Borrowed from S1 ( I see your true colours and that's why I hate you)

Then there was the time where Aidan met her parents and things just got awkward.

"I swear to God, if that's my high school math teacher here for an intervention, I'm going to cut my face off," Joss gestured to her face, not missing her sister roll her eyes or her dad's condescending and half amused look. She strode quickly to the door, seething. How could Emily do this to her? It was bad enough that she had forced her to come home, but to rat out her secret to her parents and show them her journal? That violated so many sisterly codes. It had to.

Joss opened the door, only to come face to face with Aidan. She stared for a moment and he started to smile.

"Aidan…what the hell?"

She was surprised to see him of course, although part of her was slightly glad if only because he could help her explain things better…of course she was still pissed at him for leaving Emily alone at the bar, so he could get it on with Rebecca no doubt.

"Joss. Let me in."

She shook her head. "No. No! What are you doing here? Seriously…"

He gave her the smile, the one he knew she couldn't say no to most of the time, but Joss wasn't budging. Of course, her mother had to come along and next thing she knew Aidan was walking past her, shooting her a slightly gloating look. With a huff Joss closed the door. "I'm sorry I didn't keep kosher," she whispered staring up at the ceiling. "That's why this is happening right? I'm being punished for eating pork."

"Joss?" Her mother was leaning out of the dining room. "Come on honey, its rude to leave your friend alone with your family."

Joss shot her an incredulous look, which she either didn't see or chose to ignore. "Okay…" shaking her head she returned to the dining room and sat down beside Aidan.

She shot Emily another hurt look, because really this was all her fault, but her sister just gulped her wine and ignored her. Watching her sister, she wondered how she was going to be able to fool her into believing she was fine. She doubted anything she said or did would really work, Emily had always seen right through her, but she had to try.

"Their place is actually decent," Emily was saying, pulling Joss out of her mind fog. "Not your typical bachelor roofy den."

"And are two happy…together as…roommates?" Although the tone it was asked in was inquiring, it was a loaded question if she had ever heard one. Joss wanted to bang her head against the table. Was this really happening? Was her mother really implying that she and Aidan had something going on?

"Mom," she started, but Aidan just smiled congenially and cut her off.

"You know, we are. And if I may be so bold," he moved closer to the table a bit, but his hand that wasn't on the table touched hers, which was resting on her knee, as if in reassurance.

"Of course you would," she muttered to herself, but as always in situations like this, Aidan ignored her.

"Your daughter, had a guy over the other night. Just a really nice guy. You get a few glasses of wine into her and she really knows how to turn on the charm."

Of course he would bring up Jesse, who was just a friend. And she'd only had one glass of wine; well maybe two or three, Jesse did come on a bit strong, but he seemed to genuinely like her and he had been a big help when Emily had staggered in looking like she had been run over. She knew though that Aidan didn't like him for whatever reason; he was only bringing him up to spite her.

"And we're ok, drinking on the medication?" her dad asked, giving her a look that suggested he still didn't believe her that she wasn't crazy. Why did the man always have to try and "shrink" her? No wonder she was so screwed up.

"I don't…do…that," she trailed off, not sure what to say.

Aidan looked at her questioningly, but it was her mom that broke the tension.

"I think its good to have other forms of recreation."

Emily gulped most of her wine then and Joss was sure her mouth was hanging open. "Mom!"

Her mother just smiled and shrugged a bit, "What, I think its good that your happy honey, however that may be."

"Oh my…" Joss muttered and quickly picked up her own glass. The rate things were going, her little sister was not the only one who was going to get drunk tonight.

"Joss?" Aidan was still looking at her, now expectantly.

She sighed in exasperation, "My family thinks that I think I'm a werewolf. They think that my graphic novel, is a journal…my personal journal," she stressed, locking eyes with him. They exchanged a look and then Aidan laughed; she knew it was his fake laugh, but still it was convincing.

"Wait, you think that Joss thinks that she's a werewolf?" he shook his head in mock disbelief, still chuckling.

"I know right?" she asked, laughing slightly. She was glad that Aidan had shown up; she couldn't do this without him. She turned back to her family.

"Now do you believe me? Everything is fine, I'm not crazy. So can we just put this behind us? I.."

Beside her Aidan started coughing and quickly pulled his napkin up to cover his face.

"Are you okay?" she asked, as her family stared. He lowered the napkin slightly so she could see and she had to stifle a gasp when she was met with his full on vampire face. Suddenly he jumped up throwing his napkin down and rushed towards the stairs.

She turned and met the amazed and bewildered gazes of her parents and sister. "Uh, he's just gone through a really bad break up. I should, uh I should go make sure he's okay. I'm just going to see if he's okay." And she quickly pushed her chair away and ran up the stairs after her best friend, finding him in the bathroom examining his teeth.

After a ridiculous exchange where she mistakenly thought he was asking about some band and he demanded herbs, she returned to the bathroom with a tray of chamomile teas only to find him stripped down and wearing a very low slung towel.

"And you're naked. And taking a bath, during dinner." She stared at him, although part of her brain was telling her she should probably look away. Why had she never paid attention before to how nice he looked without a shirt?

"Just go Joss," he hissed impatiently and she quickly left the tray and exited the bathroom, leaning against the door and closing her eyes. "I was not just ogling Aidan," she muttered to herself. Voices echoed from downstairs, pulling her out of her muttering and then all hell broke loose.

By the end of the night Aidan was recovering from more than just a garlic induced allergy fit and Joss' family thought she was certifiable.

"What's happening to you baby?" he mother asked, after Joss had made sure Aidan was back upstairs after his fight with Marcus, her voice thick with emotion.

She was so tired of the lies and just wanted it all to stop. She had known coming home was a mistake, but for one perfect moment she had hoped that her family would welcome her back. She could see now that it was a pipe dream best left behind.

"I am a werewolf," she said holding back her tears. "Its who I am. What possible place is there here for me?"

Her parents looked shocked at her admission, her mother was crying and her father was already planning possible treatments for mental affliction she could tell. Emily moved from where she had been standing behind her and wrapped her arms around her big sister.

'Its going to be ok Joss. We are here for you, I promise."

Her mother stepped forward and cradled her face between her hands. "It's going to be okay baby. I'm so sorry you have had to go through this alone, but we are going to get you the help you need."

Joss just shook her head; she could feel the tears beginning to leak. "I'm going to check on Aidan and then go to bed." She gently extracted herself from her mother and sister and with one last glance towards her father, slowly headed upstairs. It was only when she was safely in the bathroom, and ignoring the fact that Aidan was once again immersing himself in tea water, that she sunk down onto the floor ,leaned against the door and drawing her knees up so her head rested against them, cried.

The room was silent, except for a hitch in her breath every now and then as she steadily soaked the knee of her jeans. Aidan said nothing and for that Joss would be eternally grateful; it was nice to have at least one person in her life that knew her well enough to know what she would need. Finally after some time she sighed and sat back, wiping her eyes on the sleeve of her blue plaid shirt. She looked over to see Aidan now sitting up in the tub, looking distinctly more like himself. Or at least without the black eyes and fangs.

"I see the chamomile worked. You're looking distinctly less fangy."

He didn't smile, nor did he smirk like he usually would.

"Are you okay?" she asked pushing her hair back and trying not to stare at his naked chest. She wondered idly who Celine was; she must have been special to warrant a tattoo.

"Are you okay?" he asked instead of answering.

She sighed and shook her head, looking back down at her knees. "No. No Aidan, I am not okay. I told them, and they want to help me; but they can't. No one can, not in the way they want. Because there is no quick fix for this, no treatment or amount of psycho babble is going to change the fact that every month I change into a thing and that for the other 29 days I am constantly on edge. It won't bring us closer together and it won't make me have the life I used to have, where everything was planned out and I was going to be a doctor and marry my best friend."

He looked at her evenly, a bit of sadness evident in his gaze and then he sighed, "Sometimes, the best thing is to move forward Joss. We can want what we had, pine for it with all our might, but in the end we can't go back. Not us. People like your family, they can do that, and they can fix their problems and get back to a semblance of what was normal. But we," he paused and she looked at him, almost pleadingly.

"We create our own normal, because the only way to move on is to pick up the pieces and create something else."

Their gazes stayed locked and she felt like she was hyperventilating. More tears came to her eyes, but she blinked them back. "I feel like I'm drowning, like I'm suffocating and I just need someone to grab my hand pull me back up and give me some air."

He nodded, smiling slightly for the first time since dinner. "It's the human condition. Everyone feels like that; even Vampires once and while. You're going to be fine Joss, just not in the way that your family might want."

They lapsed into silence again and she noticed that she had mud on her shoes from being outside when Aidan was fighting Marcus. Her mother was going to freak out when she saw the mud that had been tracked across her hardwood. The thought was so normal that she snorted and then she was laughing.

"What?" Aidan asked, chuckling slightly at her sudden mirth.

She shook her head, still laughing. "I was just thinking that my mother was going to freak out when she saw all the mud tracked through her house. It would be so like her to worry about that when she has just found out that her daughter is crazy."

"Your not crazy," he smirked, "Neurotic, yes. Obsessive, most definitely. Certifiable?"

He shook his head still smirking.

She rolled her eyes, "Haha. Your humor never ceases to amuse me. Are you planning on getting out of there anytime soon? You're probably turning into a prune."

He raised a brow, "I would have been out of here twenty minutes ago, but someone decided to have a crying jag."

She blushed slightly, "Oh, well I'll just…I'll just turn around then. Or leave." She started to stand.

"Just turn around Joss."

She did as requested and a minute later he was tapping her on the shoulder. She turned back, only to be met with the site of his chest and that intriguing tattoo.

"My shirt is soaked," he explained and she nodded.

"Yeah. Uh, I'll find you something. Come on," she led the way out of the bathroom and up to her attic bedroom.

Aidan looked around while she fished through a box that was sat in the corner. She knew what he was seeing; the room was almost preserved, as if it was cleaned often. When she had first walked in that morning she had been shocked and then saddened. It was like everyone had expected she would just pop back up one day, the same and ready to restart the life she left behind.

'Here. It's the only shirt that I have that will fit you and doesn't look like it belongs on a woman." She handed him a man's black t-shirt, then sat on the bed as he pulled it on.

"My fiancé-ex fiancé must have brought my stuff here after I left. His shirt must have gotten tossed in there."

He sat beside her, "You don't really talk about him."

She nodded, "Not much to say. His name is Julian, he was studying to be a doctor too and he was crazy enough to want to marry me. I hope he's happy; I can't ask Emily because then she'll just try and get us back together or something. He deserves better than me."

In a rare show of affection Aidan reached out and wrapped his arm around her, pulling her close to his side. She rested her head against his shoulder and closed her eyes; she was exhausted. "I'm sure he thought there was no one better than you Joss. He wouldn't have wanted to marry you otherwise."

Again they lapsed into silence, although it could be said that it was comfortable and peaceful, as it often is between two people who don't need to always talk to communicate.

Joss was falling asleep when she finally found her voice again. "Aidan?"

"Hmm?"

"Can we go home?" she looked up at him and he just nodded.

Extracting herself from his arms she went over to the desk and began to write a note. He simply watched her as she wrote slowly and carefully weighing every word she put down. Finally she sighed and folded the paper and the moved to get her bag, which he took from her, causing her to crack a bit of a smile.

They padded down the stairs and she stopped by her sister's room touching the door for a moment, as if grounding herself and then she pushed the folded paper beneath the door.

"Bye Em," she murmured, "Be good. Look after mom."

Once they were outside, having mercifully avoided meeting her parents on their way out of the house, Joss began to feel a bit better, the panic attack that had been building slowly subsiding. It was only once they were in the car and driving away from her parent's house, the house where she had grown up, that she truly began to relax and when Aidan reached over and squeezed her leg slightly in reassurance, she knew that she was going to be okay. Or as okay as someone like her could be.