TIME DID NOT appear to be on Dave and Reagan's side as their small vacation in Springfield flew by with unfortunate speed. Before either of them knew it, they were only two days shy of flying back to Washington. Reagan surprised herself when she felt a lingering sadness towards the idea of returning home.

"I don't think I'm ready to go back," she confessed to Dave as they sat in his room. They were getting ready for a noonday lunch courtesy of Ginny.

"Me neither," Dave said as he pulled a t-shirt spotted with holes over his head. "But I've got to get back to the band. And you've got work."

"Sadly," Reagan said with disappointment, always resenting of being reminded about her job. She laid back down Dave's bed, sprawling her arms out wide so that she assumed the position of a snow angel.

Nothing would ever compare to the week she had spent with him and his family. Ginny had been an excellent host and genuinely interested to know every detail about Reagan and her life. Simply being around Ginny made Reagan envious that Dave had been able to grow up with such a lovely mother.

Lisa had been just as welcoming, though she also served as a compelling tour guide. Between Ginny's fondness of gushing over memories and Lisa's knack for embarrassing Dave, Reagan had learned so much history about the first person she'd ever fallen in love with.

She wasn't even quite sure what her favorite moment of all had been. Perhaps it was a tie between Lisa carting her around to all of Dave's old venues from when he was in Scream, or Ginny living up to Dave's characterization and showing off family-filmed videos of Dave as a little boy.

Throughout it all, Reagan had nonetheless felt welcomed by the Grohls. With every passing day, she'd become more smitten with Ginny and Lisa and their special way of making her feel loved even when she still technically remained a stranger. They had integrated her as part of their family, though certain mysteries did remain. Reagan was still unsure of just how the deep the discourse with Dave's father, James, ran.

"He's not around anymore," Dave had told Reagan coldly when she'd asked him about it. "We don't speak often."

"Why?" Reagan had questioned gently in return, prepared to be the person Dave could divulge his familial tensions to.

"Because we're about as close as two people living on different planets," Dave said back with finality, closing the subject.

After that, Reagan had not brought up Dave's dad again. Ginny had mentioned him in passing when she'd told her usual round of dinner table stories, but other than that, the man remained nearly nonexistent. Lisa had told Reagan that their dad had not approved of Dave's aspirations as a kid. That hint of information was enough for Reagan to conclude that Dave had every right to avoid discussing his father.

Dave's dad aside, the family that he was close to had proved to be as wonderful as he'd promised. The trip was far from the dreadful failure Reagan had imagined it to be. The only downside was that she felt inexplicably closer to Dave now that she'd formed connections with Lisa and Ginny. The thought of not only losing him but also the addition of two more special people scared her. But that was only the pessimist inside her talking.

"What are you thinking?" Dave asked. He jostled the edge of his twin bed as he sat down beside Reagan, placing his hand on her bare thigh. She was wearing cut off shorts that day and a tank top, a far cry from her usual ensemble of t-shirts and jeans.

"Just that I've had a really great time here," Reagan said, telling the truth.

"I didn't know if you'd like Virginia. I thought you'd be dying to go home by the second day of the trip."

Reagan sat up, her hair falling over her shoulders. "Do you really think that low of me?"

"No. It's just different than the west coast, that's all," Dave said. He ran the pad of his thumb across her cheek bone, paying special mind to the smattering of freckles beneath her eyes that had made their presence known under the hot Virginia sun.

"It's a good different," Reagan told him. "It's been a nice change."

"Maybe we'll find ourselves living here together someday," Dave suggested with a coy smile.

"Maybe we will," Reagan agreed, feeling a throb of excitement in her chest. In a way, she could already see the future, even if it was still too soon to be making such plans. What mattered most was not the context of what she saw, but that they she and Dave were still together.

It must have been something of a realistic hope because it came easily to her. Those kinds of far off visions of the future had never gelled well against Reagan's sense of realism, but for some reason, she could see that sliver of fate through the tunnel of time. They would live in a decently sized house, not too big but not tiny either. Without a doubt, Dave would be barbecuing almost every weekend. He'd already demonstrated his skill set of sweating over a grill earlier that week.

And somewhere in the blur of it all, she saw little carbon copies of them both scampering around. The thought nearly put a lump in Reagan's throat. Suddenly, she knew all too well what it was like to want something so badly that it hurt.

Dave distracted her away from her daydreaming with a kiss, catching her off guard when his mouth touched hers. It had been a week filled with little contact between them both, but Reagan had come to savor the brief but sweet moments in which she did get to enjoy Dave in that specific way again.

He tried his luck when he slowly guided her back down onto his bed, running his hand down her torso before hooking it around her thigh so that her leg became hitched at his waist. When his other hand moved downwards towards the swell of her chest, she broke the kiss off with a laugh.

"You've got be kidding me," she said, looking skeptically down at the placement of his hand before back into his eyes.

"I'm just living out my teenage dream of making out with a hot girl in this bed," Dave argued. "Do you know what my fifteen-year-old self would say if he could see me right now?"

"He'd probably say that I'm out of your league."

"Touché."

"Kids, dinner!" Ginny's voice ricocheted up the stairs from the kitchen, snapping Dave and Reagan out of their compromising position on his bed. Reagan sat up and adjusted her tank top, pulling the hem down so that the peek of exposed skin at her waist disappeared. Dave smirked at her and she stuck out her tongue childishly.

"Did she cook spaghetti?" Reagan asked as they began their walk down the stairs. Ginny had not told them what she was cooking for lunch that day. She'd said it was a surprise, though she'd been surprising them all week with her cycle of meals. It hadn't been much of a treat for Dave, who seemed to have an uncanny ability of predicting what his mother would cook.

Dave laughed. "You can't eat spaghetti during the day. That's a meal specially reserved for dinnertime."

"I'll eat spaghetti whenever I so please, thank you. Especially if it's your mother's recipe."

"Cool. Now you can bank on me serving you spaghetti for breakfast when we get home. Bet your tired ass will just love that when you wake up."

By the time they entered the dining room and Reagan had gotten in a good swipe at Dave for his commentary, the heavenly scent of Ginny's cooking took over. Reagan had never harbored such a true appreciation for homemade cuisine until she'd smelt Ginny's cooking. Her stomach had certainly been defying its limits in terms of how much food she could scarf down in one sitting.

They spotted Lisa busying herself with laying silverware at the table. She looked up as they entered, her eyes flying immediately to their interlocked hands. Out of embarrassment, Reagan pried her fingers out of Dave's grasp and tucked her hand behind her back.

"How sweet. She hasn't run away screaming yet," Lisa said smugly.

"It's been almost a year. She's had plenty of time to run and she hasn't, so now her chance is gone. What's Mom cooking?" Dave asked, transitioning easily from topic to topic and patting his thin stomach. For having such a slender frame, Reagan was surprised by the amount of food he could tuck away. She'd watch him shovel down a full lumberjack breakfast that morning without pausing to breathe.

"Ham biscuits," Ginny announced as she joined the trio, holding a dish stacked high with what appeared to be a meal far more elaborate than just ordinary biscuits.

Reagan eyed the platter, impressed by what she decided was a display of culinary excellence. Each ham biscuit was overflowing with thick skirts of condiments and toppings, carrying everything from melted cheese to cranberry sauce. And better yet was the bowl of gooey macaroni and cheese that accompanied the main course.

"Can I take you back to Olympia so you can cook for me?" Reagan marveled, knowing she sounded like a suck-up but still unable to hide her awe. Never had anyone in her household concocted such amazing food, not even on major holidays like Thanksgiving or Christmas.

Ginny laughed softly, reaching behind her waist to untie the food-speckled cooking apron she wore. "You sound exactly like David when you say that."

Chivalrously, Dave pulled out Reagan's chair for her, causing her to bite her lower lip through a smile. She made a funny face at him and he returned a similar expression back, rolling his eyes at her giggling.

"Don't give me that look," he muttered, though he was smiling too.

"Are you being polite for the sake of your mother or are you now an old-fashioned gentleman?" Reagan replied, tucking her hand under her chin with mock interest.

"For you, I'll be anything."

After Ginny took her seat at the table, everyone began to fill their plates while chattering happily. For Reagan, the exchange was like the cheerful family meals she'd once had as a child but now missed sorely.

"Tell us more about this album you've been working on," Lisa called out to Dave. "You've hardly said a word about it while you've been here. Is it some big national secret?"

"No, but what's there to say? It hasn't even come out yet," Dave shrugged nonchalantly.

"That's the exciting part," Lisa insisted. "You get to tell us all about it before everyone else has the chance to have their say."

"Ah, I don't know. You wouldn't be that impressed if I told you the logistics of it. All I did was play drums on the damn thing." At Ginny's stern look, Dave smiled sheepishly and corrected himself. "Sorry, Mom. Uh, darn thing."

"It didn't sound boring when you told me about it," Reagan piped in, moving around the food on her plate with her fork.

"Reagan will tell us then," Lisa said. She gestured in Reagan's direction expectantly. "Won't you?"

"Uhm," Reagan uttered, laughing nervously. In a way, she abruptly understood why Dave had chosen not to talk about the record. It was true that she knew much about it, given everything Dave had told her, but she didn't know how to summarize her thoughts into words regarding something that was larger than life, but still seemingly small at the time.

"Are the songs good?" Lisa pressed, making her obvious excitement for her brother known.

"Really good," Reagan confirmed eagerly. "I've heard a lot of them before at some of the shows. And you know, Dave gave them all his special touch."

"Special touch," Dave mimicked, shaking his head and snorting. It wasn't the first time that Reagan had alluded to his drumming talents as being a "special touch."

"He's obviously shown you that he can play guitar too?" Lisa asked, smiling behind the rim of her glass as she raised it to her lips.

"He's been teaching me to play," Reagan said shyly, glancing at Dave. "Or trying to teach me, I mean."

"Ugh, Dave's not a good teacher. If you want to learn an instrument, come to me. I'll teach you some tricks on bass," Lisa said, scrunching her nose at her brother with playful disdain. The way she jumped from teasing Dave to showering him with pride made Reagan miss her own siblings.

"Not a good teacher?" Dave exclaimed. "Reags, tell her that's not true. I've taught you so much. I might as well be Yoda and she's like, Luke Skywalker."

Reagan parted her mouth in the midst of a smile, amused by Dave's boyish sense of humor that came out around his family. She was also unsure whose side warranted more taking considering that she still couldn't play guitar, but Ginny nudged into the conversation before she was forced to judge Dave's teaching skills.

"They never stop teasing each other," she said, giving her head a shake though there was immense love in her voice. "It's constant banter around this house when I've got them both here."

"My siblings and I are the same way," Reagan offered. "If you get us all in a room together, we never stop."

"That's right," Ginny said enthusiastically, leaning over the table. "I nearly forgot that you told us how big your family is."

"It's my parents and then us five kids," Reagan explained. "But my little sister Kate just graduated and she'll be moving out soon."

"How exciting. Where will she be going to school?"

"The University of Washington. They gave her a scholarship to attend." Reagan smiled proudly, content to celebrate Kate's success while she had so little of her own to acknowledge.

"That's in Seattle, right?" Lisa asked conversationally.

"Yes. It's about an hour away from Olympia."

"Well, it looks like you'll be spending plenty of time in the Seattle area then, Reagan. Between your sister and Dave both being there, I'm sure the visits will add up," Ginny chuckled.

As soon as Ginny's casual suggestion registered in her ears, Reagan felt herself freeze in her chair, each of her limbs stiffening. The roof of her mouth went dry, making it hard for her formulate words.

"What?" she asked, keeping her voice polite though she felt suddenly wracked by nausea. There was no way she had heard Ginny right.

Silence fell upon them all. Ginny looked confused as she trained her eyes back and forth between Reagan and Dave, trying to understand what part of what she'd said had gone amiss. When Reagan stole a glance at Dave beside her, she saw that his face had blanched.

"With Dave moving to Seattle, I thought . . ." Ginny began, trailing off and waving her hand absently through the air.

"Later," Dave said curtly, interrupting his mother. "Let's move on from it, if that's alright Mom."

Lisa concernedly sat back in her chair, eyeing Dave apprehensively with her arms folded across her chest. It was not lost upon her that a secret had been exposed, one that only Reagan had not been in on until that very moment.

"Seattle?" Reagan murmured. Physically, she felt sick and cold, as if she'd been hit with an instantaneous bout of the stomach flu. "You're moving to Seattle?"

"I was going to tell you once we got back," Dave said in a low voice, his assurance sounding rushed.

Reagan could feel all of her questions piling on the tip of her tongue, so quickly that she had no accurate guess of which was to be asked first. That lack of confidence was nothing compared to the stabbing pain she was experiencing right in the center of her gut, so intense that she could have doubled over in pain had she not been sitting down.

In a matter of seconds, everything that she knew of with certainty had been flipped like a switch. All of her desires and happiness had been shoved unceremoniously to a desolated back-burner and only one thing mattered then.

Dave was leaving her. He was leaving Olympia and moving to Seattle. And worst yet, he had not been bothered enough to tell her about it.

If it had not been for Ginny and Lisa sitting directly in front of her, Reagan knew she would have split apart at the seams struggling to keep herself together. But that was impossible to do while she was in the company of them both. It was important that she remain calm, especially when she still had a good impression to uphold.

Beneath the table, Dave's hand slid over Reagan's knee and squeezed tightly. If anger had been her dominant emotion, she probably would have jerked his hand right off of her. But all she was sure of her was her confusion — and her heartbreak.

Clearing her throat and putting on what she hoped was a warm smile, Reagan threw herself back into the conversation. Ginny and Lisa both seemed reassured that there had been nothing except a mere blip in their discussion, but Dave was well aware of the severity of what had happened.

In the moment, Reagan did not care what he thought, nor was she concerned by his presence. As she continued to entertain Lisa and Ginny with stories about her family and compliments of the meal, she was only determined in the back of her mind to not crumple towards the ground in tears.