A/N: I know that I said I was going to update twice the other night. But I was too tired and processing too much alchol and exhaustion that I couldn't stay up long enough. Therefore, here is chapter 30, which is a little longer than I thought it was.

PS. The performance of before the storm last night in dallas has simply put the stamp of verification on the fact that Niley is back for me. Otherwise, that was some awfully shameless eye-smexxing that Miss Cyrus was doing to that poor boy ;)

xo

Chapter 30 - Aim High

"I wish I could fly…" she sighed as the swing went higher and higher into the atmosphere with her movements.

He clung to Frankie's jungle gym, his body hanging over the bars as he watched her with a smirk, eating the bag of chips that she'd handed him with a smile and told him to help his self to. She'd then thrown the bags onto the lawn and climbed onto the swing, her body instantly moving higher and higher, her hair flying through the wind as he watched her silently in awe at how amazingly normal she looked for once.

"That's impossible."

His words stopped her movements, her body slowing until she gently came to rest came to rest with her feet on the floor. She stared at him and shook her head, gloved hands wrapped around the chains of the swing. Her chest heaved with slight exhaustion, air coming out of her mouth in puffs of white water vapour.

"Nothing's impossible," she shrugged looking at him so intently that all he could do was smile, wider than he'd remember doing in a long time.

She smiled back, unstoppably, her entire face contorting to match the same unnamed happiness that he expressed across his features. The smile, as she slowly rocked backwards and forwards on the swing, made her feel awkwardly safe and calm; her eyes relaxing as she looked at him, her features softening as she momentarily forgot the reason she was sat in his backyard for. All that seemed to matter was the way that he was looking at her, like he'd never actually seen her before, a completely different person to what she was used to seeing. He looked happy, caring... calm. She could tell he was at peace with his life... and tried to shake the feeling that it was only because she was there.

"So..." she coughed, breaking their gaze and looking down at the floor, "What is there to do around here when you look like crap?"

Nick shrugged, apparently noticing her discomfort but not saying anything, "There's always shopping in New York... it's only a two hour bus ride away."

Miley laughed at him and cocked and eyebrow, "Because that wouldn't be at all dangerous if me and you, two very famous people, got off of a bus in Manhattan... me wearing your old clothes with a bandage on my forehead."

Nick seemed unbothered by her point and shrugged her shoulders, "So we'll go in disguise..."

She smiled, "What... like Batman and Robin?"

"No," he laughed, "like the real us..."

She gulped uncomfortably and shook her head slightly to pull herself together, "Maybe another day..." she nodded, "I don't... feel like doing anything today except sitting around and feeling sorry for myself..."

Nick nodded and looked around.

"You wanna watch a movie?" he asked nonchalantly, "I'll order us a pizza..." she opened her mouth to protest, before he laughed...

"I'll let you pay."

"The fire's nice."

Nick looked up as he threw some more logs onto the fire he'd just struggled to light and smiled at her, "It's warm and that's all that matters... I never realised that mom turned the heating off... I'm sorry."

Miley shook her head, staring into the flames from her curled up position on the couch, "It's fine..."

He looked over at her, still staring into space. They'd been in the living room for three hours, trying to keep warm, watching the TV with the volume low. She was just wearing his t-shirt and shorts again, her body wrapped in blankets as the still uneaten pizzas sat on the coffee table between them. She looked bored or deep in thought, and he couldn't decipher which she was feeling from the blank expression on her face. He assumed that there was a lot going on in her head, multiple different things that he would never be able to know or understand, and he was okay with that as long as he was able to help her to stay sane and calm as she went through them. He was just here to help, nothing else... he would do anything in order to make sure that she was okay.

"Here..." he said crawling on his knees over to a desk in the corner of the room, opening up the cupboard and reaching inside. She looked over at him as he pulled out an old laptop, and handed it to her, "I know it's probably killing you not being able to check everything..."

She smiled and took it from him with a grateful smile, opening the lid and turning it on.

"Lets see all the crappy speculation, shall we?"

She waited patiently, looking at the screen as the computer started itself up and glared into her eyes. She paused as she looked at the old wallpaper of the computer... before looking over at Nick with an unimpressed, annoyed glare as he tried to keep the fire alight. His old acoustic guitar was in his hands as he slowly played, his music louder than the TV but not enough to block out her thoughts. She ignored him, staring back at the wallpaper of an old picture of them smiling, happy and together, quickly changing it without his knowledge and signing onto the internet.

The stories weren't as bad as she thought. People knew what had happened; there were quotes from police officers at the scene of the accident on record saying that they her father had been involved in an accident and no further details would be given unless by the family. Then there were small, undetailed quotes from her father's publiscist and her own, saying that he was currently having treatment and to leave the entire family alone in order to be together 'at this difficult time'. There were pictures of the accident, of the completely trashed bus and the truck that had seemed to come off undamaged in the ordeal. She clicked away from them nervously, before clicking on something altogether more annoying that reminded her exactly of what kind of trouble she was in.

She slammed the screen closed, and looked away from it, biting her fingernail and forcing away tears.

"What's wrong?"

She sighed, half-hoping he hadn't noticed and shook her head, "Nothing..."

"Liar."

She shook her head, grit her jaw and turned to stare at him, "That's the only problem with being famous... you're always a liar... and you're always in some way reminded of how stupid you are."

He looked confused.

"These pictures..." She opened the laptop again and turned it to him showing him the leaked pictures of her from the last year, "Have ruined me... and I don't even know how I'm meant to convince people of what they otherwise already think they know about me. As I get older, everything I once wanted to prove about myself - that I'm a role model - it's all ruined by these pictures and by people who like to make me to be a liar."

Nick puffed out a loud exhale of breath, closing the lid and averting his eyes from the pictures of her in her underwear, kissing that stupid Thomas boy... just general stupidity in photographic form, and looked at her questioningly.

"What did you take them for?" She looked at him confused, not understanding the question, before he carried on, "Why did you take them?"

She shook her head at him, "You know why I took them... I took them to send them to you... for you to see..."

He shook his head, "Why did you take them at all... why did you even want me to see these pictures of you like this?"

She bowed her head embarrassed as he kneeled in front of her, "I don't know... I guess I just wanted to remind you of what you had..." she paused and shrugged, "...what you lost... make you jealous..."

She looked up when he laughed, a smile and a blush covering his cheeks.

"I'm already jealous, Miley..." he shrugged away the awkwardness that she continued to feel, "But I already know how beautiful you are..." her breath hitched and he didn't notice, "I don't need a picture to prove it."

She looked at him a moment, eyes drifting from his brown ones to the soft swell of his lips. Her breath stayed hitched in her throat as she did so. Something was flooding through her that she could barely remember feeling before. She forced it away, gulped and jumped nervously to her feet, face stern again.

"You okay?" he asked narrowing his eyes at her in confusion.

She nodded, "I'm going to bed..."

He nodded as she walked to the door, wrapping the blanket around her. She got to the doorway and looked back at him with a smile. He was no longer staring at her, instead looking at the screen of the computer in deep thought. She paused, watching him for a moment, as he clicked off of the window and turned it off, grabbing his guitar, and playing again, looking deep into the dying embers of the fire.

Sleep... she told herself as she felt her heart thud in her chest, hesitating as she stepped away from the living room, Sleep is best.

A/N: If you're frustrated withe the tip-toeing... it's only going to get worse over the next few chapters. I like to build on that tension.

Review and I'll update as quick as I can... :) xxxx