AN: Ok, confession time. For one thing, the Jecker seems a lot creepier now that Jess is fourteen, even though the age difference is much larger in the show, it's different as adults. So I'm now going on the record as changing Jess' age to 15. Still younger than everyone else, but somehow that extra year makes it seem slightly more acceptable. One more good reason why I should plan my chapters more than one at a time. I'd also like to say I think I might have jumped the shark on Conby, and for that I apologize. Finally, I'm starting to run out of steam and ideas on this story. I've still got some up my sleeve, but I might not write their entire year. Just giving everyone a warning in advance. I think I've gotten everything off my chest that I needed to, so please excuse this obnoxiously long Author's Note and enjoy the chapter. And review, for the love of all that is holy, please review. It gives me the drive to write anything; otherwise, I'd just sit around all day and read the fanfiction of people with better motivation than I have, so review.

Chapter 12

Danny sat at the Page's dinner table, making small talk with Sarah's parents. He honestly didn't see why she was so worried about him meeting them; they were getting along just fine. During a lull in the conversation, Danny decided to begin messing with Sarah, just to give her something to be exasperated with him for later. Danny knew that even though she denied it, she secretly loved his occasional childish antics.

While Sarah's parents were talking to each other about their respective days, Danny quietly slipped his shoes off under the table. Keeping his eyes focused on his plate, he stretched his leg underneath the table to Sarah, sitting across from him, and lightly ran his foot up her leg. The effect was instantaneous. She froze immediately; fork paused in mid-air, halfway to her mouth.

She glared over at Danny, who smiled innocently back as he ran his foot back down again. Her father looked over at her and began asking questions.

"So Sarah," He asked, "How's that senior project been going?"

Danny allowed himself a small smile as Sarah tried to answer while keeping a straight face, as Danny was still caressing her leg with his foot.

"It's- It's been going well," she stammered as Danny used both feet, enjoying the struggle she was having to keep her composure. "Danny could tell you more." She added, trying to switch the attention over to Danny.

"It's been a cake walk so far, sir" Danny answered easily, while still moving his feet. "Your daughter is smart enough to do this entire project without me. Why she puts up with me is a real mystery." As he finished, Danny suddenly remembered Sarah had an older brother, she knew how to hurt a guy while not causing permanent pain, a fact she demonstrated by grabbing hold of his leg hair and pulling as hard as she could under the table. Danny gave a little squeak of pain while Sarah smiled sweetly at him. Recognizing defeat, Danny withdrew.

Her father, missing the entire exchange, carried on the conversation.

"Yes, she is quite smart, my Sarah." He said with a doting glance at his daughter, "It's really a marvel that she hasn't had many boyfriends." Danny saw Sarah's eyes suddenly widen in fear. Danny tried to understand what her father meant.

"I always got the impression from Sarah that you didn't want her dating in school." Danny said casually.

"I have no problem with it." Mr. Page said, looking surprised, "Now, I'm fine with her not dating, mind you, but I'd have no problem with it if she wanted to bring home a guy for us to meet." Danny shot Sarah a quizzical look, but she looked down immediately.

"I'm done, I have to go." She said, getting up hurriedly from the table. "I'll see you tomorrow Danny." She said, rushing off in the direction of her room.

After dinner was finished, Danny's sensible side, which sounded like Becker, told him to go home and give Sarah time to relax before calling her and finding out what was going on. Unfortunately, by the time his sensible side was done producing this idea, Danny was already knocking on Sarah's bedroom door.

"Sarah," he called softly, knowing he was probably asking for trouble, "Sarah, it's Danny, can I come in? I think we need to talk."

"No." She replied stubbornly, "I don't want to talk right now, Danny. I'll see you tomorrow." Danny sighed. He was not going to be pushed away this easily.

"Fine," he called back through the door, "I'll just come in and sit with you until you want to talk, that works for me just fine."

"You can't come in." She said defiantly, "I locked my door. I'll see you tomorrow."

Danny just grinned to himself as he pulled his father's old lock picking set from his pocket. When he was thirteen, Danny's father, a police officer who had been on the force for ten years and counting at the time, had shown him how to pick locks and given him a spare lock picking kit with the instructions to only use it in an emergency. Danny began picking the lock on Sarah's door, internally qualifying his situation as an emergency.

The look on Sarah's face was priceless. She had been sitting on her bed with her head in her hands when Danny strode into the room confidently, trying to look as masculine as possible. Her face was a perfect combination of shock and relief. Shock that he would barge unceremoniously into her room, but relief that he was going to make her have this conversation right then, without letting her push it away.

Danny sat down next to her on the bed and tenderly put his arm around Sarah. When she didn't shrug it off, he took it as a good sign.

"So," He began, trying to keep his voice as casual as possible. "Your parents aren't as strict as I thought they would be. Why is that, exactly?"

Sarah gave a humorless laugh. "Because I lied."

Now it was Danny's turn to laugh. "I figured that out, thanks." He replied with a smirk. "Why did you lie? That was the part I was interested in."

"I had guys chasing after me for years because they thought I was pretty, then, when they got to know me, they didn't want anything to do with me because I made much better grades than they did. It made them feel inferior, so they left me. After a while, I got tired of being hurt, so I started telling people that my parents didn't want me dating. Then you came along and now, here we are."

Danny looked at her with astonishment. He'd never known any of this about her before, but he'd never asked before.

"So why didn't you tell me?" He asked finally, "After you realized I loved you for more than your looks, why didn't you tell me it didn't have to be a secret?"

Sarah looked down at her hands, which were fidgeting in her lap. "I was afraid you wouldn't want to be seen with me, that I was too nerdy for someone like you."

Danny put his hands over hers, stopping her from continuing to fidget. She looked up at him and he gave her a reassuring smile.

"I would never be embarrassed for people to see you as my girlfriend. In fact, I'm more amazed that you would want people to see you with me. After all, I can be a bit of a clown."

Sarah gave him a genuine smile, "Well that's part of why I love you Danny. And if you really are ok with it, I want to tell people we're dating. I want everyone to know."

Danny gave her a smirk as he held her hand tighter. "Maybe we should start by telling your parents that they've already met your boyfriend and it's taken you six months to introduce us."

Sarah returned his smile and got up from the bed, pulling Danny with her. Danny just grinned and tried to imagine the looks of shock on Becker, Connor, and Abby's faces when he and Sarah walked in to school tomorrow.

XXXXX

Abby woke up from her sleep in Connor's bed, Jack curled up tightly beside her. She groaned and checked Connor's bedside clock. It read 7:15am, which meant it was time to get up, something she signaled to Jack by giving him a quick shake. He groaned and put his head under the pillow. Abby shrugged and got up, intending to go downstairs to get breakfast.

After the painful and traumatizing attempts of the day before last, Abby couldn't bring herself to go home. She had always prided herself on not being afraid of anything, but going home scared her more than anything else had before. She had only managed a quick jaunt inside to grab some clothes and other necessities because Connor had been there. He seemed fiercely protective over her, checking each door before she entered to make sure her father wasn't home. Though at the time she'd acted exasperated, she was secretly thrilled that he cared that much. Thankfully, her father wasn't home and Ms. Temple had no problem with the Maitland siblings staying the night. Connor had given up his bed in favor of the couch, so she had shared his bed with Jack.

Abby walked downstairs, inhaling the smell of bacon. She walked in to see the surprising sight of Connor standing at the stove while his mum sat at the kitchen table, reading the paper.

"Morning Abs," Connor called cheerily over his shoulder, "breakfast is coming right up and there's fresh coffee in the pot." Abby poured herself a cup as she sat down across from Ms. Temple.

"I didn't expect to see you doing the cooking, Connor." Abby admitted, looking at him. Connor gave her an exaggerated look of hurt.

"I'll have you know I am an excellent cook." He said indignantly.

"It's true," His mother added, looking over her paper. "If you dropped Connor off in the middle of the woods, he'll be able to whip you up a delicious meal of nothing but roots and bulbs."

"I could be like one of those celebrity chefs," Connor mused, "Sell a cookbook, One Hundred and One Ways to Cook Roots and Bulbs."

Abby just laughed, "Well before you start writing your cookbook, you might want to do something about your burning bacon."

Connor turned back to the stove with a start and began trying to salvage breakfast.

Later in the morning as they were almost to the front yard of the school, Abby took Connor's hand. She didn't think anything of it, but she could see the massive grin that spread across Connor's face as they walked onto the campus.

Connor began steering them towards the side of the building where they usually met up with Danny, Sarah, and Becker before school. She knew he wanted to show off that he was cool enough to get a girlfriend, and strangely, Abby didn't mind. She knew how important Connor's self-image was to himself, and she liked being the girlfriend someone was proud of, instead of the one they picked up at a party the night before. As they walked up to the others, Connor called a greeting to Becker, who was standing with a girl Abby hadn't seen before. As they walked up, the girl looked in their direction with a grin.

"I guess this is Abby and Connor." She said brightly, looking at Becker. "I'm Jess Parker, by the way. Becker told me I should come and hang out with you guys because I don't talk to many people during school."

"Well hi," Connor replied, "I'm Abby and this is Connor."

Abby shot him a glare while Jess looked at Becker with confusion.

"He's just being an idiot." Becker said calmly, "He's much too pretty to be Abby and he knows it."

Abby laughed as she noticed how protective Becker seemed to be over Jess. But her thoughts on Becker and Jess were cut short as Danny and Sarah walked up, holding hands.

Becker saw them first. "If I'd known today was bring your new girlfriend day, I would have gotten one and brought her." He quipped at Danny.

"I though you did." Danny shot back, not to be beaten.

Abby saw Becker stiffen and look at Jess. "She's not, I'm not." He stammered, looking back at Danny with anger. "I have stuff to do before my first class, I'll see you guys later." With that, he rushed off into the building.

Abby noticed Jess looked slightly hurt before her face went back into its seemingly perpetual smile. Abby decided to change the subject before Danny could say anything to make her upset as well, but Connor beat her to it.

"So you heard about me dating my best friend and thought you'd give it a try, eh?" He asked Danny with a cheeky grin. Danny scoffed.

"Sarah and I have been dating for months, Connor." Danny replied with a satisfied smirk. "We just didn't tell you because I didn't want to make you jealous." Danny ended his comment with a grin to let Connor know he didn't mean any harm.

Connor just grinned back and said, "Are you sure Sarah didn't just want to avoid people thinking you were dating? I mean, she used to have standards."

As Danny and Connor walked ahead, trading insults and jokes, Abby fell back to talk with Sarah and Jess.

"So, have you and Danny really been dating for months?" She asked curiously.

"Yep," Sarah replied happily, "I didn't want him to just like me just for my looks, so I told him my parents didn't want me to date. He suggested a secret relationship, and we've been doing that for months. I have him over for dinner one time, and my dad spills the beans. Danny still wanted to be with me, so we went public."

Jess sighed, "That's so romantic. No one ever asks me out, even for a secret relationship."

"Becker seems interested." Abby suggested, "You should ask him out. Trust me; he'd never do it himself."

"Why not?" Jess asked, looking nervous, "Am I not as pretty as the girls he usually dates?"

"No, that's not it," Sarah replied calmingly, "I've never even seen Becker date anyone as it is. Besides, you're prettier than most girls here."

"Becker is a very take-charge action man type of person, but he's useless with emotions," Abby added, patting Jess on the shoulder in a big sister type of way. "You will probably have to lay out exactly how you feel for him."

"But what if he doesn't feel the same way?" Jess asked with a bit of fear, "What if he just wants to be friends?"

"I'm sure he doesn't," Abby said calmingly, "I've seen the way he looks and talks to you. He's definitely got feelings for you; he's just not good at expressing them."

"Ok," Jess said, trying to look confident, "I'll tell him after school today."

"Good," Abby said encouragingly, "Now if you'll excuse me, I think I need to go be Connor's girlfriend for a minute, I'm sure he wants to show off how lucky he is." She added with a smirk.

"Right behind you," Sarah said, seeing Danny up ahead. The two girls walked off to their respective boyfriends, leaving Jess to go to her class, her mind full of thoughts about Becker.