Too late

Ghosts from the present

Jack's point of view

Haley was released from the hospital a few days ago, no one had seen her since. She had signed the paper herself and walked out. In need of a better clue we asked Mr. Richard, all he said was that she had asked to be sent back to an academy to rehabilitate and train, he couldn't tell us which.

This was it, she was out of my life again after I had just gotten her back. She wasn't coming back I just knew it, she would stay away.

On the plus side, my family was coming to court today. It was the first time since I came back from my mission they were coming to New Orleans. I had visited them once and offered to do it again, but they insisted on coming and see where I spent my life and the people who had helped me through the trauma. That is why I was standing at the airport and not driving across the country trying to find my Leah.

"Jack my boy!" My mom yelled as soon as she exited the airport and ran to me.

"Mom it is so good to see you!"

She kissed both cheeks before pulling back and looking at Alishia. "And that must be princess Alishia! It is a pleasure to meet you, thank you so much for helping my son!"

Alishia smiled politely as ever and shook my mother's hand but was pulled into a hug. "It is great to meet you too Mrs. Donnovick," she choked, as she stood awkwardly in my mother's embrace and I couldn't help a small smile but was soon attacked by my two sisters launching themselves at me.

"Where is Leah?" Mia asked immediately after she let go.

I must have let a flash of hurt wash over my face cause our mother stepped in. "Rumors were going around that they had found her alive. We are sorry Jack, we thought they were true."

I nodded grimly and cleared my throat. "They did."

Their faces lit up with wonder. "Well then where is she?" Natalie asked with my niece on her arm.

I looked at the ground about to explain, but Alishia took over for me. "She signed herself out of the hospital a few days ago after refusing to see us. We haven't heard from her since," she explained.

"Oh, Jackson!" My mom sighed and hugged me.

Haley's point of view

Kick, punch, kick, kick, punch.

"You are doing it wrong." A calm voice sounded behind me. I was panting and sweat was dripping, but I spun around to discover a young guard not any older than myself regarding me from the door.

I scoffed at him. "I am doing it perfectly right thank you, I know how to this thing."

He looked skeptical. "Obviously you don't, who taught you that tactic?"

"My teacher!" He crossed his arms.

"Give me his name and I'll have a talk with him cause that move is outdated."

I mirrored his posture. "Jack Donnovick!" I smirked slightly as his face fell, though even saying the name aloud made me flinch.

"You're Haley Wright." Nice to know I was still a legend.

"That indeed I am."

He shook off his stunned face. "Well Haley, let me show you how we do things around here now." He walked over to me, grabbed my wrists, and spun me around.

"See when you kick try not to direct at the front but at the side, the front is too easy to block and if they are former guards,' they know the tactic," he instructed. Pulling my wrists from his grip, I spun around and pointed an angry finger at his chest.

"Thank you, but who do you think you are?!" I demanded, angry he was correcting my moves. I was here to build muscles, not learn new stupid moves someone decided to change a bit and call their own.

"Calvin Mercury," he declared with a smirk, obviously expecting me to be impressed, but all I did was stare at him questioningly. I had never heard that name in my life.

After a few moments, his smirk fell. "Oh sorry, I forgot you-… I was the highest scoring graduate of my year when I graduated from my training two years ago. They said they had never seen such a talent, well except for you…" and he expected me to be impressed?

"Well Calvin, I was the highest-scoring of my year, and look at where that got me: I am back in training!"

He shrugged and turned around. "Well if you need help you know who to ask for." He called over his shoulder. Asshole. I went back to punching the bag and noticed, angrily, that I was doing it his way.

Tristan's point of view

"She is coming home tomorrow," I announced out in the room. Alishia had invited me over for dinner since I was staying at court for a few days and my parents were out. The Donnovics were also gathered around the table, as well as Alishia's boyfriend Kian, Dawn, and Dana.

"Haley?" Alishia asked sounding like a child about to get ice cream.

"Who else?" I'll admit, I wasn't as excited as I should have been, still a bit angry at her for just leaving without a word, but she had called me yesterday and asked me to pick her up at the airport. I wasn't sure what that meant for us trough, on one hand, she had called me through she had plenty of other opportunities, on the other hand, it was just a lift from the airport. She had promised nothing. Of course, our relationship had been very first base in the first place, it wasn't as if she owed me anything.

"Can we come?!" Donnovick's youngest sister asked excitedly.

I shrugged. "If you can find a car that fits." I wasn't about to find a way to get them all with me, but it was rude to say no.

"We can probably borrow two SUVs from the court," Alishia suggested and I just shrugged. They probably could: Court had a bunch of rental cars available for day trips to the human world. They were already busy making arrangements, while I just picked at my food. Well, now it definitely just was a ride from the airport…

***

"Brandi and Frederick will meet up when we get back. They have invited us all to dinner to celebrate her being back on her feet," Alishia informed me as I drove. She had been like this since I told her Haley was coming back; making phone calls and bossing people around. I sighed, defiantly not excited about this trip. The Donnovicks had been stuffed into one SUV, so it was just us friends in the other.

"You know, she'll probably want to sit in the front seat," I decided to tell her just to interrupt her endless talking.

"I'll switch seats when we get there," she brushed me off and kept rambling.

I sighed deeply. Finally spotting the airport and parking in front of the drop-off. "I'll just go in and get her and then we will meet you out here," I told them not feeling like having a big reunion in the middle of the airport.

"What? No way! I want to see her first!" Alishia whined like a kid.

"Yeah, I want to see her face when she spots us, you'll just ruin the surprise!" Jack's sister Mia chimed in.

I held up my hands to stop the whining. "Listen she called ME to get her from the airport, so I am going in to get her. We will just meet you out here it is no big deal." They huffed but stayed, and I turned on my heel into the airport. Finding her wasn't hard, the airport was small and the only plane arriving was hers.

When I spotted her she took my breath away. Haley had always been gorgeous, but when she came back, her eyes had lost some of that special sparkle. Now it was back. I had no idea how, I think we all thought it was lost forever, but there she was, and she looked almost exactly like she did all those years ago. She even had a busted lip back when I meet her the first time on that college tour.

"Hi," she sighed happily, dropping her bag to give me a hug.

It took me a minute before I was able to return it. "Hi," I whispered in her hair, holding her close before letting go.

"Thank you for picking me up," she said cheerfully and picked up her backpack, ignoring my offering to take it for her.

"How did you get that busted lip?"

She reached up to touch it with her fingertips as if she had forgotten but smiled a little. "Oh, that? It is nothing just a sparring match - I won!" She offered cheerfully.

"Of course you did, you always win princess." Something flashed in her eyes, and I regretted my words, but as quick as it appeared it was gone.

"So, how is court holding up with me?" She laughed, as we started walking. I considered saying something about court having been holding up without her for years, but decided not to.

"They miss you," I decided to go with instead.

"Who does?" She asked carefree like she had forgotten the way she left or the fact that she ever had friends.

"Alishia, Kian, Dana, Dawn hell even Donnodouch. You kind of just disappeared, remember?" The words came out harsher than I wanted them to, but they were also true: She had left without a word. We hadn't heard from her for weeks and now she was back and just acting like nothing ever happened. "Look, I am sorry-" I started but she cut me off.

"I didn't mean to, Tristan. I just had to get out of there. There was just too much reminding me of my life before… you know, and how it would never be the same. I didn't mean to hurt you, Tristan, I really didn't." Part of me felt bad I had made her smile disappear. Another part of me felt satisfied she wasn't happy when I wasn't.

"I know Haley, I know." If she was going to say anything else, it drowned in the high-pitched scream that sound as soon as we walked out of the airport.

"HALEY!" and a tornado of strawberry blonde hair threw itself into Haley's not-so-expecting arms.

"Lisa, hi," she said laid back, but it sounded like she had to swallow to get the words over her lips. Alisha let go and held Haley at an arm's length.

"Don't you ever just leave without saying goodbye again!" She lectured but Haley just pulled herself free rather abruptly.

"Sure, whatever you say," she muttered looking at the ground.

"Haley?!" Mia's voice sounded, and Haley looked up again seeing the Donnovick family for the first time. If Mia expected a warm greeting, she was disappointed. Instead of opening her arms to her, Haley flinched back and hid behind me.

Clutching my arm, she dared to take a peek. "Have you come to kill me?"

I couldn't tell if she was joking or not but judging by the way Mia's face fell she wasn't. "Haley, I am so sorry about-"

"No, you aren't." Haley's stern voice cut her off mid-apology. She had moved from behind me and stood tall, glaring at Mia and the rest of the Donnovicks behind her and a short glance at Alishia and Kian.

"None of you are. You would do it again without a second thought. You think it makes a difference that- that I wasn't here for three years, but it doesn't. I am still the same person, you are still the same and you still make the same mistakes. The fact that stuff happened in the meantime doesn't matter, people don't change, it is wrong of us to think that they do cause they don't. I haven't and neither have you. Stop claiming to care just because you think it makes you bad people not to. It does make you bad people, but it makes you worse to pretend at least the other is real." She turned to me not spending another minute looking at their stunned faces.

"Which car is yours?" I glanced at them quickly before turning back to her.

"The SUV on the left." She took her bag which she had dropped and stalked to the car.

"I am riding shot-gun!" She opened the door and sat in the front seat looking pissed as hell.