A/N: This story is probably a bit rough. I started it a couple months ago, but then it got trapped on my mom's computer, and I only just re-read it today and decided to finish it up. So obviously this takes place long before the beautiful ILY scene we got in the show. In fact, it probably takes place before John's birth, but I don't have an exact point in the timeline.

For The Soul

Chapter One

"Oh for crying out loud!" Adrian groaned. The words echoed as if she were yelling into the Grand Canyon. From her bedroom, she could hear persistent knocking from the front door and she did not want to get up and go answer it again. "Of all the days for people to come over and try to sell me things, they have to choose the one where I feel like bashing my head into the wall until I'm unconscious."

Earlier that day, she'd already been to the door three times: once for a UPS package that had she'd been required to sign for, once for a woman selling Avon, and once for a perky Grace-like couple who were trying to get her to convert to some Christian-esq religion she had no intention of converting to. With the last ones, she'd point blank told them off and slammed the door, not having the will to make witty remarks and tell them that she didn't go around trying to get them to have sex so why should they try to get her to become a Christian, the way she usually did when she got such annoying and unwanted visitors.

Adrian rubbed the sides of her head. The knocking wouldn't go away and it was really starting to get to her. Finally, she threw up her pink and orange checkered covers and achingly stomped out of her room and into the living room, where the knocking was twice as loud and twice as painful to her sensitive ears. She cursed under her breath as she threw open the door and yelled, "Whatever it is I'm not interested!"

"Not even in me?"

Adrian's lips parted into an o-shape when she realized Ricky was standing outside the threshold. She frowned, then the frown gradually turned into a glare. "No," she spat, "not even in you."

"Why not?" he asked, undeterred.

"Go away." She began to shut the door, but he jammed his foot between the entrance. She snarled and threw up her hands. "Fine! Have it your way. Hang out. Just don't bother me or I swear I won't be responsible for what happens to you."

Ricky slipped into the apartment and shut the door. "You weren't at school today," he said, ignoring her hostility.

"So?"

"So I'm wondering why."

"Oh I don't know," she replied sarcastically. "Maybe because my eyes are bloodshot, my throat feels like it's one fire, and my head feels like the first and only time I ever had a hangover!"

"You have a hangover?"

"No! I have a cold!" She winced at the sound of her own voice and placed her hands to her ears. "Ugh, and you're making it worse. I'm going to my room, don't follow me!" she stomped back to her room and closed the door. As she was climbing back under her covers, the door opened. She groaned again and grabbed her pillow. "Leave me alone Ricky…please? I'm so not in the mood today."

"What do you want?"

"Great. Selective hearing." She shoved her pillow her face and screamed into the extra thick fluff.

Ricky shrugged his shoulders. "Fine."

Adrian listened to the sounds of his shoes moving down the hallway. She closed her eyes beneath the darkness of her pillow and exhaled. "Finally…" The sheets crunched around her as she rolled over and nestled her head into her pillow, instantly falling back to sleep.