Warning: Possible triggers. Mention of boys with questionable intentions doing what they do best when it come to girls with questionable sobriety. I'm beginning to think I should just warn you if the chapter is going to be an innocent one.

As if dealing with Drunken-Cherish wasn't enough, the guys found themselves thoroughly unequipped to deal with Drunken-Paranoid-Emotional Mess-Cherish. She was singularly concerned with her sister and father finding out about her drinking escapades, and her concern was unhelpfully loud and resembled what they could only describe as what a goose would sound like crying.

It took more time than was necessary to sufficiently calm her, even after Seven pulled his truck up to the side of the building. But they did it, and were all a little less tense once they had managed to coax her into the truck. Somewhat sobered by the idea of going home, she chewed on her fingers while her head rested in Ian's lap. No one spoke during the drive to Seven's house and the silence combined with the gentle vibrations of the engine lulled her to sleep.

A short lived, but peaceful sleep- in the boys' opinion. Somewhere after the time they laid her on the couch and while they were clearing out the living room, she woke. At first she watched as they moved furniture and other such things out of the house, her eyes following them back and forth repeatedly. In a fleeting moment of terrifying clarity, she realised she was in a half empty house she didn't know, with three guys she didn't really know either.

She looked down at herself and groaned, her shirt was almost dried, but her red bra was visible right through it. It didn't help, either, that the shirt was twisted on her body and the hem was pushed up revealing most of her torso. As she tried to remember if she'd done anything stupid, she found she couldn't focus on the task long enough to come up with any sort of answer. She sat up, grinning when she felt her head spin, "Wee-hee-heee."

Seven who was carrying out the dining table glanced at her; his face turned instantly red and he spun his head away quickly.

"What?" she called after him, "You don't like?"

After fixing her shirt, she frowned with a mix of indignation and shame and stood. Her legs bent awkwardly as she took giant swooning steps, in her effort to follow Seven. Her laughing was accented by squeaking hiccoughs when she fell over her own feet and landed in a rumpled pile in the doorway.

"Whatcha doin?" she cooed to their feet as they passed her.

"Cleaning up."

"Whi-ie?"

Ian shook his head, "Because we don't want anything to break."

"Why-ie?"

"Because we're having a party?"

"Why-ie?"

"Because Seven's parents are out of town."

"Why-ie?"

"Because, they-"

Seven cut off the reply by growling in Cherish's face, "Argh! Shut! Up!"

Cherish blinked at him, her eyes wide as she bit her lip to prevent her shocked squeak from passing her lips. Satisfied, he turned his back to her and strode across the room.

"Why-ie?" She had an angelic smile on her face as laughter bubbled out her mouth, and both Ian and Juss couldn't help smiling.

Hefting her up and half dragging her across the room, Seven set her down in front of a huge fish tank, an obsession of his mother's.  "I need you to do me a favour," he said calmly, "I need you to count all of these- if even one of them goes missing, Jackie'll kill me!"

It was funny to see her eyes widen again, like an enraptured 3 year old's, but then she made a face, "Why do I have to do it?"

"Because the rest of us are moving stuff, and someone's gotta do it."

This seemed to satisfy her and she stared hard at the aquarium, her lips puckering into an 'o' as she blew kisses at the fish. By the time she bored of counting fish, the guys were long done clearing out the place and they'd been standing at the door watching her.

"There's 236 fish in there!" she proclaimed happily when she noticed them, and skipped wildly to the couch, falling into it and gleefully bouncing face first on the plush cushions.

"How'd you do that?"

She giggled at the shock on their faces and shrugged as she rolled over onto her back, "Easy- I just gave them all names."

The only furniture in the room was a couple of couches and the coffee table, and the guys flopped lazily onto the couch opposite Cherish.

"And, Jackie, whoever she is, has a list of her fishie friends besides the tank."

"Oh- didn't know that."

"So," Cherish looked around at the empty room confused, "What's going on?"

Ian smirked, "I already told you- we're having a party."

-.-

It was, by all accounts, a killer party, the way Seven always did them. A big empty house with lots of drinks and food, loud people, an even louder band, and tons of water- in the pool and hot tub to be exact. The doors were all open, allowing people to wander around freely enjoying the party; dancing, screaming, fighting, and occasionally splashing. The party was well under way when Cherish sobered, at least enough that she wasn't a mess. Still, she continued having fun and generally being a Cherish they weren't quite used to.

The guys had taken turns watching her, because when the people poured in, they brought with them drinks; drinks that Cherish was more than willing to partake in. Ian smiled as he watched a fairly normal and sober Cherish stuff her mouth with barbecued chicken wings, smearing the sauce on her face in the process. Pulling his phone from his pocket, he dialed Delia's number, making sure that his body blocked Cherish from running off; he had her cornered in a closet.

"Hey, Deals! ... Where are you? ... Oh, uh how come you're there? She's with me! ... Really?" He turned and eyed Cherish, "I didn't know ... Yeah, sure."  He turned away again, lowering his voice, "Hey, since you're there, could you bring her a change of clothes when you come by? ... NO! No, we were working on a project- ... I figured she would have, but yeah, I convinced her to stay and party a while, and then someone accidentally threw her into the pool and ... Thanks, Deals!"

He stuffed the phone back into his pocket, and turned to see an empty closet where Cherish should have been, "Ah! Crap!"

He scrambled around the party, but was too late in finding her. She was on the end of a beer bong, while two big guys he kind of knew, Will and Riley Walker emptied bottles, one after the other into her.

"Chug! Chug! Chug! Chug!"

The crowd around her cheered and when she finally sputtered, sending a rain of beer into the crowd, it was clear she had beat someone's record. Jokingly, she laughed into Will's face, his cheeks reddening as he shook his head in defeat.

"Eeee!" She yelled when she caught sight of Ian, clambering over the brothers to jump on him, "I won!"

Will looked even more upset as he watched Ian's arm's locking around her waist when she flew into him, but he laughed good naturedly, "Good one, Rish!" He slapped Ian's back as he passed, muttering, "Lucky Fucker."

Cherish laughed as he left, face still red as his brother continued to tease him about losing to her.

"So, Mr. Raymond, what are we doing now?"

"I was going to take you home, but now you're all drunk again."

"Yeah, that's too bad, hmm?" she smiled sweetly, but he caught the glimmer of mischief in her eyes.

"You did that on purpose!" he accused but couldn't help smiling as she waved it off cutely. They were unable to decide which way to go, but Ian whipped his head around, startled when someone called his name. Seven, towering above most of the people, his head poking out above all the others, was beckoning him over. As they wiggled and skirted their way through the crowd, they noticed Delia tucked under Seven's arm.

"Deals!"

"E! Rish! Wow, they really did throw you into the pool, huh? I thought it was just a lame excuse to get me to show up faster. If you wanted a change you should have called me yourself, Rish! I mean, I know we haven't talked much lately but you really didn't have to ask Ian to call me!"

"I wasn't aware that he called you, or that I needed a change of clothes."

"You planning on getting tossed into the pool again?" Seven asked dryly, eyeing her drenched shirt. He raised an eyebrow at Ian who pretended not to notice, earning him an angry punch in the arm, "You were supposed to watch!"

"I was!"

"Well, you did a crappy job!"

"You're not getting rid of me that easily, Seven," Cherish teased, knowing he had wanted her to leave the moment she was sober enough. He ignored her comment, but frowned when Delia said, "But, you'll get rid of one of us soon. I can't stay long, gotta be home in a bit."

"You always bail on us, Deals," he muttered.

"I'm sorry, but I was-" she cut herself off.  "I was busy!"

"AH! Let's not argue! Since you're leaving soon, let's party!" Ian snaked his arm around her shoulder and dragged her away.

Seven watched with a small smile as they walked off, until he realised that he was left with Cherish, "Ian! It's still your turn!"

"Gee. Thanks. I feel so loved." Cherish ground out, crossing her arms heavily over her chest.

Seven didn't seem to care; he followed after Ian, "Hey! Ian!"

-.-

She was beginning to wish she had followed Seven, Ian and Delia, but that seemed like it was years away. She twirled around; who needed them anyways, she was making new friends! And, she was having more fun without them because her new friends weren't anal when it came to having fun. Her tank top was long gone, she had pulled it off when jumping into the hot tub, and now she was floating in some guy's extremely large button up shirt. Her face was splotchy red as she careened all over, jumping and spinning, till one of her new friends grasped a hold of her.

"Woah, woah, watch yourself, Babe," he pulled her away from the edge of the pool and back inside where they stood in front of the makeshift stage- plywood on cement blocks. Well, he stood and she continued to bounce all over, her shirt flapping around pointlessly, as it did nothing to cover her.

-.-

"Hey, Seven, where's Cherish?"

"Uh-" Seven froze, glancing around and then looking sheepishly at Ian.

"And I was doing a bad job!"

"I thought she was behind me!"

"Damn," Ian rolled his eyes at Seven, and turned, "let's go."

-.-

Annoyed with the oversized shirt flapping about and getting caught on things, Cherish tied it around her chest. She laughed as a short girl pulled at her messy looking hair, long since out of its neat braids; it was matted and stuck to her as a result of the sweat, alcohol, and her trip into the hot tub. The girl raked her fingers through Cherish's hair in a matronly fashion, ignoring the knots, "Hold still, Trish," she clicked her tongue as Cherish squirmed.

For some reason, the girl thought her name was Trish, though Cherish swore she had told her at least ten times what her name was. It didn't matter much though, because Cherish couldn't for the life of her remember the girl's name.

"There!" she said satisfied, "Now, it won't get in the way when you crash later."

Not being able to figure out what the girl was talking about, Cherish shrugged and went back to dancing.

-.-

"You find her yet?"

"No," Seven replied with disappointment, "Guess I don't have to bother asking you."

"Well, this whole splitting up thing isn't working."

"But we cover more ground, Ian."

"Fine! But we better find her soon, Deals just called to say her dad wants to know where she is."

Seven frowned, of course he knew that already, he had her phone and the damned thing wouldn't stop ringing. Sighing heavily he turned away from Ian to continue looking; the stupid girl had ruined his entire night, "Stupid, drunk bitch!"

-.-

Leaning against the boy, she grinned sloppily as they stumbled across the room, bumping into people who came out of nowhere. She was feeling awfully tired, and all she wanted to do was sleep. The room was spinning, an incredible mass of muddled colours, the loud noises a weird sensation she could feel. Losing her balance yet another time, she giggled as the boy held her up, his arm digging in to her side.

"Ooopies."

Looking up into his face, she wished she could remember who he was- maybe his name was Steve? She tried that and when it didn't work, she frowned and tried another name. Why couldn't she remember? Oh well, she thought, it didn't matter, he was helping her find Ian and when he did, she wouldn't need to remember his name. Ian would probably know it. The boy, whose face she could barely make out in the dark, laughed as he hoisted her up and set her on the ledge in front of the aquarium. Turning, she flattened her face on the glass, watching the brightly coloured fish and squinted at them trying to separate them from each other.

"Thatsh Flin, and thatsh Wins, and thatsh... oh, ha, I dun member."

She didn't remember losing her stolen shirt, but when she turned back to her helpful friend, she was pushed back and felt the cold glass pressing against her bare skin.

"Ooh, wha-mmpph!"

-.-

Ian froze, his teeth grinding and fists clenched as he watched the writhing couple in the corner. He had passed Seven just seconds earlier, and now he wondered how Seven had missed it. Well, it wouldn't have been that hard, he supposed; he would have walked right by had he not heard his name being squealed. Upon turning to see who had called, he saw Cherish pressed up against the fish tank by some idiot who had his hands all over her. Cherish who wasn't putting up much of a fight by drunkenly slapping at the guy's hands or arching her back in an attempt to propel herself forward off the tank. Cherish who was uselessly struggling with tears on her face. Cherish who was squeaking out a slurred plea for help, "No! Noooo... where'sh Ian? Eeeeee? Nooo!"

With a sudden surge of heroism, he grabbed the closest solid thing he could get his hands on and swiped it at the guy. He was unprepared, though, for the confrontation that resulted from the metal folding chair cracking down on said guy's back.

"Holy Shit!"

Suddenly Seven was at his side, shoving him out of the way and taking on the angry idiot.

"Een?" Cherish was shaking as she lurched off the counter and fell into his arms.

He absently pulled off his hoodie, wrapping it around her as he held onto her solidly, "Cherish, it's okay now."

He watched as Seven pounded the guy till someone took pity on the bloody boy and pulled him away; he had never seen him so angry before.

* Title song by Reverend Horton Heat