Disclaimer: If I owned any of this, Rob would not be here. He would be in my bedroom. :D Alas, Meg owns all of these characters. :(

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I don't know what the marching band was playing, but it sounded terrible! I was forced (though I admit to myself that I caved pretty quickly) by Jess to suffer through the "playing" while squeezed under the bleachers where Jess had been struck by lightning. She and the kid were sitting on the bleachers, talking about who knows what. My friend Jed was parked a little ways behind me, waiting to drive Seth and his mom to the airport.

I swear, I don't know how Jess did it. She managed to get the stuffy special agents to help her. At that moment, they were crossing the field with Seth's mom, who was just released from jail.

From my limited vantage point, I saw the kid shoot off toward his mom. The agents were looking upwards, toward Jess. They looked a little angry.

Suddenly Jess was rejoined by Seth. He hugged her for awhile before pulling back. Jess tapped his hat and kissed his cheek. Man, I wished that that was my cheek. After Jed drove off with the O'Hanahans, Jess came down from her perch in the stands. Her eyes were a little puffy.

She started teasing the agents, asking if they were lusting after each other. I don't know how she gets away with saying the things she does... Anyway, when they denied it, Jess looked disappointed. I scooted forward so I could hear better.

"Do you have the list?" Special Agent Johnson asked.

"Yeah," she nodded. "I've got it. Do I have your word that nobody is going to try to stop Sean and his mother at the airport?"

The other agent looked mildly affronted while assuring Jess that she had their word. Mastriani kept checking every detail, even making sure the guys and I got off fine for the whole helicopter, until the agent (Smith was it? I can't remember) interrupted. Jess finally pulled a crumpled piece of paper out of her pocket and gave it to them. Smith (I'm going to say that's her name until I find out otherwise) unfolded it and frowned.

"There's only four addresses on here," she said, giving the paper to Johnson. Jess stuck out her chin.

"What do you think?" she demanded. "I'm not a machine. I'm just a kid. There'll be more where those came from, don't worry."

"All right. What now?" Johnson asked Jess while putting the paper in his pocket.

"You two go back to your car and drive away," she said.

"And you?" Smith asked.

"I'll be in touch" she said.

Agent Smith quietly said something to Jess, and Jess replied. The two agents exchanged glances and turned to walk to their car. Jess's next remark to them made me chuckle at her audacity

"You know, no offense to Mrs. Johnson and all, but you two really do make a cute couple." They ignored her and kept walking.

"That was pushing it, don't you think?" I asked as I finally crawled out of my hiding spot.

"I'm just messing with them," she explained.

"Yeah, I noticed. You do that a lot. So are you going to tell me what was in that envelope?" I said while brushing off dust that was on my jeans.

"The one I gave to Sean?"

"The one you gave to Sean after you made me pick it up from your dad. Who, by the way, hates me."

I suddenly had to suck in some breath as Jess brushed my chest. It seemed I missed some dirt that was on my shirt.

"My dad can't possibly hate you," she said. "He doesn't even know you."

"He sure looked like he hated me."

"That's just because of what was in the envelope."

"Which was?"

"The ten grand I got as a reward for finding Olivia Marie D'Amato."

I whistled. Oh wow, that's a LOT of money. "You gave that kid ten grand? In cash?"

"Well, him and his mother. I mean, they have to have something to live on while she finds a new job and everything."

I shook my head. Jess is amazing! "You are one piece of work, Mastriani. Okay. So that's what was in the envelope. What was on that sheet of paper you handed to the Feds?"

"Oh," she answered nonchalantly. "Just the addresses of some of America's most wanted. I said I'd give them up in return for the charges against Mrs. O'Hanahan being dropped."

That was a shocker to me. "Really? I thought you didn't want to get involved in all of that."

"I don't." Okay, now I'm confused. "That's why I only gave them the addresses of the guys from that book of theirs that happen to be deceased."

I slowly started to smile. "Wait a minute. You-"

"I didn't lie or anything. They really will find out where I said they'd be. Well, what's left of them, anyway." She wrinkled her nose. I wouldn't tell her this, but it made her look adorable. "I have a feeling it's not going to be pretty."

I shook my head and reached out to put my arm around her shoulders. "Jess, you make me proud to have sat by you in detention. Did you know that?"

She smiled a blinding grin up at me. "Thanks." Then she looked up. "Come on. There's still one more thing I have to do."

I followed her gaze to see a guy sitting way above us in the stands. "Who's that?"

"Who, him?" Oh that's the guy that going to set me free."

--

And so, Jess was indeed set free. She told the reporter from the Indianapolis Star that she had lost all of her powers. They published all the lies she fed the next day on the front page. She had her peace back, and I hadn't ever been prouder of her work. Of course, the reporter didn't really believe her (with good reason), but he was so excited to be the one writing the story that he didn't care. Now the only problem is us not being able to go out... but that's a matter for another time.

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A/N: kay, so that's the end of the first book. I'd be more than happy to continue onward in the series, but I'm going to have to get LOTS of reviews. Only one person out of about sixty actually has reviewed, which is very depressing to me.

thanks for reading! diabolical baroness