Title: Two Sides of the Same Coin -- Chapter 1
Author: StuckHereWithNoTV
Author's Email: stuckherewithnotvyahoo.com
Rating: PG-13
Spoilers: Major spoiler for "Last Man Standing"
Summary: Sequel to "Who Needs Cupid When You've Got Friends." Hughes sweeps Jake off his feet... well, not exactly.
Disclaimer: Jake 2.0 and all related elements, characters and indicia copyright Roundtable Entertainment and Viacom Productions, Inc., 2003. All Rights Reserved. All characters and situations-save those created by the authors for use solely on this website-are copyright Roundtable Entertainment and Viacom Productions, Inc.
Author's Note: Midterms and finals have taken over my life and free time... sigh. As always, thanks to J Solt for reading my drafts and all those who've read and reviewed my previous stories.
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Two Sides of the Same Coin
by StuckHereWithNoTV
He stared up at the ceiling, blinking only when his eyes felt too dry. These past few days had been awkward at work with Diane and he couldn't figure out the reason. One minute, everything would seem normal and relaxed... But the next minute, especially when he had asked her a couple of times if she wanted to go out for a fancy dinner instead of just hanging out at his place, she'd get this strange look in her eyes and start stuttering about how she had reports to write or even change the subject entirely.
Jake rolled onto his side and shifted his gaze to the alarm clock. Reflecting back a week ago to the discussion he had had with his friend Kevin that started this whole thing, doubt suddenly clutched at his gut. Maybe Kevin was wrong; maybe he, himself, had been wrong this whole time. Jake frowned, his vision still fixed on the blur of red numbers in front of him. He couldn't come up with another explanation for Diane's recent behavior other than that she must have picked up on his entertaining the idea of them possibly being more than friends.
"Idiot," he muttered. Obviously, he had been reading her signals wrong just like every other girl he's known. There was the wedding when she came to be his date... but that could've been Diane being her usual nice self and then there was something odd about how she knew immediately what was wrong with the nanites... And what about Christmas? They both downed a bottle of wine each; it could easily have been the alcohol talking that night. Although, deep down, he wanted to believe that was really her saying those things as they danced; it shocked Jake to the core at how much he really wanted to believe that.
Pushing the thought far away, he rubbed his eyes with the heel of his hand. "Why do I keep getting myself into these things?" he asked out loud but was only answered with silence. "Well I guess that's it then," he sighed, deciding his friendship with Diane was worth way too much to risk over something she clearly didn't want.
Focusing back on the clock, his eyes widened as he read the time. "Oh crap!" he yelled practically falling out of bed.
Jake rushed out of the apartment building, almost tripping down the steps as he haphazardly slipped an arm through the sleeve of his jacket. Fumbling with the car keys, he unlocked the door and yanked on the handle. Not paying attention, though, he ended up pulling the chrome object right off the car.
"Aw, damn..." Jake stared at the handle in his hand and started cursing under his breath. Glancing down at his watch, he hurried over to the passenger side and scrambled into the vehicle. Jake then tried turning the ignition with a fury only to be rewarded with a series of sputtering coughs from the engine. "Oh no. No. Not now," he moaned banging his forehead on the wheel when he suddenly heard the blast of a car horn beside him.
"Hi! Can you help me?" he heard a voice call from a car that had pulled up next to his.
Rolling down the window, he started aggravated, "Sorry, I would but I'm running really la-- oh."
Sitting in a red sports coupe, an attractive young woman leaned out of her car window and was smiling sweetly at him. With a small toss of her head, Jake's eyes followed the ends of her brunette hair graze the shoulders of her low-cut blouse.
"I was wondering if you could tell me what road to take to get to Alexandria," she explained apologetically, "but if you're in a hurry--"
"Well," he said looking at his watch again and grinned back at her. "Nah, it's okay. I'm already half an hour late anyways. Um..." he shuffled through the glove compartment and pulled out a map. Getting out, he went over to her and showed which roads to take.
"I see, thanks," acknowledged the female driver as Jake turned to throw the map back into the car. With his back to her, he didn't notice the young woman's gaze drift slowly up and down his form. "So, do you wanna ride?" she asked in a sultry pitch.
Jake spun around and gulped, "E-excuse me?"
"Do you wanna ride with me. To wherever you're going?" she repeated with an eyebrow raised. "It looked like your car wouldn't start and you said you were late for what I'm guessing is work."
"Oh," he exhaled, embarrassed at what he could've sworn had been the way she had said it. "Work. Yeah. But where I'm going would be in the opposite direction of where you're heading and I don't want to cause trouble--"
"Wouldn't be any trouble at all. It'd be my pleasure."
Jake swallowed again, "T-that'd be great."
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"Diane, the results are back," Fran announced placing the documents on the counter. "Hey. Hellooo?" She observed her boss, amused, "Maybe it would taste better if you tried adding sugar instead of just looking at it for an hour."
Diane kept staring absently down at the coffee in front of her not showing any sign of hearing what had been said. Fran gently nudged Diane causing her to yelp in surprise, "Wh-when did you come in?"
She folded her arms, concerned, "I've been here for two hours. Are you okay? You've been acting weird lately."
"Me? Oh yeah, I'm-I'm fine. Just haven't been getting enough sleep is all."
"I see..." Fran said agreeing although her tone indicated she plainly didn't.
Diane squirmed under her assistant's probing look and started fidgeting with the files she had brought her, "So is, um, Jake in yet?"
"Nope. Still a no show."
Her face grew worried. "Maybe I should call him again. I mean, I tried his apartment and all I got was the machine, and then I tried his cell phone a couple times but I couldn't get through either," she grabbed the JMD next to the coffee, shaking her head. "Not to mention h-his vitals have been rising rapidly over the last few minutes--"
"I'm sure he's fine, Diane," she assured. "It's only been an hour. He's probably stuck in traffic or something; that and being late for work is enough to get anybody's adrenalines running."
"Right," Diane rubbed her forehead. "You're right. I'm just-- overreacting again."
Fran gave her a sympathetic smile and gestured towards the door, "Come on. Lou just called a general meeting."
Nodding, Diane took one last evaluation of the information on the JMD before stuffing it into her coat and reluctantly following Fran out of the lab.
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Jake flipped open his cell phone about to call into work when he realized he had forgotten to recharge the batteries. Sighing, his sight wandered over to the car's speedometer which almost caused him to choke.
"So what's your name?" she inquired as she deftly maneuvered through traffic while still maintaining a high speed.
He gripped the armrest as the driver of the SUV they just cut off gave them the middle finger, "J-Jake."
She turned her whole head towards him and held out her hand, "Well 'J-Jake', my name's Jess."
Shaking her offered hand, Jake pointed forward alarmed, "Uh, the road."
Jess smirked and casually returned her attention back to driving, "What's your job?"
"Oh. I-I work for the NSA."
"Really? Are you an agent?"
"Me? An agent? You're kidding. The NSA wou-wouldn't make someone like me an agent," Jake attempted to chuckle off the idea. "It'd probably be considered a national disaster. Nope, I'm just your regular tech support guy. You know, saving undefragmented disk drives in distress, that sort of thing."
She laughed and glanced over at him approvingly, "Funny and adorable. I like that."
"Thanks," he beamed, astonished that a girl actually saw him in that light. "Take a right up here. You can drop me off near that building; I'll just walk from there."
They pulled up into a parking lot and stopped near a sign that read: National Cryptologic Museum.
"Thanks for the ride," Jake said trying to open the door but failing.
Jess unbuckled her seatbelt, "Sorry, that door always sticks." Leaning over Jake, she brushed against his chest as she pulled the door handle. "There's a little trick to it," she explained looking up at Jake's slightly panicked expression. "First you gotta go up..." Jess began, "and then down..." The door popped open. "And there you go," she grinned innocently.
"Ah," Jake smiled clearing his throat and slipped out of the car. "So, um..."
She reached out and caught his arm. Pushing up his sleeve, she took a tube of lipstick that sat on the dashboard and started writing a series of digits, "Think I could have yours as well?"
"S-sure," taking the lipstick she offered. "Oh...y-you mean here?" he stuttered looking at the forearm Jess held out. She nodded as he gulped and scribbled his phone number.
Giving him a last look-over, she moved back behind the wheel, "I'll see you later then."
"See ya," Jake answered dumbly watching the taillights of the red car speed away. Raising his forearm in front of his face he mumbled confused, "What just happened here?"