Her feet dangled off the edge, resting on the ground and she slowly started moving the merry-go-round. She felt it shift slightly as her companion lied down on the opposite side, their heads side by side. She listened to him as he tried to catch his breath.

"I don't know how you never got sick on this thing." He said to her, his breathing returning to normal.

"I love it. It makes me feel free."

He let out a laugh. "You've been saying that since you were six."

"Well, it still holds true today."

They lay like that for a while, just staring up at the stars, rotating on the wheel. Raleigh hadn't felt so peaceful in a long time.

She didn't know what had made them come here, but she was glad she had. They had been walking for a while, exactly how long she wasn't sure, when they passed the playground and she felt this bubble of excitement build inside of her. She'd grabbed Josh's hand and dragged him along as she ran towards the merry-go-round she'd grown up on. Maybe it was the thrill of spinning in circles until you got so dizzy you couldn't stand anymore, or maybe it was the fact that she'd been feeling so much like a grown-up lately that she just needed something to make her feel like a kid again, even if for just a few minutes. Riding the merry-go-round gave her that. Feeling the familiar sensation of wind through her hair, Raleigh could remember being a child and if she closed her eyes, it would feel like she was flying. A sensation she'd only ever felt one other time. But that was a time she didn't allow herself to think about.

Opening her eyes, Raleigh looked up to the stars once again. A single cloud passed by, covering the moon and washing she and Josh in darkness for an instant that felt much longer. She didn't know why, but for some reason the moment of darkness brought up old memories of a darker time in her life. Something, she realized, that came up whenever she had been drinking. Swallowing old emotions from that time of her life, Raleigh took a deep breath.

"I miss this." Her voice was just a whisper on the wind, but she knew Josh hear it as clear as if she'd yelled it.

"I miss it too." The sentence ended sounding as though he wanted to say something else but he didn't continue.

"I've been thinking about leaving LA and moving back here. Buying my own home."

"Why? You have a gigantic house in LA."

"I know, and I love it. But it's Daniel's, not mine. I mean, it is gorgeous and all, but it's not exactly the type of house I imagined myself in." There was a slight pause followed by Josh laughing. "What's so funny?"

"Nothing." Josh groaned as he sat up and got off the merry-go-round. Raleigh sat up and turned to look at him. "Come on. I want to show you something." Raleigh raised an eyebrow at him in question but went along with it. His surprises were usually good.

"So what's on the agenda for you next? Another album? Another tour?"

"No, actually we decided to take some time off for a few months."

"Oh? Why? Life as a superstar not all it's cracked up to be?" Josh snickered.

"You tell me." She said to him, her voice flat. "Is stardom everything you thought it would be? Not that you ever actually dreamed about being the big popstar that you are."

"You sound resentful." He observed.

"No, not at all. I just mean that I worked at it my entire life and then one day, here comes JC Chasez. The next big thing." All he did was nod, what that meant she had no clue so she remained silent, unsure of what to say.

"So," Josh started, breaking the silence. "Your band is fine with taking a break and you moving back here?"

"The plan was for us to move back here before the wedding but I've been thinking about it and I think it would be better if we just waited until my contract was up. Then we wouldn't have to worry about going back to LA for the final record."

"Wait, what?"

"What?" Raleigh's eyebrows furrowed in confusion as she went over what she'd just said. She didn't find anything wrong in her words.

"Just like that? You've been working at this career your entire life and after having it for only four years you're going to quit? Kick your bandmates, who have been there with you through everything, to the curb?" Raleigh finally understood why he was suddenly so angry with her so she tried to diffuse the situation.

"I'm not quitting I'm just not renewing my contract right away. After the wedding we'll go back into the studio and record our final album for this contract, prepare our final tour and when that's over we'll take a year or two off. I'm not leading them into this blindly. We've been talking about it."

"And Dan knows about your plans no doubt?"

"I don't need Dan's permission. Its my life." Her prior irritation at her fiancé bubbled to the surface.

"Well, soon its going be plural. I doubt that I'm the only thing he gets angry about in your life."

"Oh, are you in my life?"

"I'd like to think so.

"Mm." Was all she said. Indeed he was back in her life but she wasn't about to inform him just how much he was back in her life. She was working hard to make him think she was indifferent to his presence and would be thoroughly upset if all that hard work was for nothing.

"So where are you taking me now?"

Josh just turned to her, gave her his devilish half-grin and said, "You'll see."

They continued to walk for another half hour or so, Raleigh completely oblivious to where they were or where they were headed. She found herself lost in the conversation, being drawn into his words. She felt herself laughing and feeling carefree, not giving the time a second thought.

Eventually they came to a stop and Raleigh made herself look at her surroundings. "Where are we?" She asked. Then she noticed the large, foreboding black gate only mere feet in front of them and she knew exactly where Josh had taken her. Her heart began pounding in excitement she hadn't felt since she was sixteen years old. Could she go through with it this time?

"The Wate Plantation?" Raleigh looked at him and knew exactly what he saw in her eyes. The thrilling excitement of adventure, an adventure she'd never had the nerve to take before. She had dragged Carly and Josh to the plantation so many times only to wuss out the moment they got to the gate.

"I thought you could use an adventure." Josh said to her, as if reading her thoughts. He grabbed her hand and began leading her to the gate. He only made it a few inches before she firmly planted her feet on the ground, pulling him to a stop.

"Josh, wait!" She whispered.

"Oh no, Ray. You are not wimping out this time. Come on, I'll give you a boost over the wall." He began pulling her towards the wall to the left, meeting little resistance from her. He knew she was scared of the plantation because of all the stories they'd grown up hearing, but he also knew she wanted to do this just as much as he did. All she needed was that extra push to go through with it.

"It's dark out Josh! We don't even have any flashlights. With how old that house is we could fall through the floor and break our necks!" She hissed at him to which he only laughed.

"Its a full moon, Ray and there are a lot of windows. It won't be as dark as you think." Once he got to the wall, Josh let go of Raleigh's hand and crouched down, putting his hands together to give her a boost. "Come on." He watched Raleigh bite her lip in thought. Should she or shouldn't she? For a moment he was afraid logic would win out once again, but just as he was about to give up, a mischievous grin lit up her face and she stepped on his hands, pulling herself over the wall. She waited as Josh ran and jumped
at the wall, pulling himself over and landing with a thud. Raleigh laughed and helped him off the ground before really looking around her. She'd never been on this side of the gate before. There were trees everywhere and Raleigh could just see the top of the plantation over them.

"It's still empty, right?"

"You know nobody has lived in it since the war." Josh grabbed her hand again and led the way through the trees to the dark house.

"That's because its haunted. Nobody wants to live with a vengeful spirit!"

"You watch too many horror movies." Josh chuckled, continuing to lead the
way.

The pull the Wate Plantation had on everyone was simply the fact that it was so old and hadn't been lived in since the civil war era. The story was that old man Wate was the descendant of a long line of Wates and he died in the plantation with no children of his own to take care of it. Since it was during the war, people were fleeing the south so the house had never been put up for sale. Ever since stories of people seeing old man Wate's ghost at the plantation scared off potential buyers. They would say he remained behind, protecting the house, preserving its memory and he would chase off anyone who stepped on his property. This alone made Raleigh want to go to the plantation and poke around when they were kids, but as soon as they got close she would lose her nerve. But now that Josh had made her cross the threshold, she wasn't leaving until she finally got to see inside. He no longer had to pull her along, she was ready to move on her own.

Once they made it to the front porch, they hesitated. Could the old wood hold their weight? Josh stepped forward and lightly placed his foot on the bottom step and slowly added weight to it. The wood creaked but didn't give out so he slowly went up the stairs and across the porch to the door. When he made it safely, Raleigh joined him by the door.

"So...what? You plan on just turning the handle and it being unlocked?"

"No, actually I planned on knocking and having Old man Wate let us in."

"That's not funny!" Josh laughed and turned towards a window to the right of the door."

"This window is open a little. I can try to push it the rest of the way up."

"Breaking and entering is a crime, Josh. Maybe we should go back." He stopped trying to push up the window without breaking the fragile glass and looked at her.

"You wanna go back? Fine. This was never my idea growing up anyway." He stepped away from the window and walked past her. "Where did the fun Raleigh go?" He was down the stairs before she gave in and called him back.

"Okay. Okay! Fine. Just open the window." Josh turned around and gave her a wicked grin and she knew. She'd just been played.

"Jackass." She muttered, watching as he jimmied the window open.

When it was finally high enough for them to squeeze through, Josh went in and helped Raleigh through.

Looking around the room they were in, Raleigh couldn't tell exactly what it was. It looked like a sitting room or a bar but she wasn't sure. She was amazed that all of the old furniture was still there, covered by sheets that were layered in dust and cobwebs.

"Wow." She whispered to the still air around her. She was afraid to speak any louder or to even move. Not for fear of falling through the floor but of disturbing this piece of history. Raleigh took a few steps into the room when she heard a low clicking noise and saw a beam of light come from behind her. Turning around she saw that Josh had pulled a tiny black flashlight out of his pocket and was now shining it around the room. "Nice of you to hold out on me."

"What?" He shrugged innocently as he began moving about the room with her in tow. "I think this would be considered the saloon." He said when they came upon an old fashioned bar, still fully stocked with empty bottles. They assumed the liquor had all evaporated from how long they had sat there unused.

"Could you imagine living here? This place is amazing." Raleigh said in wonder as they wandered from room to room. All the furniture and little knick-knacks remained completely untouched throughout the house.

When they made it to the ballroom, Raleigh left Josh's side and stood in the middle of the large dance floor, looking around wondrously.

"This room is amazing. Can you imagine the parties they must have thrown here? The balls this house must have seen."

Josh smiled, watching as she spun around, dancing in the middle of the room, swaying to a beat only she could hear. Her eyes were closed and he was sure she was picturing this house in its prime. Women dressed in elegant ball gowns on the arms of the most respected men. Stories about the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries were like fairytales to her.

Stepping away from the doorway, Josh put the flashlight in his pocket and slowly walked up to Raleigh. His hand behind his back, with a bow he asked for a dance.

"Miss Raleigh, may I have this dance." Smiling, Raleigh placed her hand delicately in his, giving him a curtsey.

"You may."

John spun her around before placing his other hand on her waist as she placed hers on his shoulder. And together they began swaying to the beat Josh began to hum aloud.

They danced for only a minute or two before they heard a loud crashing noise, halting their movements.

"What was that?" Raleigh whispered frantically.

"I think we woke up Old Man Wate." Josh laughed.

"That's not funny." Raleigh tried to run away but Josh grabbed her around the waist, pulling her back into him.

"Shh." They stood there in each others' arms for a moment, just listening to the silence, when suddenly another crash sounded, closer. Raleigh's grip on his arms tightened, nails digging into his skin, and he could swear he could feel her pounding heart.

"Josh, let's go!" Her whisper was barely audible through her fear. They waited another few moments when a loud meow cut the silence and they saw a cat run through the doorway. It stopped to looked at them before continuing on its merry way. Raleigh was finally able to relax and let out a laugh at how scared she had been. "Just a cat."

"Ray?"

"Yeah?"

"You can retract your claws now." She looked down at his arm and noticed she was still clutching at him. Yanking her arm back, she took a few small steps away from him.

"I'm sorry."

"It's okay." She could hear the laughter in his voice.

"I'd swear you take delight in me being scared out of my mind."

"Nah, that would make me a freak."

"You are a freak."

"And what does that make you for having been with me for so long?"

"Shut up." Despite herself, Raleigh laughed as she shoved him playfully before heading out of the ballroom and back to the grand staircase. She was dying to see the upstairs. "Do you think it'll hold?"

"Only one way to find out." Josh shrugged then ran up the stairs, turning once he reached the top. "Guess so!" He said before turning to the left and running up those stairs, disappearing behind a wall.

"The boy is definitely a freak." Raleigh muttered to herself as she climbed the staircase. Taking the same left turn at the top, Raleigh wove in and out of rooms trying to find where he went. She called out his name but there was no answer. If he tried to scare her again she swore she was going to kill him.

She eventually gave up the search and continued to look around the old house, enjoying imagining it as it must have looked when it was new. She could picture women dressed in the gowns of the mid eighteen-hundreds walking up and down the hallways, speaking in old English, addressing each other as sir or madam. She wished she could turn the hands of time back and be a part of it all.

She turned into another bedroom that was more than double the size of hers and went to the window. She had a perfect view of the town washed completely in moonlight. For the first time since they'd left the café, Raleigh wondered what time it was. It had to be getting late and yet she didn't care. She was having too much fun to really care about anything.

Looking down to where the Plantation's lawn met the sidewalk on the other side of the wall, Raleigh could picture her sixteen year-old self so easily standing there, looking up at the towering house. She remembered the last time she'd stood there and the promise that Josh had made her. Did he remember it too?

"Ray, wait up!"

"Come on, Josh!"

"I don't know why you're in such a hurry to see a house you've seen hundreds of times." Josh muttered under his breath, catching up with her at the gate.

"You know why." She replied, hands clutching at the bars on the gate, large violet eyes taking in the enormous house she'd loved all her life. Josh wrapped his arms around her waist and nestled his face in the crook of her neck, breathing in her scent.

"One day Ray. One day I'm going to buy this house and fix it all up for you. It'll have everything you've ever wanted. A dance studio, a recording studio...everything."

Raleigh let go of the gate and leaned into Josh's embrace. "Promise?"

"I promise." Raleigh was quiet for a moment and Josh knew something was bothering her. He was sure he knew what that something was, but he asked anyway. "You ok?"

"I'm scared." She admitted finally.

"It's just a house, Ray." He tried to joke.

"Not of the house. I'm afraid of the end of summer and what its going to mean."

Josh wrapped his arms around her tighter, wishing he could pull her into himself and protect her from the hurt he knew the end of summer would bring. "Ray, there's nothing to be afraid of. Me going away to school isn't going to change anything. The way I feel about you...it's not something space and time can erase. I'll love you forever." He placed a kiss at her temple and felt her lean into it.

"Promise?" She asked once more. The despair in her voice made Josh look her in the eye as he once again said,

"I promise." Raleigh reached up and kissed him, wishing the end of summer didn't have to come. But she chose to trust him that nothing was going to change between them. She truly believed from that day on that they would be together forever.

She only wished she hadn't been so wrong.

Raleigh felt herself start out of her memories when she felt two arms wrap around her waist. Knowing they could only belong to Josh, she relaxed, wrapping her own around his rather than removing them from her waist - something she knew she should have done.

"There you are. I've been looking for you." She felt his chin rest on her shoulder as he gazed out the window, trying to see what she saw still.

"I gave up looking for you a while ago and decided to give myself a tour."

"I'm impressed." They stood like that for a moment before Josh asked, "What were you thinking about just now? You seemed like you were concentrating very hard."

"I was thinking about the last time we stood on that sidewalk." She blurted out before she could even think to stop herself, but she didn't care. She felt carefree tonight and she didn't want to ruin that.

"Oh." He let out a slight chuckle. "So much for promises, huh?" Apparently he did remember.

"It was an impossible promise to keep." Raleigh turned her head slightly to look at him and was met with his face right in front of her own. She couldn't help it, her eyes immediately drifted downward and found his lips, and for the tiniest second she wondered what it would be like to kiss him again.

She felt as though she were in a daze. Like everything was happening in slow motion. She saw him leaning towards her and for a moment she wanted to let him, to allow herself to fill her curiosity. But at the last second she turned her head away and stepped out of his arms.

"It's getting late. I should get going."

"All right. I'll walk you home." Raleigh nodded and headed back into the hallway to find her way out of the large house, all the while noticing that Josh was keeping a safe distance behind her.

She knew she was going to pretend that nothing had happened, which technically it hadn't. But at the same time, she knew everything happened. Everything changed in the few hours they'd spent together tonight and there was no way she was going to be able to deny it.

Maybe it was best if she and Dan went back to LA early. Perhaps the decision she'd made 5 years ago was right. She should avoid him at all costs. If she didn't she knew she'd get herself into trouble once again. She wasn't ready to ruin her relationship eith Dan over him. She loved and respected him too much to hurt him like that.