A/N-Okey dokey then. A bit of fluffiness in this chapter, with Jackson and Lisa, a little bit of sadness with Rachel and Alec. You shall see, my dear readers! Thank you so much those who reviewed even though .net was being stupid and wouldn't send them through. Anyway, enjoy!

Jackson pushed Lisa brusquely back into her chair. She glowered defiantly at him.

"He better not hurt her," Lisa menaced. "She's only sixteen-"

"And none of your concern," he finished exasperatedly. "Jesus, Leese, why do you care so much about her anyway? You just met her. Don't tell me you did the Oprah thing and swapped life stories in fifteen minutes."

Lisa picked icily at her food. "Like most human beings, Jack, I have something known as empathy for everybody. Including people I just met."

"Well, then, that's what gets you into trouble," Jackson sipped his coffee. It was too strong. He'd been so preoccupied this morning. "Isn't it?" Feelings get everybody into trouble. That's why I'm glad that I don't have that many. If any at all.

"I can't believe that you aren't worried about what he might do to her, though!" Lisa cried. I can't believe that you think I'd be worried.

"Lisa, this is how we work," he sighed. "If he hurts her at all, she obviously had it coming to her. You saw her. She was being downright defiant."

"That wasn't defiant," Lisa replied indignantly. "I'm defiant. She was speaking her mind. Quite colorfully, if I do say so myself."

"Yeah, well, you got thrown down a flight of stairs for being 'defiant'," Jackson shrugged. "So cool it." He looked down at his food. He wasn't really hungry anymore. Arguing with Lisa did that to him. He sighed and cut his French toast, twirling a piece on his fork. He looked at Lisa. Then back to his fork. And promptly sling-shotted the syrup-covered piece of toast in her direction.

It hit her on the cheek and slid down her neck. She stared at him with pure rage for a moment. Why did I do that? Was there really a point of doing that? He thought. No. There wasn't. I was just sick of hearing her talk.

Lisa took her plate and slammed it across his chest. The porcelain clattered to the floor as the syrup stuck to his clothes. She smirked at him and stood up to go wash her face. He followed her to the bathroom as she dabbed at herself with a washcloth.

"Move over, I get first priority," he gently pushed her and she fell against the sink. She pushed him back, much harder, and he hit the door.

"Why do you get priority? You started it." He detected a bit of anger left in her voice. And he laughed.

It was a deep laugh, he fell to the floor and shook with quakes of hilarity. He was mildly aware of Lisa staring at him.

"What in the world is so funny?" she snapped, reminding him of a sitcom mother.

"You…we—had a food fight," he laughed. Dear God, why am I such a wreck today? "And—you're still mad."

"Of course I am!" she cried. "You're over here, flinging French toast at people and Alec's probably emotionally scarring Rachel for life over there!"

The water in the sink is still running. He wanted to tell Lisa to turn it off, but he really didn't care. He picked another piece of food off his sweater and tossed it at her. It landed in her hair. She tried to pretend to ignore it with jaw set for a minute, but then she clicked her tongue and plucked it out, looking it at.

"I really, really don't understand you sometimes," she frowned, rolling her eyes at him. Then she cracked a smile. Which turned into a laugh.

Jackson stood up. "Well, you still have an advantage over me. I never understand you."

"I don't think you'll ever need to. I don't plan on opening up to you anytime soon, you know."

"I think you already have." Jackson pulled off his sweater and tossed it in the sink to rinse out. You have, Leese. You just don't know it yet.

He noticed Lisa glance at him and then try to leave the bathroom. He was blocking the doorway.

"Excuse me," she muttered. He looked at her. Yup. She was blushing. Hard. He glanced down and put two and two together. Oh, yeah. Bare chest. Lisa. Lisa's paranoia. Makes sense.

"I'm sorry, am I in your way?"

"Yes. Please move."

He laughed. "Why?"

"So I can leave!"

"Why do you want to leave?" I haven't acted this immaturely…wait. I've never acted this immaturely. What the hell is the matter with me?

"Because you're changing clothes and I don't really want to look at you!"

Chuckling, he looked into her eyes. She wouldn't return the gaze, however. She was definitely uncomfortable. And getting mad again.

"Sure you do. I'm not that hard to look at, am I?"

That did it. She looked fiercely into his eyes. "You fucking egotistical-"

He kissed her. She pulled away and pushed hard against his chest to make him move. When she realized where her hand was, she backed up and quickly drew it away like she was touching hot coals.

She slapped him. "Don't ever do that again!"

He smirked. "Do what again?"

"You know…"

"No," he muttered. "I don't think I do. Enlighten me."

"You…kissed…me…you kissed me."

"Yes, I did."

"And I hate you."

"Do you?"

"Yes."

"I don't think you do."

Lisa glared at him. "Well, you don't know shit, do you?"

I want to kiss her again. Badly. He stepped forward. She didn't move. He kissed her again and she held it longer this time.

When she pushed away, he took the chance to look at her face. Her eyes had softened considerably and she looked equally flustered.

"Do you still hate me?" She nodded. I'm not surprised.

"Do you still want to leave?" He expected the worse. The dread was already building in his chest. But he smiled as she shook her head. Maybe we're all full of surprises.

Rachel slammed her locker shut and waved goodbye to Leslie as her friend took off down the hall. She smiled at her retreating back and grabbed her bookbag off the floor. As she spun around to walk to the bus, she ran squarely into something. A tall something. A tall something with dark hair and a pale complexion. A someone. A very interesting someone.

The zipper on her bag chose that precise moment to split and the contents of the bag went tumbling to the floor.

"Shit!" she bent to pick them up, forgetting the person she'd bumped into. She glanced up briefly. "Sorry."

He stooped to help her. "It's no problem. I should have been paying attention."

Rachel gathered the rest of her stuff and stood. He had her book and was looking at it.

"The Catcher In The Rye. How do you like it so far?"

"Oh, I've read it before," Rachel blushed. She didn't know why. "Have you…uh…" God, she thought, why am I such an idiot?

"Yeah," he laughed. She liked his laugh. It was deep, like his voice. "It's my favorite."

She bit her lip. "I've never seen you around here. Are you new?"

"No," he shook his head. "I actually don't go here. My mom's a new teacher, I was helping her with some boxes. So I'm guessing you're a student?"

Rachel nodded. "Yeah. I'm a junior." She wanted to ask him what school he went to, or if he was even in school. He looked old enough to be in college.

"I see. I'm a senior at Westford Prep, you know-"

"I know where that is."

"Yeah," now he looked slightly embarrassed. "Want to know a secret?"

A secret? "Uh…sure. Provided that it doesn't get me in trouble."

He laughed. "No. I'm actually eighteen. I failed a couple of grades in junior high. I could have aced the courses if I wanted to, but I just didn't really care. Sorry. I know I'm being kind of egotistical right now. I'm not usually like this."

"No, you're not," Rachel insisted. "Being egotistical, I mean. Why didn't you care?"

He bit his lip. "I was kind of…going through some family stuff. My sister died when I was going into eighth grade."

Rachel felt horrible. Sincerely horrible, not a polite horrible. "Oh, my God. I'm so sorry! That must have been terrible!"

He shrugged. "Yeah. We were kind of expecting it, though, I mean, she had cancer. It was hard, but we've had ourselves braced for it since she was born. It was kind of like the last straw for me, though. I just stopped caring about all this school shit."

"Well, if it makes you feel better," Rachel smiled. "From the way you were talking I thought you were in college. You'd never be able to tell."

"That's comforting." He laughed. "So…uh…I don't think I ever caught your name?"

God, he's cute. He had long black hair that fell into his face, masking his green eyes. His pale skin looked smooth and soft and he was very thin. And Rachel had a very distinct feeling that he might be flirting with her. "I'm Rachel. Redford."

"Is it Rachel or Redford?" he chuckled again.

"It's both. My name is Rachel Redford. Sorry." She blushed. I. Am. Such. A. Freak.

He held out a hand. "Dan Gregory. I think I'll go with Redford, by the way."

"What?" Rachel giggled as she shook his proffered hand.

"You have two names. I'll go with Redford. It's got a nice ring to it. Red." He smirked.

"If you can call me Redford, I can call you Gregory," Rachel teased. "Greg."

"Well, Ms Rachel, Ms Redford, Red, whatever," he chortled. "If you're not doing anything tonight, would you like to grab some coffee with me in town?"

"I thought you were helping your mom." Rachel couldn't help but feel a bit awkward.

"I am," he nodded. "But I just finished. And she'll be here awhile before I have to drive her home. So what do you say?"

"I say that if there's coffee involved, I'm in!" Rachel clutched her bag together.

"Well, good," he laughed. He took her bag, despite her firm protests. "Let's go get some of that awesome coffee."

Rachel wouldn't look at Alec. She refused to give him the satisfaction. I can't do this. I can't tell him.

He sat at the couch and looked at her. "Are you going to sit on the uncomfortable floor or are you going to be smart?"

She glared at him vehemently. "Not if it means I have to sit next to you."

He smirked. "There's another chair."

Rachel rose tentatively to her feet and sat awkwardly in the soft recliner across from him. She tucked her knees to her chest and buried her face in the cave they formed.

"I'm waiting for your story, by the way."

"Maybe there isn't one. I just like being a loner, that's all."

"That's bull. There's something behind those lined eyes, Rach, I can tell. Now spit it out before I get mad and call my guy back."

She didn't answer. She couldn't. Her mind was spinning again.

"Rachel," Alec snapped. She opened her eyes.

"What?"

"Are you going to tell me?"

"I…." She felt tears form. No. It was just a dream again. It wasn't fair. She wanted Dan back.

She stood up and pressed her face against the window as she started crying again. It hurt too much to think about the Good times. When everything had been magical.

She felt cool fingers on her neck and she spun around. It was Alec, but she thought she detected something new in his eyes. Concern? Sympathy?

"Are you okay?"

"What do you care?" she shook his hands from her neck. "Don't touch me."

He gripped her shoulder. "Are you going to tell me?" God. She was getting sick of listening to him saying that. She sat back down in her chair. Alec returned to his perch on the couch.

"I met him the beginning of my freshman year," Rachel whispered.

"Who?"

"If you want to hear the whole story, then shut up," she snapped. This was going to hurt her enough. She didn't need to answer his fucking questions on top of it.

"Fine, fine. Keep going. You met some guy when you were in ninth grade…"

"Yeah. He was a senior, we were three years apart when we started dating. My parents hated him for a while. But then they grew to love him. Like I did. It was perfect." Her voice cracked. Alec didn't say anything.

"Everybody said that it was just puppy love. It couldn't last because we were so young. But I knew different. I could just tell, you know? We were together for a year when he brought me to the cave. The Dwelling. That's what we called it. His sister used to take him there when they went on vacations. It was this old cave way back in the woods…" she wasn't sure if she could keep going. This was getting too personal. The Dwelling was hers. It was Dan's. But it wasn't this stranger's.

"Rach?"

She wiped her eyes and kept going. "It was beautiful. There was a waterfall, and…he said that nobody had ever been there. Dan hadn't brought anybody there since his sister died. She had cancer. I was the only one. And he told me. He told me he loved me, though by then I already knew it. That was the most perfect summer imaginable."

"Did you guys ever…"

"No," Rachel shook her head. For some reason, she wasn't disgusted with Alec for asking. "Our relationship wasn't physical at all. It was just us. Our minds. I think maybe he was my soulmate. He was so much like me, he was so…I loved him. That's all there is to it."

She paused and cleared her throat. "Do you need some water?" Alec asked quietly. Rachel shook her head, wondering why he was being so understanding now.

"I was home alone the night I got that call. Chris was at baseball practice, my parents were working. Dan was working that night. He worked at a coffee shop in Albany. He lived halfway between Albany, where he was in college at that point, for medicine, and my house, by the way. Anyway, he was working and was going to come see me that night. We were supposed to go out. He said he had a surprise for me. I had music on when the phone rang. I heard the answering machine catch it and I picked it up. It was his mom." Rachel started crying again.

Alec came over and touched his arm. She shook him off. She wasn't that pathetic yet. "Rachel, I shouldn't have…I'm sorr-"

She kept going. "There was a robbery. A young kid was training at the register and didn't know what to do. Dan came over to get the money out and give it to the guy. The robber panicked and shot him. Dan died. They never caught the robber."

"Rachel, I'm so sorr-"

"There's more," she didn't bother to wipe her eyes anymore. "His mom found something in his coat. It was for me."

"What was it?"

Rachel bit her lip. "It was a song he'd written for me. He was a great songwriter, he played in a band, too. It was a love song." She cast her eyes down. Come on, Rachel, suck it up. Now, at least, he'll stop bothering you.

She looked at Alec. "Are you happy now?"

He just looked at her. She thought she saw his eyes glisten, but she wasn't sure. This time, when he moved to hug her, she let him. She needed that.

But more than anything, she needed the past.

A/N-Don't worry, Rachel's still herself. She hasn't turned over a new leaf and started to like Alec now.  As for Lisa and Jackson, they're not destined for happily ever after quite too soon, either. Please review!