As soon as Jean had woken up the next morning, all she wanted to do was curl up like a prawn and bury herself under a plethora of blankets and listen to Brad Paisley all day long.

But she didn't have the heart to grab her phone from the nightstand and text Sebastian that she wasn't feeling well because the truth was, she was physically feeling alright but emotionally, she wasn't. And she didn't have the heart to cancel on him.

"I'll let you in on a little secret, Jean---no man would want a woman who's boring as fuck."

After she'd received an unexpected call from Terry last night, her heart felt like it'd been scratched and jabbed repeatedly by a rusted nail and as much as she wished for his profoundly venomous words to disappear into thin air, they just wouldn't. She'd come to Helen, with the hopes of escaping from all the things she'd went through over the past year, even if it was just for a little while.

"Guess he really wasn't the man I thought he was," she muttered to herself, her eyes trained on her fidgeting fingers as memories of the times they'd both shared flashed right before her like a slideshow.

She could feel the waterworks coming and she knew that Sebastian was going to be here soon, seeing as it was already a little after eight a.m. but she couldn't muster enough strength to pull herself out of the state she was in. Her head felt heavy. Her heart felt heavy. And they were both weighing her down and dragging her into an abyss.

"Have fun with your life, Jean because trust me, no one would even want to date you."

A sudden ding from Jean's phone was what tore her away from her unabating and grim thoughts, and she hesitated for a split second before grabbing it off the nightstand. It was a message from Sebastian:

see you in roughly thirty minutes, mermaid jean. also, remember to bring a beanie with you, it's pretty cold today. x

ps. i hope you're just as excited as i am for those waffles.

Oddly enough, the message alone was enough to pull the edges of her lips upward, a tiny smile playing on her lips now. Even though the smile didn't reach her eyes, the fact that Sebastian had even bothered to send her a message to remind her that she should wear a beanie out today warmed her heart---plus the little note towards the end of the whole text. Realizing that it was almost 8.30am, Jean hauled herself out of bed with the thought of having a good day with Sebastian on her mind before slipping into the bathroom to get herself ready for the day.

. . . . . .

The drive to the waffle house Sebastian had been raving about for the past fifteen minutes had been nothing but fun since the thirty-three year old man was practically acting like an overly-excited five year old by asking one too many questions.

"Sebastian, slow down!" Jean laughed, her heart feeling lighter by the minute. "You're literally badgering me with a ton of questions."

A glorious sound slipped past his lips and it had Jean turning her head towards him, giving her an amazing view of his side profile and that all-star smile of his. Sebastian snuck a quick glance at Jean before averting his attention back to road ahead, the image of her ear-to-ear smile now embedded in his mind.

"You're such a sight for sore eyes, mermaid girl," Sebastian mused before his eyes grew wide, realizing that he had just said that aloud.

Jean couldn't help but stifle a giggle as she continued to gaze at him, noticing how his cheeks were undoubtedly flushed beyond measures now and how he was sneaking quick glances at her without moving his head.

"You need to stop flirting with me," Jean jested, her eyes still fixated on the man before her.

Sebastian diverted his attention to her, a playful remark on the tip of his tongue when he'd suddenly taken notice of her swollen eyes.

"Why are your eyes swollen?" Sebastian asked with nothing but concern laced in his voice, his eyebrows furrowed. "Did something happen?"

A silent whimper slipped past Jean's lips and immediately began shaking her head vigorously, tearing her eyes away from him. She was silently hoping that Sebastian would drop the subject in a heartbeat if she continued to stay silent but when he didn't do as she thought he would and instead, decided to pull the car over to the side of the road, her heart started to hammer in her chest.

"Jean?" Sebastian softly called, his right hand now resting at the back of her headrest.

Jean's lips began to quiver as a shaky sigh slipped past them. She couldn't look at him because she knew---she just knew that if she took so much as a glance at him, words would start tumbling out of her mouth and she would have nowhere to hide or dodge the possibly pitiful look that he'd possibly give her.

But then again, Sebastian Stan was a man who was full of surprises. Within the next few seconds, he did the one thing she hadn't expected him to do; he reached for her hand and gave it a light squeeze---one that signified some sort of reassurance, laced with a hint of trust.

"It's nothing," Jean mumbled while her head hung low. "Just didn't get enough sleep, s'all."

Sebastian's eyes visibly softened at the sight of her figure and nodded to himself before giving her hand another light squeeze. He knew that her reason was not the actual cause for her swollen eyes but decided against coaxing an answer out of her, knowing full well what it was like to have someone force an answer out of you when you just can't find it in you to tell them.

So, he turned off the hazard light, fastened his seat belt and pulled onto the freeway, continuing their drive down to the waffle house.

"Have you ever been to this part of Georgia before?" Sebastian asked after some time, drawing Jean out from her daze.

"Hmm?" Jean hummed, looking out her window as they passed a stretch of shop lots. "I haven't. To be honest, I've never been to Georgia until now."

"Really?"

"Yeah. But you're sort of well-versed with Georgia, aren't you? You said you filmed here before," Jean murmured, her eyes still fixated on the shops and people they were passing.

"I have filmed here before but never really had the time to explore the many parts of Georgia. To be frank, I didn't even know about Helen until a few days ago," Sebastian confessed, looking over to Jean who was still looking out her window.

"Same here," she piped up, turning to face him. "I didn't know about Helen until a couple of weeks ago when I was researching for a good place to lay low over the holidays. And that's when I found Helen---the kind of town I've always wanted to live my life in."

"And that's another fact I now know about you," Sebastian announced ever so grandly, earning yet another laugh from the woman beside him. "We're here."

. . . . . .

The park was covered in a thick blanket of snow, its trees painted white and the vast lake covered by a thin layer of ice that was posing as a temptation to the kids there who had a desire to skate. Children were running amok, trying to catch a hold of the falling snow in their glove-covered palms whilst a handful of teenagers chased after one another with a sprig of mistletoe in their hand.

It was a pure sight to watch for both Jean and Sebastian whilst they sipped on their cup of hot chocolate on this cold afternoon. It was a little after one p.m. and Sebastian had suggested earlier at the waffle house that they take a walk in one of the parks here in Roswell before they had to depart from the beautiful place.

Neither Jean nor Sebastian have been to this part of Georgia before and in all honesty, they'd both found it to be thoroughly magical, especially with all the decorations that were still hanging from lamp post to lamp post.

Everyone at the park had the hugest smiles on their faces; some were admiring the way their children were in complete awe of the snow, a couple of elderlies were strolling with one another, hand in hand, while they reminisced over old times and how things have changed drastically---basically, there wasn't a tinge of worry plastered on any of the faces that Jean had passed in all her time at the park and she admired that.

She admired how they seemed so carefree, as though not even the hugest problem in the world could weigh them down. She admired that, for she could only imagine what it was like to not take everyone's opinion to heart.

"What's your favourite time of the year?" Sebastian quizzed, drawing her attention to him as they continued to walk around the vast lake.

"Christmas," Jean mumbled against the brim of her cup of hot chocolate. "You?"

"Same," Sebastian chuckled, throwing his empty cup into the trash can as they passed it. He shoved his hands into the pockets of his jacket and asked Jean another question. "Favourite memory?"

At the sound of his question, Jean nearly tripped over her own two feet because the last time someone had asked that question, she was with Terry. And at the time, she had answered that her favourite memory was any time that was spent with him.

She'd garnered a truckload of envious sighs and 'aww's from the ladies around her, and sure she'd felt good at the time because everyone thought that Terry Daniels was a fine gentleman that had the whole package but boy, were they wrong. Jean's 'wonderful' boyfriend had turned out to be the exact opposite of what she'd painted him to be.

"Jean?" Sebastian's voice was soft but loud enough to tear her away from her thoughts and so, she found herself being drawn back to the surface. "Where did you go?"

Jean peered at the man before her, his cerulean eyes exuding concern and warmth at the same time as she felt her mouth run dry at his question. Where had she gone? Where had she run off to? She'd run off to the place she'd swore one too many times to herself that she'd never go back to but each time she'd convinced herself that she'd gotten over him, something around her would trigger the thought of him and reel her back into the abyss she hated the most.

"Nowhere," she squeaked, quickly tearing her eyes away from his as though he'd burned her.

"You have that look in your eyes again." This alone was enough to get her to look at him and when he'd managed to get her to look up, he made an effort to hold her gaze. "You have that look in your eyes---the look I saw back in the car when we were driving down here. . . after I'd pulled the car over by the roadside and asked why your eyes were swollen."

"It's nothing, Sebastian---"

"It's not nothing if it's been occupying that pretty little mind of yours all day, mermaid girl," he murmured, reaching out to tuck some of her hair behind her ear.

Jean bit down on her lip---purely out of habit---while trying her best to blink away the tears that were fighting their way through. She averted her gaze from Sebastian to the snow-covered tree beside them and continued to furiously blink away the tears that were threatening to trickle down her cold cheeks. She gasped when she felt Sebastian swipe his index finger under her eye, catching a fallen tear as he wore an unreadable yet a soft expression on his face.

"I'm not going anywhere," Sebastian said, his voice soft and tender. "If you think that by telling me whatever it is that's hurting you is gonna make me run for the hills, you're gonna have to try a little harder than that, Jean. Because you're not getting rid of me that easily."

The lightness in his voice and words had earned him a hearty and genuine giggle from the woman before him and my oh my, was the sound of her giggle and the sight of her smile beginning to become two of his favourite things in the world.

---
a/n; do you guys think they're gonna kiss on new year's :-)