They were quiet on their way with Barbara driving them. Finally, Walt said, " Was he the reason why you've been acting like you were these past couple of weeks? "

" Acting like what? I haven't been acting anything. " she lied.

" Barbara. I can smell when your lying. I've also smelled how you have been feeling. Scared, angry, disgusted, anxious. If this Max is bothering, you… "

" Max is just looking out for me Walt. " she cut him off, laughing slightly she continued, " Besides, he was more likely to hit on you than me. Well before you scared him that is. " she laughed harder at his expression.

" Ah. I see. (cough) So it is someone that is bothering you? " he replied, looking off to the side, rubbing the back of his neck.

" Yes. " she finally admitted with a sigh, tired of hiding it from him.

" Who? " he asked.

" This new Doctor that transferred over from Colorado. Jack Rene is his name. Thinks he can get any woman he wants because he's soo good looking, blegh! " she answered sticking her tongue out at the end. " Looks aren't everything. " she continued.

" I'm well aware of that fact. "

" Stop that. You know that's not what I meant. "

" Have you reported him? " he asked again after a moment.

" Yes. And John gave him a warning, the first time. "

" The first time? What happened the second time? Did he touch you? " Walt growled as he asked the last question.

She saw his hand twitch as though he were about to reach for a dagger he had hidden.

" I won't lie. He did touch me. But he quickly let go when I used the third rule on him. " she answered quickly to calm him before he could pull off the glamour mask, conjure his wings and bust through the roof of her car in search of the lecherous doctor. Though how he planned that would go was beyond her as he didn't even know what Jack looked like.

Despite his anger at this man that dared to touch his Barbara, Walt laughed at the possible look on the man's face when she issued the third rule to him, having been on the receiving end of that rule by Toby and threaten by it from her herself, even if it was in a teasing tone, he wouldn't put it pass her to actually kick him in his Gronk knucks if he hadn't shouted and backed away.

" I reported him again. John then suspended him and put a report to the board. So far everything's been quiet. "

" Good to know. " he smiled, grasping her hand and giving it a kiss to the knuckles.

Time skip, back at the house, in the basement.

Walt was on his laptop later that night looking up this ' Jack Rene '. He found that he had no criminal record, but then again the name could be phony as well as the forms he had on file. Walt himself knew this all too well, having used a similar trick to get the jobs he was ordered to do or if he wanted to get them himself if there was no urgent mission needing to be done back in the Janus Order, after all he did have a cover story for just about everything out there, as well as new ID's to go with them and even the skills, being thousands of years old had its perks.

So far, the only things he learned about the man was that he was a little older than Barbara, had sandy blonde hair, a pierced ear, dark eyes, had a handsome face with a more muscular build than Max, and owns a car and a motorcycle. The car being like his old yellow car except it was hunter green and the motorcycle was an older model Harley that was black.

He'd have to ask someone within the Janus Order to run a full check on this man, run a facial recognition…. A knock at the door stopped his train of thought.

" Walt? " he heard Barbara's voice.

He shut the laptop and went to the stairs, " Is everything alright Barbara? " He called back.

She opened the door, she was in her pj's, " Do you mind if I stay down here with you tonight? " she asked.

His nose flared as he caught her fear, " Of course not, my dear. What's the matter? Nightmare? " he asked/answered as she came down the stairs, shutting the door behind her. The light of the boiler lighting her way down to him.

" Yeah. That and it's storming out. " she answered, he could tell she had calmed down the more she came closer to him and he could no longer smell her fear.

" Storming? " he questioned, looking to the blacked-out window, he could see the lightning flashing and could now hear the rain and thunder, he was so focused on learning about the man that been bothering Barbara and if he was a threat, that he hadn't noticed the storm outside.

" Ah so it is. I didn't know you were afraid of storms. " he commented.

" What were you looking at? " she asked instead, seeing the light of his laptop.

" Oh just checking up on the changeling's in the Janus Order that weren't killed by Gunmar. " he answered.

" You were doing a background check on Jack. " she replied, poker-faced, arms crossed. Like she did with Dictatious when he discreetly implied they should kill the detective.

Bowing his head at being caught, he answered, " Yes. "

Nodding, she replied, " I thought so. What did you find out? " she went to the laptop and flipped the lid back up, seeing Jack's face and his profile on the left of it.

" Not much. " he answered standing beside her and looking at the file again. " I'll get ahold of someone in the Janus Order and have them run a full check on him. Everything they can find on him and if he really is who he says he is. " he continued, glaring at the picture of the man.

" Do I even want to know how you got ahold of this? " she asked, looking up at him, months of living with this man and getting used to him being in this form full time, she still couldn't get over how much taller he was than her when before she was at eye level with him.

" It's best if you don't know. I maybe centuries old, but that doesn't mean I can't learn a few new tricks. Part of my nature, I'm afraid. " he answered with a smile. One that she returned.

" I suppose. " she replied, she was going to say more, but was cut off by a yawn, she covered it with her hand, " S-sorry. " she said as the yawn ended.

" It's quite alright. Your tired, you go on to bed. I still have some work to do. "

" You sure? I don't want to impose. "

" You won't. Besides I don't need to sleep as much anymore. It's more of a habit now anyway. " he assured her and gestured to his bed near the boiler.

She turned to it and paused, " Well that's different. " she commented seeing his bed. If that's what he called it.

It looked more like an organized pile of blankets and pillows in a large circular pattern with a thick, old, hand-made quilt that reminded her of the ones her grandmother would make with different shapes and patterns, at the end.(it's a quilt with quilt tiles on it, this one is called a bear claw pattern)

" Sorry. Another part of my nature. What humans call a bed and what Trolls call a bed are very different. But with my, uh heritage? If you can call it that, I make nests as apposed to what my Troll cousins would use. Which is just thick flat surfaced rocks. " he answered her unspoken question when she opened her mouth. Rubbing the back of his neck uneasily as to what her reaction would be about his ' bed '.

" And just what is your nest made from? " she asked curiously, seeing his obvious uneasiness about what she would think.

" A few futon mattress' stacked with several blankets on top of that with the pillows around them, the bear claw blanket is the main cover while the rather large leopard printed body pillow inside is the main sleeping pillow. " he answered.

" Where did you find all of this? " she asked again, going over to the nest and saw that the pillows where stacked higher than she thought, she had to jump in it without knocking over any of the pillows that he had stacked, they stopped at her hip, even with her standing on the covered futon mattress'.

" I'd tell you, but you probably be disgusted. "

" You found all of this in dumpsters? " she guessed.

" Yes. But I did clean them all before I brought them inside and they do not have any bugs in or on them. " he replied, crossing his arms over his exposed chest, she noticed that his cloak was gone and that he was only in his sarong(his kilt; I think that's what that thing's called, I know Angor Rot had the loin cloth) it was rare for her to see him without his bladed cloak, looking behind him she saw it hanging on one of the shelves hiding the tunnel to old Trollmarket.

Laughing at his behavior, she said, " I was just curious, you don't have to be so defensive about it. " she smiled, letting him know that she was teasing and had no problem with how he slept.

His snort of discretion only made her laugh more as she lowered herself more in the nest, pulling the bear claw blanket with her as she settled onto the body pillow.

He smiled after a moment she had settled into his nest and slowly drifted off to sleep. He went back to his laptop, typing away to his correspondent in the other Janus Order location an ocean over in the Europeans for almost an hour before shutting the laptop down and going over to his nest.

He hesitated slightly as he looked at Barbara laying there. She looked so beautiful sleeping there, like she belonged there. He shook his head. They maybe back on good terms, and even shared a few kisses, but he doubted that she would want to be with him in that way. Why would she? Look at him, he was a monster. Hell, he still wasn't even a full Troll either. He was still a half-breed, not like Young Atlas of course, but he, Walt, was a hybrid amid the other impures. He was half Troll, half Stalkling.

That's why he could fly and why his wings were shaped like they were, why he had claws on both his hands and feet, why his horns were shaped and placed like they were, why his eyes looked like they did. Though he had yet to test if he was immune to sunlight like his Stalkling kin, he didn't want to risk losing a finger or a toe.

Taking a deep steady breath, he stepped into his nest, ready to lay beside her when a noise caught his attention. It sounded like the window above the shelves was moving. Looking to it, he saw in the flashes, someone hunched over at the window, trying to jiggle it open.

Walt covered Barbara fully with the blanket and shot up the stairs and out the back door, the rain had stopped, but the thunder was still rolling with quick flashes of lightning. He got to the basement window just as the intruder got the window open but didn't get the chance to enter as Walt grabbed him by the back of his shirt and tossed him away.

" Wrong house. " Walt growled, his eyes glowing as he readied his claws, cursing himself for not grabbing his cloak on the way out, but his claws, talons, strength, and stone skin were all he needed, if the intruder had a knife or a gun, the blade would break off and the bullets would recoil off his skin, he'd just have to angle in the right way so that no bullets go in the house.

" W-what the hell are you?! " the intruder exclaimed, scared of the changeling in front of him.

" Your worst nightmare if you don't leave here. " Walt warned him, growling, baring his teeth and tusks, bright yellow eyes focused right at the man. Walt's nose flared as he took in the man's scent in case he was this Jack Rene man and if he met him again, he'd deal with him swiftly or just make him suffer depending on how angry he makes him.

When the man didn't move, Walt charged at him stopping short of him before he kicked him away, sending him over the fence and into the bushes.

Walt leaped over the fence and to where the man landed against a tree. He picked him up by the back of his shirt again, bringing him up to his eyes, Walt could see that his eyes were dark, like Jack's was in his picture, but just to be sure, he pulled the mask off his face. The man tried to hide his face with his hands, but Walt took his hands in his free one and brought them down and there before him was the man he had just looked up,

" Jack Rene. Pleased to meet your acquaintance. Now stay away from that house and the woman who lives there, or you'll rue the day you were born. That kick was just a warning. Come here again or anywhere near Barbara Lake again and I'll make sure you die a very painful death. And I will know if you were here or near her. " Walt warned the man, his nose flaring, letting him know that he could smell him.

The look of fear in the man's eyes pleased that old part of Walt that took pleasure in putting fear in others. Smirking wickedly, Walt cocked his arm back and tossed Jack even further away from the property and the house, nodding in satisfaction and smiling, pleased with the sound of his body hitting a tree and groaning in pain. Not hearing him getting up again, Walt went back to the house.

He went in through and locked the back door again. Checking the other doors and windows again before finally going back to the basement. He shut and locked window before he grabbed his cloak and placed it near his side of his nest in easy reach incase the human was stupid enough to try and come back. Stepping into the nest again, he eased himself down beside Barbara, but didn't go to sleep. He'd stay awake to watch over her and listen for anymore attempts of breaking into the house.

Here's ch 2 sorry for the wait I had writer's block.

Thank You: Forever-Furuba, Unstoppable Cycborg, and purplefern for reviewing last ch.

And Thank you purplefern for following.