Jack bent down and picked up the dolphins, feeling their smooth, cool weight in his hand for a moment before he swept them back into the bag. He quickly walked into the house, moving between the people gathered in the entry, heading toward the staircase. Jack's feet sped up as he took the stairs three at a time, something he hadn't done since he was thirteen years old.

"Jack? Son? Where are you going?" he heard his mother call after him.

He didn't bother to answer, but simply ran to his room, rifling through his belongings until he found the small box, wrapped in red foil, that contained the dolphin charm bracelet. He crammed it in the gift bag with the dolphins and ran back downstairs, shoving his feet into the first shoes he found, which happened to be his boots.

Jake was waiting at the bottom of the stairs, holding the keys to his own car, a truck with 4 wheel drive, along with his own coat, a puffy down thing for when he had to haul lumber and stuff for his furniture business. "My car's better for driving in the fog," he explained, pressing the keys into Jack's hand. "And I just filled it up, too."

"Thanks," Jack said, kissing his brother. "She can't have gone far, right? Not in this? She's not used to driving in fog--"

"Just go," Jeremy urged, making a shooing motion.

Jack waved at everyone on his way out, telling Marian, "I'm sorry to leave like this."

She shook her head, but she wasn't happy, Jack could tell.

He started Jake's truck and took off into the cold night, trying to guess where Kelsey would go. She'd have to take it slow with visibility being so bad, but even so, Jack knew how ridiculous it was to try to chase someone whose destination he didn't know on a foggy night, someone who had at least a five minute head start.

He thought back to what he'd seen in her car when he was standing next to it. She definitely had her overnight bag in the back seat, so she must be on her way to her family still. And the best way to Iowa from Warren would be SFO.

Which would mean the freeway.

Jack got on the westbound freeway , where he assumed he'd make up a little time on Kelsey, even though she was in the faster car, simply by virtue of the fact that he knew the roads so well. Visibility on this night before Christmas Eve was barely fifty yards, but Jack had grown up in the valley and was used to driving in the heavy, dense, Tulle fog that frequently blanketed it, sometimes for weeks at a time. He gave the truck more gas and began passing the slower vehicles, many of which were filled with holiday travelers who were nervous about the bad visibility.

He looked at every light-colored car he passed, especially if he recognized the BMW logo on the trunk, but none of them was Kelsey's little sports car. He reached the Altamont Pass and hoped that the fog would lift, but aside from a brief clearing at the summit, it was just as dense on the Livermore side.

He risked breaking the law and sent Kelsey a text:

"I'm right behind you I think. We have to talk, please, Kelseylove. Tell me where you are?"

He didn't even know if she was receiving his texts anymore, or if she'd blocked him. He tried calling her, too, but it went straight to voicemail. Hearing her voice, even her voicemail recording, made Jack smile in the darkness of Jake's truck.

"Hello, you've reached Kelsey's voicemail, though if you're still using voicemail, I don't know if I want to talk to you, haha! You can try if you want, though, and leave a message after the--" beep

"Kelsey? Sweetheart, look. I'm here on the Altamont Pass, in the most awful fog you've probably ever seen. I hope you're headed for the San Francisco airport, or I don't have a hope of finding you. Please, please, call me back, or text me or whatever, so we can talk? Please. Marian's just trying to get to her house in Red Bluff, her flight got canceled so she came with me as a last ditch try to get to her house, that's all, okay? I love you. Please call me. Text me--"

At that point he got cut off. Jack tossed his phone on the seat next to him in disgust, hoping it was enough.

Once he got to the Bay Area, traffic was bad again, though the fog did finally lift. Ironically, it was warmer near the bay, which made him remember his words to Kelsey during their road trip to the city about the coldest winter ever being a summer in San Francisco.

Jack sighed, wondering exactly how many feet separated him from his love. His phone remained obstinately mute.

And what if she was flying out of San Jose? Or had decided to just go back to LA?

Dang it.

Jack gripped the large steering wheel grimly. He would just have to hope that someone, somewhere, was going to cut him a break. Kelsey was going to SFO. That was all. It was the most logical place, right?

He paid the toll and merged onto the San Mateo Bridge, which wasn't too crowded. He thought he might even have seen a light blue BMW ahead of him, but he wasn't sure, and there was too much traffic for him to get to it.

As he drove north on 101 toward SFO, he tried to remember the procedure for chartered jets. He remembered listening to Kelsey talking to her PA about what a pain it was to get to Des Moines by plane. Kelsey told Jack that she'd given up trying to travel commercial to her home long ago, that she always just chartered a private plane.

"Must be nice to be so rich," he'd teased.

"You'll be glad the first time we have to go anywhere, Jack LaGuardia," she'd retorted. "You know how much air travel sucks these days. It's so convenient to just pull up to the door of the plane and just walk up the steps. You'll see."

"I'll look forward to it," Jack had told her with a grin.

He parked his car in the section of the parking lot designated for charters and long term, and knew he was headed in the right direction when he saw Kelsey's Beemer. He knew, however, that he'd have to catch her before she got to the gate or whatever, because there was no way they'd let him in to the private charter part of the airport. He grabbed his phone and the gift bag and quickly exited the car, looking around for directions on where to go next.

He followed the signs to the elevator leading to "Freight and private charter travel", and felt like shouting with joy when the doors slid open and he saw her, dark hair bouncing as she walked down the moving walkway, pulling her case behind her.

"Kelsey!" he called. The long, wide corridor was nearly deserted at this time of night, and the two or three other people who were there turned at the sound of his voice and quickly turned back to their business.

Kelsey turned around, eyes wide, and stopped walking, though of course she kept moving because she was on the walkway. She looked astonished.

Jack quickly made his way to the walkway and ran to where she was, unable to hide his joy at having found her. "Oh god, I've been chasing you for the last two and a half hours," he said when he finally arrived in front of her. He wanted to scoop her up in his arms.

Kelsey swallowed, looking behind her for the end of the walkway. She carefully stepped off, lifting her bag and setting it next to her. She crossed her arms and looked at Jack, gray eyes narrowed as she shook her head.

"Why? Why did you come?" She kept her voice low, though the corridor was now deserted. "I have nothing to say to you, Jack."

"No, please, don't say that," Jack begged. "We need to talk, we've been quiet too long, I think."

"Is that your expert opinion?" Kelsey asked, eyebrow cocked. "Fine, I'm a few minutes early, go ahead, then, talk."

"What, right here?" Jack looked around. "Let's go somewhere, okay? Even back to my car? At least we can sit?"

Kelsey, too, looked around. "Why? No one's listening, it's nearly eleven o'clock at night. You have ten minutes, so talk."

Jack sighed. "Look, Marian's only at my house because her flight got canceled, and she was going to be stuck in LA. I figured it might be easier for her to get home from Warren, to catch a plane or train or whatever, you know?" He looked into Kelsey's eyes. "It's not like she's spending the holidays with us." He gestured at Kelsey. "Your turn."

"I don't really have anything new to say," she said with a shrug. "I told you how I felt about her, I told you how I felt about you spending time with her, but you didn't care, and you did it anyway. And you still don't." She saw the confusion in Jack's eyes. "Care, I mean. I came to your house to try to talk and make up and all that, and she answers the fucking door, Jack!"

"I told you why she's there--" Jack began, but Kelsey cut him off.

"I don't care why she's there!" she cried, her control snapping. "Don't you understand that? I want it to be enough for you that I don't like it, I want you to tell her to go away, just because you know I want you to! Why can't you do that?" The anguish in her voice was palpable. "I've seen how she looks at you, Jack! I know how she feels about you, how she's felt about you, almost since the day she met you!" And now Kelsey was crying, her voice echoing in the large corridor. "How could you possibly not respond to that? Any man would. She's beautiful, she's smart, she's an Olympian, and you have so much in common, way more than we do," and here she gestured between the two of them. "Who wouldn't want that?" She concluded, her voice soft and pitiful.

"What did I ever say or do that made you think I wanted that?" Jack asked. "That I wanted her?"

"Are you denying that she likes you?" Kelsey asked, looking at Jack, twisting his gut with the tears streaming from her gray eyes. "That she's really into you?" Kelsey put a soft hand on his chest.

Slowly, not breaking eye contact, Jack shook his head.

Kelsey sighed.

"So she told you?" she probed, her voice barely audible.

Jack nodded.

"I need you to send her away, Jack, please," Kelsey pleaded. "I need to know that you'll do it, just because I want you to."

Jack just looked at her.

An airport employee walked by, pushing a trolley loaded with boxes. He gave them no more than a passing look. The airport was full of crying couples. Jack waited until he was gone before continuing.

"Kels, don't you see, that's no way to begin a relationship? I mean, she might be the first, but she won't be the last. And what if it's you, next time?" Jack tried hard to sound reasonable and not accusing. "What if you become friends with a famous actor who's really nice, someone you have a lot in common with, someone you could be really good friends with? Would it be reasonable for me to ask you to cut him off, just because I was insecure about it?"

"I would if you wanted me to," Kelsey insisted, sniffing.

"That's not the point," Jack said, shaking his head. "I wouldn't ask you to, don't you see, we have to have trust, or we don't have anything."

"What about Ryan?" Kelsey asked, taking a step back. "You flipped out when you saw us at the party and at the shoot, you completely--"

"Wait a minute, Ryan was groping you, he had his tongue down your throat," Jack said, eyes flinty. "That's not the same thing, and you know it."

Kelsey nodded, taking another step back. "Okay. Okay. I understand what you're saying. So I guess that's that, then."

Jack looked at her. "What's what? What are you talking about?"

"We're done." At Jack's look of shock, she smiled, a small smile. "I think this is the most grown up, sane break up I've ever gone through, to be honest."

Jack was shaking his head. "You're not serious. We can't break up! I still love you!" He tried to put his arms around her, but she broke his embrace, shaking her head.

Kelsey's expression softened at his words. "Aw, Jack, I love you too, I do." And she nodded, her chin beginning to quiver as her eyes filled. "But this is too big a thing to get past, you know? And you're right," she said, nodding, wiping her eyes with the back of her hand. "This will continue to happen, over and over, and we'll be in this same place again and again with no way out.

"You should be with Marian," she concluded, continuing to nod.

"I'm not with Marian," he nearly shouted. "I never have been! We're just friends."

"But that's because I've been in the way," Kelsey said. "And I'm moving out of the way now, okay? Okay, Jack?" And she reached up and placed a gentle kiss on his mouth.

Jack reached for her, grasping her forearms with his hands, holding her slim body to his for long moments. "Kelsey," he said against her mouth. "You don't mean this, you can't meant this, you can't."

"I do, though. I do." Kelsey blinked at him, her gaze clear.

"Okay," he said. "I'll send her away. Tonight. I'll do it tonight. I'll never see her again, I swear!" He smoothed her hair away from her face in a gesture she knew well, and she closed her eyes as she leaned into his warm hand. "I promise, Kelseylove, okay?"

She shook her head gently, eyes still closed. "No, Jack, it doesn't work that way. I already know how you feel. And you'd come to resent me over it, you would."

Once again, she stepped away from him.

"Good bye, Jack." She smiled and blew him a kiss. "Merry Christmas."

And she turned and walked away, leaving him standing alone in the corridor.