A/N: I am a woman of my words, hehehe. Here is your update!!! You guys are lucky I'm on my procrastination mood tonight... I did not feel like studying for AP Stat, so instead, I wrote! I'm thinking updates would come once a week? Yes? Yes? Maybe, if you guys are nice and R & R!

Also, please tell me what you would like to see in my story, and maybe if you ask kindly, I'll add it in :) Sometimes, I just find myself unable to go from one scene to the next and maybe you guys can help me out!!!

Now enough with the author's note... let the story commence...

Previously on Chapter FOUR:

"Oh yeah," he says, looking up to his parents. "Mom, dad, would it be OK if Amber, Drea, PJ, and Chad stays here for awhile when you're gone? They're going on a cross-country trip, and they wanted to spend three days with us, if it's alright with you."

"Oh, absolutely, darling!" Mrs. LeBlanc says, and I go to give her a warm thank you hug. "Just be sure to be good and safe." She winks at me and I blush, looking at Jacob to see if he noticed the double meaning behind her words. I blush further when I see him containing his laughter with his eyebrows raised.

Oh yes, he got it…

This will be such a long spring vacation… And I have no doubt it will be one of the best times of my life as well.


FIVE

"What was it like, Stacey?" Jacob asks me as I file away the last blouse from my suitcase into the massive drawer. Jacob is sitting on the love seat by the chimney, in which a fire is aflame. He is leaning forward with his arms on his knees; his hands are clasped together, making his knuckles white. Despite the anxiety I heard in his voice, I can't help but admire his beautifully sculpted body – that is, until my running eyes reached his eyes, which only hold agony and sadness.

"What was what like?" I reply, approaching him cautiously.

"What happened when I disappeared? After my accident – what was it like?" I examined my hands; not wanting to get into a conversation that I knew was inevitable. "Stacey?" I look out towards the whiteness of the Rockies, and realize that it started snowing again. I sit next to Jacob – close, but not enough to touch him, though, I was aching to.

"There's nothing much to tell, Jacob," I whispers – the pain that the accident brought me all those years ago coming back to me in torrents with just the thought of it. "You fell off the boat, but they never found your body. Everyone was devastated… they thought you'd died."

"They thought I died," he tells me, as he dragged his eyes up to my face, his words implying a question that is not evident in the way he spoke. "I don't care about them, Stacey, whoever they are. I only care about you. When I saw you in that forest… you looked broken."

I meet his eyes with mine, except his eyes are dry and mine are brimming with unshed tears. When he sees it, he takes my hand and brings me to sit on his lap sideways. He wraps his arms around me as the sobs overtake me. I knew we'd have to talk about this sometime, and I deluded myself into thinking that I'm ready, but I really am not. But as Jacob's arms tighten around me, his lips pressing butterfly kisses on my head as I rest my forehead against the crook of his neck, I suddenly find the strength I desperately need to recount the past.

"I was destroyed," I say to him. "Everyone told me that you… that you… d-d- died – that you're n-n-never coming b-b-back. I wanted to kill m-m-myself because I couldn't find another r-r-reason to live. You were my s-s-soul mate, and I l-l-lost you, and it was all my f-f-fault! I waited for y-y-you, Jacob! In the beach! For months! I hoped everyday and every n-night that you'd come back t-t-to me. You said we were forever, but you n-never came b-back!"

By this point, I couldn't stop the torrents of tears that stain Jacob's shirt. I wrap my arms around his neck for dear life, and as I spoke those words, his embrace tightened and I didn't mind – because at long last, I feel whole and complete.

So I take a deep breath and continue, "I k-k-know it wasn't your f-fault…"

"Shhh," he soothes me. "Don't say anything anymore, my love." So I remain silent. After a few minutes of just him, rocking me in his embrace and me, soaking his shirt with my tears, holding on to him as if my life depended upon it, I finally look up into his slate blue eyes, and I lost myself.

I must look terrible, but at that moment, I didn't care – all that matters is his lips descending and molding itself on mine for the sweetest kiss I could ever imagine. He tastes like lemongrass and honey, with a mix of chocolate, and I just want to devour him forever. He licks my bottom lip, asking for entrance, and I gladly let him as I run my hands through his dark, soft hair. As we fight for domination, the sweet kiss turned all the more passionate, and I moan quietly into his mouth. He heard it and retreated his tongue, only to take my lower lip into his own and nibble on it gently.

I can feel the heat of his hand on my waist and on the sliver of skin that my movements are exposing. I shudder in excitement, and he tightens his hold on me. After a moment, we reluctantly part for air, our foreheads never leaving contact. My eyes are close, but I can feel his penetrating gaze on my face.

"Stacey," he whispers, his words lacing with passion and… love. I open my eyes and stare into his own, daring him to say the three words I've been dying to hear since the last time he whispered it into my ears all those months ago. "I never want to lose you again; I never want to be apart from you again; and most of all, I never want you to be broken… ever. Again."

"Jacob, it wasn't your fault," I say. I was still on high from the passion he showed for me minutes before, that I find myself relatively collected as I try to recall the past once more. "It was Clara's fault, and to an extent, my own."

"You're blaming yourself?" Jacob asks, his forehead scrunching up in confusion and, dare I say it, anger.

"Yes," I reply determinedly. "Yes, I am."

"Why?"

"What do you mean?" I ask, but then I remember his amnesia, and a thought occurs to me. "Wait, don't you remember what it was that caused the whole accident in the first place?"

"I never thought about wondering. I've always thought we were on a cruise, and I fell off the boat… what happened, Stacey?" he asks again, but this time, I know he means it in a different way entirely.

"It was Clara," I begin, and proceed to tell him everything. From the nightmares about Clara, to the lies that she told; from the fights that we had, to the moment on the boat. "I never realized until my last nightmare that it was you who held the lilies, Jacob. It was you – not Clara. Clara wanted revenge, and she got it, because I never saw it… I never saw you coming in my nightmares. I was so focused on Clara, that I never got the chance to help you!"

The pain tears at me again, but I don't think I have a single tear left to shed. He replies, "And you blame yourself, because Clara was creative in orchestrating our doom? Stacey, it's not your fault. Don't blame yourself, please! Seeing you so hurt… it hurts me more than I can say."

I unclasp my hands and brought one to his cheek, wanting to take away the pain that is visible in his eyes. "Jacob, I've paid for all the things that I did wrong. It was the past, and I don't ever plan on being separated from you again…"

"Just promise me one thing," he says, silencing me with one finger. I nod. "Please work on not blaming yourself. It's not your fault that it happened to me. If Clara was as determined to get revenge as you say she does, then she would have found another way to ruin our lives. It is not your fault, so please tell me you'll stop blaming yourself!"

I look into his desperate eyes and again, I nod, "I promise."

"Good," he says as he wraps me in his warm embrace once more. And for the first time in many, many months, I feel myself, not only complete, but relieve as well. Maybe everything will be all right afterall…