Hallo all :D. Sorry for the last chapters shortness; it was originally half of this chapter…oh dear, now I think this chappie will be really short D:. I'm writing this instead of reading my new book (Tempest Rising by Tracy Deebs; it's about mermaids :DDDD); that's how much I love you.

Also, news on Ingo-ness; on my 'Ingo to-do' list I have a several things, namely:

Update High Tides (which I'm doing now :DDD)

Update the much neglected 'Songs of Moryow' once I find my flipping plan!

Find the oneshot I promised you and type it up and finish it (I'll tell you now, it's called Truth or Dare. Expect fluff. ;))

Write my Mathew oneshot, which will be titled something like 'The Ones We Leave Behind'.

Write the Gloria Swanson based fic which I have been considering for the past year and which I still haven't got around to doing. It's going to be called 'Talking to Seals', I think . I think it'll be a oneshot, but am considering a multi-chapter

Find pictures for my 'O Peggy Gordan' cover and upload that to YouTube (If you've done pictures you don't mind being included in the video, please send me a link! If it doesn't work on fanfiction, my email address is on my profile

Complete my Conor songfic 'Worth Remembering' to Memories by Beverly Craven.

Thank you once more to you AMAAAAAAZING reviewers; you rock socks! Whoop! And onwaaaaaaards with the chapter!

Dedicated to: La, Inkheart17 and annabeth.

Chapter Eight

The wind is starting to pick up as I walk up the garden path; the michaelmas daisies that Roger's planted sway violently in the gale, and I clutch Sadie's lead tighter. The air is cold, much colder than it's been recently; it seems that the heat wave is over and an older cousin of the storm that Faro and I saw being born has come to visit. I step in through the front door and shut it behind me firmly, unclipping Sadie's lead and trying to block out the rising tempest and the voices which echo on the blustery gusts of wind.

Ssssssssssssapphire….

Leave me alone! I don't have the time right now! I snap back impatiently. Mum'll notice if I disappear now; I can hear her and Roger in the front room, watching Sunday afternoon telly and laughing at a game show. Their cosy, warm, secure normality is a million miles away from the dark, wild, seductive dangers of the sea.

Sssssssssssssssssapphire…

Stop it! I press my back up against the door, shutting my eyes tightly, as if I can somehow block the voice out. I think I can hear barking in the distance. Leave me alone just for once! Stop-

"Saph?"

I open my eyes. Conor is looking down at me with concern. I realised I'm crouching on the floor, my hands clamped over my ears, my body still pressed up against the door. Sadie is whimpering next to me, her paws on my knees, her brown eyes full of fear.

"Saph, are you okay?"

I stand up slowly, nodding, scrunching Sadies' ears comfortingly. She stays close to me, practically glued to my leg, whining softly, her entire body shaking.

"Is it calling to you?" Conor says in a lower voice, looking worried. "Is it bad?"

I nod again and he hugs me tightly. I breathe in his familiar earthy smell and the call of the sea recedes, like the tide going out, pulling at me as it goes.

"It's gone," I finally murmur into his shirt, and he lets go of me. Sadie's pressed up against me again, but she's no longer trembling.

"You look white as a ghost," he says, looking anxious. "Has it ever done that before?"

"It hasn't been that strong for a while," I reply, sighing and pushing my hair out of my eyes.

"Here." He guides me into the kitchen and sits me down on a chair, before grabbing the milk out the fridge and beginning to make hot chocolate. I watch him, still trembling slightly. Sadie come and sits on my feet like a furry hot water bottle, nuzzling my leg softly. She gently licks the hand I reach down with to stroke her. Conor sticks the two mugs in the microwave before coming over to sit opposite me.

"So."

"So?"

"You and Mal?"

I feel myself flush to the roots of my hair. "What about me and Mal?"

"Well…he asked for permission to ask you out."

"Oh." Oh indeed. I'd forgotten until now that Rainbow said she'd been collaborating with Conor on this whole matchmaking thing.

The microwave beeps. Conor gets to his feet and rescues the two cups and set one in front of me, before passing me a spoon and getting one for himself.

"So?"

I sip my hot chocolate and manage to burn my lip. I give it a good stir. "So what?"

"So….you turned him down."

I stare down into the chocolatey swirls of my drink, stroking Sadies' head gently. "Yeah."

"He said you said you have a boyfriend." He seems slightly edgy. "Anyone I know?"

"No, b-"

"Saph! I'm not having you go around with a boy I don't know!"

"I'm not-"

"Not what? You're my little sister; I'm meant to look after you!"

"I do not have a boyfriend Conor you total dolt!"

Sadie jumps slightly and I hastily start stroking her again, to reassure her that everything's alright.

"Oh." He goes silent for a moment looking embarrassed.

"I just told Mal that was why I couldn't go out with him because I didn't want to hurt his feelings!"

"Oh. Wait, what?" Conor frowns. "You lied to him? Why didn't you just tell him the truth?" Oh here we go again, Conor's honestly policy. Okay, I may find it easier to tell the odd lie now and again, but I'm not that bad a person (except in the Mal case, but hey, I was just trying not to hurt his feelings)! But when I have a brother like Conor, who's kind and generous and honest…well I feel like a bad person. He makes me feel guilty. Not on purpose, but just through his sheer…goodness.

"Because I have verbal diarrhoea!" I snap, trying very hard not to let the guilty feelings rise to the surface, but to squash them down instead. "I just said the first thing that popped into my head!" Well, the first thing that popped into my head that wasn't completely insane.

"Saph, why didn't you just go out with him? He's crazy about you, and I trust him!"

"Because, Conor, I don't like him in that way!"

"Well okay, fair enough, but you still didn't have to lie to him, did you?"

"But I didn't want to hurt him by saying I didn't like him!"

"He was going to be hurt anyway by you saying that you had a boyfriend, wasn't he?" He frowns suddenly. "This isn't about Faro, is it?"

"Faro? What's Faro got to do with anything?" I say, surprised.

"Saph, you don't…you don't like Faro, do you? I mean, he refers to you as his little sister, he obviously doesn't feel the same way, and I don't want you to get hurt…"

"He doesn't call me little sister anymore!" I don't know why I feel so mad, but Conor's words just seem to get under my skin. "And I do not like Faro! He's my friend!"

He sighs, looking exasperated. "Then why tell Mal that there's someone else and hurt him more? Why not explain the situation truthfully? That's better than lying, isn't it? Saph, how can you be so blind when it comes to stuff like this? You know, romantic stuff? He really likes you, and by not telling him the truth, you're just doing more harm than good!"

The heat rises in my face again, but this time it stems from anger rather than embarrassment. "I'm blind?" I slam down the mug of hot chocolate so hard that the liquid spills over the edge of the porcelain, spattering the table with dark droplets. The deep brown on the yellow table cloth almost looks like spots of dried blood. "I'm blind?" I stand up, almost knocking over my chair. "I really don't think I'm the one who's blind in the matters of 'romance' here, Conor!"

Sadie barks and tries to follows me as I turn and dash out of the front door, but I slam the door before she can make it outside. I ignore her pitiful whining and I dash out wildly into the building storm and towards the ebb and hiss of the sea that I know better than my own heartbeat.

~x~

The wind whips through my hair, howling in my ears like a banshee's scream. I duck my head against the cold, hard drops of rain which are beginning to pelt down from the sky and soak through my jacket. I'm soon drenched and chilled to the bone, but I refuse to turn back. My anger burns inside me too brightly for that. How dare Conor try and order me what to do?

He cares about you. Murmurs that second voice in my head, the one that often comes to Roger's aid. He cares about you.

Oh shut up!

I keep walking along the cliff top, with no idea which direction I'm walking in, listening to the sea crashing into the rocks below, the roar like a far off lullaby. There's a low rumble of thunder in the distance and a flickering of lightning in the clouds, and I suddenly realised just how exposed I am up here, with no shelter. I turn to head back towards the cottage and the warm glow of home and safety, when something hits me in the head, sending a sharp stab of pain through me; something wet trickles down my forehead. I stumble, and my ankle twists on a rock; my arms windmill helplessly for a moment before the thing hits me again, and this time I see it's a seagull, its vicious yellow eyes glaring at me with acid animosity. The gulls second attack makes me lose my balance entirely and with an electric thrill of horror, I realise that I'm falling.

My stomach seems to fly into my throat as I tumble through space, a desperate scream forming in my mouth, but I have no idea if it escapes; and even if it does, who would hear it over the storm?

The impact smashes pain through my body, and the unconsciousness, when it comes, is almost a relief.

Review? Apologies for bad spelling and grammar; it's midnight and I'm too tired to proof read…:S

xxx