As it turned out, Caroline didn't end up going to JC's house for the rest of the week.  She knew that the housekeeping and gardening services would continue as scheduled - JC made sure she paid them all at least a month in advance.  It was too enticing to take some time off, and she reasoned with herself that she could easily make up for any lost time when she returned the following week, especially considering that she worked at about double the pace when JC wasn't around at all.

If anyone was glad she'd decided to stay home for a few days, it was Brandon.

"So, you're still getting paid for this, right?" he'd asked one afternoon when she'd showed up at the garage to have lunch with him. 

"I'm on salary, so yes, technically," Caroline had assured him as they sat outside to eat, enjoying the unseasonably warm southern California weather.  "I can play catch up next week, and I doubt JC will know, or care."

Indeed, it was fairly easy for Caroline to handle everything when she returned.  There were a few emails still coming in from angry PR reps regarding all of JC's cancelled appearances and interviews, but Caroline shrugged them off and forwarded them to Kevin, per his request.  She found herself only needing to really go into the office a few hours per day; most everything else, she accomplished from home. 

In fact, Caroline got so used to JC being gone that she was shocked when the 24-hour reminder alarm on her Blackberry popped up the day before his return.

"What's that?" Brandon mumbled from behind her on the couch as they relaxed on Sunday afternoon, watching some documentary about European street artists that Caroline's brother had raved about.  Her phone vibrated on the coffee table once more, and Caroline leaned forward to pick it up.

"Shit," she whispered, closing her eyes after she cleared the reminder. 

"What?"  Brandon's arms tightened around her and he pressed a kiss to the back of her neck.  "Bad news?"

Caroline tossed her Blackberry aside with a sigh.  "JC's coming back tomorrow."

Brandon froze.  "Does that mean you have to go back to actually working?"

"Yes, and oddly enough, not getting as much done."

"That sucks."

"Mmm."  Caroline rolled onto her stomach, burying her face in a throw pillow.  It was time to return to the actual reality of her job, and she was nowhere near ready.  Brandon rubbed her back comfortingly.

"Maybe it won't be so bad.  Maybe vacation chilled him out."

"Maybe," Caroline sighed.  "I don't want to think about it right now."

She effectively pushed the thought of JC's impending return out of her mind until the next morning, when Brandon woke her up with a kiss. 

"I'm leaving," he said, sitting on the edge of her side of the mattress.  Caroline yawned and stretched, glancing at the clock.  It was six-thirty and she was nowhere near ready to get out of bed.

"I hate Monday," she whispered, and Brandon chuckled, smoothing her hair back off of her forehead. 

"Good luck today."  He kissed her again before standing up.  "Maybe JC brought you a present."

His sarcasm went unnoticed as Caroline remembered the other reason why this particular Monday was going to suck.  "Ugh."

"Have a good day.  I love you."  Brandon shrugged on his jacket and waved at her before leaving the room.  Caroline dawdled in bed for a few minutes longer before forcing herself to get up and into the shower.

It was a drizzly day, and traffic sucked colossally.  Caroline was laying on her horn, honking at an SUV that cut her off on Laurel Canyon, when her phone vibrated in her pocket.  She decided to play it safe and wait until she was at a red light to pull it out. 

Boarding the plane in DC, read the text from who else, JC.  See you in five hours.  Bring the Jeep when you come.

Caroline rolled her eyes and tossed the phone in the passenger seat.  Typical JC.  No explanations, just orders.  Convinced she would feel better once she got some caffeine, Caroline focused on making it to the house.

Once in the office, she managed to get a few loose ends tied up before she had to leave for the airport.  Caroline figured it would be safest to leave around 1, in case traffic was still a bitch, but she didn't factor in the time she had to spend procuring the keys for the Jeep.  She knew they were in the lockbox on the far wall of the garage, but she had no way of getting inside.  Caroline took a few random guesses at the combination before calling Mariella, frustrated.

"Bueno?"

"Mariella," Caroline sighed, holding herself back from punching the metal box on the wall.  "It's Caroline."

"Hola, Carolina!" Mariella sang into the phone.  "How are you today?"

"I'm fine," she replied, no time for niceties.  "Mariella, do you know the combination to the lockbox in the garage?"

Mariella clucked her tongue.  "Oh, no, no, hermanita.  Try Edgar, he will know."

Caroline closed her eyes in frustration.  Edgar was the unofficial maintenance man around JC's house, and he spoke even less English than Mariella. 

After getting Edgar's phone number and struggling through a conversation with her best attempt at broken Spanish, Caroline finally got the combination to the lockbox and obtain the Jeep keys.  By that time, it was past 1:30.

Of course, she couldn't catch a break, and traffic into LAX was as difficult as ever, stretching the 30 minute drive into a full hour.  Surprisingly enough, she didn't get any frantic texts or calls from JC until about 2:20.

"JC, I'm on my way," Caroline assured him as soon as she answered his call.  "I got stuck in traffic and it's pouring."

Did you bring the Jeep?" JC asked, not sounding too perturbed.  Yet.

"Yeah, I'm in it now.  I didn't know the code to the -"

"Okay, see you soon," JC replied and hung up.  Caroline scowled at her phone and tossed it aside. 

For a Monday afternoon, the arrivals gate was packed, and Caroline had to wait several minutes for a space to open up.  She spotted JC easily, standing next to a full luggage caddy.  He wore his same cap from before, along with a pair of glasses, but he'd still been spotted and was apparently signing autographs for several people standing clustered around him. 

Caroline waited at the car until he was done, and moved to open the back of the Jeep to accommodate the contents of his luggage cart, which seemed to have grown exponentially since his departure.  She noticed that JC seemed different as well, though she couldn't quite put her finger on what it was. 

"Hi Caroline," he greeted, sounding surprisingly chipper.  

"Hi, sorry I'm late," she began, but JC waved her off, and shocked her again by wrapping an arm around her shoulders in a quick hug.

"Don't worry about it!  Are you hungry?"

Caroline watched him begin to toss his luggage in the back of the Jeep.  "Not...really.  Are you okay?"

"I'm fine!"  JC unloaded the last of his luggage and slammed the back door shut, offering a perky show of gratitude to the attendant that came to take his cart.  "Hop in, I'll drive!"

Caroline got into the passenger seat somewhat warily, watching as JC fiddled with the radio spastically. 

"Did you have a lot of coffee on the plane, JC?" she asked finally, and he nodded, barely even looking as he pulled out into traffic. 

"Four cups, and a Diet Coke," he replied.  "Flying makes me nervous.  How are you?"

"I'm good."  Caroline made sure to buckle her seatbelt securely and hold on tightly.  JC was a questionable driver even when he wasn't hopped up on caffeine, and she was more than a little nervous to find out how this trip would end up.  "Um, how was Maryland?"

"Oh, it was awesome!"  JC made a daring maneuver around a hotel shuttle and Caroline clutched the door handle in response.  "Always great to see family."

"You look...tan," Caroline remarked, glancing over at him in between watching the road.  JC smiled sheepishly.

"I kinda...got bored at home," he admitted, taking one hand off the steering wheel as he shrugged.  Caroline cringed.  "So I went down to Orlando for a few days.  I have a house there, you know."

Caroline knew about JC's Winter Park home because she was in charge of making sure the mortgage payments were made, along with upkeep costs.  "I know."

"You should go sometime," JC continued, barely screeching to a stop as the stoplight they were approaching turned red.  "It's so relaxing.  So, you're not hungry?"

"No.  JC, watch the road!"

JC was almost too busy checking out the Aston Martin that had driven up beside them to notice the car in front of him had its turn signal on.  He swerved out of the way just in time and Caroline exhaled the breath she'd been holding. 

"Calm down.  I'm starving."

He turned the song on the radio up and bopped his head along with the music as he drove, playing imaginary drums on the steering wheel.  Caroline closed her eyes and actually began to pray that they wouldn't get in an accident.  She could honestly say that this was one of the most terrifying car rides she'd ever been on in her life, and they weren't even a quarter of the way to JC's house.

"McDonalds?  No.  Taco Bell?  No."  JC sighed heavily and turned the radio off before turning it back on again.  "Don't you hate that?"

"Being in a car with a crazy person?  Yeah, I hate it," Caroline muttered, her eyes still closed.

"No, when you're so hungry that you can't decide what you want," JC said, too far gone to respond to her barb. 

"Why don't you just focus on making it home and we can get something there?"

"I don't have any food there."

"I'll share my lunch with you," Caroline said.  "Hell, you can have the entire thing.  Just...get me there in one piece."

"Really?"  JC turned to look at her.  "That's so sweet, Caroline."

She waved him away.  "The road, JC!  Please!"

"No problem," he replied, leaning back in his seat.  "I got this."

It was only by the grace of...something that they made it home alive, and Caroline literally felt like kneeling to kiss the ground when she crawled out of the Jeep.  JC hopped out of the car and bounded into the house, completely unfazed. 

"Don't worry about the bags," he called over his shoulder.  "I'll get them later!"

Caroline followed him inside, still trying to calm her racing heart.

"There's still some food in here," JC announced, already standing in front of the open fridge when Caroline entered the kitchen.  "What's this again?" he asked, pulling the head of kohlrabi out of the crisper.

"Let's...not worry about that."  Caroline took it out of his hands and motioned him away from the fridge.  "I brought some soup for lunch, so I can heat it up for you if you want to go upstairs and...try to calm down."

"I'm fine!" JC exclaimed, then paused.  "I guess I could shower.  Why don't you put some coffee on, it's freezing in here."

"No," Caroline said flatly.  "No more coffee for you for at least 24 hours."

After a bit more wrangling, she finally got JC upstairs and took a few moments to sit at the island and catch her breath.  It was safe to say her nerves were completely shot for the day.

By the time JC returned downstairs, Caroline had heated up a bowl of soup for him, and was slicing up an apple to go along with it. She was relieved to see that he looked somewhat less hyper, and hoped that he was coming down from his caffeine rush. 

"Feeling better?" she asked and JC sat down at the island in front of the steaming bowl. 

"Yeah."  He picked up the spoon and yawned, which relieved Caroline greatly.  "I guess I overdid it with the coffee."

"It would seem so."  She put the apple slices on a plate and slid it across the island towards him.  "Is this enough for you?"

"It's great, thanks."  JC ate a huge spoonful of the soup and glanced at her.  "This is amazing."

"Thanks.  I made it," she replied, wiping down the counter. 

"I thought you only ate uncooked food."

"I did, when I was younger.  But I cook things now."

JC nodded and took another few bites before popping an apple slice in his mouth.  "Any problems while I was gone?"

"Besides pissing off a shitload of radio stations and magazines, no."  Caroline pulled a bag of snap peas out of her lunch bag and sat down on a barstool across from JC.  "By the way, Kevin wanted to meet with you when you got back."

JC rolled his eyes.  "I'll call him tomorrow.  Is he pretty mad?"

Caroline shrugged.  "He's had a couple weeks to cool down, but you did kind of put us in a bad position."

JC didn't say anything for a few minutes, and Caroline began to wonder if she'd overstepped her bounds.  "But...you know.  You did what you had to do."

JC just nodded and finished off the soup.  "Any important messages?"

"Nothing that can't wait until tomorrow."

"Good, because I need a nap."  He pushed the remainder of the apple slices over to her and slid off the barstool.  Caroline stayed seated, watching as he took his bowl to the sink.  The aftermath of his freakout combined with any jet lag effects pretty much ensured that he'd be asleep for the rest of the day. 

"Thanks again for lunch."  JC half-turned towards her in the doorway, not quite meeting her eyes.  "You're a good assistant.  You could be working anywhere, but instead you're here, putting up with my bullshit.  I appreciate that."

Caroline froze, unsure of how to handle the most genuine compliment she'd ever received from JC, or maybe any boss.  "Um.  Thanks."