so, it formed a bond. So now we are somehow linked to each other. She can feel what I feel. And sometimes she slips into my head. Well she used to that is..."

"Wait" I interrupted him "Feel what you feel? What does that mean exactly? And being in your head? Like how?" I asked carefully.

"Especially in the beginning it was hard for her to block me out of her head. It happened mostly when my feelings were very strong. Anger, happiness, sadness, despair…" he stopped and his thoughts seemed to drift away for a moment.

Something dark flashed over his face and his mind seemed far away.

"Adrian, come back" I whispered taking his hands. He focused on me and gave me a weak smile.

"This is another gift, spirit has given me" he said, his voice was sounding sad now.

"Sometimes it´s hard to control my feelings and they seem to overwhelm me. That is why I started taking pills before you were taken. It stabilized my mood and blocked out Jill completely. But when you were gone…" he stopped and looked at me.

"I stopped. I felt so helpless and was sure I could reach you in a spirit dream at some point but it never worked. And then when I heard you are in New York I just went there. Not knowing what would happen I thought having full access to spirit would be safer" he finished.

"Oh Adrian" I said. I didn´t know what else to say, so I squeezed his hands softly.

"I´m here" I added "Always".

He smiled at me, it didn´t completely reach his eyes yet, but the dark shadows had lifted a bit.

"Thank god you are" he muttered and pulled me in his arms.

I returned his embrace, kissing his shoulder and holding him tightly.

My heart ached seeing him like that. I wanted to see him happy and promised myself to do everything in my power to see him good.

We sat like that for some time, just holding on to each other. We didn´t need to talk, we grounded each other and when we finally broke the embrace he was almost himself again.

"Better?" I asked leaning against the window, still holding his hand.

"Better!" he confirmed.

"About Jill…" he started again and I frowned, fearing it would bring back the dark emotions from earlier. But he shook his head.

"No, it is actually a good thing" he went on and I relaxed a bit.

"See, Miss Terwilliger and you were working on a charmed bracelet. A bracelet that helps Jill to block me out. And it works like a charm, no pun intended" he said.

I didn´t know how I felt about that. A charmed bracelet. And I had been part in creating it.

Than another thought came to my mind and I blushed and still trying to process that thought released his hand.

"When you say she feels what you are feeling, does that mean when you and I…" I blushed even more, unable to finish that sentence. How much was Jill actually able to feel when we were in the heat of the moment.

He averted his eyes and that was all the confirmation I needed.

"Oh my god" I said, covering my eyes. The thought of someone else witnessing what had happened between Adrian and me the last couple of nights was too embarrassing.

"Why didn´t you tell me about this before?" I asked accusingly.

"Because she is getting better with it Sydney and like I said, that bracelet works. She didn´t see anything bad" he replied.

"I know I should have told you earlier but at the beginning it didn´t seem that important and you already had so much on your plate. And honestly… I didn´t think we would need to block her out of something. I mean of course I was thinking about you like that all the time but I didn´t think we would actually…" he paused.

"I´m sorry. I should have told you" he then said, looking up at me.

I nodded "You should have. The thought of someone else witnessing…" I paused, I just couldn´t say it out loud. It would make it too real.

I thought about Adrians hands on my body, all over my body and blushed again.

"Come here" he said opening up his arms.

I sighed but let him pull me in his arms.

"It´s all god Sage, I promise. What happened between us the day before yesterday only happened between you and me. No witnesses. I swear" he said, kissing my hair gently.

"Please don't be mad at me. Please" he pleaded.

"I´m not mad Adrian. I´m embarrassed" I said truthfully.

"Are you embarrassed in front of me?" he asked sheepishly.

"No, of course not" I replied.

"Then there is nothing to be embarrassed about" he concluded.

We fell silent again and he was absently brushing over my arm when Philadelphia's skyline came into view. We were almost there and I pushed my worries aside.

Now there were other things to think about. We had been in some sort of time capsule during our bus ride. Almost feeling untouchable. Leaving this bus meant anything could happen and I mentally prepared myself.