Chapter Thirty-Five - Doubtless Hearts.

"So, are you really happy?" Kyle asked, pecking at Bebe's lips.

"Yes, I'm happy! Are you happy?" Bebe replied, pecking Kyle back around his slightly less swollen cut.

"I'm really happy," Kyle shot back, kissing Bebe again.

"Oh my God," Wendy suddenly droned with a roll of her eyes, "Is this what it's like being around Stan and me all the time?"

Bursting into an array of chuckles, Kyle and Bebe managed to detach themselves from each other's mouths just long enough to glance cheekily over at Wendy.

It was late on Saturday afternoon, and the three of them were lazily hanging out on the balcony of the South Park girls' cabin. Bebe was perched comfortably on the railing of the porch with Wendy leant up beside her, closer to the stairs. Kyle was standing in front of the beautiful blonde, nestled in between her parted legs with his hands innocently clutching at her hips.

It had certainly been a surprise for Bebe to hear that Kyle had been the one to tell her best friend about their official relationship before she had the chance to. Bebe was just relieved that Wendy had been too ecstatically pleased for her to even be mad at the fact that she had been keeping it a secret from her.

And now, Kyle and Bebe's status was well and truly out in the open. They had been completely all over each other - touching, hugging, holding hands and kissing – ever since first thing that morning. So much so, the pair of them were almost one hundred percent sure that every single last student from South Park knew that they were finally dating for real.

Rolling his eyes right back at her, Kyle moved his hands down Bebe's thighs as he spoke to Wendy, "Oh, please, you know you can't talk," he joked, "Us and everybody else have had to put up with you and Stan for, what, ten years now?"

Just as Wendy narrowed her eyes at her two friends and parted her lips to speak, she jumped in slim surprise at a familiar voice suddenly echoing from behind her.

"Close, dude. Nine years," Stan corrected, ascending the three steps of the cabin after just having a relaxing post-match shower. Wendy glanced up at the sound of his voice, blushing at his sweet words as he draped an arm around her shoulders.

After watching on from the sidelines that morning as South Park just managed to scrape by and gain a victory without him, Stan had been absolutely itching to get back out on the field for their second football game that afternoon. But by this stage in the competition, the opposition had gotten much more fierce. Despite how well Stan played, and despite the best efforts of his whole team, he and the other boys had just fallen short and their time in the tournament had come to an end.

Even amongst the slight disappointment, though – Stan was pretty damn proud of himself. He had overcome about a million and one terrifying distractions over the course of that weekend, and now, until they flew back home to Colorado tomorrow, all he had to worry about was spending some much needed time with Wendy.

With this thought humming sweetly in the back of his mind, Stan moved his hand down, slinking it around Wendy's waist and kissing her lightly on the cheek. Bebe watched on, smiling like a goofy idiot as she reached for the back of Kyle's neck and pulled him in closer towards him.

"Can you believe this?" she asked with a laugh, "It's like we're all eight year olds in your clubhouse again."

As the memory came flooding back to him, Stan's expression instantly dropped, "Oh my God, can we not talk about that?"

"Why?" Kyle challenged, raising an eyebrow, "Because Bebe and I actually had our first kiss before you two ever did?"

"No, because I was the one who actually wanted to get kissed, but all I got instead was a urinary tract infection!"

Almost immediately, and clearly without feeling any sympathy for him, Wendy and Bebe stared at each other with wide expressions as a number of giggles erupted from their stomachs.

"Is that why you had the next two days off school?" Wendy asked with an innocent tone.

"Yes, dude!" Stan spat, glancing down at his girlfriend in disbelief, "Are you kidding me? You made me shove a twig up my dick hole!"

"Well, it didn't seem too super unsanitary at the time," Bebe argued through giggles.

"Yeah," Wendy agreed. She gazed up into Stan's blue orbs with a teasing expression, sarcastically shrugging her shoulders, "I mean, I might have seen your dog shit on it, or whatever, but – "

Without even giving her the chance to finish her mockery of him, Stan scrunched up his face with a shake of his head as he tightened his grip around Wendy's torso. The raven haired beauty let out a surprised squeal as Stan viciously began to tickle her, digging into her ribs and driving each of her senses absolutely crazy.

She somehow squirmed out of his firm grip, turning around and dashing down the steps of the cabin. But Stan was far too hot on her heels, and Wendy only managed a few quick paces away from him before the teenage boy latched onto her again. Wendy was still in complete hysterics and her cheeks were sore from laughing as she felt Stan wrap his arms around her hips from behind and lift her off the ground.

"Not so funny now, is it, smart ass?" he joked, laughing as he swung her around on the spot. Wendy clapped her eyes shut, still giggling as she tried to push away from Stan.

As her feet made contact with the ground again, Wendy sensed her heart utterly racing. She had missed all this so much. For the past two days, she had missed being so close with Stan and being silly with him and sharing all his love and affection. The teenage girl had never felt more tempted to absolutely attack him with her kiss, but when she opened her eyes, Wendy was surprised to instead be met with an incredibly stern expression laid out across her boyfriend's features.

Frowning for a second or two, Wendy quickly realised that Stan actually wasn't looking at her. She timidly followed his gaze, glancing over her shoulder until she finally figured out exactly what Stan was glowering at. Or rather, who.

Wendy's heart froze. Her skin simply crawled and a sick lump formed in the back of her throat to bear witness to the look of pure desolation that stared back at her from Griffin's evil, brown eyes.

The eighteen year old from Malibu was finally being escorted by his coach to the gates on the camp ground where the two would hop into a cab and the older man would then deliver Griffin safely onto his plane and back to California. The dark haired girl had never felt more nervous to see her ex-boyfriend within reach again, but equally relieved to know that his coach wouldn't let him come any closer or even speak anything to her.

Well, Griffin's coach and Stan, of course.

An eerie silence swept over the space that had moments ago been filled with so much laughter. The only sound that could be heard was Griffin's suitcase reluctantly rolling along behind him. As Kyle and Bebe warily watched the quiet exchange take place for the porch, Wendy peered out of the corner of her eye and up at Stan again.

The firm determination that sparked behind his eyes at the sight of Griffin eased all of Wendy's nerves. The fact that she had Stan standing tall by her side gave her the courage to slowly flick her vision over towards Griffin again, blinking once before their eyes mirrored one another's. The very second that they did, Wendy sensed a bizarre emotion cross her.

For the very first time in all the time that she had known him, the usual threatening intimidation was completely absent from Griffin's face. Behind his busted top lip and swollen nose, all that Wendy could see in him was pathetic defeat. And as she felt Stan wrap his arm back around her waist and squeeze at her lovingly, glaring directly at Griffin as he did, Wendy's soul absolutely soared in triumph.

Eventually, after what felt like an instant stubbornly frozen in time, Griffin turned away from the young couple for what they could only assume would be the very last time. Even on any future trips to Malibu to visit her family, Wendy was certain that if she happened to run into him, Griffin was no longer even a shadow of the person that he was when she was with him. No, it seemed that evil individual had been well and truly left behind when he tried and failed to destroy Wendy's life for a second time.

And neither she nor Stan would trade that for anything in the world.

"You guys good?" Kyle gently called from the balcony.

Loosening his grip on her slightly, Stan looked down at Wendy, smiling at her comfortingly, "I am."

As she simply stared back at him, Wendy's answer immediately appeared to her, "Me too."

The slimmest sense of relief flowed throughout Stan. Wendy's strength and resilience had grown more in the past two days than it ever had before. And Stan couldn't be more proud of her. Dropping his arm from around her torso, he fished his hand down and took his girlfriend's in his before leading her back over towards Kyle and Bebe with him.

The blonde teenage girl smiled happily at her best friend. Her skin tingled at the protective solidarity that was all too obvious between Stan and Wendy, and her heart enviously melted at how quickly they had fallen back into total adoration with one another. But deep down, Bebe knew that Wendy was still feeling painfully raw from all their confrontations with Griffin that weekend, and she didn't want to push the subject any further.

Instead, Bebe licked her lips as she playfully nudged Kyle, grinning at him sweetly, "Do you wanna' come in and help me start packing?"

Before the Jewish boy could even answer his girlfriend, Wendy furrowed her brow, "Uh, excuse me, but the guys are only allowed on our front porch, they can't go inside."

"Uh, excuse me," Bebe retorted, countering her friend's sarcasm, "You're one to talk after your little adventure last night."

Smirking at her cheekily, Wendy hid her pink blush and laced her fingers together with Stan's even tighter.

"Okay, whoa, could we slow down a second?" the dark haired boy asked, squeezing Wendy's hand back as he did, "I'm still not even sure how this happened in the first place," he went on, looking over to Kyle, "It was only a couple of days ago that you two were adamant about not wanting a relationship – what the hell changed so quickly?"

Kyle was silent for a moment or two, creeping his vision back up to Bebe who was still sitting on the railing in front of him. Bebe grinned down at him, beaming all the affection that she could muster. The teenage boy tried to phrase his next words in the least lame and cheesy way possible, but soon enough, the butterflies in Kyle's stomach simply got the better of him.

"We just realised how much we like each other," he said, feeling goosebumps prick at his skin as Bebe's cheeks flushed a pale shade of red, "And I dunno', we just stopped being so stubborn and decided to grow up a little, I guess."

"Yeah," Bebe agreed, finally hopping down from the banister of the porch. She skimmed her fingertips against Kyle's, beckoning him to follow her towards the front door of the cabin.

There was an incredibly flirtatious glisten in her eye and a knowing smirk spread across the bright features of her face as she bit down on her bottom lip. While she could easily stand there and echo each of Kyle's sentiments and agree with every single word he was saying, he did happen to be forgetting one major factor that contributed to them taking the ultimate plunge into a real relationship.

And it had something to do with a leather bench seat, sticky skin and a long, black bus.

"I mean, it was one thing to just hang out and see each other after one silly, drunken accident," she went on, daring to continue with her cheeky thought, "But we just figured there had to be something else to it after having sex twice, ya' know?"

Kyle's expression dropped, falling flat in utter shock as Bebe merely poked her tongue out at him with a teasing giggle. Stan and Wendy, on the other hand, were still innocently standing by, going over Bebe's last sentence over again in their minds.

"Yeah, totally," Wendy agreed, "I mean..."

And then, as she trailed off and tripped over her own tongue, the confusion well and truly set in.

"Wait..." Stan hummed, joining her.

"Twice...?" Wendy finished for him.

The dinging sound of the penny finally dropping could almost actually be heard as Stan and Wendy's jaws plummeted down to the ground beneath them. Laughing even louder, Bebe raked for Kyle's wrist as she tugged him into her cabin behind her. With a shake of his head and some chuckles of his own, Kyle conceded and allowed himself to be pulled along, leaving Stan and Wendy stewing in their monumental epiphany and the unintentional need to call out in unison to their respective best friends.

"Kyle!"

"Bebe!"

Wendy's hand was shaking as she reached for the handle of the front door. Never in a million years did she ever imagine she'd be so nervous to enter her own house.

Feeling somewhat of a flinch ricochet throughout her body, Wendy snapped out of her trance and glanced up at the sensation of Stan's supportive hand on her shoulder. He looked down at her with a smile, one that instantly eased all of her jittery emotions.

The teenage boy had parked his green Ford Focus in the Testaburgers' driveway and had rolled Wendy's suitcase up to the door for her, along with a smaller overnight bag of his own. It was Sunday, and after taking off from Arizona and landing safely back in Colorado that evening, Stan and Wendy had first dropped into his parents' house.

The Marsh's definitely couldn't say that they were completely thrilled with how Stan had viciously tangled himself up with Griffin while he had been away, or with the state of the dull bruising on his face. But, ultimately, Randy was proud to hear that his son hadn't been prepared to sit back and take any crap, and Sharon was just happy to see Stan happy again. And that Wendy was safe and okay, too.

As if all of that hadn't been miraculous enough, the dark haired boy had actually then been able to convince his mum to let him stay with Wendy that night and take the next day off school with her. Her parents had already said they wanted to give their daughter just one extra day to recover from facing her demons all over again before she went back to school and had her first meeting with the school counsellor on Tuesday. But the entire ordeal was only going to be a thousand times easier for her if Stan were to stick right by Wendy's side.

That was what lead the young couple to where they stood right then and there. Wendy knew how anxious both of her parents were to see her. The very second that they had been informed of Griffin being anywhere near her, not to mention what he had tried to do to her again, her mother and father had begged her to come straight home and skip the rest of the tournament. But that hadn't been what Wendy wanted - not even in the slightest. She needed Stan, just as much as she needed him to be with her now. His presence was the only thing that gave her enough confidence to finally twist the knob and push open the front door.

The very moment that she did, Wendy's mother swooped on her.

"Oh, my baby!" Mrs. Testaburger cooed, wrapping her arms around Wendy and basically dragging her into the house, "Sweetheart, is everything alright now, are you okay, did anything else happen yesterday, what – "

"Mum, Mum," Wendy cut her mother off, gently pulling back from her tight grip, "Everything's fine. I'm okay – we both are."

The older woman had been so desperate to collect her baby girl in her arms that she had almost completely forgotten about her boyfriend who was standing by her side. Mrs. Testaburger waited as Stan placed Wendy's suitcase down on the carpeted floor before she pulled him into a gentle hug, as well.

"Come here, honey," she spoke softly. She took a step back, tilting Stan's head to one side as she scanned over the bruise that Griffin had left on the left side of his jawline, "Oh, Stan, look at your face," she scolded, "I know you just wanted to protect her, but it shouldn't have ever come to this."

Glancing down at his feet, Stan was quiet for a moment. As his timid gaze crept back up, the teenage boy suddenly locked eyes with Wendy's father as he hugged his daughter and kissed her forehead. Stan tried not to gulp in obvious nervousness. The last time he had properly spoken to Mr. Testaburger was when he had fired an infuriated lecture at he and Wendy after catching them buying condoms at the gas station. Since then, Stan knew all too well that he wasn't exactly in the older man's good books. And as of right now, he was still wasn't one hundred percent sure of where the two of them stood.

Sighing quietly to himself, Mr. Testaburger examined Stan's war wounds before raising a curious eyebrow, "I hope you at least left him in a worse state once you were done?"

Dwelling in silence for a moment longer, Stan hesitated. He wasn't totally sure what the correct answer was or what Mr. Testaburger wanted to hear, but soon enough, the teenager cleared his throat, "I'm almost certain I heard a crack when I punched him in the nose..."

An uncontrollable grin flew across Wendy's face. As much as she had been horrified to see it in real time, the memory of Stan emerging the victor from his fight with Griffin was slowly becoming a little more pleasant every time she thought about it. Holding back her amused giggles, Wendy shied away from the unimpressed appearance of her mother as they all waited to hear what her dad would say.

Mr. Testaburger's expression remained firm, making Stan's heart race a little faster with each torturous second that ticked by. But then, without any word of warning, an extremely satisfied smirk fell into his features as he let out a loud, grunting chuckle.

"Good man!" he thundered happily, extending his hand for Stan to shake. He patted the teenager proudly on the shoulder, "Do you know how many times I've wished I could get my hands around that little punk's neck?"

Breathing a sigh of relief, Stan even managed a small laugh before Wendy's mother stepped back in, "Okay, okay, not that I'm saying that he didn't get what he deserved," the older woman began through gritted teeth, "But do you really have to encourage all of it?"

"Well, there's nothing left to encourage anymore now that it's all finally over with, right?" he jokingly shot back, winking at the kids as he finally ushered the both of them into the living room to take a seat on the lounge.

Stan shuffled closer to Wendy as they collapsed down into the comfy cushions, "Have you guys spoke anymore to Malibu High about how to... ya' know... stop the photo being spread around, or...?"

Mrs. Testaburger slowly nodded her head, "We've got a phone conference with the principal in the morning."

Suddenly brining her voice back to life, Wendy sighed, "Okay, so can we talk about it then and not now?" she asked, sort of exasperated, "I just kinda' want to relax and forget about it all tonight."

Stan felt his heart sink slightly. He had sensed Wendy's body tense up beside him at the mere mention of her photo. He almost wanted to kick himself for even bringing it up, but at the same time, Stan knew that once she started meeting with their school counsellor, Wendy was going have to adjust to opening up at some point or another.

Of course, none of that meant that point had to be right now. Dropping the subject entirely, Stan looked up to Wendy's mother as she did much of the same.

"Okay baby," Mrs. Testaburger conceded, "Why don't you run your suitcase up to your room while I get dinner out of the oven?"

With a grateful nod of her head, Wendy and her mum both stood up from their seats and took off in opposite directions. As Mrs. Testaburger vanished around the corner and into to the kitchen, Wendy picked up her bag and ascended the first step of the staircase, beckoning for Stan to follow her. Just as he came to his feet, and Wendy went bounding up the rest of the stairs, the teenage boy jumped slightly at the sound of the deeper, male voice clearing from behind him.

Quickly flicking his eyes back towards the entrance way to find that Wendy was no longer in sight, Stan spun around on the spot and gazed curiously at Mr. Testaburger.

The red-headed man was sitting in his big, comfortable looking armchair right by the television. He was intensely looking back at Stan with his brow furrowed as he hesitantly drummed his fingers against the arm of the sofa. The quarterback didn't have the first clue what he could possibly be mulling over, after all, he thought that any sort of tension or awkwardness had already just been settled.

Stan's blood pressure didn't have the chance to creep up too high, though, as all of a sudden, Wendy's dad parted his lips to speak.

"You really love her, don't you?"

His expression was soft and his tone was calm as he allowed the words to harmlessly roll off his tongue. Watching the effect that they instantly had on Stan, Mr. Testaburger felt the most over-protective and anxious chambers of his soul fill with a serene sense of ease.

Stan's baby blue eyes had instantly lit up. Each of his muscles had visibly relaxed, his expression had widened in sheer happiness, and every one of the hairs on his arms had been pricked up by the goosebumps that dotted his skin. In no time at all, the teenage boy firmly nodded his head.

"More than anything."

With his exterior remaining blank, Mr. Testaburger was quiet for a moment longer, running his hand through his red beard. He hadn't been exactly sure of the answer that Stan would offer him to that question. Obviously, he knew that it would be a 'yes', but the particular words that Stan had chosen proved to the older man without a shadow of a doubt that any activities related to the purchasing of condoms was certainly not the teenager's first priority when it came to dating his daughter.

Stan continued to wait, attempting to not be too thrown off by the prolonged silence, until Wendy's father finally came to his feet. Staring down at the teenager, he forced a small smile and an appreciative nod of his head. He had definitely heard all that he needed to hear. A reprieving sense of approval settled in Stan's core as the older man stayed quiet and simply patted him on the shoulder, gesturing that it was okay for him to go and follow Wendy upstairs.

Leaping at the opportunity, Stan smiled back at Wendy's dad before making a beeline for the staircase. Watching him as he did, Mr. Testaburger suddenly cleared his throat again, raising his voice loud enough for his daughter to hear him, "You just keep that bedroom door open, young lady!"

The thunderous command echoed all the way up the second-floor hallway and into Wendy's room as Stan soon entered it with a playful roll of his eyes. The teenage girl mimicked her boyfriend's expression with a cheeky giggle as he sat down on her bed. The mere sensation of collapsing down into the mattress was already a thousand times comfier than anything from their cabins in Phoenix. Moving himself into a more relaxed position, Stan glanced up at Wendy. She had her suitcase open on the end of her bed and was fishing her way through it.

"Unpacking already?"

Swapping a sweet grin with him, Wendy shook her head, "Just looking for my pyjamas, I feel like I've been in these clothes forever."

As she finally found her long, fleeced pyjama pants and matching tank top, Wendy reefed them from the bottom of her bag. In the next second, though, she waltzed her way around the bed and reached for the bedroom door, gently nudging it shut.

Stan immediately narrowed his eyes at her, "Uh, Wendy – "

"I just wanna' get changed, Stan," she teased, "It's not a big deal."

Before he had the chance to respond, the beautiful brown-eyed girl sauntered back over to her bed, peeling away her jacket, her shirt and then reaching for the latch of her bra, staring directly at Stan as she did. The dumbfounded appearance on his face was absolutely adorable to Wendy as her seductive eyes fell on him with a flirtatious giggle.

The very second that she unclipped the thin piece of white material and allowed it to fall to the floor from her chest, a watery lump caught in the back of Stan's throat, "Wendy..." he warned her again.

Flicking her mass of luscious, black hair behind her head, Wendy hooked her thumbs through the belt loops of her jeans and playfully swayed her hips to one side. Her giggles only increased at Stan's obvious attempts to keep his eyes on hers and not allow them to creep down to her bare chest.

"What is it?" she asked, taking a lingering step towards him, "Something wrong?"

Still yet to utter anything else other than her name or form a full sentence, San grunted inwardly and tried to ignore the harsh flow of testosterone in his body as Wendy collapsed into his lap. She pinned his shoulders to the bed head as he was leant against it and straddled his legs that were stretched straight out across her bed.

Taking in a deep breath to console himself, Stan crossed his arms and shook his head with a sarcastic smirk, "Stop it," he joked.

The bank tone in his voice made Wendy laugh as she laced her hands around the back of Stan's neck and leant in closer to him, "Oh, come on, you're not scared of my dad, are you?"

"Yes, as a matter of fact, yes I am," he laughed back, finally loosening up a little bit. He clasped his hands behind Wendy's lower back and dragged her along his lap towards him. He may have been willing to play along, but it was only to a very certain extent. And Wendy knew exactly why, "But you must also think I'm a complete idiot. Today's still the last day of your period."

Scrunching her nose up at him and admitting defeat, Wendy bit down on her bottom lip with a simple shrug of her shoulders.

She hated that he was right about her current inability to fully satisfy the sudden lust she was feeling for him, but simply being so damn close to him was definitely making up for any time they lost with one another over the weekend. Wendy wasn't only longing for Stan's touch because of two stubborn days of arguments and zero physical contact. The more she thought about how he had defended her so fiercely to Griffin and smashed the middle of his face right under his closed fist, the more it drove her emotions crazy with deep attraction and desperate sensuality, as well.

Sitting up straight in his lap, Wendy ran her hands under the back of his red poofball hat and through his raven locks. Bringing her face close to his, she lowered her voice to a tempting whisper, "Who says we need to go all the way to have fun?"

The mere sound of her inviting words instantly thwarted all of Stan's efforts to prevent an overwhelming throbbing from rocking his whole body to the core. As she raised an impatient eyebrow at him, his firm exterior swiftly crumbled onto the bed covers all around them.

Stan viciously pulled his knees up to sit at right angles, forcing Wendy to slide further down his body until she was nestled on top of his abdomen. She barely had the time to react before she felt the sudden warmth and wetness of Stan's kiss against hers. For the first few moments, they stayed devotedly pressed together with their eyes tightly shut. Wendy's hands continued to find their way through Stan's hair before her manicured nails gently clawed down the back of his neck.

Their mouths delicately parted as they indulged in the taste of each other's tongues. It had felt like a lifetime for Stan since he had last been so close with Wendy. As much as he may have kissed her sweetly and hugged her comfortingly over the last day or so, it was a totally different feeling to getting completely lost in passionate intimacy with her.

Just as the dark haired boy brought one of his hands up to graze the soft flesh of his girlfriend's breasts, both teenagers suddenly jumped and flew apart from each other and the sound of a loud knocking on Wendy's bedroom door.

"Wendy!" her father boomed, "What did I literally just tell you?"

Leaning his head into the backboard or the bed, Stan sighed with a soft groan of disappointment. Wendy rolled her eyes with a gentle laugh as she turned to face her door, "I'm just changing into my pyjamas, Dad, relax."

There was a carefully hesitant quiet before Mr. Testaburger grumbled his response, "Your mother's serving up dinner."

"Okay," Wendy called back, "We'll be right down."

After another short silence, Mr. Testaburger's reluctant footsteps went marching back through the hallway and down the stairs. Glancing back to Stan, Wendy smiled at him, forcing an eventual laugh out of him, too. He reached for her tank top across the bed, looking back to her as he did.

"Are your parents going to work tomorrow?"

Wendy shrugged, "I guess Mum will be staying home to have this conference thing with Malibu High," she spoke, "Yours?"

As Stan held Wendy's top out to her and pulled it over her head, he grinned to himself, "They'll be out all day."

The anticipation of this thought made goosebumps prick up all over Wendy's porcelain skin. The second that her face popped through the neck hole of her shirt, she shot back towards Stan and lovingly pecked at his lips with a cheeky smirk before the two dissolved into chuckles all over again.

Maybe tomorrow wasn't going to be such an awful day, after all.

"Good."

That night in her bedroom seemed a little more dark than usual to Wendy.

There was the slightest crack between the curtain and the vertical pane of the window, letting in the slimmest amount of moonlight. But it still wasn't anywhere near enough light to make Wendy's midnight thoughts seem any brighter.

She was wide awake with her eyes flicking between her open door that lead into the hallway and the unreadable ceiling of her room. As many times as she had closed her eyes and tossed and turned in her bed, Wendy was almost certain that she was yet to manage a single wink of sleep.

With horrifying thoughts and memories of Griffin plaguing her mind, Wendy sighed out loud into the noiseless space of her bedroom.

"Stop thinking about it."

Jumping slightly where she lay, Wendy turned to her right, trying to focus her eyes on the still image of Stan beside her.

"Wha– ?"

"Stop thinking about it," the teenager repeated simply.

Wendy furrowed her brow, zeroing in on Stan's sleepy expression, "Your eyes aren't even open, how do you know – "

"I don't need to be able to see you to know when you're worrying about something, Wendy."

In a mere instant, as Wendy sensed her heart gently thump against her ribcage that little bit faster, the raven haired beauty felt nearly all of her nerves and angst vanish into thin air. Stan's words echoed so sweetly and dreamily to her. Her own weight shifted slightly against the mattress where they lay as Stan flipped over onto his left side, groaning through the stiff feeling in his ribs and eventually turning to face her.

The second that he opened his eyes and his bright, blue orbs were caught twinkling in the streaming moonlight, Wendy's soul absolutely soared right out her chest.

She gazed back at him, waiting for him to open his mouth and say whatever it was that she assumed he wanted to say to her. When no words came, Wendy spat out a soft chuckle, "What?"

Prolonging the silence for a moment longer, soon enough, Stan slowly shook his head.

"Nothin'."

Wendy's whole body tingled as her heart began to race. The trance that he had lost himself in just by simply staring at her made Wendy feel like she the most beautiful girl in the whole world. And Stan knew that. Because that's exactly what she was.

Snuggling down beside him, with any timid or terrifying thoughts now being the absolute last thing on her mind, Wendy nuzzled into Stan and wrapped her arm around his torso as far as she could reach. Stan held her back just as tightly, breathing in the irresistible scent of her hair and her skin.

These were the moments that truly mattered. Deep down, the two of them knew that they didn't need to desperately rush back into any of their more intimate relations. Despite what their teenage hormones told them, Stan and Wendy still had an eternity ahead of them of getting to simply be together.

And the very moment that she fell into him, Wendy finally felt her heavy eyelids come to a blissful and tender close.

Hey guys!

Sorry this chapter took me a little longer than my usual update rate as of late. It's actually been complete for a few days, but I've gone through and edited it so many times to make sure it was perfect. With only a couple more chapters until the story's completely done, I want to make sure that every last little detail is perfect... :)

Feel free to leave me a review and let me know what you thought here! I really appreciate hearing what you all have to say!

Till next time guys,

Reneyyyyyyyyyy x