Morning is coming...

Dan and Paula exchange glances as Nate leaves the house. Paula's eyes go slightly wide. "What was that all about?"

"I... don't know. Con said things weren't great between those two though."


Laura watches helplessly as Nate leaves. It felt like this was all her fault. When would she learn to just stay away from people so she wouldn't hurt them? When would she learn to just not get involved so she didn't have to say no, and didn't have to look into eyes like Nate's that just broke her heart?

Letting out a cry of frustration, she flops down onto the back porch steps to lean back against the railing. She turns off the tears, not wanting to continue feeling so out of control. She had never felt lower in her life.

"Laura?"

She doesn't move, but lets her aunt come and sit next to her. "He left?"

"Yes." Paula reaches over to rub Laura's back lovingly. "You okay?"

Laura forces out a sorry laugh. "I'm always okay."

"You don't look it." Paula sighs. "You know it's okay to cry."

"I know." Laura looks down. "But I don't want to. I just want to go home."

"Are you sure?"

"Yeah..." Laura nods. "Bryce is gone so... there's nothing for me to worry about, and Katie is there, so I know I'm safe. I don't mean to be ungrateful to you and Uncle Dan."

"Oh, we don't think you are." Paula gives Laura's shoulders a squeeze. "I know, you'd just rather be in your own house and closer to your brother too."

Laura nods again. "I know it's getting late, but..."

"I'll help you." Paula smiles. "Come on."

...It's past midnight, and the driveway is dark. Laura shuts off her car and glances around the yard. The several hour drive had only proven to make her spirits worse. All she wanted was to crawl into bed. The darkness scared her... but she was too angry at that fear to let it get the best of her.

She exits her car with confidence, knowing that her gun was loaded. Grabbing her bag from the back seat, she heads up the porch and finds her key to let herself in. Katie wasn't expecting her, so hopefully she wouldn't wake up from the noise.

Laura lets her bag drop behind the couch, then goes to the kitchen to get something to drink. Odd. The light was on. Maybe Katie was still up after all.

But reaching the kitchen, her eyes widen in shock, seeing a man at the sink with a glass of water. If someone had told her that a man was here, it had been lost in the chaos. But she was in no mood to take chances.

Ryder almost chokes on his water as he turns around to face a blonde woman with a gun drawn. "Whoa, easy, easy." He sets his glass down and puts his hands in the air. "I belong here."

"Who are you?" Laura hisses.

"Ryder. I came back with the group from Australia. Katie let me sack out here for a while." Ryder's heart pounded in his chest, afraid for his own life at this point, though he remained calm. "You must be Laura... right?"

Laura's eyes narrow. She vaguely remembered someone telling her that someone was staying here, but was this guy really telling the truth?

Ryder offers a small smile. "Would a thief stop to get a drink in the kitchen?"

Laura starts to lower her gun. "I suppose not."

"Naw... I'm sorry I scared you. But really... call Katie if you need to. She just went to bed a bit ago."

Right then, Henry decides to enter in on the fun, and starts to weave in and out of Ryder's legs, purring loudly at his new friend.

Laura sees her cat's behavior and now knows for sure that this guy is alright. Otherwise Henry wouldn't bt acting so friendly. "Okay," she relents, withdrawing her gun. "I apologize." She was jumpy. She wasn't going to take risks with any strange guy. But her gut had yet to be wrong, and this guy was telling the truth, no matter how strange it seemed.

"No need." Ryder studies Laura's face. It never ceased to disgust him, how someone could hurt a woman like that, and it pained him to see anyone in this position. "We didn't know when you'd be back."

"Yeah... well, neither did I." Laura sighs and goes to the refrigerator, looking for some iced tea. She had a headache, and now knowing Ryder was on the up and up, she really didn't care if he was there or not. It still seemed a bit odd to her, but she was too tired to think about it. People showed up here all the time. Whatever. If Henry thought this guy was okay, then she'd just trust that, and the name did ring a bell. Not to mention, Katie would never let an intruder get this far.

One would think that Laura would be a whole lot more hesitant around a male stranger right now, but for some reason, her mind seemed to have bypassed the fear mechanism, too tired of being afraid. She was in no-nonsense mode, with forced confidence to get her through. her mind was foggy enough the way it was - she didn't want to clutter it with more information.

Laura gets her tea and leans back against the counter, sipping it slowly. Finally she moves to the living room, wandering past the wall of photos. Looking over them, her eyes land on several recent additions that had Nate's smiling face. Tears suddenly spring into her eyes, even though she fought hard to control them. But the lump rising in her throat seemed more determined than she, now that she was in the safe confines of home.

Ryder watches from a distance, then approaches slowly. He'd been getting ready to go to bed, but he hardly wanted to just flop down on the couch now, when Laura was still up. "You alright?" he asks quietly.

Laura swallows hard and just takes another sip of her tea. But her hands had started to shake, and her grip was lost. The glass falls out of her hand, bouncing off the wall. It breaks, sending glass into a scattered mess, mixed with the tea that starts to immediately soak into the carpet.

Laura lets out a little wail and leans down quickly to clean it up. She just wasn't thinking straight though, and she reaches in too hastily, slicing her palm on a piece of glass. "Oh come on," she grumbles. But the wound had done its damage. A cut normally wouldn't bother her so much, but on a night like to night, she couldn't even predict her own reactions with the way her emotions were bouncing all over the place. Tears start to roll down her face, not so much from the cut, but from the inner wounds that she was trying to pretend didn't exist.

Ryder is quick to grab a couple towels from the kitchen - one for the mess and one for Laura's hand. "Easy does it," he prompts gently as he kneels next to her. "Did it get you bad?"

Laura shakes her head, though she can't get the tears to stop. All the bottled-up emotions that she'd kept inside since Bryce's attack were suddenly racing towards the surface, taking advantage of the opportunity when her wall had been lowered just enough.

"Got you good enough though, ay?" Ryder reaches over to take her hand.

Feeling his touch, Laura jumps back, suddenly thrown back into her pool of vulnerability.

"Hey, hey," Ryder soothes. "I'm not going to hurt you." His eyes begged her to trust him. He knew that while this was a very strong woman in front of him, everyone had their breaking point, and no matter what, at traumatic experience like she'd gone through was just that - traumatic. "I promise."

Maybe it was that she wasn't thinking straight. Maybe it was that Ryder seemed nice. Maybe it was that God knew Laura needed help. No matter the cause, she relents, giving Ryder her hand.

"There we are." Ryder wipes away some of the blood, then wraps the thin towel around her hand. "Put some pressure on that - it's not too deep." He turns to mop up the spilled drink, carefully picking up the pieces of glass.

The tears don't stop. "It hurts," Laura wimpers.

"I know. We should go wash it out."

"No, not that." Laura's voice wavers and she sniffs. "Inside. Everything. It just... hurts."

Ryder pauses and just looks at her, his true heart of compassion showing through. He did have a soft spot somewhere, and right now it was being touched. "I bet it does," he replies quietly. "But you got a lot of friends to help you out, right? Big brother... boyfriend... friends like Katie."

Laura chokes on a sob. "If I don't push all of them away first."

"Hey now..." Ryder leaves the mess for now and moves to sit next to her, their backs against the wall. "You got a right to be upset, ya know? They'll understand."

"Not Nate," she wimpers.

"Your boyfriend?"

Laura nods and draws in a shaky breath. "I broke up with him. That's how I thank him for wanting to take care of me. How horrible is that?" She wipes her eyes with the back of her hand, but the tears don't stop.

Ryder lifts his eyebrows. That must have hurt on both sides. "You don't think he'd understand that you're just going through a tough time?"

Laura shakes her head. "I've been terrible to him... ever since the beginning. I just... I get so scared."

"That he'll hurt you?"

"I don't know." Laura sniffs again, feeling like a blubbering idiot. She didn't even know why she was telling Ryder this. "No... no, he wouldn't ever hurt me."

"So what then?"

"I don't know." Breaking down, Laura burys her face in her hands, shaking as she sobs.

"Aw, hey now... take it easy." Ryder is totally out of his element, he didn't know what to do, and he didn't know how well he'd be received. But he couldn't just do nothing. He could go get Katie, but he hated to walk away like he didn't care.

Finally, he slips an arm around Laura's shoulders. "It's alright," he speaks quietly. "It'll all be alright. Morning is coming."


Axel grins as he fishes through the tall grass. "Novelty. Save the expired coupon for fifty ears when Taco Town is long gone, and it'll be worth money."

Laughing at his own dry humor, he shakes his head. "I don't know. There's no money in there to speak of, so I have to generate interest in the search with something."

It takes a few minutes, but Axel's hands finally find his wallet. "Aha!" He holds it up. "Got it. Now lets get out of here. I got crickets trying to crawl up my pantleg."

Standing up, he helps Jess up too and heads back to the road. Heaving a sigh, he takes one last look around. "Well... that's that then, I guess." Taking route back the way they come, the walk is the same. But this time, Axel lets his hand slip into Jess' to hold until they get back to the house.

Stepping up on the porch, Axel turns to Jess before opening the door. "Thanks, Jess..." He reaches out to tuck a strand of hair behind her ear. "You, um... you mean a lot to me, ya know that? Not many people would have given me the time of day after I'd run away. I just hope that..."

He stops, feeling the heat in his face again as he draws a little closer. "...that you stick around 'cause I need a good thunderstorm to keep me in line."

His hand moves to cradle the side of her face, his thumb mapping out the gentle curves. His eyes meet hers, his stare as deep as ever. "May I?" he whispers.