Hey, everyone!

Arc Two is exciting for me. I'm absolutely stoked (a word that I only use when I'm off-the-wall-excited about something) for the introduction of a new, very prominent character and the chance to reintroduce three characters from Twelve Months. This chapter focuses mostly on Chad and Sonny (as a story about them should) as they prepare to leave for their separate destinations during their break from filming. It also brings about a new summary because - hey! A new storyline calls for an updated summary!

I hope you guys enjoy this chapter; I certainly enjoyed producing it for you. C:


Summary: A break from filming scatters the friends across the globe. This temporary change brings about new relationship challenges for Sonny and Chad. And things get personal when somebody from the past returns unexpectedly.

Disclaimer: Me no own, you no sue. (Anything you recognize is not mine. Anything you don't recognize probably is mine. Probably.)


Four Seasons

By EmbracingRain


Arc Two

Summer

Chapter Four


June 3rd

12:14 p.m.

Hollywood Apartments

Sonny's Apartment

Sonny's Bedroom

Sonny groaned in frustration as another round of looking for her favorite pair of jeans turned out fruitless. She had been looking for that specific pair of pants for three hours now, and each search combined had given her a grand total of three tubes of ChapStick, a battered and dog eared copy of Nightlight, several scripts, and a feather boa. Staring around her upturned room, Sonny shook her head. There was no way she was going to Wisconsin without those jeans. They were her lucky jeans, her favorite jeans! Perfectly broken in, those jeans fit her no matter what. They were basically her traveling pants. Except she wasn't sharing them with three other girls.

"Maybe if I clean up a little, they'll show up," the comedienne muttered to herself, standing up and beginning to tidy her room. It was worth a shot. After all, finding a pair of pants after completely turning her room upside down was probably an impossible feat.

She was halfway through setting things right when the front door slammed and footsteps resounded throughout the apartment.

"Mom?" Sonny called. "Is that you? Have you seen my pants? I can't find them anywhere!"

When her mother didn't respond, Sonny exited her room and walked down the short hallway to the living room, concerned. It wasn't like Connie to not reply to her daughter.

"Mom, are you-?" Sonny stopped short when she found her mother standing by the couch with a basket of freshly laundered clothes and an utterly livid look on her face. "What's going on?"

"Why don't you tell me, young lady?" Connie said, pulling a T-shirt from the top of the basket of clothes and displaying it to her daughter.

"What's the big deal?" Sonny questioned lightly. "That's just a shirt, Mom. Pretty much everyone has one. I have one, you have one, Chad has one…" She punctuated the sentence with a joyful chuckle.

"Oh, really?" her mom said with a twinge of sarcasm. "Chad has one? Or did you take it?"

"What are you talking about?" Sonny said, looking from her mom to the plain, white T-shirt and back again. Never before when talking to her mom had she been so confused.

Clearing her throat and making a show of examining the tag of the shirt, Connie read aloud, "C.D.C."

Sonny felt her face turn beet red not only because of the fact that her boyfriend apparently still put his name (or his initials, at least) on the tags of his clothing (how old was he? Three?), but because of what her mother seemed to be implying. Mortification flooded the actress' body and she fought back the urge to scream and run from the apartment.

"Would you care to explain why I found your boyfriend's shirt in your laundry, Alison Munroe?"

Laughing nervously, Sonny playfully socked her mother's shoulder. "Heh… Mother… Mom… Mommy dearest…"

"Alison," Connie said warningly.

"It's not what you're thinking!" Sonny blurted out, suddenly in a hurry to get out any and every part of the explanation she could. "Honest! I was helping Chad pack for his trip to Italy the other day and when he wasn't looking, I just sorta…borrowed it."

"You borrowed it."

"Yeah," Sonny said, tugging the shirt from her mom's vice-like grip and hugging it to her chest. "I don't get to see him for three months, Mom," she continued softly. "I just wanted to keep him close by. It's a comfort thing. Like a security blanket. You can't tell me you never borrowed something from one of your boyfriends."

"You borrowed his shirt?"

"Well, hey, at least it's not a pair of his boxers, right?" Sonny joked, immediately growing somber at the look on Connie's face. "Too soon for jokes, isn't it? Yeah… Kinda figured."

"Do we need to have a talk, Sonny?" Connie asked worriedly and Sonny felt all the color drain from her face. "If you and Chad are-"

"NO!" Sonny bellowed, slowly backing away from her mom. "No talks! Chad and I are not having sex!"

"If we need to talk, we should," Connie persisted. "If he's pressuring you into things you're not comfortable with, then you need to tell me. I know how boys like Chad can be and-"

"What does that even mean?" Sonny exclaimed incredulously. "'Boys like Chad'? I'm nineteen, Mom. And Chad's a great guy. We are adults. Why should it matter what we are or aren't doing?"

"Well, call me crazy," Connie retorted, "but didn't you used to complain about how he never cared about the girls he dated and how he went around breaking hearts like it was going out of style? I'm your mother, Sonny. Do you think I want you to get hurt like those other girls?"

"Mom," Sonny said slowly and insistently, folding her arms over her chest, "listen to me. I'm a big girl. I can take care of myself. And Chad's changed. You know him. You like him, for gosh sake!"

"At some point, you'll realize I have every right to be concerned."

"And at some point, you'll realize that you can't protect me from everything and that you can't be involved in my relationship!" Sonny spat, retreating to the safety of her room. Chad's shirt was still clenched in her fist, and she traded her own for it in an attempt to comfort herself. The older she got, the harder it was to live with her mom. Independence wasn't an easy thing to maintain when your mother insisted on being overprotective of you all the time.

Barricaded in her room, Sonny went back to cleaning up the disaster she'd inadvertently created while looking for her jeans. Tidying things up always helped take her mind off of negative things for some reason. Unfortunately, the process didn't seem to be working this time. Sonny found herself sinking further into a rut of depression as she replayed the argument in her mind. While small arguments were common between the two Munroe girls, Sonny had never actually yelled at her mom or gotten that defensive before. Part of her was ashamed, but a more prominent part was screaming at her that it was about time she finally started acting like the adult she was instead of allowing her mom to baby her.

Part of growing up was proving to your parents that you weren't their baby anymore. At least, that's what Drew always told her. And Sonny had seen her older brother fight quite a few fights with their mom as he got older.

Her cleaning ritual was interrupted once more when her phone started mooing. After hanging up a shirt, Sonny retrieved her phone from where it was sitting on her bed and answered it with a sullen, "Hello." There were a few seconds of silence, and then Chad said:

"What's wrong, sunshine?"

"What makes you think something's wrong?" Sonny countered, sitting down on the edge of her bed.

"Look, I just got in the elevator in your building, so if you don't tell me now, I'm just gonna ask you when I see you," Chad said pragmatically. "And I know for a fact that you hate it when I keep asking and asking and asking…"

"Why are you in my building?" Sonny asked. "We didn't have plans today."

"I thought I'd stop by with lunch."

"Lunch?"

"Yeah," Chad laughed. "It's past twelve-thirty. Thought you might be hungry."

"Chad, I don't know if it's such a good idea if you come over here right now," Sonny told him apprehensively. "I just-"

"Well, it's too late to tell me that. I'm already at your door. Are you gonna let me in or what?"

Sonny heard someone knocking on the front door, the sound muffled by the rooms and closed door between it and Sonny's room. She was about to roll off her bed and go answer the door when she heard footsteps and the sound of the door opening.

"Hey, Mrs. Munroe," Chad said and Sonny felt her heart plummet. She dashed out of her room and into the family room once more, hanging up her phone as she went. Connie was standing at the open door facing Chad who was smiling at her brightly. "Where are you off to?" he asked.

"I offered to watch the Johansson triplets overnight," Sonny heard her mother reply coldly. Apparently the argument had gotten to her more than she let on. "Sonny's packing." That being said, Connie shouldered her purse and exited the apartment after letting Chad in. She slammed the door behind her as she left.

Sonny and Chad stared at each other across the short distance that was separating them. Not knowing what to say, Sonny merely shrugged one shoulder and stared at her feet.

"What up with your mom?" Chad asked lightly, sitting down on the couch and opening the paper bag in his hands. He extracted two burgers and some fries and beckoned Sonny over before she actually caved and joined him.

"We got in a fight," Sonny told him quietly.

"About what? And, on a side note, isn't that my shirt?"

"Yeah, I…borrowed it," Sonny muttered. She took a bite of her burger to avoid explaining the argument. Unfortunately, Chad seemed more interested in the fight than the fact that Sonny had taken his shirt and inquired another time. Sonny sighed and bit into a fry before responding. "My mom found your shirt in my laundry basket when she washed clothes today. I think she wanted to have a calm, rational discussion but I didn't… Things haven't been exactly what I'd call easygoing lately."

"Are you fighting a lot?" Chad asked, studying his girlfriend as he chewed his burger. "'Cuz that doesn't seem like you and your mom."

Sonny shrugged. "I don't feel like I'm getting the freedom I need," she explained. "I guess that might be the major source of contention."

"So…you guys fought about my shirt?" Chad asked. He was amused despite the gravity of the conversation.

"It wasn't just your shirt, Chad," Sonny told him, her voice tinged with annoyance. "It was mostly to do with our relationship." She saw him freeze out of the corner of her eye.

"What? She doesn't like me now or something?"

"Not really." Pausing for a moment in order to find the best wording possible, Sonny began to pick the seeds off her hamburger bun. "It's more like…she wants to know more about our relationship than I'm willing to tell her. She seems to think I'm incapable of taking care of myself."

There was a brief pause, and then Chad said uncertainly, "Do you think I should talk to her?"

"Absolutely not," Sonny replied quickly. "I think that might only serve to exacerbate the situation."

"Exacerbate?" Chad asked with a smirk.

"Grady and Nico got me Word of the Day toilet paper as a joke," Sonny explained. The change in topic brought lightness back to her heart and she felt a small smile tugging at the corners of her lips.

"There's that smile," Chad said cheerfully.

Sonny laughed. "Shut up and finish your burger so you can help me pack."

"Who says I wanna help you pack?"

"It's the least you could do after I helped you."

"Helped as in rearranged my suitcases so I couldn't find anything," Chad shot back.


June 3rd

1:01 p.m.

Hollywood Apartments

Sonny's Apartment

Sonny's Room

"Holy God!" Chad exclaimed when he walked into Sonny's room. "What the hell happened in here?" Clothes had been flung clear across the room, shoes were strewn across the floor, books were haphazardly scattered across various surfaces… It was definitely a reasonable question.

"You think this is bad?" Sonny said as she picked up a pair of shoes. "You should've seen it before you called."

"What did you do?" Chad asked, picking his way across the floor. Avoiding stepping on something was nearly impossible.

"I can't find my pants."

Chad watched as his girlfriend puttered around her room, helping whenever he could. He'd never seen Sonny's room such a disaster before. For someone who was normally so put together and organized, she sure knew how to make a mess. "Which pair of pants are you looking for?" he asked.

"My lucky pair," Sonny replied before diving under her bed in pursuit of a shoe.

"Oh-h. Right. Your lucky pants that have never gotten me lucky," Chad joked.

"Very funny, Chad Dylan," came Sonny's sarcastic response from under the bed. "I'm being serious. I never go anywhere without those jeans."

"What's so special about them?" Chad queried, relaxing into the pillows on the bed. Damn, her bed was soft!

"They're my lucky jeans!" Sonny told him, resurfacing from under the bed with the shoe she'd been after. "I accidentally dropped a rib on them, so there's a barbecue sauce stain on the left thigh. And there's an ink stain on the crotch from when I accidentally dropped a pen that exploded. I fell and ripped a hole in the right knee…"

"They don't sound lucky," Chad said with a raised eyebrow. "They sound kinda disgusting. Not to mention just a little on the unlucky side."

"Good things happen when I wear those pants," Sonny said as she finished putting her shoes back in her closet.

"So would these pants look anything like the ones you're wearing?" Chad asked, taking note of the hole in the right knee of her jeans, then watched in pure joy as Sonny looked at her jeans, confusion etched across her pretty face.

"Oh-h," she murmured as realization dawned on her. "That explains it."

"So what all are you taking with you?" Chad asked, poking nosily through Sonny's suitcase. Girly colors assaulted his eyesight and feminine fabrics slipped through his fingers.

"Hands outta there, Cooper!" Sonny barked, slapping Chad's hand out of the bag.

"Are you taking my shirt?" Chad asked, wiggling an eyebrow at her.

"I don't see how that's any of your business," Sonny said as her face flushed a deep crimson color.

"It's okay if you are," Chad said nonchalantly. "I'm not judging you. Although you do look pretty sexy in it." Sonny made a face at him in response, tucking a shirt and a skirt into the luggage. "C'mere, you," Chad wheedled, reaching for her.

"Chad," Sonny whined. "I hafta pack for my trip." But she allowed Chad to pull her onto the bed anyway. "I leave in two days and I've barely started."

"You can finish later." Chad trailed a fingertip down her neck to trace her collar bone. Sonny sighed and closed her eyes, involuntarily leaning into his touch. "Right now," he continued, "we need to fix the fact that I haven't kissed you in three days…"

Kissing Chad was always and interesting and intoxicating experience. One time, Sonny would be flying, the next she would be drowning in a sea of bliss. And she always felt her senses were more alert when Chad kissed her. He would whisper her name between kisses so softly she was positive she'd be unable to hear it otherwise. His touch gave her goosebumps and caused chills to race up her spine.

"Sunshine…"

Like that.

Packing for her trip to Wisconsin traveled to the furthest, darkest recesses of Sonny's mind as Chad's hands slid up her shirt, bunching the fabric. Sonny sighed and rolled onto her back, pulling Chad on top of her as she went. His lips left hers and traveled to where her pulse was beating erratically in her throat. He growled as Sonny fisted her fingers in his hair.

"I told you good things happen when I wear these pants," Sonny told Chad breathlessly.

"Good things," Chad repeated quietly, gripping her thigh to hook her leg around his hips. Sonny moaned as his fingers began to wander.


June 4th

12:09 a.m.

Hollywood Apartments

Sonny's Apartment

Living Room

Sonny smiled at Chad as they lingered in the doorway. "I'll see you tomorrow," she promised quietly, fixing his hair so it didn't stick up in the back.

"Your mom isn't coming back tonight. She told me she's watching some kids overnight," Chad responded. He pulled her closer, breathing in her perfume and knowing he was slowly losing his willpower to stop when Sonny told him to. She'd been driving him crazy today tugging his hair, moaning his name… But she'd been telling him for months now that he wasn't getting any further if they weren't in love, leaving Chad with quite a lot to think about.

Chad had never been in love before, so he didn't know what it felt like. He knew he liked Sonny, cared about her deeply even. He'd do anything for her (he knew because he'd actually sat down and thought about it between scenes one day). But love…that wasn't something Chad was willing to mess around with. Maybe he could Google it or something to figure out if he actually was in love.

"What does my mom have to do with anything?" Sonny said, tilting her head curiously.

"I could stay over… If you want."

"No, Chad."

"We don't have to do anything."

"No-o, but you'd want to."

Chad gaped at her incredulously. "Of course I'd want to! That doesn't mean we have to."

"How about we don't push ourselves," Sonny suggested. She leaned up to kiss Chad, but he stepped away. "Where are you going?"

Chad shifted his weight from foot to foot uncomfortably. "I don't have as much willpower as you seem to think I have, sunshine."

"Chad-"

He kissed her cheek before walking backwards toward the elevator. "I'll call you tomorrow when I get to Florida."

"I thought I was taking you to the airport!"

"You have packing to do," Chad said, shrugging and then pressing the down button.

"Chad!"

"Night, babe."

Sonny watched as he stepped into the elevator and waved at her before vanishing behind the closing doors. Letting out a frustrated scream, Sonny slammed her front door shut then flopped down on the couch, blinking unseeingly at the ceiling. There was nothing like a disagreement with your boyfriend before you spent three months apart. No matter how much she cared about Chad, he was still one of the most disagreeable people she knew.

"Not to mention touchy," she grumbled to the empty room.


June 4th

9:27 a.m.

Casablanca, Morocco

Majestic Waters Resort

Tawni's Hotel Room

Balcony

"What do you want, Sonny?" Tawni snapped as she softly closed the sliding door. She looked back over her shoulder at Kyle, her Teen Gladiator hunk. He was sprawled across the bed on his back, snoring with his mouth wide open. Gross.

"I think Chad and I got in a fight."

"So?"

"So I don't know what to do, Tawni! Help me!"

Tawni wrinkled her nose. "Why should I care if you got in a fight with Chad? You guys are always fighting, Sonny. It's not like it's some big deal."

"You know guys way better than I do, Tawni. Please."

Tawni sighed and sat primly down on one of the deck chairs. "Ugh! Fine. But you owe me. I was asleep. Your stupid phone call almost woke up Kyle."

"Thanks."

There was a brief pause where Sonny didn't say anything so Tawni rolled her eyes and gave in. "What was the fight about?"

"I'm not even sure it was a fight," Sonny said apprehensively.

"If it wasn't a fight and if you didn't think it was serious, you wouldn't be calling me. Now spill!"

"…Sex," the brunette said meekly and Tawni burst into raucous laughter. "Kind of."

"Kind of?" Tawni asked through her giggles.

"He asked to stay over."

Gasping, Tawni lurched out of her chair and placed a hand over her heart. "Are you serious? No. WAY. You're freaking kidding me!"

"Um…no."

"Sonny, this is huge. I mean, like, eighties hair huge! He asked to stay over. He's ready to take the next step. It's sooo obvious."

"What?"

"Sex! Do I have to spell it out for you? Are you really that slow?"

"Tawni-"

"S-E-X! SEX!" Tawni bellowed, earning appalled glares from an elderly couple passing by. "Oh, like you haven't done it," she scoffed at them.

"We haven't," Sonny said.

"No, not you! I was… Wait. Did you say that you and Chad haven't had sex? Oh. My. GOD. Grady owes me my fifty bucks back!"

"You guys took bets on when Chad and I would…EW!"

"Oh, come on!" Tawni snorted. "It's a reasonable bet. Chad's a manslut and you're…well…you. We were all intrigued. Even Zora."

"You let Zora take the bet?" Sonny's voice was incredulous.

"Oh, quit being a prude," Tawni commanded, taking off her sunglasses and tossing them to the small glass table between the deck chairs. "Why haven't you slept with him? I hear he's good." She could practically hear Sonny squirming uncomfortably on the other end of the line.

"I said we couldn't until we were in love."

Well, there goes my theory, Tawni thought. "But he asked to stay over?" she questioned.

"Yeah. He said we didn't have to do anything and then he said something about not having the willpower to…well, not."

"Oh, jeez." Tawni sat back down on her abandoned chair. "Do you realize what you're putting this poor guy through?" she asked, hardly able to believe she was actually feeling sympathy for Chad. It was a disgusting, creepy feeling and she didn't care for it one bit. "Not only does he want you in every way, but he also has to figure out if he loves you. And I don't think Chad has ever been in love before. His mind is probably a screwed up mess!"

"What are you trying to say?" Sonny asked harshly. "Because I have my beliefs about this relationship. It's like you said, Chad's a slut."

"So you're afraid that if you sleep with him he's gonna leave you?"

"He's done it before!"

"Yeah, but to other girls. Not you. As much as I don't like him, Sonny, Chad's been with you for, like, almost seven months. Let him figure out his feelings, but cut him a break every now and then. I don't think he's going anywhere."

The door slid open and Kyle stepped out onto the deck, securing the bed sheet around his waist. He squinted sleepily into the sunshine and ruffled the back his dark brown hair as he scratched his head. Tawni smiled, glad to have him back in her life. Convincing him to get back together with her hadn't been easy, but the turmoil had been more than worth it.

"Sonny, I have to go."

"What? Tawni, I still need your help!"

"Talk to you later!" Tawni chirped into the phone. She hung up on a loudly protesting Sonny then pushed Kyle back into the room. "Who said you could get out of bed?" she purred.


June 5th

5:20 p.m.

Wisconsin

Andrew and Chelsea Munroe's House

Sonny smiled and thanked the cab driver. He tipped his ball cap at her then drove away, leaving Sonny on the curb outside of her brother's house. The front door flew open and Chelsea Munroe dashed down the front steps, the arm that wasn't full of her ten-month-old baby reaching out for her sister-in-law.

"You're here!"

"Hey, Chels!" Sonny said cheerfully, hugging the older girl and dropping a kiss on Tristan's head. "Hi, beautiful boy."

"Did you have a good flight?" Chelsea asked, picking up the smaller of Sonny's two bags and heading back toward the house. Sonny trailed after her.

"It was alright. A little cramped, but worth it in the end."

Chelsea laughed. "I'm glad you're finally here. It's been entirely too long since we last saw you. Drew's not off work yet, but he should be soon. I don't wanna abandon you or anything, but it's time for Tristan to eat dinner. Do you wanna go unpack?"

"Sure," Sonny said with a cordial smile. But in the back of her mind, she wasn't entirely focused on what was going on.

Chad had never called to tell her he'd gotten to Florida yesterday.


You know what sucks? When your best guy friend cheats on his girlfriend with you. That's what sucks. Especially when he's dating the exact kind of girl he told you he can't stand. But sometimes, that situation gives you just the right fuel and inspires you to write some of your best work. Thanks to my guy-who-shall-not-be-named, outside of ffn, I am in a writing frenzy! I might even bring that inspiration over to the SWAC fandom and start up another story. 'Might' being the key word.

Anyway, I've got a little competition for you guys in honor of my fifth anniversary on the site.

Here it is…

In the first section, there is a reference to a book series, a band, and a 80s film. One reference is right smack dab in the front of your face, the second is somewhat harder to find (though not much), and the third is difficult unless you know your 80s movies. Find these three references or be the first to guess at least two of the three and you get to write a line that I must include in the next chapter. Here are some hints:

Book Series

Hint One: the author of this series has the initials of B and A. And not necessarily in that order.

Hint Two: there are four books in this series.

Hint Three: there are two accompanying movies.

Band

Hint One: formed in Villa Park, Illinois.

Hint Two: they have been signed to three different labels thus far.

Hint Three: lost to Daughtry at the American Music Awards in the category for Best New Artist in 2007.

Movie

Hint One: it was directed by Frank Perry.

Hint Two: Faye Dunaway stars as Joan Crawford.

Hint Three: the reference is the line directly after Mrs. Munroe calls Sonny Alison for the first time.

Go ahead and Google the answers or whatever. It's not like I'll know! Like I said, finding these three references (or being the first to find at least two of the three) will earn you the chance to write a line for the next chapter that I have to include.

As always, reviews are much appreciated! Can you guys try hitting one-hundred? I promise I won't hold the next chapter hostage if you don't.

Love,

EmbracingRain