When Nick came back from Boston, he was so surprised by what he saw that he almost asked where his real sister was. Jade looked more at peace than he'd seen her since their father died. She'd even looked like she'd gained a few much-needed pounds.

"What did you guys do to her?"he asked Diane, watching Jade joke with Isaac while putting her stuff in the car.

Diane smiled."Ask Isaac. He's the one who's spent the most time with her. In fact, he barely let her out of his sight all week. She even slept in his room."

He raised his eyebrows. That did not seem like the kind of thing Diane would react that calmly to.

"She had a nightmare the first night,"she explained."After that, he refused to let her stay alone. He stayed on the floor on watch all night. He's barely slept."

Nick made a mental not to thank Isaac profusely later on. He was really making Jade happy.

****

Jade frantically threw clothes out of her closet. She was going out to see a movie with Isaac and for the first time in two years, was interested in wearing something that was neither baggy nor black.

There was a soft knock on the door (which Jade didn't notice over the blast of her stereo) and Nick stepped into the room."Jade? Is it okay if I, oh my god!"He quickly turned his head at the sight of his little sister standing in the middle of her room wearing nothing but a matching underwear and bra set. Red satin no less.

She was unconcerned. All she could focus on was her quest for a halfway decent outfit. She was really happy that day and just wanted to look it."I have nothing to wear,"she moaned.

Nick took that as a good sign. He slowly, avoiding looking Jade's way, started making his way to her closet. It was packed with clothes that all looked pretty good to him, but he knew how girls could be so he attempted to push aside some shirts to look for something that looked really good.

"How about this?"he asked, holding up a simple light blue flowered dress.

She stared at it curiously. She had no memory of the dress. No, wait! Now she remembered...

****

"What's in the box?"Jade asked as Taylor stepped into her room.

Clutching the small square box in his arms, he grinned."Not yet,"he said, setting the box aside, annoyingly out of her reach, and leaned in to kiss her.

There was something about Taylor's lips on hers that was just so beautiful it made her feel unworthy of all his beauty. She was sure that it would sound corny, it even did to her, but that was just the only way to describe it. Only someone who had kissed Taylor would be able to understand that.

She pulled away and smiled sweetly at him."Now can I see what's in the box?"she asked.

"Hmmm,"he mused, and she decided he'd had enough time to think and tackled him, trying to wrestle the box away from him.

He let her have it and she ripped off the cover, pulling out a pretty blue flowered dress."It's beautiful,"she told him.

"I thought you could wear it when we go to New York,"he said, watching for her reaction.

"New York?"She looked confused.

"We're going to be on the Today show and I thought you would look pretty in it when I introduce the whole country to my girlfriend,"he said softly.

Her mouth dropped open."But I thought you liked to keep your private life private."

"I want to show you off to the whole world."

****

His words echoed as she realized Nick was calling her name and she was still holding the blue dress tightly in her hands.

"Are you going to wear the dress?"he asked.

Jade looked down at it."Not today,"she said softly."I'm not ready."