Disclaimer: Please see first chapter for disclaimer.

Rating: T

A/N: OK, I wanted to get this one up now, because I'm not going to have the time to write it in the next couple of days. So I'm sorry if it seems a bit rushed and short. I hope you all enjoy it...

Many, huge, massive thanks for all the reviews and encouragement, I can't say how much I love reading what you all think :D This one kind of wrote itself in a couple of places, but I did have fun writing it. Hope you enjoy : )

Recap: Jesse and Suze have a little head to head over the 'forward' Tad...


Chapter 3...

I was sitting at my usual designated place in Susannah's room, when the flashy car pulled up into Susannah's driveway. I didn't know too much about the price of vehicle's, but this one looked like it was quite expensive. I peered out the window at it, trying to get a glimpse to who was inside said vehicle. To my surprise, it was none other than Susannah and a boy I've never seen before. Someone who looked to be around Susannah's age. He looked like the type who was sure of himself and confident. Not the best mixture for a boy of that age. They tended to think they could have anything they liked, without having to ask.

I felt the scowl appear on my face after that unpleasant thought. It was close to Susannah's curfew and I know she had gone to the man's house, who her father strictly forbade her to involve herself with. I knew she wouldn't listen to his warning. I had had an inkling of hope though. Now I was going to have to pull a different card. I think it's time for Father Dominic to get involved too. At least she would have back-up.

I continued my scrutinising through the window down at the car. I could just make out the two individuals down there by the slight light in the car. I watched with suspicion as Susannah went to exit the vehicle. Unfortunately her progress was halted by the boy, grabbing her chin in his hand. My annoyance went up a notch as turned her towards him and proceeded to kiss Susannah. I felt the flame of rage erupt in my chest. Now I was furious. And it wasn't a simple peck on the lips either. It was the kind of kiss, Susannah should not have been letting the stranger instigate.

Before I knew what I was doing, I took myself down there and found my astral self seated in the back seat of the car. I was seated with the very forward display in front of me. The kind of show, that was making me want to tear the boy off of Susannah and throw him out of the car. What I would have done from there I quickly cut off before my thoughts could go down that road. I didn't particularly want to suddenly find myself attempting something of the sort. The boy had obviously not been brought up to be a gentleman, else he wouldn't be deepening the kiss with Susannah, without even a hint of remorse.

I continued to sit there, my arms firmly crossed over my chest silently stewing in anger, waiting for Susannah to notice my presence. I must of been there less than a minute when she saw me. Resulting in her instantly pulling away from the rude boy - letting out a little scream - and looking at the boy with such a look of horror, I couldn't help but feel triumphant. The boy looked back at Susannah, confusion pasted all over his face. I fought myself from wiping the proud look from his eyes. "What's wrong?" he asked.

"Oh, please." I said cheerfully interjected from the backseat. The boy completely oblivious to my presence. "Don't stop on my account." I fought the predatory smirk, itching to come across my face.

Susannah looked back at the boy and made a hasty exit. "I gotta go," She said. "Sorry." Why was Susannah apologising to him? He should have been the one to say sorry, not Susannah. Although she shouldn't have let him get so forward with her either. But my anger, was at the moment directed at the immature boy, with his expensive car. I couldn't help but think what her father would have done if he'd of seen that. I'm sure his punishment would have been more unsavoury than my own would have been.

I left the car the same time Susannah did, easily catching up to her striding towards her house, as though the wrath of Heather was on her heels. Her body rigid with tension and what I'm quite sure, was embarrassment. Her hands were clenched into fists at her sides her long hair was hanging loose down her back, shiny even in the bleak darkness. I fought to ignore the guilty feeling arising at making her like that appear like this. I heard the boy hesitated in the driveway - apparently trying to decide whether to see if Susannah was alright or not - before pulling away and leaving Susannah and myself alone, in the cold, silent darkness. Save for the heavy breathing of Susannah. Who was currently trying to get away from me.

Her tactic didn't work though, I had much longer legs and was matching her speed, with no effort on my part. I broke the silence, knowing soon it would probably be filled with angry shouts of indignation. Which I knew was going to happen, as soon as I said what I had to say. "It's your own fault." I sweetly informed Susannah.

The boy had finally driven away and was out of sight of Susannah's house and therefore the occupant currently shouting to thin air, as far as he would have known. "How is it my fault?" Susannah demanded, as angry and frustrated as I expected her to be.

"You shouldn't," I calmly replied, satisfied at the reaction I was getting from Susannah. "have let him get so forward."

"Forward? What are you talking about? Forward? What does that even mean?" Susannah all but hissed and screeched at me. Still trying to keep her distance from the source of her mortification and practically marching up to the porch steps. I wondered how long she was going to be angry at me. Or should I say, once she got over her embarrassment. It was radiating off her, tense, lithe frame.

"You hardly know him," I said. "And you were letting him – "

Susannah whirled around to face me then, horror once again written all over her illuminated features. The moon, finally having broke through the clouds, lighting her face, giving Susannah an ethereal look and stealing my non-existant breath away along with my voice. Thankfully Susannah took that moment to cut-in with a heated reply of her own. Her voice louder the more agitated she got. "Oh, no," She said, voice hard and steady. "Don't even go there, Jesse."

Susannah must have forgotten how stubborn I could be, because I wasn't backing down from this one. I promised Susannah's father, I would keep an eye on her and that's exactly what I planned on doing. And that included over confident, adolescent boys. Determination was clearly written all over my face. "Well, I said. "You were."

"We were just saying goodnight," Now Susannah was definitely hissing at me.

What did she take me for? I'm no fool. "I may have been dead for the past hundred and fifty years, Susannah," I told her. "but that doesn't mean I don't know how people say good night. And generally, when people say good night, they keep their tongues to themselves."

Her reaction was typical of Susannah. Denial. "Oh my God," She said in disbelief, turning away from me with a look akin to in credulousness on her face, continuing her marching towards her home. Her steps as heavy and petulant as before.

"Yes, I did just say that." I said, following after Susannah. "I know what I saw, Susannah."

"You know what you sound like?" She asked me, spinning around again to face me, standing at the bottom of her porch stairs, looking me straight in the eye. I hope she didn't notice how often I lost myself in her emerald gaze, a silent thought drifted through my mind. "You sound like a jealous boyfriend." She informed me, jutting her chin out in stubbornness. Much like my younger sisters used to do when they thought they were right, or being stubborn.

I tried not to read too much in her eyes and to not give away so much in my own. Fear sweeping into me, that she would see something there, I was hoping to never acknowledge or let her find out about. And with that little outburst, it was the first thing to come to the forefront of my mind, "Nombre de Dios. I am not," I said with a nervous laugh, I hoped Susannah didn't notice. "jealous of that – "

"Oh, yeah? Then where's all this hostility coming from? Tad never did anything to you." Susannah cut me off. Tad? What kind of name was that? It even sounded immature. And I most certainly wasn't jealous of him. If I was jealous of anything, then I would begrudgingly admit I was jealous of his ability to be close to Susannah. Then I quickly threw that thought away. Angry at myself for needing to be truthful, even in my own mind. I had no place to even be jealous of that, or to even want it. Just the thought of how dangerous the denied feelings could get. How they could escalate, put the fear of God in me. And that in turn. just made me more determined to push them away and try to forget they even existed. For Susannah's and myself's sake, that was what needed to be done.

The conversation was getting too close for comfort and going in the completely wrong direction I needed it to go in. I had to divert the topic to something else, and quickly. I settled on insulting the boy instead. Choosing to channel my discomfort into my disgust in him. "Tad," I said. "Is a..." I uttered a word in Spanish, that would have had my mother cringe in disgust of me knowing and make a Holy man's ears burn.

I stood looking at Susannah, with a pleased and smug look on my face. I knew she wouldn't know what it was I said. She was learning French at school, not Spanish. Giving me the freedom to insult and swear in Spanish as much as I liked without Susannah knowing the meaning of the word. I was grateful she didn't know the translation of my own personal nickname for her, Querida. It wasn't appropriate for me to call Susannah it. But it slipped out more often than I cared to realize or admit.

Susannah stared back at me, confusion plain to see in the eyes. "A what?"

I said the word again, enjoying the feel of saying it in regards to the boy. Seeing the look of annoyance cross Susannah's face, finding amusement in it, knowing it was a secret I would not divulge to Susannah. "Look," She said. "Speak English."

"There is no English translation," I proudly told her, setting my jaw in determination. "for that word."

"Well," Susannah said. "Keep it to yourself, then."

I hesitated in-front of Susannah a few seconds, before I finally admitted. "He's no good for you." It was the truth as I saw it. But I didn't think anyone was worthy of Susannah's affections. She's too special, to any man, as far as I was concerned. Myself included, if it was even a possibility.

"You don't even know him." Susannah exclaimed.

"I know enough. I know you didn't listen to me or your father when you went off tonight by yourself to that man's house." I relaxed slightly at the change of subject. Silently praising myself for the move and taking comfort in the safer change of conversation.

"Right," Susannah said. Unsurprisingly coming to the boy's defence. "And I'll admit, it was very, very creepy. But Tad brought me home. Tad's not the problem there. His dad's the one who is a freak, not Tad."

"The problem here," I said, shaking my head at Susannah in dismay. "is you, Susannah. You think you don't need anyone, that you can handle everything on your own," The same thing, it always seemed to come down too, since I met Susannah.

"I hate to break it to you, Jesse," Susannah defiantly said. "but I can handle everything on my own." Susannah hesitated, the intent look on her face, dissolving into a slight chagrined look for a second. Hope flaring in my chest. "Well, most everything." She muttered quietly. Momentarily avoiding my eyes.

"Ah," I said, trying not to let Susannah hear the joy, and the fact I was relishing that she finally admitted she could do with the help sometimes. It was a vast improvement to how she was only a little under two weeks ago. "See? You admit it. Susannah, this one – you need to ask the Priest for help."

Susannah's face quickly switched back to anger, at being told what to do. "Fine," She said. "I will."

"Fine," I bit back. "You had better." I really hoped, for Susannah's sake, she wasn't just saying that to get me off her back.

And then I suddenly became very aware of how close we were. We were still standing out the front of Susannah's home, both caught up in an heated exchange, completely unaware of how close we had become. We were only inches apart from each other, the air buzzing between us as though electrified. Both entranced with rapid fire emotions switching between us. Just like incidents of this happening before, the world fell away from around us. Leaving nothing but the two people glowering at each other and the moon and stars as an an enchanting back-drop.

Susannah brought me round after it seemed forever. She took in a deep breath, almost like she'd held it in anticipation and letting it out. With it, she let go of her tension and anger. Her face and posture, giving way to a relaxed stance and appearance. I blinked a couple of times, attempting to clear my vision. Taking in everything all at once. Susannah closed her eyes. Whether to shut me out, or to collect herself, I didn't know. I never stuck around to find out.

While Susannah wasn't looking, I left. I didn't want to get caught back up in those bizarre moments like that, that seemed to happen with regular occurrence lately. It left feelings, mixing between fear and total happiness. And left me more often than not, unbalanced. I went to my third favourite place to 'haunt', the Mission. A place I knew could calm me down and help me get my self back into a normal state. Susannah's room was my first, favourite place, but due to circumstances, that wasn't an option open to me tonight. The beach was my second favourite. But I had the need to pace around and sand wasn't the best surface to waltz around on.

I arrived in front of the water fountain in the courtyard, pacing in small tight circles, treading the same ground over and over. Hoping to burn off my excess energy and to get a handle on everything. I really needed to be more careful around Susannah. More careful of my actions and my words. But more importantly my thoughts. Because if I wasn't watchful, I could see myself falling into something I've never experienced and gave up hoping I ever would. Something deep and soul engraving. A situation that wasn't open as an option to me. I was careful not to put a name to it.

I stopped in my pacing mid stride. Taking a leaf out of Susannah's book, I taking a deep breath I didn't need anymore and released all the emotions and negativity I was feeling. Releasing the tight and coiled anxiety in my chest. A burden I had been feeling more as of late. Sometimes welcoming, but sometimes not. There was no time for things like that here with me. Not now. Not ever.

Or so I tried to tell myself...


A/N 2: Thanks for reading, I hope you like it. Please review and tell me what ya thought, ta! Toodles...

Anonymous Reviews:

Trisha- Thanks! I'm glad you liked the last chapter. I hope you enjoy this one as much and thanks for the taking the time to review :D Take care, x

Meg- Thanks for taking the time to review, I'm glad you enjoyed the last chapter, : ) Take care, x

Coming up in Ch 4: Jesse meets Spike! And a certain blue eyed Priest...