Once and Again 1. Chapter 1

Title: Just Dance With Me

Rating: T. (There will be some language. Also some sexual content. I'm not sure how much, but if it changes and the rating needs to be raised, don't worry, I will let you know and label all chapters appropriately.)

Disclaimer: All of the lovely characters used thus far are not mine at all. They belong to the lovely folks of Once and Again, and I can't claim any of them, unfortunately for me. Once more, if you didn't notice this yet, they aren't mine. So, please don't sue me.

Feedback: Yes please. Let me know what you think. (I hope you like it, of course.)

Summary: This is a Jessie/Katie story. You've been 'warned.' It tells about them meeting college and everything that goes along with it. (Yes, that means they are going to be togehter in this story.) Tad, Grace, Sarah, etc. also fall into the plot a bit, but this is mostly Jessie/Katie.

Author's Notes: I'll provide you with a Prelude here. Tad, Sarah, Grace, and Katie are all sophomores in college together. Jessie is a freshman there. They go to the same school, and Katie and Jessie have not previously met until this story. However, they are going to get to know each other very well. Grace is still Jessie's step-sister, and Tad, Katie, and Sarah all know each other.

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Katie looked at herself suspiciously in the mirror. Her long light brown hair dangled precariously over her shoulders in waves. It had taken a while to get these waves, and she was hoping for a sexy effect. Boy, did it work. She smiled at herself. She did look good, even if she had to say so herself. Which, of course, she did, seeing as the only other person in the room was currently sleeping on a bed. The person in the other bed had gotten in kind of late from work so Katie was currently let her sleep while she got ready for tonight. She had on a pair of fairly tight fitting jeans and a black tank top, perfect for a night in a club. She was just getting through looking at herself in the mirror imagining how the date would go. Her date was a little bit shorter than her, but she had amazing eyes and sparkling blonde hair. Katie couldn't help but smile at this image. Suddenly, a loud knock echoed through the dorm room. She was here!

Katie sprinted across the room and threw open the door to an eager looking...Tad? Oh, crap. Right. She wasn't going on a date tonight with some dream girl she was hanging out with her best, male, friend. He, of course, knew that she was into girls, but hey, that wouldn't keep him from, jokingly, trying to be with her anyway. In reality, they were just two good friends going to a club together tonight to have some fun. If they were lucky, both would find themselves a girl.

"So, you gonna let me in or what?" Tad raised and wiggled his eyebrows at Katie while questioning her

"Since when has my not letting you in ever kept you from coming in here before?" Katie responded quickly but still stayed in the doorway, blocking his view of the room.

Tad, now curious, tried to peek into the room. "Well, usually by now I can get in...Unless, there's some, uh, certain laundry drying around in the room...Or, if you have some girl trying to get dressed quickly." Suddenly, there were a few footsteps heard from the other side of the door that Tad couldn't see. Then a girl appeared next to Katie in only a large t-shirt, obviously her pajamas for the night. The two girls shared a knowing smile.

"Aw, Baby, I'm sorry if we woke you up." Katie looked at the other girl and slipped her arm around her hips before smiling again at her.

The other girl, Sarah, smiled back at Katie. "Don't worry about it, Sweetie. I had to get up some time." With that, Katie turned back to Tad, ready to address him again.

"Are you ready to go soon then," Katie looked at Tad as if it was normal for her to have a girl dangling off of her in the hallway. Sarah leaned in and kissed the smooth skin that lay at Katie's neck while Tad stared. "Earth to Tad. It's Sarah, and Katie. You know us. Ready to go now then?"

"It's...Sarah...and you. You, and Sarah?" Tad was looking completely bewildered at the two girls who were standing in front of him. Immediately, both girls burst out laughing and released one another before high-fiving. Tad started to catch on. "You were just kidding? All of that...wasn't real?" His mouth was now hanging open in shock while they continued to laugh.

Katie managed to nod and gasp out, "Tad, you know Sarah and I are nothing more than friends."

Sarah nodded, struggling for breath and adding, "That's true. Well, we're room-mates too...but not in that sense. I just couldn't help providing some entertainment for myself in seeing you like...that." Both girls shared another glance and burst out laughing.

"I'm ready to go," Tad muttered not looking at the girls who were still giggling like mad. "Now he's ready to go," Sarah mentioned to Katie who nodded and waved good-bye to Sarah. "Well, he's been through enough for now, I think. So, I'll catch you back here later, okay?" Sarah nodded and waved back as Tad and Katie walked down the hallway.

A few minutes later they arrived at the club, and Tad, still grumbling, had decided to let 'Katie's Little Joke' go for now. The two looked around for a minute, trying to see if they had any other friends nearby. Unable to spot any Katie nodded towards the dance floor. She loved to dance. Okay, maybe she wasn't the best dancer in the world, but she tried. Plus, it was just so fun. Maybe it was the passion between two people that made them great dance partners. If there was chemistry between two people, perhaps then they'd be great dance partners. But, neither passion nor chemistry existed between Tad and Katie outside of the science lab room, unfortunately for their dancing skills. No matter. Tad was pulled towards the dance floor by Katie who was wiggling around already. As soon as they got close to the mob of people already dancing, Katie's arms went up into the air as she began to twist around. Tad, for his part, did his bit of dancing with shuffling of the feet and some arm movements. It was fun, even if it didn't look so good.

Suddenly, Tad looked over to notice that Katie didn't seem to be dancing at all now. What in the world was she looking at? He turned to try to follow her line of eye-sight and immediately knew what, rather who, she was staring at. Just across the dance floor was a beautiful blonde girl who was dancing almost as gracefully as Katie. Perhaps she hadn't found her passion either? It was Jessica Sammler, a girl that Tad had a class with actually. He knew that he knew her name, but couldn't remember what it was for sure at the moment. Something with a 'B' definitely, or maybe a 'J'…a 'K'? He had asked her out once…Unfortunately for him, she didn't seem interested in him. In fact, she hadn't seemed interested in any in as far as he had seen. Perhaps Katie had a chance...Let's hope so, because if Jessie turned around at any second she'd see Katie who was staring a hole in the back of her head as she danced. Now, just how could Katie meet her?

"Grace, you're a horrible dancer." Jessie sighed at her step-sister Grace as she danced around on the floor next to her. Grace and Jessie had managed to become friends after the rather long time of bickering between them had finally passed. Now, they had ended up at the same college together, with Grace just a year above Jessie, and after some heavy-duty bribing they had managed to score a dorm-room together.

"I'm not a bad dancer. You just are too blind to see the beauty in it!" Grace continued dancing around, resorting to trying to do 'The Shopping Cart.' This involved her acting like she was pushing a cart and randomly picking things off of "shelves" to put into the cart. Oh my, she must be picking up dog food now because she's struggling to put something in the 'cart.' Jessie laughed. "Hey, want me to do 'The Lawnmower' next? I will if you keep that up with my so-called bad dancing." Grace raised her eyebrows at Jessie while trying not to laugh. Maybe she just needed her passion to be able to dance properly too, that, or some dance lessons.

Katie was not the only one who thought that good passion meant good dancing. Jessie also believed that two people had to be good together to be able to dance well together. If there was chemistry between too people, then they would dance great together. There had to be a high level of emotion, like passion for the other, for their dancing to flow well together. Unfortunately, she hadn't found anyone like that apparently, because her dancing was a little bit, well, a bit to be desired. She just had to hope some day to find that rhythm with someone.

"Fine fine. I'll stop making so many jokes off of your, um, dance skills. If you promise to stop doing 'The Lawnmower' until, um, it rains next because if you do it before then, the grass won't have even grown outside so you'll look silly!" Jessie was rapidly trying to think of reasons to keep Grace from doing the Lawnmower, which if you haven't guessed, involves Grace 'pushing' a lawnmower along and 'mowing' all grass nearby. It's almost worst then 'The Shopping Cart.'

Grace grinned. She was winning now, because she had plenty of other dances to do, and Jessie couldn't make fun of them now, hah! The two had each had a pretty hectic week and decided that Friday night would be a good time to go out and have some fun before weekend homework had to be started. Therefore, they decided to go out to the club. Grace usually found a guy to dance with, and several guys would always be staring at Jessie, but she never was found to be staring back. Grace had realized that Jessie could be found glancing at a few girls now and then, but Jessie would never admit to it. Therefore, she didn't go on too many dates, at least not happily. Grace always tried to drag Jessie out on a double-date with a guy but she never looked happy around him. Grace realized what was wrong with the date, the gender, but Jessie refused to admit to it for a long time. Finally, Jessie let it slip one day that she didn't want to date guys. No mention of girls.

Grace was still dancing with Jessie, with both of them smiling, when she noticed an attractive girl staring straight at Jessie. Oh my God! She was really cute! Well, for a girl anyway. Grace decided that Jessie had to see her, maybe they knew each other? "Hey Jess. You do know there's a really hot girl staring at you right?" Jessie rolled her eyes and didn't bother to look. "No, seriously, look behind you."

Jessie sighed and looked behind her. Sure enough, about 4 very, er, close couples over was a girl standing with a guy. The girl was staring at Jessie with a strange smile on her face. Wow, Grace was right, Jessie decided. She also thought that the girl was very hot. Wow, just wow. Jessie smiled at her, wondering what was wrong with the girl that she was staring at her.

Katie immediately blushed realizing that she had been caught staring straight at her. Oh crap, oh crap. Katie was starting to panic. Katie's heart was starting to race and then there was a nudge into her side. "Go talk to her! What are you a mannequin?" Tad was elbowing her and motioning with his hand toward Jessie who was still looking at Katie.

"Oh my God. She's going to come talk to you. The hot girl is coming over to talk to you!" Grace was practically screaming it over the loud music and a nearby couple stopped to stare at Grace who sent them a sneer back. Jessie was panicking enough on her own now. Okay, so she didn't want to date guys. She liked girls, but to talk to a girl that was really hot? That was out of the question. She couldn't do that. Besides, the other girl was probably straight. Yes, that's it. The other girl is straight. Jessie's conscience was over-reacting wondering why the other girl would stare at her if she was straight. Maybe she had some Cheetos stuck in her teeth? No, she hadn't had Cheetos today…No. She had had nachos though! Oh my God. She had nachos stuck in her teeth.

"I have nachos stuck in my teeth don't I?" Jessie's eyes widened as she looked back between the hot girl that was coming closer and Grace who now had a confused look on her face. No way was she going to let this girl see her with nachos in her teeth. Ew. That would ruin everything! Jessie put her hand to her mouth for a second before removing it. Instead, she just closed her mouth really tightly and began weaving out of the mass of people on the dance floor. Why hadn't she thought of brushing her teeth before coming out tonight?

Katie watched perplexed as Jessie's eyes got huge and then she ran off through the crowd. The girl she was with followed her, also looking confused, off the dance floor. Was she running away from her already? What did she possibly do? She couldn't have said anything wrong could she have? Of course not. She hadn't even talked to the girl yet!

Katie considered going after her, but decided not to based on how fast she had run off the dance floor. Instead, she turned to Tad who looked just as perplexed as Katie. "Um, maybe she, um. Left the stove on?" Katie rolled her eyes at him and he shrugged. "What? It could happen. Hm, do you still feeling like dancing?" He looked at Katie who considered dancing some more after seeing that girl. No, she didn't feel like dancing now. She was hungry, and at that precise moment her stomach growled. Funny how that works. Tad laughed, "Maybe we should go get some food instead? We'll find mystery girl later, k?" Katie smiled.

"Sounds like a plan. Can we go get pancakes? Or nachos, or something? Maybe both?" Mm. That sounded good. Tad's eyes got wide for a moment.

"You need both of them, now?" Katie merely nodded at her friend. "Bah. Fine, fine, you win. We'll go see if we can find somewhere to get both pancakes and nachos. See the things I do for you? You should be grateful." Katie grinned as they steered themselves through the crowd of people.


	2. Chapter 2

Title: Just Dance With Me

Rating: T (There is a little bit of language in this chapter, and mild sexual content. However, the T warning will probably have to be posted for some chapters in the future moreso too.)

Disclaimer: All of the brillant and lovely characters used this far in this fic are not mine, and therefore I cannot claim them at all. (I wish, but don't.) So...please don't sue.

Feedback: Thank you so much to everyone that's already sent me some feedback! Feel free to send more. I love feeback :)

Summary: This is a Jessie/Katie story as you read in the first chapter. The summary is the same as in the first chapter.

Author's Notes: Oh, admit it. After this, you'll all be craving pancakes and nachos...Well, maybe? Shrugs Hey, it worked for them. (Haha.) :)

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"Grace! I thought you said that I had nachos stuck in my teeth! I don't see any nachos!" Jessie was shrieking while looking at herself in the mirror. She had been examining her teeth for the past five minutes convinced there must be something stuck in her teeth because otherwise that would mean she had just walked away from a really hot girl. Alas, there was nothing stuck in her teeth. "Damn it!"

Grace raised her eyebrows, it wasn't often that Jessie swore. She must be pretty upset, she looked it. Jessie shut her eyes tightly for a minute getting over the fact that she had just walked away from a girl who wanted to talk to her. Actually, who said that the girl was coming over to talk to her? Maybe it was someone else. Yes, there we go, advert your thinking. It was surely someone else that she was looking at, not Jessie. Jessie smiled too perkily at Grace who laughed. "She was too looking at you. Admit it, you blew it." Jessie's face fell.

"How was I suppose to know? I'm not a genius in this type of thing." Oh crap. Grace had meant that jokingly, but poor Jessie took it to heart.

"Oh Jess. Don't worry about her. If it's meant to be, you'll see her again, okay?" Now, Jessie smiled a genuine smile, and her stomach growled. Grace chuckled. "A tad bit hungry there, huh?"

"No...Well, yeah." Jessie looked thoughtful, "Can we go eat somewhere? I feel like...breakfast food Pancakes!"

"It's eleven though, Jess. Breakfast food now?"

Jessie nodded, though she wasn't so sure why breakfast food sounded good right now. "How about we go to that restaurant down the street from here. We can walk."

"Maybe I wanted to dance some more, ever think of that?" Grace didn't mind going to get breakfast food now, but she couldn't let Jessie know that or else she'd take advantage of that.

Jessie saw right through Grace, and knew that she was hungry too. They had been with each other most of the day, except when they were in separate classes, so she knew Grace's eating cycle. She should be hungry pretty soon too. Well, either that, or Jessie was just always hungry then and Jessie made Grace go with her to get food. "Oh, you know you want food too." Grace rolled her eyes. "Well, you do so come on." Jessie pulled at Grace's hand to get her out of the club and back onto the street where the sign for the restaurant could be sighted dangling from a building a little ways down the block.

A little while later they were walking through the door to the restaurant. Wow, it smelled good in there. "Mm...Pancakes...and..." Jessie sniffed for a moment, there was something else dangling in the air besides breakfast food. "Nachos?"

A few minutes after they left the club, Katie and Tad had ended up at the very place they wanted to be. It served the best pancakes in town, plus it sold other food including nachos! No one looked at Katie oddly when she ordered a plate of pancakes and nachos because they were used to her frequent visits to the place. Tad, on the other hand, ordered a complete breakfast meals. One of the ones that you see advertised on TV commercials but never think that anyone will be able to eat. Well, Tad can eat it, the three pancakes, 4 pieces of bacon, 4 sausages, scrambled eggs, and the biscuit. He'd eat it all.

Good thing that boy went running, because Katie wasn't sure where all of that food went. Though, people said that about her too...and she didn't go running because that required her to be somewhat athletic, and unfortunately, she was clumsy, not graceful.

Grace looked around the restaurant to realize that only one other group of people was in here. In fact, it was a couple too. It was the guy and the girl from the club! She was just about to elbow Jessie when Jessie apparently noticed them too because she dropped her purse with a clang. Crap, hopefully nothing broke. She quickly tried to gather all of her things and jam them back into her purse. Hm, was it bad luck if you couldn't find it after dropping it?

Katie heard something drop and looked across the restaurant to the cashier and noticed one of the girls from the club standing there, that girl's friend. Where was the other girl? Good question. Jessie was hidden behind a table picking up her stuff. Aha! Jessie found her mirror underneath the table. Grace was already holding her food, and when Jessie stood back up with her purse to get her own food, Katie noticed Jessie too. Katie's heart seemed to stop for a moment. Why the heck was this girl already having this effect on her when they hadn't even spoken yet? Jessie smiled at Katie, and Katie realized suddenly that she was grinning back.

She reminded her of someone that she had seen earlier, but who? Someone she was going to date...Oh, right. She looked exactly like her dream girl from earlier, but that didn't mean anything, right? She was being as sappy as maple syrup thinking things like that, and now apparently as corny as...corn? Wow, she had to stop with jokes like that.

Katie was debating what do when Tad, just now glancing up from his heap of food, smiled at Katie. "You just want to get her as your main dish, huh?" Tad soon grimaced as he received a swift kick from Katie under the table. Geeze, someone was testy tonight. Jessie paused unsure of what to do, and then she saw Katie bite her lip. The other girl was nervous!

It was as if a personality shift was taking place. Suddenly, Katie was the shy one, and Jessie was turning spontaneous and outgoing. Jessie walked towards her, with Grace trailing behind. "Hi, I'm Jessie."

Katie smiled, Jessie, what a pretty name. "Hi, I'm Katie." Katie saw Jessie glance at her odd mixture of pancakes and nachos. "Uh, I like nachos...and pancakes. Together...and now I feel like I'm in some kind of support meeting."

Jessie giggled, "A support group for those who like weird foods, huh?"

Katie grinned, "Exactly, though, that'd be a pretty sorry meeting. It'd be a meeting of only...well, me, probably. Then I'd be called a egomaniac for having a 'Me Meeting'."

Wow, Katie was quite creative wasn't she? She certainly didn't seem as shy now as she did a few moments ago, apparently she wasn't. Though, Jessie really was, but it wouldn't show. No, she wouldn't let her shyness show. "Me Meeting? Well, really that'd be a You Meeting actually. Unless...You have something for sheep, then it'd be a Ewe meeting." Katie did something to Jessie that made her shy and talkative all at the same time.

"Bahh," Tad made his presence noticed again by trying to sound like a sheep. Now, it was time for Grace to giggle. Both girls blushed, not wanting the other to see it. "I'm Tad," he offered and gestured at the seats in the booth. One was next to him and one was next to Katie. Jessie and Grace both realized that they were still standing.

Grace sat down next to Tad, and Jessie next to Katie. "Unless, it's an Ew Meeting because of the weird foods I eat, and everyone else thinks is gross." Oh my God. They continued their conversation as if no one had ever interrupted them! Tad shook his head, and Grace rolled her eyes.

"I'm Grace," she said, talking mainly to Tad. He smiled, well, perhaps the benefits of Katie having to meet this mystery girl weren't so bad after all. Funny, Grace was thinking the exact same thing.

About an hour later, the two girls were still talking and Grace and Tad were getting along pretty well too. "You so have to try it!"

"Ew...No. I'm not going to eat that. You're the one in the meetings, not me." Katie was trying to get Jessie to eat a nacho with some pancakes shoved on top of it. Jessie shook her head while Katie raised an eyebrow curiously. Hm...maybe if she...

"Please?" She wasn't going to beg her to try it, just, asking nicely. "It'll be good, I promise. Hm, tell you what, close your eyes." Tad and Grace had wandered over to look at the toys available in the Kiddie Meals because they had gotten bored sitting there.

"Close my eyes? Why?" Jessie was about to protest when Katie silenced her with two little words.

"Trust me." Jessie looked at Katie suspiciously for a moment. I mean, they had just met, why was she already starting to trust her? Jessie obeyed. Her eyes fluttered shut a few seconds after Katie muttered those words. Katie, who was already sitting next to Jessie, moved a little bit closer to the other girl and moved a strand of blonde hair behind Jessie's ear. Then, wordlessly, Katie reached out and picked up a nacho, already with the pancake piece on top, and leaned over towards Jessie.

Jessie, on her part, looked kind of scared, and was sitting there pretty rigidly. Katie leaned forward and leaned right against Jessie's ear. "Just trust me," she softly whispered right into her ear. Oddly enough, this seemed to ease the younger girl because she relaxed. Grace and Tad looked over just in time to see Jessie open her mouth and Katie gently lean forward and put the nacho chip in the other girl's mouth. Katie's fingers lightly brushed past Jessie's lips as she place the chip delicately on her tongue. Jessie closed her mouth and chewed, her eyes still closed.

She wasn't gagging yet. That was a good sign. In fact, she still had her eyes closed while she chewed. Her eyes were still closed when she swallowed. Tad and Grace looked at each other, raising their eyebrows, and then back at the other two. They didn't seem to realize the feelings that they had for each other were mutual as well as Tad and Grace did. Silly them. "Good?" Katie asked, her eyes still locked on Jessie's lips. It was okay to stare while Jessie's eyes were closed because she wouldn't know. She couldn't freak out if her eyes were closed.

"Mmm," was all that Jessie said at first. Now, those words got to Katie who bit her bottom lip after hearing that. Jessie continued on, "Very good. Surprising, but so intensely good." Katie sighed, it was a good thing that Jessie had something besides just sounds the second time. Jessie wished for Katie to be back close to her again. It felt so good to have her close, even if she was just innocently feeding her a chip. So, which was it that Jessie was answering? The food being good, or Katie's touch being good, or both? Well, as far as Katie knew, only the food.

Jessie slowly opened her eyes to find Katie still sitting very close to her, and neither of them looking away. Katie broke the silence, and Jessie broke the stare. What were they doing? Neither one wanted to scare the other girl away by having her realize that she was into girls, starting to become into her. "That good, huh?" Jessie smiled and nodded. "Question though. Is it better than Tad's attempt to sound like sheep?"

"Tad's attempt to sound like a sheep is almost as good as Grace's attempt to dance!" They both laughed, but Grace and Tad wandered over just to hear their names being mentioned.

"Hey! That's no fair! I like my sheep noises."

"And you know you love my dancing!" Both of them caused the girls to break out laughing even harder. Already, they were impossible to deal with. Their friends sighed just as the manager of the restaurant sighed and walked over to them. He was kicking them out? It was early! Tad looked at the clock. It was 1:45 a.m. They had been here for over an hour! No wonder they were being kicked out.

"Come on, guys, we should get back soon." Grace was suggesting this, though she wasn't sure what she was getting back to, just that she had had a long day and was now tired. They were all pretty tired actually, though none of them really wanted to separate, especially Jessie and Katie.

"I guess it is getting kind of late..." Jessie trailed off not sure of what to suggest.

"Can I have your phone number?" Wow, Singer. Way to jump out on that one. Wait, quick, make it sound un-date like. Quick! She's straight! "Um, I mean so that we can hang out again. You know, be friends?" Katie was trying so hard not to ramble on just then, like she tends to do sometimes. They each started walking in opposite directions after saying good-bye because they each went back to the university different ways.

Jessie smiled and wrote down her number on Katie's hand. Okay, even if she didn't want her number for a date, friends could be good. Maybe they could be friends. I mean, after tonight, there had to be something between them right? The four said their good-byes as the grumpy manager watched the four walk out of the restaurant that night, er, morning. They went different ways down the street. Jessie and Grace branching off to the right, and Katie and Tad off to the right. It's funny how many ways you can get back to the same university campus.

Katie was so excited that she had Jessie's phone number she forgot that she was uncoordinated and tried to jump over a trash can. Unfortunately, she didn't make it, and knocked it over. She tried to subtly shake it off, but Tad noticed and burst out laughing. "Oh, leave me alone, Mr. Hot Shot," she murmured.

"After what you and Sarah did to me? No way!" Tad was still laughing at Katie's clumsiness and giddiness.

Jessie, was also happy, and was apparently trying to dance out her happiness. Grace ended that with a quick warning, "Want me to do 'The Lawnmower'?"

"Hey, you can't until it rains, remember your promise!" Jessie was complaining now, but she didn't care. Grace had promised her that. Oh, Jessie's bad luck, or perhaps Grace's good luck struck just then for it began to rain.


	3. Chapter 3

Title: Just Dance With Me 

Rating: Definitely T or perhaps light M. There's some mild language, and some definite sexual content in this chapter.

Summary: This is a Jessie/Katie story. You've been 'warned.' It tells about them meeting college and everything that goes along with it. (Yes, that means they are going to be together in this story.) Tad, Grace, Sarah, etc. also fall into the plot a bit, but this is mostly Jessie/Katie.

Disclaimer: None of these characters are mine. I'm thankful to be allowed to use them, but they aren't mine at all, so I can't claim them. (Unfortunately for me.)

Feedback: I love feedback. I also want to heavily thank everyone who has sent me feedback so far. Especially those who send it on every chapter, I especially thank you, and you all will know who you are without my saying your names. (Though, if you want to be named, just say so ;) . )

Author's Notes: Please note the status of RATING of section of being for sure T, or perhaps a light M chapter. I wanted to post it twice so that no one gets offended if they read this chapter blindly not being aware of it.

Also, I tried to go down a bit of a different route in this chapter as compared to some of the lighter comedy chapters that I have sent before. Of course, for those of you who like those, there will still be the same light comedy in there (like it or not, I can't really do without that.), but I'm in hopes that those of you reading this like this chapter as well. It has more of a…sexual undercurrent than some previous chapters I've written have, and I just wanted to test out the waters in that to see how everyone would respond to that. So, I'd appreciate what you guys/girls think of that, and about perhaps throwing a mix between the two into future chapters.

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The rain had poured over Jessie and Grace their whole walk home, but Jessie just danced around in it. Grace rolled her eyes, and simply followed her giddy step-sister back to their dorm. Jessie had been home for about an hour and she was already thinking about Katie again. Well, to be honest, the truth is she just hadn't stopped. Eventually, she was drawn into a sleep full of dreams, each involving Katie. 

Katie, on her part, had run the rest of the way home after it started raining because she was afraid she was going to smear Jessie's phone number. She was soon after laying awake in bed wondering how early would be too fast to call Jessie. Eventually, she wound up into a restless sleep, never deep enough to dream fully. She woke up the next morning however, very well rested, which was ironic.

Actually, it wasn't morning when she awoke for it was already 12:30 p.m. Hm, well, I guess that getting in late can lead to sleeping in late...By three, Katie had run out of things to do to keep her mind distracted off of Jessie. She had even finished writing her report that was due in a week. She fidgeted for a bit, and Sarah sighed. "Do you never keep still now? What the heck is wrong with you?"

Katie smiled apologetically, and fidgeted a bit more unconsciously. "I'm not fidgeting. I'm waiting...to call Jessie." Sarah laughed. Ah, Jessie again. She had already been filled in on Jessie somewhere between Katie's paper being written and the batch of cookies that had been burned. All of which were things that Katie was trying to succeed in doing to keep her mind off of Jessie.

"Just call the girl. Ask her to go out tonight. How's that?" Sarah was trying to be the voice of reasoning here. Perhaps she was right.

"What if she thinks it's a date?" Katie played absentmindedly with the bracelet that was encircling her wrist as she contemplated calling Jessie.

"It is a date." Katie realized this as Sarah said it, but she didn't want to scare Jessie away. Though, she wasn't sure how much longer she could stand just sitting here either.

Katie nodded, and picked up the phone. She was going to call Jessie, and that was that. She looked at her hand for the number. Oh my God! The number was gone! She must have washed it off when she was washing her hands before baking the cookies! She frantically looked at her other hand, hoping it was on there instead. No such luck. Oh my God, Oh my God. "Shit," Katie mumbled and looked around the dorm room.

Suddenly, Sarah realized what Katie had lost, and she did the strangest thing. She burst out laughing. Not a chuckle, or a simple giggle, but all-out side-splitting laughing. "What the hell is so funny? I lost her phone number." Immediately, the realization of the situation sunk in, and Katie's face fell.

"Wow, you're pathetic sometimes, you know that?" Katie was handed a sticky note that was stuck to a mirror in the room from Sarah who was shaking her head still chuckling at her friend. "You were afraid you'd lose the number when you got home last night, and you wrote it down on a piece of paper. Apparently, you forgot that little bit."

"I did? Huh, I guess I'm even smarter than I knew." Katie's confidence was re-newed as she held the phone number. Katie gave Sarah a quick kiss on the cheek. "You know, I love you for remembering where I put the note know."

"Yeah, you better," Sarah smiled at her friend and grabbed her jacket. "I'm gonna head over to get myself some late lunch down the street while you calling your girlfriend."

"She's not my girlfriend yet, but that's a nice thought. I'll let you know how the phone call goes."

"I know you will," Sarah said jokingly, and then headed out the door in search of some good food.

Grace had left a few minutes ago to go meet up with a couple of her friends for a quick study session about one of their classes. Well, that was the plan, anyway. They'd probably end up going to see a movie, and that's why Jessie had been invited too, but she had refused today. Grace had accused Jessie of wanting to sleep more, and Jessie admitted that was true. Though, the other part that Grace didn't mention was that Jessie was hoping Katie would call.

Around 3:15, Jessie got her wish. Her cell phone was ringing, and she was freaking out. She almost didn't pick up, for fear that it was someone else calling that she didn't want to talk to. The part of her that clung to the idea that it was Katie on the phone though ended up picking up the cell after it's second ring.

"Hello?" Jessie was still hoping even as she spoke.

"Hi, is this Jessie? It's me, Katie." Katie was nervous as she could be as she was dialing, but now, after hearing someone answer, she was calming down a bit.

"Hey Katie. Yeah, it's Jessie. What are you up to?" Good thinking Jessie, keep the conversation light and fluffy.

"I'm pretty good. I, uh, caught up on some sleep last night anyway. Well, maybe not last night, more this morning." Katie laughed on her end of the conversation. "How about you?"

"I'm good, just kind of hanging around at my dorm for the moment." Ah, just around the dorm, good thing for Katie to note.

It was beginning to sink into Katie that she had to ask soon, or not ask at all. "Um, the reason I'm calling is...Do you wanna go out tonight?"

Does she want to go out? Hell yes! Wait. No, bad Jessie, don't answer like that. Wait, out as friends, or on a date? Jessie really wasn't sure. Unless, she wanted to ask Katie what it was...

Jessie had been silent for a while, and Katie was getting confused. Maybe she had everything wrong? "It's okay if you're busy, I understand. You could just say so."

"No!" Katie couldn't leave just like that!

"No? No as in you don't want to go? I was getting that part already. It's okay, really."

"No! I mean, I do want to go out tonight. I just, um." How could Jessie handle this? "Isthisadate?" Jessie had found the perfect way to word it. She'd just simply ask if it was a date. Wait, had she said that too fast?

"Did you ask if this was going to be a date?" Katie wasn't positive at what Jessie had just said, but it's possible she just asked that right?

"Yes," Jessie had decided to be honest.

"Then yes, it is. Do you still want to go?" There, that was simple Singer, just ask. That's all you had to do.

"In that case, yes. I'd love to go out tonight." She just said yes! Katie was grinning now.

"Alright, good. Um, should I pick you up and then we can get some food or go dancing or something, since neither one of us got much time to dance last night before we left the club?"

Dancing, food, and Katie. Yum. Sounds good to Jessie. "Sounds great. I'll see you at, um, 8?"

"I'll be there." Luckily, they had already discussed where on campus they were last night at the diner. Actually, Katie was on the same floor number as Jessie, only in a different building. They probably would have walked back together last night except for the fact that Tad had wanted to stop at the movie place on the way back to see if it was truly open 24/7 as it advertised to be. (It was, and Tad rented some weird action movies that Katie had never heard of, but it was for 'the guys' to watch tonight.)

"Okay, see you then. Bye." Jessie was giddy with excitement now.

"Bye," Katie answered as she looked at the clock. She was going to be picking Jessie up in four hours!

Jessie looked at the clock. It was almost eight, so Katie should be there soon. She gave herself a once-over in the mirror. Her blonde hair was freshly washed and brushed straight and smooth. She had on a fresh pair of cute denim jeans that clung to her body well, and a light blue tank top that showed her beautiful body, but was also conservative. To say it simply, she looked gorgeous. Just then, there was a knock at her door.

Katie had wanted to pick something up for Jessie, like flowers or some candy. She had finally opted with a gardenia, which she held behind her back just as Jessie answered the door. "Hey you," Katie said as Jessie grinned.

"Hey Katie." Tonight, Katie was wearing some black jeans and a white halter top that was tied precariously around her neck. She looked stunning, and apparently Jessie thought so too. "Wow, you look great."

"Thanks, you look great too. Oh, right, here." Suddenly, Katie remembered why her hands were behind her back and she handed the gardenia to Jessie who loved it. She immediately invited Katie in, so she could find a vase or something to put it in. While Katie checked out the room, Jessie had put the vase with the flower on her counter.

"Okay, I'm good now."

"Ready to go?" Katie questioned, and extended her arm to Jessie, which she accepted. Though, no complaints were made when she removed her linked arm and instead grabbed Katie's hand within hers. It felt so right. "Are you hungry now? Or do you want to go dancing first?"

Jessie paused for a moment, and realized that she was, in fact, hungry. Katie luckily was too, so they decided to go to a quaint diner that was near the club that they wanted to go to tonight. Inside, both girls ordered a cheeseburger and a root beer and decided to split an order of fries.

The waitress was kind and the two chatted for about two hours about everything and nothing. The topics had ranged from their home lives to childhood heroes to what was good on TV to good books to tasty food before they decided to go to the club.

Jessie had learned about Katie's several brothers, and how they were scattered about the U.S. and how Katie's mom kind of kept to herself, but it had been like that for a while. When Katie went home to visit, she had to go in there to see her. Luckily, her dad would come out of the room to see her, well, at least when he was home he would. Also, Katie seemed to use to think that the gang from Scooby Doo would some day be able to be her best friends when she got older, at least when she was younger she did.

Katie enjoyed reading, at least when it wasn't assigned, and as long as not too many had to know that she was reading for fun. And, if Jessie hadn't guessed, Katie was very fond of spicy food and breakfast foods. Jessie was thrilled to find everything she could about this other girl, and found herself wanting to be the one that Katie could always turn to.

Katie had learned about Grace being Jessie's step-sister, and that she had a brother named Eli, and another step-sister named Zoe. Her mom was Karen, and about her dad, Rick, and Lily, her step-mom. She listened as Jessie rambled on about breakfast foods, cartoons that she still watched on TV, and wanting to read books because they were something that wasn't her own life.

It seemed like she had been through a lot, even though she was just in college, and Katie admired her for that. She didn't want her to have to hurt anymore either. Though, she seemed to have less pain as she had gotten older, and moved on towards the end of her high schools years and into college, which Katie was happy for. Katie was really starting to like her. Finally, the two decided that they were ready to head on over to the club.

The music was already pumping inside the club and tonight the girls were both ready to dance. "Do you want to dance?" It shocked Katie for a moment that Jessie was the first one to ask, but that just made her like her even more.

"Um," Katie was Katie's answer because she was simply admiring the beautiful Jessie as she stood before her. She wasn't completely sure if she wanted Jessie to see her dancing. Wasn't it just last night that with Tad her dancing didn't go so well? Apparently though, the smile on Katie's face was enough of an answer for Jessie though.

The music was pretty loud in the club, and Jessie didn't feel like shouting. So, she leaned in closely to Katie, much like Katie had done to her the night before in the restaurant. Only, Katie was a bit taller than her so she had to lean upwards to reach her ear. "Just dance with me," Jessie encouraged and then led her out to the dance floor and into the mob of bodies already pressing together. Each girl was expecting their dancing to go as usual, with not being very passionate in their movements. They figured that they would stay about the standard six to twelve inches away from one another, unlike some couples that were pressed up very closely to one another.

Katie started off just kind of waving her arms above her head and moving her body to the beat. Jessie matched Katie's body as it swayed side to side, and then their eyes locked. The pressure between the two girls seemed to intensify. The bass of the music was beating into both of their ears, and it was useless at the moment to talk because there was no way they could hear each other now.

Instead, wordlessly, the two danced closer together. Suddenly, the standard inches that they were to stay apart were slipping by. Then, Katie and Jessie maneuvered so that Katie was standing directly behind Jessie. Katie's hands raised above her head now as her hips moved directly in time to Jessie's.

Katie's chest was pushed up against Jessie's back, and Jessie found herself, in turn, pushing herself back more against Katie's pelvis. Then, hands found other hands as they were reached for in the air. Soon, Katie's arms were draped around Jessie and resting on the other girl's hips. Jessie reached back and ran her hands down Katie's thighs as they pressed into the back of her own legs. Neither girl could no longer control their dancing because it was all coming naturally to them. They had found their passion that was needed in dancing, and were now making use of it. All they needed was each other.

Katie moved some blonde hair and leaned down to softly kiss the skin the lay beneath it. Jessie closed her eyes and moaned softly, but Katie who was pressed against her back heard it. Katie's arms wrapped around the shorter girl's waist, and Jessie's arms wrapped themselves around Katie's arms holding them all the closer together. This gave Katie incentive. Katie dipped her head again and sucked tenderly on the skin that lay on Jessie's neck.

Another moan soon escaped Jessie, and Katie moved her kisses up and down Jessie's neck. The blonde girl responded particularly to a certain spot when Katie reached it. The answer in Katie's opinion was to kiss there again and then open her mouth carefully to nip secretively at that spot before releasing another round of sucking tenderly there.

Jessie couldn't take it anymore. She turned around in Katie's arms. They were still standing just as close as they had been previously. Jessie tilted her head up and captured Katie's lips in her own. Both girls had secretly had breath mints after dinner luckily so Katie tasted as a mix of root beer and spearmint, and Jessie tasted as a mix between a small hint of sweet cappuccino from earlier that day and peppermint. Both tastes were incredibly addicting. Soon, Katie's tongue was running across Jessie's bottom lip and Jessie opened her mouth to allow it access.

They were certainly the spectacles to behold at the club tonight. Jessie's hands fluttered up to Katie's head and found their way into her dirty blondish that was blown straight tonight. Instantly, Katie's hands wrapped themselves around Jessie's waist again, pulling the younger girl into her more so. They received a few looks, but would never know because their eyes had been closed since their lips had touched.

Both girls found themselves wanting to be even closer to the other girl, and never realizing that they weren't so much dancing anymore. When oxygen became an issue they finally parted, and looked at each other breathlessly and smiling giddily. "Wow," is all that Jessie said.

"Wow," Katie echoed, before smiling again. The bass had calmed down a bit but was still echoing through-out the club. Neither, girl backed away, but continued dancing as they were. Jessie's hands found their way from Katie's hair down the older girl's back. Meanwhile, Katie's hands rested still on Jessie's hips. The two girls locked eyes and swayed together, slowly moving their bodies together creating the pressure that they both wanted, that they both had been seeking.

Slowly, while they were dancing, Katie dipped her head while Jessie tilted her head up and their lips locked again. Their eyes fluttered shut instantly. This time, Jessie sucked on Katie's bottom lip for a moment which caused Katie to moan softly and allowed movement for both of their tongues. Their pelvises were still connected, silently moving side to side. They both pulled back as the song changed to a slow one. They smiled and rested their foreheads against each other's. They were both truly happy at this moment. Jessie's arms raised to Katie's shoulders. She allowed Katie to lead the dance this time, and together they slow-danced smiling happily at one another.

The time in the dance club had passed oh too quickly, and soon both had to be getting back to their rooms. It was obviously too early in this relationships, as both were now calling it in their heads, to stay at each other's dorms, but neither wanted to leave the other. Since, Katie had picked Jessie up earlier, she decided it was also fair if she delivered her back there.

At the door to Jessie's room, there was luckily no one in the hall, because Jessie leaned up to capture Katie's lips for a quick good-night kiss. The kiss quickly turned when Jessie's reached over and pulled Katie against her. Katie backed Jessie up against the door, still kissing her and lightly pushed her against it. Jessie moaned and deepened the kiss as Katie's hands went and supported herself against the door, pressing herself up against Jessie. After a while, both girls separated, smiling once more. "You should probably go," Jessie whispered.

"I probably should," Katie simply replied and leaned in and gave Jessie a quick kiss on the lips. "I'll call you tomorrow."

"It is tomorrow." Jessie was teasing Katie, as she pointed this out.

Katie went along with the teasing easily, and came up with a solution. "Well, I'll call you today."

"I like the sound of that," Jessie replied as she reached up and smoothed over a piece of Katie's hair. Katie turned, and started to walk down the stairs as Jessie watched before going into the dorm room. It was easily detectable of their good time by the large smiles plastered on their faces, the flushed cheeks, tousled hair, and swollen lips. They surely had a great date to tell about to their room-mates in the morning. Of course, it had to be in the morning, because by the afternoon they were each hoping to be able to hang out again.

Both girls were falling fast, and it was only the second day that they had known each other. At least, they had something to look forward to later today. What was it they had to look forward to? Simple, it was each other, and that had to be a good thing.


	4. Chapter 4

Title: Just Dance With Me 

Disclaimer: I don't own anyone on Once and Again. I was simply lucky enough to get to use them for writing purposes. I don't own them, and can't claim them. The only characters thus far that I can claim are Ash and Gina because they obviously weren't part of Once and Again originally.

Rating: T.

Summary: Jessie/Katie story. It's about them meeting in college and as they get, well, a lot closer. Also, Grace, Tad, and Sarah have their lovely parts in here too.

Feedback: I love feedback! I really truly do. (And, no, this does not mean that someone should tell me to marry it, lol.) Thank you so much to everyone who has sent me feedback on any of my writing, but especially to those who keep updating their feedback on every chapter I write. I appreciate you guys/girls giving me feedback a lot.

Author's Notes: I decided to take a break today when I got home from work, so I decided to finish writing this chapter. (I was going to write it in all one part without taking a break, like I have done on other chapters, but I wrote this one in two writing sessions because something called a bed called to me.) So, yes, Stef, I did write most of that in one part last chapter since you were wondering about that. Also, to those of you who were wondering about the pancakes and nachos I've never actually eaten that. It's a mix between some weird food that I have eaten though. Haha. I eat nacho cheese with grapes, and I've eaten pancakes with peanut butter. Both were actually pretty decent, so I thought I'd combine the two in this story. I'll have to try it sometime and let you guys know how it tastes unless someone wants to test it for me and lemme know how it is ;) Anyway, I hope you guys/girls like this chapter. Enjoy.

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Jessie woke up the next morning feeling so refreshed. Last night had been, so, wow. It was the best date that Jessie had honestly ever been on. She had woken up a minute before her alarm would have normally gone off on a day that she had classes. Even though it was Sunday, she was okay with getting up early for once.

She was so energized! What should she do now that she was up? Hm, go running! That was a weird thought, usually she didn't think too far into making a point of exercising because she was kept busy enough running around anyway. Oh, breakfast sounded good too! She glanced over at Grace who was still sound asleep. Finally, she decided that she would get dressed, brush her teeth and her hair quick and then go get breakfast at some fast food restaurant. Quickly, she walked about the room throwing on a sweater and a pair of jeans, followed by a quick comb through of her hair before quickly going to brush her teeth. She didn't really pause to see how she looked in the mirror though, she'd be back at her dorm soon enough that it wouldn't really matter. So, ten minutes later she was out the door.

At the fast-food restaurant, Jessie ordered two breakfast sandwiches and a large orange juice deciding that she would share with Grace when she got back. The cashier, a guy, kept smiling at her. In fact, she was getting a lot of looks and a few smiles. "Have a good time yesterday?" The male cashier was questioning her now, great.

"Um, why?" Jessie was pretty skeptical of this guy and the way her was practically leering at her.

"You just look...refreshed is all." Jessie got a confused look on her face then grabbed her food and left quickly. She didn't want to have to deal with him. Looked refreshed? What the heck.

She got back to her apartment and was just taking the food out of the bag when Grace seemed to acknowledge her prescreens. Well, the blanket acknowledged her anyway, the one covering Grace completely, including her head. "What'd you get me?"

"What," Jessie questioned, feigning innocence.

"I smell food...Do I get some?" Suddenly, a very Grace-like head appeared out of the pile of blankets looking around expectantly.

Jessie laughed, "Yes, you know I got you something. It'd be a horrible death for me if I didn't." Grace smirked and nodded as she climbed out of bed to get her share of the orange juice and her breakfast sandwich.

Jessie pulled her hair back behind her ears so that none of the biscuit would fall into her hair. That was the bad thing about these biscuits, so flaky. Almost as flaky as some girls she knew. Hehe. Jessie was on a roll that morning with jokes already.

"Holy crap, Jessie!" Grace was screaming now, as Jessie looked confused.

"What? What's wrong? Did some of the biscuit fall in my hair?" Jessie looked down suspiciously into her hair, ready to freak out if there was food in it.

"No, there's nothing in your hair. But...Um, I'm going to take a wild guess and say your date with Katie went well last night." Jessie was looking forward to telling Grace about her date, how did she already know it went well? As if to answer Jessie's question, Grace replied, "You do know you have a giant hickey on your neck right?"

Jessie's eyes widened as she ran to pick up her compact mirror. In fact, the same one that she had dropped the night she had first met Katie in the restaurant. It was true. There was a giant hickey in the middle of Jessie's neck. Hehe, guess there had to be some pay-back for what Katie was doing last night when they were dancing, huh? Oh wait. Crap. Jessie suddenly realized why everyone was staring at her whenever she would pass by them. They were staring at her neck, at her hickey!

Grace laughed. "So, want to tell me more about this great date?" Jessie nodded. Grace was going to get to hear the main points of the date anyway. Though, while telling the story, Jessie wondered what Katie was up to so far.

Sarah was sitting patiently at the side of Katie's bed. And, of course, by patiently, I mean very impatiently. After a few seconds, she simply asked, "Sooo, how was last night?" No answer. "Katie? Katie? Kaaaaattieee?" Maybe if she drew out the name long enough, Katie would simply wake up! "K to the A, to the T, to the I, to the E. Katie. Katie!" Still no answer, so Sarah was forced to sigh.

"What the heck do you want? It's early." Katie simply rolled over, turning away from her apparently insane friend.

"It's eleven," Sarah retorted.

"Like I said, it's early." Oh, Katie was very good at clarifying this morning. Sarah simply sighed once more, getting more impatient with her sleeping-loving friend.

"I want to know how your date went last night. What else would I want to know?" Katie smiled on the other side of the bed. "Yes, I know your smiling." Suddenly, Katie stopped smiling. It was kind of creepy, if you think about it, how close she and Sarah seemed sometime. Of course, not close in that way. Katie giggled as she thought of Jessie. Now Jessie, that was a horse of a different color. Well, really it was a situation with a different girl. But, that worked too, right? "Come on, and stop giggling. Just spill the story already. How was it?"

Katie rolled over, and looked at her friend. "So, how was it?" Katie was still questioning her.

This time, Katie decided to answer. "It was great, to be honest. We went out to eat at a restaurant nearby."

"Frankie's," Sarah wondered.

"No. So, we just sat there and talked for a while about everything..." Katie had a blissed-out smile on her face just remembering the date.

"So, where did you go?" Wow, Sarah was very inquisitive today.

"Angelo's. And, it was great. I mean, we had good seating, and good food. Plus, good conversation." Wow, Katie was sounding too corny, so she decided to lighten it up. "Plus, for once, I had good company."

"Meaning, not me?" Sarah feigned looking hurt, but laughed.

"You? Never." Katie was being sarcastic, and Sarah stuck out her tongue at the other girl who was still laying lazily in her bed.

"Oooh, did you get the hamburgers there? Those are really good. Last time I went there with Ash, she really liked it." Wow, way to get side-tracked. Ooh, suddenly, Katie saw why Sarah was side-tracked. Ash. She wanted to talk about her girlfriend because today was their anniversary. Katie had almost forgotten.

"Yes, we got hamburgers, and, yes, once I tell you about my date, then you can tell me what you have planned for Ash tonight." Sarah beamed. That works for her. "But, you have to stop interrupting me, or else we'll never get to you and Ash." Sarah nodded once more, intent on not speaking for a little while at least. Katie laughed.

"Well, then we went out dancing." Katie grinned, remembering this part, and decided to answer the question she knew Sarah was now wondering. "Yes, at the same place that we went the other night when we first saw each other." Sarah nodded encouragingly, she honestly wanted to hear about the date.

"Well, after a little bit of dancing. Mind you, I was dancing well for once! It seemed like it all fit together, and then, we kissed." Jessie was just finishing telling the story of last night to Grace.

"Hence the 'curling iron burn' on your neck?" Grace pondered out loud, smirking because she knew it wasn't that. "Yeah...pretty much." Jessie didn't stray away from it, just simply answered the question which made Grace laugh before she turned serious.

"You know, I really am glad that you had a good time."

"Me too," Jessie added. "Thanks."

"When are you two going to go out again?"

"Probably tonight," Jessie responded as she finished off her breakfast sandwich.

Grace nodded understandingly. "Try not to burn yourself on the curling iron tonight, will ya? Least, let it not be such a long burn so that it looks like that." Jessie glared at a smirking Grace, who was trying not to laugh. Just then, before Grace could make another sarcastic comment, Jessie's cell phone rang. "I bet that's her!" Grace was almost as excited for Katie to be calling, as Jessie was.

Well, maybe not quite. Jessie's eyes got really big for a second, before she bounded across the room to her phone. She didn't bother to look at the caller I.D. because who else would call at noon on a Sunday? "Hey you, I had a lot of fun last night." Jessie whispered this sexily into the phone as she grinned thinking of Katie. Suddenly, her grin shrank, and she had a horrified look on her face. Her eyes closed, she shook her head softly as if wishing she hadn't done something. Grace was bewildered. What, did Jessie have bad service here?

"Oh, hi Dad." Jessie said in a normal tone of voice, just as she remembered who also called on Sundays. Her dad and Lily always called at noon, with Karen's call usually coming on Wednesday night. Grace's eyes widened as she saw the pained look on Jessie face. Wow, that was going to be a fun one to explain. Grace burst out laughing just as Jessie was mumbling something about a joke with a friend of hers. Yes, just a friend, indeed.

"Huh, her line is busy." Katie had decided to see if Jessie wanted to do something that afternoon, but apparently that would have to wait a little bit anyway.

"So, that means you'll help me plan for my date tonight with Ash?" Sarah was looking at her eagerly, she really didn't want to mess this date up.

Katie looked at her best friend and nodded. After some planning, she would call Jessie back. Then, maybe they could go see a movie that was out or something. That'd be good.

After half an hour of convincing her father that nothing bad had gone on with some guy last night, he was starting to let up. In fact, he didn't even sound suspicious when she said when went out dancing with a friend of hers named Katie. She hadn't ever told anyone that she wasn't into guys before, well, besides Grace. Grace kind of figured it out for herself anyway, and Katie, well, obviously she knew. Until she knew for sure what kind of relationship she had with Katie, she didn't want to go and delve into that with her father.

"Fun conversation?" Grace asked Jessie after having talked with her mom, Lily after Jessie's dad, Rick, handed the phone off. "God, that was one conversation I was really hoping to never have with my dad." Jessie said as she slumped back into her seat.

"One about where you had been last night," Grace questioned.

"No, one about why I was answering my phone like that." Grace laughed just as Jessie's phone rang again.

"Wow, you're a busy person today," commented Grace. "You better check who the caller is this time, though. Don't want to make the same mistake again."

After helping Sarah out with her plans for Ash and their six month anniversary, Katie decided to try calling Jessie again. Sarah had gone out to make sure her reservations were still in order at her restaurant of choice, for once not a fast food restaurant even. She was giddy as she walked out the door.

"Katie?" Jessie asked questioningly into the phone. No doubt, her dad had tracked down this Katie girl now just to make sure she wasn't some sleazy boy who wanted to date her. Not that all the guys that Jessie had dated were sleazy, but in a dad's eyes when it concerns his daughter, what boy isn't sleazy? Well, besides the one that doesn't date her. Though, if he isn't dating her, surely he wants to date her. Rick was just protective like that, of all three of his girls, Jessie, Grace, and Zoe. When it concerned his son, Eli, he just told him he better take care of any girl properly, and treat her nicely. Of course, after living with three girls for a while, Eli knew how to take care of a girl properly as it is. He was not out to be a guy that the three of them would think of as a jerk.

"Yeah?" Katie asked back into the telephone.

"Oh, good. It is you this time." Jessie sighed a, well, sigh of complete relief.

"Who else would it be?"

"My dad." What? Her dad? Why would her dad be with Katie?

"Uh, Jess. Why would…"

Jessie cut the other girl off mid-sentence in order to explain. "My dad just called, and thinking it was you, I answered the phone in a way I shouldn't have. Now, he's trying to find out what's going on, despite my great story that I came up with." Katie was a bit hurt. Why didn't Jessie just say who she was with? "I told him I was with you, but I really didn't think he would want to hear about certain parts of the date. Like the part, where you give me a hickey."

Katie almost choked, even though she was eating nothing. "What? I gave you a hickey?"

"Apparently so. You mean…" Jessie trailed off, wondering if Katie didn't want to remember that part for some reason.

"Oh Jess, it wasn't suppose to sound like that. I just meant that I didn't realize that I had…Um, that I had…Well, I just didn't see it after we finished dancing is all." Katie had stumbled through that, looking for the right words for the, well, right girl. A silence overcame the two as they started thinking about last night, and immediately the same want came over the two, even though they weren't next to each other.

"Basically, I blame you for this." The silence was interrupted by Jessie.

"Blame me for what? The hickey? I already admitted to that part…" Katie trailed off, trying to figure out what Jessie was getting to.

"No, I meant that I blame you for what I'm about to do."

"What are you about to do?" Katie was still at a loss for words.

"I'm going to tell you that I miss you, and sound all corny."

"I miss you too. In fact, would you like to go see a movie and get some coffee or something this afternoon?  
Maybe that would take away some of the missing." Sarah, who had wandered back into the room just a moment ago, was silently watching Katie, as she talked on the phone to Jessie. She was smiling, and kept fidgeting around. Plus, Katie had just asked out Jessie for another date! Go Katie!

"I'd like that." Jessie was grinning, while Grace was trying to snoop to find out what Jessie was liking.

"Good," Katie nodded her head before realizing that Jessie couldn't see her.

"Good…So, see you in half an hour?" Jessie didn't want to waste any time until she got to see Katie next. She could be ready in half an hour, if need be, and she definitely needed to be. Her sanity depended on it already.

Katie laughed, "A bit eager are you? Sounds good to me, so see you then."

Jessie smiled, "See you then."

Half an hour later, Sarah had already told Katie that she looked great, and Katie vice versa with Sarah.  
They were both ready for their respective dates. However, a short and quick knock on the door startled them both.

"You should go get her." Grace was inspecting Jessie as she continued getting ready for her date. Grace planned on having a get together with someone tonight, though, she refused to say who. Which, of course, just made Jessie even more curious. Jessie knew she'd get it out of her sometime though, so she wasn't worried.

"What? Why?" Jessie looked up from the pile of clothes that she had been digging through to eye her step-sister, who shrugged.

"She's always the one who ends up here. So, why don't you end up there for once?" Hm, Grace actually made sense for once. "It'll be a nice surprise for her." Jessie nodded and smiled, and within a few moments she was ready to go. She was decked out in a green sweater and a pair of black pants. She thought it looked coffee house-ish anyway, well, that and a movie. She then grabbed her purse and trotted over to the dorm she knew Katie could be found in.

Ash was suppose to be getting picked up by Sarah, but her dorm room-mate had been driving her insane with stories of night from last night. Quite frankly, she didn't want to know whether or not Gina had been dancing on a bar table for her boyfriend. Neither did she want to know the reason for Gina's black hair being basically hacked off, to her shoulders anyway, when she had come home this morning was because she had fallen asleep at her boyfriend's house and one of his stupid buddies thought it would be funny to cut off a chunk. Though, it seems that the buddy's eyebrows had been shaved off by her last weekend, so perhaps she had it coming. Either way, Ash did not want to hear these 'fun' stories. So, she decided to pick up Sarah herself.

Ash was wearing her little black dress, and toting her black handbag. Her red mane of wavy hair was draped over her shoulders. She got to Sarah's door just at the same time that some pretty blonde haired girl in a green sweater did. What was she doing here? Jessie was eyeing Ash just the same, both forgetting that not just their girlfriend lived there. "Who are you?" They both asked at the same time before laughing and knocking on the door.

"I'm Jessie."

"Well, I'm Ash." They looked at each other for a moment not sure of what else to say because they weren't sure if they were competition for each other or what. Just then, Katie swung open the door prepared for a lost delivery boy or something. She was wearing a long sleeved purple and black shirt, with a pair of tan pants.

Sarah was standing next to her in a blue skirt and a pretty white top. She smiled at Ash, who was grinning back. "You look great, Sweetie." Sarah stood there in awe of Ash for a moment. While Ash, on her part, was pretty much staring at Sarah.

"Thanks, you do too." Ash replied as she slowly realized that Jessie must be there for Katie. Jessie had already, obviously, realized who Ash was there to see.  
Katie and Jessie were grinning at each other sheepishly. Both were very clearly checking the other out as well, which Sarah decided to point out. "Ash, ready to go? We have a full night, and these two seem to want to keep checking each other out and grinning." Both of the two girls immediately blushed while Ash left. After a quick introduction between everyone, seeing as Jessie and Sarah had never met, both couples set off on their own ways.

"So, you were checking me out, huh?" Katie asked as she took Jessie's hand into her own.

"You know it." Katie was not expecting such a bold answer and she blushed feverishly. Jessie giggled. "Guess you like my answer, huh?" Katie kind of nodded and smiled as they walked along to the coffee house.

Once there, both girls decided to try to guess what the other liked to drink. Jessie decided to go first, and she ordered Katie a French Vanilla cappuccino. Katie smiled, then ordered the exact same thing. Jessie's mouth dropped open. "You knew what I wanted!" Katie just grinned a Cheshire-cat-like smile.

"Wait. You just ordered the same thing I did…" Suddenly, it began to click within Jessie's head.

"Yup. You had ordered it, and I could tell by the way your eyes lit up, that you ordered it because it was your favorite too." Jessie decided to try to pout.

"That's not fair! You so totally cheated. Do I get a re-count on this vote?" Jessie was still pouting.

"There was no count in the first place, so no. Though, I admit, it is a good drink. Not my favorite though. My favorite is hot chocolate on days like this, with marshmallows. You did good though." With that, Katie leaned over towards Jessie's ear and Jessie tried to make herself not move away as she thought the taller girl was about to kiss her, in public. Unfortunately, Jessie flinched and moved back a few inches. Katie noticed. She wasn't going to kiss her anyway, instead she whispered in her ear. "Plus, you tasted like cappuccino last night." Jessie smiled remembering last night, and breathed out as Katie's smooth breath dangled and lingered against her ear delicately and deliberately. Katie reached out and smoothed a piece of Jessie's hair down across her head, and ran her hand down Jessie's arm. Jessie closed her eyes. It felt so good, but not in public, no. Jessie opened her eyes again, and Katie was already paying for Jessie's cappuccino. Katie knew that Jessie had closed her eyes because it felt good, but she still had originally flinched. So as she paid, she had to focus on trying to not look hurt.

The two girls took their cappuccinos with them as they decided to walk toward the movie theatre. They decided on a romantic comedy while they stood their finishing their drinks. They walked inside and both looked longingly toward the balcony. Both girls loved sitting up there, though, tonight it was blocked off because not enough people were there to have to open it up. They had to wait for their tickets first before deciding where to sit anyway. Suddenly, Katie looked over at Jessie, and Jessie realized that she was actually sad that she had moved. Katie knew that Jessie wasn't out yet, why was she upset? "Katie, what's wrong?" Jessie had a pleading tone in her voice, as she tried to get Katie to look at her.

Katie sighed, "You moved when I went to say something in your ear. It made you flinch. I really like you, Jess, even though we just met a few days ago. It feels like so much longer…but, I'm not sure I can do this so well if you're going to always flinch when we're in public together, afraid of what someone may think…I'm so sorry, but I don't think I can hide my feelings for you in public now, and even less if we were girlfriends longer. What am I suppose to think if my girlfriend flinches away when I touch her?" Girlfriend. Katie had called Jessie her girlfriend. Katie's voice sounded so desperate, as if she was trying not to cry. Jessie felt bad, she felt so bad. She just, well, she had never had reason to come out before. I mean, she could look at girls and flirt, but she had never had a relationship that meant enough to her for her to be out. And Katie, even though this was just their second date, meant a lot to her.

"I'm your girlfriend?" That was the first thing, and only thing that seemed to be able to slip out of Jessie's mouth at the moment. Katie looked at her with tears obvious in the corners of her eyes.

"Well…" Katie hadn't missed that she had called Jessie her girlfriend, but what else would she be? Katie wanted her to be her girlfriend anyway. "I mean…If you want to be." Katie lowered her eyes, "Though, I'm not sure how you'd feel being out with me in public. It's up to how you feel." Katie had laid her self completely out there. All that was left, was for Jessie to say a few words, and then either they'd be together or they'd have some more complicated issues to work out. Jessie had seemed skittish in the coffee house, so Katie just hoped that Jessie knew what she wanted enough to be able to handle it in public now. Jessie knew what she could and couldn't handle.


	5. Chapter 5

-Title: Just Dance With Me  
-Rating: T. Some sexual content in this chapter, not so much for the language.  
-Disclaimer: I don't own the characters. They belong to the people at Once and Again, so I cannot claim them. Repeat, can't claim them. The only two I can claim are Ash and Gina.  
-Feedback: Yes please. And thank you so much to everyone who sends me some.  
-Summary: This is a Jessie/Katie story. You've been 'warned.' It tells about them meeting college and everything that goes along with it. (Yes, that means they are going to be together in this story.) Tad, Grace, Sarah, etc. also fall into the plot a bit, but this is mostly Jessie/Katie.  
-Author's Notes: There is a fantasy part in this story, and I tried to make it fairly clear in the writing when the fantasy starts and ends. I am going to use italics for the fantasy though, so that it's hopefully even more noticeable. What else? Oh yeah. Enjoy! (And respond please, hehe.)

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Girlfriend. She wants me to be her girlfriend. So many thoughts were running through Jessie's head at the time. It was almost like a mini movie in her head as she thought of the scenarios and what could happen. First, rewind back to when they met in the club with staring and then running out of the club. Then, to when she first tried pancakes and nachos, which lead to their first date and their first dance. Jessie smiled as she remembered their dance. She went through their date this evening in her mind, as well. 

Then, she went forward a little ways to when Katie would meet the rest of her family. They would understand, right? It would take a little time before Jessie could tell them though, but she would get there. She cared about Katie too much not to, and Katie would have to understand.…Perhaps the first step would be letting others know? Her friends…and others. Perhaps others who happened to be at a movie tonight? Of course, a few moments her mind was back into the movie that she had created in her head. Now, the movie had gone on a little ways in time, and snuck in a few thoughts that made Jessie grin and close her eyes in thought, where their life together could lead.

_Jessie and Katie were hanging around in Jessie's dorm on a Saturday night watching a couple of movies that they had rented that night. The two lovers on the screen were sharing a sweet kiss after one of them had declared that they loved the other. Suddenly, Jessie turned to Katie, trying to re-enact the moment. "I love you, Katie."_

_"I just love those things too." Jessie gave Katie a strange look, so she continued. "You know. Go-karts, the things you were just talking about. You drive around in a little car type of thing trying to go as fast as you can around a track, and just when you think you're going really fast, a dog runs by faster than you and realize you're still in a tiny car. Kind of like clowns, in tiny cars, you know, only with…less creepy clowns in them?" Jessie looked horribly confused and felt weird for saying that she loved Katie. She should have known better than to interrupt Katie when she was watching a movie, she never could pay attention to things then._

_Just as Jessie was getting distressed and wondering if she dare repeat what she had originally said, Katie laughed. "Oh Jess! I was kidding! I'm sorry, Sweetie. Here. Let me re-phrase that. You. I love you, not go-karts." Jessie beamed back at Katie, who smiled in relief that Jessie wasn't mad._

_"How could you not love go-karts?"_

_"How could I not love you?"_

_ "Hm…Good question. I'm not sure you could, and I couldn't not love you either." Jessie realized that she was using double-negatives, but rationalized that it was Katie who was making her come up with bad sentence structure at that point. With that, Katie smiled and leaned in towards Jessie who was already leaning against her while they watched movies. A few moments later Jessie was pressing herself up against Katie while Katie arched into her. Their lips were continuously meeting as if they couldn't bear to part. Then, something registered in Jessie's head. There were still on the futon. They should really move over to her bed. It'd be…well, bigger at the very least. Jessie eased her lips away from Katie's, who pouted, and looked up at the younger girl as she hovered over her. "We should move to the bed."_

_"No…" Katie murmured and brought her lips back up to Jessie's. "I'm good here," she whispered in between kisses._

_"There's more room there…" This perked Katie's attention. More room would mean less chance of falling off the couch, which was possible since neither of them were too graceful. Suddenly, Katie looked back at the bed. Hm, about three feet away. Could they make it? She sighed, then stood up, which Jessie wasn't ready for. Jessie gasped as the person below her got up suddenly, and she was left laying on the couch alone. What fun was that? Katie smiled seductively and offered a hand. Oh, Katie really shouldn't smile like that around Jessie…Immediately, Jessie's lips found Katie's again, only this time they were standing._

_Katie ran her tongue against the soft bottom lip that belonged to Jessie, and the blonde girl immediately obliged. Their tongues met as the_ _kiss deepened, and Katie's hands lowered to Jessie's waist, pulling her closer before the couple backed up against the wall. The younger girl moaned and waited to be even closer to Katie, who was certainly not going to argue. Katie pressed her up against the wall, never ceasing the contact of their lips. The pressure between the two girls grew as their pelvises continued their contact as well._

_Suddenly, Jessie leaped up and wrapped her legs around Katie. Luckily, Jessie was smaller than Katie, and Katie was stronger than she looked, so she was able to support her. Katie wandered a few feet to the right, and lowered Jessie and herself to the bed. This is where they should be. They looked into each other's eyes, as the kissing stopped for a moment. It was time. "I love you," Katie whispered seriously, still looking into Jessie's eyes._

_There was so much emotion and love between the two of them. It didn't matter that they were both girls. At this point all that mattered was love, love between Jessie and Katie. Katie and Jessie, just as it should be. "I love you too, Katie. I love you too." Jessie echoed as Katie brushed aside Jessie hair and kissed her neck. Jessie closed her eyes and sighed as she felt Katie move onto her._

_Within moments, Katie was straddling Jessie, and her lips were still against her neck, kissing, suckling, nipping lightly. Jessie breathed in deeply and moved her hips up against Katie's. Katie's response was to move her own hips against Jessie's, slowly, sensually. A few moments later, neither girl could take it any more. Jessie's hands were up against Katie's hips moving her closer to her, faster this time. Katie's lips had moved back up to Jessie's lips, and they were met hungrily. Jessie's hands wound themselves under Katie's top, and_ _began to feel at the soft skin that lay there as she lifted Katie's shirt off._

"Jess? Jessie?" Jessie had been pretty much out of it for a few minutes while they stood in line. Katie had even bought their tickets, but Jessie hadn't moved. She was started to get worried, especially when Jessie had started mumbling a few words that all sounded like something very, well, sexual, and Katie was sure she had heard her named mentioned. She had heard her name mentioned, right? Maybe she was just trying to get out of answering her…

"Hm?" Jessie opened her eyes to realize that she was still standing outside the movie theatre. Oh crap…Way to have a creative imagination. Why couldn't she have had that during high school writing courses? Actually, she doubted that any of her teachers would want to read something like that. Though, if they did want to read something like that, anyway, she wouldn't let them. That was private, for only her and Katie. Wait. Katie. Jessie still hadn't given Katie an answer!

Jessie looked over Katie. Poor Katie! She looked frazzled to say the very least. She was biting her lower lip, and pushing a strand of hair behind her ear nervously. Jessie had to find a way to calm her, but how? Hm, perhaps answering her would be a good start?

"Katie, I'm so sorry that I moved away from you in the coffee shop. I want to try to work on that, with you. I've never had a real reason to be more out in the open then I am, about well, who I am. It will take me a little while, before I can open up more to my family, I think. Though, they'll even be told, but in person. I don't want to tell them over the phone or something. As for the others, maybe it's time they start to get to know me better because I have a reason now. I have you, as my girlfriend…" Jessie trailed off at the last part, feeling kind of silly and corny. Plus, she wasn't sure what Katie would think of her whole little speech there.

Katie looked stunned for a moment, before glowing. Jessie grinned back, and leaned up on her tip toes towards Jessie. Katie paused, but Jessie leaned forward and pressed her lips against Katie's for a moment before both became conscious that they were going to be late for the movie, so they separated still smiling. Still smiling, Jessie took Katie's hand and led her inside where Katie apparently had a surprise of her own in store of Jessie.

A few steps after being inside, Katie ventured off to the left, away from the doors that led them into their theatre. "Katie, where are we going?" Jessie was questioning her as she was being taken further away from their choice of movie. At this rate, they really were going to be late for their movie.

Katie just smiled back at her, though it looked more like a smirk. Boy, Katie looked good when she had that sexy smirk on her face…No, bad Jessie. She had to concentrate here on where Katie was leading her. A few moments later they arrived at the rope that would lead them to the balcony. "Come on," Katie urged as she looked hopefully at Jessie. Jessie obliged and followed Katie under the rope after a quick glance around. After a few moments they reached the seats, and there was only one other couple up there. They seemed to be, well, enjoying their seats up there as well because her head was resting on his shoulder after they had shared a kiss.

They settled for a seat near the back in the balcony so that the two couples would not be situated too close together. Through-out most of the movie Jessie was looking out of the corner of her at Katie. She thought she was being very secretive. Suddenly, Katie leaned over next to Jessie to whisper in her ear. "Yes, I'm still here. And yes, I can see you looking at me." Jessie blushed a deep pink, and even in the darkened theatre, Katie could see it. She chuckled. Suddenly, Jessie realized something.

"Wait, how could you see me look at you, unless you were looking at me?" Jessie was expecting a joking response in return. At least a fairly clever response anyway, but that's not what she got. She got pure honesty.

"I was looking at you." Jessie smiled at Katie, who returned to her smirk again. "Thought I was going to be all clever on you, huh?" Jessie nodded her head. "Well, I could always ask you what you were thinking about out there in the ticket line…I swear I heard you mumble something about me." Katie looked to the other girl, waiting for her reaction.

"No…I was not mumbling about you." Jessie looked down at her fingernails, trying to think of a good excuse. She was pretty much caught, and they both knew it. Jessie had been talking about Katie in her fantasy, and it was pretty much known now that she had offered that weak excuse.  
"Oh, then what was it?" Katie was feeling like playful banter for the moment, because she was still on a high after realizing that Jessie was, for sure, her girlfriend now.

"I didn't say Katie…I said 'matey' like as in a Pirate theme." Jessie was stumbling around for an answer, but honestly 'matey' was the only thing she could think of that rhymed at all with 'Katie.'

"Pirate-themed? Are you planning a birthday party for a little kid that I don't know about?" Katie was now chuckling as her girlfriend stumbled for her reasoning.

"No! I just…" Jessie wandered off on her thought, because she wasn't sure where else to head with it.

"Have a secret fetish you have told me about yet?" Katie elbowed Jessie and wiggled her eyebrows at her. "I can make a pretty cute pirate, you know. Wait, do I have to wear an eye patch?"

"Fetish?…I don't have any fetishes." Her girlfriend was just being silly now, going on about dressing up like a pirate for her. Not that Jessie would object to that. Well, Katie could skip the eye patch part though…Wait, stay on track, Jessie! Don't let Katie wander off too far with the subject.

"Too bad, because fetishes can be a turn-on." Once more, Katie wiggled her eyebrows at Jessie while she talked.

"You have a fetish for fetishes?" Now it was Jessie's turn to chuckle.

"Yup. Guess what else I have." Suggestively, Katie leaned forward, and ran her fingers softly down Jessie's jaw line.

"Me?" Jessie thought for a mere moment, before her comment. Katie's actions had made it pretty clear.

"Well, I was going to say a beautiful girlfriend…but that works too." Katie smiled softly as Jessie as she said this. On the screen, a vase was being thrown by a girl after her boyfriend admitted to kissing her best friend. Well, ex-best-friend now. The guy was commenting about not wrecking anything else, because it was his mom's house. This made the girl even more angry, because she thought it was his house. Whoops, strike two for him. Both girls turned away from the movie, because they weren't very interested in it now.

Suddenly, the mood changed, and the two girls leaned in towards each other to kiss again. It was deep, and meaningful. All of their joking was suddenly pushed aside and they were left simply with wanting. Suddenly, they realized that arm chairs get in the way. Then, unexpectedly Jessie ended up on Katie's lap, straddling her in the cinema chair. It was a good thing they were in the balcony, alone except for the making out couple in the front of the balcony. Katie's arms were wrapped around Jessie's waist, holding her there. Meanwhile, their kissing had deepened. Unfortunately for them, the lights were starting to come back on. The movie had ended without them realizing it. Oops. Good thing they didn't have to give a review on it, because they had watched very little of it.

They both pulled back, breathing heavily. "Don't think that now you don't have to tell me what you were thinking about." Jessie giggled after Katie pointed this out.

"First, maybe we should leave the theatre?" Jessie made this suggestion, as the other making-out couple finally pulled themselves apart.

"Do you want to go maybe watch some TV at my house or something?" Katie suggested this as they both realized that they didn't want to leave the other yet. They weren't ready for anything too physically yet, well, except in fantasies. In the future though…meetings at the other's house might mean more. Once, they had been together for a bit longer anyway.

"Sure. Oh! Wait. I want to see who that couple is that kept making out the whole movie!" Jessie exclaimed, as she stood up, which allowed Katie to also get up. Katie smiled, and took Jessie's hand in her own. Their fingers wove together, as they held hands, walking towards the stairs.

"You do realize we didn't watch much of the movie either, right?" Apparently, no, Jessie did not consider this.

"Yes, but we weren't in front of someone." Katie laughed. There was no reasoning with Jessie, when she was trying to support her evidence. She'd come up with some reasoning no matter what her case was.

The other couple was making their way towards the stairs, and just a few steps before they made it there, they stopped and stared. "Tad," Katie said simply as she stared at his rumpled clothing.

"Katie!" He said, feeling and looking like he was caught with his hand in a cookie jar as a little boy would do.

"Jessie?" The girl with Tad, questioned in the fairly dark theatre.

"Grace!" Jessie recognized the other girl now. Tad was on a date with Grace. Grace was on a date with Tad…I guess they really did hit it off the other night. Both couples stood there looking at the other, unsure of what to do now.


	6. Chapter 6

Title: Just Dance With Me

Rating: T. Same reasons as always…maybe slight usage of language, and some sexual content.

Disclaimer: These characters belong to the people at Once and Again, I cannot claim them. They aren't mine. They only two I claim are Gina and Ash.

Feedback: Please read and respond. I appreciate it, thanks.

Summary: This is a Jessie/Katie story. You've been 'warned.' It tells about them meeting college and everything that goes along with it. (Yes, that means they are going to be together in this story.) Tad, Grace, Sarah, etc. also fall into the plot a bit, but this is mostly Jessie/Katie.

Author's Notes: Okay, so this is a continuation of what happened on the date that they were on when we last left the two of them. It's continuing that, and getting everyone prepared for what I have been thinking of to have happen the next day. (Basically in the next chapter.)

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The four of them stood there for a moment unsure of what to do. They simply looked at each other blankly. Then, Tad coughed and opened his mouth as if to make a good joke. "So, good movie, you two?"

Jessie glared at Tad. "Like you would know. Your mouth was all over my sister's the whole time."

"Jess!" Grace hissed at her step-sister, while Katie tried to stifle a giggle. "I'm on date here! Be nice!"

"Well, so am I!" Jessie raised her eyebrow. Grace was right. It was just a surprise, that's all, with seeing the couple kissing. Then realizing the couple was her step-sister and one of Katie's best friends…It was just a lot to take in when her head was still clouded with thoughts of Katie, whose hand she was still holding.

Tad looked a snickering Katie. "What? And what did you think of the movie? Oh wait, you can't tell me either because I don't think you saw much of the movie either." He said this jokingly, and winked at Katie at the last part which made both girls blush deeply. Then, when Grace caught on to his meaning, she blushed too. Oh God, all of this talking about making out during the movie! That's certainly not going to help the awkwardness here.

Jessie instinctively touched her hair to make sure it was covering up her hickey, it was. Grace bit at her lip nervously, as she tried to think of a solution to end the awkwardness that had resulted from their mix-in of dates. Tad, on his part, simply stood there rolling his eyes, because he refused to try to make another joke when he was dealing with three embarrassed girls. He was only suppose to be dealing with one right now! His date, Grace.

Katie brushed a piece of hair behind her ear and sighed. "Well, at least this wasn't awkward. I mean, if we were going to be hanging around each other a lot now…at least, we realized it all at a very normal time." Katie looked at the rest of the group hoping for some sort of good news. Jessie broke out into a small smile, and Grace chuckled. Even Tad stopped rolling his eyes.

"Oh yes, because how we met just now was simply the best ever." Grace did her best impression of sounding rich and haughty and the quartet smiled again.

"I couldn't think of a better way. The awkwardness is completely over! The ice has been cracked." Jessie exclaimed before leaning over to whisper loudly into Katie's ear, "Do you have some ice I could use as an example to break here?"

They all laughed again, and the awkwardness passed fairly well as they snuck down the stairs. Then Tad had to whisper, "So, where are you two heading off to?"

"Um, my room actually." Katie supplied, still whispering as they ducked under the rope and back into the lobby.

"Her room? Jessie! You're going to stay in her room?" Grace chose now to act all big sisterly, and very protective of what her sister was doing.

"Just to watch movies! Why, where are you going? His room?" Jessie tried to explain herself, they really were just going there to see movies. Then, she paused to wonder where her sister was going anyway because her and Tad seemed to be having a pretty decent date themselves.

"No, actually I'm not." Grace provided this tidbit of information haughtily and Tad and Katie shared a smile. Tad nodded ever so slightly at her, and then Katie coughed, laughing.

"Oh…" Was Jessie's only reply because she had missed the exchange between Katie and Tad. Finally, the two sisters decided that their sister's date could be trusted enough with her, so they separated back into their little pairs promising to talk later.

"Jess," Katie questioned. "You do realize that they're probably going to go back to your dorm room right?"

"What?" Apparently, no, Jessie had not thought of this particular idea. "They better not make-out on my bed!" Katie laughed because that was the only thing that really seemed to make her mad, the idea of them on her bed.

"Oh, I'm sure they'll stay away. Hate to have you after them. You seem very ferocious."

"Oh, I am." It took Jessie a minute to realize that Katie was joking. She looked over to see the taller girl grinning over at her. "Hey!" Katie giggled and took off into the building.

They chased each playfully up the stairs, trying to be quiet while doing so. Then, they reached Katie's dorm room. Sarah was going to be at Ash's that night, 'celebrating' their anniversary in ways that Katie and Jessie really didn't want to think about right now. Instead, the two just waited giddily until they could watch a movie together and talk some more. Well, okay, maybe more than that, but they did realize that tomorrow morning they had classes. Luckily, Katie's was not until 11, but Jessie had to be in class at 9.

Katie opened up her door, and Jessie followed her inside looking around. Jessie plopped down on Katie's bed and turned on the TV. "How do you even know that's my bed?" Katie was standing over the bed, blocking the TV, while questioning her. "You think you know me so well that you can already guess at which one is my room?"

Jessie laughed. "It has your clothes from yesterday laying on it." As Jessie pointed this out, Katie's mouth turned into a little 'O' of surprise and she glared playfully and took her clothes off of her bed. Jessie was right, that was her bed. A movie from the 80's was playing it's soundtrack in the background. Well, you could watch it too if you moved Katie away anyway. She was still hovering over the bed, not ready to give up yet.

"Now it doesn't. Now how do you know it's mine?" Katie raised her eyebrows defiantly looking at Jessie with a smirk who actually just giggled and reached up for Katie.

"Come here." Jessie whispered as sexily as she could.

Katie didn't want to give in yet. "Why?" Jessie just pouted in return, and did I mention that Jessie is very cute and very persuasive when she pouts? Mother Nature would have a hard time explaining to Jessie why it wasn't snowing on Christmas even, if she had to explain it while she was pouting anyway.

Katie nodded and slowly lowered herself into the bed as well. "I know it's yours because you're laying on it right now." Jessie had Katie beat on that one. Even Katie knew it before chuckling and looking into Jessie's eyes.

The bright blue eyes were looking tenderly into Katie's own eyes and soon enough Katie was meeting her lips with Jessie's. Their lips connected as if that's the way things were suppose to be. Katie shifted so that they were side-by-side. Her left arm was wrapped around to Jessie's back, bringing them closer together. Jessie ran her tongue along Katie's bottom lip, and soon enough the kissing had transferred back to a deeper level. Then, Jessie decided to get even. She moved so that she was soon straddling Katie and she leaned down and starting kissing along Katie's jaw line. She kissed her way down her neck, and picked out a piece of delicate skin that lay there.

She softly sucked on the skin that she found there, and Katie moaned softly as she did so. After a few moments, Jessie moved on and kissed further down until she reached the border of Katie's neckline from her shirt. She looked up to get reassurance from Katie, who nodded. Jessie's hands floated down to the bottom of Katie's shirt and found the boundary of skin and clothing there as well. A few minutes later, Jessie's hands had floated up the bottom of the shirt and had lifted it off of Katie's head. Wow, Katie, who was still in her bra, was really beautiful. Jessie continued kissing along Katie's stomach and chest, and Katie seemed kind of unable to speak for the moment. Well, except to tug Jessie back up to her mouth and kiss her some more before mumbling something about Jessie's shirt still being on. Jessie giggled and shyly she allowed Katie to lift it off of her.

Katie smiled tenderly at the younger girl before literally pouncing on her and kissing her again. I guess Katie thought that Jessie was beautiful too, and she said so. "You're stunning do you know that?" Jessie blushed, but Katie looked at her sincerely, and kissed her softly.

"Well, you're gorgeous, and I don't think you realize it." Jessie whispered this soft words evenly into Katie's left ear which made her squirm a bit as she felt the breath flicker there. Jessie then sucked gently on Katie's earlobe before they were caught in a heated kiss again. After several moments they realized that they had to stop. They paused for breath, and looked at the clock. It was late, and if they continued like this, soon they were going to be wishing they could go further than they could for the moment. It was too late, and too soon all at the same time. Thoughts like that had to wait, or at least wait for fantasies.

Speaking of fantasies… "So, Jessie, what were you thinking about earlier anyway? In the ticket line." Jessie giggled and squirmed closer to Katie. They were still laying on the bed.

"You?" That was all that Jessie would offer. Katie grinned and leaned forward to give her girlfriend another quick kiss. "I'll tell you sometime, really I will." Katie considered this for a moment, then nodded her head. That worked for her. As long as she got to find out. Sooner would be better than later though.

"Fine, fine. But, I get to know?" Jessie nodded her head at the question, so Katie smiled. "Okay, I can wait…But, in the meantime, we really should get some pajamas on." Katie cocked a sly smile, and Jessie laughed.

"You just want to see me without clothes on." Jessie was accusing Katie now while giggling.

"Oh, no. Well, yeah. But, if you'd rather sleep without clothes so that you don't have to change. That works for me too." Katie's comment earned her a sharp look from her girlfriend so Katie laughed. "Fine, I'll get you some clothes. How's that?"

Jessie hadn't brought any clothes with her because of the impromptu sleepover. "That works. Just some comfy pants and shirt is okay, if you have them."

"If I have them? If I have them! Of course, I have them." Katie smiled because Jessie's choice of sleepwear was along the same lines as her. She pulled out two pairs of pajama pants and a couple of t-shirts. She threw one of the outfits over to Jessie, who surprisingly caught it. "No, that doesn't mean that you'd be good on a softball team, just because you caught them."

"Oh, come on! I actually caught them!"

"Yes, and how many times have you not caught things that I've thrown to you? Besides, maybe I just had a good throw." Katie tried to rationalize with Jessie that maybe she was the athletically inclined one for the moment.

"Maybe you had bad throws otherwise, so it wasn't me." Jessie raised her eyebrow as she made this point, even though with her backed turned Katie couldn't officially see it.

"In that case, how about we just stay out of the sports?" Katie finally was willing to suggest a deal between the two of them.

"Well…Okay, I guess that works too. But, you let me know if you change your mind." The two girls bantered back and forth while they changed out of their clothes.

The two girls turned around to give the other some privacy, but both knew that they were secretly sneaking peeks at the other. They both thought the other girl was beautiful, and were very glad they were with each other, but as the movie got over on the TV they decided they should really get to bed. They apparently have a habit of not actually watching the movies, hm…

They crawled back in together in the bed, and soon the two were snuggled together off to dream the sweetest dreams that only come with you're lying next to someone you are falling in love with.


	7. Chapter 7

Title: Just Dance With Me

Rating: This chapter is probably PGish. There's some light language, and some flirty fun. That's it.

Disclaimer: I don't own anything. I can't claim any of the Once and Again characters. I'm not trying to either. Though, Ash and Gina, I thought of myself.

Feedback: Yes please! Feedback gives me incentive to write.

Summary: This is a Jessie/Katie story. You've been 'warned.' It tells about them meeting college and everything that goes along with it. (Yes, that means they are going to be together in this story.) Tad, Grace, Sarah, etc. also fall into the plot a bit, but this is mostly Jessie/Katie.

Author's Notes: I'm sorry that this has taken me a while to get this next part up, but I blame school for that. I keep having things to do like homework, which takes away from time I get to write. Anyway, I've gotten the next part up now, and ready to go.

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Jessie woke up and realize that she had two heartbeats. She waited a moment and realized something. They were going at different rates…and they were both in her chest! Okay, should she have two hearts in her chest? Oh, wait…One of the hearts was okay, it was in her ear. A few moments later she realized that no one should have a heart in their ear no matter how big-hearted they were suppose to be. She slowly opened one eye and giggled. No wonder there were two heartbeats, she was laying on Katie's chest and she could hear Katie's heart beating as well as her own. Still smiling at her silliness, she looked at the clock and realized she had class in ten minutes.

She realized that she had to go get her book bag from her dorm before class, so she really should be going. She tried to move, but Katie's arm was wrapped around her waist, and their legs were entangled. She managed to slide her legs away from Katie's but the arm stayed clamped around her waist no matter what she did. It was like Katie was clinging to her… "Katie!" Immediately the older girl burst into a fit of giggles. She had been awake the whole time. "Come on, I have to go to class."

"No," Katie shook her head like a little girl and wrapped her arms more tightly around her girlfriend. Jessie giggled and leaned in to kiss her, but Katie moved back. "Morning breath," she muttered while looking sheepishly at her.

Jessie smiled, "I don't care."

"I didn't mean mine. I mean yours." After saying this and smiling, Katie got poked in the stomach which made her grin even more by a glaring Jessie. "Oh Jess, you know I'm kidding." Jessie shrugged, still pouting, until Katie leaned in and they shared in a sweet kiss.

"I really do have to go this time." Jessie quickly got off the bed, catching Katie off-guard, so she managed to untangle herself fully from her. Katie immediately tried to convince her by reaching out for her, but all she managed to do was almost fall off the bed. "I have class!"

"I do too. You can come to that one instead." Katie was bargaining, but she already knew it was a lost battle. Jessie really did have class to go to today. As soon as Jessie left the room, she started sprinting down the hallway and the stairs. She only had five minutes until class, and it wasn't her closest class either.

Katie flopped back onto the bed and sighed. She was too awake now to sleep. Five minutes later she was sleeping. Okay, so maybe sleeping was something that came naturally to her. If only everything else came that naturally to her. Then, she heard someone's damn cell phone ringing in her dream. Who the hell was calling someone in her dream? She was just working up a good glare when she woke up. The call was coming from real life, and it was her cell phone. She looked at the number before picking it up. "Hey Sarah. What's up?"

There was some sniffling from the other end of the line, but no one said anything at first. "Can you come get me?"

Katie knew not to ask too many questions now. "Of course, sure. Where are you?"

"Ash's apartment."

"I'll be right there." This time Katie meant it because a few minutes later she was at the ground level of Ash's apartment building, and at the doors stood Sarah. Her face was tear-streaked and her hair was messy as if she hadn't bothered to brush it once she had woken up.

They drove in silence for a few minutes until Katie broke the silence. "Hey, you wanna talk?" She saw Sarah give a slight nod. "Want to go get some cappuccino?" Again, she nodded, more evidently this time, obviously trying to hold in tears. Luckily, the coffee place that Katie often went to was right around the corner. It was a really nice place, with really good coffee and cappuccino. Plus, it's the place that she was suppose to meet Jessie. The two girls had planned to meet to for cappuccino after Jessie's first class. That way, they could hang out for a little while before Katie's first class, and before Jessie's second.

Katie offered to get the cappuccino if Sarah chose the seats. She chose a little table in the corner, right next to the big window. She realized that people would be walking by and looking in the window. For that reason, Sarah took the seat that was facing away from the window. She really didn't want anyone seeing her right then. Her face was still tear-streaked, though she had tried to wipe them away.

"Okay, what's wrong?" Sarah stared at her cappuccino cup for a moment before relenting to Katie's question.

"It's Ash. Last night was our anniversary, you know." Katie nodded. "Well, I took her out to a movie, one of her favorites that we've already seen twice. Then, she was fine. Everything was going fine, but then…" She paused and tears began to well up in her eyes. Katie scooted her chair closer to Sarah and covered her friend's hands with her own.

"Hey, it's okay. I'm here. Just tell me what happened. Please? Did Ash eat all of the gummy bears?" Katie was trying to lighten the mood, but it just made Sarah scowl.

"That's not funny." Sarah tried to move her hands back away from Katie's, but the other girl was already apologizing and refused to let Sarah move away and not be comforted. It was obvious that she needed someone right now.

Katie was sitting pretty much right next to Sarah now because her chair was scooted pretty closely to her friend's. "Gina walked in with her boyfriend. They were all over each other, kissing and stuff."

"So, what's wrong with that? It was gross to see? It freaked Ash out?" Katie didn't see how this factored into everything.

"No, well yes. It freaked Ash out. Ash got made and ran over to Gina, and then Ash kept asking Gina what she was doing with him. It finally got sorted out that Gina was back going out with Ash."

"They broke up?"

"Just let me finish…please." Sarah played with the ring on her finger before continuing. "You know, I was going to give her a matching ring sometime. At least I thought I was." She tried to smile ruefully, but it just came out as a sigh. "Ash and Gina were dating, Katie. They have been dating for a month. Gina promised Ash that she was through with guys, and then they started dating. Ash wanted to tell me that, but she wasn't sure how. So, she just kept dating me too, because she still had feelings for me. At the very least, feelings of a friend. You know, friends lie to each other all the time. Friends date seriously with each other and then cheat on each other. That's what friendship is to Ash. That's what a good relationship is. It wasn't the same kind of feelings she had for Gina though…" Apparently, Ash had been complaining about Gina in attempts to make Sarah not think they were together secretly. It worked. Sarah had no idea, and now she was heartbroken.

Katie was utterly confused, but she felt the pain that her best friend was going through. She wanted to help her. She may have been confused about Gina going out with Ash, who was going out with Sarah, and Gina's boyfriend going out with Gina as well. Wow, it was a big horrible love triangle. "Oh Sarah." The other girl began crying, and Katie wrapped her arms around her. "It's okay. I promise. Ash is a moron for letting you go. She's the one that will regret it. I know it."

"Yeah right," Sarah muttered into Katie's shoulder.

"It's true. Someone would have to be an idiot not to love you." Katie was comforting her friend, when Sarah looked up at her with questioning eyes. Sarah impulsively reached her hand out to cup Katie's face. Then, Katie's lips were suddenly meeting with Sarah's in a feverish kiss. Katie was caught off-guard at first. She didn't even register completely what was going on.

Jessie was walking by the coffee shop, ready to go have her caffeine fix with her girlfriend. In the front window there were two girls kissing. Hah. She'd have to tell this to Katie. Wait. One of the girls was Katie. The other one was Sarah. Immediately rage and sadness washed over the young blonde in rapid waves. A silent tear rolled out of her eye, followed soon by another. Katie was cheating on her with Sarah. All that crap about really liking her was false. She didn't really care about her. Why had she been so stupid? Jessie stood there shocked for a moment before a sob overcame her, and she took off running down the sidewalk.

A few seconds in the kiss, Katie realized what was going on and immediately pulled back. "What the hell are you doing, Sarah? I really like Jessie. You don't love me either." Sarah's eyes immediately filled again with tears. She had just wanted to get away, and she was hoping maybe Katie could offer her a way out of her own pain. "Sarah, I'm here for you, as a friend. You're my best friend, but not in that way. You know I can't help you feel better by having you kiss me, right?"

Sarah nodded. "I'm so sorry, Katie. I just…I just am confused. I thought maybe it'd help me forget. You're right. I just, need to get some rest okay?" She mumbled and quickly stood up, grabbing her purse. She felt horrible and confused upon having kissed Katie.

"Hey, remember," Katie began.

"You're here for me, I know." Sarah smiled at her friend. "Thank you." The two friends shared a quick smile, then Sarah was out the door hoping for some soothing rest once she got back to their dorm. Meanwhile, Katie sat back down in her chair after moving it to the other side of the table again. She smiled. Jessie would be there soon, then all of this confusing mess with Sarah would be fixed. She was so glad that their relationship didn't involve any messy love triangles.


	8. Chapter 8

Title: Just Dance With Me

Rating: PG in this chapter. There's not too much to have to be warned of in this chapter.

Disclaimer: Most of the characters are not mine, so I can't claim them, and I won't try to. The only two I can claim as my own are Ash and Gina.

Feedback: I love feedback, and thank you to everyone who sends it.

Summary: This is a Jessie/Katie story. You've been 'warned.' It tells about them meeting college and everything that goes along with it. (Yes, that means they are going to be together in this story.) Tad, Grace, Sarah, etc. also fall into the plot a bit, but this is mostly Jessie/Katie.

Author's Notes: Happy (semi-late) holidays everyone. I'm sorry that this took me a little while to get out to you, but I'm hoping that it will be enjoyed nonetheless. I'm trying to update it as frequently as possible. Thank you again to everyone who reviews. And yes, I just had to have Katie in a white shirt again. But, that part you'll read in a little bit. ;)

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Jessie had run several blocks before she had to stop to catch her breath. She was lucky that she had already dropped off her book bag at her dorm before going there so she didn't have to try to run with that on her back. Unfortunately, it also gave her the precise timing that she had to catch Katie and Sarah kissing like that. The blonde stood there for a moment, unsure of what to do. She felt like she had to do something, had to flee to somewhere. There were too many thoughts building up in her mind. She considered the local bar, but then realized a few things. One, she was underage. Two, she didn't want to be a person who sat at the bar and cried and yelled and told her whole horrible story to a random bar tender. Instead, she took off to her dorm.

She opened the door slowly, and was relieved to see that Grace was in class still. Jessie wasn't ready to deal with anyone right now. The blonde went and took a shower hoping that the hot steam would relieve some of her horrible thoughts, all of Katie and Sarah. Afterward, she went back to the room and just lay on the bed. She was so tired. Maybe if she slept, the tears would stop.

Katie sat at the table drinking her cappuccino. Sarah had freaked out on her, and kissed her. They would have to deal with that later, and she would have to tell Jessie too. Wait, where was Jessie anyway? She was usually the type of girl to be early to a meeting, to a date, to coffee, to everything. Worried, Katie dialed Jessie's cell phone number, only to be met with voice mail. "Hey Jess, it's me. Where are you? I'm sitting here at the coffee shop, but you don't seem to be anywhere nearby…Unless you're the Invisible Woman now, not that I'd mind if you were a superhero…" Katie realized she was rambling on in her confused state of mind. "Anyway, I just wanted to see where you were, and what's going on…Call me when you get this okay?"

Jessie heard her phone beep. Ugh, it was the type of beep that went off every five minutes if you missed a phone call or a text message. It went off several times before she managed to pull herself from her bed and opened it up. Three missed calls, and one voice mail, all from Katie. The phone began to ring again. The younger girl didn't have to look at her caller id; she knew it was her girlfriend.

"Hi," Jessie decided that she was only going to be able to handle this if sometime she answered the phone.

"Hey Jess!" Katie sound relieved to hear from her girlfriend, and with good reason. The older girl had been waiting for about an hour in the coffee shop. A few of the workers were beginning to give her odd looks. So finally, she pulled out a book and pretended to read it. She rationalized that maybe then they would leave her alone. After all, she had her cappuccino and a book, what more could she want? Well, besides a call back from her girlfriend. "Where are you?"

"My dorm." Jessie began to trace circles on her leg with her finger as she waited for Katie's answer.

"Your dorm? Why? Are you sick? What happened?" Katie felt bad bombarding her with questions, but she wasn't sure what else to say.

"Kinda." Jessie paused, unsure of how to say what needed to be said.

"Do you want me to bring you some soup or something? A soup and a grilled cheese sandwich? Just the sandwich?" Katie was still rambling on, trying to help.

"No. I'm not that kind of sick." There was a pause.

"Jess, what do you mean?"

"I saw you, Katie." Jessie suddenly blurted out as she held back her tears.

Saw her. Saw her when? Oh crap. The pieces began to click into place. Jessie had seen Sarah kiss Katie. "It wasn't what it looked like."

"Funny how you immediately know what I'm talking about though, as soon as I mention it. Then, you go and sound like you're an actress in a movie. You need a new script writer, Katie. Your lines are getting old." Jessie sounded bitter, but she was simply sad, and the grief felt overwhelming right then. If she was going to do that to her, then Jessie could at least make Katie hear her thoughts on the subject.

"Jess, I wasn't kissing her back. She kissed me because she was confused or angry or sad or something. Maybe she was all of the above. There isn't anything between us." The older girl was in a panic as she tried to explain her feelings. The other customers were glancing at her oddly now. Maybe it was her smeared make-up as the tears ran down her cheek, or the way her hand was shaking as she held the phone.

"Between us, you mean. It sure looked like there was a hell of a lot going on between you and Sarah then." Jessie continued to draw patterns on her leg. She really liked Katie, but she wasn't sure she had the strength right now to listen to this. They could talk more later, after Jessie got some sleep.

"I promise. It's you that I want, not her. We're only friends, Sarah and I." Katie closed her eyes as she waited for what Jessie had to say. There was a pause before Jessie spoke again.

"Katie, I'm just…I'm tired right now. I can't listen to this." Jessie then hung up the phone and dropped it on the floor. A nap sounded so good right now.

Katie willed herself to open her eyes and glance at her phone. Call ended. She snapped her phone shut and placed it back into her purse. Jessie wasn't going to believe her easily. Okay, it was time to pull out the Singer charm. She really liked Jessie, and she wasn't going to let her go without a fight. She just needed a plan.

After her class, Katie went to the nearest music store, and picked through a bunch of Cds until she found the one she was looking for. She was simply happy that they had it in stock. After that, she drove to the nearest grocery store. She had to find some something that she could actually make. She was trying to think of Jessie's favorite foods, and smiled when she thought of one. Quickly, she went and found the needed products, and added that bag to the pile in the back of her car.

Several stores later, she was packed with everything that she thought she would be needing. Okay, so she was secretly thrilled that Sarah wasn't going to be home that night because she was going back to visit her parents that weekend. It was their version of Thanksgiving because Sarah's parents always seemed to have to work on the actual Thanksgiving. This way, they could still have dinner and celebrate, a week early.

Plus, she suspected that Sarah had some serious thinking to do. She was very confused after finding out that Ash had dumped her for Gina. Meanwhile, Gina had dumped Ash for her ex-boyfriend. It was just a series of twists and turns. Now, if just Gina's not-so-ex-boyfriend dumped Gina for Sarah…Wow, that'd be a big mess. No one seemed to be able to trust anyone in that love triangle, and Katie didn't want it to be that way with Jessie. That's why she had been planning the greatest dinner all night. Jessie would love it.

After decorating her room just so, Katie decided she had to make her first phone call. It was to Tad. She had explained the whole situation to him. "Holy shit. That's one hell of a mess you've gotten yourself into, Singer." Leave it to Tad to be helpful. After Katie explained her plan to him, he whistled. "I gotta give it to you on that, though. You seem to be able to think of ways to win the girls back over every time."

"This time is special though." Katie mentioned as she bit nervously at her nails. She just hoped that he'd be willing to help. "Will you help me then?"

"Oh, like I could say no to the famous Katie Singer!" Tad laughed. "You know I'd help you if I could. I'll call Grace and see what I can do, okay?"

"Thanks, Tad. I'll talk to you later." Katie left her phone nearby because she was pretty sure that Grace would be calling her in a few minutes.

Jessie had stayed in bed most of the day, sleeping. Once Grace had gotten home, Jessie had to go through the whole scenario of what had happened. Needless to say, Grace was confused. She could have sworn that Katie had really liked her sister. The way that she looked at her…It just didn't make any sense. Grace had tried to calm her step-sister down, and it was starting to work when Grace's phone rang. It was Tad. Maybe he'd have some answers. "It's Tad." Grace whispered as she answered the phone. "Hey."

"Hey, I know you're in the dorm with Jessie right now, but just listen to what I have to say, okay?" Tad wanted to help Katie out if he could.

"Mmhm," Grace agreed to listen.

Tad went on to explain Katie's side of the story, and that Grace simply had to get out of the apartment tonight so that the healing between the two girls could begin.

"Wow," Grace realized that Katie really hadn't meant to hurt Jessie after all. The young blonde simply needed to realize this for herself though. "So, I'll see you tonight?" Tad was going to take her out to dinner to keep Grace out of the dorm. That way, Jessie couldn't simply have her room-mate tell whoever knocked at the door that she wasn't home.

"You bet. I'll pick you up in a little bit." Tad smiled as he talked to his girlfriend. At least someone's relationship was going well. Now, if all worked as planned. Jessie and Katie would be happy together again too.

"See you then." Grace shut her phone and looked at her sister. She was scowling. "Tad wanted to make sure that our relationship was okay…so he asked me out to dinner and a movie tonight. Is that okay?" It was partly true anyway. Jessie nodded.

"Yeah, I'll probably just sleep anyway. You two owe it to yourselves to have some fun. This isn't your fault." Jessie tried to smile at her sister, and Grace smiled back realizing that Jessie wasn't going to be there all night either.

"You should brush your hair though." She had to do something to get ready.

"Mm," was Jessie's reply as she rolled over in bed. Grace rolled her eyes at her sister and finished getting ready. After she was finished, she called Katie. Jessie was sound asleep.

"Okay, you better fix this."

"I will," Katie promised when she heard Grace's voice. "I'm going to try my best to."

"Well…Good luck then. She can be awfully stubborn sometimes." They both laughed, and said good-bye because Tad was there right on cue.

Tad took his cell phone out once they were outside the dorm. "Keerrch…I have The Apple. Fly free Golden Eagle and collect your Silver Hawk."

"Tad, what the heck are you talking about?" Katie was trying not to laugh at her friend. "We're on cell phones, not walkie talkies. Also, I hate to break it to you, but we don't have a code."

Tad sighed. "I meant that I'm with Grace, so you can come get Jessie."

"Why didn't you just say so?"

"I tried to!" Tad was trying to defend himself. "Whatever, you just don't appreciate my codes…" He muttered jokingly.

"You're right. Over and out." Katie hung up her phone and finished getting herself and her room ready.

Tad clicked off his phone and shoved it back into his pocket before turning his attention back to Grace, who immediately swatted him. "Did you just call me an apple"  
A few minutes later, Jessie's cell phone was ringing. Ugh, she really didn't want to talk to anyone right now. A few minutes even later, the phone was still ringing. Maybe she could get rid of them quick so they'd stop calling. "Hello," she answered groggily.

"I'm going to be there in a few minutes." Katie said before hanging up the phone. Hey, she'd given Jessie warning. Jessie blinked confusedly at the phone for a few seconds. Katie had just called her and told her that she'd be there soon?

She considered simply rolling over and going back to sleep, but somehow she knew that she needed to get ready. If Jessie wasn't ready soon, she was pretty sure that she would be having to go out in her pajama bottoms somewhere. So, the blonde went and washed up.

Ever punctual, Katie knocked on Jessie's door. "Hey Jess, it's me. I need to talk to you." Jessie, to be honest, still was wary of talking to Katie, but she didn't seem to have much of a choice. She knew how stubborn Katie was. She opened the door to reveal a stunning Katie.

Katie was wearing a pair of light blue jeans and a fitted white long-sleeved shirt. She had on her favorite classic pair of also light blue tennis shoes and her dirty blonde hair was curled ever so slightly. Her green eyes seemed to be flickering in the light, and Jessie caught herself staring. Jessie, on the other hand, also looked beautiful. Her blonde hair was brushed straight and was almost shining, then she had on her favorite pair of khaki-colored dress-pants and a black sweater. The dark shirt made her eyes seem ever bluer and her hair even lighter.

After a moment, Katie smiled and pulled out a gardenia and handed it to her girlfriend. "This is for you, and if you would please…I'd like you to come with me, to dinner." Katie bit at her lip as she held the gardenia out in front of her. She really wasn't sure what Jessie would say at this point. She was hoping that Jessie was willing to forgive her enough to give her a chance to explain, and to show her how much she really meant to her.


	9. Chapter 9

Title: Just Dance With Me

Rating: T. (There will be some language. Also some sexual content. I'm not sure how much, but if it changes and the rating needs to be raised, don't worry, I will let you know and label all chapters appropriately)  
Disclaimer: All of the lovely characters used thus far are not mine at all. They belong to the lovely folks of Once and Again, and I can't claim any of them, unfortunately for me. The only ones that are mine are Ash and Gina.

Feedback: Yes please. Let me know what you think. (I hope you like it, of course)

Summary: This is a Jessie/Katie story. You've been 'warned.' It tells about them meeting college and everything that goes along with it. (Yes, that means they are going to be together in this story.) Tad, Grace, Sarah, etc. also fall into the plot a bit, but this is mostly Jessie/Katie.

Author's Notes: It's taken me a little while to get this updated, I know. I'm sorry about that, but there should be updates more regularly now because I shouldn't have so much work to do. Thank you to everyone who continues to review this story. Also, I don't actually know Jessie's foods for this chapter…So, I came up with some that I thought might be suitable. Enjoy :)

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Jessie stood there for a moment and looked at Katie as she held out the gardenia. The gardenia was so beautiful, but it was Katie's loving expression that Jessie found herself drawn to. She smiled and nodded, accepting the gardenia. "Sure, I'll go to dinner with you." Jessie had decided that she at least had to hear Katie out on what had happened. The blonde put the gardenia in some water before turning around to face Katie who hadn't moved from the doorway. "You can move inside, you know."

"I wasn't sure how far into the dorm I was accepted before I spoiled you tonight." Katie grinned and showed her classic Singer charm and Jessie smirked, weakening.

"I'll be the judge of that," the younger girl decided as she cocked her head to the side waiting for Katie's comeback.

"Your Honor, please come with me in that case." Leave it to Katie to take Jessie being the judge so literally. Katie held out her hand, and waited until Jessie delicately took a hold of it. She forced herself to not make another statement about whether she was on probation or not.

Since the two girls lived close to each other, they were able to simply walk to Katie's dorm room. They had been walking for about a minute before Jessie broke the silence. "Hey Katie, what did I see today?"

The two girls were still holding hands, but Katie took a deep breath before answering. She knew that this was coming, and had been trying to prepare herself for it. "Today, you saw Sarah kissing me, right?" A quick glance over at Jessie confirmed her suspicions. "It honestly didn't mean anything, at least not like the way it seemed. Sarah found out about Ash and Gina and Gina's ex-boyfriend, and she was still really freaked out about it. She was upset, and I was trying to comfort her." Katie paused to take a breath, when Jessie interrupted.

"Comfort her with your kiss?" Jessie looked at Katie to gauge her reaction. Her girlfriend shook her head, and looked serious for once.

"No. I was trying to calm her down, by talking to her, but then I gave her a hug. She was still really confused, and the next thing I know she's pressing her lips against mine. I was in shock at first, and you must have walked away right before I pulled away and talked to her about it. I asked her about it afterward, and she felt bad. She wasn't thinking clearly because she was still messed up over Ash. She left, and I sat there waiting to talk to you. I know it sounds like some horribly sappy movie, but that's the truth." Katie sucked in a deep breath and looked at Jessie.

Jessie stood there momentarily and tried to digest it all. After it began to sink in, she managed to ask the main question she was wondering. "How long did you wait"  
Katie took a deep breath. "Three hours."

"You sat in the coffee shop for three hours?" Jessie questioned.

"Well, after that they were beginning to stare at me really oddly, and I'm pretty sure they didn't appreciate my reading my book and drinking my coffee anymore. They knew I had ulterior motives for sitting there."

"Like what?"

"I was waiting for my beautiful girlfriend so we could talk, and so I could do this…" Katie leaned forward and planted a soft kiss on Jessie's lips. She pulled back to see if she was winning Jessie over or not. The young blonde looked content, but then raised one eyebrow.

"You're not getting off the hook that easy, but I do believe you." Both girls smiled, and Katie opened her door. Sarah was gone by the time that Katie had gotten back. She had left a note stating that she was going to go stay the night with a mutual friend of theirs and that she'd see her tomorrow.

The room was still a normal dorm room, but Katie had managed to squeeze in two white dressy-looking chairs and a small table which was covered in a white tablecloth. On the table there was a plate for both of them, along with a cup. Jessie raised her eyebrows curiously and Katie pulled out a chair so that she could sit down before going and getting a plate with their food on it. On the plate was two egg, sausage and cheese biscuits (that Katie had actually made, and not bought from any certain fast-food restaurant) and then poured each of them a glass of strawberry and banana smoothie. Jessie laughed as Katie brought the food out. "Hey, it's not my fault that you have very original food favorites."

Jessie grinned. "No, it looks great." She took a bite of the sandwich and her eyes widened in pleasure. "Okay, wow. That really is good, Katie."

Katie let out a sigh of relief. "Good…Thank you." They continued with some small-talk, willing to put the afternoon behind them for the moment seeing as it had just been talked out, and neither girl was going to be able to handle another dosage of thorough discussion for the moment. Jessie knew that Katie really liked her, and Katie knew that Jessie really liked her. That's all that mattered for the moment. Well, that and the food.

When they had finished the 'breakfast' sandwiches, Katie pulled out another little dish. Only this contained two vanilla cupcakes with strawberry frosting on each. It was Jessie's favorite desert.

"Thank you, Katie." Jessie commented when she had finished it. "It really was delicious." Katie grinned again involuntarily.

"Does that mean that I'm off probation, Your Honor?" Katie finally let herself use her probation joke from earlier that night.

Jessie connected the probation and the judge reference to earlier that night. "How long have you been waiting to use that one?"

Her girlfriend smiled. "Since I first commented on judges earlier tonight," Katie admitted. Jessie laughed at her girlfriend's silliness and then looked thoughtful.

"I can't say I'm okay with what happened, but I do believe you. I know you wouldn't lie to me. We still have to talk about some things…or at least settle them with Sarah…but for now. That was still a great dinner that you cooked for me." Jessie scooted over to her girlfriend's bed and sat on it. Katie followed suit, and sat next to her.

"You're worth it," Katie murmured in the blonde girl's ear before kissing her neck lightly.

"You're amazing," Jessie sighed as Katie kissed a little bit further down her neck and towards her neckline. Jessie leaned back on the bed as Katie pulled herself over top of her, bracing herself up by her hands. Katie brought her lips back to Jessie's and they were eagerly met. Jessie ran her tongue across the older girl's bottom lip and deepened the kiss and pulled her closer. Katie was definitely willing to be brought closer to the blonde's body. Katie pulled back and looked into her girlfriend's eyes.

"Jessie, I love you."

Jessie grinned and leaned up to give Katie a quick kiss before replying. "I love you too." Just as she was leaning back into kiss her again, there was a knock at the door. Both girls tried to ignore it, but the knocking just got louder. "Think whoever it is will go away?" Jessie whispered as they both listened to the knocking growing louder by the minute.

"Yes," Katie whispered back before shouting in hopes to stop the knocking, "Nobody's home."

"Very smooth," Jessie chuckled.


	10. Chapter 10

Title: Just Dance With Me

Rating: T. (Slight language and sexual content…If you've been reading it, then you get the gist)

Disclaimer: All of the lovely characters used thus far are not mine at all. They belong to the lovely folks of Once and Again, and I can't claim any of them, unfortunately for me. The only ones that are mine are Ash and Gina.

Feedback: Yes please. Feedback gives me incentive to write.

Summary: This is a Jessie/Katie story. You've been 'warned.' It tells about them meeting college and everything that goes along with it. (Yes, that means they are going to be together in this story.) Tad, Grace, Sarah, etc. also fall into the plot a bit, but this is mostly Jessie/Katie.

Author's Notes: You have to love snow-days…Well, I do, because they mean I get to actually get a decent amount of sleep. You might for that reason too, plus it leads to updates from me.

* * *

"What? It works well. They have no idea we're in here." Katie leaned down and softly kissed Jessie again.

"I know someone is in there," shouted the voice from behind the door.

Jessie giggled, and Katie just made up a new excuse. "Well, they'll go away. No problem."

"I'm not going to go away!" Jessie burst out laughing at the mysterious person's reply.

"Shit. I think they can hear me." Katie frowned, and looked around for a way to block out the shouts of the other girl.

"Katie! I can hear you talking. It's me, Ash."

Katie's face said it all. Sighing, she grouchily got off of the bed, and Jessie rose with her. "I'm sorry, Billie." She apologized before walking towards the door to let in Sarah's ex-girlfriend.

"It's not your fault." Jessie conceded before settling herself into a sitting position in a chair near Katie's computer.

Katie opened the door to a semi-frantic Ash. "What do you want?" Katie blocked the door well enough that Ash couldn't just walk in.

"What are you so protective about? It's not like you've got a girl…" She trailed off as Jessie walked up behind her girlfriend and put her arms around her waist. "Oh. You really do have a girl in there." She paused momentarily and turned towards Jessie, "Sorry. I've got to find Sarah, though. I don't know where she is."

"No good non-stalking ex-girlfriend should know where she is." Katie looked at Ash with a blank face. "Look, why are you worried? You're the one that cheated on her, okay. You. Cheated. On. Her."

Ash looked obviously uncomfortable as she shifted her weight from one food to the other, and placed a piece of stray hair behind one year. "I messed up, okay? Can I do that?" The look on Katie and Jessie's faces both told her the answer to that. "Okay, don't answer that one. Just, please. I need to talk to her."

"I don't know where she is, okay?" Katie relented a little, but still blocked the doorway. "She's out with one of her friends." Ash sighed and ran her hand through her hair.

"I know I was horrible to her, and I can't take that back now…but I want to make it up to her. I love her." Jessie snorted, apparently Ash's words weren't working so well for her as Katie's heartfelt ones did. Well, Katie's cooking skills anyway.

"If you need to talk to her. Call her. I know you apparently don't want to do it over the phone, apologizing, I mean, but at least then you'll find out where she is because I'm not delivering you to her after everything you've done." Suddenly Ash looked like the lonely kid at the fair that won a blue ribbon. She was so happy at the suggestion to talk to the girl on the phone instead of searching everywhere for her in person. She really wasn't thinking clearly without Sarah apparently if she hadn't tried to call yet.

"Katie, I'm sorry that I kind of burst in here to talk to you…Thanks though. I really will go call her now." Just like that she bounded off towards the stairs and pulled out her cell phone.

Katie shut the door and turned to face Jessie. "She really is an odd one, huh?" Katie chuckled, and nodded.

"Usually, she's more level-headed…but I guess the whole Sarah thing really did through her off." Katie turned towards Jessie, and looked at her. Jessie was looking at her expectantly, trying to figure out how to get rid of the awkwardness that had settled between the two girls. They really had to discuss the Sarah and Katie thing soon.

Jessie relented. "Katie, I don't want to bring this back up right away, but with Ash showing up here…" Jessie continued sitting in the chair, but she also started to fiddle with her silver thumb ring that Grace gave her for her last birthday.

"I know. I knew we'd have to talk about it again…" Katie put a strand of hair back behind her ear. She knew that this would come up again, of course. She just hoped that cooking food for Jessie would mean that it wouldn't come up again as quickly, but with Ash showing up there…It made it all so raw again.

"It's just…you two live together…I don't know what to expect now." Jessie sighed, and the stress that she had been feeling became obvious.

"You know that I didn't kiss her back."

"Yeah…I know. I believe you. I just…I want to know where you and Sarah stand. Where we stand. What will happen when Sarah comes back here and I leave to go home." Jessie was rambling, and the easy-going mood that had softly filled the room, was replaced with one of a more nervous stature.

"Jess," Katie began and got down on her knees in front of the chair, and for once she would be glad of her ability to ramble because hopefully that would get her point across in the end. "As I said earlier, and I'll say a thousand times more if I need to. Sarah got upset thinking about Ash, and she kissed me. I didn't kiss her back. There isn't anything between us but friendship. Sarah has to figure this thing out with Ash, but when she does, yes, she'll be back here. She and I will discuss things, and hopefully her moment of stress won't cause anything to be odd between us, which I doubt it will. There is nothing to screw up between Sarah and I besides friendship. Between, you and I, though, Billie, there's a lot. There's a lot that I don't want to mess up. I'm so sorry that I hurt you. I don't want to do it ever again. I don't want to see you cry ever again because I want to be your knight in shining armor. I love you, and that is one thing that isn't going to change no matter what else comes out of all of this. So, that's where we stand, together." After she got done with her speech, there were tears in her eyes that she quickly tried to wipe away before taking Jessie's hands in her own. Slowly, Jessie's tear-filled eyes lifted and met Katie's.

"Can girls be knights?" Was the only question that came to Jessie's mind. Ergo, it was the only question she asked.


	11. Chapter 11

Title: Just Dance With Me

Rating: T. There's slight sexual content, and there isn't much for language warnings this time around.

Disclaimer: All of the lovely characters used thus far are not mine at all. They belong to the lovely folks of Once and Again, and I can't claim them. The only two that I can claim are Gina and Ash.

Feedback: I love feedback as always.

Summary: This is a Jessie/Katie story. You've been 'warned.' It tells about them meeting college and everything that goes along with it. (Yes, that means they are going to be together in this story.) Tad, Grace, Sarah, etc. also fall into the plot a bit, but this is mostly Jessie/Katie.

Author's Notes: Okay. I'm sorry that it takes a little while between each of the chapters. I've been trying to update fairly frequently. Hopefully, it hasn't been too irregular. Anyway, thank you to everyone that has read and/or reviewed this story, and any of my stories for that matter. I hope you continue to review ;) and continue to read and like my stories. This is, actually, the final installment of this story. Final chapter, gasp, I know. The flashback is in italics, so hopefully that helps define that part. The part that isn't, well, will be in normal text. Enjoy :)

* * *

Katie had hoped for this moment. She was lying in bed next to the girl she was in love with. Jessie. Katie's arm was draped around the blonde's stomach, and her left leg was interwoven between both of Jessie's. Jessie's head was nuzzled into her pillow, and her hand was stretched lazily on top of Katie's, holding her closer to her. Tonight had been magical. After Katie had finished her speech, which she later realized was more of a rambled and scrambled apology. A sleep-clogged mind tugged at Katie's sense of humor and made her chuckle when she realized that she had rhymed. Rambled. Scrambled. Hah.

Jessie was pretty sure that Katie thought that she was asleep. She had fallen asleep at first because the day had simply been so long, but since then she had woken up and instead listened for the steady breaths that the other girl was taking. She almost panicked when she didn't hear one for a moment, but then heard the sight that followed the silence. It was then, that Jessie turned in Katie's arms, and Katie ever-so-delicately, and very much so awake, fell onto her back. The younger girl smiled that Katie was, too, pretending to be asleep. Quietly, Jessie nuzzled her head into Katie's shoulder, and the top of her chest. Here, the blonde could hear the rhythmic beating of a beautiful heart. Katie's heart. The one that just a few hours earlier Katie had proclaimed belonged solely to Jessie, and Jessie believed her. It was hard to believe that all of that had simply taken place a few hours ago, because it seemed like she had been able to listen to Katie's heartbeat forever. At the same time, it was as if it had just barely happened, for the memory was so fresh and raw in her mind.

_Jessie had asked her question, and forever she would remember the answer. "Of course, Billie. Girls can be knights. Girls can be anything that set their minds to be."_

_"And your mind is set to be a knight?" Jessie had so innocently asked, her bright blue eyes gleaming into Katie's own reflective green ones._

_"No, silly. My mind is set to being your knight." Katie smiled at Jessie, who grinned back involuntarily. "So, really, I hope you don't mind that I'm a girl anyway," Katie continued jokingly as she looked at her girlfriend who chuckled._

_"Nope. I don't mind at all, Billie. I don't mind at all." Jessie finished speaking just before her lips seemed to take on a mind of their own, and search for her girlfriend's lips. "I love you," she had muttered softly._

_A few more soft and sweet kisses were shared before Katie tried to stifle a yawn. This led to Jessie having to try to stifle her own yawn._

_"Don't you know that yawns are contagious?" Jessie chided Katie giddily as they both pulled back far enough to have their foreheads resting against the other girl's._

_"So is love, Jess. It's been a long day though." Jessie agreed, and within moments both girls had changed into a pair of pajamas. Well, Katie had changed into her own, and Jessie had borrowed a very familiar pair of pajamas. "You know, I might as well just let you claim these as your own because you wear them more often than I do." Katie commented referring to the fact that Jessie had worn the exact same t-shirt to bed only a few days before. Jessie lifted an eyebrow at Katie as she changed into them. Both girls tried to seem nonchalant doing so, but they both snuck several glances at the other during the changing process. Neither girl minded. "Not that I have a problem with you in my clothes, of course…" Katie continued._

_"Like, if I were to get into your pants for instance? You wouldn't mind that, huh?" Jessie smirked as she watched her girlfriend's mouth open, and for once she didn't have a witty comeback._

_The green-eyed girl sighed. "I really did walk into that one."_

_"Yes, you really did." Jessie said as she lazily laid down on Katie's bed. Katie laid down just behind her girlfriend, and lazily stretched her arm across her stomach and over her arm._

_"I love you, Billie," Katie whispered into the blonde's ear quietly._

_"I love you too," Jessie whispered back as her hand found the older girl's and wrapped her closer around her back. "You're the best knight a girl could ever ask for." Both girls smiled, knowing the other was doing the same without having to look._

Jessie knew that her sister was hanging out with Tad tonight, and tomorrow they would both have stories to tell the other. Though, she would never quite be able to believe that any night could be any more magical than tonight had been for Katie and herself. She was still amazed at how much had come out of just one night at a club. Amazed, yes, but ever so happy, so in love, as well.

Katie, for her part, realized that her friend, Sarah, still had a lot to sort through with Ash. Maybe Ash did really love Sarah. She had gone to a lot of trouble just to talk to her again anyway, and she was pretty sure that she was done with Gina. However, she knew that Sarah would have to make the final choice of whether she'd want to get back with Ash or not. It wasn't up to Katie. If Ash really cared, she would be able to win Sarah back. However, that was a journey yet to be continued. The journey that Katie was busy focusing on was the one right in front of her. The blonde girl lying her arms; that was all that mattered at the moment.

Jessie sighed, and wrapped her right arm around Katie's stomach, slowly rubbing her finger along the exposed skin from where the girl's t-shirt had crept up. Katie wasn't the only one awake. Katie reacted by gently kissing the top of the blonde head lying on her shoulder. Jessie wasn't the only one in love.


End file.

Once and Again, Humor, Romance