Wow! Took forever to get this uploaded! Would have had this up for you guys yesterday, except my document manager wasn't working - go figure. But, it's back and now you have a new chapter!!!

No individual comments to make this time around, y'all are just awesome!

Chapter 17:

"What do you mean, he isn't coming back from Tokyo."

Jane sniffled.

"I just got an e-mail. He's staying in Tokyo to oversee the office."

I sat down on the sofa next to her and put an arm around her shoulders.

"Janie, I haven't heard anything about this in the office. I know his stay in Tokyo was extended, are you sure this is for long term?"

She nodded.

"The e-mail came from Charlie?"

She shook her head.

"Who then?"

"Caroline."

"Caroline! And you believed what that witch said?!"

"Lizzie, she said something about account discrepancies and that Charlie's trip was initially extended while it was getting sorted out, but that now it appears to have not been a discrepancy and it was caused from inside the firm."

I sat down.

"Janie, then why didn't Charlie e-mail you himself."

Jane hiccupped.

"Caroline said that between the time difference and how busy Charlie is she didn't know when he'd get around to e-mailing me." Hiccup. "She said that she knew it would be the latest gossip in the office within the next few days and she wanted to break it to me before you heard about it in the office first."

"And she didn't say when he was coming back?"

She shook her head.

"She said it would be at least four months. I don't know if I can do this long distance. I mean it was just temporary until now and I've spoken to him once in the past two weeks, and that was on Facebook! It's just too hard."

She burst into tears all over again. I embraced her in a hug and rocked her until she calmed down.

"What will you do?"

"I don't know Lizzie. I need time to think about this."

"Are you sure?"

She wiped tears from her face.

"Yes. Thank you Lizzie." She looked up at the clock on the wall. "Oh! Lizzie, you are going to be late for class!"

"I can miss it if you need me"

"Didn't you say that it is the last class before the exam?"

I nodded

"Then you definitely have to go to class!"

"Janie, I don't want to leave you –"

She made a shooing motion at me

"Go, go, I'll be fine. I just need to think and reflect."

I gave her a dubious look.

"Really. I'm upset, I won't deny it, but I need to figure out my next move. I need to figure this out on my own Lizzie."

"Call me on my cell if you need me?"

"I will"

"Seriously Janie, call me."

"I WILL, now go!"

Hesitantly, I left for class.

____________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

Over the next week and a half, I threw myself into studying for my final exams and spent most of my time either holed up in the library or in my bedroom, studying. I knew Jane e-mailed Charlie and told him that they couldn't be together as long as he was in Tokyo, but she didn't provide any other details other than to say that he hadn't replied back yet.

"Lizzie! I'm heading out." Jane called from the foyer of the apartment. I pulled myself away from my desk, piled high with study materials and walked to my bedroom door. Wearing my leggings and t-shirt, I pulled my door open.

"Where are you going?" I asked once I realized that Jane was dressed in regular clothes rather than scrubs.

"The Post Office."

"Why in heavens name would you be going there? We pay all our bills online, we don't need stamps."

"I'm going to renew my passport."

I was surprised, this was the first that I was hearing of this.

"Where are you going on vacation? I do have to say though, getting away right now would be good for you. Go lie on a beach, drink some fruity alcoholic beverage with the little umbrella in it, ogle the half naked tan gorgeous men on the beach . . . "

"I'm not going on vacation Lizzie."

"Ok, I'm confused. If you aren't going on vacation, then why do you need to renew your passport?"

"I'm going to take a leave of absence from the hospital and do some humanitarian work in Africa."

"What?!"

"You're right, I need to get awhile from here for awhile. But laying on a beach is just going to make me think of Charlie. I need something to keep me preoccupied. I had been thinking about Africa before I met Charlie and I put the idea aside cause I thought he might be the one. I think that now would be a good time to go."

I knew that she had been thinking about this for awhile and knew better than to try to talk her out of something like this.

"For how long?"

"About six months."

"Six MONTHS!!! Jane, what about the apartment?! I can't afford this place on my own."

"Well, I thought I would sublet my room while I'm gone."

"It's going to be hard to sublet a room to someone when there are other people still living here and only for six months time. The combination together is going to cause problems."

"I'm sure it will work out."

"When are you planning on leaving?"

"Mid-January."

"Ok, so I can worry about the living situation after exams?"

Jane nodded.

"Then I'm going back to study now. Have fun at the post office. I have no clue what is in the kitchen but can you pick up whatever we need?"

"I will."

"All right then, I'll see you later." And with that I closed my door and turned back to studying Evidence.

Ok, really short chapter. I think it's my shortest to date, but it was merely to sort out what happened with Charlie and Jane and to segway to the next section of the story. But never fear! I feel so guilty about writing such a short chapter this week and being that it is a holiday weekend, I'm hoping to upload another chapter this weekend, which should be a long one and should be my favorite chapter to date (even more so than the one where Lizzie slaps Will - so get excited).

But I have a question to ask you guys. If you remember, a little while ago I had a contest about where the name Lizard came from and Julie Brook was the winner. I contacted them a while ago and still have not received a response. So, I have two options. Since the prize was getting to rename Georgiana I can either 1) Name her Julia instead, thereby using Julie Brook as inspiration (and holding true to using an older more traditional name, which is what I wanted.) or 2) Give the prize to the second person who guessed the right answer, but just answered later than Julie Brook. What do you guys think? Please let me know, Georgie won't be in the next chapter but if I'm contacting the runner-up, I need time to do so and delaying that will delay my further updates.

Review!!