Unconditional.

As soon as I was off the phone with Louise Kirk I called the insurance company for a new phone. I had a fleeting thought to borrow Holly's phone to call Aidan, but knowing her she was already awake, pouting in bed, waiting for me to return, I knew there was no way I'd be able to speak to him until later that night, at work. I smiled at the thought of Holly waiting for me.

I picked up Ella off the counter and carried her back upstairs, holding her with my arm so I could carry our coffees up. As I predicted, Holly was sitting up in bed, plaiting little braids in her hair and waiting for my laptop to load so she could watch cartoons. I handed her coffee to her and joined her on the bed, putting Ella down in my lap and resting my head on Holly's shoulder.

All I could think about was the phone call. I knew I was worrying way too much, but this was finally real. It was finally happening. I remembered the fire like it was yesterday, but never did I think I'd be the one out of me and Luke to end up in jail. He was the domestic abuser, he was the theif and he was the vandal. I was just the arsonist. Laying all our crimes out on the table, I didn't know which of us was worse. Naively, I always thought he'd be the one to throw his life away and end up in jail, but then again he really had nothing to lose. I, however, had everything to lose.

I felt myself being dragged back to the present as Holly's cartoon started up on the little screen. Holly wasn't looking at me; she had no idea that I was having a little meltdown. She was just watching her show, a massive grin on her face. I couldn't help smiling; it was infectious. She was adorable.

I knew I was staring, but Holly was miles away and didn't notice. I gazed at the freckles on her nose, the tiny dent beside her left eye, her long lashes and her short, chipped blue nails, which had been bitten to the core. With my head on her shoulder, I could smell her sweet honey scent. She was perfect, there was no other word more suitable to use.

Slowly, I lifted my head to kiss her cheek, lingering there for a while and just breathing her in. She turned her head to connect our lips, and I could feel her smiling into the kiss. We weren't touching apart from the kiss, but it was nice. It was comforting. I felt another rush of affection for her, and for a second it stole my breath. Until Holly I'd never really known how much I could love a person. It was ridiculous how much she could make me feel in one instant.

I smiled and reached out to stroke the tiny braids in her hair, looking up so our eyes met. Mischief flitted about in her emerald eyes and she grinned at me, her hand exploring my bare torso.

"You're so beautiful," I whispered, and she connected our lips again, pushing the laptop away so she could straddle my legs, and I pushed the cat off my lap just in time, flinching as the laptop thudded onto the floor.

Her hands explored my chest and she pulled out of the kiss to grin at me. For a moment we just looked at each other, and I drank in the sight of her, wanting to remember every line of her face in case we were ever separated. Her fingers slowly dragged down my stomach, stopping at the waistline of my trackies.

"What are we doing today?" she asked suddenly, and I couldn't help but laugh at her tendency to get so easily distracted.

"Whatever you want to do," I told her, pushing up with my elbows to plant a tiny kiss on her mouth.

"Hmm," she said, looking thoughtful. "I have an idea."

*****

"This is General Peyton," I whispered to my wrist. "Command post has been compromised. Team Josh is going down."

The health bar at the side of my laser gun was half full, and I hadn't even spotted Holly yet. She was a master at disappearing when she didn't want to be found. I knew I was for it, but I wasn't going down without a fight.

I kept close to the wall, creeping along the hall with my gun poised. She had to be in one of the bedrooms, and my bet was that she was in my parents' room at the end of the hall. It was the biggest room, with the most places to hide. But I had to find her before she could shoot me dead.

Suddenly I heard a bell tinkle behind me, and I whirled around to point my gun at Ella, who slunk up the stairs, glaring up at me as I threatened her with a plastic toy.

"Siberian tiger!" I cried, a shooting sound vibrating my gun as I pressed the trigger.

Ella just sat at the top of the stairs, looking at me almost as if to say she thought I was completely bonkers. I feared she was right.

Suddenly a shooting sound similar to mine sounded across the hall, and Holly burst out of my parents' room, guns blazing. She'd managed to find my dad's old bike helmet, and wore it loosely on her head. I gasped and leapt down the stairs, almost falling over Ella and impaling myself as I went. I could hear Holly giggling on the landing as I hurled myself into the living room, to safety.

"Fall back!" I screamed as the life bar on the side of my gun decreased considerably.

I crouched behind the sofa, breathing heavily. My life was on its final leg, and I knew I had lost the battle. Team Holly had practically handed my ass to me.

I peered over the sofa, but the hallway was quiet. I could imagine Holly wriggling under Ilona's bed, waiting for me to come find her again, snickering to herself in absolute glee. To be honest I'd half expected her to build herself a fort in the time I'd spent plucking up the courage to face her in a gunfight.

A car beeped outside and I jumped, my gun going off. I glared at the window, cursing the driver for giving away my position. Apparently I wasn't fit to be a galactic soldier. But I'd spend my final moments trying to disprove that. I crept out from behind the sofa and peered around the door, mentally preparing myself.

"Babe?" I called softly up the stairs. "Parlay?"

"That's pirates!" she replied from one of the rooms, and I grinned, creeping very slowly to the stairs.

"Did I not tell you?" I said, trying so hard not to laugh. "My father was a pirate before he was killed by your galactic soldiers!"

"He deserved it," she shot back, and this time I could tell where her voice was coming from. "He was a scallywag!"

I somersaulted into my room and pressed down on the trigger, pointing under the bed, and Holly squealed. A soft bump indicated she'd hit her head in her panic. I laughed manically, tightening my grip on the trigger.

"Surrender!" I cried as she emerged from under the bed.

"Never!" she yelled, pointing her own gun at me.

And just like that my gun made a dying noise and I knew I had been defeated. I fell to my knees.

"And so... It ends..." I whispered, lying face down on the floor and smiling quietly at Holly's uncontrollable giggles.

"VICTORY!" she screamed, jumping on me and knocking all the air out of my gut.

With the 'last of my stength' I reached for Holly's phone and called Tristan. Holly tried to wrestle the phone off me, but with one free arm I was still stronger than her, managing to hold her off just long enough for Tristan to pick up and me to whisper six words:

"This is General Peyton... Requesting... Backup."

Holly squealed and snatched the phone off me, hanging it up and throwing it across the room. Still dying, I let Holly fish around in my desk for handcuffs (please just don't ask) and secure me to the bed as her prisoner. I held my 'wounded' stomach with my free hand, gasping, and Holly beamed. She took my gun and put it out of reach, still clutching her own.

"Snowy," she said to Ella, who had just slunk into the room, "guard the prisoner."

She marched out of the room, resting her gun on her shoulder. I heard the stairs creak as she padded down them, and I smiled, shaking my head. Holly's ideas were always so strange and out of the blue, but I loved her for it. For a whole hour we'd been running around the house shooting each other, and I hadn't thought about Louise Kirk or the court order once. I'd just had a great time with my amazing girlfriend.

Ella climbed into my lap and settled there, and we listened to Holly pottering around in the kitchen. The smell of burnt toast wafted up the stairs and I snickered. Bless her, she tries, I thought fondly.

Ten minutes later Holly thumped up the stairs, juggling two plates and her gun. She put the plates down on the desk and hurried back downstairs for drinks, and I held onto the cat so she didn't go explore our lunch like I knew she would. Seconds later, Holly returned with two glasses of orange juice.

"I was gonna make egg on toast," mumbled Holly, sitting on the floor beside me and handing me my plate, "but I burnt the toast so you got a fried egg sandwich instead."

"That'll do," I teased, and she pointed her gun at me threateningly. "I don't suppose I can be freed so I can eat properly...?"

"Nope," she giggled, and I rolled my eyes.

So I ate my sandwich with one hand, trying my best not to get egg all over myself. I balanced my plate on Ella's back, and due to some miracle she didn't get pissy and dart away, spilling my plate's contents all over me; all she did was growl a little bit.

The doorbell rang just as I finished my sandwich, and I tried to get up to answer it, forgetting I was cuffed to the bed and falling back, whacking my spine on the bedpost and swearing. Holly laughed and leapt to her feet, bounding downstairs to let my backup in. Seb was first up the stairs, bursting into the room claiming he was here to rescue me. I rolled my eyes and lifted the corner of the bed, sliding the cuffs off the leg and freeing myself as Tristan, Rachel, Leo and Holly followed Seb into the room. Holly scowled.

I grinned and reached for my gun, hitting the reset button so all my lives returned to the bar on the side.

"Ladies," I said, grinning, "looks like we've got more guns to buy. Round two. Team Josh versus Team Holly."

It felt good to see all my friends. It felt like I hadn't seen them in weeks. I'd missed talking to Rachel about my problems and listening in turn about hers. I'd missed playing two on two football with the boys while Holly and Rachel sunbathed together. But I'd been avoiding them. I didn't want to tell them about Luke or the court order or how worried I was. Seb was the only one out of the lot of them who knew.

We piled into my dad's car, Rachel sitting on Tristan's lap in the back with Holly and Leo, and Seb sat in the passenger seat beside me. As soon as the car started, the four in the back began singing songs, so Seb and I were free to talk quietly to each other.

"Have you got a new phone yet?" Seb asked impatiently. "I hate ringing your house phone; your mum always answers and sometimes she doesn't even let me speak before hanging up."

"Sorry," I sighed, shaking my head. "She's impossible. Anyway yeah, I rang the insurance company earlier. I should be getting it soon."

"Good."

We were quiet for a moment before I spoke again.

"I got a phone call from a lawyer today," I muttered, and Seb's eyes widened. "We arranged a meeting for tomorrow."

"With Aidan?" he asked, and I nodded. "Are you sure you want joint representation? You know you could walk away from this if you just tell the truth, right?"

"And what?" I hissed. "Let Aidan go to jail and watch me go free? I don't think so."

"You shouldn't lie in court," he warned, and I shook my head.

"I can't just sit by and let Aidan take all the blame."

"So you're going to go to jail and let Luke win."

"No," I snapped. "Yes. Maybe."

I didn't realise they'd stopped singing in the back until Seb went quiet. I didn't know how much they'd heard, but my gaze went straight to the rearview mirror, where I got a perfect view of the hurt look on Holly's face.

I immediately felt awful. The look on her face tore my heart into a dozen little pieces. I hadn't told her the whole truth about what happened on the night of the fire, but I had a feeling she knew. And the fact that she knew I'd lied to her, the fact that I knew she was hurting because of me... It was too much to bear.

I tore my eyes off her and tried to focus on the road, my eyes stinging but refusing to let any tears escape. Holly could hate me later. But for now, our afternoon of forgetting our sorrows could be salvaged. I turned the car into the car park of Toys R Us and forced a smile.

"So," I choked out, trying to clear my throat before continuing, "who's ready for a gunfight?"