A/n: I am so sorry that I took so long to update this. Summer ended and then I just got caugth up in a bunch of stuff, but I think it's a pretty solid next instalment and I hope that will make up for it.

Disclaimer: I do not own anything - borrowing it all but the mystery.

"What's going on with you and my cousin?"

Trixie sighed; she had been wondering when Honey would get around to this question since everything that had occurred the evening before.

Wondering and dreading it.

"Nothing," Trixie said with a shrug, feigning disinterest. She did not wish to go into it - even with her best friend.

"Don't you give me that Trixie Belden," Honey's pretty features contorted into a stern glare, "I saw it. He likes you."

Trixie laughed as if the thought was absurd even though it had occurred to her only the night before, "Don't be ridic. Ben Riker does not like girls like me."

At least that was what she had been telling herself. He hated Tomboys, always have. He was much more interested in the glamorous type - like Di.

"Don't put yourself down," Honey defended her against herself, as she always had, "You are absolutely stunning, and you know it."

"I'm not putting myself down Hon, I'm just stating a fact. Ben has always gone for a certain type and I am just not it."

Honey sniffed, "I know my cousin, and he likes you."

Trixie paused. For a while she had been able to convince herself that she was imagining everything with Ben but with Honey behaving so certain…

Was it possible that they both could be so wrong?

Did she even want to be wrong?

"Well maybe he isn't my type," Trixie said holding her head slightly higher.

That was what she was trying to convince herself. Ben was so-so… he was so not Jim. Even with years of advanced maturity they were as differed as night and day.

Jim might have hurt her but that didn't mean…

"Is he?" Honey asked softly.

How could she still love Jim - for she did - and yet even think…

Her shoulders dropped, "I don't know; I use to think… but now?"

The two girls stayed in silence for a long moment. Each trapped in their own thoughts that were leading them to remarkably similar places.

"What about Jim?"

Trixie sighed again, "I don't know Honey, I just don't know."

No matter what other problems were going on in her life, Trixie's moll dick badge always came on first.

And now she had as big a problem to solve for a mystery than ever.

"Why would Dylan run us off the road if he didn't do it?"

Ben looked at Trixie, "then you don't think he did it?"

"Are you sure you saw him?" she ignored Ben and turned to Honey.
The three were holed up in the girls' room to go over what they had so far. Both Trixie and Honey had, for the time being, forgotten about their conversation that morning.

"Well I can't be certain, everything was so chaotic after the crash but…" Honey paused a moment before she gave a small yet determined nod, "if I had to say, I would say yes - he was in the car."

"Why wouldn't you suspect Dylan? There was definitely something off about the guy, " Ben repeated his question.

"I know, it's just that…" she paused a moment her blue eyes glazing over with thought, "I don't understand why he would do it; everything we have says that Jane was leaving Thomas for him."

She bit her lip softly as she thought, trying to think of some clue she was missing.

"Maybe he didn't actually want her," Honey suggested.

Trixie opened her mouth to disagree but Ben beat her to it, "Nah, did you hear the way the man spoke of her? A man does not speak about a girl that way unless she is pretty darn special to him."

"Exactly," Trixie threw her hands in the air, "That's why it doesn't make sense." She turned to Ben, "you're a boy - if the girl you want tells you she is leaving her boyfriend to be with you, are you going to kill her?"

Ben took a long time to answer. Instead he let his gaze wander over Trixie's for a long moment before shaking his head, as if for a second he had forgotten the question.

"Never."

Trixie blushed but refused to get distracted. This wasn't the time for anything that didn't have to do with Jane.

"Exactly," she stated, "So what are we missing?"

The three sat in silence, each deep in thought, trying to find the nugget they were missing; the nugget that would make everything make sense, fall into place.

"What do we know so far?" Honey asked, breaking the silence.

Trixie held her finger up and went over to the small desk, pulling out a piece of paper. With a pen she printed Jane's name on the centre of the page in bold clear print.

"We know she had a fight, and broke up with her boyfriend," she scrawled Thomas's name to the left of Jane's.

"They did that because Jane was seen with another boy, " Ben added. Trixie nodded and wrote Dylan's name on the other side of the page.

"And Thomas was told that by her best friend," Honey finished, so Trixie added Angela's name to the top of the page.

She drew a little picture of a crashed car by Dylan's name, "So then that leaves us where we started - why would Dylan push us off the road?"

"If Jane was going to leave Thomas for him," Honey clarified.

There was a slight pause as all three looked at the paper.

"Unless," Ben took the pen from Trixie and drew a question mark between Dylan and Jane's names, "she wasn't going to go steady with Dylan after all."

The sun shone down on Trixie, lighting up her unruly curls, and turning her into a glowing beacon from her perch at the top of the hill.

In her hand dangled a simple, old locket; a locket that although she rarely wore - almost never -she enjoyed having around when she thought - when she was really in the mood to ponder. As she was now.

Shifting the chain in her hand, she flipped the locked open with practiced easy to look at the photos inside.

One was an old photograph, placed in the locket before it was given to her. It was a couple, old fashioned - people she had never met in her life - and on the woman's neck there was an exquisite emerald necklace.

The other picture she should have removed long ago. She had tried several times but every time she would move to do so she would realize that she could not.

So despite the pain it caused her, Jim's smiling face stayed right where it was.

Right where it belonged.

So deep in her own thoughts, her mind filled with ideas of Jane, Thomas, Ben and - always - Jim, that she failed to hear the footsteps of the person approaching up the hill until they spoke.

"Hey, is that Ruth's locket?" Jim's voice, soft yet surprised, startled her.

She quickly snapped the trinket shut, blushing and hoping that he hadn't noticed the photos inside it.

"Yes, it is," she replied softly, gathering the chain up in her hand until the whole thing was hidden from view.

"I didn't know you kept that," he said softly, "that was quite the trip - one of our better ones, I'd say."

Trixie smiled despite herself as memories of their week or so in Virginia came back to her, "It was - we made some good friends there…. The Bob-Whites were always making good friends."

"We still could."

Trixie's head snapped up and their eyes met. The words, although spoken softly hung in the air, being held as firmly as if they had been a command. It enveloped the two into a small parcel of words, both spoken and unspoken.

Trixie was the first to break it.

"What are you doing here?"

"For you. I wanted to…" Jim sighed and ran a hand through his hair, "Can we talk?"

Trixie bit her lip and moved her gaze to the land below her.

The hill was a tall one situated just behind the last of the school buildings; below her sprawled all of Jim's land - Jim's school - Jim's dream.

And it was easier to look at it than think about what would be opened up if she allowed Jim to speak right now.

She began to wrap a loose curl around her finger.

"Do you - do you want to sit down?" she let her eyes flash to his face for a moment before quickly settling back on the valley.

She heard him more than saw him settle himself down beside her - not too close, but not too far either. They were a safe distance away - a distance that was neutral, that didn't speak anything.

"It's quite a sight isn't it?" he finally said looking down at what was before them both, "I really just can't believe that after all this time - I never actually thought-"

"It's great Jim, it's really, really," she shook her head, "I mean gleeps, it's your dream Jim! I'm - I'm really proud of you. No matter what else happened… I want you to know that this," she waved her hand over all that was his, "to get all this was exactly what I wanted for you."

There was a pause where Trixie continued to nervously fiddle with her hair while Jim plucked a piece of grass from the ground and ran it between his fingers.

"Thank you Trixie," he paused again, focusing really hard on his blade of grass, "But I've found that- that it's not the same as I thought it would be - it isn't as good without you."

Trixie felt her jaw drop slightly and her face colour, "Jim -"

"No Trix, just let me get this out. I've had a lot of time to think about this and I think it's about time that you let me say it," he followed his stern statement with a stern glance.

Trixie was too stunned to respond; her heart was beating wildly, her brain was frozen, and her tongue was broken.

Jim decided to take this silence as an agreement.

"Before you found me in that crumbling old building my uncle left me, my life was a mess. I was going nowhere - I was a jaded kid who was desperate to do anything to keep me from Jonesy - You changed that. You - and Honey -changed my life; you were the best things to ever happen to me.

"But it was more than that Trixie. From that moment on, whether I knew it or not, all my memories - my life - was, is you. I remember everything; the way you looked calling out through the smoke as Ten Acres burned down, the look of satisfied joy when you found me at the Smith's farm, the way I wanted to smack Dick upside the head for laying a hand on you. The square dance in Arizona, your ice skating routine, that locket - how stupid I was not to realize you were asking for help the night before the antique show, what might have happened if we hadn't shown up at that Hamburger joint - that god damn flood."

He sighed and shook his head, "But I screwed that up. I know what that looked like and I don't expect you to forgive me but… you got to know I was stupid, yes, and too trusting, but I would never do anything to intentionally harm you."

Once more he stopped, dropping the piece of grass from his hand and taking a long time to regroup himself.

"As inadequate a word as it is, I just wanted - needed - to say I'm sorry, and although I don't expect, can't expect for anything to go back to the way it was - wanted to ask - beg -please don't cut me out of your live. I just want … I want you in whatever way you'll let me have you."

Trixie blinked. Her head was full, bouncing with all the words that he had said, and memories that had been stirred up.

Her heart, though, was oddly calm.

Without even thinking about them the words she needed came.,

"It really hurt me Jim. I trusted you, and then," Trixie bit her lip and shook her head, pushing the memory aside, "I know how I reacted was… but I needed time - I needed to get away. And then it just became easier to hide."

Taking a deep breath she geared up her strength until she was looking Jim right in the eyes.

"But I can't hide anymore - coming here made me think and," she swallowed deeply, "I do believe you - I think some part of me always did. But I can't -" she broke eye contact for a moment, "I missed you too - but friends is all I can - I can't -"

Her stuttering was interrupted when Jim placed his hand over hers,

"Friends is all I need."

A/N: Well that was the chapter. Thank you for reading I hope you enjoyed it - and for you Jim fans I hope that last bit was enought to make up for such a long break - as always I would really love for you to review. Just take a quick second to tell me what you thought - what you liked or didn't, what I could improve on - and it would really be appricated.