Augusta Again (Completed)

47- AA Nancy Drew

A/N: Another really short chapter, but a fun one! Enjoy!

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     Caroline went to her closet and reached up with shaky hands to grab the box of letters. She began pulling out letters from Zach and skimming through them looking for something, anything, to bring clarity to what she had just discovered... Mason's tattoo represents the word for peaches. She was having difficulty believing what she saw. "It can't be," she murmured to herself. It was too big of a coincidence.

     Finally, she found something, the letter where he told her he would never forget her favorite flowers were hot pink gerber daisies. Caroline tried to remember how Mason first found out about her affinity about the flowers, and she could have sworn he was very elusive about it. She knew for a fact that she didn't tell him. Continuing to scan the letters, she found one where Zach told her that he had carved a heart with their initials in it, on a wall inside his tree house. Her hand flew to her mouth. "The tree house! The house he lives in now is the house from Mason's childhood, and it was his tree house from when he was a kid. She mentally walked through the interior of Mason's tree house, and tried to remember if there was something carved on a wall. Surely she would have remembered if there had been something like that on the wall; she would have thought it was adorable and pointed it out to him. But there was a framed picture on the wall. She remembers thinking it seemed so out of place in a tree house, and that it had previously been inside his house. She had to get inside that tree house before she spoke to Mason.

     Caroline raced back to her closet to pull out her clothes for the evening, then into the bathroom to freshen up. She decided on jeans and a long sleeve blouse with a cardigan. The jeans would make it easier to climb into the tree house. Her eyes moved again to the picture on the bulletin board of the scrawny, white haired boy, and she tried to imagine him becoming a broad shouldered sandy haired man.

     By 4:45 she was out the door and on her way to Mason's. She knew that he had left work at 3:30 to get things ready, but he wasn't expecting her until 5:30. Once she pulled onto Mason's street, she decided to park two houses down on the side of the road so he wouldn't accidentally see her car before she had a chance to get to the tree house. Her heart was racing, and she stopped herself before getting out of the car. What if this is just her imagination gone wild. What if he just coincidentally had peaches tattooed over his heart, and then wanted to call her Peaches because it reminded him of someone else, someone that was not her. Surely he would have told her the truth long before now if she was right? Why would he not. She had told him all about her search for Zach, and even asked if he had a cousin with the name, but he denied it. She had to figure this out before confronting him, or if she was wrong he would think she was crazy.

     Finally, she pulled herself together, and stealthily slipped into Mason's back yard. She walked close to the trees in case he glanced out the window. Shaking her head she thought to herself, "has it been right in front of me all along?" Smith is such a common name, she didn't think anything of it. The tree house was only a few feet away and she darted from the shade of the next closest tree, towards the ladder.

     Wiping her sweaty hands on her jeans, she began the climb. The climb she hoped would provide answers. As she got to the top and peered through the door of the treehouse, she could see unlit votive candles spread around the floor, and she was instantly touched by Mason's romantic gesture. But she would not be distracted from her real purpose, so she stood up and walked towards the doorway to find her way to the wall that held the picture.

     "Caroline! What are you doing here? I thought you weren't coming until 5:30. And why are you sneaking into the tree house?"

     Caroline froze. Should she ignore him and keep walking in to check the wall? He sounded so nonplussed by the fact that she was up there. Surely he wouldn't be if the picture was truly hiding proof of a past that he had concealed. This was all crazy. What had she been thinking? This was not some Nancy Drew novel. Slowly, with disappointment settling in her heart, she eased back down the ladder and sheepishly turned around.

     Mason was only steps away from her, and it was obvious he'd been cooking since he was wearing the superman apron. "What's going on baby? I had a surprise up there for you, but it looks like you may have already discovered part of it." He closed the distance, removed the apron, and pulled Caroline in for a hug. "Whatever it is, I'm glad to see you. He kissed her head and then leaned back. "You're stiff as a board." Then he lifted her chin and looked at her face. "And you look like you've seen a ghost. Seriously, what's going on?"

     "I... uh...," Caroline could feel her face flush. She wasn't sure she could make her tongue work. There were so many thoughts going through her head, and she desperately wanted answers. She buried her face in his shirt, and tried to slow her breathing and focus her mind. Mason patiently waited, soothingly rubbing her back. After what seemed like an eternity, she lifted her head. "Mason I..."

A/N: Sorry to leave you hanging!  More answers in  tomorrow's update!

Nancy Drew was a fictional teenage detective and the lead character of a series of 175 books named after her that were published from the years 1930-2003.  Additionally there have been television shows and movies based on the books.