Once and Again 1. Chapter 1: Seven

**Rating: PG13… maybe if I'm more comfortable writing 'some scenes', I might raise it. HAHA.**

**Disclaimer: Again, I claim none of these characters… just the storyline.**

**Summary: Seven years ago, Jessie called and ended up in a mess… Seven years later, they meet again, this time in a different mess.**

**A/N: YAY! Now that my exams are over, I could write again! Not that I didn't during my exams… **

**Good news for me is, in exactly a month from now, I get to fly… Bad news for you guys is, unless I have a com, I won't be writing when I'm over seas. Oh well…**

**Did I mention that this was a short fic… just a lil sidetrack atm, it's probz only gonna be 2-3 parts.  
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**Part 1: Seven…**

"Ooomph…" She grunted as she fell flat on the floor, she practically rolled back onto the bed… mattress was more like it; the bed lacked a bed frame. She peered sleepily up at her digital clock, in red prominent numbers; 3:37 peered back at her. "Shit…" she murmured under her breath.

It was exactly this time 7 years ago when she and Katie broke up on Christmas day. She had purposely woken up at 3:30am to call Katie at her college dorm, thinking to say Merry Christmas… Christmas Eve over there. Instead of meeting her girlfriend's voice on the other end, another… random girl's voice came through her receiver. The first thing she thought was, 'it must be her flat mate.' However, it immediately hit her that, her girlfriend told her she lived alone, which made her frown.

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"Uh, hi… Where's, I mean can I… please talk to Katie?" Her voice trembled.

"_Phone…" _She heard the girl say groggily.

She faintly heard Katie grumble something, and told the mysterious girl to hang up.

"_Sorry, she's sleeping… Call ba…" _

Jessie immediately cut the girl off, tears trickling down her paled face, "It's ok… Um, tell her Jessie called."

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As unbelievable as it was, even as she looked back on it now, by the age of 15 she was already madly in love. However, as young as she has fallen in love, at the age of 17 she also experienced her heart being shattered.

She sat up a little on her bed, with her pillow cushioning her back, her memories took her back to that day.

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After hanging up that night, she laid back into her bed, and pulled her blanket over herself. She felt like she needed to suffocate herself at that moment, but knew better. To muffle her crying, she buried her face further into her pillow, slowly wetting the material as her tears continuously came. A few minutes later though, the phone rang; wiping her tear stained face with the back of her hand, she immediately picked up the phone, not wanting to wake everyone else.

"…Hello…" Jessie spoke into the phone, trying to control her voice.

"_Jessie?" _

"Katie?"

"_Yeah… hey… um Merry Christmas…"_

"Merry… Christmas to you… for tomorrow. Jessie stuttered out, feeling her nose burn and tears coming back.

There was an awkward silence, a naked pause; something that never happened between the two.

"_Ummm…. So, you called."_

"…Yeah… I was thinking of surprising you…" But in her head she continued, 'but you surprised me more.'

"_Oh."_

"Anyways… I leave you to go back to bed… with her…" She said spitefully, yet in her normally quiet voice.

"_Wait!"_ Katie panicked.

"…"

"…"

"If you don't have much else to say… I'm gonna go."

The brunette sat there mentally smacking herself, thinking of what the possibilities of 'I'm gonna go,' could mean.

"Bye Katie." She gave her the chance to explain, to tell her that it was just a friend sleeping over, but no response… nothing. She hung up and never did she call her again, and when the older called, she told her family to make up an excuse.

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Jessie slid back underneath her plain white sheets, it was cold. The greatest irony of her life is that she hated Katie so much, she hated how they ended, and she hated how Katie never bothered to explain. Yet after all these years, she chose to move out here in London; the place where Katie once said she wanted to live when she's older. Turning to her side, the blonde closed her eyes, but even with her lids shut, it didn't stop the tear from falling.

The next morning, Jessie woke up feeling only one thing, exhaustion. She may have fallen asleep, but it was a restless one, her mind didn't seem have rested. She looked at herself in her full length mirror, the reflection that looked back at her was beautiful, but yet those baby blue eyes were dull. She knew herself, she could tell she looked more like a train wreck than some people who had a hang over.

"Hey Grace…"

"_Morning Jess." _Grace answered the phone a little too bright for Jessie's current mood.

"I'm not coming in today, not in the mood," she replied tiredly, rubbing her face as she sat back on the corner of her bed.

"_Oh. I thought you were going to finalize everything for that model."_

"I was, but I'm feeling really tired. So can you postpone that for me…"

"Yeah sure, did you want me to come over later? Cook you something."

"No it's okay 'mother'." She smiled at Grace's sudden change to motherly character.

"Don't 'mother' me." Grace said in a mock defensive tone, "I'm coming over anyways to check up on you after work. No buts. You better open the door for me."

"Fine…"

As Grace had promised, she came over later that evening and bought quite an amount of groceries to stock up Jessie's empty refrigerator. Her first lines when stepping in the house always the similar.

"Gosh Jess, you really need to brighten this place up. It's no wonder you're so dead all the time." Grace to a brief look at the place, she had realized long ago that this apartment had basically no colour.

The place was white, the carpet a light crème colour; the minimal amount of furniture was white leather, the dinner table made of glass with metallic legs. Even her kitchen furnishings were also of the silver metallic colour.

"You say that all the time."

Jess looked at her own home, she liked it, it looked clean, neat, unlike her attic room back in Evanston, or that pinkish room.

"I sometimes wonder whether I've stepped into a mental asylum or something. Everything's just so… white."

"Nice to know you think it's white," Jessie smirked, "Because everything is white."

"You know what I mean you really need to brighten the place up a little. Look around you sis, the only colour I see is in your refrigerator," Grace pointed, "Me, and you in your baby blue t-shirt, grey pants don't count as colorful."

"I also sometimes wonder why I open the door for you," Jessie walked back into her study with her warm cup of coffee.

"Cause I'm your loving sister who can cook…"

"I can cook!" Jess called from the study.

"Sure. Mac and cheese, two minute noodle, boil coffee… have I missed anything?"

"Yes, I did learn how to cook pasta and spaghetti."

"That as well, but have I told you it was hideous?" Grace laughed, putting the packet of pasta into the pot.

Jessie smacked her in the arm. "Ow, geez, not only is this place ghastly white, you even walk like a ghost."

"Its carpet most of the way Grace, there's not much sound that could be made."

As much as Jessie hated to admit, but Grace did cook really well; mushroom cream pasta, with a bit of herbs.

"So have who's your latest fling…" Grace questioned curiously.

"Don't have one." She replied nonchalantly, "and what do you mean by 'fling'?"

"Are kidding? Jess, the longest you ever stayed in these relationships for is a month, how are the rest not a fling?"

"They're not flings… they're just…"

"Flings."

"I was gonna say short term relationships."

"Which are flings."

Sighing again, Grace did have a point. "I just haven't found the right person. It's not like I don't give these relationships time… I guess you just know sometimes."

"You haven't found the right person? I think you have… back when you were 15. Why don't you give that person another chance, give yourself another chance."

"Geez, my house being empty and talking about Katie are always the two things you talk about when you come over…" Jess looked away and frowned, it had been 7 years, and maybe everything has changed. But then again, she haven't had contact with Katie for 7 years now, where is she supposed to find her?

As if reading her mind, "I know where you can find Katie."

The blonde looked up at Grace curiously, wondering how on earth she knew where to find Katie.

"I… well when you were avoiding all her phone calls after you guys ended it, I still kept in contact with her." Grace said guiltily, "the crazy thing is that, she lives here in London as well, I told her to meet you, but she went on about something like let fate bring you guys together again."

"Well then, why don't we just let fate do its work, we meet, then we meet. If we never meet again, I guess it means we're not meant to be." Jessie finished her plate and walked over to the sink.

"No way, are you joking? You're both just gonna sit back and wait 'til you both meet?" Grace followed the younger girl.

Jess looked around her, everyone in their little world. She took a sip of coffee as she brought her watch in sight. Nearly spitting out her sip of coffee, she quickly got up, grabbed all her blue prints and ran out of the café. She was in a big mess, running down the road to her car, blue prints and posters under one arm, at the same time her head down searching for her keys in her purse. Simultaneously finding her keys in her pinstripe trouser, the blonde crashed into someone.

It was a bad day she thought, everything falling everywhere, she quickly said her apologies as she tried to pick up some of her rolling posters. She heard the person say it was ok, and that they'll help her. Jessie finally reached her final blue print, as she grabbed it, the other person grabbed the other end as well.

"Thanks," Jessie said as she stood up with the blue print in hand.

"Wel…" The other woman began, but cut herself off, "… Jess...?"

"Ka… Katie…" Jessie's mouth hung slightly in shock, her hand stopped all it's movement.

"Hi." Katie smiled at Jessie's cute expression, not believing that she was seeing this blonde girl again.

"Hi…" Jessie's lips naturally curving into a smile. Her phone rang which helped bring her out of her current stupor, "Sorry…"

"Hello?"

"_Jess, where are you?"_

"I'm coming, calm down. Just uh… got a little held up."

"_You have like 12 minutes to get your ass back here_._"_ Grace warned.

"See yah…" Jessie hung up without waiting for a goodbye.

"So I guess you're in a rush…" Katie stated, handing over the things she helped pick up.

"Yeah. Thanks, anyways… I really should be off before Grace decides to kill me…" Jessie smiled, taking the rest of her papers in her arm. "Bye…"

"Bye…"

Jess headed towards her car, Katie stood immobile watching her walk away. She shook her head, and hurried over to the blonde, hoping she hasn't driven away. Just reaching the car, Katie found the younger girl closing her passenger side door, obviously putting down her stuff first.

"Jess!" the brunette called.

Jessie turned around and saw Katie walking towards her, "Yeah?"

Katie walked up closer so she didn't have to shout, "Can I uh… Did you wanna… you know get some coffee with me one day… or lunch… or maybe dinner… whenever you're free? You don't have to or anything, I just needed to ask…"she rambled, looking anywhere but the person she was talking to, "its okay if you don't want to… I mean you're probably really busy and all…"

Jessie looked at her amusedly, enjoying the moment; she missed listening to Katie talk… ramble.

"Sure."

"Sorry?" Katie did a double-take.

"I said sure," Jessie searched for her business card, "call me… We can arrange something."

"Okay." The brunette looked at the card in her hand, dumbfounded, still trying to register how it got there.

"I really have to go… see you." Jess waved before she got into the driver's seat.

Walking out of the meeting, "Thought you weren't gonna make it."

"Sorry."

"Where were you?"

"Coffee, and then met an old friend."

Grace raised an eyebrow at her, but let it slide. "We're meeting up for New Years."

"Who's we?"

"We as in family…" Grace explained, following Jessie into her office, "we can go to Australia to celebrate."

The blonde shook her head, "Nah…"

"We can celebrate here…"

"Where?"

"Your place…" Grace smirked.

"No way."

"We can all go back to Evanston then."

Jessie paused what she was doing, pondering the idea Grace just suggested. "Okay."

"Okay?"

"Yeah, okay. What's with everyone today, am I not speaking English?"

"No, you just surprise me… Wait, who else has been doing that?"

"… No one…" Jessie answered guiltily.

"Girl, do you have another one of those flings?" Grace questioned.

"I'm not having another short term relationship…" Jessie answered, "you make it sound like I'm having illicit relationships…"

"Maybe you are," Grace raised her arms up in defeat, making her way out of the room.

"Door, Grace." She called to the fleeing girl. At the same moment the door closed, her intercom rang, she sat down on her seat, before clicking on her intercom, "Yeah."

"Jessie, there's a Katie Singer looking for you," her secretary informed.

"Put her on."

"_Hello?" _

"Hey."

"_Are you busy?"_

"Nope, just got out of a meeting, great timing."

"_Oh, good. Um, so are you free… tonight?"_

"Should be…"

The brunette sat their fidgeting, whenever did she fidget is a big question, she never does it. She took a few deep breaths and tried to keep her cool, it's not like she hasn't had dinner with other people here before… It's just that she never had dinner here with this particular person before. She breathed out, today has been… weird. Never had she expected to Jessie again, and even more so just about to have dinner with her. Katie sat there trying to meditate, eyes closed, when she heard her voice.

"Hey, did you wait long?" Jessie took a seat.

She was obviously wearing a casual, yet formal wavy white top that went down to her upper thighs, followed with the same pair of trousers she was wearing this morning. Katie couldn't tell whether it was a strapless top or not because Jessie was wearing a short, half bodied black jacket. 'Why didn't I notice what she was wearing this morning? Oh duh… it was 4˚C, she was wearing a long coat…"

"No…" Katie nearly squeaked, she swallowed the imaginary lump by taking a sip of water. "Did you wanna order now?"

"Yeah, sure… You?"

"I've already ordered, I told them to wait till you ordered your meal as well."

"Oh… okay."

Jessie sat back and took the menu into her hands, Katie sat back and unconsciously began to stare at every single movement, and every single gesture the blonde was making. Everything seemed like it was on slow motion, absolutely incredible, she didn't want this to end.

"Hello? Earth to Katie…" Jessie spoke.

"Huh…" Katie blushed, not realizing that Jessie had finished ordering already and was talking to her. "Sorry."

"What were you thinking about… You seem to be deep in concentration." Jessie smiled, taking a sip from the glass of water.

Once again, Katie peered from Jessie's smile, to the glass touching her lips. She even noticed a bit of the blonde's lip gloss still on the cup. She shook her head.

"Oh, nothing… Hmmm… will you excuse me, I need to go to the restroom."

"Okay…"

Katie got up and quickly found her way to the restroom. Once she got in, she took a deep breath, thanking herself for choosing a nice restaurant with a clean toilet. She looked herself in the mirror, and saw that her face was blushing crimson, another thing she hasn't done in… as long as she could remember. She heard a cubicle latch click, but she didn't bother to look to see where it was from. She splashed a bit of water on her face, just as she was looking up again; she felt an arm around her waist, Katie was about to jump out of her skin if it were Jessie behind her, but when she stared into the mirror, she noticed it was one of her many exes.

"Hi Katie…" Brianna breathed into her left ear.

Katie peeled off the other girls arm from her waist, and replied, "Hi…"

"I've missed you…" she continued to breathe out, "how have you been?"

She sighed, and grabbed some paper towel to dry off her face, leaving the other girl's first comment at that, "I've been great, thank you." She continued to uncaringly reapply her make up, as the girl from behind watched on.

"Are you having dinner with someone?"

"Yeah, and you?" Katie tried to keep calm, this was not the time for random exes.

"I was, but I kinda don't want to go back to dinner now…" the girl smirked into the mirror.

The brunette wanted to hit herself right about now, she had absolutely no idea why on earth she even dated this slut. 'Oh that's right, she came onto me…' Sighing, Katie turned around after she had finished freshening up, she put on one of her most deadly charming smile, "sorry Bri, but I really have to go back to my friend… maybe I'll call you some other time?"

"Alright then…"

"Bye." She walked as briskly out of the place as she possibly can without looking like she was trying to escape. "God…" she breathed out.

"Hey, you took a while…" Jessie looked up from some paper in her hand.

"Yeah, met someone… random," Katie sat back down, smoothing her skirt.

"…Okay…" the blonde said with a slight chuckle, putting away her stuff back into a proper folder this time.

"I see you got a folder…" Katie pointed.

"I always have them in folders…" the other girl looked at her accusingly, "just not this morning."

"You were never really the neat type," the brunette shrugged taking another sip of water.

"Hey, I'll let you know I've become a lot neater. I even do my bed every morning."

Katie mocked a shock expression, "Oh my god, Jessica Sammler making her bed in the morning. That's some headline stuff!"

Both the young women broke out into mutual laughter, liking the way they're progressing. They talked about everything and anything, enjoying every minute of their dinner. When they finally got comfortable they even talked about their exes… many and many of their exes. Katie had learnt that Jessie was and architecture major, she learnt about how much stress and lack of sleep she went through during her 5 years in college. Jessie learnt that Katie in the end dropped her law major, did a 360 and took up designing.


	2. Chapter 2: Rekindling

**A/N: Definitely not as even half as long as the first chapter… sorry. Let's just see the 1st chap as… a special.**

**Time to read… and hopefully review after?**

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**Part 2: Rekindling **

Walking along the sidewalk silently, the two were seemingly looking at everything around them but each other. However, even the cold night air didn't affect them in anyway… in fact, they felt warmer walking together than sitting in the heated restaurant. They both zoned out, each thinking of how much they didn't want this night to end.

"So, this is me." Jessie took a warm hand out of her long black coat to point at the apartment building.

Katie looked up, feeling slightly disappointed that Jessie didn't lie about how close she lived. "Oh…"

"Yeah, um, thanks for walking me…"

"It's okay, it's good exercise," she smiled, "So um, I guess this is goodnight then Jess."

"Yeah I guess so…" she leaned in for a hug, which felt so good in the most awkward way. For a second, Katie was surprised, but soon enough eased into the hug she hasn't felt in seven long years, not wanting to let go. Pulling away from the warm arms, Jessie smiled, her blue eyes glimmering from the minimal light around them. "Goodnight Katie…"

Katie looked at the pavement below her, one hand scratching behind her ear, struggling to formulate a few words. 'For Christ's sake Kathryn, get a hold of yourself, you're just asking her whether she's free on New Years Eve… It's a perfectly normal question.'

Despite her effort, she felt that she had to stop Jessie from walking any further, because in a few more steps, she'd be inside the building. "Um… Jess, wait…"

The blonde turned around, wondering what the matter was; she looked down at the brunette standing there, fidgeting and scratching just behind her ear. A smile shone its way onto her pale face, 'I guess that hasn't changed much…' she thought.

"Uh… Will I see you again…" Katie said quickly, her eyes still on the sidewalk below, trying to get it out before her tongue refuses her of speech.

"… Sure…" Jessie shrugged.

"Sure?" the brunette looked up hopefully, not fully believing her ears quite yet. How could she? She was expecting the blonde to hate her after what she had done, but here she is, consenting to her questions.

"You know you and Grace really have to stop that…" she chuckled, "sure, we could meet up again," she confirmed.

"Wow… great… Tomorrow?" Katie's one worded speech ensued, "no… is that too early?" She was not allowing any time for the blonde to even reply, but the other girl stood there watching amusedly. "It's too early… God… Day after? Any time?"

"Tomorrow should be just fine, unless I have some final meeting," Jessie answered, "any day in the next three days is alright."

"Oh, excellent, good, great!" the words came out jumbled, "you going somewhere?"

"Hmmm?"

"As in for New Years?"

"Oh right, Grace and I are going back to Evanston on the 29th."

"Oh…" she said in revelation.

Instantly popping into her mind was a reminder to book herself a ticket first thing tomorrow. 'Wait… would she think I'm stalking her? She might think I'm stalking her! Parents… that's right… I'm visiting my own family… But I told them I won't be there this year… Oh well, tell them tomorrow.'

After a long pause, "Katie?"

"Huh? Sorry…"

Laughing, she questioned incredulously, "do you do that all the time?"

"Normally, no, only today."

Her smile grew, feeling that she knows why but dismissed making the brunette embarrassed, "So, you going back to Evanston?"

Was that an invitation? She couldn't help but need to hear it again; it may be her mind playing a cruel joke on her for all she knew. "Sorry?"

Jessie rolled her eyes, still smiling, "are you going back to Evanston for New Years?"

"Yes!" Katie looked down sheepishly, "I mean, I still haven't booked the ticket yet."

"Great, we could meet up on New Years!"

"Really?"

She gave up, was she really that unpredictable? "Yes really."

"Great… I'll call you tomorrow!" Katie backed up slowly.

"Goodnight!" Jessie waved.

"Huullooo…" Jessie mumbled into the phone, she had no idea what time it currently was, let alone what time she fell asleep last night.

"Are you awake?"

"What the hell do you think…" she squinted her eyes trying to find the red lights of her alarm clock; it read 6:09 am. Grumbling, she dug her head underneath her pillow, and laid her head on its side so she could have the phone sitting on top of her face. "Grace Manning, I swear you better have a hell of a good reason for waking me up at 6 in the morning…"

"Umm okay… someone's miss grumpy today."

"Not grumpy, tired Grace…tired," she emphasized the word 'tired'. "Now shoot."

"Well good news is, the contract has been signed and faxed back to us yesterday after you left early," Jessie tried to put her mind into what her sister was saying, not that she wasn't excited, but she felt nothing other than sleepiness pursuing her mind. "Bad news is, we won't be able to have the meeting with them because they got caught up on something. So they arranged the meeting to the second of January next year."

"…Both sounds like…" the blonde tried to stifle her yawn, "good news to me… Now if you've finished delivering me news at 6 in the morning, I'm going back to sleep." Plainly put, the 'good news' didn't sink at all yet.

"Yeah well I would've told you yesterday, but you turned your phone off, I left you like a thousand messages, but you never returned them."

"I was busy having dinner with a friend," she mumbled tiredly. Was she lying? No, it couldn't be, it was the truth after all, ex-best friend, ex-girlfriend, friend – they're all nearly the same.

"What kind of friend? 'Cause they must be really special for you to turn off your phone."

Caught red handed, she tried to steer the conversation around, "Grace, must we discuss this now… I practically don't even know my own name right now… I have the rights to remain silent until I'm actually awake."

"Fine… I'll remember you told me that," Grace smiled wickedly, "Anyways, you can go sleep for as long as you want now, there are no more meetings until after New Years."

"Bye." She turned off her phone, but her sister's last few words continuously rang in her head, repeating itself over and over again. That was until she finally had that part of the information processed in her mind. 'No more meetings until after New Years.' Six whole days of no work weighing her down…

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**A/N:**

**To 'Connect & Disconnect' readers: I'm having mental blocks for that story. Have no idea where to start my new update, sigh. So just a heads up, it may take a while for me to update that particular fic.**

'**Lost and Found' readers: Eheh… I believe I'm thinking too far ahead, I've got like pages and pages of random scenes I may or may not use later in the fic, but I have still yet to write my next update. So yeah… for this fic on the other hand, I have too many ideas, I can't pinpoint where to start next. **


	3. Chapter 3: Interruption

**A/N: I'm back and writing slowly again! Sadly, school starts Tuesday… so … don't know when I'll be updating anything next. Hope I won't be keeping you guys waiting for too long! Don't hit me!**

**Anyways, onto the story. Comments, criticisms? **

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Part 3: Interruption **

After dropping the blonde girl off the previous night, Katie was still all charged up and happy as she pranced around in the dark of the street, not feeling a tad bit cold from the cool night air. Luckily for her, nobody saw her, at least no one she was acquainted with anyways. It wouldn't have been the most normal sight to see an 'on the rise' designer twirling in the dark of the night alone. She had no idea what time she got home, but by the time she landed in her bed, having taking a relaxing shower, her head filled with nothing but 'Jessie' since seeing her again, she knew it was way past her 'normal' bed time, which was anything but normal.

The distant ringing of a phone could be heard, but she didn't have the will to move from her bed and properly awaken from her beautiful dream, three guesses what it was about. To her dismay, the persistent ringing of the phone woke her up anyways.

'Somebody has got to get a life…' Katie thought, as she grumbled a little into her pillow, her hand blindly searching for the phone on her beside table.

"Hello?" her groggy voice came out with a hint of annoyance.

"_Hey Katie."_ Katie immediately shot up in bed, _"guess you're not awake. Sorry, I'll call back later."_

"No… I'm, I'm awake now…" the brunette unconsciously brushed a hand through her hair, trying to detangle some knots which had formed over night. "What's up?"

"Oh, was just wondering whether you were free today. Maybe we could go out for breakfast or something."

Katie pulled out her agenda, to check if there was anything important she couldn't just turn down for the day. Making sure there was nothing, "Nope… all free today."

"_Cool. My treat!" _They arranged their breakfast and respectively headed off in preparing for their second meeting, both anticipating their time together again. It was stupid, but Katie was… giddy.

"God, I can't believe she still has that effect on me, or maybe I can believe that," the brunette smiled a goofy grin to herself. Fine, the goofiness of the grin may have been on the lesser side of appealing or sexy in any way, but hey, it was sweet. "Okay, I'm talking aloud to myself… definitely crazy now. Somebody hit me." She shook her head, smile still intact as she continued her make over, not that she needed one.

Sitting there at the coffee shop, it was her turn to fidget as she awaited the other girl to arrive. She looked around the place, her hands wrapped around the warm cup of coffee. Since meeting Katie again, whatever hatred she once felt for the older girl gradually dissipated; as much as she reminded herself that this girl was the one who had caused all the years of pain in her young life, she couldn't deny her feelings. Heck, the normally very patient and calm her can't even sit still for a brief moment to wait for the stunning brunette to arrive for breakfast! Just 'BREAKFAST', it wasn't even a date for crying out loud.

Katie walked briskly down the sidewalk, picking off any form of imaginary fluff or lint she found on her coat. 'I definitely miss this feeling… the feeling of anxiety and nervousness…' she smiled sheepishly to no one in particular once realizing her coat was perfectly clean and new. Upon arriving in front of the door to the coffee shop, she didn't even see the beautiful blonde staring at her; the brunette took a deep breath before she opened the door.

The blonde, sat on the table intently staring at the unmistakable figure of Kathryn Singer stood at the coffee shop door; she saw the breath Katie took before entering. Immediately, without any control over her own mind, Jessie thought the other girl didn't want to see her.

Glancing around in search for the girl who haunted her every thought, her gaze finally landed onto the blonde's blue orbs. With out even trying, a dashing smile claimed her features at the sight of the other girl; something that was very reassuring on Jessie's part.

'Without even trying, she has turned me into mush again… tell me how I'm supposed to be mad at her again?' ran through the blonde's head as the lanky girl approached her.

"Morning Katie."

"Morning…" she took a seat opposite the other girl.

"Were you still asleep when I called you before?" a knowing smile came across Jessie's face.

Katie grinned, "Absolutely not, I was up long before 7 o'clock," she answered sarcastically friendly.

"Sorry, Grace called and told me some good news… and for some reason, you were the first person that came to mind when I thought of calling someone to celebrate."

"Just a hot chocolate thanks," Katie smiled at the waitress before turning her attention back to Jessie, "good news? Well then, spill, what's to celebrate for?"

"I've got six days of no work!" the blonde replied cheerily.

'Me? First person she called? Six days of no work? Celebrate?' The brunette dazed at what the blonde could've meant. She didn't realize she had been staring at nothing for a while longer than what's considered to be normal until she was bombarded with a waving hand in her face.

"Sorry… So, six days of no work, what do you plan on doing other than sleep it all away?"

"Firstly, I definitely did not plan to sleep it all away. Secondly, I thought I told you I was gonna go back to Evanston. Thirdly, have you booked your tickets yet?"

'Crap, tickets!' Katie mentally smacked her head for forgetting, but who could blame her, she barely had enough sleep, and was busy readying herself for breakfast with Jessie… Okay, that sounded bizarrely like she had to get herself prim and proper to meet a big celebrity or the Queen or something. "Well, no."

Immediately, the insecure side of Jessie jumped to conclusions, "You're not coming?"

"No… I mean, I do want to come, but I haven't had time to call." Katie grinned, "I mean ever since dropping a certain special someone off last night at their apartment, to that someone calling me way too early in the morning and finally having breakfast with that same someone, where could there be time. Not to mention the fact that…" she took a look at her watch, "It still is early."

The word 'special' in the blur of what the brunette had just said did not get lost on Jessie's part. Her heart fluttered at the indication that she was still special to the other girl. "Oh…" A slight blush came onto her face as she realized how illogical just a minute ago.

"Yeah… So, since you have no plans today, did you wanna…." Katie was cut off by her phone's ring tone, "sorry," she said apologetically.

"It's okay…" the blonde replied, but internally wanting to know what the older girl was gonna propose to her before the interruption.

"Hello? Kathryn Singer speaking…" Katie answered professionally, which caused Jessie to smile.

The blonde sat there, subconsciously looking at the older girl nod and mumble 'uh huhs' to the person on the other line. Yes, yet another small gesture, that wasn't even directed at her, but Jessie melted. However, her mind won't stop yelling at her, 'she cheated on you! All the pain and misery she has caused, you can't forget about that.' Her eyebrows furrowed, and her lips slightly pouted.

The blonde was so engrossed in her own thought she hadn't noticed that Katie was also staring at her cute confused look. It was absolutely adorable and the other couldn't resist but to run through her mind how it would feel to brush her own lips over those currently pouted ones.

"_Hello? Katie? You still there?"_

Out of her trance again, "Oh, sorry… What were you saying?" her eyes drifted back again.

"_Work…tonight… problem…messed up…"_ was all she caught, but that was enough for her to process, 'MAJOR PROBLEM, MUST WORK'.

"Alright, I'll be there," she hung up, frustrated that she won't be able to spend her day with the blonde.

"You've got work?" Jessie stated more than questioned disappointedly.

Katie got up and nodded just as sorrowfully, but somewhere in her distress she kinda wanted to thank god for this disruption, just to get that reaction from the blonde. "I'm really sorry, maybe we could meet up later?"

"Yeah, maybe…" she replied forcing a smile to her face.

"Well, bye. Thanks for breakfast." Katie rushed out of the coffee shop, before she couldn't stop herself from kissing those irresistibly adorable pouted lips.

She really didn't get far before an idea came to mind and she was practically running back towards where she had just left a minute ago. Hurriedly rushing inside, she was glad the blonde was just paying off the bill and was getting up from the table. Walking up behind the younger girl, without much of a notice, she grabbed the girl's hand and pulled her along with her, "come with me."

To no one's surprise, a shocked expression adorned Jessie's features, "to work?"

"Yup," Katie nodded definitely, "to work."

"I don't think that's a good idea," the blonde feebly protested, allowing herself to be pulled.

"Sure it's a good idea… Not like anyone would or can stop me from bringing you in."

The two continued to walk, hand in hand down the street, neither protested, neither tried to pull their hand away, it was all just… normal. Interruptions? Don't think so…


	4. Chapter 4: Sick, Ain't So Bad After All

**A/N: A fluffy chapter, with a bit of 'something' later (read if you wanna figure out what 'something' is). Specially done on Tique's request for an update  
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**Part 4: Sick, Ain't So Bad After All…**

For the rest of yesterday, the blonde sat at the side of a hectic room, coffee, biscuits on the little table in front, fashion magazine in hand and eyes glued on the brunette who was rushing around trying to fix up the chaos. Once everything was settled, and all was finally calm again… well calmer anyways, Katie took Jessie out to dinner at one of her favourite restaurant. After dinner and a short walk around, they happily parted and went their separate way home, knowing they had tomorrow to look forward to.

Well that would have been the case until…

"_Morning Jess!"_

"Ssssh!" Jessie groaned.

"_Sorry, uhm, wanna come out for lunch?"_

"No thanks… I'd rather stay in bed…"

"Oh c'mon Jess, put some life into yourself!"

"Grace… sister I love so dearly,"Jessie sighed dramatically, "Can you hear the 'sick' in my voice? Clearly you can't, so lemme clarify it to you, I'm sick."

"_Oh,"_ Grace mumbled, _"well then hang around. I'll leave you to tend to your sickness."_

"And here I thought you were gonna say you were gonna take care of me."

"_Nuh uh… last time I did, I fell sicker than you."_

A smile formed as she recalled that memory, "Bye…"

Not long after she hung up did she find herself searching for her phone again amongst her cushions and pillows.

After sniffling a little, "Hello?"

The voice she'll never tire of came through the phone,_ "hey."_

"Katie?"

"_Jess?"_ the girl questioned worriedly.

Another sniff, "yeah…"

"_You sound… rather…"_

"…sick. I know…" the blonde rolled her eyes, feeling absolutely annoyed that her day with the brunette may very well be ruined because of her sickness.

"_Well I was gonna say 'dead', but sick will do just fine,"_ Katie joked.

"Thanks… makes me feel all warm and fuzzy inside." Jessie said bitterly sarcastic.

"_Oh, don't sweat about it…"_

"Funny, sweating is exactly what I'm doing, yet here I am nuzzled into the soft confines of my fluffy duvet."The blonde blew her already pinkish nose, and threw her the tissue messily near the trash can by the wall.

Jessie didn't hear a reply, or she thought she didn't, maybe her head is playing with her, or maybe she missed it when she was blowing her nose. Just as she was about to say something again, she heard a distant, _"ow" _come from Katie's end of the line.

"Katie, what happened?"

"_Uh nothing, just you know…"_ she answered incoherently, _"I think I'm… I meant, I'll see you in half an hour."_

"Huh? Wait!"

"_BYE!"_ just like that, the older girl hung up.

'Crap, Katie's coming over in half an hour… clean up Jessica! CLEAN UP!' she mentally smacked herself, 'wait, clean myself up? Or clean my house up?'

The girl hauled herself out of bed, practically having to crawl out of it, as her skin touched the crisp air of her apartment, she shivered. 'Note to self, never wear tank top and shorts to sleep when it's 5C outside, just in case the electricity goes out in the middle of the night and there's no more heater.' As quick as her dazed self could get, she threw on some over sized sweater that went down and just covered her shorts. Having no hope at finding track pants, she just ignored the temporary coldness, and began to discard those poor tissues which have accumulated in to a nice lengthy pile along her wall.

After cleaning up all her tissues, Jessie walked over to her door-less bedroom entrance thinking of cleaning her living room, but narrowly kept her life as she walked down the few steps from her room to the rest of her apartment. Finally sure that she is safe and stable on the ground she began to pick up the dirty cups lying around since Grace had left and slowly washed them.

Sauntering her way around the place, she tidied up as much as she could before crawling back into her bed, thankful that she has learnt to be tidy. Crawling back into bed, trying to warm up, she ducked her head further into her blankets, successfully burying almost her whole body in it.

Katie got to the apartment building and realized she had no idea how on earth she's to get into the place. Right when she was about to dial the younger girl's number, a greying old man, who looked his 50s came up to her, "Ms. Singer?"

Looking up from her phone, she nodded at the gentle smiling man.

"Miss Sammler is awaiting your arrival, she told me to give you this," he handed over what seemed to be a set of spare keys, "And to tell you that she lives on the 9th story, first door to the right when you walk out of the elevator."

"Thanks…" Katie smiled politely as she walked over to the elevator. Getting in, she swiped the key card by the scanner and pressed level 9. 'She's always so organised.' Making her way into Jessie's apart with no issue, she dropped those paper bags on the kitchen counter.

"Jess?" she called out, she shook her head and laughed lightly, 'god, if only I added 'I'm home'…'

She wandered up the few steps which clearly led to a bedroom, "Je…" she stopped mid-track, noticing a blob on the middle of the bed. "Jessie?" she walked over and lightly uncovered the blanket, revealing a curled up blonde.

The younger girl turned around slightly and squinted her eyes before recognising the brunette's face. "Hey…" she mumbled groggily.

"Hey back." Katie smiled at the cuteness of the other girl, with her hair all tousled up and her sleepy face on. "Hot chocolate?"

"That'd be great…"

"Have you taken any medicine?" Jessie shook her head negative, "be right back."

Within a minute or two, Katie came back into the room with a cup of water and two tablets. The younger girl instantly scrunched up her face in distaste. "Oh c'mon, I'll make you that hot chocolate right after you swallow these tablets?"

Wiggling up the bed a little, Jessie sighed, and opened her mouth to allow the brunette to place the tablets into her mouth. Katie grinned at the child-like behaviour that remained with the blonde she loved and still loves ever so dearly. The older girl, placed a tablet into the other girl's mouth, and gave her a sip of water, and doing the same for the second tablet.

Leaving the glass on the bedside table, Katie tucked Jessie back into bed neatly this time, "I'll be back hot chocolate…"

"I'll be here…" she mumbled, her eyes-lids heavily drooping close.

Two hours later, Jessie wakes up in the same position the brunette had left her, she took in her surroundings, wondering where the other girl was. She was about to roll out of bed, until she realized the figure next to arm, sprawled out on the floor, head pillowed on the mattress. The blonde looked at the sleeping girl, watching the peacefulness of her current state brought a smile to her face; it was always something she enjoyed doing back when they were still dating.

'Back when we WERE dating…' Jessie thought, 'but I don't know if I could just forgive her. However, it's not like she verbally admitted to cheating on me, maybe she didn't,' she continued to procrastinate hopefully. 'What if she really did cheat on me? Will I be able to get over it and fall back in love with her? Don't be silly Jessica Sammler, you're still and will always be in love with her…' she lightly shook her head. 'Maybe we can just start over again, forget the past, avoid the topic and live happily ever after…'

Feeling someone looking at her, she slowly fluttered her eyes open and peaked up towards the blonde who looked deep in thought. "Hey…" she whispered.

The blonde turned to her, a small smile on her face, "hi… you didn't wake me."

"Yeah, you looked so cu… comfortable when you were sleeping, didn't wanna disturb," Katie caught the word 'cute' before it stumbled out, however, it definitely wasn't lost on Jessie's part, because a shy grin crossed her features with a slight blush.

Little did Jessie know, when she was sleeping, the older girl was also watching her sleep, same thoughts crossing her mind. Katie scrunched her eye-brows together as she drifted back to her thoughts from before.

"Jessie," she breathed out quietly, as if she was afraid to wake someone.

'She's not looking at me,' the blonde noted.

"I… We… You… Um…"

"You're not make much sense…" she chuckled

"I know… What I'm trying to say is that… Well, it's just that, ever since seeing you again, I feel like, nothing has changed, or like… I'm normal again – Well, as normal as I get," Katie was still staring at the sheets on the bed, "It's as if nothing has… Gone wrong, like we never broke up," she looked up timidly at the blonde. "But I know that's not true, because, I mean, it has been seven years of our lives…" a look of sudden shock came across her face, "SEVEN YEARS, I've lived without you for seven years!" she said in revelation.

Jessie couldn't help but laugh at Katie's sudden burst of reaction. The girl never ceases to amaze her with her random outbursts of revelation; it amuses her every time.

"Yeah… It just kinda hit me face on now that I think about it," the brunette laughed along. Going back to her seriousness, "Jessie, I don't even know what really went on in the past seven years. Life without you seemed like a blur, and I don't wanna live through that haze again." Taking a deep yet shaky breath, "Jessie, can we… start… over… again?" she whispered out quietly, anticipating the worst case scenario.

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**A/N: Stupid cliffys! HAHAHA. I know… I know. But please don't hurt me, I'm totally innocent. puppy eyes Comments? Reviews? Hate letters?**


	5. Chapter 5: Out in the Open

**A/N: This is just a short update, that I just had to get down so it's all out and clear. Promise the next update will be much longer!

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**Part 5: Out in the Open**

Jessie's breath caught in her throat, and she could no longer find her voice to answer; or maybe it's because she didn't know how to answer. She knows she still loves Katie – very much actually, but she's hesitant about jumping back into this relationship. All she knew is that at this very moment, she was feeling anxious – happy and anxious.

The momentary pause was painful for Katie, she took it as a rejection and didn't know how she should handle it. She began to rise from the side of the bed, her nose tingling a little, her eyes burning, 'no don't cry…'. She stood up, thankfully the darkness of the room was able to cover up her reddened face, "hey, it's okay. I think I'm just gonna go."

Jessie watched as the girl rose from the bed, yet she still wasn't able to say a word. As Katie turned and was about to walk away, she willed her arm to grab hold of the brunette's retreating hand. "W… Wa… Wait."

She turned around, her hand loosely held by the blonde, she was unsure of whether she should tighten her hold, because she was too afraid to. Katie waited in silence for the other woman to say something. She really hated this silence, she'd probably rather Jessie out and quickly reject her than make her wait.

"I'm sorry…"

She was quickly cut off by Katie, "No, it's okay, I get it. You don't want to be with me again, I'm fine with that. I just, you know, wanted to clear off my curiosity. Look, I think I'm gonna go, you should sleep some more, the hot chocolate is on your table." The brunette continued to ramble, her hand still unmoving in Jessie's. She was so flustered that she didn't even feel the hand tighten around her own.

Jessie pulled the other girl down lightly towards her, and funny enough, the brunette mindlessly followed and sat down – her mouth still stringing along some incoherent nonsense.

"Katie…" she called, but the girl didn't seem to hear, so she raised her voice, "Katie!"

Instantly, the brunette stopped and turned to the sick woman.

"Let me speak alright?" Katie nodded, "I'm sorry, but I'm not sure whether I CAN let myself get into another relationship with you." Jessie allowed the information to sink in a little before she continued, "However I do know that I WANT to, it's just that… I'm uncertain about whether I want to know what happened all those years ago." The blonde looked away, "Sometimes my mind keeps telling me that, it doesn't matter and I probably will still love you even after you told me. But then my rational side kicks in and tells me that I need to know for the sake of our relationship."

"Jessie, I'm sorry about what happened seven years ago."

"I don't want to hear you say sorry Katie, I want to know what happened," she cringed a little, knowing that she's soon to find out.

"Okay." Katie nodded, "that night, I was feeling tired from all the studying, and I was missing you… a hell of a lot. My friend came over, she just broke up with her girlfriend, so she dragged me out to party," she began to explain. "We both got a little drunk, and I was still missing you, she was missing her girlfriend, and just like that, we started… kissing." Jessie's hand tightened even further around Katie's, "in all our drunkenness and blur, we made it back to my dorm… and I don't know what happened after that."

Her head shot up to look at Katie, "What do you mean you don't know?" Jessie whispered her question.

"I don't remember what happened after getting into my room…" The brunette began to say, recalling the happenings of that night. "All I know is that Stacey and I woke up with only our underwear and t-shirt on, when you called."

"So… you mean you don't know whether you… slept with her?"

"Well, I know I slept with her," Katie tried to lighten up the mood, "But I definitely don't know whether we engaged in anything beyond that."

"Does that mean… you may or may not have cheated on me, but yet you chose not to explain it to me all those years ago, just so we could break up?" Jessie asked incredulously.

"Are you for real?"

"Yes… No… Uh, I don't know. I just wasn't sure, and I know I couldn't lie to you and say absolutely nothing happened."

"Oh my fucking god, so we may have wasted seven years of our lives apart, when we could've been together?"

"No…" Katie muttered unsurely, "Yes?"

Jessie flopped back down on her bed in frustration, her hands covering her face, her head swirling from either her headache, or the fact that she and Katie may perhaps have missed seven years of being together due to some communication errors. Katie just looked at the blonde, at a loss for words herself. After another moment of silence, the brunette decided to speak.

"Jess?"

"…yes?"

"What does this mean?"

"I don't know…" She paused for a second, "I have a headache," she whined.

"Oh. Maybe you really should get some rest."

Jessie nodded, removing her hands from her head and putting them under the covers. Katie tucked her in further before getting up. The blonde shot her eyes open at the movement, "don't go yet…"

The brunette hesitated before sitting back down, "okay…"

Jessie reached an arm out and held one of Katie's hands, "we can figure this out tomorrow…" she yawned.

"Yeah…" she watched the blonde slowly fall asleep, her own eyes drooping along as well.

Sometime in the process of the night, Jessie moved over in her bed, and Katie somehow slipped in where the blonde was laying previously. Naturally, both girls ended up cuddling up against each other, just like those many years ago – it was also something they haven't been doing since. Maybe things aren't so bad after all, maybe they could get back together… but that'll just all have to wait until they wake up.

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**A/N: Three different updates in one week, c'mon you've gotta give me some credit…**


	6. Chapter 6: Airport

**A/N: Another update in…**** 2 weeks since I last updated anything. Sorry, guys, was busy on my final week of holiday, and I just started school just this week – BUSY! No worries, I'll get my updates coming along for everything else soon… er or later. Heh.**

**Anyways, thanks for all the support – through your comments that is. Hehe. Hope u like!**

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**Part 6: Airports…**

Jessie's "We'll figure this out tomorrow," didn't happen within the time span she set it at, and the two didn't jump right back into a relationship. They both silently decided that things between them should just flow; the 'conversation' will come in time, and hopefully so will 'they'.

"Morning," Jessie whispered to the waking girl, whom had just opened her eyes.

"Morning to you too!" Katie smiled, stretching her long limbs.

Jessie stared adoringly at the still seemingly sleepy girl, "so, when's your flight?"

Katie quickly popped up right, "Oh my god, I forgot all about that, my flight's tonight, I really should get home and pack," she said, standing next to the bed already, putting on her coat. "When's your flight?"

"Tonight as well," the blonde grinned, hoping that they booked the same flight.

"Really?" Katie turned to the blonde hopefully.

"Uh hum. Maybe if we're lucky, we might see each other before we get back home."

"Yeah… I like the sound of that." Katie's smile grew from ear to ear, before mentally slapping herself from her stupor, "Anyways, I'll get going," she got to the entrance of the room, turned around, "So see you maybe later then?"

"Yeah, see you."

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"Grace! Where the hell are you?!" Jessie screamed frantically into her home phone, "you were supposed to be here half an hour ago!"

"I'm just outside your building now. Gosh Jess, you need to chill out a little." Grace had her phone at a safe distance from her ear, not wanting to go impaired.

"Took you long enough," the blonde huffed before hanging up, grabbed her bags and walked out.

A while after hanging up… or being hung up on, Jessie finally jumped into the taxi a little flustered and frustrated.

"I don't see why you needed to get to the airport this early," Grace rolled her eyes and looked at the clock, "we're gonna be at least an hour early!"

"I just… it's because… ugh, never mind," Jessie stuttered her answer, 'I wanted to go to the airport early to see if Katie's there on the same flight…' she thought silently.

'Fishy… she's definitely up to something…' Grace thought suspiciously, eyeing her sister drift off into a world of her own. 'Well… I know Katie's definitely up to something,' she smirked, 'there must've been a reason why she called me to ask which flight we were taking.'

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The two sisters sat in the terminal, waiting for the clock to tick adamantly at a snail like pace, much to Grace's irritation. Jessie's eyes were always darting around, on the look out for a certain dirty blonde. Sighing for the hundredth and one time since sitting there, the elder of the two stood up, "I'm gonna stroll… you wanna come?"

"…"

"Uh Jess?"

Jessie snapped her head to her sister's direction, seeing the questioning look on Grace's face, she herself returned a similar look, "Yeah?"

"Going on a stroll, you wanna come?" Grace motioned 'stroll' with her two fingers indicating the walking motion.

"No, I'm alright," replied, and leaned back against the couch.

Grace shrugged at her sister's behaviour, 'oh well, she was always a peculiar one anyways.' She walked into a shop, and picked up some of the latest magazines and began to flick mindlessly through them. As she was nearing the end of reading through one of the articles, somebody tapped her shoulder.

To her surprise… or maybe not so much of a surprise, "Well, well, well, how did I ever guess you were going to be here," she smiled at her friend.

"I dunno, maybe you're psychic!" Katie joked back.

"Right, and I'll just test my skills, you're gonna ask me where my beautifully blonde sister is… and I'll answer you, she's sitting right by gate 17."

"Thanks a bunch…" The taller girl laughed and began to walk away, but turned around suddenly, and pointed playfully with both hands at Grace and said, "psychic indeed," before walking off towards gate 17.

The brunette shook her head, chuckling to herself, she then turned the page of the magazine in her hand, "Oh, they are so dead." Grace brought the magazine to the counter, and decided to buy that particular one.

Climbing onto the chair, back-to-back to the blonde's one, "Hey…" Katie whispered huskily into the blonde's ear from behind.

Abruptly turning her head, and narrowly missing a perfect head butt with the taller girl, Jessie's once bored features lightened immediately with a smile. "Hi."

"Expecting me?"

Jessie blushed, but grinned cheekily nonetheless, "Nope."

"Really?" Katie gave the girl a look of disbelief, "Well then, I guess I'll be off…" she got up off the chair, and started to walk away.

"Wait… I was just joking," the blonde reached out for the other girl's arm.

Turning back around, with a smirk on her face, "So I was right… you were thinking of me."

The blonde's face went red again, she intentionally dismissed the comment, "sit," she indicated to the seat beside her.

Katie did as told, and plopped herself right beside Jessie; both sitting in mutual silence, enjoying the moment. Just as they were basking in their moment of comfortable silence, a piece of colourful paper was waved before their faces.

A perturbed Jessie grabbed the 'thing', and brought out to a viewable distant, and to her shock she saw herself… or at least she believed that the person in the photo was herself. Katie and Jessie both read the headline mutely, 'RISING FAMED DESIGNER WITH YET ANOTHER NEW GIRL'.

'HOLY MOTHER of GOD…' Katie thought, her next thought involved, herself, digging a nice human sized hole and living in it; becoming a hermit with really, really nice clothes.

"You guys met up with each other, yet you failed to inform me of such an outstanding progress you two have made." Grace puffed, "I had to find out from a stupid gossip magazine that you guys have been seeing each other… do you have any idea how ridiculously inane that sounds?"

"Grace… calm down. We're at an airport for crying aloud." Jessie glared at her sister's little exaggerated outburst.

Calming herself, she took a seat opposite from the two guilty girls. "Well?"

"Well, nothing has happened. The only progress made is that we talk to each other…" Jessie answered, still staring at the headline – she knew there was always a reason why she never read those stupid magazines.

Katie noticed the blonde was still staring at the headline, and quickly tried to explain herself, "Look Jess…" she began, but was muffled by a hand covering her mouth… to be more specific, Jessie's hand.

Closing the magazine, she threw it aside, "Hey, it's okay, you've had your pass, I've had mine. I mean, it would be insane to think that you stayed single for seven years right?"

'So, not only is she the most gorgeous girl… she's also the most understanding.' Katie looked at the blonde.

"Hey, I haven't finished with that magazine," Grace growled playfully at the blonde, who tossed her magazine onto the floor.

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Sighing aloud, the dirty blonde stretched herself, relieved that she was off the plane, and had her two feet on the ground, "planes make me nauseous." Grace and Jessie both shot her a bizarre look, "What?"

"You were all like awake, happy, bouncy, and rather obnoxious all through out the flight," Grace answered.

"Well you shouldn't sleep too much, or else you'd never adapt to the time difference," Katie pointed out to the dark sky, indicating that it was night time.

"Katie… dear friend…" Grace paused for emphasis, "you did not sleep at all."

Jessie just giggled in the background, as tired as she was from the flight, she still found the situation funny.

"I know… But now I can go home and sleep as if there were no time difference between London and Chicago." Katie shrugged, walking out of the arrival terminal.

"Are you saying that I should be thanking you for my lack of sleep on the plane?"

Smiling jokingly, "I definitely wouldn't mind."

"Whatever, how are you getting home?" Grace questioned.

"Cab?" Katie pointed at the vehicles, "You guys?"

"I think Eli said he was going to come and pick us up…" Jessie answered, followed by a small yawn, in which she tried to cover up.

"Well then, I guess I'll head home first…" Katie waved them off, "Oh, Jess," she brought her hand up to sign the universal 'call me' motion.

Just as she was about to head into the cab, a car honked, and naturally, Katie looked towards the direction of the sound. The black Audi TT Coupe, parked in to the space in front of the cab. 'Who the hell?' As soon as the question came, the answer came as well when the owner of the car stepped out with a huge smile on their face.

"Oh my gosh! TAD?" Katie practically squealed, she ran out and gave her long time best friend a big bear hug.

"Did you think I'd leave you to your wilderness and allow you to catch a cab home on your first day back home?" Tad laughed, releasing her friend.

Noticing the two girls standing not too far away, he greeted them too, "Hey Grace, Jessie… Haven't seen you guys in a while!" - 'Guess things finally worked out between Kate and Jess…' he thought gladly.

"Hey," the two girls waved.

"I'd give you guys a ride… but you know," he pointed down at his car.

"It is okay, Eli's coming to pick us up anyways," Grace answered.

Tad nodded, "that's good, or else I'd feel guilty," he joked. "Anyways, we'll get going, see you guys soon? Maybe for coffee or something tomorrow."

"Yeah, bye!" they both waved again.

Tad got back into the car, and Katie walked over to the passenger's side, just as she was going in, she called out, "call me!"

That, was only just their fourth day since meeting again after seven long years, things seems to be looking up.


	7. Chapter 7: Just Like the Old Days

**A/N: Woweee... it's only been approximately a wk since my last update for 'Blind', not bad for my standard of updating! (pats herself in the back) Hahaha. Anyways, I haven't updated this fic for I'm thinking just a little less than yr now (wow) – hope you guys haven't forgotten about it and all.**

**Anyhow, I must be off now, got class nice and early tomorrow morning – yikes! Hope you guys enjoy this update!!! Comment when you have time! and thanks to those who have commented previously!!!**

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Part 7: Just Like the Old Days...**

Catching up with her dad and Lily, Jessie went up to the attic. Her room remained the same since she last came back a couple of months ago. Feeling tired after the flight, she got ready for bed, the last thing on her mind – a certain dirty-blonde who's been lingering on her mind since they've met.

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_They laid shoulder to shoulder on the blanket outside Katie's house staring up and just observing the sky – mainly to bask in each other's presence. Both girls had one arm tucked under her head, and the other lay by their sides, holding onto each other's hand._

_"Katie?"_

_"Hmmm?"_

_"Have you done your college applications?" she asked out of the blue._

_"Uh… yeah…" The older girl replied._

_After a long moment of silence, trying to gather her thoughts, "Are they…" the blonde hesitated, afraid of the answer, "are they um all interstate?"_

_The older girl didn't know how to reply; she knew that this conversation would come up sometime sooner if not later. However, now that it's being asked, she really has no idea how she should answer. "Yeah…"_

_"Oh." Jessie uttered, basically knowing the answer long ago, she just needed to ask anyways. She couldn't expect Katie to stay for her; it's just that she still couldn't imagine not being able to see her girlfriend on a daily basis. Unconsciously, she held on tighter to Katie's hands._

_"Jess?"_

_"Yeah?"_

_"I'm sorry." Another long and pregnant pause, "you know I might not get in anyways…" she tried to lighten the mood._

_There was always that possibility, but Jessie knew the other girl well. Katie didn't need to study to do well and it would just be foolish to think that Katie didn't get into the college she applied to._

_"No it's okay, I mean, it'll only be one year before I graduate… maybe I can apply to your college…"_

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Knock

"Jessie?" a voice called from behind the door.

"Hmmm?" the blonde mumbled into her pillow, pulling her comforter closer to her head, trying to block out the cold despite the heater being on.

Knock Knock

"Jessie?" the door opened, "Jessie dear, the phone's for you," Lily said, her hand over the mouthpiece.

"Tell them I'll call them back later…" The blonde grumbled, hugging her pillow and drifting off back into her dreams.

"Okay," Lily put the phone back to her ears, "Sorry Katie, Jessie said she'll…"

Hearing the name 'Katie,' Jessie bolted out of bed, and was by Lily's side in an instant, just like all those other times back then, "Wait…"

Lily raised her brow amusedly, a smile playing at her lips, "Never mind, here she is…"

"Thanks," Jessie mouthed to Lily, and watched her walk downstairs and out of her room before speaking into the phone. "Morning."

_"Sorry, did I wake you?"_

"No, no, I was just lying in bed…" Jessie rubbed at her eyes, and looked over at the clock by her bed. 'Wow… it's already 10:30?'

_"Okay, um, well, Tad asked whether you and Grace maybe wanted to go out for some coffee with us…"_

"Yeah sure, when and where?"

--------------------

"So, you and Katie?" Grace questioned not so subtly, peering over to her passenger's side.

"What about me and Katie?" She knew well what Grace was asking, she just wanted to stall her, so she had time to think about her answer.

"Jessie... Don't play dumb with me, I know what you're trying to do."

"And what would that be?" the blonde continued to stare out at the moving scenery, silently playing with her slightly cold and numb hands, thinking why she foolishly forgot to bring a pair of gloves.

"Stalling."

Sighing, it is a pain to have a sister with so much knowledge of you – even when they were at each other's throat; it was Grace who knew her best. "I don't know..."

"You don't know? What's that suppose to mean?"

Turning towards her sister, "I'm not... well first of all, we're not together... And even after all these years, I don't know whether I can just jump back into a relationship with her."

"Funny you chose those particular words."

Jessie gave her sister a questioning look, not really getting what she said.

"You said 'jump back into a relationship with her'... which means as I've always told you, you're still deeply and madly in love with a certain Kathryn Singer to be able to even consider jumping back into a relationship."

The blonde played dumb yet again, "I don't know what you're trying to get at..."

But they both knew Grace knew she knew that Jessica Sammler has never fallen out of love with Kathryn Singer, and that's a fact that not time, environment nor people could change.

--------------------

Katie and Tad were late – not so surprising there. They were always the late ones, Grace and Jessie have long become accustomed to their lack of ability to arrive on time back then that they decided to arrange a meeting half an hour early, and they'd arrive half an hour later. But today, that little detail slipped their mind, and they forgot to leave half an hour later.

This time though, it was to the benefit of Grace, since she got to sit around and continue her quest to persuade that Katie is the one for the blonde... and everyone in the world knows that and they should just get together already. However, once Katie and Tad had finally arrived, the two sister's conversation were cut short.

They got their food and coffee ordered, and slowly but surely things started to get back into flow. It was just like the old days, before everything fell apart between Jessie and Katie – which ultimately ceased these get together with the four of them.

Grace, Tad, Katie and herself, sitting there, enjoying their coffee laughing at Tad's arbitrary comments that may probably make no sense if you were an outsider listening on to their conversations.

After a nice good laugh, everyone sighed and sat back comfortably into their chairs, just looking at those in front of them. Grace and Tad looked at each other knowingly, luckily the other two were so engrossed in each other's gaze, off in their own la-la land, and they missed the look.

Grace raised his eyes questioningly, and Tad nodded, indicating now was a better time than ever.

Grace got up, "Hey Tad, could you come with me to buy some things?"

Both girls broke out of their gaze and looked up at the standing Grace.

The blonde quickly asked, "I'm going too right?"

Grace looked at her, "no, no, you could stay if you want, I just need Tad to help out with the...," she was at lost for an excuse; guess she didn't plan this too well.

Luckily the other guy finished off for her, "...heavy lifting stuff."

Katie raised an eyebrow, "heavy lifting?" Feeling something suspicious...

"Yeah, heavy lifting, why else do you think she'd only ask the lone guy and not you two?" Tad tried to convince.

"But how are we supposed to get home then?!" Jessie asked.

"Oh no worries," Grace said, "TAD will leave his keys here, and you guys can take Tad's car."

Tad threw on a look horror, after all, he's putting his precious car on the line... but he quickly wiped that face and obliged for the sake of his best friend and the love of her life. He took out his keys and hesitatingly passed it into Katie's hands, "take good care of my baby, alright?" he warned.

Katie laughed, surprised Tad would actually leave his 'wife' with her. He knew how much he took care of his car... and this only confirmed her suspicions – something was definitely going on, and she wasn't going to question it now. "No worries Tad, I'll make sure not to run it off a cliff or crash into a light pole with it," she joked.

"There, problem solved..." Grace quickly dragged the guy out of the cafe, making sure he has no chance of changing his mind. "You guys got the bill right!?" It was more of a statement more than a question because she was already gone, with the boy dragged along behind him looking forlorn.

Jessie and Katie looked back at each other for a second before they both burst out into a fit of laughter seeing Tad's face.

"Did you see his face?" Katie said between her fits of laughter.

Jessie couldn't help but continue to laugh, "Yeah..."

After their laughter once again subsided, and they took a few much needed deep breaths.

"So," Katie said, feeling a little 'awkward', she looked down at her watch, knowing there was plenty of time for her, since she had nothing planned. She looked back up at those captivating blue eyes making her turn into a puddle, "Um, you up for a walk... I mean, if you don't have anything else to do... It's okay if you do, cause if you do I ca-"

"Sure," Jessie replied simply, cutting the girl's not so unfamiliar nervous rant.

"Sorry?" Katie asked, thinking she heard wrong.

"Yeah, I'll go for a walk, I don't have much else to do anyways..." Jessie answered, 'and staying at home with my parents questioning about my love life really isn't very ideal right now...' she thought.

"Okay... alright. Um, ready to go?" she got up from her chair, and was getting her wallet out to pay for the bill.

"Yeah," Jessie also reached for her wallet, but Katie's hands on her arm stopped her.

"No, no, I got it." Katie smiled before she made her way over to the counter.

After paying for the bill, they both walked out into the cold breeze, leaving the comfortable warmth once the door closed behind them.

Holding her hands together, rubbing them against each other trying to warm them up, Jessie looked at Katie as she just finished putting on her cute little black beanie and their eyes locked. "So, where to?"


	8. Chapter 8: Seven Years Behind

**A/N: Wow. I'm like on a roll or something, two separate updates in a week. Perhaps it's the lack of sleep that's doing this... I don't know, but one thing I'm positive about is that I'm feeling nauseous – the last time I slept was 40-41 or so hours ago (project & report deadline).**

**So I warn in advance, and it should be something I do for every single one of my updates, that there will be typos/grammatical mistakes/omitted words/word misusage/incoherency etc. due to general laziness/time limitations, lack of sleep, and my current state of nausea. **

**Anyways, YAY! One down and two more updates to go. Comments & Criticisms? A great thank you to those who commented last time!**

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Part 8: Seven Years Behind

"Well it's a long story..."

Knocking her shoulder into the taller girls, Jessie said, "Then tell me about it, we have all day."

After leaving the coffee shop they took a stroll and ended up here, standing by the pier. It probably was not the most sensible thing to do, considering the weather, but it had a beautiful view and it just seemed the perfect place to relax and chat. There was just so much to catch up on, even back when before everything fell apart, they would talk endlessly – they never ran out of topics to say. So needless to point out, the seven years apart would mean seven years to catch up on.

However, as much as she loved this view, and as much as she just loved talking to the older girl, the chill was really starting to get to Jessie, especially her now numb fingers. She couldn't stop rubbing her hands together, and sticking them every now and then under her arms when she crossed them.

Katie was talking about how she got to her current job, "and so, that's how I ended up getting this job," she said smiling at the blonde. But once she looked at the blonde breathing into her own hand, Katie chuckled.

Taking off one of her own gloves, she handed it to Jessie. The blonde shook her head, "no I'm fine, you should keep it."

Katie quirked her eye-brow at the blonde, giving her the 'I don't think so,' look. But still, Jessie declined, and placed her hands behind her back so they were out of Katie's reach.

"C'mon Jess, we know your hands are gonna fall off," she pointed out, and without another second of hesitation, she pressed herself up against Jessie, so that the blonde's back was pinned against the railing, facing the pier. A shot of warmth spread across Jessie's face, and her face started to burn just a little, but Katie didn't notice, because she had already grabbed the younger girl's left arm and placed her already warm gloves over it.

Feeling the sudden warmth and softness enclosing her hand, Jessie looked down at her hand now gloved. Smiling, she looked back up at the girl in front of her, and their eyes locked in another one of their staring moments. Who knew how long they stood staring at 

each other, but they were finally broken out of their trance when a gust of wind hit them, bringing them back to reality.

They both shyly turned to look away, but Katie still hasn't taken a step back, pinning the other girl to the railing. Jessie noticed the major difference between her two hands, and she giggled a little. The taller girl looked back at the blonde, her eyes questioning what was so amusing.

Jessie brought her right hand up between their faces, "What about this hand?"

Katie grinned, and took that hand into her own uncovered one, her relatively warm hand already warming the younger girl's up. Or perhaps it was just the gesture alone that gave Jessie the spread of warmth, because it certainly wasn't just her hand that started to heat up.

"C'mon, let's get you back to the car before your hands really do fall off." Katie tugged at the blonde.

Their hands fitted naturally into each other, and Jessie tightened her hand, Katie turned slightly at the action and caught the other girl looking right back at her. Both girl's smirked a little at that, and walked with a content look on their faces all the way back to Tad's car. It seemed things were starting to progress, and the two girls couldn't be more happy about it.

Sadly, they had to reluctantly let each other's hands go once they got on the car. When they were got into the car, they stripped down a little, and turned up the heater, before setting off to Jessie's place.

Katie had her left arm placed on the steering wheel, and the other laying idly on the gear stick. Jessie played with her own fingers, and kept looking back and forth between her own hands and the older girl's. At the arrival of a random red light, the blonde finally reached for the hand, and laced her own fingers with the other girl's before placing it onto her lap. Jessie leaned forward the slightest bit just to catch the other girl's reaction – Katie had on her goofy crooked grin that without fail always brought a smile to her own lips.

--

Walking Jessie all the way up to her door, Katie stood awkwardly not knowing what she should do. 'Should I just go and give her a good bye kiss? If so then where? Her cheek? Her lips?' Internally shaking her head to the last option, 'Nah, that'd be too fast, we're only on hand holding terms... perhaps just a hug.'

Little did Katie know, Jessie was going through the same dilemma in her head, 'What do I do? What if she kisses me? Well that's stupid; definitely kiss her back. But wait, what? Why is this so hard, I don't remember it being this hard the first time we said goodbye at 

my door. Oh yea, that's because you guys were just friends. We're more than friends now... right? We were more than friends? No, we ARE more than friends.'

Just before she walked headfirst into the front door, she thankfully looked up just in time to not make a fool of herself. Whipping herself around quickly she looked at the girl beside her, who still had her head down, seemingly deep in concentration.

"So, uh, we're here..." Jessie mumbled. 'Maybe I should invite her in... to do what though? We're no longer in school, so there's no longer homework to do – not that we were doing homework most of the time anyways.'

The dirty blonde finally looked up and saw that they have indeed arrived at Jessie's front door. 'Crap, I haven't even decided yet. Damn it Kathryn Singer, now is not the right time to get all shy! Jessica Sammler, you really can turn anyone into a puddle of incoherent mess.'

"Yeah." She breathed out, letting out a deep breath, sticking her hands into her back pocket of her jeans. "Anyways, I'm gonna get on home now... or perhaps I should drop the car off at Tad's first before I see him bawling his eyes out," she smirked, trying her best to calm herself with a joke.

"Okay," a hint of disappointment lingering in her voice, but nevertheless she had on a slight smile.

Katie smiled back one last time before turning away to leave, hoping and praying against all odds that the blonde would say something... anything. Even the lamest excuse and she would stay.

"Oh, and Katie?" the blonde blurted out, after the dirty-blonde made it halfway down the path

A wash of relief swept over Katie, she whipped herself around, "Yeah?"

'God, I'm wondering why she's not the one modelling instead. I wish I had a camera on me.' Jessie looked at the picture perfect moment, featuring Katie and her fashionable yet warm clothes, "Uh, you're free tomorrow right."

'Okay, so she's not asking me to stay, but she's asking me out again tomorrow, that can't be too bad.' Nodding her head, temporarily forgetting her own family, of course she was free; the sole reason she came all the way back to Evanston for New Years was only because Jessie asked her to.

"Great! Because there's this New Year's Party at Book Lovers tomorrow evening, and it'd be great if you were there," Jessie informed, "oh and bring Tad along if he hasn't got anything to attend, or if Grace hasn't invited him already."

"Excellent, well then I'll see you tomorrow then?"

"Yeah," she said one hand on the door, that's now slightly ajar.

"Cool, bye!" Katie waved stupidly and walked the rest of the way to the car, cringing internally at her lameness. 'Where the hell did the calm, cool and collected Kathryn Singer go?! – Cool?? Shit.'

She opened the door, and was about to get in, but suddenly somebody held onto her shoulder, and planted a sweet, chaste kiss on her right cheek. She immediately blushed, and looked at the blonde who was smiling widely at her, slightly out of breath. 'Wow... it feels like high school all over again.'

"See you tomorrow Katie," she whispered quietly. With that the blonde walked back into her house without turning back again, because if she did, she's sure they'd still be standing outside her house for the next hour or two.

Katie had on her goofy-in-love smile plastered on her face when she drove all the way home. The warm tingling feeling that possessed her body was back after seven years – and how she missed that feeling.

--

"How cute." Grace teased, as she finished climbing the stairs to her step-sister's attic and saw her lying at the foot of her bed horizontally, just like the way she'd done so many years ago after her and Katie's first kiss.

Raising her brows at Grace's not so sudden intrusion into her bubble of contentment, she didn't even bother getting up.

"Any progress?"

"I guess."

"Are you going to elaborate, or do I have to dig it out of you," she took on the lone couch facing the bed.

"We didn't do much," she still had on that grin.

"Sure... Jess, your face is telling me otherwise."

"We were talking, my hands were cold, so Katie offered one of her glove and she took my other one in her hand, and we just... ended up holding hands... all the way home," Jessie mumbled in a trance, "and then you saw the rest..."

"That's it?!" Grace exclaimed.

The blonde frowned at her sister, "What else did you expect? A full-blown make out session out in the middle of the street with a ton of groping that's completely inappropriate in public?"

"Well not quite expecting you two to go all explicit on me, but c'mon, that's soo... high school."

"What's wrong with high school?"

"Nothing is wrong with high school you idiot, what's wrong is that you two aren't in high school anymore."

"I liked high school..." Jessie breathed out still in her dazed state.

"Oh god, your guys' sugary sweetness is suffocating me already, and the pair of you haven't even gotten back together yet. I don't even know why I bother trying so hard, when I'm the one that's obviously going to suffer as a result." Grace huffed out exasperatedly as she made her leave, her ramble sounding similar to a distance hum to Jessie. "I can't see why you guys can't just kiss and get back together already... such stupid a emotional mess... thank god I'm not tangled in one."

--

"Oh my god, my baby's back!" Tad practically bolted out to his beloved car, the only thing that made him slightly more normal was that he didn't just lean down and give it a kiss. If any bystander saw, they would've thought he was glad Katie was home... well until he runs straight past her and to his car.

Katie nonchalantly threw the set of keys in the general direction of her friend for him to catch, and she practically floated her way into her house. After catching the haphazardly thrown keys, Tad looked at Katie curiously; his friend was once again back into that inexplicable stupor mode she always seems to be in after a nice dose of 'Jessie-time'. Boy has it been a while since he saw that face, not that he sees her all that much nowadays, with him being in Evanston, and her all the way in London. But during his visits, or her visits, he hasn't seen that smile until now.

'Ah, she's gone back to mushy Katie again,' he chuckled to himself, preferring this Katie more than the one filling the tabloids.

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**A/N: To readers who aren't a member of the Jessie Katie yahoo group and didn't get the message about my fic-writing status. No worries! I actually update my fanfiction profile every so often with a little messages/info about my fics, so feel free to drop by to find out about my next updates and other 'maybe' irrelevant info. **

**Have an awesome day guys - I think I'm off to hibernate, just to make up for my two days worth of no-sleep.**


	9. Chapter 9: Be With You

**A/N: Argh! Feeling like crap these days, no thanks to the university work overload. sniffle Sorry for the major long delay! I've been sleep deprived for a few weeks and haven't had time to write. This update is just a result of me caving into temptations; I really should get back to my project.**

**Anyhow, next update is the finale for this fic. YAY! Hope you guys enjoy this. R&R!**

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**Part 9: Be With You…**

"Do people exchange gifts on New Year's Eve?" Katie asked her friend in a fluster.

Tad was reclined on the couch, his leg up on the coffee table, coffee mug in hand, looking the picture of relaxed and calmness. He was busy watching a DVD he had stuck in when he arrived at her best friend's place this morning. Sadly, Katie has been blustering around the house ever since he arrived, or possibly even before then, freaking out about something or another. "No Katie, people exchange hugs and kisses on New Year's Eve," he answered exasperatedly, "and then they kiss their loved one right after the count down." The poor guy sighed internally, knowing full well he'd have to re-watch this movie later on.

"Okay…"

Barely a full scene had passed before Tad heard yet another question; he was so close to slapping Katie across the head right now. "Katie, will you just calm down, grab yourself a coffee and sit your ass here and relax for a while!" He turned his head to his best friend, "there's still HOURS until the party even starts, and you're gonna be so worn out before then because all you've been doing is running around your house getting pointlessly flustered."

Huffing, the designer saw the point her friend was making, she really was just getting worked up over nothing. It's just a New Year's Eve Party, something she's been going to every year since she could remember – it's just this year seems to mean so much more… Well more specifically, a certain blonde was going to be there. Conceding to Tad's orders, Katie went into her kitchen and grabbed the pot of coffee and poured herself a fresh new cup.

--

"Hey Jess," Grace called out as she came strolling up the attic stairs.

The first thing she noticed was that Jessie was standing idly in front of her closet that actually looks remotely neat. 'Well of course, we've barely been back home, she wouldn't have had enough time to mess it up too badly since my mom had last cleaned it,' she thought.

"Hmm?" the blonde answered, still looking thoughtfully at her closet.

"Umm, what exactly are you doing right now?" The brunette questioned, her reason for coming up temporarily forgotten.

Jessie finally turned to look at her sister briefly then looked back, "Just deciding…"

"On what to wear?" Grace paused for a second, "Oh wait, I meant, on what to wear still?"

"Yup."

She raised her brow, "Weren't you doing that last night when I came in?"

Hesitating for a second, she answered, "Yes."

"And I swear when I asked Zoe what you were up to, she said you were in front of your closet," Grace stated incredulously, "and that was an hour ago."

Jessie blushed a little further, "Yea… I was."

"Hope you don't mind if I ask, but did you even go to bed last night?"

The blonde scrunched up her face a little and frowned, "What?! Of course I went to bed."

Sighing in relief, the older sister chuckled, "Well, you've gotta admit, it was a pretty legit and logical question."

"No… It really wasn't," Jessie said defensively, "Anyway, why did you come up here anyway? I'm pretty sure it wasn't because you wanted to mock me."

"Huh? Oh yea, right, about that. Um, mom asked me to go buy a few bottles of champagne, apparently someone forgot when they went shopping for tonight's party, so I was wondering whether you wanted to come." Grace replied.

Jessie raised her brows in disbelief, "Serious?" After receiving a nod, she continued with a hint of amusement in her voice, "who on earth forgets to buy champagne on an occasion such as New Year's Eve? Isn't that one of the most important things to get?"

"Beats me. So you coming or not?"

"Yea, I'll be down in a sec."

"Sure." Grace made sure to drag the word out teasingly.

--

Straightening his outfit and making himself presentable after lazing around all morning, Tad looked himself in the mirror of Katie's bathroom. "Nice," he whispered and gave himself an approving nod. The two shared a large pizza and some chicken wings for lunch before, Tad obviously having eaten most of it; all the fat and grease he often consumes definitely doesn't show with his trimmed figure.

Katie had changed her outfit only god knows how many times, and from where Tad has his head stuck out of the bathroom door, he can see the random articles of clothing flying across the room. Shaking his head, he took one last look at himself before walking out and down the stairs to wait for his friend. Looking at his watch, 'fashionably late… as always,' he thought.

The dirty-blonde sighed in defeat, and plopped herself onto the floor. "I can't find anything to wear!" she ground out angrily at her overflowing closet, despite having thrown a dozen or two outfits around her room. She looked down at her hands and noticed they were shaking just slightly… a light tremble. "Great," she muttered. 'Stupid coffee… How many cups did I drink anyway?'

After washing the unusual number of cups for two people in the sink, Tad peered at the clock hanging on the wall. '6:34, what time did Grace tell us to be there by?' Speaking of the devil… well thinking of the devil, Tad's message alert went off on his phone, flipping the device open he read the message Grace sent: _U're supposed to be here 6:30, but knowing you 2, pls don't be any later than 7:30! J's pacing is giving me a headache!_

Tad walked back upstairs after receiving the message to check up on his dear friend. "Katie? Are you ready yet?" Receiving no answer, he walked towards the door and nudged it a little way open just to see the dirty-blonde on the floor with her hair set and done and a bit of light make-up having already been applied, looking angrily at her closet. Quirking his eyebrow and looking between Katie and the innocent overflowing closet a few times, Tad walked in.

"I can't find anything to wear…" she mumbled in defeat.

He took a glance around the now multicoloured room, which had articles of clothing strewn haphazardly around, and then back at the closet again. "Uh…" Tad didn't know whether he should point out she had enough clothes for her to wear a brand new set every day for at least half a year without having to actually re-wear anything. "Katie, I'll give you a good advice… Something you gave me when I had my bad fashion days." He pauses for dramatic effect, "You once told me, keep it plain and simple, if you're having one of those 'bad days' going for something like black as a base colour really can't go wrong."

Nodding her head, as if Tad made a really good point, Katie sighed and got up. "You better hurry, we were supposed to be there," he looked at his watch, "seven minutes ago. Remember, you're keeping Jessie waiting with every passing minute!" he chuckled, waggled his brow, and left the room once again.

Looking at herself in her full body mirror, Katie thought going for the slightly more formal look will work well with what she did with her hair… It's safer that way, as opposed to her choosing something that might end up being a horrible miss-match – well especially on a day like this.

A few minutes later, she was finally dressed; slightly washed out tight black boot-cut jeans, fitting white pinstriped blouse (button up shirt) with French cuffs, long sleeved dark turquoise woollen v-neck and a black knee-length trench coat. The top of her buttons were left undone up until it hit the v-line, she had on a few necklaces to take away from the boringness of her dress-choice and three separate rings to match. Her make-up was a light shade of bronze for the most part, main emphasis was on her eyes, and just lip-gloss – simple and clean. Her long hair was left out using the most of her natural waviness. Finally, feeling slightly better about herself, she grabbed a grey scarf and wrapped herself up and made sure to take her gloves – frozen fingers were so not 'in'.

Before leaving her room though, she hastily threw her mess of clothing into a large pile in the corner, so she can clean it up later on.

"Ready," she called out once she hit the bottom of the staircase.

Tad looked at his watch and couldn't help but say, "Wow Katie, I think we might just make it before 7:30."

Katie rolled her eyes and pushed Tad out the now open front door, "You can keep talking while we're on the car… Hurry up and start the car!" she retorted playfully.

"I bet you I can get the car started before you get that door locked!" He called out behind him before making a mad dash towards his awaiting car.

Taking him up on the bet, Katie locked her doors as quickly as possible, but still making sure it was definitely safely locked. She'd imagined that her parents wouldn't be too delighted to find out when they come back from their trip, that their house got robbed because she didn't lock the door properly on New Year's Eve, thanks to a bet. She fled towards the car and just as she opened the car door, the car came to life and the distinct hum resounded around her.

She hopped in triumphantly, "HA! You lost that bet!"

"We had a bet? On what?" Tad asked innocently as he chuckled.

"Oh no you don't, just because you didn't say what the bet was doesn't mean it wasn't a legit one. You owe me something."

"Sure, and I'm paying it off right now by driving you to meet your darling sweetie," he teased, "who has, by the way, been waiting not so patiently for you since her arrival at 6:30."

--

Grace wasn't overreacting when she said Jessie was pacing, because technically that was what the blonde was doing in the little space she had in the slightly overcrowded shop. She has been walking back and forth from one end of a bookshelf to the other, the only times she would stop pacing was when someone came up to talk to her.

"Can you please stop this ridiculous pacing? You're starting to weird people out." Grace told her sister.

"I just can't help it; I need to do something… anything!" Jessie exclaimed, thankfully not loud enough to attract attention.

Sighing, the brunette handed over her champagne glass, "here… just, get me another glass of champagne, that'll give you something to do." She waved her sister off, "Oh, and do take your time with it, I'm in no hurry for another drink!"

Zoe came up next to Grace, whilst coming over she passed Jessie and noticed the blonde's far-away look. "So, what's up with her? She's a little hyper-active," she questioned, referring to Jessie's excessive movement.

"She's waiting for Katie," Grace explained vaguely.

The younger Manning nodded as if those four words meant a whole lot, "Oh."

"Yeah."

Zoe grinned when her eyes landed on the two late-comers who just arrived by the door. "Well no worries, our saviour is here, along he comes baring the present," she informed her sister who was looking away somewhere.

Grace turned her head to see Tad and Katie… dressed quite similarly. Shaking her head, she and Zoe waved them over.

Heading over to where the Manning sisters were standing, the four greeted each other politely, exchanging hugs and the likes. Unconsciously, Katie gazed around but still didn't seem to be able to find a certain blonde.

"She'll be back soon." Grace answered Katie's unvoiced question, "she's just getting me a glass of champagne."

"I didn't…" Katie began to stutter, but the other three pairs of knowing eyes on her left her sentence hanging. "Right."

Everyone chuckled, "So, what's with the do?" Zoe motioned with one hands between Tad and Katie, taking a sip from her beverage.

"What do you mean?" Tad questioned.

Sighing, she repeated herself, only more clearly this time, "Do you guys share the same closet or something, because you guys are wearing practically the same stuff, only Katie's is more… feminine and slightly more casual."

The two friends looked at their own outfit, then at the other's and realised that they were indeed dressed fairly similarly. Tad was the first to make his point, "Well don't blame me, I was dressed and ready before she was even changed, for all I know, she might've copied what I chose to wear."

Katie scoffed, and nudged her friend in the shoulder, "Please Tad. Us choosing similar outfits just means that after all those years of me trying to knock some dress-sense into you has finally paid off. If it wasn't for me, you'd probably still be wearing jeans along with that god-awful green jacket that all you… jocks… wear."

Everyone frowned in amusement after Katie's faltering end to her insult, then realised the girl's eyes were glued to something or another. Realisation hit them, and without needing to follow the tall lanky girl's line of vision, they knew exactly what… well 'who' had caused her stuttering.


	10. Chapter 10: For Another Seven Years

**A/N: Who the hell needs to study for exams when they can write fanfics?! (Shh… I'm just trying to find my escape here.) Anyhow, at long last, the final part to Seven! Sorry if it seems disjointed in some parts, adding a little bit everyday kind of does that. Haha.**

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**Part 10: For Another 7 Years…**

Both their eyes swept downwards to look appreciatively at what the other had chosen to wear before baby blue eyes locked with the darker ocean coloured bluish-green ones once again. Unblinking and unmoving, the two stared at each other; a twitch at the edge of both their mouths caused them to smile; not a full blown teeth showing smile, but a soft grin of sorts.

A few photos later, the two still haven't moved.

Flicking their gazes between the two evidently in love girls, the three of them sighed loudly and dropped their head comically. It wasn't until Zoe couldn't stand the two's staring that she decided to take immediate action. She was suffering immensely from the intense staring contest both Katie and Jessie have locked themselves into again, even after all these years.

Rolling her eyes, she shoved her camera into her Grace's free hand and practically stalked her way over towards her second sister; Zoe took hold of the blonde's free hand and pulled her the few extra steps towards Katie. Upon reaching the three friends, Grace quickly took the glass out of Jessie's hands before Zoe grabbed Katie's hand as well, and pulled the two girls behind where the group was standing in between the book shelves. Leaving the two there alone, the younger Manning headed back to stand next to Tad and Grace, who pretended that they weren't trying to eavesdrop on the soon-to-be couple a few feet behind them.

"There, got that all handled out for them," Zoe huffed, before taking back her SLR camera from Grace.

The two sisters tapped their glass together before taking a sip; Tad just shook his head and chuckled.

The two girls turned to look at their friends, then back at each other before laughing a little. Once the laughter subsided, Jessie finally spoke, "You're late," she tried to say as sternly as possible, but ended up being betrayed by her smile.

Katie just shrugged, trying to act all nonchalant, "did you expect me to actually arrive early for a change?" Looking at the other girl though, she couldn't help but smirk a little.

The blonde crossed one arm across herself whereas the other hand was held up so her fingers were tapping lightly at the side of her face and pretended to think about the question for a brief moment. Finally, she replied with a hint of amusement, "well no, I'm actually surprised you managed to arrive…" she checked her watch, "ONLY 57 minutes late."

The dirty-blonde chuckled, "Well I would've been earlier if Tad hadn't taken so long to start the car… and for the record I arrived 54 minutes late thank you very much."

Tad heard that first comment and decided to butt in, "Hey! Who was it that was complaining they had nothing to wear when half her clothes were FlOODING out of the closet?" Grace and Zoe turned around to join in on the discussion.

They both turned to look at him, Katie blushing slightly and mentally making a note to herself to make Tad pay for that.

Grace decided to join in, "Oh my gosh, match made in heaven, or perhaps match made in closets?" she teased aloud, "Jessie was in front of her closet since last night!"

"Grace!" Jessie threw her sister a look that told her to shut up.

The brunette held her hand up in a surrendering gesture before the three turned back around to give the girls their privacy.

"I can't believe he/she said that," they both muttered simultaneously.

Whipping their eyes back to the girl in front of them, they broke out into a smile again, forgetting the momentary embarrassment.

--

A while after their arrival, the five of them moved their conversations over to a set of couch where they all sat munching on finger foods and sipping champagne Jessie and Grace bought. Time flew by for them as they were enjoying their night together catching up, and greeting old friends around them who attended tonight's celebration there. Zoe was having fun snapping photos of people when they're unaware. Eli and his band were playing on the mini-stage they had in the shop, occasionally in between breaks he'd stop by the where the group were sitting and hung around for a bit.

"So Katie, you think you can design some stuff for me and my band to wear?" Eli questioned jokingly.

Jessie nudged her brother in the shoulder playfully, "I can't even imagine you guys wearing what she's been designing."

The brunette pretended to be hurt, "Oh Jessie, you don't think we'd look handsome in some classy and fashionable outfits?" He wiggled his eyebrow at her before getting up beside his sister and tried to stand as straight as he could, "I'm model material man, c'mon! Our band can totally hit it mainstream; be the new Backstreet Boys or something."

Katie who was sitting with her legs crossed on the other side of the blonde pretended to eye Eli from head to toe and played along, "Gee Eli, I can totally see the potential there."

Scoffing, Grace glared at the fashion designer in shock, "Please, don't encourage him." Grabbing some peanuts off the table, he threw it in Grace's direction. The girl just dropped her jaw in disbelief, but didn't return the action. "Can you see that, what would the general public think when he gets snapped wearing your designed clothes whilst throwing peanuts at his defenceless sister?"

Zoe couldn't help but put in her two-cents, "I would have no idea what the public would think, but I'm sure they can pin-point a defenceless sister if they see one and that certainly wouldn't be when you appear on the headlines with him."

Everyone that was gathered around the group erupted in laughter at the banter.

--

Back on stage and singing, Eli nodded at the cue Judy gave him offstage; he and his band finished off their song and once again everyone applauded the band.

"Well, now I'll hand the mike over to Judy!" he pointed towards Judy before stepping aside.

"Thanks Eli," she patted him on the back. "Well hi to everyone here again, thank you for coming tonight; I hope you've all been having a blast." She smiled at the crowd and looked around at all the people who were still around. "There's just another 30 or so minutes left till the clock ticks 12," the guests erupted in cheers and applauds. "Yes, how very exciting indeed! Eli here will continue to take requests and sing and he'll also be the one informing us when the time comes," she informed everyone. "Now let's just hope this young man remembers and not get too carried away with his band members," Judy joked, "Anyways, enough of me talking, hope you all enjoy the rest of the year!" she called out before handing the microphone back to Eli.

"No worries Judy, I'll make sure to remember!" Eli tried to reassure. "Anyways, I would've loved to invite my sister up on stage so that she could sing for you guys," he paused, and saw his sister glaring at him from where she was sat; he just smirked back at her before continuing. "But she said she hasn't warmed up yet, and doesn't wanna make a fool of herself. I let her sit there now, but Jess," he looked straight at the blonde, "you sound like an angel even without warming up," Eli finished with sincerity.

Jessie beamed at her brother, it was rare that he'd openly say such loving words to her. A collective 'aww' echoed throughout the room, and those sitting at the couches just looked at Jessie for her reaction.

"Enough of my sappiness now, on with the show!"

The music started up again, and everyone went back to what they were doing before the announcement; talking dancing, eating and so on.

"C'mon you guys, we should go out and dance…" Zoe got up from the couch, trying to urge everyone along with her.

Tad and Grace both stood up and nodded their agreement, the three turned to look at Katie and Jessie. Katie got up from the couch and extended her hand out for Jessie to take, "Coming?"

Take took the offered hand and smiled, "of course."

They all gathered onto the temporary dance floor swaying to the live music, and Eli's choice of slow songs. Tad and the two Manning sisters continuously swapped partners for dancing in between songs (well… when Zoe wasn't busy capturing photos that was), but Jessie and Katie never let go of each other.

The two were perfectly in sync, dancing away and lost in each other's gaze. Sometime during the dancing and dodging away from collision, the two made it to the center of the now crowded dance floor. A few comfortable dances later, the gap that was once between them was nonexistent now, as the slightly shorter girl had her head on the dirty-blonde's shoulder. Most people saw the way they were drowning in each other's presence and knew better than to step between them. But there were also those oblivious ones who tried cutting in, but they had both declined and remained together.

--

Katie successfully locked eyes with her best friend, she just held his gaze, and he looked back questioningly, wondering what his friend was thinking. The song finished and Katie finally leaned down a little so that her breath tickled the blonde's ears she whispered, "I'm gonna go to the restroom."

Jessie nodded with slight disappointment and unwillingly let go of the taller girl, their hands being the last to disconnect before Katie made her way off to the restroom. As soon as the other girl left, Jessie was being flocked by a few guys who saw the now vacant blonde and was already asking her for a dance; Tad saw this and finally understood what his friend got his attention for.

Quickly excusing himself from his current dance partner, he reached the blonde, who was trying to nicely decline the offered dances, and tapped her shoulder. Jessie quickly turned and a look of relief quickly washed over her.

"May I have the honour?" Tad asked, his hand out waiting for the blonde acceptance.

Grinning she took his hand, and the few other guys sighed at their failed attempt to approach the blonde again and stalked off to find another partner.

As they began to dance, Jessie looked up at him, "thanks for that…"

"No problem, just watching out for my best-friend's girl," he replied causing the blonde to blush slightly.

--

Coming out of her stall, when she saw who was standing by the sink with their arms crossed, obviously waiting for her, surprise would be an understatement for what she 

felt. Never did it even cross her mind that they'd run into each other, and certainly not in the restroom on New Year's Eve. She eyed the other person warily before she headed towards the sink to wash her hands.

"I don't even get a 'hi' after all these years?" The other person finally broke the silence, walking behind Katie and looked at her from the mirror.

Quirking left brow up as she turned off the faucet, she replied with a simply "Hi."

"I haven't seen you in a while, when did you get back?"

"A few days ago."

"Is it so hard to say just a bit more? You make it seem like I'm some sort of disease."

"I'm just surprised to see you, that's all," she said as she grabbed a few towels to dry her hands.

--

The music ended, and instead of starting another song, he took out what seemed to be a remote control and pointed it at the TV on the wall near the stage. The screen displayed a crowd of cheering people, the time shown up at the top of the screen.

"I guess it's time!" Eli spoke into the microphone, as he noticed there was only a minute until 12.

Once again everybody cheered; going to grab some of the giant party poppers on the table, the guests then gathered around the TV, preparing themselves for the countdown.

--

The music had stopped playing and Katie immediately knew why, but it obviously didn't faze the other person.

"Sure. I see that you're still with Blondie after all these years…"

Frowning, "If you're talking about Jessie, then no, I'm not with h…" she wanted to say 'with her yet', but her sentence trailed off when she noticed how close the other person was as she turned around.

--

Jessie couldn't stop smiling, her eyes quickly scanned the crowd around her, her parents, sisters, relatives and even some old friends were all there all looking excited. However, her smile was quickly replaced with a frown when she noticed a certain someone still wasn't back.

--

"Well then I don't suppose she'd mind if I… say… kissed you?" she looked up into those eyes in a sort of predatory gaze.

"Uh…" Katie faltered, taken aback. She shook her head to clear her mind, trying to be as polite as possible, "Look Sarah, I'm not sure what you're trying to get at right now… but I'd like to leave now." She took a side step in an attempt to walk around the persistent girl.

"Not so fast." Sarah smirked, stepping in front of the other girl again, "Where are you hurrying off to?"

--

Grace immediately noticed the sudden change on her sister's appearance and knew exactly why. "Stop worrying, you'll start getting wrinkles because you're frowning so often," she joked, "she'll be back."

The blonde looked at her sister and smiled at her reassurance, hoping that she was right.

--

"I'm hurrying off to my friends out there, because frankly spending my last moment of the year in the restroom of a book store really isn't my idea of celebration." Katie replied, attempting to step towards the other side this time. But to no avail, she was blocked once more.

--

The number 30 showed up in the middle of the screen, in front of the crowd that was still cheering on TV. Every passing second the number would change, and Jessie couldn't help but start panicking as the number continually lowered.

29… 28… 27…

--

"Yeah, because your idea of celebration would be with that blonde out there, wouldn't it be?"

--

26…25… 24…

Grace and Tad too began to worry when they still couldn't see their friend's return.

Eli who was on stage noticed the expression on his sister's face and noted the absence of her friend.

--

Time was fast ticking away – frustrated now, Katie glared at the girl blocking her, "what is your fucking problem?! Get out of my bloody way."

"Or what?" she challenged.

--

21… 20…

'Where is she?' Jessie wondered, frantically eyeing the crowd.

--

Knowing the other girl wasn't going to back down from ruining her night… even after all these years, Katie continued to push her way further. Only a few more steps…

--

17… 16… 15…

"She's not back yet," Jessie said aloud.

--

Finally close enough, with all her strength she shoved the girl as hard as she could, causing the other girl to stumble, screaming, backwards into the mop and the rest of the cleaning equipment, and reached for the door.

Running out of the bathroom, she heard the crowd starting the countdown.

10…

Rapidly, she began to scan the crowd for a certain blonde.

9…

Eli's waving arm caught her attention on stage, and she saw that he was pointing to somewhere; she followed his arm and spotted the back of Tad's head.

8…

Without another moment of hesitation she quickly pushed and shoved her way closer to the front of the crowd where she knew the blonde was.

7… 6…

Reaching out, she held the blonde tightly from behind, her arms circling around the other's shoulder. Tad and Grace both blew out a sigh of relief when they noticed Katie was back.

5…

Finally able to calm down, she relaxed into the embrace, not needing to turn and check who was holding her.

"THREE!" everyone called out in unison, particularly loudly, their anticipation evident.

Jessie turned around in the embrace and circled her own arms around the other girl's slim waist; she gazed up into the bluish-green pools she wouldn't mind drowning in.

"TWO!" Those holding the party poppers got ready… Zoe continued to snap as many photos as she could of the crowd… making sure to capture the two lovers. 'They're so gonna yell at me…' she chuckled.

"ONE! HAPPY NEW YEAR!"

The exploding sounds of party poppers went off one after another and streamers flew high into the air.

Jessie leaned up and captured those lips she's missed so dearly in a quick and chaste kiss. They both couldn't wipe their goofy smiles that seemed permanently plastered on their faces now. Katie leaned down again for another kiss, this time holding it for a little longer. Finally pulling away, they sighed in contentment and leaned their foreheads against each other.

Off to the side, by the restroom, a drenched Sarah huffed out angrily before stomping out of the store.

"Will you be with me for another seven years?" Katie whispered hopefully.

Biting her lower lip, she had her answer already, she nodded slightly, but it was enough for Katie as she hugged the blonde tightly and lifted her a little way off the ground which caused Jessie to giggle.

Guess Grace was right all along – she had found the 'right person' since she was 15.

**The End…**

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**A/N: -phew- I've finally completed another story; I sure as hell took long enough. Haha. Well I hope you all enjoyed this fic! Feedback greatly appreciated!**


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Once and Again