Disclaimer: I don't own anything but the plot

Nothing every quite escaped Trixie's acute gaze, no matter how stealthy people assumed that they were being. In fact, more often than not, the more low key that a person, or a pair, tried to be, the more likely that Trixie would catch whatever it was that you were doing. In this cause, Trixie was not even completely sure that the two in question even realized what they were doing. There was a certain air about them, as they huddled next to each other, across the cafeteria as if they were the only two in the world, that stated they were not even thinking about it. They definitely were not trying to be sneaky.

Still no matter, what they thought that they were or were not doing, the fact of the matter was that Mart and Diana were indeed up to something. And Trixie was sure that she had just the name for it. It brought a little grin to her face as she rolled her food around her plate, absentmindedly, barely giving it any notice.

"What, the big city take that county girl appetite right out of you?" Her shoulders tensed ever so slightly at the voice, though she managed not to outright jump. Brian was always more somber and serious than the rest of the members. While he was known for a good joke, just like everyone, if anyone was going to sneak up on her, it would have been her eldest brother, "That isn't like you Trix and you know it."

The look that she gave her half finished plate was coloured with surprise. She had not even really noticed what she was doing, too lost in her own thoughts. So much was going on, and not just her mystery. Everything was sliding in place, or at least trying to and Trixie couldn't help but feel like that awkward piece. The stray jigsaw puzzle square that got put back into the wrong box, and no matter how many times you tried to jam it into place, it just was not going to fit into that picture that you were making. She was doing a great job at pretending, and she was even starting to fool herself. Things were looking like perhaps they were setting up for her, falling back into the ways they maybe use to be. The fact remained however, things could not be how they use to be, they just couldn't. So why should she pretend that they could?

Why should she pretend that she was meant to fit in this picture, when she knew she was destined for another space, the missing piece in a completely different picture?

The voice in the back of her mind wouldn't stop reminding her that, maybe she would not like what the other picture was, once it came together.

"Not so, brother dear. I am simply lost in thought, and you know that is like me."

The dark haired boy, flashed her a grin, his face lighting up slightly, "Truer words were never spoken."

Grinning herself, Trixie began to place food in her mouth, not quite at a Mart pace, but not exactly at a lady like pace either. Age did not mean that she had to behave like a lady; she had said it once - more than once probably - and she would always say it, a woman maybe, an adult definitely, but Trixie Belden was never going to be a lady. And she was proud of it.

"And what mystery has captured that scrambled brain of yours today? Are we still meddling with dead bodies you have been told to stay away from, or has something else caught your eye?" While he sounded mostly amused, she could hear the faintest of warning that she had been receiving from Jim all along. From Brian, with none of the extra feelings that came with being involved with Jim, the concern was accepted with a slightly more grace, however she couldn't help the defensive feeling that bubbled up in her anyway. She was an adult and capable of taking care of herself, when was everyone going to realize that?

"If you must know, Brian, I was pondering the mystery of our mutual sibling, and his dark haired interest." She tossed her head, though those blue eyes of hers sparkled playfully. A playful sparkle that was reflected in his own dark eyes, as Brian followed her gaze.

"Of course, the greatest mystery of all, love," Trixie avoided shifting uncomfortably, just barely, but did manage it. Considering everything that love was doing to her life, what it had done to her life, it was the one mystery that she was sure she was never going to solve. Whatever cards fate held for her, love just did not seem to be one of them. Not at least, any good sort of kind of love. "I myself, while I have not had quite the eye for mysterious acts as other members of my family, have been keeping an eye on that one for a while."

Turning her head to the side, Trixie couldn't help but grin ever so slightly, "And you haven't gotten told to bother out?"

"Our mutual Sibling, as you say, has been very mum, on the details of this relationship," Brian's amusement seemed to seep out of him for a moment, and he gave a sigh, "He was mum on this too, but last time he took it a little too hard when she left."

Resting her chin on her hands, Trixie watched the two with a careful gaze, looking from one, then the other and then back again. She was not entirely sure what she was looking for, definitely not sure if she was the one that was authorized to behave as if she had any knowledge on such actions, but she could not help but feel satisfied with was she saw.

"Di regretted last time." The other girl had not quite shared with her this news in exact words, but Trixie was sure that the clues she had gotten, lead to this anyway, "This time is different."

"You think so, Miss Belden?"

"I do, Mister Belden."

Trixie was not exactly avoiding Ben, however she was not seeking him out either. For the others around them, this did not seem like a something that was very unusual. Most of them - aside from Honey and Jim - had not noticed the two spending more time together than would be expected at all. If they had, they really did not think much of it at all. She had not been seeking him out all that often before. He was the one that had been looking for her, he always talked to her, came to find her, not the other way around. At least that was what she was telling herself.

While she did miss having another brain to talk the mystery over with, she also found that she needed wanted some space to think about things. Though the more she tried to think about things the more that her head hurt. Her conversation with Jim had left her feeling slightly content with where she stood with things. The pain and confusion that she felt had faded ever so slightly, and she could not be in the same room with the man without feeling as if the walls were going to come crashing in on her. It still hurt of course, but not as much as it use to. She had meant what she had said to him, and was sticking to those words. It might be hard at first, but this trip had shown her that they could possibly be friends again.

Part of her wondered if it hurt her so much because she had lost him - and all of her friends, her childhood, everything that mattered to her - completely. She had needed time to deal, that was something that would never change. Trixie looked back on those moments, and could not see how she could have continued to spend time with him right after it had happened. But maybe if she had stayed at home, if she had only taken a bit of time to accept what happen, and then went back to her friends like Dan had always told her to do, then it might not have hurt for so long.

She might have been able to let go of her pain a whole lot sooner.

All of that was what she had realized about Jim. All the headache that his presence has given her had seemed to fade with one conversation, yet, that conversation, and all the ones that it had come before it had caused a brand new confusion to fall upon her head. Something that she could not sort with said boy hovering over her shoulder making her feel all the things that she did not understand why she was even feeling them.

That was why she was avoiding him. Who was she kidding? Trixie was avoiding Ben and she could lie to herself all that she wanted, but they both knew it. The both knew it so well, that finally Ben had come to find that even his good natured patience's had had enough.

"Trixie!" While Ben did not quite sound angry as he moved across the wide field - she could not really recall a time in the last few days, or even as long as she had known him, in which Ben moved to sound completely angry - he did not sound pleased with her.

Although that might have been the reason for the twist that came in her stomach at the sound of his voice, she told herself otherwise. Thinking that the fact that he was displeased with her could cause her to be unhappy with herself was bringing on the start of the headache that she had been avoiding. His presence was enough to start that headache, it was enough to start her to think, and that was exactly what she had not wanted to do.

She had a mystery to solve, not boys to waste her thoughts on. That was not how good detectives got their jobs done.

"Ben, you hardly need to raise your voice like that, I can hear you." She gave a him a grin, it was the sort of grin that she gave every foe she had ever faced, telling them that no matter what they did she was not scared of them. The grin had never been true for any of them.

And it wasn't true now.

Ben did scare her and the fact that he scared her, made it twice as worse.

"Really Belden? You sure about that, because I don't think this was the first time recently I have talked to you; it's just the first time that you have spoken back."

Tossing her head, the girl gave an airy laugh. Something that she had learned from watching Di with boys, in fact, there might have even been a time when she had seen her friend use the same move on this very boy, "You're imaging things, Ben. "

He shook his head, those eyes of his adopting the faintest sketch of a hard edge. Trixie was stuck with the sudden thought that she may never have seen Ben angry before this moment, but she might very well see him angry now. Trixie was not entirely sure how she felt about such a thought; it scared and excited her at the same time.

And she wasn't sure she wanted to think about why it excited her.

"Lying isn't attractive Trixie." He grabbed her arm, stopping her from moving away, though she had not attempted to do so. Whatever he was about to say, he wanted to make sure the blonde girl stayed to listen, "You are avoiding me. If that's what you want to do, fine. You're a big girl and can make your own choices, but I think it's also only fair that you tell me why you are doing it."

Blinking, Trixie swallowed hard; what was the answer to that? Did she even have an answer? Was she avoiding him because she liked him? Because she didn't? She did not know what she felt about him, that was why she was avoiding him, but that sounded like an excuse to her own ears. It sounded like something that she did not want to admit to. This very situation was why she was avoiding him. Could he not see that.

"Why are you doing it Trix?"

He wasn't going to leave unless she said something. That much was obvious to her, so the only problem left was figure out what she wanted to say, or spend the rest of her life standing in this very spot. Her heart was hammering in her chest, the sound of it echoing in her ears so loud she did not even know what she was going to say, but at the very least she was sure she was going to say something.

Only, it turned out, in the end that she did not have to.

"Trixie?" Jim's voice called out to them, only sounding slightly hesitant. The expression on his face was hard to read from the safe distance he was keeping, creating a shadow that covered his features, but Trixie had a feeling that he wasn't that pleased anyway. "You have a visitor."

Surprised, she took a step away from Ben, his own reaction to this news so similar to her own that it too no effort at all to get out of his grip. He had all but forgotten his hand was even there, instead focusing on the unusual news that someone was here, to see her. Who would come to see her?

Who even knew that she was there?

"A Visitor?" That was from Ben, not her.

Jim's movement towards the other man still had a slightly sharp edge to it, "Yes. She said that Trixie knew her. You too, actually. Knew my name oddly enough."

Her eyebrows furrowed as a thought began to come to her, "Did she say her name?"

"Yes. Angela."

"I am so, so, so sorry to have just shown up like this, but I just couldn't- I mean I just couldn't - weight down on- I just felt so guilty!"

The four sat in the just outside of the stables. At the picnic table sat Trixie and Ben facing an apparently distraught Angela; Jim who had refused to leave, stating he wanted to know what was going on, hovered underneath a tree nearby. He was far enough away to not appear to be intruding, however, he was still close enough that he could clearly hear every word spoken between the group at the table.

Confusion would be an understatement, to explain how all other members felt about Angela's reaction upon seeing Trixie, and Ben. Jim would later claim that she had been perfectly normal when she had walked into his office asking if he knew where she could find them. Still, one look at the curly haired blonde, and the other woman had broken into near hysterics, apologizing for something nobody but herself knew. It was moments like this that Trixie wished that Honey was around, however she had gone off with Brian for the day - it would be impossible to reach her. So Trixie would just have to attempt to be as kind and understanding as her best friend was.

"I just couldn't believe that he-"

What would Honey do?

Reaching out a hand, she placed it over top of the other girl's and lowered her head slightly so that she could look into her eyes instead, "Angela, sorry for what? He who?"

"Dylan! I mean, I always knew that he was a little unstable, what Jane thought she saw in him, I don't know. Thank god she came to her senses before it was too late; but I mean I never thought that he would actually- I tried to stop him but he just kept going! It wasn't like I was driving, I was just a passenger, what could I do?"

Straightening suddenly, she pulled away from the other girl, an odd glow coming to her blue eyes as slowly the pins began to fall in place. Not only about why Angela had decided to come, but things about Dylan were becoming clear as well.

"Are you saying that Dylan was driving the car that pushed us off the road?" Ben's voice sounded distant as Trixie attempted to pull things together for herself. The tangled knot that was in her mind was slowly straightening out into separate threads. While all the threads had yet to form a full picture, she could feel that she was close. "And you were in the car as well?"

Angela gave another tearful response, filled with apologies and statements that she had been completely incapable of doing anything about it, but Trixie wasn't listening. She was still focusing on the one thing that she had said, the warm glow of a light bulb going off in her head as she thought more and more about it.

"Angela, you said 'thank god she came to her senses' what did you mean by that?"

The other girl, in mid sob, stopped suddenly, blinking and then as quickly as they had started, the hysterics were gone as if they had never existed. "Well, she left him didn't she? I mean everyone knew it wasn't going to work, it was only matter of time before Jane did it too. It was just what she was like Jane, could have any boy that she wanted, but always threw them away. It wasn't like they gave her up, adored the ground that she walked on. I always told her she would get in trouble for it."

Trixie leaned forward on the table, her head tilting slightly as she though further about what the other girl was saying to her, assessing it for what it was.

"So, you thought Dylan was trouble?"

"Everyone thought Dylan was trouble; I mean, you talked to him didn't you? He only use to be worse. Brooding, and thinking he was better than all of 'this', like he even knew what 'this' was. Jane was just too nice to behave otherwise." Angela seemed to have completely forgotten her former hysterics and was instead indulging in living in the past, departing her information as if she were something important.

She lost the rest of the conversation, focusing on the answers that she had gotten instead, filing them into her story, making a bigger picture.

Everyone thought Dylan was trouble.

She let out a slight yell as the box she was trying to put away toppled off the top of the stable, her balance rocking, and she was sure that the box was going to fall on her until she felt an arm wrap around her waist and another hand stopping the box from falling down on top of her.

"You trying to crush that pretty little head of yours Belden?"

Heat spread across her freckled face as she looked up to find him so close to her. When had he even gotten there? She had not heard him enter the stable.

"I suppose this is where I thank you then?"

He pushed the box back on its shelf and smiled. Though she noted how he hadn't actually stepped away from her; why wasn't he stepping away from her. There was no need for him to be this close. Actually, the better question was why hadn't she stepped away? She as a free person, she could leave whenever she wanted, so why hadn't she?

"Only if you want. Actually, I have a question for you."

She raised an eyebrow, "You do?"

"Can I kiss you?"

She blinked, the heat that was in her face increasing, and the hammering of her heart, the feeling from before and the echo in her head started up again. Out of all the things that she had expected to come out of his mouth, that had been the last one.

"Since when did Ben Riker ask first and kiss later?" Her voice wasn't as strong as she had wanted it to be, when she asked that question.

"When girl's started smacking me for being presumptuous."

"Presumptuous? You sound like my brother, the obnoxious one that is."

The boy only smiled bigger, "That was where I got that one."

A pause dragged on between the two, silence filling as he waited for an answer, and Trixie had in part forgotten he had even asked a question. She knew there was something she was supposed to focus on, but she just couldn't get her mind to fix upon it.

"So can I?"

She blinked slightly, shaking her head to clear her thoughts, "Can you what?"

"Can I kiss you?"

a/n: Well, I updated for you; I really hope that I haven't lost the flow of the story, and the characters. It has been a while and I am trying to get back into the swing of things. But anyway, I hope you enjoyed it and I shall try to update again soon!