OMGOSH I'M NOT DEAD YAY! But I will say that I had to work especially to get this finished for you all by today, and I'd like to thank you all for being so patient! I wanted to do this for you as a Christmas present - so, may you all have a very Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year! I'd like to say that I hope this chapter doesn't disappoint. This is probably the chapter that everyone's been waiting for... and yes, there are little 9 easter eggs (or should I say christmas crackers?), so free cyber noms to whomever finds them both.

As usual, I'm not cool enough to own 9, cuz that belongs to Shane Acker.
And again, let me know if characters are OOC... also cause I'm kinda bored if anyone has any questions so far, ask away! Obviously I can't give spoilers but I can give some information about our characters. Lots of love and Christmas kisses - HamPickleSandwich.

Ava generally did not believe in things such as fate and destiny. A long time ago she had been different, indulging in 'love at first sight' and 'happily ever after' – but then her ever after became a nightmare and love had to be forgotten. As a mother of twins her children always came first no matter what – and it didn't matter that she didn't have a husband. Whatever had come over her on the previous evening she had by now shaken off, and she was now gladly taking the usual party towards school.

"How did the kids fare after I left?" Eli asked, looking through his backpack at his various folders and notes. With some dry note to her voice she recounted the way that by the time he had left Jorje seemed to have completely forgotten about what had happened and promptly gone to the sparkling apple juice.

"And it was like nobody had even done anything – I swear-oh!" she recounted, squeaking in surprise when Eli's cell phone suddenly rang. It played the theme song to an old cartoon she remembered watching in her youth but could not place; and Eli grinned as he flicked open the phone.

"I was the dorkiest kid, I tell you." he said briefly before greeting the person on the other end. Ava drove on without trying to listen in on the conversation; which apparently Eli was trying to get out of.

"Dude, you don't even know who this girl is! I told you last night – it's creepy to do that. You don't even know that she goes there on Thursdays. Art – I – no, but -!" his voice stopped and started, laughing in exasperation as the voice on the other line whined audibly.

'But what if this girl could be the one?' the voice crackled. Ava's already curved lips cracked into a grin. With a sigh, Eli mumbled a response before hanging up on his caller. The car was silent for a moment, though the children signed to them with the airs of traditionally nosy children.

Who was that?

He sounded dreamy. Tanya's response to the mysterious voice drove Ava to laughter; the kind that would not be stopped by simple measures.

"That would be the idi-sorry-kid that lives in Apartment 9. You'd think he was 16, not 21, the way he goes on about girls." Eli explained, tucking his phone back into his pocket. Jorje stuck his tongue out in disgust.

"You said it, little man. Only girl for me is my mom!" Eli replied, grinning.

"Really? No girlfriend?" Ava asked, taking a right turn into the school parking lot. Had she been paying less attention to the road and more on her quarry, she would have noticed the momentarily clouding of the man's expression. But it was gone before she gave him a second glance, and he shook his head.

"Not for nearly six years now." he said briefly. Without another word the three passengers parted their driver, any foreboding airs about the older man dissipating with his separation.

Whether she had or hadn't in the end did not turn out to be much of a concern. She pleasured herself with the joy of whipping people into shape, the exhilaration of the treadmill beneath her feet, and the admiration of the dedicated gym members she had come to know through their goodhearted interactions with her.

"I don't know how you do it, Ava," Kendra said, blonde curls bouncing with every movement of her head. "They all love you so much and you practically thrash them with a cane!"

Ava simply blushed, rechecking the items in her bag. Her shift was over.

"They don't all love me." she mumbled. Inside – she frowned. It was thinking like this that got her so distressed the day before. Even now, there was something horribly familiar about where this conversation was going.

"Ah. I get it. Ex husband didn't love you, I know, honey. But really, here you get a fresh new start! I think the next man to come in here and ask you out you should give a chance."

As if called forth by her voice, the door opened...

And Ava laughed.

"What's so funny, m'am?" Jonathan asked, flexing his hand back and forth. The small number 8 tattoo between his thumb and forefinger was clearly visible. Ava shook her head quickly, standing back as Kendra signed the customer in.

"Nothing," Kendra replied enticingly. "But Ava is now bound by my opinion to go on a date with the next fella to ask her out."

And then it happened.

It was never a lucky day for him. No matter how many times he tried he had not successfully asked a girl out and managed to keep up a relationship without something going wrong – he was sure that even in past lives (if there was such thing) he would have made some movement to end in disastrous consequences, not unlike this one.

As it were, the young man found himself on the floor, the paramedic checking for injuries, and two familiar faces staring down at him. One, the identity of which he knew only too well was fit to burst from contained laughter. The other, too beautiful to mistake for anyone but his maybe destined (maybe!) lover. Who, incidentally, looked like she was going to kick him to the curb, broken bones or not.

It had happened.

"He was just trying to lift a weight too heavy for his bony little arms, sir." John explained to the paramedic. "Of course he dropped it and got winded by it."

"What were you thinking? You could have seriously hurt yourself!" Ava cried, throwing up her hands in distress. The idiot in front of her simply stared into her eyes, saying nothing, but his cheeks turning pink as if he were embarrassed to be scolded like this.

"We have rules here, bucko," she continued. "Number one rule about weightlifting is to always have somebody spotting you! You think you're going to impress some girl or something by doing that? You're not! You're only going to wind up with a busted back!" she stopped, controlling herself before she ranted further. People were watching, glad that they weren't the poor fellow facing her wrath. Seeing red, she turned on her heel and walked off, signing out before she left the building.

She stopped in the front seat of her car, pausing before she put the keys in the ignition. Really, considering that she had heard a lot about him, she wasn't exactly expecting him to be so reckless (though Eli had said he was crazy) or so skinny (though John had said that he wasn't much) or so much younger looking (though Mr. Alexander – Theodore - had said that he was around her age). Wondering what else was niggling at her (as situations like this usually called for that feeling), she groped for her keys in her bag... but to no avail. Ava swore, realising she had left them inside.

Getting out of the car with a frustrated air, she turned towards the entrance to the gym to see the man she had finally just met for the first time. His face had turned ruddy for reasons she could not place (though his blush made him look...what?), but he smiled at her sheepishly, pleasantly, he smiled at her all the same. After a beat of saying nothing, he held out her car keys in his palm. It occurred to her then how astonishingly dark Artie's hair was.

"You dropped this."