Remember the sky that you were born under,

know each of the star's stories.

Remember the moon, know who she is.

Remember the sun's birth at dawn, that is the

strongest point of time. Remember sundown

and the giving away to night.

I got a call this morning telling me that Davis pleaded guilty to his charges of drug possession and child endangerment. He'll be in jail for a ten years, maybe seven for good behavior. I haven't been able to stop smiling all day. I hadn't been following his case very closely because I've had so many other things going on but the fact that he's getting put away just takes a load of weight off of my shoulders.

Especially after the trouble that he tried to cause for me by putting the police on my tail, I feel absolutely relieved that he's put away for so long. In seven years, I highly doubt that he'll even be able to find me if he holds his grudge that long—which he probably will.

To celebrate the downfall of my old foster father, I decide to take Micah to his favorite bakery near the senate building after work.

"What's the occasion?" As we walk hand in hand toward the bakery.

"My foster father will be going to jail for at least seven years. But knowing him, he'll probably be stuck in there for the whole ten. Anyway, he's out of my hair for good, and I want to celebrate that," I explain to him. It's Friday now— a whole week after our successful weekend away in my apartment. After the fiasco that was our short break, we've been practically inseparable. If he's not in class or with a study group, he's with me either at the office or at my apartment. I'm loving every second of it.

"That's great, El. But didn't you say that he knows other important people? You should probably still just be careful," He warns me slowly.

"I know that. I just want to celebrate this one victory before I worry about the possible bad things that might happen later," I admit. He clearly has an in with the police department but now that I'm not working as an escort anymore, they don't really have anything on me. And my pull with being Senator Barkley's daughter was clearly more important because it got me out of their investigation.

He said that he knows some important business men, but I'm assuming that I've slept with those friends that he has. That's how he must have known about what I'd been doing to make ends meet. So, I highly doubt that those men would try to come after me for their friend since I have dirt on them as well.

I know that I can't completely dismiss Davis as a threat, but I can worry about him a lot less.

"You should call Josie, tell her the good news," Micah suggests.

"I don't think that her dad is letting her talk to me. Ever since the amusement park, she hasn't been answering her phone," I inform him with a long sigh. "I can't say that I blame the guy, but I would like to tell her that he's being put away."

"Can't you just tell her dad? That way, at least he can tell her and she knows that she's safe from him."

"I would, but the last time that we talked about it, Josie didn't want to tell her dad about what happened." We go into the bakery and Micah's favorite M&M topped brownies are on display right next to the peanut butter brownies. I'm not in the mood for a brownie today, but I do see an inviting display of coconut fudge.

"Wait, he doesn't know?" Micah stops short of the counter to order our desserts when I tell him that.

"She was afraid of telling him," I explain. "She didn't want him to get all heroic and do something stupid. Or go to the police and make her sit through a trial."

"You have to tell him, Eleanor," He insists. I continue walking to the counter and order myself some fudge and an M&M brownie for Micah. He stops talking just long enough for me to place our order and pay for the two desserts before he continues saying, "The man has to know what's going on with his daughter."

"I'm not telling him anything," I say quickly. "If she doesn't want to tell anybody, I understand. I didn't tell anybody either. At least she has me to talk to. At least, she did."

"It's his daughter," He reminds me.

"I tried to talk her into telling him, but she wasn't ready," I defend myself. I don't know why he's so surprised and offended about this, or why it's such a big deal to him that Josie's dad know about what Davis did to her. "I'm not going to force her into a situation that she's not comfortable with."

"But-"

"Micah," I stop him from continuing. The employee hands us the brownie and the fudge and we take a seat at one of the small tables near the window of the store. "I love you. But I know more about this situation than you do. I get from a parent's perspective that he'd probably like to know what happened to his daughter. But I'm looking at this from Josie's perspective, and she wasn't ready to tell him. She would feel humiliated and betrayed if I told her father without her being okay with it. It'd been four years since it happened to me when Casey found out, and I still felt humiliated."

"He could get her help though," He adds. "And I know that you're great help to her, but I mean professional help with a therapist who knows how to deal with situations like these."

"If she wanted professional help, she would say something."

"It's not always that easy for somebody to ask for the help that they need," Micah insists. "He should know."

"I will talk to Josie about it again if that'll make you happy," I try to appease my very concerned boyfriend. "But I'm not going to tell her father what happened without her asking me to do so. It's her secret to tell."

"Okay," He seems to be happy with that answer for the time being. "Sure, that sounds reasonable."

"I never got professional help," I continue. "And I got over it. I know that not every person reacts the same to a situation like that, but I'm just saying that it's possible to move on without a therapist paving the way for you."

Micah reaches over the sticky table and wraps his fingers around my hand. "Yeah, but you're the strongest person on this planet and there's nothing that you can't do. Not everybody is as strong as you."

"She'll be okay," I promise him. "How are classes going?"

I know that he doesn't want to change the subject, but he lets me anyway. I hope that he can see that I know what's best here because I've been through what she's going through. I know that not everybody heals in the same way, but I still know what she's going through. I know that going over her head to tell her dad would just make things worse for her.

"Classes are going well. I'm starting to look for jobs over the summer. Paralegal work, stuff like that," He tells me.

"Are you going to have to wear a suit every day and carry a briefcase?" I ask him after taking a bite of my delicious fudge.

"Yeah, something like that," He confirms with a short laugh. "Why, does that do something for you?"

"You in a suit? Oh, definitely," I smile at him. "Any ideas where you want to work?"

"I have my eye on a few firms," Micah takes a bite of his brownie and some of the icing gets stuck on his lip. "But I'm not partial to one over the other. Just whichever one gives me a job."

"Are you staying here or going back to Oregon for the summer?" I ask him. I know that it's premature to be making summer plans considering fall just started, but I'm just curious.

"I'm not sure," He blinks at me a few times and then looks down at his brownie. "I've applied to firms in both places. I figure that it'll depend on who offers me a job, and what we want to do. Like I said, I don't really care where I work, so I'll go wherever."

"I'll probably have to stay here with your dad," I remind him.

"That's what every guy wants to hear his girlfriend say," Micah says jokingly. "It's alright though, we have a ton of time to figure out what's going on this summer. I'm only just now starting to apply, so planning for the summer is way off."

"You're right," I agree with him. "What are your plans this weekend?"

"Golfing with Jay and some other guys," He answers me. "You can come if you want, I just don't think that golf is your thing."

"It's really not. That's fine though, I haven't been able to just relax in a while, so I could use some time to myself this weekend," I realize that since Davis is officially behind bars, my bones feel a lot less heavy. Lighter than they've felt in years. I don't know how I'll spend my weekend, but I'm going to be relaxed for the first time in a really long time.

"You could go visit Casey," Micah suggests.

"I would, but he's been working so hard on this science fair project that he'd electrocute me or something just for distracting him from the project. He still hasn't told me what it's about," I take another bite of the fudge and watch as Micah licks his lips to get the frosting that's stuck there.

"He wants to surprise you. That's adorable," He chuckles. "I bet it's a time machine."

"The kid is brilliant, but I'm not sure that he can break the time and space continuum."

"Wow, and I thought that he was the nerd in your family," He says jokingly.

"Just because I can say the word 'continuum' does not make me a nerd," I defend myself. "I don't actually know what it means."

"Yeah, okay. Whatever you say, nerd," He teases me again. "Whatever the project is, I bet it's really great."

"I'm excited about it. I just worry that he's stressing about it too much, because of the free tuition that it comes with. I can take care of his tuition without him having to stress his head off about this science fair. I know that he feels bad though, about not being able to contribute to the bills. Like it's his responsibility? He's just fourteen, I don't want him to worry about all of that stuff."

"If he has just a fraction of your strength, he'll be just fine," Micah assures me. "He's getting older now, he can handle some of the pressure that's always been on you."

"I don't want him to have to handle it though," I say to him with a long sigh. "I worked so hard, and I did all of the things that I did, so that he doesn't have to handle it. I know that we're a team and everything, but I can't help but feel protective of him. I just want to lock him in a stress-free box where life is perfect."

"Well, if you're building one, go ahead and make one for me too, because that sounds great," He says jokingly. "Seriously though, El, he's fine."

"He does seem really excited about this project," I decide. "And by the time that I was fourteen... I was a lot more stressed out than he is now."

"You can't protect him from everything," Micah reminds me.

"But I can try," I mumble stubbornly.

"Come on, we should get going," He suggests, finishing up the last bits of his brownie. It's a big dessert, I'm not sure how he ate it so fast. My fudge was a lot smaller, so I also am almost finished with mine. "I found the best make out spot yesterday on the second floor of the senate building."

"What?" I wonder with a little laugh. "Is that why you were late meeting me yesterday? You were scoping out places to make out?"

"Of course. This one is really good too, it's an old office that nobody uses because the heater is broken," He explains to me as we clean up our table and leave the little bakery. My heels click against the sidewalk as we walk back to the senate building.

"There's a desk and everything? That does sound nice," I agree with him. "We only have forty minutes before you have to meet your study group back on campus."

"Just a ton of making out, that's it," Micah promises me. "No other funny business."

The room that he leads me to inside of the building is pretty large—about the size of Harrison's office. There is a desk and a chair, but nothing else. There's a window that overlooks Constitution Avenue, so the first thing that I do when we get into the room is close the blinds.

We're careful to keep to our boundary of just making out because we don't have enough time to get into anything else before he has to get back to school at six. I do end up straddling Micah on the desk, kissing his neck for a little while, but I'm careful not to leave any marks.

Thankfully, my lipstick is quality and didn't smudge onto Micah's face or around my lips, and it looks like nothing just happened. I do go to the bathroom to reapply just in case though.

Once we've gotten our feet back under us, Micah and I walk out of the building together and pretend like we didn't just have our tongues down each others throats.

Micah walked to the building from campus, so I'm going to drop him back off by the building that he needs to be at, so we walk in the same direction to my car but when I see somebody standing by my car, I stop in my tracks. At first, I'm confused because I don't know who she is but when I get a second look at her, I realize that I recognize the woman after all.

"What the fuck," I exhale, staying put in my place on the pavement.

"Do you know her?" Micah asks me, looking curiously between me and the woman who is now walking toward us when she sees me standing there staring at her.

"I do," I confirm with a slow nod. "That is Bonnie. My mother."