Cat: Hey all! Yes, something new when I should be working on What Do We Do Now? Forgive me—but don't expect regular updates. I've been working on this for a while but haven't really gotten too far. However, the first few chapters should be out by next week. This first bit takes place during Reinforcements from the Future, but the rest does not. I'll shut up now…ENJOY!

Disclaimer: In my dreams, maybe.

"Jen?" Wes said hesitantly. Jen either didn't hear him or utterly ignored him because she continued rooting restlessly through her pack. Wes decided silently that she was ignoring him on the grounds that her bag was too small to hold any substantial amount of stuff to root through.

He took a deep breath and spoke again, louder this time. "Jen?" She stood quickly, slung her bag over her shoulder and started back towards the scattered group of Wild Force Rangers. "Come on Jen. Don't be like that." Wes willed. "You haven't even looked at me all day." Jen paused finally. Wes could clearly hear her sigh and practically felt her hesitation as she turned around. However, when he tried to speak she beat him to it.

"Look Wes, I have spent a long time trying to get over you." She blurted it out in the direct and brutally honest way that Wes remembered. However, she didn't meet his gaze as she said it. "And it's finally worked. Please. We can never be. And I really don't want to go back to that place again." She kept her head looking in every direction but forward.

Just the cadence of her voice brought back old feelings, not quite buried. Wes took a step towards her, but Jen backed up jerkily. "Don't." she ordered. Any other person might have thought that she meant it. But he wasn't just anybody. Wes knew her too well to be fooled by the sheer volume of her voice. He detected as slight catch. That, coupled with the knowledge that she was too frightened to make eye contact told him what he had never dreamed to hope. As much as she might claim to be over him, she wasn't.

"Remember that day on the beach?" Wes asked. "The day you told me you loved me?"

"Wes, I…" Jen was interrupted as neatly as Wes had been.

"You asked me not to forget you. Well, I tried." Jen was listening now, utterly silent. "I spent so long trying not to think about you because it hurt too much." He took another slight step towards her, and this time she didn't pull away. "Then one morning I woke up and realized that I couldn't remember your face. And I don't want to forget. Not anymore." Jen was how staring as hard as possible at the ground." I just want you to look at me, Jen." Wes beseeched. "Just once. So I can remember."

"I can't." answered Jen. Distress was spilling softly into her voice.

Wes reached out a hand to her shoulder. He rested it lightly, hesitantly. Jen didn't pull away. "Please" he begged.

Finally, slowly, Jen looked up at him. The lines around her mouth were pulled deep and taught; like they were on the few occasions he had seen her cry. A few stray wisps of soft brown hair strayed around the edges of her face, and a smear of dirt from some recent battle marred her cheek.

Jen took his arm, with the full intention of removing it from her shoulder. However, when the time came to release it she found herself strangely unwilling. "Thank you." Wes said quietly.

Until that time Wes had been openly and rapidly searching her entire face. At the same time Jen had been more surreptitiously glancing over his. And with those words their eyes met. There was a very long pause as neither of them wanted to look away. Tension rose quickly between them. They both knew it would eventually have to break, the only question was how.

Frightened by how quickly old emotions had resurfaced, Jen almost wished that a phone would ring. Still, she didn't pull away. Couldn't pull away. She wanted to stay there with him. She wanted it more than anything.

And then the tension snapped. In perfect sync they leaned together. Bodies and mouths locked and pure emotion swamped all reason and thought and judgment. Jen only dimly felt it when her back struck a thick tree trunk. Without hesitation they slid down it and fell onto the forested earth.

Cat: R and R—but don't expect the rest of the story to be like this, it's witty and full of action.