Slumped against the door just inside the entry hall, Amanda finally let it all out. Tears streamed down her cheeks as she hugged her arms around her knees, her body unable to move off the floor, frozen with fear and sadness. For the first time in her life she was left completely unknowing of the future, and that scared her more than anything. Even when her mother had passed on she'd had some security knowing that she had a life at the hotel and people there who cared about her. But now, everything was being taken away from her and there was nothing she could do about it.

As she assertively wiped away her tears, the anger started to set in. Anger at her father for putting her in such an awful position. Anger at him for jeopardizing all of the people that have been so loyal to him for so long. Herself included.

And anger at herself for ruining the one thing that would have truly helped her to cope with such difficult times. The relationship she had with JC.

"God, why?" she sniffled to herself, lifting her head up and focusing in on the hallway in front of her. "How come I get all of this at once?"

Slowly she rose to her feet, wiping away more tears and heading off to the bathroom to blow her nose. Just as she threw away her tissue in the garbage, she heard her cell phone chirping in the bedroom. She tried her best to get herself together before answering.

"Hello?"

"Amanda, I think I really screwed up."

Instantly Amanda recognized Marcy's voice. "What do you mean you screwed up?" She asked, a little confused by her friends words and a little nervous by the tone of her voice. Could things actually get any worse?

"The FBI agents heard me on the phone. They know where you are."

"They weren't supposed to know?" Amanda asked curiously.

"No," Marcy answered, her voice cracking as she spoke. If Amanda wasn't mistaken, Marcy was on the verge of tears herself. "Right after you left your father told me not to tell anyone where you went. I was the only one that knew. Well, myself and Ron, I guess," she explained, "but when JC called I just assumed you--"

"Wait? Did you say that JC called?" Amanda asked, her heart skipping a beat just from the sound of those words.

"Yes, and I thought he was there with you for some reason. I guess I just assumed, but he said something about you missing--"

"Yeah, missing to him because he doesn't know where I am," Amanda interjected.

"No, he said he saw it on the news. That you were missing."

"What?" Amanda asked with shock. "Why would - where would anyone - this just doesn't make any sense. Why would the news report that I was missing? I'm not missing."

"Amanda, listen to me. The FBI knows where you are now. They're probably going to be knocking on your door any second." It was obvious that Marcy was about to lose it. Her friends anxiety just caused Amanda to feel more anger at her father. It wasn't just Amanda he had affected, it was every single person she knew and every single person she worked with - that he worked with. Jonathon Ballard would be lucky if the FBI got a hold of him first because if Amanda got a hold of him he'd be in big trouble for doing this to her. She was fed up with all he had put her through. Look where it had gotten her...in a heck of a lot of trouble. "If they arrest you it'll be all my fault," Marcy finally spilled, her voice trembling and tears undoubtedly falling from her eyes.

"Marcy, calm down. I'm not going to get arrested. They've already been here. They talked to me already. It's okay."

She listened as her friend took in several deep breaths, "you're sure?" she asked after a moment.

"Yes, I'm positive. They know that I'm not involved in whatever it is that my father has gotten himself into."

"God Amanda, I feel horrible. Why did he send you there anyway? You should come home now. If they know where you are, why do you need to be in New York?"

Marcy had a good point. But Amanda thought it would be best if she checked with the FBI before she made any sudden movements. The last thing she wanted to do was make them suspicious. "I don't know if I should do that without talking to them first," Amanda explained. "Marcy, just relax. Everything will work out okay, I promise."

"Amanda, I'm not worried about myself. I'm worried about you."

"Don't Marcy. I can take care of myself. I'll be fine."

"Amanda, what happened with JC? Are you going to talk to me about it? You really shouldn't keep all of your feelings bottled up inside."

Not surprisingly, the question finally arose. But Amanda refused to speak and silence filled the phone line. Finally she took in a deep breath, but just as she spit out half of Marcy's name, the doorbell rang. "That's weird." Amanda remarked.

"What?"

"Someone's at the door. I hope it's not the FBI again. I really can't handle talking to them anymore tonight."

"Sure someone's at the door, you're just saying that so you don't have to tell me what's going on with you and JC." Marcy replied, a little bit of that usual spunk returning to her voice.

"I swear someone's really at the door." Amanda defended as she walked down the hall way and the doorbell rang once more. "See? Did you hear that?"

"Just open it all ready," Marcy commented. "I'll stay on the line in case it's some thug there to kill you or something. Then I'll be a witness."

"Marcy! Don't talk like that!"

"Sorry."

For the second time in less than an hour, Amanda peeked through the tiny peep hole in the door hoping to God it wasn't Agent Miller and Agent Barnes again.

And it wasn't, but she nearly lost it when she saw who it really was. In fact, she had to look twice to be sure.

"Well who is it?" Marcy asked impatiently.

"It's my cousin, I'll call you back later." Amanda told her.

"Okay, call me tomorrow."

"I will," Amanda assured her friend as she stared out the peep hole in shock. She turned off her phone and watched as he lifted his hand to the door bell, moving to press it one more time, then letting it fall and waving the thought away, turning on his heels to leave.

"Oh God, oh God, oh God," Amanda chanted as she quickly unlocked the door and yanked it open. "Don't leave!" she called to him.

JC turned to her and stopped, a completely blank expression spread across his stubbled face. Immediately Amanda felt the sting of tears return to her eyes. God must have been listening to her pleas, because this was the one thing she had been praying for all along.

He studied her for a second, his eyes sweeping over her from head to toe. Finally, after a minute too long, he rushed towards her. "Amanda, I've--"

"Don't say anything," she interrupted, "just hold me, please." She pushed her eyes closed, forcing back the burn of her tears.

But as his strong arms hurdled around her body, those tears that she'd been fighting away began to fall. She buried her cheek into his chest, sobbing quietly as he held her so close. The comfort of his embrace felt better than anything she could have possibly imagined. Suddenly her world felt just a little bit better.

"JC," she finally spoke softly, trying to hide her sniffles, "I'm sorry. I shouldn't have gotten so upset with you that morning."

"Shhh," he quieted her. "I'm the one who's sorry. Come on, let's go inside."
Amanda led the way, JC gripping on to her hand as they walked the few steps inside. He let go just for her to shut and the lock the door and then immediately pulled her into his arms for a second time. Tenderly he stroked her head and rubbed her back. "Sweetheart, what's going on?" he asked with concern. "Why did the news say that you were missing?"

Amanda held on to him even tighter. She had prayed every night since she'd arrived in New York that JC would just magically appear at her doorstep. She had never expected her wish to come true. Instead she'd assumed things were over forever. Thank God she was wrong. He did care after all, just like she knew in her heart that he did.

"I don't know," she answered, wiping away more tears and crinkling her nose with a sniffle. "There's a lot of crazy stuff going on right now. I'm just really glad you're here. I thought I'd lost you forever."

"Amanda, I... I care about you. Of course you haven't lost me forever."

"How did you find me?" she asked, still gripping on to him tightly.

"Marcy told me you were at your father's apartment. It wasn't that hard after that. I just looked up the address in the phone book."

"Thank God he's listed," Amanda remarked, hugging him even tighter, every inch of her body pressed up against his much stronger one.

JC let out a soft chuckle and brushed the hair away from her forehead before planting a tender kiss right in the middle of it. "You could've called me," he said softly.

"I know," she answered shyly, looking away from his stare.

"But I understand why you didn't," he told her.

"You do?" she asked, looking up at his handsome face.

Tenderly JC wiped away a tear from her cheek. "She's not in the picture anymore. I finally did what I should have done six months ago."

"You did?" Amanda asked.

"Yes, and I've been miserable ever since you left me on Sunday."

"You have?"

"Yes," he answered with a tiny chuckle. "Come on," he said and pulled her into the living room. "You have to tell me what's going on."

JC LISTENED AS Amanda explained to him everything that was going on with her father and the FBI. Honestly, he wasn't too shocked at it all. He had gotten a bad vibe from Jonathon Ballard just from that two seconds he'd been in his presence. The man just looked like he was up to something no good.

But poor Amanda. She'd had no clue and now her whole world was turned upside down. It broke his heart to think that she'd been in so much pain the past four days with no one to turn to--without him to turn to.

The look on her face when she'd opened the front door was one of desperation and exhaustion. He hated to see her like that. He hated to see her suffering. He wanted nothing more than to make all of her troubles go away and he'd do everything it took to see that they did.

"I still don't understand why they said you were missing," JC remarked. Amanda laid comfortably with her head on a pillow resting in his lap. She looked up at him with those pale green eyes and in turn he gently brushed a hand across her cheek.

"I don't know either. Unless my father reported me missing to distract the people looking for him."

"Babe, I don't think that's it," JC remarked. "No one's heard a word from him since he left, he'd have to show his face to do that."

"That's true," Amanda agreed, sitting up and turning sideways to face his direction. "How long are you staying?" she asked out of the blue.

An instant smile sprung to his lips as the words fell from her mouth. Not because of her question, but because of the Curious George look she had given him.
"I'm here till next week, we're rehearsing for a show."

"Oh, you didn't come all this way just for me?"

"No," he chuckled quietly, "turns out we just happened to both be here at the same time."

"Funny how that works, huh?" she asked.

"Maybe it was just fate."

"Do you believe in fate?" Amanda asked curiously.

"Of course," JC answered without hesitation. He knew it had been fate when he'd heard her playing the piano that night in the bar. It had to have been.

"Me too," Amanda smiled girlishly, "are you going to stay with me tonight or do you have to go back to your hotel?"

He reached for her hand and grasped it gently. He had missed the touch of her skin so much, even just holding her hand felt good. Would he stay? That was a silly question. Of course he would stay, as long as she wanted him to. "If you want me to stay, I will. But I have to be up by six."

"Should we just go to bed now then, so you're sure to get all of your beauty rest?" Amanda asked with a devilish grin.

"Beauty rest is important," he agreed with a smile. "You look like you're in need of it yourself."

"The past few days have been pretty exhausting," she sighed, falling back against the sofa.

JC stood up and reached out an arm to guide her. Amanda grabbed on and he pulled her up with one swift tug. "So where is your bedroom?" he asked. "We're not sleeping in your old twin bed or anything, are we?"

Amanda chuckled, grabbing on to his waist from behind. "It's not actually my bedroom," she explained, "it's just a guest room. I never actually lived here."

"Oh, well which one?"

"Down the hall to the left."

"Hop on," he told her, "I'll give you a lift."

"A piggyback ride?" She asked.

"Yeah."

JC kneeled down enough so she could hop on his back and Amanda did just that. He curled his arms underneath her legs and trotted towards the hall, her arms draped around his neck. Amanda giggled the entire way. "Don't drop me," she said.

"Come on now, give me a little credit." Playfully he bounced her down the hall way until he came to the only partially open door on the left. "This it?" he asked, nodding his head in its direction.

"Yep."

"You don't have anything in here I might not want to see before we go in, like hate pictures of me or anything?"

"Hate pictures?"

"Yeah," JC remarked, standing just in front of the door with Amanda still sitting on his back. "You know like posters with darts in my head."

"No," she said with a chuckle. "I promise there's nothing like that."

"Okay, good." JC pushed open the door with his foot. "Can you reach the light switch?"

"I think so. Or you could just put me down," she smirked.

"Just turn the light on so I can see," he told her.

Amanda held on tight with one arm while reaching the other to turn on the light, pretty much cutting off his air supply in the process.

"Uh," he gasped once she finally let him out of her choke hold. "I can breath again."

"Sorry."

"It's okay," he told her, skipping towards the bed and dropping her flat on the mattress once he got there. "How's that for service?" he asked as she laid on the bed giggling.

"Not bad."

"Not bad?"

"Yeah, not bad," she said playfully. "I'm used to the best so it's tough to compare."

"Oh really?" he asked, "we'll just see about that."

He sat down on the edge of the bed, his back facing Amanda, and untied his shoe laces. He had barely got the first one undone when he felt the tickle of her fingernails sliding underneath his shirt. Immediately he froze. Her palms flattened against him and the warmth of her hands slowly inched up his back.

"Do you have any idea how good that feels?" he asked with a low moan.

But Amanda didn't answer his question, instead he felt the softness of her lips pressing against the back of his neck as one hand slid around his chest and the other tangled itself in his hair.

"Shoes," he murmured. "I was taking off my shoes."

"Go ahead," she whispered, her lips delicately brushing against his ear.

"Oh man," JC groaned, kicking off his tennis shoes without bothering to untie the laces. Who cared about shoe laces at a time like this?

His eyes nearly rolled into the back of his head as she lightly traced her fingernails down his stomach, all the while her lips doing a dance of seduction across his neck. "What are you trying to do to me?" he asked, his voice low and needing.

"What do you think?" she asked, her teeth nipping across his ear lobe as she toyed with the waist of his pants.

"I think you already did it," he answered.

"Hmmm... did I?"

Unable to handle her torturous seduction any longer, he twisted out of her hold and nearly attacked her. Amanda let out a flirty laugh as she laid trapped underneath him. "Did you miss me?" she asked with a silly grin.

But they were words that were deeper than JC would have ever imagined because he had never dreamed of missing her so much. He buried his face into the side of her neck, taking in the faint scent of her hair and her perfume, just the scent of her period. With a deep sigh, he pressed his lips to her skin, almost losing himself in the taste of her. "You have no idea," he breathed, "I missed you more than I would have ever imagined."

(c) 2001 BrandyRae