Disclaimer: All publicly recognizable characters, settings, etc. are the property of their respective owners. The original characters and plot are the property of the author. The author is in no way associated with the owners, creators, or producers of any media franchise. No copyright infringement is intended.

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Author's Note: Here's the new Chapter already. I was inspired by all the nice skate fanfics I've been seeing lately. This feels a little bit like a 'filler chapter' to me, but I do think it does move the story along. I hope you like it, please review if you do!

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A couple days later at a motel on the outskirts of Knoxville, Tennessee

James loaded the two black duffle bags into the trunk of their car and locked the car again before he walked back inside.

"Ready to roll?" He asked as he stood by the motel door, his hand on the doorknob when he watched rather patiently while she zipped up her Jacket and threw her cell phone in her purse before she stepped towards him.

"Yeah." She nodded, and quickly stepped out through the door he now held open for her.

He pulled their room door closed behind them, gave the doorknob a turn once more to make sure it had in fact locked, before they both walked to their car and quickly got in to escape the cold December wind.

James started the car and Kate immediately went to turn the heater to the highest setting, trying to defog the windshield, while James had fished the GPS out of the middle console. He plugged it in and tried to turn it on, but the battery seemed dead and the screen remained black.

"Son of a bitch." He cursed and pushed the button on the side of the device a couple more times but to no avail.

"Give it a minute." Kate tried to reassure him, "We still got plenty of time." She began digging through her purse, "Besides, I've got a GPS app on my phone too."

James set the GPS down in his lap and rubbed his hands together over the heater vent to catch some of the warming air.

He tried the GPS one more time while Kate held her hands up to the heater now and watched him. Just then, Kate's phone ringtone started playing and she quickly fished it out of her purse.

She stared at the name and number on the screen, but instead of answering she simply pushed the ignore button and dropped the phone back into her purse.

"Still ain't talkin' to her, huh?"

Kate shrugged her shoulders and frowned, "I'm still too angry with her and I'd probably end up saying something I can't take back." She folded her arms in front of herself, "Besides, you're the one she should be calling to explain her side of the story. You're Clementine's dad."

"Yeah, but she ain't givin' a rat's ass whether or not I forgive her." He began messing with the GPS again. "But the fact that you won't even hear her out must be really gettin' to her by now."

"Why are you takin' her side?" Kate asked defensive.

"I ain't takin' her side, Pumpkin, I'm just sayin' –"

"What are you just saying?" Kate interrupted him.

He leaned towards her now, giving his full attention to her and brushed some of her curls behind her ear, "Trust me, Freckles, I am on your side and I'm mad too, but you and her have been thick as thieves and it's been five days."

"Exactly." She looked even angrier than before. "We've been thick as thieves! I told her everything, I confided everything in her and yet she kept something like this from me – from us – something that actually concerns us, our future … and – "

"Aaron." He finished for her.

Kate nodded, "So she can call until she's blue in the face, I don't feel like talking to her any time soon."

"You're the boss." Was all James replied, his attention back on the GPS when the screen finally came to life.

Kate pulled her beanie off of her head, the car was cozy and warm now and unzipped her jacket, before she put her seatbelt on. "I sure hope this is the one. I just want to find a nice place already."

"Me too, Sweetheart, me too." He replied and was just about to put the car in drive when his phone started ringing.

He looked at the screen, and gave Kate a pointed look before he answered it, "Yeah."

Kate shook her head when he looked back at her and then answered, "Sorry Cass, she still ain't feelin' like talkin' right now."

Kate watched and listened as he exchanged a few more words with Cassidy before he finally hung up the phone and actually drove out of the parking lot. "One of these days you're gonna have to talk to her again."

"I know." Kate nodded, "But because of her I don't know when I'll see Aaron again and I can't just let that go … she should've told us when she first found out instead of keeping us in the dark for this long."

He nodded his agreement, "You're right, but we would've probably still ended up here, looking for a place to live."

"Probably, but I wouldn't have gone on this road trip had I known this. I would've stayed in LA and spend as much time as possible with Aaron before we came here. And it hurts to think that none of that even crossed her mind … she didn't think about anyone but herself!"

XXXX

Rather disappointed they sat back in their car and glanced back at the house they'd just walked through, before they looked at each other.

"The neighborhood's not too bad." Kate offered halfheartedly.

"That's about the only good thing 'bout this place, Freckles. It's too small, the backyard's smaller then our closet was in LA, the kitchen and both bathrooms need to be remodeled and for all that, they're asking way more than we've planned on spending."

"We could spend more, it's not like we're still broke." She added.

He nodded, "We could, but did you really wanna spend that kind of money on a place you don't even like."

Kate placed her hand over her bump, "No, I don't, but I just want this search to be over with. I want a place I can call my own. I wanna get our stuff out of storage in LA and I wanna set up a room for Clementine again and decorate a nursery … Just this once I want things to work out for us. I wanna buy a house, and start a life here … a normal life, without all the drama."

He reached over and took one of her hands, "I know and I do too. Let's go meet up with Ben and get that done and over with, and then we head back to the motel and call up a few more places. There was that one that we both liked, the one with the playground already set up in the backyard."

"Yeah, but that one isn't available 'till early February."

"I know, we could go book a bigger room somewhere, get one of them fake trees and have Clem over that way."

She sighed and nodded, "Yeah, I guess we could. That house was also a lot pricier though."

"I know, but it was a hell of a lot better lookin' than this shithole."

Kate nodded again and finally agreed, "Okay."

XXX

James moved the two large duffle bags into the trunk of Ben's rental car and closed it before he turned back towards the smaller man.

Kate held two large manila envelopes out to Ben just then and albeit a bit perplexed he took them and peeked inside before he spoke up. "What's this?" He noted the bundles of dollar bills inside.

"One is for the Mexican man and his family, who found James in the desert and brought him to the nearest hospital." Kate began to explain, "The other one is for the Spanish doctor and his wife who took care of me after I'd been attacked."

Ben closed the envelopes back up, "Trust me, Kate. That doctor was very well compensated for his trouble." And held the second envelope back out for her to take.

She shook her head and refused to take it, "That's not the point. He and his wife might've been on your payroll to see if I'm okay, but they did more than that. They went out of their way to get me to calm down, to make sure that I was okay and that my baby was okay … You can pay people to do a job but you can't pay them to be compassionate. So … please can you get that money to them and let them know how much I appreciated their help."

Ben finally nodded his agreement and tucked both envelopes into his satchel before he turned his attention back to them and held out his hand, "I guess this is goodbye then."

XXX

They sat at the small table in their motel room once again; Thai take-out cartons in front of them and ate in silence for a while until Kate spoke up. "I think you're right."

He looked up and met her eyes when a smile formed on his lips, "Gonna have to be a little bit more specific." He took another bite of his food.

"About that house, the one with the playground in the backyard."

He nodded now. "You wanna go check it out?"

"There's people still living in it right now. That's why it isn't available 'till February."

"I know." He nodded again, "But that don't mean we can't drive by, get a good look at it from the outside and check out the neighborhood too."

She thought about it for a long moment but then finally agreed, "Yeah, why not." She tried to be more cheerful, but the hopeful tone he'd heard in her voice didn't really reach her eyes.

She hated this and the irony of it all didn't go unnoticed by her. For the first time in … well … forever she hated not having a place to call her home, and although she would never admit it out loud to him, she blamed him for feeling this way. She silently blamed him for turning her into this needy creature, this pregnant wife that just wanted a house with a white picket fence and a playground out back. She blamed him for making her think they could really have it all!

She had done the dutiful wife act before and she'd played mother to Aaron for three years, but she always knew that those lives would sooner or later come to an end.

And now, she didn't truly understand why she felt the way that she did, but she couldn't deny the fact that she really wanted this life with him to start. Over a week ago she'd been fine with just staying on the road, but somehow everything changed the moment she knew that Aaron was not going to be a part of her everyday life anymore.

She'd already lost him and every time she thought about him it broke her heart again, but the new life growing inside of her gave her hope.

This was really going to be her life. James Ford was really her husband and this baby bump meant she'd really have a baby and be a mother, and nobody could come and take this life away from her. This was really going to happen and she just didn't want to wait another minute or even worse, another two months for this life to finally start!

She wanted to start over now, with a clean slate, a fresh start in a new place for the both of them.

"Hey." He leaned forward and reached across the table to cup her cheek with his hand, "I ain't sure what's goin' on in that pretty little head o' yours, Freckles, but I promise you we'll figure somethin' out. We ain't gonna raise this kid in a motel, if that's what ya' worryin' 'bout."

She looked up then and met his eyes, a sad smile displayed on her face as she reached up and covered his hand that rested on her cheek with her own, "I know."

Their intimate moment was rudely interrupted when both their phones started ringing almost simultaneously.

James looked at his phone lying on the table in front of him and dropped his hand from her face to answer it, while Kate dug her phone from her purse and glanced at it before she also pushed the answer button.

"Hi dad." She said and got up to take the conversation into the bathroom, since it was hard to hear him with James talking on his own phone in the background.

"Hi Katie." Sam answered, "Haven't heard from you in a couple of days, so I thought I'd see how everything's going."

Kate closed the toilet lid so she could sit down, and sighed, "No news yet. We're still in the motel. We've looked at a couple of places but so far nothing panned out."

"If it's a money problem, honey, I could co-sign on a mortgage and –"

Kate cut him off, "Thanks, dad, but money's not the problem. The house in LA finally got a reasonable offer and we're thinking of accepting it, so that's out of the way and on top of that Hurley just gave us some money."

"He just gave you some money? Just like that?"

"He's got millions, dad, and he's become a good friend to us. I guess he just wanted to help out."

"Well, if money isn't the problem, then why do you sound so upset?"

She fought back the tears and held her breath, hoping the moment would pass and her voice wouldn't break and betray her, "I don't know." Kate finally answered somewhat confused by how she was feeling herself. "I guess … I guess once I knew we were going to settle down here in Knoxville, I just wanted to get on with it and really settle down. I wanted to have a place set up before Christmas and all this waiting around, trying to find a place that we both like just turned out to be a lot harder than what I thought it would be."

She could hear her dad sigh on the other end of the line. "Look," he started, "If things have changed, if the way you feel about him changed after that lawsuit … what I mean is, if you're not happy anymore, you don't have to stay married to him because you're pregnant, Sweetheart. You're not alone any more. You have people who love you and will help you, and I am at the very top of that list, Katie."

"Wait, what?" Kate shook her head in confusion, "What are you talking about?" she wiped at the tears on her face.

"You sound really unhappy and –"

She cut him off, "No, I mean, yes, I'm not happy right now about the fact that we can't find a place to live, but I'm not unhappy with him, daddy."

"You're sure." He inquired again and the worry in his voice couldn't be missed.

Kate stood up and leaned against the sink, "I love him … and I know it probably sounds hard to believe after everything they say about him in the tabloids, but he's a good man and he's good to me. He really is."

Just then a knock on the bathroom door startled her and before she could answer James had pulled the door ajar.

"Claire?" He raised his eyebrows as he shot her a questioning look.

Kate held the phone against her chest and shook her head, "No, my dad."

"Oh. Well, hurry up, we've gotta go." He informed her and closed the door again.

Kate raised the phone back up to her ear, "Listen, daddy, I've gotta go, but I'll call you later on tonight, alright? And don't worry about me, James and I are great, it's just everything else in our life that's been turned upside down."

Sam cleared his throat, "Alright, honey. Take care and we'll talk more tonight. Bye."

"Bye, dad." She answered, hung up the phone and stepped out of the bathroom to see what was so urgent.

"Everything alright?" James asked noting her red rimmed eyes and she simply nodded.

"Baby hormones?" he inquired some more and she nodded again, "Probably."

Seemingly content with that explanation, he began to tell her what his phone call had been about, "The realtor called, said another place just got on the market, it ain't even posted online yet. He said if we wanna go check it out, he's got time to show it to us right now." He held up her jacket for her to slip her arms inside.

"Which realtor?" She asked as she closed her jacket and grabbed her purse.

James pulled his own jacket on and opened the door, "Thompson, or whatever his name was, the one that showed us that little blue, three bedroom one on the other side of town two days ago."

Kate slipped out of the room and waited for him to shut the door behind them, "Oh, okay. What did he say about this place?"

James turned and they both started walking towards the car, "He said it's out of town, 'bout a fifteen minute drive from here. Five bedrooms, three and a half baths, big piece of land."

It sounded perfect and she couldn't help the smile that began to form on her face, "How much are they asking for it?"

He opened the car door for her and held it open while she got in, "That's what he didn't tell me. He said we should come and take a look at it first."

"That's not good." The smile disappeared again.

James closed her door and rushed around to get in himself. "Yeah, probably means it's overpriced, but it ain't like we got any other plans for the rest of the day, might as well go check it out, don't ya' think?"

"Yeah." She nodded somewhat hopeful, "And maybe it's worth the money too."

Thanks to Hurley they had once again found themselves with a well padded bank account, yet James was reluctant to spend too much of it on just a house.

"Yeah, maybe." He mumbled his agreement and focused his attention to the road ahead.

Neither of them had a job, and with their criminal records it was a far stretch to see either one of them holding a well paying job any time soon. So even though they had more than enough money to splurge on the house of their dreams right now, James simply didn't know what the future would hold for them. And if he'd learned one thing in his conning days, it was the fact that if you weren't careful, your money could go as quickly as it had appeared.

For the first time in his life he had someone other than himself to be accountable for. Not only had he Kate and their baby to think of, but he had to think of Clementine too. Kate and his kids – unborn included – were his number one priority now.

"Are you mad because I gave some of our money away?" She suddenly asked out of the blue.

He looked over at her to read the expression on her face before he turned his attention back to the road, "No, Freckles, I ain't mad."

"You keep worrying about how much money we'll have left and I just went and gave twenty grand away."

He sighed and shook his head, "You wantin' to do somethin' nice for someone who'd gone and done somethin' nice for us, I ain't gonna hold that against you, pumpkin."

"You sure."

He reached over and took her hand in his, "Before we left LA, you'd said that you wanted to give some of this money away, so don't worry about it, Freckles, 'cause I ain't mad."

XX

The GPS spoke up and told him his turn came up soon and Kate glanced over at him to gauge his reaction to the dirt road they were about to turn onto, but he simply looked lost deep in thought.

The house was nowhere in sight yet, but she already loved the location. It was just a couple miles off of the main road into town. It was secluded, surrounded by fields and farms and trees yet close enough to the little gas station that if they found themselves out of milk for breakfast in the morning, it wouldn't be that big of a hassle to go and get some. All in all, it was perfect.

Finally, after another mile the house –way off in the distance – came into view.

It was a two story log-style home, with a covered porch that wrapped around the entire house.

Kate's eyes lit up at the sight of it and once they put the car in park they both stared at the lake off in the distance.

James looked over at Kate and even though he was smiling himself he reminded her of their previous discussions, "Poker face, Freckles, remember we talked about it."

"Yeah." She smiled back at him, "I'm trying."

"Try a little harder, Sugar pop, 'cause he's here." He said when he glanced in the rear view mirror and saw the realtor pull up right behind them.

XX

The house was everything they could've wished for. A nice big kitchen with a center island that also served as a bar, a separate dining room, a family room with a stone fireplace, a separate smaller living room that was meant solely for watching TV, a small office that could very well be converted to another bedroom and a mudroom that lead out back. Upstairs was the master bedroom with an attached bathroom and a small balcony that overlooked the lake, along with four more bedrooms, and two more bathrooms.

And even though the price was much more then they had budgeted on spending on their new home, it still seemed cheap considering the square footage and breathtaking location. It simply seemed too good to be true.

"What's the catch, amigo?" James couldn't bite his tongue any longer after Josh Thompson had finally revealed the asking price to them.

"I'm sorry?" He looked a bit puzzled back at James.

"Been 'round the block enough times to know when somethin' seems too good to be true, it's because it usually is. So what ain't ya' tellin' us about this place?"

Mr. Thompson tucked on his tie rather uncomfortably and cleared his throat and James gave Kate a knowing look.

This guy's hidin' somethin'!

"Well …" the man started explaining, "Trash pickup way out here is gonna run a little higher then it would in town, same goes for flood insurance with the river and lake this close. Also the city ain't coming out to service the dirt road that runs up here, so that can be a problem in winter if it snows."

"That's it?" Kate asked somewhat surprised, she'd feared he'd tell them about termite damage or something equally devastating.

James frowned at her but then looked back at the realtor and was just about to say something when the younger man spoke up first, "Well, I'll give you guys a chance to look around some more. I'll be out in my car making a few calls, just come and get me when you're done."

Kate nodded and smiled gratefully at the man before he stepped out the door.

"Remind me to play strip poker with you tonight." James scoffed at her.

She rolled her eyes at him, "I'm sorry if I can't look like I hate this place when I really love it."

"Back in the old days you used to be able to look at me with disgust when you really wanted me."

She chuckled and turned back towards him, "In your dreams."

He chuckled himself and grabbed her hand, "It's a lot of money."

She intertwined her fingers with his and rested her head against his shoulder as they walked over to the glass patio doors that lead out onto the back porch overlooking the lake, "I know." She sighed out loud as she glanced over what could be her new backyard.

He turned back around and pulled her along with him as he walked slowly back throughout the house once again. "Most of our furniture wouldn't look right in here."

She looked back at the fireplace, "Yeah, I've been thinking that too. I think our bedroom would be alright, and Clem's room would be good too, but we would need a new living room set and a new dining room set too."

They stopped at the door to the kitchen and Kate let go off his hand and stepped further into the room. The appliances looked brand new and Kate couldn't help herself but open some of the cabinets to look inside.

She loved this house; he could see it in her eyes. He hadn't seen her this happy since before she made the choice to move here to Knoxville with him, so how could he be the one to break her heart and say they couldn't afford it.

They probably had more than enough money to buy this and ten more houses just like it, but that wasn't the point. Would their money last them in the long haul … because that was his biggest worry at the moment!

"You really love this place, huh?" He startled her with his question.

She spun around and looked back at him and hesitated for a moment before she nodded, "I do, but you're probably right, it's just too much –."

"We're gettin' it." He interrupted her.

"What?" She asked, but at the same time her face already lit up with relief.

"You want it, Freckles, you got it." He smirked at her.

She smirked back at him now, her hands on her hips, "It's that simply, huh?"

"What can I say? I'm a sucker for a pretty face."

She walked the few steps around the island that separated them and flung herself into his arms.

He framed her face with both his hands and pressed his lips to hers.

The kiss let up and he pulled her back into the main family room and twirled her around the hard wood floor. "Let's go do this before I start doing the math and change my mind again."

XXX

Three days later

Money alone can't make you happy, but it damn sure can pay for some of that happiness, that James Ford was sure of as he held the door to the realtor's office open for Kate to step inside.

Right away he'd made it crystal clear to Josh Thompson that if they bought the house, they'd want it right away. Not in a couple of weeks, not in a week, but now and if that wasn't an option then this house wasn't an option for them. If they were going to pay this much then he'd see to it that they'd be in that house before Cassidy ever crossed the Tennessee state line.

And he figured it shouldn't be too hard, since the house was already empty. There had been no furniture or personal belongings in the house when they'd gone to look at it, so it wasn't like the owners still needed to stay until they found a new place.

Also the tedious paperwork of applying for a mortgage wasn't necessary either, since they were ready to wire transfer the full amount to the seller at a moment's notice.

So here they were, just three days later – utterly unheard of in the realty world judging from the look on Josh Thompson's face when he'd told him his desired timeline – ready to sign the contract for their new home.

James dared a glance at his wife as they both took turns with the seller signing all the necessary paperwork, and Kate couldn't have looked happier.

X

James pushed the key into the lock and quickly went to unlock the door for her, but grabbed a hold of her hand and stopped her from stepping inside.

"What?" she looked up at him in confusion.

But instead of answering her he simply swooped her up into his arms and Kate couldn't help herself from letting out a shriek of delight.

He carried her over the threshold as if they were newlyweds all over again and carried her all the way into the family room before he let her back down onto her own two feet.

"Trying to charm my pants off of me, Mr. Ford?"

"Always." He replied with a dimpled grin and draped his arm around her shoulders.

They stood there in silence for a long moment and took in their new home before James pulled her closer into his arms and placed a soft kiss against the top of her head, "Welcome home, Mrs. Ford."

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End Note: Pleaseleave a review and let me know how you liked it. Thank you so much for still reading. xoxo, Skater