A/N: Thanks to everyone who reviewed, I'm glad you all enjoyed it. Hopefully you all will stick with the story and keep your awesome reviews coming (I'm looking at you Nina =p).

Disclaimer: Don't own anyone or anything. They do. Aurora, Murphy, each other. One big happy family.

Chapter Two

It was late when her cell phone went off, she hadn't expected it in the slightest and the brash ringing hurt her ears – sound was a sensitive thing to her these days and usually when she was alone in her room she had the silence that accompanied the darkness that cloaked her. No one called her, well her family did but they were all in separate parts of the house, and she guessed if they needed her they'd come find her – not call her.

She reached for her cell – placed in its usual place on her bedside table, two places after her watch and sunglasses and one before her glass of water. She brought it close to her and traced the buttons – from the middle button it was one left and two up – and answered. "H-Hello?"

"Stephanie, hi it's Chris." the voice on the other end spoke to her and she felt herself smile. She hadn't expected him to call so soon, or if she were honest with herself at all. "Chris Irvine?"

"Hey Chris." She replied in greeting, she didn't quite know what else to say to him, she didn't have many friends and small talk was hard. People tended to get freaked out when you stared at them too long. Heaven forbid they grasped the fact that she couldn't actually see them and keeping her head still kept her bearings about her.

"Am I calling too late? I am aren't I?" Chris asked and then answered. "It's just I liked talking to you earlier and you were right, I did win."

Stephanie felt herself smile some more at Chris's words. She liked the fact that he had won, Paul getting beating was a plus in her books but she liked the fact that he liked talking to her more. She wasn't like conceited or anything, it was just nice to talk to someone other than her family – not that she didn't not like talking to them, it's just spending close to 24 hours a day with the same people got a little boring and there wasn't much you could talk about if you were there with them. "It's not too late." At least she didn't think it was, she hadn't reached for her watch to check the time but the last time she had it had told her in its boring mechanical voice that it was ten-twenty p.m. "And I liked talking to you too."

She heard him whisper 'Awesome.' to himself and she figured he hadn't meant for her to hear it but her hearing was sensitive and had adapted well to her situation, so it wasn't hard to hear. "I'm just at this dinner grabbing a bite to eat, well I just ate it and my cell was in my pocket and I figured I might as well try and give you a call. I hope you don't mind and it's after eleven and it is too late. I'm sorry."

She noted that he rambled a lot, and she giggled. She didn't know many men who rambled, Shane didn't and her father was always to the point. "Honestly Chris its fine, I wasn't doing much anyway."

"Were you sleeping?"

"No, I was just thinking."

"What were you thinking about?"

"A sunrise."

"Oh, that's cool." He didn't sound surprised when she had said it, she had expected surprise but his voice held nothing but interest. "You can remember them?"

"I used to stay up late some nights and just wait for one so I could keep it in my mind. I didn't sleep because I didn't want to risk sleeping through it and wake up one morning and see nothing but darkness and know I missed it." She'd seen a lot of sunrises in her twenty-two years and never did she see one that was the same. She liked that about them, she could picture a sunrise peaking over the horizon on a bright summers day and know that it was going to be a day to remember and other times she could picture sunrises that fought to be seen through the fog of a winters morning that let everyone know it was going to be cold out there, so wrap up warm because the sun wouldn't give you its warmth.

"What can you see when you picture it?"

"The blue of the sky."

"What's it like?"

"It's getting lighter by the minute, it was dark, almost black and the stars were out but now they're hiding. The clouds are covering them."

"Is it a dreary day?"

"No, the clouds are wisps, like the trails of a plane."

"What about the sun?"

"It's rising, it was peaking out but now it's taking up the whole of the sky. It's so bright and the orange is mixing with the blue and the green of the grass is blending as well."

"Can you smell the grass?"

"Yes. It's damp from the night before, but the suns drying it up."

"Can you see birds?"

"No, but I can hear them. They're waking up, chirping with a brand new day."

She can see it so clearly in front of her that she feels like she just needs to reach out and touch it and she'd be there. She'd lie on the grass and wait for the birds to fly above her and watch as the swooped and sailed effortlessly across the skies. She liked the summer mornings better, the winter mornings were so quiet and eerie and she had enough of that in her waking moments and yet sometimes when she needed a silent escape that's what she pictured.

"I'm glad you can still see it."

"Yeah," she agreed with a faint smile. "It makes it a little easier."

They were silent for a few moments, Stephanie picturing the sunrise and Chris, well she's not sure what Chris was thinking but she didn't mind the silence, there was just something that was so comfortable about Chris and his voice, but she couldn't put her finger on it.

"How's Izzie?" she heard him ask.

"She's good." Stephanie replied and listened for her dog. "She's sleeping beside my bed, I can hear her breathing."

"At least she's not snoring huh?" Chris joked.

Stephanie laughed, "Yeah, I might have to send her back if she did."

"You wouldn't." Chris gasped in mock outrage, causing Stephanie to laugh more.

"Not really, I love her too much."

"She is a great dog."

"She is." Stephanie wondered how Chris knew Izzie was such a good dog but she didn't think it important enough to ask. She figured he'd seen them about from time to time and judged it from that.

"I should let you go," Chris whispered. "It's after twelve."

"Oh," Stephanie replied, surprised at how much she didn't want this conversation to end. "Yeah, I should probably head to bed."

"Before you go though, can I ask you something?"

"Of course."

"Can I take you out for the day on Thursday, if you're not busy?" Chris asked in a rush and Stephanie smiled again. She was doing that a lot around Chris.

"I don't have any plans."

"You do now." And Stephanie swore she could hear the smile that was on his face from her answer.

"Goodnight Chris."

"Goodnight Stephanie."

After hanging up and placing the cell phone back when it sat before it rang, Stephanie lay back in bed and couldn't wait for Thursday to come.

She dreamed that night of a picture perfect sunrise with no clouds and a bright blue sky that hugged the green of the grass and in the distance, if she squinted she could make out the outline of a man.

He walked closer and said her name and she smile.

She recognized the voice.

She just wished she could see his face.