A/N; I'd like to Xiaoshwind and BalloonSmiles for their reviewers and restoring my interest in this story, I almost gave up on it. I hope that this chapter renews people in it.

Kimiko cried for the entire flight. She tried to stop many times. She tried to stay strong or at least sober, but failed miserably. Kimiko wanted the damn plane to land. She wasn't in the mood for any of this, nothing went according to plan down in Texas. She was supposed to talk him into it. She was supposed to make him want to come home. He was going to tell her that he missed the Temple. They would be together again, as a family. Raimundo and Clay would go back in forth over the stupid little things. Clay would make fun of Rai for being a video game addict, and Rai would make bad Texas accent impressions that irritated Clay.

No, that's not what happened. Clay didn't even pay attention. Clay didn't talk about the Temple. He didn't even ask about Master Fung, Guan, Omi, Rai, anybody. When she tried to talk about the Temple or an old fight he would change the subject. He would talk about the ranch or Aiden, he'd even resorted to football and the weather.

She wondered whether or not Clay would even come after her. She wanted him too, but she wouldn't be surprised if he didn't. Clay Bailey was a coward. That was a tough pill to swallow for her, Clay had always been her protector. He would throw himself in dangerous situations for her and he would encourage her long after he had given up on her.

That was the Clay she wanted. She wanted the Clay that had stood in front of her and told her that he loved her. For a brief moment she had the real Clay back, and she ran out on him.

She couldn't even bring herself to think about Aiden. The space around her felt so empty without having the plastic of his car seat poking and irritating her skin. It had even crossed her mind a couple of times to check on him, and having to herself that she didn't have him. He was with his dad.

She just hoped that he was okay.

Clay tried to enjoy his lunch with Catherine, but couldn't keep Kimiko out of his head. For her to just bail like that was just, unlike her. Kimiko would have at least faught him. She would have called him names or hit him if she hadn't wanted him to kiss her. Kiss her, yeah that was by far the stupidest thing he'd done. Their relationship was already on the rocks, and he just went and pushed it off of the nearest cliff.

What gave him hope though was that she didn't fight him. Which for Kimiko was a good thing. It meant that she wanted him to or at least thought about him doing it.

He'd just talk to her when he got home. She was probably there waiting for him.

"Clay?"

"Hm?"

"Did you hear me? I asked why Kim didn't want to come out with us tonight."

Clay watched the brown eyed girl for a minute, and the question popped back in his head. "Do you love her, Clay? Catherine" Clay made a mental note to ask Kimiko why she thought that. Why would she think that?

"I guess she just wanted to go home."

Clay made idle chit chat with Catherine and finally got Kimiko out of his head, thus getting home later than he had originally planned. It was getting close to dark, and it would be close to Aiden's bed time which meant that the two would be virtually undisturbed during their talk.

As good as that sounded, he still had a gut feeling that it wasn't going to be a good talk. Kimiko had done so much for him, he was scared that it might have put too much strain on their relationship. Too much strain that it couldn't be fixed. He was terrified that he might have fucked this up beyond recognition, and that there was no fixing it.

No. He wouldn't accept that as an answer. He wouldn't give up on them. Even if it meant that they could never be together in a romantic mindset, he would never accept that they could never be friends again. He needed her. She'd long since become apart of him. He couldn't imagine his life without her in the picture. He couldn't live that way. It'd be too miserable.

He got home and killed the engine before he sat back in the seat for a minute. It was what he usually did when he had this feeling. He had the same feeling when he'd first got to Texas. He didn't want to feel like this again. It was the feeling of knowing that nothing would turn out like you wanted it too, no matter how hard you fought for it.

He swallowed absent mindedly as he got out of the truck and shuffled into the house. He was instantly comforted by the smell of his mother cooking super, but was confronted by the lack of chatter. He didn't hear Kimiko talking on her cell phone or talking to his mom or to Aiden.

She wasn't here. Where was she?

"Momma? I'm home!"

"Clay? Come in the kitchen for a minute son. I need to talk to ya. There's somethin' you need to know."

"You seen Kim?"

Clay came into the kitchen and took a seat at the table, watching his mother put the final touches on the food and then sitting down at the table with him. That was weird, she never sat at the table in the kitchen. There was nothing particularly wrong with it, it was just unnatural to see his mom there.

"Honey. Kim's gone back home. She's gone back to the Temple."

Clay literally thought he stopped breathing for a minute as his heart jumped a couple paces. He could think of only one question to ask.

"Did she take Aiden?"

"No, honey. Jessie's got him up stairs."

Clay just simply got up from the table and went upstairs to see his son. He needed to hold him, make sure he was okay before he divulged in his own feelings. He forced himself to walk by Kimiko's room instead of going in there just to check. He knew she wasn't here, he knew that before his mom told him.

Kimiko had actually left him. Left without saying goodbye. Left without a reason.

This was his fault and he knew it. He had pushed her away one too many times and now she finally gave up on him. He'd finally managed to put his last flame of hope out. Great job he's done fucking everything up again. Royally.

He walked into Jessie's bedroom and saw her playing with a rubix cube, showing Aiden the different patterns and colors. Clay always hated puzzle games like that. He could mess with it all day long and not be any closer to the solution. Aiden seemed to enjoy watching the patterns. He laughed as Jessie narrated the toy, giggling in his cute baby way. Jessie saw him standing in the door way, leaning against the panel.

"Hey big brother, you okay?" She asked him, trying to get a read on his emotions. She had always been the bad ass of the family. Clay had always been the one to do right. Clay didn't deserve to feel abandoned. No one did.

"She's gone."

"I know, momma told me."

"Do you, um, do you know why-she left?"

"She said that you needed to figure this out on your own, big brother."

"Oh."

"She wanted me to give you this."

Jessie held out a folded piece of paper with Kimiko's hand writing on it. He knew it. She'd never leave without an explanation. He took the rough paper from his little sister and sat down on the bed to read it.

Clay walked out of the bedroom so neither his son or his little sister would see the tears running down his face. He'd finally managed to run her off. She was actually gone. He gripped the paper in his hand a little tighter, the crinkling noise was soothing for some reason.

Clay wiped his tears away from his face, just like Kimiko did on the plane back home.