WELCOME TO HURRICANE, UTAH

"You'd think that after twenty years they'd update that sign," Cynthia said dryly as her car rolled past the sign and into Hurricane's city limits. "Or even put up a new one that says something positive about this place."

"Come to Hurricane: we have year-round natural air conditioning?" Carlton joked, referring to the usual wind storms that rolled through the town. Cynthia let out a laugh and lightly slugged her nephew on the shoulder.

"Nice one Kiddo, it already makes the place sound more appealing!" While she'd hidden it from him as a child, ever since he moved in with her Carlton came to realize that aunt shared a similar mindset to his own about Hurricane. The town where nothing seemed to happen, no one left, and everyone liked things to remain "normal." Not to mention his treatment after Dunn's murder. All of which all served as a bitterly painful reminder of why he left.

'You're here for Mom and Michel, once this is done you'll never have to come back.' Carlton reminded himself and leaned his head against the car window to try relaxing his mind. But that proved difficult as he gazed out at the scenery he had been so eager to never see again. Despite having spent almost half a year away, all of the sites still looked dull as they'd been when he left. All the familiar sights around him weren't able to bring about even the slightest twinge of nostalgia.

As they drove into the town center, Cynthia's eyes fell upon a large box truck waiting at the traffic lights. It was colored in dark green with the words "TAYLOR ENTERPRISES' stamped on its sides.

"Huh...Taylor Enterprises… I wonder what he's doing back in this town." She quietly asked herself and Carlton glanced up to see the truck for himself. The name caused something to stir in his memory and he could swear that his parents had mentioned someone with the name Taylor a couple of times but he wasn't sure. But before he could definitely pin down the memory, the traffic light turned green allowing the truck to rumble off on its way out of the town. Cynthia also turned her car in the direction of the Burke family home and they set off down the road.

Before too long the car pulled up to the enormous house that had been Carlton's childhood home, though like with everything else it now held a bittersweet place in Carlton's heart. Before the car had even stopped, Betty had opened the door and was rushing out to greet her sister and son.

"Betts," Cynthia shouted out the window as she parked the car and jumped out to hug her sister. "Happy birthday."

"Thanks but you know it's not until tomorrow," Betty said, causing Cynthia to laugh. "Yeah, but I wanted to be the one who said it first." The two sisters broke their hug apart and Betty's attention was drawn towards Carlton as he stepped out of the car with a polite wave.

"Hey Mom," was all he managed to say before Betty snapped him up in a tight squeeze. He smiled warmly and returned the hug. It felt really nice to be around more people who cared about him, even if it was just his mom.

"Have you been doing okay over at your aunt's sweetie?" Betty asked, pulling back and lightly brushing her son's hair.

"Yeah, though I've been trying to help her out around the house and she keeps refusing."

"You're a guest not a servant and I don't believe in slavery." Cynthia retorted as she walked around the car and headed for the trunk. Carlton fought back a flinch before quickly walking away from his mom and over to the trunk.

"Can you at least let me get our bags?" he asked quickly while moving in front of his aunt to block her from the trunk. She looked at him incredulously but he leaned close and explained himself. "I don't want Mom to see what we got her just yet."

Cynthia nodded and chuckled a bit at her nephew, before walking back over to Betty. Carlton opened up the trunk to begin pulling out the luggage as Cynthia chatted up her sister.

"So, where's the man of the house." She asked, deepening her voice towards the end to mock Clay a little. Betty sighed deeply but laughed at her sister's voice and then looked over at Carlton.

"He'll be going to be joining us later because there's been something pretty big occupying his time right now." She spoke somewhat bitterly but there was also an underlying sense of relief in her voice. Cynthia placed a hand on her hip and cocked her body a little to the side

"Does it happen to have anything to do with the Taylor Enterprises truck I just saw going through town?" Betty went to speak again but stopped to look back at Carlton before she motioned her sister away from him. They started to walk around the house and the last thing that Carlton overheard in their conversation was,

"It has everything to do with that-" Their voices faded out of earshot as they walked away and out of Carlton's sight. Which he was very grateful for as he continued to dig around in the trunk. While he had every intention of getting his mother's present, it was Cynthia discovering what he'd also put in the bag had him worried. Back when he'd been packing up everything, it had seemed like a good idea.

Of course, he'd realized the mistake too late, but thankfully the present had done its job. He dug the bag out and unzipped it so he could pull them out wrapped present and make sure everything he needed hadn't been tossed about during the drive. He set the bag down next to his suitcase and double-checked the other contents. Much to his relief, everything that he needed hadn't been damaged in transit. But he knew he ought to double-check once he was inside. After putting the present back into the bag he zipped it up and then lightly tossed it over his shoulder.

Carlton then grabbed the suitcases and started walking towards the house with the suitcases rumbling along behind him. All the way to the house he was mentally planning out what he'd do once inside. He knew the first thing to do was to hide the bag away in his old room, then he would have to see if his parents changed up their sleeping routines: but even then he had a few ideas regarding that too.

Despite all the planning though, he could feel the guilt threatening to consume him. But it was too late to turn back now because of how far he'd come. While lying to everyone made his stomach knot up like in his stomach like a noose, he was confident he could pull it off without his family noticing.

Then they might be able to finally move past all their troubles, his best friend would finally find the peace that had eluded him for far too long.

Charlie shivered against the bitter chill and pulled the collar of her jacket tight around her face After she'd done that her hands flew back into her pockets like birds scrambling for bread. Though clearly not fast enough as she still felt a shiver while stealing yet another glance at the large clock on the station wall.

'Almost 6:30, Jessica's train should've been here by now.' She glanced down the platform and wondered how Jessica of all people could get on a train that ran late although it wasn't like Jessica could have a say in the matter if it was.

An announcement over the intercom and the distant clattering of wheels made her step back and turn her head to watch an arriving train slowly roll into the station. Throughout the rest of the week, Jessica and Charlie had discussed more than a few plans about how to spend the weekend. The first hurdle though had been finding a way to Brookhaven due to it being a few hours outside of New York itself. But the always resourceful Jessica had found a train that would take her to the station the next town over from Brookhaven.

Thankfully it wasn't a long drive over to get her, though it was certainly a chilly one as nights started becoming colder as the fall months dragged on towards winter. 'Just means more reasons to huddle under blankets with John' Charlie bit back a smile at the warming thought and watched on as the train finally crawled to a stop.

She backed further away from the train as the doors opened and a crowd of people spilled out. Most of them moved out into the station itself after a long day of work. So Charlie kept herself back but continued to peer about to try and spot Jessica in the crowd. This was something that proved to be a rather easy task as even with her hair tucked mostly beneath a beanie cap, Jessica stood out amongst the other commuters. Her tall stature and confident demeanor were apparent even beneath the layers she'd worn to fend off the cold.

"Jessica!" Charlie called and started to wave her arm. Jessica looked up as Charlie called out again and began lightly waving both of her arms. Jessica grinned and made her way over towards Charlie who started to weave her way through the crowd. The two of them managing to meet up halfway and embrace the other in a tight hug.

"Welcome back to our little neck of the woods," Charlie said jokingly and pulled down the collar of her coat so she wouldn't be muffled "Did everything go okay? The train was a little late getting here..."

"How about I be nice just say that it could have been better, but hey I'm only a couple of minutes late." Jessica sighed as she and Charlie started walking towards the station exit. "Public transport is a real nightmare sometimes."

"That's why I'm glad to have a car." Charlie laughed and leaned over to lightly nudge Jessica's side.

"Lucky you, though I don't envy you guys for having to drive over here cross country." Both girls started laughing until Jessica looked over Charlie more closely and then squinted.

"Please tell me that those aren't your heaviest winter clothes." She asked while pointing at her friend's outfit. Charlie looked down at her outfit curiously and then back at Jessica with a confused shrug.

"I-I guess they are, though I do feel like it's a little early to be wearing a thousand layers." She frowned as Jessica's face took on a sympathetic grimace. Charlie responded to this by cocking her head and raising an eyebrow. "What?"

"You're going to freeze to death if that's what you plan to wear all winter." Jessica bluntly replied and Charlie stared at her more than a bit confused.

"These were enough for me back in Utah." She half-whispered as she pulled out on her coat, but Jessica just shook her head.

"Yeah it was fine for Utah but winter being near the ocean during winter is entirely different." She said as they stepped out of the station and walked out into the cool evening, where Charlie's blue Honda sat waiting for them along with John's smiling face. As they approached, John rolled down the window and called out to them. "Hey, you two don't happen to need a ride do you?" Charlie laughed as Jessica smirked.

"Does it look like we're that cold already?"

"Yeah, yeah you do." Jessica deadpanned, looking from Charlie to John with trepidation while the couple looked more than a little surprised at her comment. "How did both of you manage to come all the way over here and be this unprepared for winter?"

"I must have missed something." John thought aloud as the two girls climbed into the car with Charlie sitting upfront with John and Jessica taking one of the backseats. Charlie sighed as she pulled down her coat a bit more to take in the warm air from the car's heater. She raised her hands up to one of the vents to warm them up and looked back at Jessica, who just shook her head.

"We need to get you guys some warmer clothes," She looked pointedly at Charlie's hands. ", especially some decent gloves."

"But I have John's hands to warm me up." Charlie jokingly pouted and reached over to squeeze John's hands. He smiled and squeezed back, causing the two of them to giggle.

"Okay but you won't have John around all the time, and he'll get cold too," Jessica commented and John blinked at Charlie.

"Alright, can someone tell me what exactly it is I missed?"

Before Charlie or Jessica could explain, a loud car horn made them all jump. It was then they remembered where they were and John put the car into drive so they could lead. Quickly, they drove out of the station's parking lot onto the main road. Once they had settled into the flow of traffic Charlie began giving directions to their restaurant and after John had a good idea of where to go Jessica piped up once again "So where'd you hear of this steakhouse again?"

"One of my co-workers, Kevin, suggested it. He told me that this place is some of the best in New York."

"I'll be the judge of that, thank you," Jessica said in a fake snooty tone that made everyone in the car laugh.

Charlie leaned back into her seat and relaxed in the warmth of the heater. Being with two of her best friends proved to be rather cleansing for her after the recent events in her life. It brought back a sense of normalcy and seemed to push all of her problems away. She was ready to forget it all and have a fun and peaceful night with her closest friends.

Something that would, unfortunately, be denied from her a little while longer.