Riley's P.O.V

"I can't believe you wore heels to a hunt for a murderer", I laughed as I watched my cousin stumbling and cursing as she struggled to walk through the woods at the back of one of Silas's many properties in France.

"Yeah well, I thought we were going to be sitting around in a room all day answering questions about where he might be", she told me irritatedly, holding her arms out to steady herself. "Not walking through mud".

"Anything to find him", I reminded her.

"Well why are we looking for him in a wood? Where do they think he's hiding - up a tree?"

"It's a possibility".

"Nah". She shook her head, then quickly reached up her hands to check her hair was still in place. "No-one in their right mind would hide in this scabby place. Mud, insects - I vowed never to step foot in a place like this until I'm asked onto I'm A Celebrity".

I decided to ignore her tactless comments - I knew for a fact those weren't her true thoughts. She was doing what she always did - trying her best to stay calm and keep the situation under control, make light of it to stop others worrying. Mitzeee may come across as superficial and self-obsessed but I knew more than most others that in reality, she was one of the most geniune, caring people you could meet.

"Come on", I urged. "We need to keep up".

Looking ahead and seeing how far away we were becoming from the police, she nodded and started to walk faster, as best as she could anyway.

"Look, are you alright?" I asked her, putting an arm on her sholder as I saw the panicked expression she was trying desperatly to hide.

"I'm fine Riley", she smiled. I wasn't convinced. "It's just the woods...looking for a - it's all a bit too close to everything that happened with Warren to my liking, that's all".

I held her tightly, neither of us saying anything for a few moments. What was there to say? Mitzeee had been nearly killed in the woods last year trying to frame a killer once before, a killer that had once meant so much to her. And now here she was, doing it all again - searching for Silas, a man she'd trusted as a member of her family, prepared to yet again face the bastard that had killed her aunt and attempted to murder a selection of her friends. All for the love of her family.

"I won't let anything happen to you", I told her. "You're safe - I promise".

"Thanks Riley". She smiled up at me and for a split second I saw right through her - her guard was completly down and I saw the fear behind her eyes, how vunerable she was really feeling, past the facade she put up I saw the girl I'd grown up with. Moments later her guard was firmly back up, Anne dissapeared and Mitzeee was back, smiling and putting on a brave face. "But I don't need you looking after me - I'm a big girl", she reassured me. "Metaphoricly, of course. I'm a size eight".

I found myself smiling as she carried on tottering in her heels. She was so brave. And so beautiful, too. It was beyond me why she felt the need to plaster all that make-up on every day. Well, that was a lie. I knew perfectly well why she did it. Because it was just that - a plaster. Trying to smooth over the cracks and imperfections, not on her face but in her past - to get rid of any traces of Anne Minniver, try and convince others she was this self-absorbed model. To put up a thick wall between her and everyone else, not let her emotions get the better of her.

Looking down, I realised I'd taken her hand. It was slightly weird but I didn't particularly want to let go. After giving my hand a squeeze, Mitzeee pulled her's away.

"Come on", she urged. "We need to catch the police up. For our family".

I noticed she emphasised the words our family - possibly to remind us both of our relation. I found myself contemplating that second cousins were legally allowed to date when we heard dozens of the police dogs barking loudly, and both immideatly ran in their direction to see what they'd discovered.

Bart's P.O.V

I could hardly comprehend where I was. Lying in bed next to my gorgeous girlfriend, Jasmine Costello, who was sleeping beside me silently, smiling through her dreams. Her silky blonde hair flowed out behind her, draping across the pilow on which my head was resting, the front sections framing her face perfectly. This time a month ago, this was something that I only ever got to experience in my dreams. When awake, I'd had to face what I'd thought was the harsh reality that I was never going to see Jasmine, or even Jason for that matter, again, and was stuck pretending that Sinead was The One.

However, here I was - here we were. She'd turned away from me to sleep but I'd snuggled up next to her, holding her loosely as she slept. We'd had sex, and with any other girl that would have been the reason for the grin on my face, but with Jasmine it wasn't the only one - sure, that was great and everything, but even without it I knew that lying here next to her, the prospect of falling asleep with her in my arms, was enough to complete my world.

The fact that we'd gone all the way had pleased me no end, though. There was no doubt whatsoever in my mind now that Jasmine was back, that all the shit we'd been through was over. She'd been more than happy with it happening, in fact she'd been the first one to suggest and encourage it - she was comfortable enough with her body and gender. The thought of that made me hold her slightly tighter, kissing the top of her head softly. It wasn't just that I was thrilled to have the girl of my dreams back once and for all, I also felt complete elation that she was no longer experiencing emotional torment every second of every day. Gone were the days of her hating her body, calling it disgusting, wanting to burst into tears each time her body reminded her of the girl she physically was when her mental state didn't match it, cutting herself, even throwing herself in front of a car ... a car I'd been driving.

The reminder of how close I'd been to losing her - not just to Jason but to death - and how far we'd come since then, almost brought me to tears. Almost. There may have been something about Jasmine Costello that made me go weak at the knees and turn into a total mushy idiot, but I was still Bart McQueen. The guy in the relationship. The only one. See you Jason Costello.

"You not asleep?" Jasmine asked me, rubbing her eyes and sitting up slightly in bed.

"Yeah, I'm sleeping with my eyes open. It's a new trend", I replied. She smiled and rolled her eyes.

"You can be a total idiot sometimes, you know". It was an insult she'd thrown my way more than once, but then again it had probably been deserved more than once.

"Ah yeah but you love me anyway".

"Luckily for you. I don't know if I'm mad or what".

"I'm mad".

"Well I knew that".

"For you".

"Oh my God you cheesy twat", she laughed, sitting upright now and thumping my arm playfully. "That is such a line".

"I made it up on the spot though", I told her. "I was pretty pleased with it to be honest".

She laughed again, I found myself laughing with her - I realised this probably meant I was now laughing at myself but I didn't care, I couldn't help but laugh when I was around Jas. I'd done more laughing these last few weeks since she'd been back than I had done the whole time she'd been away. More than my entire life until I met her that day in Evissa.

"It's three AM", she informed me, glancing at her alarm clock. "We should probably go back to sleep, but I'm not tired".

"Don't want to get up then?"

"What's the point? Like I said, it's 3AM. What's there to do?"

"Well I've got a few ideas", I grinned. "It doesn't really involve getting out of bed though".

She was laughing once more, though this time I didn't think she was laughing at me so much as with general happiness.

"You, Bart McQueen", she told me, "have a one track mind".

"Oi that's not true", I defended myself even though she probably had at least a slight point. "I think about loads of other stuff".

"Oh yeah?" She challenged. "Name three other things you've thought about this morning".

"A little about the past", I replied. "But mostly about the future". I paused, seeing her dissapointed expression. "What's wrong?"

"Nothing", she lied unconvincingly. "So what were you doing in your future then?"

From the way she said your, I knew instantly what was up. I'd never been able to read any other girl like this. With the exception of Auntie Myra, that was, if you could class her as a girl - the only thing constantly on her mind was the contents of the fridge.

"I was thinking about our future", I told her. "You and me. Not about me getting out of this place, getting on with my life and leaving you. That's what you were thinking, isn't it?" I put a hand on her arm.

"Maybe", she admitted. "I mean we have only been back together for a few weeks. I'd understand if you weren't that serious about us. I just thought after what you said last night - but then you could've just been saying that to-"

I knew where she was going with this.

"I told you that you're the love of my life, Jasmine Costello", I said, turning her head to face me and looking directly at her. "Because it's true. Because it's you, only you, it always has been and it always will be". I cringed slightly inside as I rememembered the familiar words I'd said to her as Jason, in the cellar. I'd meant them with all my heart, as much as I did now, but I hadn't acted on them at the time - just strung her along, playing the same old games. It had been like her heart had been a puppet and I'd been holding the strings, controlling it's every move, until I dropped it and it crashed to the ground, smashing beyond recognition and leaving her to rebuild it by herself. Hoping she hadn't had the same thoughts as me, I continued with what I'd been saying. "Not because I wanted to get you into bed. I'd never use you like that. I mean it Jas, I want you in my life. For ever".

She smiled widely then, for quite a while before saying anything.

"You know I feel exactly the same about you right?" She said eventually. "So", she continued. "What was going on in this future of our's you were thinking about?"

"Well, we were about sixty five and living in a bus shelter with our twenty-five cats, affectionatly combing the lice out of each other's hair", I joked. Soon enough my head was greeted by a pillow being thrown at it.

Mitzeee's P.O.V

Anne Minniver. That was the name my passport to the place displayed, the name the police spoke to me by. Anne. I wasn't sure I even knew who that person was anymore. As far as I was concerned, she may aswell have been dead.

Mitzeee - 3 e's, as I loved to point out to every-one - didn't even need a surname. She was tough, strong, glamarous, without a care in the world. There was only one slight flaw in her otherwise perfect life, though, and that was her lack of existance. She was fictional, a character formed by my imagination. She was everything I'd ever wanted to be. When I was being her, playing the part, I was safe. Nobody could hurt me.

When I wasn't, however - at times like these, when I was stripped bare - emotionally naked for every-one to see, I didn't know who I was. I wasn't Mitzeee. She didn't exist - not really. I hadn't been Anne in so long that she seemed just as make believe. It was only Riley that seemed to see straight through me, deep down, to whoever the hell I was. And that scared the hell out of me.

Riley, Seth and Jasmine - those three meant the world to me. With or without the village slapper on Riley's arm, Seth in a good mood or dragging up the past and flying insults in my direction, Jasmine wanting to be either a girl or a boy - they were my family and nothing they did could ever break my love for them. Mitzeee may not really exist but her friends and family were real, and so were my feelings towards them.

It had always been the four of us when we were younger, at family gatherings. It would be Jasmine and I against the guys, or her with Seth and myself with Riley. I'd noticed even back then that Jas always seemed puzzled as to why she couldn't be on the guys' team. I'd mistaken it for her disliking me, but it hadn't been - she just didn't see why she was so different from her brothers. It always worked best with the twins against me and Riley.

Riley and I had so much fun playing tricks on them. We could talk to each other about anything, play a game and espcape the hectic family dramas into a perfect fantasy world where nothing mattered. I'd never really grown out of that one.

Then Heidi and my mum fell out - didn't speak for years. In the years we didn't see each other, Riley became a sucessful footballer - even at a young age, Jasmine was frequently in minor articles of the gossip magazines I was so fond of, Seth sometimes pictured with her. The captions were often comparing her fashion choices to that of Heidi's. I wanted to strangle the journalists who had written the cruel words. For daring to speak badly about one of my cousins, and for leaving the other out of the spotlight. Riley was the only one the papers appreciated. I was so proud of him.

The whole time I'd been away from my extended family I'd still kept up with the going-on's of their lives as best as I could, but when I found the courage to turn up and see them - now as Mitzeee supposed to Anne, the family had been far from welcoming. I'd been greeted by Jasmine's graffiti Mitzeee is fat. Still, I'd stuck up for her, lied to her parents that she'd been with me and not Bart. Then it came to the fashion show. By then I'd had enough - enough of all the digs at my mum, of all the snide comments at my clothes and attitude, of how little any of them appreciated me. So I did something I still regretted to this day - informed Heidi of her husband and I's one-night affair, in front of the entire population of the small Chester suburb.

Somehow, however, the family had found it in them to forgive me - Carl still held a strong disliking to me to this day but Riley, Heidi and the twins forgave me and moved on. After Heidi's death, the three of them carried on sticking by me through anything. Riley welcomed me back to The Dog when I split from Warren, but didn't judge me like many others did when I went back to him. After the ordeal I really didn't want to allow myself to think about with Warren, near Louise's body in the woods where he'd nearly killed me, Riley and Seth had helped me through it. I realised that in every list I'd made in my head during my thoughts, Riley was always the first one I'd named.

He'd been my rock through so much, I owed him more than you could imagine and my love for him was strong. But it had only been in brief moments that I'd wondered if my love for him was more than just a family bond. At his stag do a year previously, for example. And yesterday, out in the woods.

I shook my head, cursing myself for being so stupid - thinking about Riley like that. He's your cousin for Christ's sakes. Get a grip Mitzeee.

"Morning Mitz", Riley smiled as he opened the door to my hotel room.

"Oi you", I laughed. "I could've been getting changed".

"What - in the living room?"

"Okay fair enough", I smiled. Riley and I were both staying in our own suites - there were some perks to being a part of a semi-famous family. "So, what fun activities are planned for us today? Talking them through the past again like we're in a bloody councelling session, maybe go out and search for him again trying not to get killed?"

"You'll have to wait and find out", he laughed.

"When do we have to be there?"

"Twenty minutes ago", he told me looking at his watch.

"Ah well, every celeb knows it's good to be fashionably late".

"Yeah I don't think that counts with the police. Anyway don't you have to actually achieve celebrity status for that rule to count?"

"Oi you", I scolded. "My modelling careers coming along wonders. I'm only moments away from getting a little blue tick on my twitter account".

"Come on", he grinned, laughing and rolling his eyes, "Let's go".

"Okay, one sec - I just need to touch up my lippy".

I walked over to the mirror and picked up my newest pink Chanel lipstick. Cost a fortune and wasn't any better than some of the cheaper brands but you can't buy class.

"Thanks for this Mitzeee", Riley said, his voice sincere. "For coming here. I couldn't have done this on my own".

"Well it's a good job you don't have to, then. Because I'm not going anywhere", I told him firmly, turning away from the mirror.

"And thanks for everything else, too. You know, since ... Mum".

"I'm family, aren't I? That's what I'm here for".

"Family", he repeated, nodding, as we looked at each other. God he didn't half have gorgeous eyes. And the way they were looking at me - Pull yourself together Mitzeee!

"Best get going then", I urged. "Can't keep the fans waiting too long".

We both laughed as we headed out the door. It wasn't until we reached the end of the corridor that I realised we were hand in hand.