AN: ok final chapter! sorry this took a bit to actually write... hope everyone enjoyed!

After checking her watch for perhaps the millionth time that night, Jade silently noted the time.

It was 5:00. About an hour since they'd gotten trapped in here. The time they were supposed to be full on their way to the drag race together.

Although she was embarrassed admitting it to herself at the time, she'd actually been really excited about seeing the look on his face when she presented him with the tickets. Drag racing was a passion of his that he always wanted to share with her, so she'd decided to surprise him. After about a week of contemplation and website lurking, she'd finally purchased the tickets, knowing that, even if the competitors weren't all that great, her boyfriend would at least be impressed by the fact that she'd thought of him.

Which, of course, she did. She thought of him all the time. But it wasn't really anyone's business.

But. Whatever. Even though she woke up feeling nervous earlier that morning, she'd simply promised herself that there was nothing wrong with being thoughtful—even though it went against all of her natural instincts. Besides, she'd thought to herself as she examined herself once more in the mirror, what could go wrong? He's Beck, after all.

Sometimes she really hated just how "Beck" he was. Why couldn't he put her first just once? Why did he always have to care so damn much about Tori and never, ever ever about her? Sure, she was being irrational. But it wasn't like that was anything new. It seemed like the only times she could actually get his attention were when she lashed out like this. Trying to play nice royally messed everything up, didn't it? No good deed goes unpunished.

Beck, on the other hand, spent most of his time on the phone. Robbie had filled him in on most of the details and was sending him regular updates, which he grudgingly reported back to Jade. The fire department had finally gotten there after about a half an hour of sitting in awful Sunset Boulevard traffic, but they were having lots of trouble trying to actually open the doors of the elevator. Rex was continually chastising Beck over Robbie's shoulder, telling him that "he couldn't have picked a worse place to get his elevator stuck" and that "at least Robbie's not in there with them," which, honestly, did make Beck feel a little better.

But, still. They were trapped in an elevator, with no food or water or—wait.

Forgetting about his frustration for a moment, Beck locked his phone and then looked up at Jade, furrowing his brow.

She met his gaze, cocking an eyebrow in return. She was trying to appear nonchalant, but, honestly, she was thankful for the fact that he was actually acknowledging her again. "Yes?"

"Do you... Do you have any food?"

Jade scoffed, amused. "No, dummy. Don't you think I'd have eaten it by now if I did?" But the disappointed look on his face made her pause. Damn him for still getting her sympathy after what an ass he'd been all day. She was the one who should've been pouting like that. But, with a sigh, Jade pulled her purse on her lap and shuffled through it, looking for anything edible.

"I have some lipstick," she deadpanned, pulling it out and waving it teasingly in front of him.

A small, boyish smile crept onto his face. "Haha." Then, after a moment of hesitation, he gestured to the empty space next to him, offering for her to sit beside him.

"What's that?" she immediately questioned, the teasing smile disappearing off of her face.

"You know what."

"So... what?" she demanded. "It's been almost an hour of being trapped in this tiny metal box, and you finally ask me to sit next to you?!"

"Jeez." Cue a hand running through his hair, once again falling into that I'm-Beck-and-I'm-completely-faultless-and-can-do-no-wrong routine. She wished he would fucking quit it, especially since it was just the two of them in there. No one else was around to see him admit to being an asshole. Or was that still so hard for him? There goes Jade, overreacting over nothing again! It's not like anything is ever Beck's fault, right?

Jade thought he would've said more—he should've said more—but, no. "Jeez" was the only word he decided to grace her ears with. She might as well return the favor, then.

"Whatever," was all she said, shoving the lipstick back into her purse and crossing her arms over her chest.

Beck knew he should've just shut up then, letting the awkward silence sit between them until their rescue finally came. But... he was still pissed, and they had nothing else to do, and in that exact moment, he was lacking any and all self-control. "I was just trying to be nice," he grumbled. He hated the way he sounded when he was upset—whiny, rude, cold... the exact opposite of what he wanted to be seen as. But if anyone was going to see him like that, it was gonna be Jade.

"Well, don't," she shot back.

"Why? Because I'm bad at it?"

"No. Because you're obviously pretty damn pissed off at me, so I'd rather not pretend like everything is 'okay.'"

Beck sat up a bit, intrigued. "Oh? So you're saying that things aren't okay?"

"Save it," she sighed, rolling her eyes. Beck loved provoking her, and he was really damn good at it sometimes. But she had bigger fish to fry. "We're either gonna be arguing about this now or later, so let's just get it over with." After waiting a few seconds, seeing if he was going to respond or not, she sighed again. "Here, okay? I'll start. Uh... How about I say something mean about Tori, and then you yell at me about it? And then we'll see where we go from there."

If nothing else, Jade West was a masochist. And Beck knew it very, very well. It wasn't like she could really help it, though. When you hate yourself, it's hard not to try to sabotage every relationship in your life. But Beck usually thwarted all her attempts to mess up theirs. Which is why, even if she didn't really say so, she would probably never stop being grateful for him. If Jade was honest with herself, she would probably throw herself off a cliff if it meant he'd kiss her afterwards.

Beck recognized that she was being hard on herself. Of course he did. It was his job as Boyfriend to calm her down when got angry. So... why wasn't he? Why couldn't he let go of his damn pride and just... comfort her? Despite how irrational she sometimes was, he did love her. All of her. So why was this so hard?

Maybe she was right. Maybe they just needed to argue for a while.

... No. That was stupid. Beck had given her enough of a hard time already, hadn't he? This was stupid. Really really stupid.

Everything was kinda stupid.

"I just..." he began, running a hand through his hair. "I just wanted to do something nice for our friend. And since you agreed to come with me... I figured you wanted to, too." Like he had earlier that afternoon, he tried very hard to keep his voice level. An even, unaccusing tone and 'I statements' were always effective with Jade. (i.e. 'Because you dumped coffee on Tori's head, I felt like that was a really stupid and mean thing to do, especially because it was, like, her first day here. I felt like you were being a complete asshole.')

... Okay. Maybe that wasn't the best example. But they worked most of the time.

"Well, that was stupid," she retorted, all humor absent from her voice.

Beck couldn't help but chuckle, and Jade fought back a small smile in response. "Haha, yeah, I guess..." He trailed off awkwardly, unsure of what else to say. So, he simply said what was on his mind. "I... I can't tell if we're fighting or not."

Jade looked up, letting out a soft laugh. "I don't know, are we?" In response to the frustrated look that appeared on his face in response, she decided to cut him some slack. "...No, I guess not. I'm pretty annoyed with you, though."

He grinned, despite himself. "It's okay, I'm annoyed with you too."

Although in any other situation she would've cursed him for saying something like that, Jade simply let his words hang in the air. She would ruminate on them later, probably during some unfortunate time like the middle of the night, keeping her from sleeping. Although he didn't mean statements like that to be harmful, especially because she had said much worse things to him before, they still stuck with her.

Whatever.

Instead of snapping at Beck, she surprised herself by standing up and walking over to him. She silently slid her back down the wall beside him, sitting next to him on 'his side' of the elevator. She saw him look up at her in surprise, and the smile that appeared on his face showed that he was as relieved as she was to close the distance between them.

The end of a war always starts with a white flag.

"Okay," she began. "I'll tell you why I'm annoyed with you if you tell me why you're annoyed with me."

"And why do I have to go first?"

"Because I said so."

Beck laughed again at that. There was a familiar, almost comforting feeling that came from being bossed around by Jade. If he was honest, it seemed wrong to make any decisions without her shouting her opinion on what to do over his shoulder.

"Okay," he agreed. "I... I don't know. I didn't like how you made a scene in front of everyone."

Jade snorted. "Even though you were the one who started the argument in the first—"

"Hey, it's my turn," he interrupted, shaking his head. "You can talk when I'm done."

Jade raised her hands in surrender, rolling her eyes, but she didn't say anything more.

"Anyway. I also didn't like how you were acting so... I dunno, hostile earlier. And I wish that if you really didn't want to go see Tori in the hospital, you would've told me before I drove us here and this whole mess started."

After a few moments of silence, she cocked a brow. "Oh, is that all? That's a shorter list than normal." When he didn't respond, she continued. "... Look. I'm sorry, alright? Sure, I guess I feel a little bad that Vega had surgery and whatever, but. I don't know. I would never choose to visit her and bring her flowers and feed her ice chips or whatever you were planning on doing."

Beck furrowed his brow. "Well. Then... why didn't you just tell me that? Why go with me?"

She laughed, albeit a bit coldly. "Because you were going."

"So... what? You'd rather be trapped in this stupid elevator arguing with me than have to spend a couple hours without me?"

Jade looked down, chewing on her lip. She couldn't tell if he was making fun of her or actually trying to understand her. Nevertheless, she was still embarrassed. Her fingernails dug into her palm, trying to stop her cheeks from going red. Of course she'd rather be spending time with him than not. Even if they were only apart for an evening, she still missed him like crazy. Of course, Beck probably thought that was stupid. He'd probably rather be spending his time with Andre or Vega or whatever.

She'd be the first to admit that she was much too possessive for her own good.

In desperate need for a way to change the subject, Jade narrowed her eyes and adjusted her expression, putting on the 'I'm too above emotions to care' facade everyone was so used to. The one Beck barely got to see. "Here," she muttered, digging into her purse until her fingers met with two familiar pieces of thick paper. "Here's why I'm annoyed with you."

She shoved the tickets onto his lap, deliberately not meeting his eyes.

After studying them for a good ten seconds, she could almost hear the realization occurring through his thick skull. "You," he began, gripping the tickets between his thumb and index finger tightly. "You... got us drag racing tickets?"

Jade huffed. "No. I got you and Robbie drag racing tickets," she quipped, hiding under her familiar safety blanket of sarcasm in order to hide her nervousness.

"That's..." Beck searched in vain for a word to use to describe how he was feeling. Throughout their entire relationship, Jade had displayed nothing but contempt for this particular interest of his. He wouldn't have ever expected her to even agree to go with him to one of the races, much less buy the two of them tickets. Today didn't seem to be anything special either—he tried to keep up on as many birthdays and anniversaries he could, and Jade usually ended up not-so-subtly reminding him anyway. So... why?

"I don't get it," he mumbled. "Why did you do this?"

She shrugged, still not meeting his eyes. "I don't know. Because you've been bugging me about it for years, so."

Beck opened his mouth to say more, but something written on the tickets in his hand distracted him. The race was supposed to start at 5:00. And, seeing as how they'd only gotten around to actually leaving school at about a quarter to 4:00, there was no way they'd be able to make it now. Especially seeing as how they were still sitting on the floor of this hospital elevator. He pulled his phone out of his pocket, and, sure enough, it was almost 5:15.

Shit.

"Why... why didn't you tell me about this earlier?" he murmured, his voice soft. Usually, when she got him a present, she made a huge show out of it. He could never really figure out if it was because she was proud of herself or she just wanted his praise, but he'd always figured it to be a mix of both. This—purchasing tickets without telling him and planning to surprise him with them after school—was completely unlike her.

"I don't know," she repeated, tugging roughly at a strand of her hair. It hurt like hell, which served very well as a distraction from just how damn embarrassed she felt. "'Cause you wanted to see Tori and I knew you'd be pissed if I told you we couldn't."

Noticing the way she was pulling at her hair—an anxious habit of hers—he gently detached her fingers from the strand and laced them through his. Jade simply blinked in response, but she internally cursed her heart for leaping at the small gesture. With just a touch, she was reminded of just how much she belonged to him.

"I wouldn't have been pissed," he said, running his thumb over her knuckles absentmindedly. "I mean... I would've felt a little bad for being the only ones not to visit her today, but. It would've been a lot more fun to go drag racing together." He squeezed her hand lightly, grinning to himself. "And don't doubt for a second that I'm not gonna refund these tickets and make you go with me another day."

"Oh, God," she muttered, but she couldn't help but smile back. Then, without even wasting a moment considering it, she leaned up and planted a quick peck on the corner of his mouth.

And, just like that, the war was over. It was actually a little surprising that they hadn't stopped fighting sooner. In the last year or so of their relationship, the two's fights had become more and more petty, and arguments were started simply out of habit rather than genuine anger. One thing was and always would be the same, though—their fighting always ended with a kiss.

"You missed," he said, and caught her lips in a kiss before she could lean back down. Then, quickly slinking his arms around her waist and pulling her onto his lap, he tipped her backwards, planting another kiss on her neck.

She couldn't help but release a small giggle in response, swatting at his head with her hand. "Stop it!" she demanded, but her command contained less enthusiasm than normal.

Beck grinned wider and tipped her even farther back, causing both of them to topple onto the floor, his chest pressed against hers.

"Stop!" she cried again. "You're heavy."

"No, I'm not!" he laughed, kissing underneath her chin.

"The fire department is going to be here any minute to get us out of here," she chided, still grinning.

"Not with our luck," he murmured, and then leaned down to kiss her again.