We eventually go to bed, happily tired but not quite ready to give in to the enticement of sleep. Even the moonlight wants to add to our budding romance, stretching out its loving light into the bedroom as we embrace each other under the warmth of the duvet and blankets.

"Do you think you have any bad habits or traits?" Clara randomly asks me, much to my amusement.

"Uh, nope! I'm pretty much perfect." I'm chuckling, still stroking the curve of her soft shoulders, but joking all the same.

"Okay, Mr Perfect...I can be stubbornly independent." Clara is choosing to have this conversation, whether or not I am participating, kicking it off with what she believes to be her first flawed trait.

"I think I've worked that out for myself." I lightheartedly remark, smiling to myself.

"And I'm not great company when I'm on my period."

Returning her comment with a cocky grin, I quickly say. "Is any woman?"

Clara wears a deadly serious expression. "I'm especially bad company." She warns me, her face still bearing a really stern guise.

Unfazed, my grin is wider and cockier. "Then I'll keep a period survival kit close to hand at all times." I jokingly tell her.

"Oh yeah?" There's a lilt of silliness to Clara's voice, a lilt that tells me how much she loves all the silly banter that often bounces itself between us.

"Yeah! I'll have chocolate, alcohol, painkillers and duct tape at the ready." The silly teasing of mine, just keeps on coming.

Clara quickly straddles me, linking our hands together in a really cute and playful way. "Why the duct tape? Are you going all kinkaliscious on me?" The chemistry between us quickly goes from playful to provocative in what seems to be 0-60 in just a couple of sexy seconds.

Game on, I say. "Nah, I'm just thinking that your snoring might get louder when you're on your period, so I'll just quieten you down with some duct tape." My fingers are almost fornicating with hers, fornicating as I pull her nearer to me. "And what's kinkaliscious? Do you want kinkaliscious, Clara Thorn?" The tone of my voice has domineeringly dropped, just as all the silliness has dropped. I'm Rhys Ryan, I'm all about a little experimentation, and a little sexual experimentation with my girl is most definitely something that I'm up for...in more ways than one, if you get my drift?

Clara starts moving in close, temptingly close. Just when I think she's going to take advantage of my very impatient mouth, she starts tickling me. Begging her to stop, she doesn't. I'm now too damn aroused and too damn tense to play the tickling game, so I grab hold of her hips and in one strong manoeuvre, she's soon pinned down beneath me. "You haven't answered my question, do you want kinkaliscious?" Again, my voice is coated with a daring dominance. "Do you?" I ask again, just knowing that Clara is enjoying this little intro to our foreplay almost as much as I am.

"Maybe." She blinks, blinking up at me with teal orbs dilating with the purest of wickedness.

The dilation of her sultry spheres, the sensual pout of her greedy lips—all tell me to go on ahead and give my girl exactly what she kinkalisciously needs. Gliding the tip of my tongue across her throat and across her soft ear lobe, I allow it to join in on the slow and sensuous foreplay. Just as I'm about to take it up a horny gear, the phone downstairs starts ringing. Everything instantly pauses—the foreplay, the kissing, the licking, the horniness—it all comes to an achey end.

With a frustrated apology in my eyes, I remove my naked body from Clara's. Something is wrong. Everyone has been told not to call me, unless it's an emergency. So as I hurry down the stairs, More and more dread sticks to me with each and every step that I quickly take.

"Hello?" I warily ask, trying to prepare myself for the shit that's just about to fly.

"Rhys, I'm so sorry! I'm so sorry to call! But Maci has gone. She's left the rehab and no one knows where she's gone." Mom's heavy and frantic rant suddenly comes to a stop, only her erratic breaths I now hear down the all too quiet telephone line. "Rhys, your sister is pregnant. That Leon guy that's she's been off and on with, apparently it's his. She rang me yesterday, told me it then."

"For fuck sake!" I curse, angrily curse. The situation is now much worse, worse than I ever could have imagined. "How could this happen, Mom?" Such a stupid question, I know...but it's a question that I need an immediate answer for. A baby changes everything. Everything.

"How long has she been gone?" I hurl yet another question at my mom.

"Last night, she—"

At this point, I'm not even giving her enough time to fully answer. "Is she with this Leon guy?"

Mom is meek with her reply. "I don't know, Rhys. I'm trying to find out."

With anger just throwing my thoughts here, there and fucking everywhere, I'm unintentionally curt. "Check whether she has gone there and I'll get back as soon as I can, okay?"

"I'm so sorry, Rhys. I know you didn't want to be disturbed, but with Maci telling me about the baby, I just don't know what to do." Mom is sounding more and more upset by the second.

"I know, mom...I know. Try not to worry and keep me updated. I will get to you as quick as I can. I'll talk to you soon. Bye." I was trying to soothe my mother down the line, but inside, felt like I was about to dangerously explode. Hence the need to quickly end our conversation. I need to make some calls, so need to get my shit together. Feeling like I need to take an actual breath, I do, slumping my tired body over the back of the couch. To the side of me, stands Clara. She looks nervous, almost too afraid to speak, so I grab her blanketed body against me. "Maci is pregnant and has walked out of the rehab. Mom is in a mess, she doesn't know what to do. Shit, I don't even know what to do." Before I have even began to sort through this chaos, I admit my early defeat to Clara.

"I'm sure she'll be found, Rhys."

"And then what? We tie her up until she's had this baby?" I'm angry. Unbelievably angry. Not at Clara. Oh no, all my anger is for only my stupidly selfish sister. Realising this, I quickly try to restrain it. I have to. "Ignore me, Clara...I don't mean to take it out on you." I truly don't. My girl deserves none of my anger. Not a single piece of it. Only Maci is the one person who gets to wear that shitty crown. Part of me wants to leave her and her addiction to it, but I can't. If she really is pregnant, I have to try and give her baby a fighting chance. I have to, because I honestly don't believe that my sister will.

Being the forgiving soul that she is, Clara moves in closer against me. "You're upset, it's fine." She kindly says, letting me off with my unintentional curtness towards her.

Cuddling her, I quickly need to explain. "It's not fine, I shouldn't be raising my voice at you. It's not you that I'm angry with, it's Maci. How could she be so stupid and get pregnant?" I ask, a tense amalgamation of confusion and stress.

I'm ice cold to the touch, so Clara thoughtfully takes my hand and guides us both to sit down on the couch; blanketing us both with the heavy, insulated throw that has been keeping her warm all this time. "You're cold." She kind-heartedly says.

Tired, cold and dreading all that is to come, I numbly begin to speak. "I can't believe she has done this, Clara. She can't even care for herself, let alone a baby. That's of course if the baby even survives. You name it, my sisters on it. Babies are born with lots of problems who have mothers like Maci, don't they?" So much stuff is going around and around in my head; such awful and worrying stuff.

"I'm not sure, Rhys...but Maci and the baby will be well looked after." I don't think that even Clara is sure what to tell me. She's just plucking positivity from out of nowhere, because she's only wanting to try and make me feel better.

"That's if we find her." I glumly reply, just saying the first thing that honestly comes to mind.

"She will be." This time, there's much more conviction in Clara's voice before asking me about the douche who has played a huge part in this shitty mess of Maci's. "Who is Leon?" She calmly asks, tilting her head just a little while she waits for my answer.

Trying to sound just as calm as my girl, I look at Clara, feeling the worry pull tautly across the whole of my face. "He's apparently the father. Some washed up rock star that she met in her last rehab. Mom is trying to get his details, to find out if Mace has gone there." Tired and agitated, I rub my cheeks with my tense hands as I angrily go on. "I swear, if Maci has gone and got high, knowing that she is pregnant, I am forever done with her." No truer or angrier words could have ever left my mouth. If my sister puts herself before that child inside of her, I will completely walk away. I won't care what she or my mom says, I am walking. And if, if her baby somehow manages to survive all of the drugs and the selfishness, I'll do everything in my power to protect that baby...everything.

"She probably just needs some time to think things through." Clara weakly offers up an excuse for Maci, one that she knows herself doesn't stand strong, which is why she then slowly takes my hand into hers, threading her warm fingers around mine. "Let's go and pack." She softly says, lightly squeezing her fingers with such sweet affection as she rises up from off the couch.

Now standing, with the blanket hanging down from her naked body, I just hold onto Clara's legs. As I'm still sat down, her legs are the closest things to me; so I needfully just cling onto them. "I'm so sorry, baby. I'm sorry that we have to cut things short here."

Quickly kneeling down in front of me, Clara smiles that precious smile of hers. "Rhys Ryan, you owe me nothing, certainly not an apology." Even her eyes now seem to be smiling at me. "You need to get home, I understand that. I'm just happy to be where you are." Leaning forward, she then kisses my nose.

Sighing hard, I cling onto her warmth even more. "I don't know what I have done to deserve having you come into my life, but boy, am I glad that you have." I find her mouth, wanting to thank her and to appreciate her, using only my chilled and needy lips. Slow and firm, I show Clara just how grateful I really am; not just for her being here with me, but also for her understanding and her sweet support. With quiet reluctance, I pull my mouth away from hers with a smile that can barely be summoned. "We'll pack in the morning. Go up and get some sleep. I need to make some calls first, okay?" Again, I assuringly smile her way.

At peace with my assurance, Clara lightly strokes my cheek with her appeased fingers. "Okay." She quietly tells me before standing herself up, so she can return to the warmth of the bed upstairs.

As I watch her disappear from shadowy sight, I hang my head really low. I just need a moment, a moment to collect myself and all of my thoughts before I do all the things that I need to do.

I've got to call Slam and Jules, so they can organise all the necessary travel arrangements. I can get a cab from here to the Reno-Tahoe airport, but I want them to organise as much as they can from their end. Next, I need to call the rehab, find out what the hell happened with Maci. Then I'll call Cameron, who just needs to be kept in the loop of what's going on. Finally, I'll call Will, he can discreetly call around on my behalf, to see if he can track down that destructive sister of mine.

And she is destructive—to herself and to all those around her.

She has ruined my quality time with Clara.

She has our mom frantically worried.

And she's probably looking to hook herself up with one of her drug buddies, as we speak.

Destructive. Negative. Impulsive...all difficult ive's that I have to now confront. And the truth is, I don't want to confront any of this shit right now. I don't want to confront any of Maci's crap. I am this close to just walking the hell away from her. The only reason why I am doing all that I'm about to do, is for the baby.

Not Maci.

Not mom.

The baby.

That innocent little thing inside of my sister, is the only reason why I am returning home to Porter Ranch. It's the only reason why I am dragging Clara into the epicentre of my family shit. I was hoping to shield her from it, to keep her away from it for as long as I could.

We are only just starting out as an us.

Only just beginning.

I can't weigh Clara down with the burden of Maci, the burden of mom trying to save Maci...I refuse to ever do that.

So while my girl sleeps, I'll start doing what I have to do.

And for once, I'm going to try to do it with patience, tolerance and understanding.