She'd insisted on finishing out the semester - because, for God's sake, there was only two weeks left, and she didn't want to be that girl who was making up her finals. Even with what Elisha kept reasonably pointing out (at louder and louder volumes) was a perfectly valid reason to be making up her finals. She wasn't going to let Jesse win the battle of public relations, a statement that had had her dad groaning theatrically and wondering out loud why his children were basically his father.

The dads had, therefore, spent the next two weeks at the Park Plaza while Sarah had thrown herself into her NYU classes headfirst and refused to think of anything but Greek Architecture and the History of Urban Design until she'd passed all her exams. Then, of course, she didn't have that to concentrate on, and she was on a plane home with her parents and one very worried older brother.

In Chicago, it was kind of easy to pretend none of it had happened, Sarah thought as she spun in the swivel chair in her dad's study. Not entirely; neither of her dads were going to let her do something like...pretend it hadn't happened, as much as she sort of wanted to do just that. But she sure as hell had no risk of ever running into Jesse. She wrinkled her nose as she caught the direction her thoughts were starting to go - she could transfer to a college in Chicago and get almost the same program. She'd definitely never run into Jesse Vaughn-Mackenzie in Chicago. He'd told her a dozen times that he was amazed someone like her came from the Midwest.

God, she thought, why hadn't she dumped him in the first week? The world would never know.

Sarah shook her head as she heard the front door slam, and spun in the chair again as a way too serious-looking version of her baby brother (she had fifteen minutes on him, it counted) started past the study. "You took your damn time," she said, and half-smiled, half-smirked as he swung his head to stare at her. "I was thinking maybe that Ollie got scared by the idea of Kagan Family Togetherness and the two of you were hightailing it back to L.A."

Ty and Gael would be the first ones to tell her to just fly back to New York. What had been an emergency trip after Gael's accident had stretched into weeks spent at the Kagan hotel in Malibu, with Sarah putting a lot of miles on her rental car driving between L.A. and San Diego - first checking on Gael, then checking in on Ty.

Hell, by this point Ty would probably throw a party if she did finally tell him she was getting on a plane. She had this suspicion that she was being kind of...suffocating. But she couldn't help it, either. It was easier to accept that she couldn't do anything for Gael, but with Ty - she'd done this herself. For all that she'd had their parents fluttering over her, plus Dr. O'Neill, she'd come to the conclusion over the years that she'd done this mostly herself. Logically, she was the best person to understand just what was going on in Ty's head.

Except, really...a lot of the time it was like they were back in high school, starting that cycle of picking, screaming, and not speaking, followed by the second cycle of making up and the tentative good relationship they'd managed once they'd grown up and gone their separate ways. Inevitably, it repeated itself. It had several times in the weeks she'd been there, and yet she still hadn't gone back.

When she finally did, she dropped into Gael's hotel room to let him know. She texted Ty, because she knew he'd be at the house - but somehow she forgot about warning Heather.

Gael didn't remember much of the fall. The doctors said it was to be expected, given how hard his head have hit the car he landed on, but it didn't make him feel better. If anything, it made the whole event more surreal than it already was. Clint, his stunt double, had sprained his ankle earlier in the afternoon, which was then followed with a series of other bizarre events. Gael almost felt as if he'd known this was going to happen. He'd known that the pulleys and rigging was going to fail and he would crash down onto the props below with enough force to break his leg, two ribs, dislocate his shoulder, give himself a concussion and bruise vertebrae in his spinal column.

It was the last one that had the staff and the producers most worried. Until it was all said and done, there was no way to know when Gael was going to walk again. Or if he would ever walk again. Maybe it helped his sleeping by not remember a three story fall, but emotionally it just....made it all feel unreal. Like at any moment he could just get up and walk away.

His dads tried to help, when they arrived and listened intently to the doctors as they explained everything. Surgery for the shoulder would have to be done soon, but the swelling in the spine was a priority. It had to go down before they tried anything else. Mildly Gael thought that at least he couldn't feel how much his broken leg hurt, which could be the only positive of it all.

Which didn't seem to translate well to everyone else that visited. Most of them just looked guilty, or wanted to talk business. Allison, a co-star, wanted to bash TMZ for turning it all around on Gael and blaming his hangover. It was annoying, and a blessed distraction- all of it.

Not one that helped him at night, though, when he was stuck in the hospital alone, and staring at the wall wishing he could just most his legs so he could go to the bathroom without having to call a nurse to do it for him.

Ollie had convinced him to come back, at least for the rest of the week. It was possibly the last holiday for Debbie, and despite his frustrations- Ty needed to be with family. That did not, however, mean he was going to go inside right away. He parked the car on the side of the street and climbed out before looking up at the house through the snow and sighing.

What on earth did he ever do to be the heart of so much drama?

Pulling out a cigarette he leaned against the car as he lit it. It was freezing outside, but at least smoking was a valid excuse for standing outside like a stubborn idiot.

They'd flown, mostly because it was faster and they didn't really want to waste time when they had leave. As fun as driving would be, and all? It delayed the party that was waiting for them. They even had a car service waiting on them- one that Ty gave instructions down to a place into Astoria, where they would be meeting Izak and Sarah, followed by instructions to get their bags back to the Plaza and to leave them with the Manager.

The following 'Of course, Mr. Kagan,' only made him smile. It was good to be back in New York, sometimes. It wasn't quite like Chicago, but he wasn't sure he was ever going to be ready to take Ollie home. There were just too many people there that wanted to know his every move- even if came with a car service and a few buildings sporting his name.

"Oh, Ollie, this is Chaz. Chaz, my friend, Lt. Oliver Byrd." He said, introducing the driver before opening the door and sliding into the town car. He balanced his cover on a knee, before pulling out his phone to text Izak and Sarah in a group message. 'We've landed, on our way. Tell Dorian I want five of his best shots waiting for when I get there.'

Grinning, he looked back at Ollie. "You're going to regret saying yes, you know."

Sarah squinted at her computer screen and nibbled on her lower lip as she worked on the ring design. It wasn't for Alexis Bittar - she did a pretty good job of leaving work at work, but that might only be because she had her own work waiting at home. The ring was for one of her clients on her Etsy site, an engagement ring. Something beautiful, yet quirky.

And probably perfect, she thought dryly as she drew looping lines in what would be the silver of the setting. London blue topaz for the main stone. It was a good choice, out of the ordinary and not so exorbitantly expensive that the poor dude was going to expire at the price, so. Everybody won, especially her PayPal account.

When her phone went off beside her, Sarah didn't even look at it, just tapped it blindly until she could here something on the other end. "Yeah, this is Sarah," she said as she dragged and clicked. "What's up?"

There was something a bit annoying about having to share a house with a girl- especially when she was the only girl, and thus doted on in a rare, special way. She wasn't even a mother, just a sister- and that somehow made her gold. Or at least that was the way Tyler saw it when he bothered to pay attention to what was going on. Still, it was annoying expect that she had a rare, blessed collection of Disney movies still. And while he'd not admit to it? Tyler did have a soft spot for them.

They reminded him of childhood, and honestly? Gave him a whole truck load of reasons why his moods could be done.

Today he was sat on big chair in the living room watching Brave while everyone else was out of the house, pigging out on some of Izak's stashed cookies and drinking soda. Ah, life was perfect when no one else was around.

They were supposed to be in class still, but Izak and some of his friends had decided to ditch- which they could, because they were seniors. It was like they'd earned some sacred right to ditch their pretentious, ego-inflated professors. What did it matter, anyway? Gradation was just a few weeks away, and no one honestly was making them do anything any more. Plus? Izak had always been the moderately good kid (at least with school), and ditching was exciting. It felt like he was rolling the dice of fate.

"Yes, alright. This is what I'm talking about- Michigan Avenue, shopping....why are we shopping? Shouldn't we be like....taking over the Field Museum?" Not that shopping was entirely horrible. His father, Hadyn, had a weakness for it. Pretty much explained why he was the one Sarah went to with her womanly things- Hadyn was practically a woman at times. Izak liked to think he was more like Elisha, both of them chilling on the couch. Sometimes watching a bit of football, or baseball, or...something with a ball. Yeah- he was definitely more Elisha.

Turning around, Izak looked at the others he was with- and then he spotted the one that didn't belong. "What are you doing here?"