Zac sat up in bed, a little disoriented from the horrible sleep he had had. He looked around the room, rubbing his eyes a bit. When he was finally awake enough to walk without wabling, he stood up and went to take a shower. He was unhappy to discover the bathroom door closed and the shower running inside. He hit his head against the door and slid down to the floor to catch a little more sleep.

Fifteen minutes later, Isaac came out of the bathroom and almost stepped on Zac before realizing he was there. He nudged him with his foot and waited for him to wake up. Zac's eyes fluttered open and he looked up at Isaac. "Is the shower free?" he asked, not even bothering to stand up.

"Yep but if you don't get in there, Tay might beacha to it. I think I'm hearing sounds of sheets being kicked off in there..." Isaac put a hand to his ear and listened to Taylor kicking off his sheets. Then, there was the sound of floorboards creaking and out came Taylor, rubbing his eyes warily. Isaac thought it was odd that Taylor was shirtless even though he had worn a shirt to bed the night before. He looked down to see Zac already up and heard the bathroom door slam behind him. He smiled and shook his head humorously. "Go back to bed, Tay. Zac got the shower already." he said. Taylor peered at him through sleepy eyes and wobbled back the way he came from. Isaac followed and grabbed a brush to brush his still wet hair.

"I had the strangest dream I've ever had last night! It was so weird!" Taylor exclaimed as he slumped onto his bed, still a bit tired.

"Shoot." Isaac stated, trying to get a tangle out.

"Okay, I was at the park just sitting on a bench, thinking about some things, and then, all of the sudden, Zac comes up from behind and punches me! And he didn't stop there, either. He beat the shit out of me! I don't know why! He just did! It was so s-o-o-o-o weird! I was like �What'd you do that for?!' and he just glared at me! What do you think it means?"

"I think it means you're scared that Zac is going to hurt you for going out with Nell." Isaac took a look in the mirror and grimaced at the beginnings of frizz which were visible on the sides of his hair. He hated having curly hair. "You know, if there was a way that I could switch hair genes with you, I'd do it in a heartbeat." he complained as he made a face in the mirror and turned around to face Taylor.

"Don't even think about it! I like my hair." Taylor covered his hair protectively, eyeing Isaac suspiciously.

"Shut up!"

"Boys, it's packing day! Where's Zac?" Diana said as she came in the room, not bothering to knock. "And where's your shirt?" she looked at Taylor in confusion.

"Zac's in the shower and I had a dream that I must have been very active in because it came off during the night." Taylor looked down at his bare chest and blushed. Diana eyed him.

"What type of dream was this?" she asked suspiciously.

"Zac was beating the shi... crap out of me." he said, quickly correcting his wording so that Diana wouldn't yell at him for cussing.

"Really? Why are you scared of him? He's your younger brother. He's supposed to be scared of you." she smiled and left without giving Taylor a chance to respond. She leaned against the bathroom door and knocked loudly.

"What?!" she heard Zac yell from deep inside the shower.

"You packed yet?!" she yelled back.

"Nope! I'll do it when I get dressed! Don't worry about me!" he yelled back. She sighed and walked into Jessica and Avery's room to make sure they were packed.

Fifteen minutes later, Zac emerged from the bathroom in only a towel and walked/ran to his room to change. When he was fully dressed, he made sure he looked as perfect as he possibly could and walked out of the house, yelling his destination to Diana before shutting the door. He knocked on Nell's door and made sure he looked all right in the side window. He straightened when the door opened and Bev stood in the door frame.

"Good morning Zac. How are you?" she greeted pleasantly.

"I'm good. How's Nell? Is she um... not crying?" he asked, biting down hard enough on his lip to draw blood as a sort of punishment for what he had said.

"Somewhat. I'll get her." Bev stepped back into the house and walked down the hall, leaving Zac to curse himself for ever hurting Nell in the first place. Bev came back a minute later with a perplexed look on her face. "This is going to sound strange but I don't think she wants to see you..." Bev still looked confused. Zac looked down in shame and gave himself an extra hard yelling at in his head.

"Well, we're leaving to tour tonight and I just wanted to say good bye. Could I possibly try to talk to her?" he looked at Bev hopefully.

"You can try. I don't understand why she won't talk to you..." she scratched her head and let Zac in. Zac hurried to Nell's room only to find the door closed. he lightly knocked and waited for a response. The door slowly opened and Nell's form appeared in the doorway, her eyes blood-shot and her hair a mess. he could see she was still in the clothes she had been wearing when he had last seen her. As soon as she saw him, she began to close the door. He quickly stuck his foot in the door, not caring how much the door closing on his foot would hurt. Nell tried to kick it out of the way but he had it firmly planted.

"Nell! I have to talk to you. I'm sorry about what I said. I shouldn't have said it and it was mean and selfish of me to say it. I understand why you don't talk and I respect it. I'm supposed to leave tonight but I won't leave until I know you don't totally hate me. I'll stay here. I swear! I just need you to smile for me. Please?" he begged, pushing the door open against Nell's will and coming into her room. Nell frowned at him and looked away. He tried to hold her but she pushed him away. Out of desperation he dropped to his knees as if he were praying. "Please? I love you and I can't live with myself knowing that I hurt you... Let me change that... I know I hurt you, and I'm sincerely sorry that I did so, but I can't live without knowing that you are going to forgive me. I need you to give me some kind of sign that you forgive me or I won't leave. I'll stay right here until you do." he pleaded, clasping his hands together and giving her a pleading look. She looked longingly at him then turned away, pointing to the door sadly. "Nell! No! Please don't do this to me! I love you! Please?" he begged, not moving from his position on the floor. Nell cringed and forcefully pointed to the door. He frowned and stood up. He walked up to her, kissed her cheek lightly, and left, whispering a quiet "I love you," as he passed. She remained in that position, eyes tightly closed, until he had gone. Then, she broke into tears again.

Zac sulked, kicking a pebble across the street in anger. "Damnit!" he growled. When he finally made it to his house (he had made the thirty-second walk last for ten minutes), Taylor was waiting at the door for him. "I take it she didn't forgive you..." he said as he followed Zac into their room.

"Nope."

"It's okay. She will, she just has to get over the initial shock of what you said. Give her some time, when we get back, she'll be ready and willing to forgive you." he smiled and patted Zac's shoulder.

"Why are you being so nice about this? I mean, you like her too. You should be happy that she's ignoring me."

"Yeah well, you're my brother. I don't like seeing you sad. But, since she's not talking to you, if you don't mind, I want to say good bye to her." Taylor bit his lip and walked outside, hoping Zac wouldn't be mad at him. After his dream, he was trying as hard as possible to make Zac happy but he did want to say good bye to Nell before they left. He decided it was useless to try the front door since he was almost positive that Nell was crying in her room and Bev would tell him to come back later.

He snuck around to her window and peeked in. Sure enough, she was crying on her bed. He quietly slipped the window open and climbed in. Nell looked up and saw him just as he was pulling his leg in.

"Hi. You okay?" he whispered as he climbed all the way in and joined her on the bed. She wiped away some tears and sniffled, shaking her head. "Well, is it Zac?" she nodded fiercely. "Okay, this I can help you with. Zac is crazy. He occasionally says things he doesn't mean. He regrets saying that to you." he pulled Nell into his arms, trying to comfort her even though she had stopped crying and was now watching him intently. He brushed some hair away from her eyes and smiled.

"You know, you have beautiful eyes. I've never seen darker ones. And believe me, I've seen a lot of eyes." she smiled a little. He gave out a little laugh. "and your nose is cute." he tapped her nose with his fingertip, "And your lips are the most magnificent lips I've ever seen in my entire life." he smiled widely and pulled her into a less comforting, more romantic hug. Without a sound from either one their lips met briefly in the sweetest kiss either had ever had.

"Nell, hunny, are you and.... Taylor! How did you get in here?" Bev exclaimed as she walked into the room.

"I came through the window. Sorry, I just thought that after Zac came back home practically crying that she would be too and I kind of knew that if she was like that, that you wouldn't let me see her and I needed to say goodbye before we leave for the tour so... sorry." Taylor looked down in shame and fiddled with the bed spread.

"That's fine, as long as you weren't trying anything funny..." she eyed him with a smirk on her face. From what she had seen, he had been �trying anything funny'.

"No Ma-am! I would never..." he grinned, knowing she had seen them.

"Sure. Well, I have a few things to do but, I'd like to talk to you before you leave." Bev began to turn around to leave.

"I'll find you before I go." he waved after her and smiled. Then, he turned back to Nell who was watching him intently. "What?" he asked, putting his hands up in defense. She considered him for a minute.

"You have amazing eyes." she said. Taylor's eyes almost bugged out of his head. He stood up in shock and gawked at her.

"You.... you..... you..... you..... you....."

"I said something." she smiled up at him and put a hand on his arm. "Get used to it, I trust you enough to talk to you." she whispered as she pushed him back on the bed.

"Have you talked to Zac yet?" Taylor asked, still a little in shock.

"Nope, just you."

"Really? Why me?"

"Because you never even mentioned the fact that I don't talk or tried to get me to talk. Zac always pushes it and then, he yells at me for not! I'm so mad at him! But, you never have mentioned one word except to tell people that I didn't when they asked. I like that about you. You're patient with me. I need someone patient right now."

"But... Zac's like in love with you. Can't you just make up with him or something?" Taylor was very confused by all of this.

"No. I don't want Zac. I want you." she stated, straddling him and placing her arms around his neck.

"Um... okay, why?"

"Okay, now it's time for you to stop talking." she said, pressing her lips on his. He kissed her back, a little unsure of himself, placing his arms around her waist. He was startled to feel her start to push him to a laying position. He decided to go along with this and slowly moved his tongue into her mouth. She responded immediately, playing with his tongue. Taylor let go, in dire need of a deep breath. She looked at him with a hurt expression on her face. "What's wrong?" she whispered.

"Nothing. I just needed a breath. You know, you are a very aggressive kisser. Dang..." Taylor mumbled with a small smile on his face.

"I'm a very aggressive kisser? You haven't seen aggressive from me yet."

"Ooo, a challenge.." he grinned.

"For when you get back...." she smiled back and got off of him.

"Fine. I have to go. We're leaving in three hours."

"I'm going to miss you."

"I'm going to miss you too. Especially now." Taylor grinned and stood up. He pecked her cheek and left the room. "Oh, and before I forget, you should make it a point to forgive Zac, even if you don't want him. He's crushed by this whole thing."

"Maybe."

"Good. You have two months to think it over. So, I'll see you in two months then. �Til then, adios." Taylor did a bow thing, making Nell laugh, then left the room. He went in search of Bev to talk to her like she had asked. He found her out in the garden. "Hi, you wanted to talk to me before I left?"

"Yes. Um.. do you know why Nell is fighting with Zac? What happened?" Bev asked as she shook the durt off of her hands and stood up.

"Oh, Zac yelled at her for not talking and then, she started crying and he left. He regrets it now, he's been crying off and on since it happened." Taylor explained as he stuck his hands in his pockets.

"Really? When was this?"

"You weren't home."

"How do you know about it then? Did he tell you?"

"Actually, he told me but I just happened to be outside waiting for him to come out so I heard him. But, he doesn't know that I heard him so don't tell him that."

"I won't. Could you possibly tell me all that happened and when this happened?"

"Yeah. It happened yesterday. Okay, Zac came over to your house and you weren't home so I think he just went around and climbed in Nell's window. Like I did today. I don't know what happened in there because I wasn't there at the time. But, my mom wanted me to find him so I called and no one answered. I knew he was over there so I just came over. I rang the doorbell but no one answered so I snuck in Nell's window. She and Zac were sleeping on her bed. They looked cute but I had to get Zac home so I woke them up. Zac said he was going to stay with Nell so she wasn't alone in the house and I said whatever and well, I kissed Nell on the cheek to say good bye. I knew Zac would come out some time so I waited in the bushes. I guess Zac got jealous of me or something for some reason because next thing I knew I heard Zac yelling at Nell to call him when she started talking. Then, he climbed out of the window and started crying. I had to walk him home. And that's basically it."

"Really? Interesting. Thank you for that information. I wouldn't have gotten that from Nell. Well, I have things to do so I'll see you later, Taylor. Have fun on tour and be careful. I'll see you when you get back. Tell your brother's I said hi." Bev smiled at Taylor and began to turn back to her gardening.

"See you when I get back." he gave a little wave as he left the yard.

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