Sam stared at the dark wood of the door in front of him, not really seeing it, focusing more on his breathing and the way his body felt lighter than it had in weeks. He felt his muscles untensing, his heartbeat reaching the slow and steady rhythm he hadn’t appreciated until he’d lost it. He felt more like himself than ever. The moment he had stepped inside this castle and known he was back with the rest of the group, he was whole again.

It had been so easy to handle the presence of Snitch Gravel’s men, to order them hunted down and expelled from the castle. Because he was finally where he was supposed to be, not lost in the grimy catacombs of Paris.

He had risen from the ground, a man reborn, the dirt only making him stronger, more sure of himself. A slight pang knocked his confidence down a notch. Because as self-confident as he felt, he was still silly Sam who failed to save Christine.

“Hey, you okay?”

A soft hand touched his shoulder and he turned to face Angie. “Yeah. Just being amazed by how comfortable I’m suddenly feeling.”

She let out a laugh. “Me too, honestly. As much as I played brave and ticked Mozarella off, life on the streets is not for me.”

Sam nodded. He wasn’t into it either and hoped he never had to do that again.

“Is Tom in there?” She nodded towards the door.

“Yeah. He, Jessie and Jerry are in there with Jimmy.”

Angie nodded and let herself in. Sam followed, checking his watch, wondering if it was time to sleep yet. He could do with some rest. It felt like the day would never end.

The room was large and spacious, dominated by a four-poster bed in which Jimmy lay unconscious. Jessie claimed he was sleeping now, though Sam couldn’t tell the difference. He was still knocked out. He hadn’t even been there to hear Tom recount their Paris adventures with flourish which Tom had taken as a personal insult.

Sam hadn’t minded. He’d taken up other activities, such as gathering up the rest of Snitch Gravel’s men from the castle in what very well resembled a medieval witch hunt. He, Kyle, Kay, Angie and Billy had managed to round them up in no time at all, and this mainly to Kyle’s excessively belligerent mood.

A tie-up and knock-out later, Kyle had stuffed them in the car and drove them to the safety of the middle of nowhere.

Once the castle was purged, Sam supposed they could stay in the castle for the night. Given Jimmy’s condition, they didn't have much of a choice. But even with Snitch Gravel’s men out of the way and with the cover of everyone thinking they weren’t stupid enough to linger there, he’d still assigned Kyle to guard duty. His brother had gone off without a peep of protest, actually seeming thrilled with losing a night’s sleep.

Maybe it was being relieved of his leader duties, or maybe it was the weird atmosphere in the group. Sam had no idea what had happened, but there was so much tension and awkwardness around him that he longed for the whole Tom-Angie-Mizrelle triangle. At least he knew what that was.

“I think we should all go to sleep,” Jerry said, his eyes on Jessie who sat by Jimmy’s bed. “It’s been a very long day and we’re all tired.”

Tom grinned. “I’ve really missed you bossing me around.”

“I can sense the sarcasm in your voice, but I’m too tired to care,” Jerry replied, stretching. He then turned to Jessie. “Come on.”

“Excuse me?” Jessie asked, her tone more belligerent then the situation called for.

Sam was too used to Jerry playing chaperone, so he wasn’t sure what about this situation had upset Jessie.

“He needs rest and so do you,” Jerry explained, reasonably enough.

“I’m keeping watch overnight,” Jessie replied, mirroring his polite tone.

Jerry caught a delicate pink tinge, but otherwise didn’t seem affected. “Nonsense. His fever is down. There is no need--”

“I’m. Staying,” Jessie said between her teeth. “He’s sick. What do you think we’re going to do?”

“It’s just not… proper,” he whispered the last word.

“Proper?” Jessie raised an eyebrow. “Tell me Jerry, what exactly do you fear? That we’ll have sex when you’re not looking? How does that bother you? Do you want to look?”

Jerry cringed. Sam was somewhere between cringing and laughing himself, but the implications of the interaction were much deeper and worrying. Jessie and Jerry had always gotten along well, so this attack from Jessie’s side was weird to say the least. She was nice. She care about them and their feelings.

“What’s going on?”

“Long story, Sam. And not a very pleasant one,” she answered, her eyes still on Jerry. Then she sighed and her shoulders slumped. “Look, I’m sorry, Jerry. I didn’t mean to make you uncomfortable. But I’m not leaving his side. Not now. Not after what happened today.”

Jerry nodded, then turned and walked out of the room.

“Should we be worried?” Tom asked the moment the door closed after their brother.

Jessie massaged her temples. “No. Not really. I’ll get over it. You guys should rest, too. Especially you.” She nodded towards Tom.

“It’s worse than it looks,” Tom said, fairly.

Jessie let out a burst of laughter and Sam grinned too. Leave it to Tom to lighten everyone up even if he was probably numbed from the pain. But as he’d pointed out fairly, he was so used to pain, it was no longer something special or worth mentioning.

“Okay, then,” Angie said. “Good night. Try to get some sleep, Jessie.”

Jessie nodded, shifting in her chair near the bed. Sam threw her one fleeting glance and headed out with Tom and Angie. His head pounded after a much too eventful day. He’d analyze the status of their mission after a good night’s rest. That tension had to go away.

❄

The car’s engine filled the night air with a low rumble, but Kay was already used to it and it was nothing but background noise she could easily ignore. The benefit was a warm hood which she could lay on top of admire the full moon. The sky had finally cleared after days of constant snow and only then did she realize how much she’d missed seeing it. The moon, the stars. And since they were outside the city, she could see the milky way clearly.

“Still comfortable?”

Kay turned to Kyle who’d just cleared the corner of the castle, putting his gun back into its holster.

He threw it one disappointed look. “Wish I had a shotgun, but oh well.” He hopped on the hood and laid next to her. “Hi.”

She bit back a giggle. “Hi.”

“So… what brings you out here?”

Seriously? “I just wanted to admire the sky.”

“I’m convinced.” He did sound convinced. Convinced that she was lying.

“Why do you ask if you already know? I swear, you’re like a freaking mind reader in less obvious situations.”

“Isn’t that why you fell in love with me?” he asked with a grin.

In truth, his intuitive nature had played a big part of it. That and his interest to make her feel better about herself, to grow. He’d been her best friend before she realized she wanted him to be so much more. But she wouldn’t give him the satisfaction of admitting it, not when he was teasing her.

“No, I fell in love with you was because you were a rockstar and I’m really drawn to famous people.”

Kyle raised on his elbows and gawked at her. He couldn’t have forgotten.

“Come on. We met at your comeback concert, remember?”

“Of course I remember. It just never crossed my mind that you ever saw me like that.”

She had, if only for one evening until she got to know him. “I did. I was so flattered when you kept your eyes on me for your last song. Though it was obviously nothing…”

“Wait, that was you?” He looked even more surprised and, given his history with glossing over things like her real name, she truly believed he had no idea.

“You never made the connection?” No wonder he’d been so uninterested in her once they came face to face.

He didn’t answer, just looked at her with a crease between his eyes. Then a smirk lifted the corner of his lips. “You know, I always did have this nagging feeling that I’d seen you before. I was slightly obsessed with that girl from the crowd for a while. That I didn’t see her properly even if her eyes were stuck in my head.”

She gave his shoulder a light slap. “How could you not realize it was me?”

“I don’t know. Concerts do that to me. I get too focused on the music.” He leaned back down, his hands under his head.

Yes, concerts used to do that. It felt like a million years ago when she would attend band practice and watch Kyle pulling songs out of the blue and focus on getting them right. They’d been so careless then, so innocent. So free.

“At least that explained why you were such a butt when Joey introduced us.”

He let out a laugh. “I was so full of adrenaline after the performance I was in no mood to enable Joey's intention of getting it on with some groupie. How was I to know I was witnessing the birth of the romance of the century?"

"Not true. As lovely as Jelly is, we're by far the romance of the century." And the slowest romance. Sometimes Kay still couldn't believe how long it had taken her and Kyle to get together, because she now realized she'd loved him for months before they became a couple. And had a tiny crush on him the moment she saw him.

"Can't argue with that." He kept looking at the sky, a satisfied smile on his face.

Kay liked this. Going back down memory lane to the night they met when Joey, Kyle's best friend at the time, practically begged him to give her a ride home. The moment had been painful and embarrassing,  especially because it was due to her ex, Danny, getting drunk and leaving her without a ride, but she remembered it fondly.

"What did you think of me?" she asked. He turned to her interested, but didn't answer. "The first time you saw me. What was your first impression?"

"I had you all wrong, I'll admit." His grin was a little evil. "I blame it on not paying attention, but I pictured you as a high maintenance Barbie."

She sat up, fists clenched. "What?"

"Yep. All hot and whiney and pretentious."

"You were such a jerk!"

"Of course I was. Didn't take you seriously for one second until I dropped you off and realized you really were afraid of motorcycles and faced your fear. You got some brownie points then."

She calmed down because, as much as she tried to deny it now, she'd been very uptight when she met him. "As did you when you waited until I was safely inside." Then something else registered. "Wait, you thought I was hot?"

He raises his eyebrows. "That's not necessarily a complimemt. I'm not blind."

Her cheeks still heated with pleasure. She'd thought he was gorgeous from the moment she'd laid eyes on him. Even if she knew he was with someone else at the time. Cecily Howard. The high school queen bee.

Kay huffed. She hadn't thought of Cecily in ages.

"What's funny?" he asked.

"I just remembered Cecily and what a problem she was to me and how I haven't thought of her since we finished high school."

"Cecily was a problem?"

"She was your girlfriend, wasn't she?"

"Yeah, but I chose you over her when we were supposedly just friends. Why was she a problem? Danny was a much bigger problem."

Even if it was barely noticeable, she could hear the muted anger in his voice. And she could totally understand. Danny was the reason they'd been apart for a year with no means of communication. Even now, she could see how Kyle had clenched his fist as if he longed to smash it into Danny's face.

"You made me forget all about Danny even before I broke up with him. He became more of a problem afterward." After he punched her in the face for dumping him.

Kyle's entire body tensed and a mild chill surrounded him. Even if it made her want to run, she pushed away the fear and touched his shoulder. The moment she made contact, he relaxed and the feeling of danger disappeared.

"Sorry," he mumbled. "It's just so hard for me to come to terms with the fact that he hurt you and I did nothing."

"That's not true. You pulled him off me. And punched him at the prom, remember?" She still debated whether that was the best part of prom or what happened next.

Kyle smiled. "I tend to forget I punched him. What happened next sort of drove it out of my mind."

Ah yes. What happened next. She could still picture it perfectly, feel every touch, every kiss... The embarrassment she'd felt when Joey and Kelly walked in on them a second before clothes started flying.

"I think that's my biggest regret," she whispered.

"What? Hooking up with me?"

"No. Not doing it sooner." She turned to him. "Though I loved it at the moment, after you left I couldn't believe all the time we could've had together but didn't because we couldn't see what was right in front of us all along."

"We were both a bunch of dumb fucks."

The turn of the phrase pulled a giggle out of her. "That's one way to put it. If only we'd had at least one more day..." Then they could've at least gone all the way and she would've had so much more to hang on to. Or maybe it would've hurt a lot more. The guilty expression on his face got her attention. "What?"

"We almost did. I realized I was in love with you the night before the prom."

Something didn't compute. She'd gotten shitfaced drunk that night. Kyle had his alcohol intolerance which meant standing anywhere near her would've been more than an unpleasant. "Why?"

"You just... And I realized... ugh, do you really want to know?" He sounded half amused half exasperated.

Cold fear twisted into her gut. "What did I do?"

"It's not pretty. Fair warning."

"Tell me!"

Kyle sighed, but the amusement won over. "You got drunk that night. You were already really bad off when I found you. And you were sad Danny wasn't there to take you to prom and that nobody wanted to make out with you..."

Oh God. She was a sad drunk. She hadn't touched alcohol since. But what Kyle was saying could only lead to one extremely embarassing conclusion.

"Please tell me I didn't hook up with anyone."

"Oh, you didn't want to hook up with just anyone..."

She couldn't tell if this was hilarious or tragically embarassing. "I threw myself at you, didn't I?"

His grin was once again pure evil. "With style."

Heat rose to her cheeks and she punched his shoulder. "And let me guess, like a gentleman you refused to kiss me."

"You offered a lot more than kissing, which was a lot harder to turn down." He laughed as she punched his shoulder harder. "But it made me realize I wanted you so, so bad."

"Wanted?"

He rolled over her and trapped her between his arms. "What do you think?" he whispered in her ear.

A shiver went down her spine, heating her up quicker than anything ever could. Her fingers lost themselves in his hair. Something in the back of her mind nagged her, but she couldn't really remember what it was. She just loved to see him acting more like himself.

"Looks like Sam coming back did the trick."

His smile faltered a little. "Yeah. Look at me feeling much better after dumping responsability on my baby brother."

Kay has gotten so used to Sam calling the shots, it was hard to think of him as anyone's baby brother.

"We all have our spots to fill in this crazy life. Sam has his and you have yours. You did a great job standing in for him, but I'm glad it's over." You said we would make it work once this was over.

"That's true," he admitted, still holding her pinned under him. "I do feel more relaxed. It was hard to focus when I was always thinking about..." He faltered, looking away as he chewed his lower lip.

"Me?" she asked, though she had a sinking feeling that wasn't it.

"Um, yeah, you too. But it's also..."

"The serum." The simple word made her tremble, but she tried not to show how much it scared her.

He nodded. "I feel like it's better now that I don't have to constantly restrain myself."

"So no more pushing you back?"

"Not unless you want to. No longer because I want to or because you have to."

That sounded divine. She was never pushing him back again. Maybe now they could... She stopped the thought before it fully formed. "So what now?"

He squinted at her as if he could tell exactly what what she meant. "Business as usual. Or do you have something else in mind?"

"Do you want me to say it?"

"I'll want you to. But not now. Give me some plotting time."

"Plotting time?"

He didn't answer, just lowered and kissed her, and at that moment it felt like a promise. And she liked what it promised. More of him, more of her, more intimacy.

He pulled back slowly, carefully, like he was afraid of moving her. "I love it when you're right in front of me."

"Right in front of you..." She raised and kissed him. "I'm always right in front of you. Don't forget that."

"Nope. Not a second time. We've had our share of stupid. It's time to be smart about the time we spend together." And in a very not smart way, he rolled off her.

"Yes, very smart," she mumbled.

It was one of those random double or triple meaning things that only made sense to him and he refused to explain. But it wasn't like they could go any further on the hood of the car so she relaxed and looked at the sky.

A shooting star cut across the skyline filling her with a huge sense of hope. "Look! Make a wish." Because she already had hers. All She wanted was for them to be together and happy, no matter what happened.

"Already did," he answered, his tone joyful but a little held down by something she couldn't identify.

"What did you wish for?" she asked.

He slipped his arm under her shoulder and pulled her against him so she could rest her head on his shoulder. "If I tell you, it won't come true."

She nodded, but as she looked back at the sky, the hope turned into dread. Because it somehow felt like an ending instead of a beginning.

❄❄❄

I updated! This is more of a shout out to RIFOY that was in the original draft of this. So for people who are not in the loop and haven't read the prequel, you conveniently get all the highlights😅

This also has a higher purpose of actually getting the past out of the way and making it clear where they stand at the moment. There's no going back.

The first part was a bit amusing for me too as Jessie and Jerry quarrel over what's proper 😊 more on that next part.

What do you think Kyle wished for?

Hope for a new update soon.