Title: She's Leaving Home
Author: Rose With Thorns
Rating: T, for language, mature humor
Summary: Zoe thought she had her entire college experience planned from her first day, but that was before she made friends with the President's son…
The phone rang as Zoe was literally placing her keys in the Marilyn Monroe dish near the door. She dropped them unceremoniously with a clatter and reached for the phone.
"'Lo?" she asked, half-hopeful it was Shane.
It was Julie Plummer.
"Honey, we just got back from visiting Seth for the weekend," that was her mother acting calmly as she prepared to strap on her goggles and dive straight into deep-paranoid mom crazy. Zoe closed her eyes in preparation of wincing.
"I just read some rag's cover."
Zoe was still waiting.
"Why the hell didn't you call me? Are you pressing charges? Seth was getting in his car to drive down here from Julliard and kick his a-"
"Kids, mother," Zoe reminded her mother in the nick of time.
"And isn't Shane with that kid every day? Where was he?"
Zoe kept herself from hanging up the phone and pulling the cord out of the wall. "He wasn't even on his shift and he was there. If it wasn't for him catching me you would have had a pile of broken limbs for a daughter. He got me out of there without the paparazzi following me and everything."
Shane already seemed to have an infinite amount of brownie points, and the quick explanation earned him some more.
"And?"
"I really don't think I'm pressing charges."
"What?!"
"First of all, it will be a mere slap on the wrist for him in the end and second, I'm already dealing with the paparazzi as it is. I don't like it. At all."
Her mother sighed, obviously unhappy.
"So what do I need to bring for Thanksgiving?" Knowing full well that she had to bring something really delicious to make up not being home.
"Shane. You. Chocolate cake. A date wouldn't hurt."
"Yeah," Zoe snorted, leaning against the fridge with her back in a way that Tessa said made her look 'haunched and bony', "since right now that's on my top list of priorities."
What would her mom say if two of the things she requested were the same? Would it be weird? Shane was already considered a part of her family, although no true connections had been made between any of the Plummers and Shane to make them siblings. At least she'd know her mom would like him.
The next few minutes were attempts to either stay on the phone or hang up on both their parts, until finally Zoe won out.
The receiver was barely back in its cradle when Tessa padded out of her room, still in her pajamas on her without classes at two in the afternoon. "Did I hear you say something about a hunky guy and chocolate? Darling Zoe, how did you know it's my time of the month?"
"The wrappers you leave decoratively around but not in the bathroom garbage can. Clean it up."
"You wound me," said the girl with a yawn. She took out pizza from the fridge and started to take a bit from a slice. Zoe groaned. Neither probably could say for sure what night it was from. With things as they were, it was better to stay in and order out.
When Zoe went back to class, as another absence could definitely result in failing grades for the semester, she wore oversized sunglasses. Typical, yes, she knew, but even after the triple-team attempts made by Tessa, Jordan, and herself, the purple and yellow skin still showed slightly under the makeup. Georgetown (and all of the students) took all possible precautions to ensure that she wasn't being hounded on campus, but the second she left the property to go to her apartment, it became hellish. Several of her friends-and classmates who before had never really said much to her-even walked with her, creating a thick little pack that took up most of the sidewalk which pushed photographers off the curb.
At least the sunglasses kept the flashes from being too distracting. One day, Tessa forgot to bring a pair of her own glasses and by the time they reached the door, Zoe could see her pupils were contracted to little pinpricks, and she dropped their keys as she tried to fit them to the door. The blonde woman's down turned face became a normal cover, right next to the Holmes-Cruise fiasco and other nonsense.
Jeff had called the house one night and left a phone call. Secret Security with a unmarked, but tinted, car that Zoe could only assume was carrying the boy in it, showed up and tried to get her to allow them to enter. She refused. Any time they came, Shane was not among them. Jeff wasn't in class anymore, but had switched for the rest of the semester to private one-on-one tutoring sessions, a concept that was unheard of for his professors to even consider for the most deserving of students, let alone Jeff.
"The bitch better really apologize," said Jordan one night, nastily, as they sorted through Halloween decorations and prepared Thanksgiving ones. It didn't matter that no one would be in the apartment for the real holiday; prospect of leaving the place without some festive sign of the day was upsetting.
He swung the bright pink children's scissors around on one finger, and Zoe could only assume that Tessa found this a possible endangerment to her new Kate Spade hobo, as the bag was scooted farther away from their friend as the conversation went on.
"I mean, sure, he left a message, and then had his daddy's camp make that big press statement, but the boy hasn't even had the balls to talk to you."
Zoe shrugged, a shoulder popping up out of the oversized neck of the t-shirt. So what if it was one of Shane's and it had somehow ended up at her place? It smelled good and the whim had struck her.
Being head over designer heels for a guy was very difficult when the aforementioned man was never around. It left her nervous as to when she'd bump into him and look a mess in something atrocious like Paul Frank PJ's and fuzzy slippers when she opened the door.
Tessa threw down a paper accordion turkey and stood up. "ScrewthisI'morderingapizza," she muttered.
"Pepperoni, please," sang Jordan, who picked up the turkey and put it to rights effortlessly.
Zoe picked at the shirt, where they 'E' in 'SEALs' had started to crumble off. Maybe he would get the point if she just showed up at his front door in several well-placed 'I Heart a Navy SEAL' stickers and nothing else.
Maybe not. They were hard to find and the whole removal part would be painful.
"I ordered extra cheese and pepperoni," announced the brunette, who plopped back down to wrestle the T.V. remote from Jordan and flip to what she wanted to put on.
Zoe's paper due in two days was long since finished and clipped to the back of her door to ensure she took it with her. With the two on the floor still exchanging quips, Zoe settled onto their purple velvet couch and watched whatever they flipped to.
"I'll get it!" screeched Zoe when the doorbell rang ten minutes later, not that it made a difference. Tessa was stubbornly swearing that 'the bug guy' on CSI was the hottest man on the planet; an idea which apparently Jordan disagreed with. Heartily. They were reaching exceedingly loud levels of 'friendly disagreement'. Zoe stepped over them.
"Alright, how much will it be?" she said as she opened the door, reaching behind it for her wallet to pay.
"I think an acceptable payment can be arranged if this is extra pepperoni and cheese."
Zoe looked up and met Shane's eyes.
She launched herself and pecking him on the cheek, almost causing him to lose the pizza he was holding up with one hand. His coat was speckled with rain drops that glistened under their porch light.
Jordan dropped the cheese doodle in his mouth just as he finally felt he'd won the round, ogling Shane. Tessa grinned madly.
"Can I intrude?" Shane asked. Zoe didn't wait for her friends to say anything involving Shane throwing Zoe over his shoulder and making his way to her room, or anything involving K.Y. Jelly, or-Zoe suddenly frowned. Maybe she had gotten so used to trying to predict what her friends were going to say that she was worse than they were.
"Couch is open," she offered, after he hung up his coat and placed the pizza on the small glass coffee table. Zoe went to get plates, but by the time she'd gotten back, Jordan had already started to eat the pizza over the white shag rug, a heinous crime for which Tessa was yelping at him for.
Shane handed her a slice-one with quite a few more pepperoni slices than the others and offered her a smile. Honestly, if he just smiled like that, why did he expect her to ever not be attracted to him?
They settled into watching a marathon of some television show that Zoe was only half aware of, as having Shane that ridiculously close was proving to be a distraction enough. She tried to keep her distance. A muscular arm wrapped around the back of the couch during the third commercial break, a sign that Zoe took meant she could scoot a little closer.
Honestly, scooting? She was dissolving back into the Garanimals phase again. Ugh.
"Cameras slowing down."
Zoe looked over at him. His fingertips were aggravatingly close to her ear and some of her escaped hairs. He had stated it, not asked. As in he'd been observing.
Who ever said Zoe fell in love with a normal guy?
"Um, yeah. Not been as bad. TMZ left Tuesday, which I assume is a good sign. How's the press treating Jeff?" Saying his name wasn't as hard as it had been before, when the ache in her cheekbone would flare up with the memory.
Shane looked down at her two friends on the floor for a moment. She glanced down as well. Apparently having worn themselves out bickering, the two were passed out on the floor. Miraculously, Jordan had not gotten grease on the carpet. Zoe laughed.
"They are a lot cuter when they are asleep," her fellow couch occupant said seriously, to which Zoe let out something that sounded like a giggle.
"Enjoy it while it lasts," she said, severely. "Once they start walking it's all over."
His fingers traced the upholstery button before he looked up to say "I wouldn't know about Jeff as I am no longer working for him."
"What!?" she shrieked, only remembering afterward that her friends were passed out on the floor. She gestured him to follow her into her room.
It was only once they were in there that she remembered she'd never cleaned today. A bra was hanging on the edge of a chair in lieu of an actual drying rack and her recently female purchases were still in their Eckerd bag. She kicked the latter under her bed and flung the former into the closet.
Shane closed the door behind him before she let her questions explode.
"What!?" she repeated, and when he didn't answer instantaneously, she continued. "Did Jeff get you fired. I swear, I will wring his neck if that is the case. The very idea that he would do something like that just because-" and at that she slowed down trying to figure out how to finish it instead of saying 'that I am butt crazy in love with you'. Luckily, Shane started to talk.
"His Secret Service detail is getting changed up over the next few months. I volunteered to be the first to go. They're very much aware of what happened and why it should never," and he said it so bitterly, "happen again. Ever."
He sat on her bed before continuing. "Plus, I was offered this job earlier this year…a few, actually." Zoe sat down in her desk chair and waited. He leaned forward and it was only then that she could see how excited he was.
"The Field Office, Zoe."
She tried, she really did, to figure out what he meant. Biting her lip, she looked at him imploringly.
"This is a good thing, right?"
He smiled. "Yeah, really, really good, Zoe. It means I'll have an office here in D.C., it pays a hell of a lot better. I never thought I would want something like this but I do and I think this move will be a good one."
"No more taking care of bratty kids, huh?"
"Only one was." He added "And he was an adult, really."
"So what exactly is this office, in a field, in D.C.?" she questioned, playing with a paper clip that was out on her desk.
"It's a part of the NCIS, and-"
"Make sure that that fact doesn't come up in conversation in front of Tessa; we won't be able to remove her from your person."
He actually threw a pillow at her for that. "Can I finish?"
Zoe waved him on grandly.
"They have a position for me in the Counterintelligence. It's-this is huge, Zoe."
His happiness was infectious. "This is excellent, Shane." She moved to the edge of the bed and wrapped her arms around his middle. "I'm so happy for you. And proud."
Slowly, the weight of his arms settled at the small of her back. From here, nestled at his shoulder, he smelled wonderfully.
There was a silence there for a moment or two. One she really didn't want to break. This was what she wanted, this sort of thing with him: talking at two in the morning openly and holding on to one another.
"You have no idea how much I missed you, Shane," she sighed into his shoulder. She didn't think he had heard her. He tensed for a moment, and then cleared his throat.
"I might." He leaned back a bit, hitting his shoulders against her headboard. His eyes seemed darker as he noticed what she was wearing. "That's my shirt."
Could the floor open and swallow her now? "Oh, well, I thought it was something else when I pulled it on," Zoe said casually, but then rushed forward. "But I'll wash it tomorrow and give it back. Not sure how it got here, actually."
He shook his head. "Keep it."
Zoe couldn't help but grin at what he said next. "It looks better on you, anyway."
A loud snore from the other room caught Zoe's attention, and it seemed to catch Shane's. He stood up, slowly.
"I've got a lot of paperwork to fill out tomorrow, so I should probably get going."
They said a myriad of niceties at the doorway, neither seeming to want to really say 'goodnight'. Until finally Zoe moved forward to kiss him on the cheek goodbye. Normally she could have chalked it up to her being cold and tired and nervous and starting to shiver or something, but she felt it as her lips pressed against the side of his face.
His head twitched a little, and her lips came to close on the very corner of his mouth.
Still waiting for the earth to hurry up any time soon and actually let her melt through the floor, Zoe jerked backwards, mumbled a quick last goodbye, and shut the door.
A.N.: Check my profile for lots of new stuff, and go check out the forum! I will try to respond to every review I get from here on out. Also, once this story hits 10000 hits, there will be a mix cd. It's pretty, guys...
