Disclaimer: I do not own Girl Meets world, nor any of the characters used.

"Um, where's Riley?" Cory said, scanning the room for his daughter

"I saw her go out a while back." Josh looked up from his phone, shrugging.

"And you didn't think to stop her?" Lucas chimed in, earning a glare from Josh.

"She's not my responsibility." He said defensively, why was everyone against him all of a sudden, he'd saved a girl's life this afternoon and everyone was acting like he'd killed someone.

"She's your niece." Cory frowned.

"So?" Josh stood up "She aint a kid no more, Cory, time to stop treating her like one."

"She's 15!" Topanga raised her voice, overhearing the conversation as she came into the front room with some cheese sandwiches for everyone.

"Exactly what I'm saying, she's not a kid, for god sake, she'll be graduating in like 2 years and you can't even trust her to go for a walk by herself?"

"I'll go and find her." Cory sighed preparing to put his coat back on.

"Guess not." Josh chirped under his breath.

"I'll go." Farkle volunteered, grabbing his coat.

"You want me to come?" Smackle offered.

"No, it's okay, I've known Riley the longest, so it should be me to go and comfort her."

"What if we hear any news about Maya?" Smackle asked.

"Text me and I'll come back as quickly as I can, okay?"

"Okay." Smackle nodded, hugging him "Be careful, my love." He was the only one she really felt comfortable hugging, Maya and Riley had tried to teach her but she wasn't having any of it, which they were fine with of course, they were just happy Smackle was growing more comfortable in her own skin rather than trying to fit into a carbon copy of "normal".

"I will be fine, Isodora." He reciprocated her hug lovingly before vanishing out the door.

"There you are." He huffed, slightly out of breath from trekking up the hiking trail. He found Riley sitting against a tree, her coat wrapped tightly around her body with her hood up as she played with an amber coloured leaf. She watched from the high up cliff, observing how the river flowed through the mountains.

"I knew it'd be you." She smiled warmly, almost thawing the autumn frost with her radiant positivity of the world "come and sit with me," she patted the ground, gesturing for Farkle to join her in this odd moment of peace and clarity.

Farkle accepted her offer and sat down, shivering a little as the frost-bitten leaves brushed against his jeans "why's that?"

"I don't know," she sighed, breathing in the fresh mountain air, she wasn't anything like he'd been expecting to find, she actually seemed more calm than usual, she was usually so neurotic, so hyper and dramatic, but right now, she was just….calm, it was almost…..unsettling.

"Yes, you do." He nudged her gently, edging closer under the wide stretching canopy of the silver birch tree, and by extension, even closer to the brunette, they were so close they were almost touching.

"I don't know, you've just…..always been there for us, me and Maya, I mean."

"It's my job, you're my wives."

"Farkle, I'm being serious." She giggled a little nervously, looking directly at him, noticing baby wrinkles develop around his nose as he scrunched it up a little in the cold, that made her laugh a little more "I mean it, ever since we met you, you've always looked out for us."

"I didn't do a very good job of it today though did I, Maya got hurt."

"Farkle, you saved her, what are you talking about?" Riley wapped her arm around his shoulder, comforting him.

"No, I didn't." He stared at her, shaking his head "didn't you see, it was Lucas that carried her out, and Josh brought her back to life, all I was doing was stopping Lucas from killing a tree."

"What?"

"Nevermind." He sighed.

"Look, that doesn't matter, what matters is it was YOU who put the flames out in her jacket, you and Zay saved her life just as much as Lucas and Josh did."

"She still got injured though, I shouldn't have let it happen."

"She'll get better."

"How'd you know?"

"Because I have hope." She said softly, almost a whisper as the wind caught her breath "Don't you?"

"I'm not so sure anymore." He shrugged.

Riley sighed, unsure how to respond to that, even her with her sunshiny personality was struggling to hold onto hope, but she couldn't ever let it go, that hope, that was a part of her; a hope for the world to be better, a hope for people to be better, a hope for….she didn't even know how to finish that thought any longer, there was so much to hope for but so little left to give out.

They sat in silence for a while, just appreciating each other's company and the view ahead of them, Maya should have been enjoying this with them though, she would have loved a scene like this, probably would have drawn a really beautiful sketch of it as well, maybe they'll return together once she's better. Riley made a mental note to come back with everyone once Maya's well, Lucas, Zay, Smackle, the whole gang, maybe they could stay there over the holidays, that was a nice thought, although she doubted Maya would have recovered by Christmas, there was always next year though of course.

It almost felt like they were up so high that the world had just stopped for a little while, it was nice, it was good, relaxing even, and then that moment had to end.

Farkle's cell rang, they exchanged looks of mutual concern, knowing exactly who it was without even having to check the caller ID. He tried pushing the phone into Riley's hand but she refused, shaking her head quickly, Farkle conceded and answered the call before it could ring a third time.

"Hello?" Riley stared at him expectantly as she heard a voice on the other end of the phone murmur words back to Farkle, she guessed it was her father but it was so hard to concentrate on the conversation between Farkle and the caller when all she could hear was her own inner voice "is Maya okay, is Maya okay, where's Maya, what's happened, she has to be okay, she has to….."

Farkle swiped his phone up, turning the flashlight on, h couldn't believe it was night time already, how long had they been sat out there "We have to go." he offered his hand to Riley as he pulled her up from the soggy leaves.

"Is Maya okay?" She asked quickly, rummaging in her pocket for the travel sized flashlight connected to her house keys.

"Shawn's at the hospital…" Farkle started.

"That's good isn't it?" Riley flashed a smile, stepping up over a wide collection of exposed roots "she's no longer alone."

"She had a seizure." Riley's face fell and tears that she didn't even know had escaped started to roll down her cheeks "I don't really know fully what's happened, apparently Shawn's pretty angry at the doctors for only focusing on her visible injuries and not checking for head injury."

"Is she okay?" Riley asked.

"I don't know." He said solemnly, shining his flashlight on a wooden sign just off the side of the trail.

Author Note: Hey guys, OMG, I felt so nostalgic writing for this story again, I haven't touched this story in so long. To those of you who are still here, thank you so much!

I'm really happy with this chapter but let me know what you thought by PMing me or reviewing, I'd love to hear your opinion!

What did you think of Josh, do you agree with his points or is he more in the wrong, let me know!

Don't forget to follow if you want to see more as we both know I haven't got anything close to an upload schedule lol

If you got this far leave, hmmm, leave fall(as in Autumn) in your review lol :)

See ya later…

BubbleB98

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