Thank you to all of you for your kind messages and posts. I really appreciate it. Know i've seen each and every one even if I haven't had a chance to respond. Thanks for being patient for the next chapter as well! Also sorry for any mistakes, didn't feel well enough to edit tonight. Stay awesome <3

Jenna stared wide eyed at the blaze in complete and utter shock. Their house was on fire.

Their house.

Was on fire.

Oh.

My.

God.

She was barely aware of Hudayfah shouting instructions into his phone, and Rami trying to let the police let them through when it came to her.

Her sisters.

"Oh my God. Emma! Maria!" she exclaimed before she started to dash towards the building. One of the firefighters put out a hand to stop her, but she managed to slip past him.

"JENNA!" Hudayfah bellowed, coming after her and once he had come near enough to her, he grabbed her by her arm. She fought him off but he held tighter, pulling her back behind the barricade.

"Let me go!" she screamed and he pulled her tightly against his chest.

"Calm down. Calm down Jenna."

"Hudayfah my sisters!" she exclaimed her face streaked with tears.

"I know darling. Look they are okay. Look over there." He said pointing to where Maria was sitting on the curb with a blanket around her, and Emma was laid out on a stretcher, a man holding an oxygen mask to her face. Jafar was pacing anxiously up and down where she lay, pausing every so often to just look at her. Ali was standing over Maria, his clothes partly charred, and Farris could be seen sitting in the back of an ambulance, holding his own mask to his face. Ramzy was laid out on a stretcher as well, and Abdullah was talking to one of the firefighters.

"Why is Emma laying like that?! Something is wrong!" she exclaimed. "MARIA!" she shouted, and when her sister heard her name, she looked up before bursting into tears, throwing the blanket off and dashing towards Jenna. The two of them collided into a hug one on each side of the barricade, both crying.

"What happened Maria!?" Hudayfah asked and she shook her head.

"I...I... dunno." She choked out between sobs. "A...all of a s...s...s...sudden the house explode...d."

"Excuse me sir, is this your house?" a firefighter asked Hudayfah, and he nodded.

"Yes, and everyone here lives with me."

"Okay go on through but please stay away from the building."

As soon as he had let them through, Jenna dashed towards Emma, throwing herself onto the ground next to her.

"Emma?"

She gave slight cough, before looking up at Jenna. She had smudges of ash all over her face and arms, and her clothes were burned in places.

"Jenna?" she muttered behind the mask and Jenna let out a sigh of relief.

"I'm here Emma. Why is she laying here?!" she asked the paramedic who was administering the oxygen, and he looked up.

"She inhaled quite a bit of smoke. She was unconscious for a bit. If it hadn't been for him, she probably wouldn't be alive." He said motioning towards Jafar, and Jenna looked at him momentarily before glancing back down at Emma.

"Will she be okay?"

The man nodded.

"Yes. She will probably be lightheaded for a while but she will be okay."

"Oh my God." She muttered putting her arms around Maria, but a few seconds later her eyes flew open and in a flash she was at Hudayfah pulling on his arm.

"What is it?" he asked a bit irritably as he had been talking to the fire chief.

"Muhsin."

His eyes widened.

"And Omar."

They just stared at each other for a few seconds. No one in the house knew they were there. No one would know to try to help them out.

"Ya Allah." He mumbled, before turning back to the chief. "Sir, I think two people might be stuck in our house."

The fire chief shook his head.

"No sir. Our men went in immediately to evacuate and found no one."

"They looked in all of the rooms on all of the floors?"

"Yes sir. There was no one."

"What does that mean?" Jenna asked worriedly and he shook his head.

"It either means they got away,"

"Or?"

He didn't say anything, pulling her over to where the rest of their group had gathered.

"I've booked us rooms at the Plaza until we can figure things out." Sami said as they approached, and Hudayfah nodded, before looking at his cousins.

"You two okay?"

"Yeah." Ali said, his usual cheerfulness gone.

"Jafar?" Hudayfah asked, and when his cousin turned towards him, he gasped. The entire left side of his face and neck was burned, and there was blood trickling down his arms and cheeks. "Jafar! Why aren't you being looking at!?"

"He won't tell them he got injured. His body got burned also, his shirt burned to a crisp. He's wearing my jacket." Ali said in an annoyed tone, and Hudayfah stepped next to Jafar.

"Why aren't you letting them look at you?" he asked and Jafar shook his head.

"I have to make sure she's okay." He said quietly, and Hudayfah followed his gaze to where Emma was just sitting up.

"She's fine. You might not be fine if you don't let them look at you."

When Jafar said nothing, Hudayfah sighed.

"I will personally make sure nothing happens to her. But please go get looked at before those burns and cutes become worse." he said, and Jafar stared at him for a few seconds before nodding and striding over towards one of the ambulances. As they saw him there was a flurry of panic for he really looked bad.

"Rami, we don't know where Muhsin and Omar are." Hudayfah said softly to his friend, and his eyes widened before he cursed under his breath.

"Man I didn't even think about them. Where do you think they are?"

Hudayfah shook his head.

"I don't know."

"Do you think they are even alive?"

Hudayfah didn't answer, stepping over to put an arm around Jenna.

"It's all gone." She whispered tearfully, and he tightened his hold.

"What is? We can clean up the house."

She shook her head.

"I know it's selfish to be upset about this when somebody could have died, and my brother is currently missing, but it's gone. My wedding dress, the wedding pictures, my bouquet." She let out a sniff before turning towards him. "Do you hate me for being so self-centered?"

He laughed, and brought her hand up to his lips.

"I could never hate you. And I understand why you would be upset, but like you said, Alhamdulillah everyone is okay. And Muhsin will show up, he wouldn't let a fire bring him down."

She laughed and leaned her head against him.

"If it will make you feel better we will have another wedding." He said wrapping his arms around her waist.

"Three weddings?" she asked thoughtfully, and he smiled.

"I'd throw you a hundred if it would make you happy."

***

Muhsin groaned, the sound of firetrucks drumming loudly around him. After a few seconds, he sat up, choking slightly on smoke fumes. As he heard coughing from next to him, he found Omar laying a few feet away. Both of their clothes were singed, and Omar had a bad burn on his arm.

"Muhsin?" he managed to choke out, before having another coughing fit, and Muhsin scooted over towards him, hitting his back until he stopped.

"What's going on?" Muhsin mumbled, and after taking another few deep breaths, his eyes widened in surprise. "Oh my God! Omar! Look!" he said pointing to the flames, and as Omar turned around his eyes widened as well.

The house was on fire, and they were on the opposite building's roof.

"Uh do you remember getting over here?" Omar asked after a few moments of shocked silence, and Muhsin shook his head.

"No. The last thing I remember, was looking at pictures in," he paused to glance around the ground, before picking up a photo album, "Jenna's wedding album, then all of a sudden the house like exploded, I was thrown across the room, and hit my head on the dresser. I tried to call for help, but I think I blacked out. What were you doing?"

"I was laying on my bed reading, when the last thing I remember is the sound of an explosion, then the ceiling started to fall, I jumped off my bed but I don't remember what happened next, and I woke up here."

"Look," Muhsin said peering over the edge of the roof, "I can see Jenna and Hudayfah from here."

"They must be freaking out about us." Omar said coming up next to him. "Do you have your cell phone on you? I think I left mine on my side table."

Muhsin patted his pockets.

"Actually yeah I do. I'm surprised it didn't melt or something."

"Is it working?"

Muhsin nodded.

"Yup."

"Okay call Hud!"

Muhsin scrolled through his contacts, before tapping on Hudayfah's name, and the phone rang once, before Hudayfah answered in a panic.

"Muhsin!?"

"Hey Hud."

"Ya Allah are you okay!?"

"Is that Muhsin!? Is he okay!?" he heard Jenna ask in the background, before his sister's voice filled his ear. "Muhsin!?

"Hey Jen."

"Oh my God Muhsin where are you?! I was so worried about you!"

"You were worried about me? Really? Ladies and gentlemen that is a first!"

"Shut up. Are you okay? Where are you? Is Omar with you?" she whispered.

"Yeah he is, and believe it or not we are on the roof of the building next door."

There was a brief silence.

"You're where!?"

"The roof of the building next door."

"Habibi, they are on the roof on the building next door!" he heard her say to Hudayfah.

"What are you doing on the roof of the building next door!?" Hudayfah demanded taking the phone back, and he noticed both Jenna and Hudayfah look his way.

"I don't know! Omar and I just woke up here, we have no clue how we got here, especially since we both were blacked out when the explosion happened."

"Explosion...Ya Allah..." Hudayfah muttered. "Okay, are you guys injured or can you get downstairs?"

"Omar has a small burn, he managed to get out from under the ceiling but blacked out from the smoke inhalation, and I think I might have a concussion from hitting the dresser, but other than that we are okay. But is it safe you know for us to be out in the open?"

Hudayfah was silent for a second before sighing.

"Probably not. Okay get downstairs through the back, and I'll have Rami come get you and take you to a room at the Plaza. It's better to go now with all this chaos and no one is paying attention."

"Alright, we will go downstairs now."

***

As Hudayfah hung up the phone, Jenna left him to his plans, and went to sit back down in between her sisters, putting an arm around each of them.

"I am so glad you guys are okay." She said giving them a squeeze. "What were you doing when it happened?! How did you get out?!"

"I was in the kitchen washing dishes. The explosion was upstairs so I didn't really see the flames. Ali got me out of there pretty fast." Maria said, and Jenna turned back towards Emma, who had lost her usual grin, and was staring at the ground.

"What about you Em?"

"It was so scary Jenna." She whispered. "I was upstairs getting a book from Hud's library, when the explosion blew me across the room, and within seconds the room was filled with smoke. The door had blown off as well and the hallway was just filled with flames. I was like really low on the ground because there was practically no air, and the smoke was getting stronger and I couldn't see anything in front of me, and I started to black out, when all of a sudden Jafar just like jumped out of the flames."

Jenna's eyes widened.

"He came through the flames!?"

Emma nodded.

"Yeah and his shirt was on fire, and he took it off, which believe me if I wasn't almost unconscious I would have totally been freaking out about," Jenna stifled a smile, "and he tried to get me to stand up, but I couldn't, and he kept saying in a panicked voice 'come on Emma, come on', and I honestly couldn't Jenna, I tried, and I kept falling, and the smoke was getting worse and worse, and I was getting dizzy and I could barely see anymore or hear or anything, so eventually he just picked me up, kicked out the window, shielding me from the flying glass, and carried me down all twenty flights of the fire escape. He tried hard not to touch me, and after handing me over to the paramedics he didn't come near me again and he put on Ali's jacket. But," she wrapped her arms around her knees, "he saved me."

Jenna rubbed a hand down her sister's back, glancing at where Jafar was sitting in the back of an ambulance, covered in cuts and burns.

"I'll be right back." She said standing up, and as she approached him, he looked up briefly, before turning his face to the ground.

"Salaam." She said quietly, and he nodded.

"Walaikumasalaam."

"How are you doing?"

"Alhamdulillah fine."

"Emma told me what you did. Thank you. Thank you so much."

"Please don't thank me."

She shook her head.

"But I have to. You saved her. She could have been dead if it wasn't for you. You must let me thank you."

He nodded, moving a bit uncomfortably.

"Very well. You're welcome."

She smiled.

"I'm very glad to be able to call you my cousin."

For the first time since she had met him, he cracked a smile.

"Me too."

"Jenna!" Hudayfah called, and she gave Jafar another smile before skipping over to her husband, Jafar watching her with an interested look on his face.

***

Jenna slid her robe on over her nightgown, and padded out of the bathroom, slipping off her slippers as she approached the bed. Hudayfah looked up with a smile from his phone, and patted the bed next to him, and once she had sat down, he put an arm around her and gave out a deep sigh.

"What a night!"

"I know. Were you able to find rooms for everyone?"

He nodded, and clasped their fingers together.

"Yup. Omar and Muhsin are in the room next door, it's attached to our room by that door," he pointed to one of the doors, "in case of an emergency. Which is locked by the way. And everyone else is scattered about."

"Where are my sisters?"

"In a room with Rana and across from Rami."

"Okay good. You know Jafar saved Emma today."

He nodded, and put an arm around her.

"So I heard."

"I think if it wasn't such a terrifying situation she would have been swooning."

He laughed, and pushed a strand of her hair away from her face.

"Why?"

"Because she likes him."

"Really?" he asked curiously, and she nodded.

"Yeah."

"That's interesting."

"How so?"

"Because I think he likes her too."

She propped herself up on her elbow, and gave him a grin.

"My sister and your cousin. We would be related!"

He laughed, and bent to give her a kiss.

"Silly, we are already related. Or have you forgotten already that you're my wife?"

"Yeah I know. But wouldn't we like be cousins also?"

"I think I would be Emma's cousin. And her brother." He said as an afterthought, and Jenna laughed.

"We would get our own television show on TLC."

He laughed.

"That would be interesting!"

She smiled, and stretched out under the covers.

"Ya Allah. Today was like a nightmare.

"Speaking of nightmares, have you realized that you haven't had a nightmare in quite some time?" he asked as he stroked a hand down her hair, and she nodded.

"Yes Alhamdulillah. I wonder what happened."

He laughed gently.

"I think us getting closer and creating that bond with each other helped."

She nodded again, and it was quiet in the room, the only sound that of them breathing. .

"You know I was very excited when he came to stay with us." She said softly, picking at one of the buttons on his pajamas.

"Who?"

"My Uncle Haytham."

"Oh."

She nodded, keeping her gaze on the bed.

"Yeah. He was my mom's younger brother, was always my favorite Uncle. He was the fun one. He used to call every two weeks, and send presents. One day he just randomly showed up at our house during the summer, and took us all to Disneyland for a week."

"He sounded great." He said softly, and she nodded, swallowing back her tears.

"When he showed up at our house all those years ago, he was so different though. He didn't look the same, he didn't laugh or want to play or even talk. If you tried to talk to him he would just stare at you blankly before either walking out of the room or turning on the television. If the phone rang or anyone rang the doorbell he would freak out. He stayed with us for three months. I was young but even I knew there was something bad happening."

She paused, a tear falling down her cheek, and he pulled her closer to him.

"You don't have to tell me the rest if you don't want to." He said comfortingly, and she shook her head, wiping away her tears.

"No I want to," she took a deep breath, "one day I was home sick from school, and my mom had to run to the store. She debated a lot whether she should take me with her, or leave me home alone with Khalo Haytham, but I was coughing and sneezing too much to get out of bed, so eventually she decided to leave me. The store was just down the street, and she left the phone next to my bed to call her if I needed to. The house was quiet for a few hours, before I got really thirsty, and I was too scared to call for my Uncle, he had changed so much that I was actually afraid of him. So I went downstairs and got a cup of juice. I was just finishing it when I heard the front door crash in, and my Uncle came running into the kitchen. For half a second he just looked at me before he grabbed my arm, and pushed me under the table. He told me not to make a sound, or come out no matter what happened," she paused dabbing at her eyes with her sleeves, and when she started to speak again, her voice was thick with tears. "He gripped my face in his hands, and for that one moment I had my Uncle back. He told me he was sorry, and that he loved me, and he kissed my cheek, and dropped the tablecloth. A second later I heard people enter the room and there was yelling," she paused again, before bursting into tears, and he pulled her onto his lap, tightening his hold the harder she cried. After a few moments she lifted her head up, and he gave her a kiss.

"Please don't finish if it's too hard." He whispered, and she put a hand on his cheek, giving him a watery smile.

"He kept begging them for more time, and this one man told him that it had been long enough," she shook her head, "and despite what he warned me, I peeked under the tablecloth, just in time to see them shoot him."

"Oh darling." He whispered, and she shook her head again, tilting her head back to stop the flow of tears.

"His body landed right in front of the table, and his eyes just stared at me. I was too shocked to even make a sound, and I stayed like that just staring into his face for what seemed like forever until the cops showed up. They tried to get me to tell them what had happened, the men had been long gone by then, but I was too terrified out of my mind. I couldn't even talk about anything, not just what had happened. I tried to talk when they questioned me for months, I tried when they sent me to a shrink. But the nightmares had started by then where every night I saw the whole thing again, his lifeless eyes just staring at me. I didn't talk for a year. To anyone. Not my mom or my sisters. When I turned eighteen, I pulled myself out of therapy, I didn't say anything and it was just a waste of my parent's money." She gave a small laugh. "I've never told anyone about this. Ever."

"I'm sorry baby. I'm so sorry you had to ever go through that." He said kissing her, and she returned it before placing her head against his.

"Thank you." She shook her head. "When I found out Muhsin was in trouble, all I could think about was would my brother have the same fate? I couldn't let that happen. Muhsin had been changing as well for many months before we got married, and I knew it was a matter of time before he faced the same ending."

"So that's why you agreed to marry me so easily."

She nodded.

"Yeah." There was a silence in the room before she looked up at him. "So now you know, that's what I've seen every night for the past eleven years. His body falling, and his eyes, his eyes just staring at me." She looked up at him. "Until you."

"What did I do?" he asked with a small smile, and she kissed his cheek.

"You made it better." She put her hands on his face. "And I'm sorry I didn't let you in sooner."

"It doesn't matter how we got here. It just matters that we did." He whispered, and she kissed him again before lying down next to him, keeping her head on his chest right where she could hear his heartbeat.

"Darling?" he asked after a few moments.

"Yes habibi?"

"I just wanted to make sure you know I love you."

There was the briefest of silence before she whispered her response.

"I know."