Disclaimer: Jin, Doozy, Bella and Mona belong to BeautyBedamned.

Force of Nature

“Will this rain ever stop?” Caty grumbles as she flops back against Doozy as they set up the Monopoly board.

“Who was it that said, it can't rain all the time?” Doozy inquires, wrapping a thick arm around his Babydoll.

“Eric Draven,” Sam replies, fussing with his webcam. “The Crow.”

“Brandon Lee?” Doozy asks, eyebrow raising.

“The one and only,” Sam says, then leans back his chair, grinning triumphantly. The storm has done nothing to deter his connection on the internet and he begins the broadcast back home to Tranquility.

“Can't rain all the time,” Caty scoffs as she hefts herself up and off of Doozy. “Right. Tell that to this crazy weather,” she mumbles with a pout that lasts for only a few seconds before looks over her shoulder, toward Amanda sitting on the windowsill. The older girl has her headphones in, following the example Mikaela's set while lounging in an armchair and listening to her iPod, eyes closed and nodding her head to the beat of her own music.

Amanda has her forehead resting to the pane of glass, watching the rain, feeling the thunder run right through her when it rumbles loud enough. She sighs, her warm breath fogging up a spot on the window for a minute or so, then mouths the words to the Janel Parrish song that plays.

I wake up in the morning,
remember that you're gone.
I wondered where the sun went,
the rain is falling now.

A hand on her shoulder makes her snap her mouth shut, turn the volume on her MP3 player down just a little and yank out one headphone to hear Caty clearly as she looks up the younger girl.

“We're gonna play Monopoly,” Caty says. “Wanna play, too?”

Tell me how I'm gonna live without you,
it feels like world's falling apart...

She hits the power button and shuts off her music, smiling faintly as she helps herself off of the sill and slings the wire of her headphones around her neck, tucking the small MP3 player into the pocket of her jeans.

“Sure,” she says, deciding she needs the distraction, because anything is better than thinking about Max, wondering where he is. Smiling, Caty takes her by the hand and leads her to the game. Doozy's on blue, Caty's on yellow, Mona's on red and Amanda takes green after she settles down into an Indian-sit, idly fingering the pendant Bella had brought back for her from New York. The topaz surrounded by the silver circle seems to be the only ray of sunshine she's able to hold on to these days, much to Fievel's dismay.

When the doorbell sounds, probably the pizza Jin ordered for everyone, no one makes a move to answer it, and it's amusing if not a little frustrating.

“I'll get it,” Amanda says, unfolding her legs and walk slowly across the carpeted floor. From the couch, Jin looks around her so he doesn't miss any of Episode III playing on TV, uncut and with no commercial breaks. One of his hands rises, holding out his wallet, and she takes it without even second guessing the motion.

She opens the door, the dampness and humidity wafting in on a cool breeze as she pries apart the folds of leather in search of bills and spare change. “How much?” She asks quietly, eyes downcast, darting between the leather of Jin's wallet and the rain-soaked sneakers of the stranger.

“Pizza's free if you gimme a kiss.”

He grip fails her and Jin's wallet falls to the floor, intact post-impact save for the few coins that managed to bounce out and skid an inch or so across the floor. The TV goes mute, but not in the way sounds disappear in chick-flicks when boy meets girl again; mute as in Jin-hit-the-mute-button. Everything is quiet and everyone is watching as she looks up into familiar dark blue eyes.

“Hi,” Max says with a smirk, “told you I'd be back.”

“'Scuse me,” Jin mumbles, ducking in between the two to snatch the pizza boxes from Max's outstretched hand, then his wallet from the floor. Before slinking away into the kitchen, he whispers into Amanda's ear with a grin on his lips, “don't make me have to pay for these pies, Manda.”

That's when she learns gravity isn't so hard to defy. She launches herself at the blond, arms coming to wrap around his neck loosely, fingers tangling in his damp hair. She leans up on her tip-toes and presses her lips to his, eyes squeezed shut tight and heart aching in that bittersweet way.

After they break apart, she hides her face into the crook of his neck, and breathes in the scent of his cologne mixed with the rain's. There are things she should say, so many things – but the room remains silent because this simple embrace says it all for her.

The thunder sounds in the background, but it is a whisper when compared to the gleeful pounding of her heart.