Hey everyone, the muses finally decided to cooperate… again.
Thanks go out to: IronAmerica and XxDeathStarxX for their reviews last chapter.
Stick around folks; Only 2 more chapters left! I do not own The Cape.
Premonition of Love- Chapter Seven: Orwell is Watching
Jamie scuffed around the carnival's kitchen, a huge mug of coffee in hand. She had been sulking ever since Raia told her about Vince… The brunette hadn't slept all night, and this morning wasn't looking so good either. Raia kept a close eye on her, worried at how bad she was taking her fiancée's death.
As the blonde came into the room, she frowned sadly at Jamie, who was leaning against the counter, tracing the rim of her coffee cup with a finger.
"Jamie," Raia began, forcing a little smile. "I know it's hard, but it's doing you no good to just sit around here and sulk."
The brunette made a little whine in response. "It's doing me no good to act all cheery, either," she paused, passing the acrobat a weak look. "My fiancée is dead, and my father…" Jamie drooped her shoulders and sighed.
The blonde went to open her mouth to respond, but the brunette just shook her head and walked off. It was Raia's turn to sigh. This girl is going to be the death of me, she thought.
Jamie headed down the hallway in pursuit to talk to Max. Everyone knew that the magician was willing to help pretty much anyone. Well, the brunette needed help. She wasn't going to sit around twiddling her thumbs; Peter Fleming had something to do with Vince's death, and she wasn't going to rest until she knew what that was.
When she came up on Max's room, Jamie made sure to knock before anything.
"Who is it?" came from behind the door, rather harshly.
"It's Jamie," the brunette replied calmly. "May I come in?"
Max made a motion with his hands, even though his guest couldn't see it. "Come in," he began.
Jamie took in a deep breath before opening the door. When she did, the brunette saw the magician leaning over a map of some sorts. She didn't really care about what he was doing, as long as she had safe housing. Not that she wasn't curious over her new carnie friends, but Jamie never gave her theories much thought.
The older man picked his head up, passing his guest a knowing look. "I wondered how long it would take you to come in here."
The brunette smiled lightly, shutting the door behind her. "Are you busy?"
Max looked down at his map. "I was, but well," he paused to fold it up. "This can wait."
"Alright," Jamie began, padding over to the magician. She took a seat across from him, hoping that he could help somehow.
"First of all, my dear, my condolences are in order," Max offered the young girl before him a gentle smile.
"Thank you," Jamie said with a sad smile. She brought her coffee cup in her hands up to her lips, taking a dainty sip. "I wanted to talk to you… about my father, actually."
"I'm listening," the magician began, interlocking his fingers together.
"Not that I don't trust you and your welcoming family, but… I just can't be so sure that my father won't find me," the brunette sighed, placing her coffee cup on the table before her.
Max nodded, understanding where she was coming from. "What you need is an alias. It may not get you very far, but it's somewhere."
"And what about Vince? I have to find a way to prove to the citizens of Palm City that he was not a killer," Jamie fought on, searching Max for anything. Anything at all.
"If Peter Fleming did do all of this like you said, call him out on it!" the magician began, rising to his feet rather quickly. "You're his daughter; surely you know enough about Fleming to use it against him," he leaned into the desk, both hands on the tabletop.
The brunette thought about this for a moment. She knew everything there is to know about her father. She knew about his passwords, pass codes… anything else she could use against her father electronically; she had it right under her nose.
How to pin Fleming to setting Vince up wasn't going to be easy. This was going to take hard work, and a lot of patience. Hit Peter Fleming where he's weakest. If the public finds out that he's not what they thought him to be, it would ruin him.
"Jamie?" Max called out to the brunette. He was a little worried, seeing as she hadn't spoken in five minutes.
"What?" the young girl picked her head up, her tone harsher than her expression.
"Were you listening to me?" he asked.
"Yeah," Jamie brushed a fallen lock of brown hair behind her ear. "I was just thinking of a way to do this…"
"Assuming a new name is like assuming a new identity. It shouldn't be taken lightly, Jamie," Max began, a knowing smile in place.
"I don't have much time to choose though, do I?" the brunette sighed lightly, rising to her feet as well. She tapped the side of her cup and spared Max a smile. "Thanks for listening."
"Of course. I'm always here…" the magician paused, raising a finger. "If you knock first."
Jamie smiled at that. Not that she could blame him, but he always had issues with people coming in unannounced. "I remember, Max," the brunette added before leaving the room.
As the door shut, the magician sat back down in his chair and opened his map back up. He sighed and slouched back in his chair before going back to work.
*The Cape*
Vince was having quite the difficult time playing dead. The man felt like a bum most days. During the week he had supposedly been dead, the cop had settled into a home away from home. It wasn't much; in fact, it reminded Vince of a cave. He grinned to himself from his bed; Jamie would have killed him if she knew where he was living at…
He couldn't show his face and that bugged. Anytime he was out and about he had to wear a hood over his head. It was pretty tedious, but the consequences of someone seeing him out in public was worse.
The sandy haired cop was at a diverse feat, though. He wanted to see his fiancée' so bad it hurt. It drove him crazy knowing that she thought he was dead. He told himself it would be best if he kept his face undercover but, in the same respect, it was Jamie. The love of his life; how could he do that to her? She had a right to know that none of those words were true.
Jamie needed to know, if nothing else, that he loved her so much. It wouldn't be easy, he knew that. Would he be able to protect his fiancée? That was his biggest fear.
He could protect her from Fleming. That man could do whatever he wanted to him, just as long as the brunette he called his was safe.
If he could go to the Raoul-Thompson home, he could take his fiancée with him and they would find somewhere to hide until his name was cleared. They would pin Peter Fleming for the murder of Rodger Isles, and god knows who else.
Vince remembered his fiancée telling him a story about her father. Over her nineteen years of life, she had dealt with her father's alter ego named Chess a few times. Obviously Fleming has a split personality disorder; he was the one that needed help.
The cop jumped down from his bed and padded to the table from across the room. He slipped on his shoes and pulled his hoodie over his head.
Vince was going to find Jamie, no questions asked.
*The Cape*
Dominic Raoul hated interruptions. More so, he hated interrupters. He considered his time with his little bird to be precious, and anyone who had the audacity to screw with it was surely dead.
Which would be why, when Vince decided to knock on the Raoul-Thompson home at one AM, the smuggler came close to charging downstairs to beat the living crap out of whoever was at the door.
Normally, Dana thought, at one AM, everyone should be at home and sleeping. Or, in her case, changing crash courses from studying for that winter exam to something much more interesting; the dress code was much looser, and she knew all the steps.
As the couple heard the first knock, they were pretty much in the middle of it. Dominic went from aroused to infuriated in thirty seconds.
Dana, who was extremely out of breath, managed to groan at the knock. "Really? A knock at one in the morning?"
"Whoever it is can wait till the effin' morning," Dominic growled, looking down at his girlfriend.
"They could wait until morning," Dana craned her neck to kiss the smuggler. Though as soon as their lips touched, the knocking started up again.
"Oh for crying out loud!" the strawberry-blonde sat up in annoyance, bringing a blanket to rest against her chest. "Would you go downstairs and talk to whoever the hell it is on our front porch?"
"Who cares about that berk?" Dominic asked, immediately getting a look from Dana. He just sighed, rising to his feet to dress himself.
"Thanks, Dom," Dana spared her boyfriend a smile, to which he walked out of the room.
The smuggler wasn't happy. Who ever their mysterious knocker was had the worst timing in the history of history. He stormed down the stairs to his first floor, charging for the front door.
When he opened the door, there stood Vince, who had his hand raised to the wooden door.
Dominic knew who it was, but he was too frustrated to remember that Vince was supposedly dead. "Wot the bloody 'ell do you want?"
The cop raised an eyebrow, mentally scarred at the image of his future brother-in-law shirtless. "Um, Dominic, I'm sorry to bother you at this apparently busy hour but…"
"Hurry up pretty boy. I ain't waiting much longer," the smuggler frowned back at Vince. He was a few seconds away from slamming the door in the cop's face.
This was a little weird for Vince. Maybe Dominic didn't get the memo that he was dead, the sandy haired man mused. "Is Jamie in there?" he rose to his tiptoes to look over the smuggler's shoulder.
Dominic muttered something obscene under his breath, moving aside to let Vince inside. "She ain't here. Now, take yer arse back home before…"
"Dom? Who's at the door?" Dana called from where she stood at the top of the staircase.
"It's just Jamie's gnome of a boyfrien' smooshie. Go back to bed," Dominic began, prompting a wide-eyed Dana to storm down the stairs.
Vince grinned lightly at Dana, giving her a slight wave. "You act like you've just seen a ghost or something."
The smuggler glanced over at his girlfriend as she stared back at Vince. Her face turned from flushed to pasty within seconds. It wasn't until that point that Dominic remembered that Vince was dead…
"Cor…" was all he could muster.
"I can explain myself," the cop began, a nervous chuckle escaping his lips.
"You have five minutes," Dana folded her arms across her chest, frowning at Vince.
He sighed, prepping himself for a long story short. "Peter Fleming is insane," the cop paused to throw his hands up in the air. "I was called out of my cell by a guard. Said that Fleming wanted to see me… This guard ended up dead, and all because of me. Fleming killed him and framed me for it. If I stayed away from Jamie, I got to live…"
The strawberry-blonde wasn't sure whether to smack Vince in the face for letting her best friend believe that he was dead, or listen to what he had to say. She looked over at her boyfriend, to which she sighed and continued with, "And Fleming is going after Jamie?"
"No doubt," the sandy haired cop frowned, rubbing at the back of his head. "I need to get back to her. She thinks…"
"She thinks yer a murderin' bastard? No yer lucky; that bird refused to believe otherwise," Dominic began, leaning against the wall.
"What does she believe?" Vince questioned, looking to both of them for an explanation.
"That you're innocent," Dana smiled. "And that her father isn't."
Vince grinned, exceptionally happy. It meant so much to him that his fiancée would believe in him, no matter what the press said. "Where is she now?" the cop replied, quite breathlessly.
"We took her to Kozmo. She's been staying with Max this whole time," Dana began, a curious expression in place as Vince turned toward the front door.
"Could you do me a favor?" he continued once he saw the strawberry-blonde nod. "Keep an eye out for Fleming. I can't show my face around much, so I'm counting on you to help Jamie and me out."
"Yeah, okay. I can do that," Dana bobbed her head once more, smiling to herself as her boyfriend settled her into his arms.
"Thanks, Dana," the sandy haired cop called over his shoulder before bearing the early morning air to find his fiancée.
*The Cape*
Jamie knew there was a reason why she was handy with computers. Anything she wanted to research was like an easy access for her.
When it came to snooping on her father, that was a whole different story. ARK had concrete security feeds, and it knew exactly who was trying to hack inside the database. The brunette learned that the hard way. She was snooping around one day a few years back, just for the hell of it. Little did she knew that ARK's computer systems would have a nasty little virus waiting for her.
Jamie smirked to herself; Fleming had been so angry when he got wind of who the hacker was.
Now, she knew better. State of the art equipment just wouldn't do. And now that her own name was a ticking time bomb, maybe it was time to put her hacking skills to a new level.
Finding a moniker was almost impossible. Jamie couldn't think of anything. It had to be one that her father would never guess. Or anyone else, for that matter. It had to be something unique.
The brunette sighed as she began searching through things on the internet. She thought that a name would just pop out at her, but no such luck, unfortunately.
She even tried author's names; none of them really stuck with her. Wait a minute, Jamie paused. What was that weird name, George Orwell? She smiled to herself; the brunette liked the sound of that; Orwell is Watching.
-0-
When Vince pulled around to the back entrance of Kozmo, he was a nervous wreck. He couldn't wait to see his fiancée; he couldn't wait to kiss her again.
The sandy-haired cop made his way to the back door of the city hotspot. Anyone that was close with Max knew that he and his carnie friends lived in a closed off portion of Kozmo.
Once he got to the back door, Vince knocked rather impatiently. He had to resist just charging into the hotspot when the door was opened.
The dwarf by the name of Rollo answered the door. He didn't look very happy at being woken up at one AM either. Wait, he knew that guy! Oh damn… There's a friggen' dead guy in front of him.
Whenever the cop met with the carnies around Kozmo, he got along with pretty much all of them. Except for two of them. And Rollo was one of them.
"Rollo, look, I know this is a little crazy, but I'm not a ghost, or a zombie, or whatever-"
"We saw your mug on TV, man! You killed that cop and then Fleming killed you!" Rollo's face paled. "If you're here to haunt us, go find Fleming! He's the man who killed you!"
"Rollo!" Vince called, this time a little louder. "I'm not dead. I can explain, but I need to see Jamie."
The dwarf nodded, clamping his mouth shut. He stepped aside, still in major shell-shock.
The cop headed inside even though he wasn't sure of where to go. He turned around, looking at Rollo expectantly. "Where is she?"
"Go down the hall, hang a left…" Rollo began before walking away from the younger man before him. He needed a drink…
Vince rushed down the hall, not really caring that it was one in the morning. If Jamie was sleeping, he'd be the first thing she would see. He needed to be the first thing that she saw.
Once he entered the room, the cop took in a sharp breath as he saw his fiancée curled into herself, sleeping.
Vince gently tiptoed over to the bed, sitting down on the edge of it. A smile found its way to his lips as he looked down at Jamie.
She made a little whine into her pillow, to which the cop's smile turned into a grin. The brunette always looked so adorable when she slept.
Not even a moment later, Jamie stirred awake. She jumped back when she saw a figure sitting down next to her.
"Jamie," Vince smiled gently, reaching out for her hand. "Angel, it's just Vince."
The brunette sat up in a rapid speed, her eyes growing wide. "Vince? It- it can't be you!" Her voice began to shake as she continued. "You're dead!"
"I understand this is a lot to take in, but your father-"
"You've been alive for well over a week, and you didn't tell me?" Jamie started, regaining the strength in her voice as her emotions changed.
"If I told you ahead of time, it could have gotten you hurt," Vince scooted closer to his fiancée, his eyes directly on her.
"You don't need to protect me, Vince!" The brunette cried. "You should have trusted me enough to help you! What could have been so bad that I had to believe that the love of my life was dead?"
"Peter Fleming is why you had to believe I was dead. He framed me for that murder. If I stayed away from you, I could live," the cop frowned sadly as the brunette scooted further away, clearly upset.
Jamie's face hardened as she brought her knees up to her chest. "Why did you bother coming back? You could have lived fine without me, apparently."
"I didn't want to leave you Jamie. Angel, you have to believe me!" Vince turned his body to face his fiancée once more. "I was afraid that you would be in danger if I came after you right away."
Jamie stared back at the sandy haired cop, on the verge of tears. "I believe you about my father, Vince. I just… I don't know if I can forgive you for keeping this from me," she looked down at the bed, biting down at her lower lip. "Do you not trust me?"
"I trust you with my life, Jamie," Vince easily slid an arm around her shoulders. "Please believe me, you know I love you."
The brunette picked her head up just as he began to strum an thumb across her shoulder. "Get your arm off of me!" she cried as he recoiled away with a wounded expression. "You can't just hug me and expect our problems to go away, Vince."
"Jamie-"
"I'm not Jamie anymore, Vince. Being Jamie Fleming will only get myself hurt. I'm here to help you, but not as her," Jamie began, tears falling freely from her cheeks.
Vince shot her another hurt look. "Does this mean we're not together anymore?"
"No, Vince. We're still together; I still love you, no matter what stupid things you man do in life," the brunette paused, a tiny smirk forming at her lips. Though, it faded as quickly as it came when she continued. "But, I'm Orwell now."
Vince blinked back at his fiancée, a little unsure. "Orwell, I'm going to keep you safe, alright?"
A smile finally illuminated her features. She met with her fiancée's eyes, to which tears began to well up in hers.
The cops gently reached for a tiny hand, threading their fingers together. "Let it all out, angel," he spoke with a calming tone.
Jamie shook her head, biting on her lip. "I can't, Vince."
"You can. I'm with you, to the very end," Vince stared down at the brunette, a tiny smile on his face.
"Promise?" the brunette frowned back, not very sure of herself.
The sandy-haired cop found his fiancée's lips, pulling her close to his chest. She didn't even try to fight back. Heavy tears fell from her eyes as she wrapped her arms around Vince's neck. It made it worse, knowing she couldn't be mad at him for very much longer. Jamie loved Vince too much…
"I promise," he whispered into her hair. "We'll see to it that Peter Fleming gets what he deserves."
As another chapter ends, I ask for opinions.