I know I've been MIA for the past two weeks. Sorry :/ It's been a difficult time and I haven't exactly been in the right mindset for this story. I was finally able to finish this chapter but it might be slow. So, again, sorry about that. I may change it in the future, but for now it's something.

--VIVKELLER23

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"I want to help you."

She really had to stop and ask herself if that was the most romantic thing anyone had ever said to her. Once she could admit to herself that it was, she could begin to decide how to process the new information.

But, really. What was more romantic than having someone admit they liked you enough to waste time trying to change things for you? With you?

The voice in Collins' head wasn't on the same track this morning. Oh, I don't know? Maybe someone actually liking you for a change?

That one hurt way more than she would have liked to admit. Especially since Collins was pretty sure Vance hadn't meant for his words to be taken as meaning anything else than what they really meant.

He was interested in helping her only with the intention of finding the real culprit. He wanted revenge for what happened to Regina. She couldn't fault him for it.

She was, however, slightly confused.

What else is new?

Collins groaned. The voice in her head really had no chill today.

After he'd sort of rescued her Saturday, he'd told her a little about what he'd seen. He spared her all the gory details that Criminal Minds was known for, but in the end, he told her enough. Someone had really hurt Regina Brock, and it was killing him that he didn't know who.

Now, here she was. Monday morning, and the town sheriff was explicitly telling everyone not to worry about Regina's death.

Jonah grabbed the remote off the coffee table and increased the television's volume as Tills spoke on camera. He stood in front of the canal where Regina's body had been recovered.

"It's never easy to accept the loss of someone we've known for years, but at least, in time we can learn to cope," he said, his voice somber. "Miss Brock's death was a cruel twist of fate. After much consideration and thorough questioning, I can say with utmost certainty that Regina Brock fell into a canal after consuming a dangerous amount of alcohol."

Collins didn't hear anything out of the sheriff's mouth following his statement. Vaguely, she registered the camera turning over to focus on Mayor Brock as he spoke a few words. There was only a dim buzzing sound as her mind tried to process too much at once.

An accident. They were claiming Regina's death was an accident after the hell Collins went through trying to accept her death while simultaneously being blamed for it.

Jonah shook his head, glancing at her from the corner of his eye. "It's a darned shame," he murmured as the Mayor continued his inspiring speech following the details of his daughter's death. "I remember the very first day I saw her. Even at five years of age, Regina Brock was the most graceful thing I'd ever seen."

Which was exactly why it was so preposterous to suggest she'd stumbled into that canal.

"I don't believe it for a second."

"You think someone wanted her gone?" Jonah asked, turning his attention fully on her.

But who in Sailor's Port could have been so insanely determined to hurt the Mayor's daughter? Collins shrugged. "You knew her as well as I did. There's no way she would have been so careless as to walk out to that canal alone."

Jonah nodded. "I also never thought I'd see the day she lashed out at you for the sins of her family, but I was proven wrong."

"What does that mean? The sins of her family?"

"Just that Regina Brock turned on the wrong person," her brother clarified. "All this time went by without so much as a hello from her, and still you went out of your way to make sure she was never alone. What happened between you and Vance shouldn't have mattered so much that she turned her back on you, too."

She knew he was speaking from his heart. He'd seen what it was like for her to lose the only real friendships she'd had growing up. As a brother, she understood that what he was saying made perfect sense in his mind, but that didn't change the fact that his logic was faulty.

Regina hadn't turned her back on Collins because of Vance's decision to leave town after their falling out. At least, that wasn't the only reason. That night, Collins was supposed to be Regina's companion to a senior high school party. They'd planned the event out to the matching sequined pumps they were going to wear, but Collins had failed to show up.

And Regina had never forgotten Collins' absence on the one night it had truly mattered.

Collins sighed, feeling the unbearable wave of guilt she'd spent the past year trying to get over. The truth was, though Collins had always claimed she and Regina were sisters, Collins had failed the one person who'd needed her.

So, while Jonah thought his sister was some kind of saint for reaching out to someone who'd brushed her off time and time again, she was no better than a fraud trying to get past the shame.

The shame of being exactly the kind of person folks in town already thought she was.

"Regina had her reasons for hating me, as does everyone else," she told him, smiling to take away from the weight of her words. "I don't have any illusions left about how others feel about me. But she didn't just fall to her death, Jonah."

He didn't look like he was convinced. Whether it was about Regina being justified in her hatred towards Collins or the idea that Sheriff Tills was lying about her death, she wasn't sure yet. "I'm not saying I don't agree with you, but I have to ask." He muted the television screen as the camera went back to the town sheriff. "What makes you so sure that she didn't die like they claim she did?"

"Vance saw her body despite his father's best efforts to spare him the gruesome sight." She shivered as she pictured the haunted look in those eyes of his. "She was murdered. I just can't imagine why."

"You spoke to him?"

She nodded. There was no point in lying. She'd done nothing wrong.

"When?" The question was an exhalation of breath.

"Saturday, during the service." Collins stopped herself from mentioning what occurred before Vance showed up at the office. "He was dropping something off I think, and waited for me outside while I packed up."

"I told you I didn't want you hanging around that boy."

"And you don't have to worry about that. I doubt his opinions of me have changed much since he took off for Europe." She could see the disapproval in Jonah's dark eyes, the protective streak he had for her in the way he clenched his jaw. "I know what happens now when I let myself go, Jonah. I won't be making the same mistake this time."

He sighed and grasped her chin to study her face. "The mistake was his for thinking you were someone he could just walk away from."

She was lucky that in all the hardships she'd endured over the years, at least she hadn't been alone. Always, always there was Jonah to pick her up and remind her that it was okay to hurt. She just had to fight to not let it consume her.

"Thank you," she whispered. As she watched him smile and begin to prepare himself for the day's tasks, she silently thanked him for all the sacrifices he'd made in life to keep them together.

vVv

For someone who really preferred her own company, someone up there had a lot of fun making sure her life was the complete opposite of invisible. At seventeen, she almost felt the only thing missing was the closeup camera interviews she'd seen in The Office. She could just imagine the snarky commentary there would have been if she'd actually been living in an episode.

Once again, she found herself strutting down the high school hallway to countless pairs of eyes following her every step on a Monday morning. She should have been born a model, she would have had the catwalk down by now.

Collins smiled as she turned away from her locker to head to her first period class. She never thought she'd be so happy to have AP Calculus first thing in the morning, but after a week of torture in bland courses, she was more than ready for a challenge.

The instant she stepped into Miss Grail's class, all conversations died as students turned to glance at her. They were hostile gazes, almost daring her to actually take a seat.

She'd never turned down a dare.

Miss Grail was a legend among the school faculty. She was thirty years old and scared the crap out of the men in the math department, probably because she wasn't someone they could confuse with a bunch of math terms. Collins had always admired her even if the woman's light brown eyes had seemed to look for something every time she passed her down the halls.

Collins hadn't planned on meeting her while being treated like a murderer, but there wasn't much she could do to change the minds of people.

"Good morning," she greeted as she approached the teacher's desk set in the front right corner. Collins rummaged through her book bag for the updated class schedule Flannigan had slipped into her locker.

Miss Grail's eyes read over the list of courses before she nodded and handed the paper back. "It's good to see Flannigan came to his senses about you," she said. "It would have been a waste to keep you in the general courses."

Perhaps she'd been right in her first assumption of the math teacher. She was definitely perceptive if she knew how Flannigan had wronged her.

"Pick a seat," Miss Grail told her as she turned back to a pile of notes on her desk.

Collins looked around the room for a seat, noticing immediately the way the others in the class avoided eye contact with her as she walked down the middle aisle. She settled on a desk pushed up against a wall at the very back. At least from this far back, the students would have to intentionally glance her way to pay her any mind.

The bell rang. Miss Grails quickly took her place at the front of the classroom and began roll call. She must have gotten through the first six names before Vance casually strolled into class as if he wasn't late at all.

Miss Grails huffed. "Impeccable timing, Mr. Brock," she murmured without so much as a glance in his direction.

"You know me," he replied, grinning. "I always aim to make an impression."

Vance wore a navy shirt with worn dark jeans. His jet black hair was perfectly mussed, almost like someone had spent a good part of the morning running their fingers through it. He looked wonderful, masculine, and he wasn't even trying.

Well, don't let your drool onto your chin.

Collins snapped her mouth closed. Dang it.

"Yes, I do know. Now find your seat and let me get back to doing my job." Miss Grails waved him off as she returned to her list of students.

Collins tried not to pay any attention to Vance while he made his way through the class to find his seat. He got enough of that from all the doe eyed females who sat up in their seats as he passed them. She hated that type of obvious desperation even as she recalled being exactly like that before he'd left for Europe.

"Morning, Estrada."

She blinked and nearly lost her ability to breathe when her eyes met storm gray clouds.

Ask him if he likes cheese!

Collins ignored her internal voice's suggestion mainly because she was sure it would only make her look crazier. "You're late," was all she could think to say by way of a reply.

He smirked. "Yeah, I think we already established that."

Idiot. "Okay." Oh, how lame did she have to be? He talked to her and she lost all connection between her brain and her mouth.

Vance slid the chair beside her out and settled in.

She totally didn't notice the way his arms bunched with muscle while he pulled a blank sheet of paper and pen out of his backpack. She also didn't notice the way he chuckled when she snapped her gaze away to stare at Miss Grails.

She was cool, composed. A liar.

"Miss Estrada?" the teacher called.

Collins shook her head. "Yeah?"

"Next time, just say 'present,' thank you."

There were snickers around the classroom from people who hated her. People who had no problem thinking the worst of someone they knew nothing about.

Miss Grails got through all the names on her roll sheet and passed out a worksheet of five multiple step problems ranging from pre-algebra to trigonometry. She gave the first hour of class to work on the problems individually, shaking her head when one student questioned the logic behind doing lower division math in a calculus class.

"You'll find that having a firm foundation before you start building your empire is a strategy, not a weakness," she replied.

Since previous math courses all played a small, integral part in the makeup of Calculus, it made sense to review the basics.

Collins glanced at the worksheet, groaning when she saw the very first one on the page. Geometry proofs had always been her kryptonite. She could appreciate the idea behind the problems, but she didn't like them. All the theorems and definitions that went into justifying every single step in a proof was tedious and easy to confuse.

But math had always been a language she understood. Because no matter how many equations and explanations and examples were given, no matter the approach you took, the answer was set.

It was hard to explain, but with everything else in her life that just didn't have an explanation, knowing something that had an answer was addictive.

And even when there wasn't an answer, the inconclusive results were recorded as an answer.

She was just finishing problem three when Miss Grails clapped her hands for everyone's attention. "Great job working on your own. Except you, Nico. I saw you tapping away at your phone."

Nico groaned and put his head down.

"Take the next ten to fifteen minutes to discuss the problems with the people around you before we get back together as a class," the teacher instructed.

Collins went right back to working on problem three.

Something tapped her elbow. She continued her work as if she hadn't felt a thing only to have someone nudge her.

"What?"

Vance smiled at her and nodded to the worksheet of problems she was trying to answer. "Need some help?"

Boy, does she ever!

Collins shook her head. "I'm good." Then she frowned because it just seemed off. He was acting like the past year hadn't happened. Like they were actually friends rather than strangers now. "Why are you doing this?"

His curved lips stayed in place but his eyes flashed, the only sign that he wasn't exactly carefree. "Doing what?"

"Talking to me? Pretending that it's okay to be close to me with everything that's happened?"

"You saw what my father and the Sheriff said this morning," he stated. When she nodded, he continued his statement. "After what I told you Saturday, I think it's clear that something bigger is going on here."

"I just don't get it." Truly, she never had. "I don't understand what's going on or why it's happening now."

"That's why I'm going to help you."

But that only raised more questions. Questions about who could possibly loathe Collins so much that they'd be willing to make her look guilty. Questions about how Regina's death was linked to something darker and why it was being brushed off as an accident.

And an even more pressing question than that was why he was so set on helping her after the way they'd ended.

She heard the click of slinky sandals on the tile floor and shivered long before she raised her eyes to look at who it was. Collins had always liked to pretend she didn't have enemies. In Sailor's Port she just pretty much got snubbed by everyone so it didn't make sense to claim there was someone who disliked her more than the whole population.

But there was Alice Bone.

She smiled with false innocence. "Oh, I'm sorry," she began with a flutter of her lashes. "Did I interrupt your pathetic attempt to steal my boyfriend?"

From the corner of her eye, she saw Vance straighten. "Not at all."

"It's so sad how you really think you can just pick up where he basically cut you off."

"Alice," Vance warned with an edge to his voice.

Collins just laughed. They were gaining an audience from the interested looks of students in the class, and she'd had enough of that to last a lifetime. "Almost as upsetting as watching you lose your tongue down people's throats. At least I have enough respect for myself not to beg for attention from guys who are already committed to a relationship."

She heard whistles from around the room.

Alice heard them, too. "You'd better watch yourself."

"Really?" Collins asked, grabbing her paper and pencil from her desk. "You want to threaten me with the whole town literally telling you I'm a murderer?"

She felt more than heard the shock in the room. Really? She could have given herself a facepalm for being so careless with her words.

"Are you admitting you are?" Alice taunted, lifting her angular chin in a silent challenge.

"That's enough, Alice!" Vance growled. He got to his feet and gripped her wrist in his hand, ignoring the way she all but melted into him.

"Actually, I've had enough." She saw the frown that darkened Vance's face and shrugged. "Now if you'll excuse me?"

Alice huffed as Collins walked in a wide circle around the two, very obviously miffed that she couldn't get a better reaction out of her. "You'd better run, you coward."

Oh, no. Absolutely not. "Actually, I run for very few things in this life. You? You aren't even on the list."

"Freak!"

"Miss Bone!" The teacher had heard enough of the confrontation and was reclaiming her classroom. "You will stop this behavior immediately. And Miss Estrada, I suggest you get back to your seat."

Collins really wanted to be a good student. This was the best teacher on campus by far, but she also wasn't willing to go through any more of Alice's snide remarks. So Collins gave Miss Grails a small smile, hoping to earn forgiveness eventually.

"I think by now you know I'm just a heap of disappointment."

She heard Alice's shrill screams follow her as she walked down the hallway.

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