It was after 11 pm and there was no sign of Jon. Something was wrong. Katherine paced the lobby of the Library anxiously. Eli and the Matthews boy had been running interference all evening with fishy tales of where Jon was and what he was doing every time she asked about him. Every time she called his room, Cory answered with some inane story; there was a spider in the girls' room, Trini accidentally started a fire, Shawn was drowning in the bathtub. Eventually, Frankie Stacchino let it slip that Mr. Turner was out on the town. He started to say more when both Eli and Cory jumped on him. Jealousy, worry, and fear engulfed her and her mind conjured up a thousand things her on-again, off-again boyfriend could be doing without her and none of them were good. Yet she could do nothing about it as the boys holed up in their room with Jon's traitorous best friend and would not speak to her anymore. All she could do was wait.

It started to rain a little after 10:30. By 10:45 it was pouring. At 11:15, Jon finally sauntered through the doors, rain soaked and laughing without a care in the world. Her heart raced and fear of who he was with gripped her. It stunned her to see Shawn Hunter at his side, just as wet, and telling some ridiculous story to his teacher. Katherine's mouth fell open. She didn't know what to think. Jon had left her behind to hang out with his student? An intense covetous pain stabbed her heart. Why? Why hadn't he asked her to go with them? It was like Jon and Shawn were a part of some secret club that she was banned from joining. It had been this way ever since Jon offered to take the boy in while his father traipsed across the country for some reason she couldn't remember. Jon always chose Shawn over her, in spite of the fact that she and Jon had been together before Shawn entered the picture. Seeing them together without any care as to what she had been through for the last several hours and intentionally having Eli and Cory keep her in the dark infuriated her. By the time they noticed her, Katherine was shaking with indignation.

Shawn saw her first and grabbed Jon's sleeve abruptly, forcing him to come to a halt. He gave the teen a puzzled look, then followed his gaze to see what the problem was. Jon paled considerably when he saw the look on Katherine's face. It never occurred to him that he might have to deal with her. He had not planned for this.

"Where have you been?" she snapped angrily. It was difficult for her to keep a lid on her emotions, but knowing how quickly he would shut down at an emotional outburst, she tried to keep her voice steady.

But her tone and the reprimand in it immediately set him against her. He bristled visibly. "Out," he said shortly.

She watched suspiciously as Shawn positioned himself securely at Jon's side, arms folded, glowering at her. She ignored the boy and his dirty look and pushed on, "Out where?"

Jon gritted his teeth in vexation and swallowed the sarcastic one-liner that threatened to slip out, reminding himself they were in a hotel lobby and it was late.

"Just out." An explanation normally would have appeased her, but he knew the mood she was in well and no explanation would avoid the scene that was on the horizon. But there was a defiance creeping into him that did not want to explain anything to anyone.

"You're a chaperon, Jon, on a school trip. You had no business being out." She wasn't sure why she chose to scold him, but she did and it was the wrong thing to do.

If there was one thing Jonathan Turner hated it was being spoken to like a child. As she stood there with all the righteous irritation of a mother who had caught her child sneaking back in from an unapproved night out, arms crossed and lips pressed into a thin line, Jon couldn't take it anymore. She was not his mother. "Excuse me?" His voice was dangerously low.

"You have students to supervise." His attitude was crashing against hers causing her voice to rise with every statement. She was having trouble keeping her anger in check. He had no right to be angry with her.

"My students are just fine." Resentment was entwined in his words.

"Thanks to Eli."

"Yeah, thanks to Eli. He offered to take them so Shawn and I could do a couple things we wanted to do."

Katherine bit back on her response. Something was still wrong. Jon and Shawn were standing strangely in front of the door as if to block it. Why? To prevent her from going out? Or prevent someone from coming in?

She narrowed her eyes, giving Shawn a particularly distrustful glare. She had a feeling he was behind all of this. "What exactly were you two doing that I couldn't do, too?"

This elicited a snicker and eye roll from Shawn. Katherine's glare intensified. Ever since he starting living with Jon her relationship suffered. She wasn't sure that it wasn't intentional.

"We went out to dinner and to see a show." Jon snapped, even though he did not want to give her an explanation. If it had been possible for him to storm by her and go up to their room he would have. Unfortunately, the third member of their group wasn't in yet and he was stuck.

"That's it?"

"Yes, that's it."

"Why didn't you tell me?" Katherine could feel that tearful lump in her throat and she did not want to give either of them the satisfaction of seeing her cry. Especially Shawn.

"We didn't want you to go with us. You kinda ruin things." This nasty little remark came from Shawn who regarded her with an arrogant smirk.

She wanted to scream at the little punk. She looked at Jon expecting him to reprimand the teen for the comment. He said nothing. He stood there with his arms folded tightly across his stomach glaring at the floor. Whenever it came to Shawn, Jon always let him do what he wanted. He got away with everything, including being disrespectful to her. She had enough of their behavior.

"Are you going to let him speak to me like that?!" she demanded. In childish frustration, she stomped her foot into the tiled floor.

Jon jerked his head up sharply with a look of what could only be described as disgust. In the backdrop of the storm outside, this could have been a trick of the interior lighting against the tempestuous exterior, but she didn't think so.

"Well!?"She could see his jaw muscles tighten.

He remained silent.

She couldn't stand the way he would shut down instead of talking things out. "Say something already!"

"Don't yell him!" Shawn jumped in front of Jon with hot teenage fury. "All you do is whine and complain and yell. You're impossible to please. And we're gettin' sick of it!"

That brought Jon to life. "All right, Shawn," he said, putting a hand on his shoulder and pulling the teen back to his side. "Let me handle this."

Finally!

But Jon wasn't coming to her defense like she'd hoped. Instead, it appeared he was...comforting Shawn? What did he need to be comforted for? He had everything he wanted. She needed the comfort, not him. Katherine struggled to name the emotion that was suppressing her breathing. Tears sprang up and began to cloud her vision. Jealousy. She was jealous of a fifteen year old boy.

After he had calmed Shawn down, Jon whispered to him to get Audrey up to the girls' room as quickly as possible. He turned to face Katherine and internally groaned. She was beginning to cry. He couldn't stand tears. He had no idea what to do when a woman cried. Based on his experience, the only correct response was to give into whatever the one crying wanted. He was trapped. Again.

"Kat," Jon began, cautiously approaching her like she was a stray cat that might try to scratch him if he got too close. "Kat, I-" He stopped. She was looking at him expectantly. Enhanced by tears she had bluest eyes he'd ever seen and they disarmed him fully. "C'mon, Kat. Don't cry."

"What do you expect me to do, Jonathan?" She had no strength left to hold back the emotions that rage within her. "You exclude me from so much of your life because of Shawn. You favor him over me."

"I do not favor him. But you know the situation with Shawn isn't going to change. If you can't accept that then..." his voice trailed off and he held his hand out before letting them drop to his sides.

She bit her lip and shook her head giving him an angry, hurt glare. More tears fell.

"I made a commitment to him, Kat," he said defensively.

"When are you going to make a commitment to me?" Instantly, regret flooded her and she wished she could take those words back.

Jon stared at her in disbelief. "Are you kiddin' me? Are you seriously bringing up the marriage thing now?!"

And so the old familiar argument at maximum volume ensued yet again. Katherine didn't mean to start this with him; she never did. She so badly wanted his reassurance that she was that important to him; that she was needed and wanted and an engagement ring was the only way she could show others that she was that highly valued. In her over-eagerness, she pushed too far, too fast. Every single time. She couldn't help herself.

Over Jon's shoulder, she could see Shawn continually throwing sharp glares at her while talking to someone.

Who is he talking too?

Shawn turned back to the unseen person clearly upset. He jabbed an angry finger in her direction, then leaned out of Katherine's line of vision. Jon stopped talking and turned partially away from her. That was when she saw who Shawn was with- Audrey, the student teacher.

Where did she come from?

They had been loud in their arguing, but had it been so loud as to bring someone from their group down? Whatever the case, Audrey was there and what she saw reignited her anger. Audrey was comforting Shawn. Why?! Why did everyone side with him? Why was she the bad guy here?

Katherine was done. She was done with all of them. Giving the chair at the table closest to her a shove so violent it knocked the vase of flowers off of it, she stormed past the bewildered hotel night crew up to her room. The vase made a satisfying crash as it shattered on the floor.