Chapter Two

During the Euro Quiz, Maggie kept stealing glances at Jasper. Seated in alphabetical order for tests, she knew he wouldn't see her, even if he were paying attention to anything besides the test. He was already on the third page. Did he really know all those answers without thinking about them? She was only on the second page, and here he was halfway down the middle mark. He was concentrating really hard on it, so she knew he wasn't guessing. After all, Jasper didn't guess. He had Yale to get into and Maggie Winnock to beat in academics.

Why couldn't he see how good he was? He didn't need to be a jock to have his father proud of him. To have her proud of him. She certainly didn't want to be in the posse of a jock. She smirked and turned her head down. Oh, hell. She hadn't moved from question 23. Jasper was already half finished.

She shook her head forcefully to clear her thoughts; she had been raised with her father's military mentality. Focus. Determination. Discipline. She shouldn't be unfocussed in something as simple as a Euro Quiz.

She didn't notice when Jasper had turned in his quiz and left the room, but after she had double checked all her answers and got up to turn in her own quiz, she saw his desk near the front of the classroom was empty. Of course he had already finished, she took a break mid-quiz to stare. Stupid mistakes like that caused lower grades. She could have run out of time, or had to guess answers.

Walking out of the door, Maggie thought he would have to wait to see Jasper at lunch. But he was waiting right outside the door. She smiled and walked over to him, "how did you do?" She knew what he was going to say, "Pretty good," along with a one-shoulder shrug. He wasn't a fan of false modesty, especially when it came to besting her. "You took longer than usual to finish, how do you think you did?"

Maggie felt the heat rise to her cheeks; she was trying to think of an excuse when Henry saved her from the embarrassment of having to stumble over her words. "You need to come down to the DOUM rooms, something weird has happened."


"A plant? Someone almost burned down the DOUM rooms to steal shrubbery." Jasper had a point, the more Henry explained what happened, the less it made sense.

Maggie felt bad for Henry, his godfather had entrusted him with something important, and no one even knew what it was. She tried to help him out, and move past Jasper's sarcasm. It wasn't doing much good to comfort Henry. "What else was in the box?"

"I don't know, knowing Dante there could have been a false bottom, or maybe something important woven in the sides, message in the design on the base- I don't know. All that was left is this." He looked so lost and confused; she felt her heart go out to him.

Jasper reached to what he had pointed at, across her. She felt him brush her arm as he grabbed the encyclopedia. Her eyes followed his hand, and she looked at him as he read the spine. "Hmm. P-2003, that's... random."

She looked back at Henry and saw that he was still distraught. She sighed, "Henry, this wasn't your fault, look at all the stuff you saved in the warehouse."

"But I lost the one thing that was important to me."

It was then Jasper followed her lead, "You didn't lose it, someone stole it from you." She turned her head and felt the corner of her mouth turn up. He knew just as much as her that this was not Henry's fault. And they both knew they were going to get back whatever had been taken.

"Whoever took it knew I wouldn't let Dante's box out of my sight unless they literally set fire to me."

Maggie sighed frustratingly and explained what Henry was obviously missing. This was not his fault. "And tampered with the extinguisher, and added oil to that bucket of water."

"Professor Darkness." Jasper sounded far too sure that Julian was behind what happened in the DOUM rooms. Apparently they weren't on the same page Maggie thought they were.

"You really think Julian Morneau would go this far?" The incredulousness that crept into her voice was completely intentional. Sometimes Jasper took his contempt for the man too far.

Before they could explore the theory any further, Broxton and the fire inspectors accused Henry of accidentally starting the fire. What was more surprising than the accusations was Henry's complete acceptance of them. "I can't believe I would do something so stupid"

Once again, Jasper knew her thoughts before she could even make them, "I- I can't believe you'd do something so brave. Most people would have just run." She gave him a silent thank you before butting in her own opinion.

"But not Henry Griffin. He reached right into those flames and prevented a national catastrophe, he could get some kind of presidential medal for this." She knew she was going a little overboard. She crossed her arms over her chest in silent defense.

After it was decided the incident would be left a simple intern mistake. They ran over the list of people who could have both known Henry had the box, and wanted what was inside. Besides Morneau. "And Dad." Maggie turned in disbelief to Jasper when he mentioned his own father. He apparently caught his mistake as well, since he quickly amended it, "Okay, don't tell him I said that. He'll be disappointed enough when he sees me play basketball." She turned back around and shook her head. He really was a big galoot sometimes. The she heard his watch go off, "Snack time!" She pulled out a mashed snack bar and immediately tore into it. She couldn't help but be disgusted.

As he tore into his sad excuse of a source of protein, she leaned back in her chair, but noticed with a start he had moved his hand from where it had been resting. Every time she had leaned back, she felt the trace of his thumb run along her shoulder blade once or twice every now and then. Henry made to leave and they immediately followed, not really having any reason to be in the DOUM rooms without him.

She glanced at Jasper but he was already halfway out the door, chomping on his protein bar, as though nothing out of the ordinary had happened. Which was true. They had such ease between them. Almost as though they were never more relaxed than when in each other's presence. Too bad that feeling didn't extend to her rapidly beating heart.


Please let me know what you think!