A/N: I'm in a good mood because I just started to book my LA trip for early next year! Yay! Look out California! So, here's two chapters in one day!

Chapter Three;
Follow Your Heart

Erika Moore lifted one leg straight up and caught it around the ankle. Pressing against her calf to stretch it, she glanced up as she was joined in the room by a familiar face, her elder brother Paul. He was assessing a clipboard and looked up as he noticed her there. "Still in training?"

"Never stop." She thumbed back towards the poster behind her. "You don't win challenges by slacking off."

Paul raised an eyebrow. "I can tell you now, if mum saw this she'd probably slap me and tell me I'm over-working my baby sister." Erika brought her foot down with a grin. "You're nineteen, lacking anything like a social life, and I don't think you've ever had a boyfriend!"

Pulling her long black hair back into a ponytail Erika laughed. "You know, most big brothers would be happy I don't have a boyfriend, would be pushing me for more training and less flirting."

Paul frowned and pointed outside. "OUT!" Grabbing her jacket Erika laughed and pulled it on.

"Fine, but if I return knocked-up and unable to win anymore competitions, you're to blame." She skipped out as Paul flicked through the clipboard sheets once again.

…

Holly pulled her second bag onto her shoulder and lugged it downstairs. It was heavier than she'd first imagined but she didn't complain, happy to just be free and ready to go. Her train didn't leave for another six hours, but she'd happily sit at a train station for a few hours. It was easier than facing the inevitable.

Today was the day her father returned and her grandparents had already admitted they had no say in her care. She was headed for life with her father unless she did something otherwise.

Good thing she'd planned ahead.

"Holl? Is that you?" Holly's grandmother's voice floated into the hallway. Holly paused and dumped her bags on the hallway floor.

"Yes gran, it's me. What's up?" The fact was that neither of Holly's grandparents knew her final destination, probably because they'd try and stop her, so she'd taken to doing the one thing she never wanted to do – lying to her family. "I'm just grabbing the last of my stuff."

"Okay. Your father called. He said he'd be early."

Holly almost stopped in her tracks. She'd told her grandparents that at 2pm she'd be meeting her father at the local café, and she'd told her father to come pick her up at 4pm. She hoped that by the time they found her note and realised that she'd gone she'd already be on a train to Philadelphia, but now…

"What?"

Her grandmother stuck her head around the corner. At eighty-two, Elisabeth looked like your average grandmother, and essentially she was, except as far as Holly knew she was the quickest woman on Earth. She'd clearly worked out long ago that Holly was trying to play her, and you had to get up early to beat Elisabeth. "He called to make sure of the address and it seemed you got the times a little off." Elisabeth smiled slyly. "So I made sure he was corrected."

"Gran!"

Elisabeth held up a hand. "Whatever you're up to Holly, running away from everyone who cares about you isn't the way, so you're going to face your father and tell him exactly what you're up to, no matter how ridiculous it is."

"Gran, I requested a try-out at a Philadelphia dance academy and it was accepted, it's a chance to teach and learn the only thing I like, the only thing I'm good at."

Her grandmother sighed. "I thought you knew this dancing thing was for fun only?"

"Do you know how many people that are great dancers now have been told that dancing is just a 'hobby'? This is my chance to do something I enjoy. Face it grandma, I'll never be a lawyer or mathematician, I can barely write and I failed science. Dancing is all I can do."

Elisabeth held up a hand. "Alright sweetheart, but it's not up to me, it's up to your father."

"Gran! If I go now he doesn't need to know, doesn't need to try and stop me, I can just leave the same way he did – without thinking about anyone else at all."

"Holly, you know your father had problems, he didn't just leave you without thinking about you. He wants to know you. Give him a chance to be your father at least once." Elisabeth walked away then, not keen to keep fighting her granddaughter. Realising she couldn't leave, Holly slunk into the living room and sunk into the couch with a sigh.

…

Camille glanced up from a bowl of cereal at the sound of three distinctive raps on her door. It had been a while since she'd seen Moose and even though she knew he was currently doing his exams she was beginning to wonder whether he was avoiding her again. The three knocks, his usual call sign, made her grin and jog to the door to pull it open. She leant on the door and frowned at him. "I thought you'd disappeared on me."

He shrugged, not returning Camille's smile. Hers faded through uncertainty. Why did he look so worried? "Exams do that. Can I come in?"

"Sure." Pushing the door wide open, Camille stepped aside and let him walk in. He went straight to the table, glancing at her cereal and then taking a seat. "What's wrong?"

"We need to talk."

"Oh great, that's never good." Camille regathered her bowl, thinking it was going to be another talk about how uncertain Moose was. She didn't know what was wrong with him lately but all of a sudden everything made him worry.

"I found a job. The perfect job really. I just have to get it now."

Camille turned with a grin. "Really? Moose, that's awesome!" But he wasn't smiling yet. "What, what is it?"

"There's a problem Cam. It's not in New York. It's in Philadelphia."

…

Holly didn't even realise she'd fallen asleep until a soft shake of her shoulder forced her awake. Her watch, which she glanced at straightaway, told her it was a little after 2:30pm, and when she looked up from it to find her grandmother and father standing in front of her, she realised why she'd been woken. It was time to face her future. "Your father's here Holl."

Holly narrowed her eyes at her grandmother. "I can see that gran." She gave her father a fleeting glance before standing up. "Hi." Shuffling past them, she came to her bags that were still sitting in the hallway. She picked one up gingerly, her still tired body meaning she failed to get a decent hold, and dropped it again. Her father appeared at her side and picked it up, causing Holly to turn on him. "I'm not a child, I can carry it."

Her father looked hurt. "Can we talk Holly?" He thumbed to the doorway. "Outside?"

"I don't have anything to say dad," she spat the word 'dad' with all the venom it deserved. Calling this man her father was farcical. When was the last time he'd acted anything like a dad? The day of her mother's funeral he'd avoided her, and before that he was off fighting all the time and was never at home. Back then he'd been a hero, able to be forgiven, but for the last twelve years he'd just been a loser that happened to help her procreation. Father indeed. "I just want to get on the next train to Philly and leave."

Robert Given didn't know his daughter as well as he should, but he knew from the look on her face that she wasn't angry at all; she was still hurt. He hated leaving her behind when he went off for help, searched for a way out of the hold of addiction, but there'd been no other choice. Now his daughter was an adult and didn't need him. "I know about the dance academy, your grandmother told me, that's what we need to talk about."

"You can't make me stay here. I'm an adult now a…"

He cut her off. "A dependant adult. An adult without a job and nothing to differentiate her from a child."

Holly frowned. "How dare you come in here and call me a child?"

"Holly, we're talking about Philadelphia, so outside, now!" He turned to the door and pulled it open, staring back at his daughter. Giving in, Holly joined him on the porch, leaning against the banister and crossing her arms over her chest. "What is this place?"

It took her a second to formulate a tone that didn't sound quite so condescending. "A dance academy. There's a teaching position, no education necessary, and I think I can do it. I used to lead the local dance group in high school. I know how to teach."

"I know you do, your mother was a teacher and you're so much like her it's not even funny, which is probably why I have so much trouble with you. She used to disagree with me all the time."

Holly had almost forgotten her mother was a teacher; it had been so long since she'd known her, but now she could remember her mother coming home every afternoon and talking about the kids in her class. How jealous of them Holly used to be. They got to see her mother for six hours a day, five days a week. Holly's mother was hers to keep, not to share with other kids. She'd always been the protective type. "If you disagreed all the time, why did she stay with you?"

"Because she liked a challenge. Just like you I suspect." Holly gave a curt nod. "You can dance?" Another nod. "No one in my family can dance so I guess that's something else you got from your mum." Holly stayed silent as Robert frowned at his hands. "And you think you can get this job?"

"I know it's a long way away, but it's a good school, and there'll be onsite accommodation available. It's a good income and steady work an…" she wanted to continue pleading her case, but Robert held up a hand.

"You were always the organized one Holly, so I have no doubt that if you've set your mind to this then you've researched everything about it, probably even printed out a map of the city." He was right; there was one sitting in her suitcase right now. "What time does your train leave?"

"6:03."

Robert nodded slowly. "If I drive you to the train station then you don't have to go until about five, so you can come have dinner with me first, you can tell me what I've missed."

Holly wasn't sure exactly what had just happened, so it took her a second to realise he was letting her go. "You're happy for me to do this?"

"I've spent the last twelve years doing my own thing and holding you back from a normal life, giving you and your grandparents nothing but a family embarrassment, a shame file. You have a chance to be great, follow a dream, and I am the only one holding you back? That would be unfair." He sighed. "You don't need me Holly, you never have, so go and be a star." He didn't expect the hug he suddenly received, but he took it anyway, brushing his daughter's long blonde hair off her forehead as she hugged him. "Go show the world what a Given can really do."

…

"Philadelphia?" Camille frowned, resting one hand on the kitchen counter. "Why the hell would you take a job offer in Philadelphia?"

"It's a dance academy. I can teach any subject I like – hip hop, jazz, c…"

"A dance academy? You're above that Moose. You're an NYU graduate now. You could teach at any of the best schools in New York. Or go into engineering. You received good marks all year in electrical engineering, why give it up now?"

"Because this is what I want Cam." Moose frowned. "Why can't you see that?"

"I get it Moose, you're so worried about the future that you're taking the first available opportunity, but if you wai…"

"I'm not going to wait." He stood up now, eager to defend his choice, and Camille took a step back. "Why won't you just accept that?"

She looked away, thinking over the whole thing, then nodded. "Okay, yeah, I accept it, I accept everything. You want to leave here, you want to leave me, then so be it." Moose made to protest but Camille continued. "I think you should just go now." Camille couldn't believe how obvious it all was. This wasn't about Philly or dance academies; this was about them. He'd been avoiding her, not returning any calls of late, and now he was springing this on her? Only Moose would find such a roundabout way of saying he didn't want to be with her anymore.

"Cam, I d…"

"Okay," she held up a hand, shaking a little from fighting the hurt, then started to the door. "Okay I'll go, but if I return and you're gone, then maybe you shouldn't bother coming back." She stalked off, the door slamming behind her, and Moose looked to the floor with a sigh.