Damn, he'd gotten Netoya. Who looked like she wanted to murder him, as per usual. Of course she wouldn't let Leo answer the door, even with all the Mogs gone.

"Hi Netoya," John said as pleasantly as he could. "I was wondering if I could talk to Leo?"

"John?" Leo's voice came from further inside the room, and he bounded into sight. "Hi!"

"Hey Leo," John grinned. "What's up?"

"Nothing much! Just watching TV."

Netoya grunted and walked away, so John took that as her having no objection. He followed Leo into the room and sat down.

"- and they said they have a pancake buffet too, all you can eat," Leo continued, bouncing onto the bed. "So I was thinking maybe tonight or tomorrow night we could go, that it would be fun, you know, before we leave. Do you think you want to go?"

"Sure," John said. "That sounds great. Actually," he leaned forwards, resting his elbows on his knees. "That's kind of what I wanted to ask you about. There's somewhere I need to go, before everyone leaves. I was wondering if you could take me."

"Um, I have to ask Netoya," Leo said. "But I think so! Where?"

"Paradise, Ohio." Leo's face fell. "What?"

"Well," He said hesitantly. "I've never been to Ohio before."

"Is that going to be a problem?"

"It's just, I can't teleport you somewhere if I don't know where I'm teleporting you to." He explained.

"What if I showed you on a map?"

Leo shook his head. "I know where Ohio is, that's not the problem. It's more like a muscle memory. Or I need to be able to picture it."

"Hm. Oh well." As soon as possible might be a little bit longer than he'd been expecting. "Have you ever been anywhere near Ohio?"

Leo shrugged. "We stopped in a town nearby Chicago once, when I was about eight. I could take you there."

"Would you mind dropping me off?"

And so John ended up hitchhiking from somewhere in Illinois to Paradise. The first time he'd come here, it'd looked miserable and boring. Indistinguishable from the hundreds of other small Midwestern towns he'd passed through. But now, he figured this was the closest he'd ever get to the feeling of going home.

"Forgot how much corn there was here." Sam muttered.

John glanced over at him. He hadn't been sure whether Sam would want to go back to Paradise.

"Why? There's nothing left for me there." He'd snapped at first. But then he'd mellowed. "I guess I can go back one last time. To say goodbye. Because after this, I'm never going back. I'm done with that damn town."

He didn't seem angry anymore though, now that they were driving past, well, admittedly a lot of corn.

"How you doing?" John asked.

"Alright," Sam said, looking over at him. "Actually, pretty good."

"Really?" John said grinning.

"Yeah," Sam said, running a hand over the top of his head. "Actually . . . something kind of happened right after the big battle thing."

"Something?" John repeated. Sam was still smiling, so he kept grinning too, but he honestly had no idea where this was going.

"Yeah, well – Six kissed me."

John laughed. He couldn't help it. Sam was smiling like crazy and suddenly John had this insane picture in his head and it was just ridiculous, his smile just kept on getting bigger and bigger as the laughter bubbled out of him.

"She kissed you! No way!"

"Yeah, man!" Sam said, still smiling wider than John'd even known he could. "It – yeah. It was pretty great."

"I'm sure it was man."

He'd left Sam in front of his old house. He didn't know what Sam was planning on saying. Sam hadn't said. He hadn't asked. And now John had reached his own house: Sarah's house.

Part of him wanted to throw open the door and rush in, to find her as fast as he could and crush her to him, never to let her go again. But his feet were still planted here, slowly taking in the house, adjusting to the fact that he was actually here.

There were crickets chirping ecstatically as he walked up to the door, his feet leaving faint impressions in the grass, bent under his weight. The scene looked like something he'd conjured up out of a storybook. It had to have been a picture he'd seen once, there was no way he could actually be meant to experience this. Everything was exactly right, from the windchime to the birds to the fading red paint on the door. If he touched anything it might evaporate.

Somehow he gained the resolve to ring the doorbell. The handful of seconds between the end of its resonant chime and the clatter of footsteps heading towards the door stretched out to an eternity. So much could've changed since the last time he was here, so much had changed no matter how much he tried to convince himself that this was a town stuck in time. What if it wasn't the same?

The door swung open, and suddenly his mind was clear. A sound halfway between a laugh and a sob escaped from her lips, and then she was crashing into him, arms encircling his neck.

He breathed. "Sarah."

"I missed you." John said, his hand toying with the edges of Sarah's long, blond hair, their edges tickling his neck.

"I missed you more." They lay on her bed, staring up at the photographs adorning practically every inch of her walls.

"Not possible." He disagreed.

"I'm never leaving you for that long again," He claimed, linking his fingers tightly through hers and kissing her hand.

"Good." Sarah said, smiling. "When are you leaving for Lorien? How long do we have?"

"Whenever you want." John answered, grinning. "Come with us Sarah. Come to Lorien with us."

Sarah pulled back slightly to look at his face, a smile playing across hers. "You're kidding, right?"

"No," John answered, shaking his head, also smiling broadly. "No. You can come with us."

"John," Sarah's smile started to fall as she also shook her head. "I don't – I don't think I can."

"Of course you can. Sam's going."

"But – another planet? How will that even work? How long? When will we come back?"

"I don't know," John answered. "Probably a while. But we can come back and visit as often as you want."

"Visit? My family's here. I got accepted into Youngstown State, I'm going to study photography. I can't live on another planet." She shook her head and settled back against him. "That's crazy."

"Right," John said, a heavy feeling settling in his chest for the first time since he'd seen Sarah. "Maybe you could visit. Later. See where I come from."

"I'd like that."

"Okay."

She sighed, running her fingers down his arm. "I wish you didn't have to leave again so soon. You finally did it, and now you're leaving right away again."

"I know." John said, kissing his lips against the top of her head. "But if I don't go now, I may never be able to. But I'll be back. Soon. I promise."

"I know. I'll be waiting."