Don't let me

Laura can't help the smile that creases her lips, despite the tears in her eyes. "Only mine," she answers ruefully. "Look, Nate...I...I'm sorry...you were right...I'm not okay. And...I'm just sorry that I lied and said I was. I guess I just...I don't know..." She sighs. "I just don't know, but I really am a bit jumpy right now and I just needed...." She bites her lip, contemplating her words and wondering at their truth. "I just needed to hear somebody's voice to know that I was okay."

She takes in a ragged breath as the tears threaten to gain strength. "And...I've been thinking about...well, about a lot of things, and..." She scrunches her nose, hating the way she sounded as she stammered around. "Nate, don't let me get away with pushing you away," she finally blurts out. "I like you...a lot...but you're gonna have to get pushier with me if you wanna keep me around, and I'm just telling you that because I know me, and I won't let you stick around if it's just me, because I'm scared to death and I'll just mess everything up. If you don't want to set me down and give me a good talking to every once in a while so I get my head on straight though, I understand and that's fine, and we just won't go there, but I thought I'd let you know and let you choose, and...."

Laura stops short, catching her breath as her face grows red. "I...yeah, so...yeah."


Carson snatches the keys from Misty. "Good. Last time I drove your car, I was saving your butt, so let's not have a repeat, okay?"

He grins and sidles past her, dragging her along as his arm makes its way around her shoulders. "How about chinese? Mm...that sounds good tonight."


Con watches Jamie walk away to find the girls, and sighs deeply. he still couldn't believe or understand how quickly things had turned around...how he'd suddenly begun to see Jamie in this light...but he wouldn't want to give it up. It was too nice of a feeling.

Getting to his feet, he ambles to the trail to head for the boys. "Hey, you guys catch anything yet or what?"


Jason rolls over on his bunk, his ribs sore from the fall he'd taken earlier. He knew it had been Tucker, but had said nothing to anyone. But if today was any indication on what the future looked like, it wasn't exactly something he was looking forward to. He'd also discovered that he was not being treated by the prison like the others either, forced to remain without contact from anyone for at least a month without so much as any rights of his own. Jason knew someone was getting paid off, but how could anything be proven? He was stuck in a corrupt system, and no one could do anything about it.

Lifting his eyes, he can just make out a single star in the sky outside the tiny barred window. He wondered how everyone was...he wondered how Katie was. He could only hope that she was not feeling his pain, though he knew it wasn't likely. She was suffering right along with him, and he knew it. If only he could block out his emotions...but he had yet to figure out how to do that with her. It was a blessing and a curse.

Rolling over again, he tries to get some sleep. Tomorrow would be another long day.