Jessica had found herself walking out of the chem lab, she couldn't bear to stay in there any more, not with Lia's painful hisses and the sight of her blood, it brought back too many memories that she didn't really want to put up with anymore, subconsciously she pulled down her jacket sleeve some more, trying to hide the fluorescent blue veins that ran up her arm, to the joint between upper arm and lower arm, right in the crease of her elbow. She couldn't bear to think what would happen to Lia if it was found out that her sister was a Skitter experiment, Lia could lie and say she had no part in it, her veins ran deeper down into her arm, they weren't as pronounced because she didn't need as high a dose as she did, but Jess knew she wouldn't let her go unless she got down on her knees and begged her to just let go.
She had walked for a little while, until a dark dusty room caught her attention, possessed by something she hadn't felt before, she shoved open the door and walked to the other side of the room, being careful not to hit anything as she pulled the blinds and let some light into the dusty room. Fighting hard to subdue her squeal of delight, she looked the black beauty over, walking around the circumference, a huge grin spreading over her face. "Finally, something good about this place." she whispered, sitting down on the stool and pushing the lid of the grand piano back, exposing the beautiful ivory white and black keys.
Pulling her straight blonde hair over her shoulder, Jess' hands hovered over the keys, her mind running through all the things she could play, but only one thing popped into her mind, the song her mother had fallen in love with as a small child and had played at her wedding. Claire De Lune hummed quietly from the piano as Jess pressed down on the keys, lighting brushing the instrument, wringing the notes from it so delicately as if it was a butterfly, all memories of the invasion or what happened with the skitters vanished from her mind as she closed her eyes and envisioned sitting back in her lounge room in Australia and playing for her mother on her birthday, Lia smiling brilliantly as her father cradled her mother in his arms, laughing when a small sniffle appeared from her nose.
She jumped a little when her own hands banged down on the keys, earning her a harsh and loud noise, almost making her jump. She then realised that tears were running from her eyes, and reached up, surprised and touched the wetness on her cheeks. "Goddamn it." she whispered, pulling her sleeves back down, "how long have you been able to play for?" a soft voice asked, Jess spun quickly, holding her hands up in self-defence, a startled blonde boy stared back at her, blue eyes widened to the size of saucers.
"I'm sorry." he whispered, looking down a little, blushing. Jess turned away, trying to hide her blush, the boy was perfect, tall and lean with his blonde hair flopping down in front of his face, with big soft lips that she wanted to run her fingers over. She looked back up, "I've been playing since I was three." she whispered, smiling softly at him. He smiled back and walked further into the room, "you're very good." she blushed a deeper red, he was too sweet for her, for all that she been through.
"I should be" she said, looking into his soul sucking blue eyes. "I was pushed hard enough." embarrassed, she looked down at the keys again, pushing her resistant hair behind her ears, before she gaped down at the visible blue lines, shoving her hand under her thigh, trying desperately to hide the veins. He sat down next to her, "I'm Ben." he said, smiling, she blushed and smiled back, "I'm Jess." she whispered back, his eyes went wide for a second, "Hal said that you and your sister were in the same building as me?" he asked, motioning to the spikes on his back, she gaped at them, and he shifted to the side a little self consciously, like she would be afraid of him.
"I'm not afraid." she whispered, getting up and closing the door, and making sure all the blinds were down and all windows covered, she somehow trusted Ben, he had been in the same facility anyways, he was bound to remember something about her. "Can you keep a secret for me, even from your own family?" she asked, turning away from a nearby window, he bit down on his lip and thought about it for a moment, before a ferocity enclosed his eyes, startling Jess. "Yes." he whispered, "you were in almost the same situation as me, of course I can do it for you." he said, she smiled and walked over to him, pulling him up with her good hand.
"You've got your spikes as a memory, I've got… well I've got this." she whispered, pulling her shirt sleeve up to the elbow, earning a startled and pained gasp from Ben. His hands tentatively reached out to touch it, sending a warm feeling to her stomach as his cool hands met her skin, "they… they did this to you?" he whispered, looking up at her, Jess bit her lip and nodded, "I have skills that they wanted, but I was sick as a kid… so I needed a double dose, Lia's got the same thing, but it's deeper into her system so you cant see it, she's the lucky one."
Ben looked up at her, a little shocked, she could see the sadness behind his eyes but she didn't comment on it, knowing that if she said anything the tears behind her own eyes would spill over, "they… forced you to fight with them?" he asked, looking up at her slightly through his fringe, she bit her lip but nodded, trying to ignore the butterflies raging in her stomach, and the twitching in her fingers as she fought the urge to take his hair in her fingers and brush it away from his forehead.
"I'm sorry." he said suddenly, after a minute of silence. She looked up quickly, meeting his blue eyes with a small smile, "it's alright, you don't have to apologise, you were in much the same situation. It's the skitters who should be apologising… I hate what they did to my sister and I." she whispered eyes widening as he took her hands. She smiled and went to open her mouth again, before loud shouting could be heard from outside the door, "what the?" Ben said standing up quickly.
Jess knew the sounds of people running after fugitives well, and didn't waste any time in pulling her sleeve down and grabbing the pistol she had stored in her combat boot, rushing out the door and searching the hallway quickly, seeing a family of three sprinting down the hallway with a white bag in the father's hand, and she knew they had stolen medicine from Anne. "Bastards!" Jess screamed, sprinting after the family at full pelt, ignoring Ben's yells for her to come back.
She became worried when he shoved over a table, which lodged itself on the opposite wall, meaning she would have to slide under it, while Ben could still see her. She sighed, knowing what she would have to do and how she would have to answer to it later, but let her momentum carry her, her legs going under the shelf first, the rest of her body following in a smooth, fluid move that stunned even her. She spun to stand up, meeting Ben's beyond shocked face before biting her lip and turning away, once again sprinting after the idiots who had stolen medicine.
She saw Tom Mason and Captain Weave run out another door, sprinting after the family as well, Tom nodded at her as she came up beside them, hardly out of breath and holding her pistol close. She dropped to the floor when she heard the gunshot go off. "Idiots with guns is a bad mix." she whispered, putting her head in her hands, "leave us alone! I'll shoot I swear!" came the voice. Jess sighed and knelt up, bringing her pistol with her, carefully scanning for the family, if she could shoot the gun out of his hand no one else would have to get hurt.
She raised herself a little higher, and a gun shot went off. She could see the bullet coming towards her, her enhanced eyes picking up spotting it come rushing towards her, and managed to get clear, only letting the bullet scrape her arm slightly as she dived. Not a sound came out of he mouth as she it the ground, ignoring the slight bleeding of the flesh wound. "I'm fine." she whispered to Tom, who was helping her up, a worried look on his face. "Hold your fire for a bit, he's got a kid with him." Tom said to Weaver and Mike, who had tried to open the door and climb through.
"Just… go back!" the man cried, "no one else needs to get hurt!" Weaver shook his head, Jess could see the anger in his eyes as she turned from the hiding place of the family to his face. "No ones going anywhere! Just throw us the meeds and you can go!" Weavers ultimatum must have made him mad because a gunshot sounded out, followed by another a few seconds later. "Drop it! Or die, right now!" came another voice, deeper voice, a few minutes past as the two men held a conversation, the waiting agony for Jess as she listened for the sound of more gunshots.
"Who the hell is out there!" Weave finally yelled, Jess could see the anger shining through his face - she could already tell that Weaver was an angry and impatient man, he was definitely going to be a handful. "Tony Clayton! 7th Mass!" came the reply. Instantly the three men relaxed, but it made the young girl tense even more her muscles locking together, a feeling of dread spreading throughout her system. She had a programmed sense of intuition, it wasn't a natural thing brought about by the skitters and their games, she knew that Clayton was bad news something about the detached voice seemed… off.
"Is that Captain Weaver?" he called again, shocking Jess out of her thoughts, "yeah!" Weaver called back over the top of the car, "it's alright, come on up!" he yelled. Tom took Jess by the arm as they stood, pulling her to face him, with eyes that reminded him of Ben's which elicited an unfamiliar reaction from her stomach the feeling that something was flapping. "You've done well Jess, I know that everyone back at the school will be scared and confused as to whats going on, I need you to go back and clear everything up… and check on Anne, if you wouldn't mind?" Jess tensed at the mention of Anne, she was a doctor a woman who worked in a medical lab with test tubes and beakers, she knew exactly what would happen if Anne were to see the blue veins on her skin. They would hold her down and probe her until they had removed the liquid from the veins, and Jess knew that she would die if anymore than a drop was removed.
Forcing her thoughts away, Jess nodded, knowing that she could take someone with her to protect her someone she could trust. She turned and walked back towards the school knowing that Anne would be a little more than shaken up, and she knew exactly how she felt and the fear of being beaten and tortured by that fear. When she arrived back at the school, she had all of 5 seconds before a tall blonde girl came running out of the front doors and grabbed her by the wrist.
"What the hell were you thinking!" Lia screamed, Jess just stared up at the person who used to be her sister she knew the skitters "medicine" was taking effect, the side-effects were always dangerous and Jess could see the blue liquid rushing towards her surface veins, "Lia… you need to calm down." she whispered, trying to work her wrist out of Lia's iron grip and ignoring the crowd that had gathered. Lia's eyes burned, "you could have gotten yourself killed." she whispered fiercely, her fingernails digging deeper into her skin pulling a wince from Jess's normally unbreakable skin. Jess sighed, "you know full well that killing me is impossible. Because of what they did to us, Lia we're in this together, you need to push away the cravings and force your way through it." Jess' hand was finally released, her sister slumping forward a little as she turned and walked back into the school, ignoring the curious looks and confused stares as she kicked open the door.
Jess sighed and looked down, noticing that Lia had broken her skin with her nails and tiny beads of red blood were leaking out from the small nail marks. Jess made her way inside, doing exactly as her sister had done and ignoring the curious stares, answering anyone that questioned her about the families actions, telling them calmly that Weaver, Tom, Mike and herself had gotten the meds back and Weaver was now talking to the Commander of the 7th mass. She searched for about ten minutes for Ben, hoping that he would come with her to Anne. She found herself missing his infectious smile and bright blue eyes as soon as she had left, even though she had met him only a few hours ago.
She was ready to give up searching when she heard a boys voice yelling for her, turning she met the blue eyes of Ben Mason, smiling at her brightly as her hair wafted around her face her own blue eyes watching him intently. "I've been looking for you!" she said, smiling a little and trying to hide her blush. His eyes widened a fraction before he corrected himself, trying to contain his blush as well, "whats up?" he asked, stepping a little closer as her face fell, "um…" she didn't know if she should ask Ben if he would come with her, it seemed like such a weak and fragile request.
"Jess, you're bleeding!" he cried, stepping forward and grabbing her arm where the bullet had grazed her. She blushed deeper as his smell wafted over her like cherries and old novels, her two favourite things. "its nothing." she whispered, pulling her arm away and trying to hide the bloodstained sleeve of her shirt. "I-I was wondering if you'd come with me to see Anne, your Dad asked me to check up on her after what happened and I cant stand to be around doctors or medical facilities by myself… too many bad memories you know?" she whispered, looking down. She felt Ben's finger go under her chin and pull her face up to meet his, only to find him smiling.
"I know exactly how you feel." he whispered, his normally cheeky blue eyes filled with seriousness, he took her hand bodily making her heart jump into a wild drumbeat and pulled her along towards the chem lab, her heart pulsing in fear with every step they took towards the chem lab. Ben jerked to a stop at the door to the lab, making her bump into his shoulder slightly to which she laughed and blushed, offering a muttered 'sorry' and blushing deeper as he smiled at her.
Jess' attention was cut off from her stomach twisting into knots as she stared at Ben to her sister, walking out of the chem lab - minus a pistol, shock ran through system as she watched her retreating sisters back, Jess knew she had others, so maybe she hadn't given her the one that the skitters had made for them, but for Lia to give up a weapon was a true sign that she trusted someone, or wanted to keep them safe. And although Jess knew that she shouldn't be thinking thoughts like that, she couldn't help but feel a little betrayed at the fact that Lia had so readily handed over her prized weapons without so much as an inner argument, and to a doctor no less.
Ben dragged her into the room, watching curiously as Anne jumped and shoved the gun into the desk drawer. "Ben and Jess. What can I do for you?" she said, smiling only slightly to avoid splitting the cut on her lip. Jess noted sadly that Anne seemed very put off and shaky, like she was expecting an attack from anyone or anything at any given moment, Jess now knew why Lia had handed over her gun so readily. Anne had a look about her that Jess knew very well, and with horror in her eyes she watched as Anne smiled at her again realising who it was that Anne reminded her so much of.
Before Jess knew it she was running out the door, trying desperately to hold her tears in as she streaked through the hallways not bothering to say sorry to people she bumped into, and ignoring Ben's cries for her to stop running.
Anne was the image of her mother.