I just want all of you AMAZING readers (who have given me the most AMAZING feedback! THANK YOU!) to know that I do not own anything, that the ages are a little jacked up because of the timeline I have started things at, and that I love you all for clicking the link that lead you to this crazy story. Thank all of you that reviewed and/or favorite-ed and/or followed my story.

Important-ish: Soccer season has started up again, and I have either been busy at practice, with homework, or just too tired to write. So most of my chapters are probably going to be a little late... sorry.

Thought I'd give you a date to help things go along... Last chapter was like December 10th, this chapter is December 17th... And I am going to skim through their arrival to Haven for the fest. Because something hopefully funny, cool, and adventurous will probably take up most of my writing time, and I want to give you guys something after my lateness.

Chapter 27: Stormed Out Of His Life

The next week was semi-perfect, the paparazzi were still looking for their story, but Nicolette had been making- what Dr. Flynn said- wonderful progress. She would now speak full sentences to any man, and could go shopping with her mom and aunts without panic attacks. She had been getting messages from her friends about the Annual End of Fall Fest, and had spoken to her parents about it, knowing that her father would take them out of pure curiosity.

"It's amazing! All of the fall foods are made in huge batches! There's music, plays, skits and comedies. Everyone is laughing and having fun, and the redneck roller costars are brought out for the little kids. The teenagers usually run the booths, and every night there's this theme for the teenagers' parties. Like there's mudding, party on a barge and that sort of thing!" Nicolette explained excitedly.

"It sounds like a lot of fun." Ana grinned.

"It is, and every night, a huge bone fire is made and s'mores are cooked, scary stories told, some daring teenagers walk across the fire pit. It's fun." Nicolette smiled again as her parents shared looks.

The next day they told her to pack her bag.

Nicolette bounced on the edge of her seat. It wasn't just any weekend. It was the weekend. Haven's Annual End of Fall Fest. And she was super excited. Apparently her leg had been healing beyond expectations and she was able to wear a brace- without her crutches if her father wasn't around- and could dance randomly for short periods of time. So if she limited herself perfectly, she could quiet possibly be on stage with the girls.

Not that her father would know about it until the last possible minute.

Nicolette sent a silent glare to the Hartsville boys who were fighting over a toy. Due to winter break all three boys didn't have to attend or teach school.

"Sorry." The boys murmured. Nicolette smiled at them and leaned against Max's arm as he read the new fertilization methods in Tractor Magazines. Nicolette reached over to her headphones and placed them inside her ears before pressing play.

The slow beat filled her ears and she pulled her music sheets back into her arms. Tapping her pencil along with the beat she attempted to murmur the words of the song under her breath, but nearly ten minutes, four different revised song lines, and nearly twenty different lyrics and notes later she could feel the stares that were on her.

Looking up she spotted her entire family watching her.

"Sorry. I guess I was singing louder than I thought." Nicolette bit her lip and casted her eyes downward.

"No please, continue." Grace grinned, music really had been a remedy for both father and daughter.

"We want to hear it." Mia urged.

"No, it's not even finished yet. It's still no good." Nicolette blushed closing her book.

"But Nickki! I like it when you sing!" Billy pouted.

"Yeah! You look so happy!" Joseph agreed.

"Can't argue with that logic." Max whispered in his girlfriend's ear. She was almost always happy, but she was always happiest when she was in her zone. The music seemed to flow through her instead of around her.

"Here." Nicolette said handing the boys her earbuds and changing the song so it was one of her band's albums playing, and laying back on her boyfriend's arm.

"Why are you so hesitant to sing around them? You used to sing circles around everyone." Max questioned.

"It doesn't seem right to sing without being in Haven." Nicolette shrugged, Max didn't believe her but nodded- knowing that a fight wouldn't get them anywhere.

...000...000 Grace's POV

When Nicolette, Christian, Ana and Carrick told me that Haven was a small town, I wasn't expecting it to be this small. Most of the town consisted of a couple diners, a makeshift ER, the school, City Hall, the post office, a park- which currently housed a stage-, and the few houses that littered the area. Nicolette caught me staring.

"Small isn't it? But it's home." Nicolette seemed to grin wider as the SUV's pulled into what seems to be the Hartsville farm.

She and the Hartsville boys got out first. Billy running straight for a woodshed.

"Billy Lee Hartsville! Get back here right now and help your brothers unpack!" Nicolette shouted, Billy skidded to a stop and ran for the house instead.

"What's in the shed?" Taylor asked, I bet he was worrying about security.

"Billy and Joseph have a 'man cave' out in the shed. It was Max's when he was younger." Nicolette answered attempting to help Max haul a bag out of the trunk, they were staying on the farm all vacation, Max said that he needed to help tend to the land.

Taylor nodded in understanding.

I looked around, it was indeed a farm. Nothing I expected a farm to be, I thought all farms had cows and chickens, this had corn and hay everywhere.

"Farms in this direction are usually the farm grown food farms in the southeast direction are sheep, cows and horses, to the north are the pig and chicken farms and to the west are fisherman. We separated like that after farmers got angry that animals were getting into the crops at night." Nicolette filled in, everyone nodded with the new information.

As we entered the small house I grinned. It was obvious Nicolette was usually here, little knickknacks and pictures of her with all of the boys covered the surface of everything that could hold something.

My smile widened when I saw a picture of Nicolette and all of the Hartsville boys, Max was swinging her around as the boys were on his back. They looked so happy, Christian told me about Max and the boys' parents. The information saddened me, but made me know that Nicolette and Max could handle anything that came flying their way.

Hopefully.

Thirty minutes later we found our way back to Mama's diner.

Mama saw Nicolette and was hugging her in an instant, Nicolette had shook her head at the action. It was strange seeing her react to everything in this town. Like she knew who would do what, when and how before the who knew what they were going to do.

I suppose most small towns are like that.

Halfway through dinner Nicolette and Max's phones buzzed. They shared a grin, before going back to their food.

Something was going to happen.

000...000 Third Person...000...000

Nicolette paused in front of her window, weighing the possible outcomes of doing this. She wore her cruddiest jean shorts and Haven High t-shirt, with her work boots, her hair tied back in a long braid.

No outcomes of this turned out alright, but it was mudding night and she did need some freedom after her father kept security really tight around her because of the paparazzi's ambushes.

So she'd deal with the consequences. She knew that security was watching the cameras outside of the front of the building, but since there were no cameras in the back, and Taylor hadn't been given permission to put some up, she knew that her window was the easiest way to sneak out. Slipping her phone into her pocket and saying a quick, silent prayer, Nicolette opened the window and hopped out and onto the ground- it wasn't a really great idea to have her on the first floor.

Running toward Mason Street she found Max waiting in his cruddy clothes too.

"Martha said that she'd watch the boys, it's their turn to watch the youngins." Max grinned, Nicolette laughed and climbed into his truck- the one he left in Haven- and buckled up.

"Let's go, I'm dead already."

000...000... With The Greys ...000...000...000

Ana grinned as she and her husband laid back on the covers. They were out of breath and grinning madly after their last 'session', and everything seemed to be alright, when a feeling of dread washed over Ana.

"Nicolette. We should check on Nicolette." Ana breathed, something was wrong and she knew it. Christian made a face, but pulled his shirt on.

"I'll go check on her. Stay here." Christian ordered, Ana nodded worried about her seventeen year old as her husband disappeared from sight.

Not two seconds later, Christian shouted for Taylor. Ana leapt out of bed and threw on her bra, panties and dress before running to meet Kate, Grace and Mia at the door of one of the security team's room.

"What's going on?" Kate shouted.

"Nicolette's missing, her room window was opened and she was gone." Christian answered, worry raced through his veins. And every situation possible made itself known in his brain.

She's gone. She's gone. She's gone.

"I got her GPS!" Ryan called out.

"Let's move. If everyone could stay here. That would make my life and job easier." Taylor advised. Christian went to protest when Taylor cut him off before he could speak.

"Sir, we don't know what the situation is like, it could be anything. And frankly if one of you go then all of you want to go and it is really hard to keep track of all of you at once. Please stay here, we will retrieve Nicolette, but I need you here where I know none of you will get killed." Taylor ordered, Christian backed down but watched as the six security men left the small, three person room.

...000...

All of the trucks were playing the same country music station- without any commercials- and were patterned so that one truck had it's headlights facing the giant mud hole, and the next had it's bed towards the mud hole, then the one after it had it's headlights toward the mud hole. The pattern continued in a full circle, but the entire mud hole was lit up, so everyone could see who was mudding where.

Nicolette made a face with Ashlyn and Lee Anne as one of the other girls snapped a photo of them. The mudding party had been exactly what she needed, she felt like her old self again.

"Hey Nicolette! Want a ride!?" Max shouted on top of a worn down mudding four wheeler, laughing Nicolette grabbed the extra helmet from the bar on the back of the four wheeler and climbed onto the already muddy seat and wrapped her arms securely around her boyfriend's waist.

And he took off. Mud sprayed them and other people as they wove around and circled people around them, mud coating everything and everyone.

"I don't know whether this is nasty or totally awesome!" Nicolette shouted, Max laughed.

After twenty minutes someone else was begging to have a turn and the two surrendered their helmets and four wheeler. Nicolette returned to her friends as Max returned to his.

Not thirty minutes later the camera girl shows up again and just as she's taking a picture buckets of mud are dropped on Nicolette and her friend's heads. All three girls shrieked, their hands flying to their heads.

Nicolette spun around to see Max laughing, Nicolette smirked at her friends and pressed a kiss to Max's lips. As Max moved to deepen the kiss he felt cold sticky mud coat his head and back.

Jerking backward he spotted Nicolette's cheshire cat grin and knew that he had fallen right into her trap.

"Gross." Max scrunched up his nose but knew that Nicolette had it worse, while the girls could only use the mud in their little area, he and his friends spent the last five minutes filling the buckets up. He stared his girlfriend up and down.

Not an inch of her didn't have a spot of mud on her.

"C'mon, it's probably time to get you home." Max sighed, Nicolette was so carefree at the moment, he'd hate to take her home.

"Yes, it is time for Miss Grey to come home." a deep voice spoke. The six teenagers swallowed and turned to face six- very angry- security guards. Nicolette bit her lip and waved at the team.

"I don't want to hear it Miss Grey." Taylor glared, Nicolette forced a smile.

"Nickki, will you be alright if we let you go home?" Ashlyn asked, not worried if her words hurt anyone's feelings.

"Yeah. I will. You guys have fun, dad's probably worried sick, he probably didn't see the note I left on the mirror." Nicolette sighed, she tried to keep her spirits up but with every second she stared at Taylor's pissed face, her hopes of coming out of this mess ungrounded dwindled.

She and Max kissed goodnight- which was cut short with a photo and Taylor grabbing her harshly- and left the party.

Nicolette sat on a towel with two security guards glowering at her from beside her, two glowering at the back of her head and two glowering at her in the mirror.

"You know, jumping out of a car isn't on my bucket list, but I will do it if you guys don't stop staring." Nicolette hissed.

"I'd like to see you get far." Taylor warned from behind the wheel, but all of the security guys stopped staring. With a final glare at Taylor's back Nicolette resumed staring at the road in front of her.

Five minutes later they pulled into the bed and breakfast, Ryan getting out before her, helping her out and then draping the towel over her shoulders. Nicolette removed her shoes and socks before entering the building, where Grace instantly checked her for wounds.

"You are so dirty child! What did you do, jump out of the kidnapper's car and roll down a muddy hill?" Grace attempted to joke.

"I wasn't kidnapped. I snuck out." Nicolette informed, at her entire families' why-the-hell-would-you-do-that face she explained.

"All of the teens were mudding tonight, it's fun. I wanted to have a little fun without worrying that a grown man would be reporting to my dad every time I broke a nail. I grew up here. I know the lay of the land and I know when fun goes from fun to too much fun. I was completely fine. Dad must have missed my note on the mirror, or it fell off. But still there is no harm done." Nicolette sighed.

"No harm done? You think that there is no harm done. We've spent the last twenty minutes worrying our heads off Nicolette Anne! There is harm done! You can't just sneak out like that! Someone could hurt you again! Someone could take you away again and none of us would have known what the hell was going on Nicolette Anne!" Christian shouted, fury replacing the worry in his veins.

"Dad! Calm down! I've been mudding with the same group of kids for nearly six years now. We know what we are doing, we all wear helmets and we all watch for each other when we are on the four wheelers. Don't worry about it." Nicolette groaned.

"DON'T WORRY ABOUT IT! WE'VE ALL WORRIED FOR THAT PAST TWENTY MINUTES BECAUSE OF YOUR STUPID DECISION!" Christian shouted.

"I'm sorry, geez I just wanted some fun with my friends without the forced and always completely bored entourage." Nicolette apologized and explained.

"You're sorry!? God dammit. Sometimes I wish you..." Christian stopped and Nicolette stood up straighter.

"You wish what about me? That I never came into your life? That the fake FBI Agent never told you I existed? Fine. Your parental duties are done!" Nicolette shouted the last part and stormed out the door.