*Sticky Note: Hey Non-Aliens! My name's Anni and I'm here to give you a rockin' story. At least, I hope so! I did have some assistance in this from my best friend Missy so I can't take all the credit. Darn it… But I wrote this chapter all by my big girl self! Oh- and this story is after Carpe Corpus, but to get it you kinda have to read Dead Girls' Dance. But I'll stop talking and let you have it! 5. 4. 3. 2. 1. BLAST OFF!

Ch 1- Guess Not

"I'm home!!!" Claire and Shane heard Eve's yell all the way out in the living room. Claire reluctantly slid off her boyfriend after disentangling her lips from his.

"We know!" She yelled back toward Eve.

"I think all of Morganville knows, too…" Mumbled a disappointed Shane at the ruining of the fun they'd been having. "Way to ruin a mood Eve."

"Oh, don't get your knickers in a twist. I have great news. Wanna know what it is?" She didn't even wait for a response. "Monica's throwing a party!"

Shane and Claire exchanged a glance. "Ummm... Eve? That's sounds like a ton of fun, but have you forgotten what happened the last time we went to a Monica-attended party?"

"Wait… what?" Shane asked confused.

Eve ignored him. "Well… Yeah. But I thought about it and figured that since Shane is gonna be with you 24/7, there wouldn't be a chance of it happening again."

"Hellooooo? What happened?!" Shane was getting frustrated.

"Nothing!" Both Claire and Eve shouted at him in unison.

"Jeez. Pissy, much? And there is obviously something going on or we wouldn't be having this conversation, would we?"

Eve started to answer the rhetorical question but a look from Claire shut her up. "It's no big deal, Shane. Just a little mishap at the Dead Girls' Dance."

Eve cut in with a bit of a wild laugh. "A little mishap?" She repeated. "Claire are you serious? You nearly got raped and… oops."

Shane had jumped to his feet. "WHAT?!"

"Eve is just being over dramatic, Shane. All that happened was someone spiked my water and I took care of myself with a baseball bat until Sam showed up. End of story."

"And you decided to keep this little peace of information from me, because?" Shane was furious. Claire had almost been raped and she hadn't told him? What the hell was that about?

"Shane! Like I told Eve, it's no big deal! I-"

Shane cut her off with a look that could have melted steel. "If you say that one more time… Ok. Cards on the table, right now. Tell me everything. Why you were there, who this bastard was, the reason you weren't with Eve… Everything."

Claire looked at Eve and wrinkled her nose in distaste. "Ugh. Fine." She said, turning back to Shane. "But you have to promise to keep your mouth shut when I tell you, ok?

He stiffly nodded. "Fine."

"Alrighty. Here goes." She took a deep breath before continuing. "I was in Common Grounds when this guy came up to me. He seemed nice enough and told me his name was Ian and that there was a party at Epsilon Epsilon Kappa. The Dead Girls' Dance. So I told him I might see him there and he asked for my number. I gave it to him and-"

She was halted in her speech by Shane's snort. "Really, Claire? You don't just give random guys off the street your number. I mean, who knows what can happen? Oh wait- we do know! You can get raped!"

Claire rolled her eyes at his rant and replied in an icy tone. "For your information, Shane, I have seen him before. He and I shared a class at the college." [A/N: I know this isn't true, but I had to add it in to make Claire's argument make sense.] "Now. Can I continue?"

Shane just glared at her.

"Great. Now where was I before I was rudely interrupted? Oh yes. I gave him my cell number and he left Common Grounds. That's everything of importance there, so let's move on. Eve? Maybe you should take over."

Eve looked torn. Happy at the thought of telling a story but nervous as to Shane's reaction. "Umm… I guess!" Happy had won. "So we were talking to Michael, trying to figure out a way to get you out of jail and-"

"Wait. Are you saying this is my fault? Don't you trust that I didn't do it?" Shane looked astonished.

"Of course we trust you, Shane. Relax." Claire out her hand on his chest. He looked up at her, sighing, and twined his fingers with hers.

"Alright. Sorry, Eve. Continue, please."

"Ok… So we thought that maybe Sam could help us so Claire called someone and they said that Sam was at a party. Michael didn't want us to go, but what could he do, right? So I dressed Claire up a mini-me and we were off! Ian found Claire and they were talking. I just went to look in the next room and when I came back they were gone."

Claire picked up the story baton. Figuratively, that is. "Yeah… Sorry about that. See, he gave me water and apparently, he roofied it. We went up stairs and I felt really sick so I stopped walking. Next thing I know, I'm in a room with four guys. When I realized what they were doing, I grabbed a bat that was on the floor and swung it at Ian. I connected to his jaw." She paused in her story long enough to look smug. "So then I slid down wall and pretended to be worse off then I was. You know, give me some advantage of surprise. I had it, alright. Ian came to grab me and I hit him in the balls. Hehe. Now that was funny. Then Sam busted in, with all of his vampire glory and scared 'em off. I passed out, danger: zero."

Shane's look was murderous. He was literally shaking with anger. He couldn't believe his ears. Why wouldn't Claire have told him sooner? When he asked her this, she gave him an incredulous look.

"Because, Shane, I knew you would freak out."

"And why shouldn't I? Just because you don't care that you almost got raped, I sure as hell do!"

"Shane. Calm down."

He growled in frustration and anger. "I will not calm down. What I will do, though, is find this excuse for a man and beat the shit outta him." He started pacing in agitation.

"My god, Shane. See? This is why I didn't tell you! I can't trust you not to kill someone!"

Shane went still. "You don't trust me? Is that what this is about?"

"Ugh! Jesus, Shane! That's not what I meant!"

"Well. It sure as hell does look like it, right Eve?"

Eve slowly backed up toward the stairs. "Oh, no." She said, drawing out the o. "You're not my boyfriend." And with that, she ran up the stairs.

Claire stared at Shane. "Great. Look what you've done now."

He glared at her fiercely and started shouting. "Yeah! Because that's all I'm good for, right? Screwing things up?!"

Claire shouted right back. "Why are you being such a damn drama queen?! You know what?" She pulled an Eve and answered her own question. "I'm leaving! Maybe while I'm gone, someone around here can knock some sense into your head!"

She stomped to the kitchen to go out the back door and Shane watched as the kitchen door swung closed.

Shane just stood there.

"So did you kiss and make up?" Eve asked from the stairs. She got her answer when Shane came storming through and out the front door, looking pissed. She faintly heard him slam the gate shut. A moment later, the back door made the exact same sound. Looks like Claire has left the building.

Eve sighed and answered her own question (again).

"Guess not."