Set Fire to the Rain

Sitting next to me, very closely I might add, and never letting go of my hand, Shannon and I sat at the small table together casting small glances at one another for the rest of the night. Nothing was spoken about the future or the past, it wasn't the time or the place, I knew the time would come all too soon, so I was relishing this time just being close to him again.  The party was ending; we had sung 'Happy Birthday' to JT, and had eaten food and cake. Now people were milling around saying their goodbyes. I was not looking forward to this moment, since it seemed like I had just gotten Shannon back. I think I did, at least. Though I am not exactly sure what the deal is right now. I took a chance and peaked at him. Reaching his free hand over, he moved a loose strand of hair out of my eyes and wrapped it behind my ear, letting his finger linger a moment. 

"Hey." He said with a small smile.

"Hey yourself."

"I want to ask you something, and I want you to hear me out before you make a decision, ok?"

"Alright..." Suddenly very curious.

"So we obviously have a lot to talk about, and I am nowhere near ready to let you out of my sight tonight.  And, well.... I was wondering if you would come home with me. I am not expecting anything to happen in that way; I just think it would be nice to spend some time alone together to hopefully explain everything and figure some things out. That's all I am asking for. Give me a chance, please." 

"Yes" I said so softly, I wasn't sure if he actually heard me. But judging from the enormous smile that spread across his face, I guess he did.

I reached for my crutches, and Shannon stood at the same time grabbing the sweatshirt that he had draped on the back of his chair and slipped it on. Looking around the room for Jack and the rest of my family, I found him talking  with Jared, Emma and Zoe. Jared, I noticed, had his arm wrapped around Zoe's waist and she was resting her head on his shoulder. They were deep in a serious conversation from what I could see. Feeling a pair of strong arms wrap around me from behind, I turned my head and looked back into Shannon's eyes and smiled. Leaning into me he gave me a simple kiss on my cheek and said he was ready to go when I was. 

"I just want to go say goodnight to Jack and find the kids to say goodbye to them. Shit, I need to make sure that it's ok if Jack stays at the house with JT tonight and tomorrow." Blushing suddenly, I looked away from him. I was suddenly  feeling very shy. God, what was wrong with me. It's not like I am a 15 year old girl or something, but everything about this man makes me feel that way. 

"Jacks cool with it. We already talked it over, and he agreed to stay, if you agreed to give my worthless ass another chance." 

"Don't be stupid. Wait. Jack knew?"

"Not about everything I had planned tonight, but yeah, we had a few very interesting conversations."  He said with a chuckle. I don't think I really want to know. 

"Um, great. I think." 

"Oh, it's not that bad. Don't worry. He's cool with tonight, as long as you are happy." Leaning in closely to my ear, he whispered "And are you happy Eliza?" Again, all I could do was nod in response. "Good, because that's exactly how I want you. Now lets say our goodbyes, so I can finally have you all to myself." Then he winked, took my bag and started to walk beside me with one hand resting on my lower back.

We arrived next to Jared, Zoe, Jack, Emma and the kids; who had joined them along with Evan and Ari.  JT walked over and wrapped me in a very warm embrace, not letting go as I thought he might. 

"Mom, thank you, thank you, thank you for tonight! Not only was it the most fucking amazing party, it was the best time I have had in a really long time, with everyone. My friends haven't stopped talking about how much fun they all had. You are the best!!! And I haven't forgotten that you got up on that stage tonight either. I know now hard that was for you to do.  Oh, and I wanted you to be the first to hear, Ari has agreed to be my girlfriend, officially!" JT said, beaming from ear to ear.

"Jake, you are more than welcome, and congratulations to both of you. I am thrilled for you both." I hugged the two of them as best I could and congratulations were spread around by the rest of the group. High fives and pats on the backs were given by the guys, and they hugged Ari as she just soaked it all in. Ari was over the moon happy. She had been waiting for this moment for years. 

Jack ambled over, and Shannon graciously went to talk with Jared giving us a moment alone to talk. "So... Are you sure you are really ready to do this El?" He asked me, with his hands stuffed into his jeans pockets, looking completely uncomfortable.

"Really Jack? Nothing like THAT, is going to happen. I am sooooo not ready for it. We aren't even dating for gods sake! Give me a little credit please. All that is going to happen is we are going to sit and talk things through. We need to talk. He is going home in a couple days if I remember correctly. So there is a lot to talk about. No funny business. Ok? And what's this about you knowing what was happening here tonight?" I asked slightly agitated.

"El, don't get all defensive on me ok. I just wanted to make sure that this was what you really wanted and that you weren't feeling pressured because of their little performance earlier. To answer your question, no I didn't know exactly what was happening. I only knew that Shannon was going to stop by and ask you if you would be willing to go home with him for the night and talk things over. He said there may or may not be a little more to it than that, but he couldn't get into it, and that I had to trust him. Fat chance." Jack grumbled. 

"Jack! Stop that! I trust him, and that's all that should matter right now. So be nice!" With that I stomped his foot with one of my crutches. Not too hard, but hard enough to prove the point that I was annoyed with him. 

"Fucking hell, Eliza! Really?!"

"Yes, now, stop being an over-protective jerk, come give me a hug and wish your favorite sister luck." 

"You are lucky we are related and that I love you as much as I do, because I could arrest you for assaulting a police officer. Come, hobble with me. I have your things in the car."

I raised an eyebrow in question, and he looked at Shannon, who then caught my eye. I told Jack I would be right behind him, because I wanted to say my final goodbyes to the kids and the rest of the group. Hobbling over to Jared, Shannon, Emma, Tomo, Zoe, the kids and their respective dates, I started to hug and kiss everyone goodbye.

"Zoe, it looks like things went really well tonight." I said to her with a big smile.

"Oh my god, it's been beyond perfect. Jared has been an absolute gentleman, though I wish he would show me his bad boy side." She winked, and leaned in to whisper in my ear "But I can wait for that." 

"Waiting is good. Especially with Jay. He wants to do this right, and make this work. So just hang in there. I really don't want to know anything about the bad boy part, but I hope your dreams come true, darlin'." 

"Understood, and I think when that does happen, and believe me I will make sure it does, I will keep that all to myself. On to much more public knowledge, it appears it was a very good thing that a piano didn't fall on your boyfriends head. He was very impressive up on that stage tonight. I thought you said he only drummed, played guitar, and piano. You never said he could sing."

"You wanted a piano to fall on my head?" Said a the man of the hour.

"No!! I never said that! I said it would be horrible. I ..... Ughhhhhhh!" I lifted on hand to hide my face in shame while resting on the crutches to keep the loose one from falling over. 

"To set the record straight, I'm the one who said it, but you were being a dick, and she was hurt, and in pain. And I'm not talking about the physical kind  either, buddy. But to Eliza's credit, she stood up for you even after you left her there. Alone. Broken hearted."

"Zoe, thank you. Come here and give me a hug. We need to go."

"Good luck sis. I love you, and be safe. If you need anything, you have me on speed dial, and you know you can call me any time. I don't care what time it is. And YOU!" Zoe said poking Shannon in the chest and speaking in a deadly serious tone, so you knew not to fuck with her. Not that you would anyway."If you hurt this amazing woman again, so help me, I will hunt you down, castrate you with a rusty butter knife very slowly, then kill you. After that I will make your life a living hell. Do not fuck this up mister. Are we clear?"

Shannon could only nod, as Jared stood there laughing hysterically behind her with Tomo and Emma was in shock. The kids were very impressed I think. At first I didn't know what to do, so I decided that getting the hell out, before anyone else jumped on the let's lecture Shannon bandwagon. 

I hugged Zoe once more as best I could, and before letting go I said to her, "Zoe I love you very much. Thank you for that, but I will be ok. I promise, that if anything happens and I'm not ok, I will call you immediately. Alright?"

"Good. That's all I wanted to know. And of course i just wanted to make sure he knew where we stood." 

"You mean that you wanted to scare the ever loving shit out of Shannon?"

"Exactly, babe. Now get your sexy self out of here and get things straight with the man already." 

"That's what we are doing." Giving one last hug and kiss, I looked at a slightly nervous Shannon, and inclined my head towards the entrance. 

A look of total relief washed over him, and he said goodby to Jared and the rest then we headed outside to a slightly annoyed Jack who was waiting by his car. We gathered my bag, said our goodbyes, the men shook hands. Shannon had his car parked right next to Jacks so I only had to walk a short distance. Once settled inside, Shannon placed my bag in the back seat, and came back to me, leaning in and running his hand along the side of my face. I had missed his touch so much. All I wanted right now, more than anything, was to kiss him. I was disappointed when he pulled back and took my crutches with him placing them in the rear seat also. Shannon climbed inside, put his seatbelt on and started the engine. He took a long look over at me and gave me a slow smile, it stole my breath away. I couldn't look away.

"God, I have missed you." He said then ran his hand through his hair. Putting the car in gear and turning the music on low, Shannon pulled out of the parking space and started to make his way towards the city. "El, it's been a really long day for you, and I know you must be in pain. Why don't you sleep on the way home." Ahh, home. I loved the sound of that. Don't read too much into it , I thought to myself.

"I don't feel much like sleeping. Besides, what if I wake up and find out its all been a wonderful, beautiful dream? I don't think I could stand it." 

"I promise when you wake up, I will be right here. I am not going anywhere, unless you want me too."

"No! That's not what I want." Reaching his hand over, he took my hand  in his, and intertwined our fingers. A steady rhythm of his thumb tracing different designs on the back of my hand began to sooth me. 

"Shhh. Sweetheart, then I won't be going anywhere. Now sleep. We have plenty of time to talk later." Lifting my hand to his soft lips, he kissed the back of my hand, then placed it back on the console between us and began the steady rhythm once again. I continued to watch his beautiful face in the shadow and lights from the highway as he drove. Exhaustion finally took over, and sleep took me.

____________________________________________________

David's POV

Standing across the street from the karaoke place, hidden in the woods, I waited patiently as people were leaving from the party for my son. My son. I can't say I'm surprised that I wasn't invited to the party. I did try to run Eliza off the road after all. Though the only people who believed her right now were two of her friends from what I hear. I was waiting for a glimpse of my kids. I had already seen Lizzy. Tonight had worked out better than I had planned. You see, I had a small gift for my beautiful Lizzy. I couldn't give it to her myself, so I had to find someone to do it for me. Finding an eager, young waiter that wanted to earn a few extra bucks, wasn't that difficult. He was all too happy to help deliver my little gift to Lizzy. He had specific instructions on who he had to find, and that he wasn't to be seen slipping my gift into her bag. Once the job was done, he got his money. With that taken care of, all I had to do was wait. Granted I wasn't happy to see that fucking drummer and his family show up here tonight, but what burned even more was that Lizzy had gotten into his car a few minutes ago with an overnight bag and left with him. The kicker was that Jack was the one who handed the bag to the prick. What the fuck Jack was thinking I don't know. He is a useless thorn in my side. Maybe something will happen to him in the line of duty. Hmmm, now wouldn't that be a shame. Details, details.