Alexander - Oui! I have missed you very much! Did you miss a chapter? Things did happen in the bathroom.... though I didn't spell it out. I also say this because in your second review (niceeeee) you wondered if Jared had been with slutty flight attendant (she has no other name). No they did nothing, she was just smirking cause she got a hot guy to stare at her chest, though that is not really hard.

Kadija - I'm back for more. Raven gets no revenge on Jared in this chapter, well, you'll see why.

Antonella - awesome! Almost compleatly what I was going for, and now I am going on the hunt to find one that matches her exactly...

Sam - The titans are in this a little bit. You'll see. Sadly the link was broken. *sniff*

Michelle - Nothing happened with the blond. We girls just try to make each other feel horrible when we lose, no? Thats what slutty flight attendant was doing.

As per usual, if you have an account, I may have just replied to your review that way. I got really into finding pictures for characters, so look on my profile for a whole heap of them. Hopefully they show up. *fingers crossed*


Raven Roth

His knuckles were white and blotchy red over the tar-coloured steering wheel, but he had a kind of manic grin on his face. It was hard to concentrate on the scenery when he was smiling like that.

"Are you okay?" It seemed silly to ask why he was so happy, so this was the next best thing. Jared nodded and glanced at me, grey eyes seemingly back-lit.

"I'm fine. Just excited." He put his foot down gently on the brake, slowing down for the turn off. I had now idea how he knew where to drive, but I did know he was having trouble with the drivers side being on the right, and being on the opposite side of the road he was used to.

"So we're meeting your PI tonight?" I asked, leaning back into my seat. The long-haul flight had been restless and now my back and neck felt stiff.

"Yeah, at a resturant by the beachfront. Around seven, he already made the reservation a couple of days ago."

"Does he know I'm coming?" I asked, watching the tall Eucalyptus trees that bordered the highway whip past. I could faintly smell their scent from in even in the car, thats how strong it was.

"I told him about you last time he called. He asked if you were a looker."

I raised an eyebrow as we passed a patriotic outback-themed pub. This PI sounded shady, but I expected nothing less from someone employed by Red-X.

"I told him to keep his hands off or I wouldn't pay him." he promised.

"That would be illegal." I pointed out. We were nearing the city. The highway was packed with motorists headed for the skyscrapers, which wern't that tall compared to Jump's.

"Not to mention he wouldn't give me my information. Which is why you have to be rested for tonight. In case a fight brakes out over your innosence." He was joking, but I frowned nonetheless.

"Rested?"

"Yep. We're gonna check into a hotel and your going to sleep while I get some stuff done." he said, as if it were fact.

I snorted.

"You can't make me go to sleep."

No one controlled my routines. I didn't even control them.

"No I can't, but you should. You didn't get much sleep last night or the night before and I have a feeling we might not get much tonight either. I'm not even sure how many nights we'll be here." He said, verging on apologetic. "Maybe I shouldn't be so spontanious." He grinned.

"I don't think you can help it," I said grimly, truthfully. "And fine, I think I will go to sleep. What 'stuff' are you going to do?"

"You know, groceries and other things..." He replied casually, meaning it was definatly something criminal. I pretended to myself that I didn't hear that. It was easier that way. I sighed, the long-suffering girlfriend. Though instead of dirty washing and unwashed dishes, it was a criminal record that I had to deal with.

He grinned again, driving towards the beach. I could tell that was the direction we were headed because the pavement was covered in half-dressed bodies, carrying surfboards or picnic basketts with towels slung over their shoulders. It must be the weekend.

He suddenly pulled into the underground garage of a hotel with a vacancy sign, manouvering the car like it was much faster, expensive, and heavy-duty than it really was. I frowned at him but he ignored me. I guessed it wasn't his car, or mine, so he didn't care if it fell apart.

"The rental company will be pissed if you brake the car."

"Who says they know I have it?" he retorted, parking close to the entrance.

"Jared!"

"Joking, joking." He amended as we got out, locking the car. "If I was going to steal us a car, I would steal a better one."

"How comforting." I mumbled sarcasticly.

We walked up the carpeted stairs into the reception area, the first thing I saw being a rack of brochures for different tourist attractions. Australia Zoo, a few snake farms, Ripley's Beleive it or not museum, theme parks...

It was the kind of hotel lower-middle-class families stayed in for holidays. Practical and cheap but with no great style. White walls. A potted fern. It would do fine. The middle-aged receptionist appeared before I could ding the small silver bell on the desk and started jotting Jared's details down on a pad of refill. She had a long face like a horse, a bad blond perm and dark crimson lipstick painted lips that were frowning at me.

"Will that be a single, or a double room? Single 'as one double bed and a double 'as two rooms, one with a double bed an' one with two twins." she asked in her heavy accented, husky-from-ciggarettes voice.

"Single." Jared said immediatly, no hesitation, no sideways glance at me to see if it was okay. The woman rolled her eyes and sighed, as if she were sick of renting rooms to unmarried, sinful couples.

"Two oh' sex, if ya lose it, the fee is ten dolla's."

I raised an eyebrow at her pronounciation of 'six' as the woman handed him a key and watched as Jared picked up our luggage and headed up another set of carpeted stairs to our new room.

The room had a small kitched area and a navy blue couch in front of a boxy television set. The carpet was inexpensive and the bedroom was empty save the lumpy bed and a small sidetable with a lamp and an alarm clock. It smelled and looked clean enough, and the screen door opened out onto a concrete balcony overlooking the pool and hottub outside.

The second I entered it and flicked the overhead fan on the reality of the situation hit me. Jared would be staying in he same bed as I would, every night, instead of sparsly and unpredictably. We would be spending a lot of time alone together, and when other people were around the would only see a young couple on holiday. The way I wanted it. I felt a seconds happiness at the thought of Robin, Terra and Beastboy realising I was gone and collasped on the couch.

It was sunny and hot outside, the suns rays passing through the window and hitting my skin in a warm, pleasant way.

"Sorry about the room." Jared murmered, dropping down next to me and pulling me into his arms so my back was warmed through my shirt.

"Huh?"

"I don't now how long we'll be here so for now I'm trying to conserve funds." he said, reasting his chin on my shoulder so I could feel the movement of his jaw with every word. There was a dull tiredness settling over me, something I had been staving off on the plane and the drive into the city.

"It's fine." I replied truthfully. "compared to my apartment, its a palace."

I sighed in contentment, the sun warming my bones and releasing all the tention from my body. It felt clensing, and I barely gave a thought to exactly when, if ever, I had felt like this before.

"But you deserve a comfier bed." he insisted, moving one hand from my stomach under my shirt and up my back, tracing my shoulder blades and rubbing back down to the small of my back, above my waistband.

Suddenly I felt too hot in my jeans.

"A bed is still a bed no matter how comfy." I breathed, unsure of what I was implying, if anything. His hands- both of them- moved up and over the curve of each of my hips. He gave me a light push so I fell backwards onto the couch with him on top of me. Just as it had many months ago(thought it seemed a lot longer than that) when he had first kissed me on a couch, my stomach twisted in nerves and pleasure and internal heat. He seemed to take my lack of objection as encouragement, because his lips crashed into mine again, his grip on my hips tighetening and pulling my pelvis towards his, so hard it hurt in a good way.

This was the kind of kiss I loved from him. The kind that made my stomach clench and burn with desire, the kind that made me blush down to my neck, passionate and drive.

I parted my lips for his tongue, grabbing at his clothes. Jared responded by taking my shirt off compleatly. His dark hair hung over his eyes as he looked down on me, his lips curved up in a devilish grin as he glanced out the window for a split second.

If he hadn't done that he might have gotten away with his fantasy of making love in a semi-public place with the chance of someone seeing, but here was where I drew the line.

"Bedroom." I murmered firmly, giving him as stern a look as I could manage. He grinned wider.


When I woke up I was alone. Jared had stayed with me until I had fallen asleep, his breathing and the rythym of the ceiling fan the most soothing sounds I had ever heard.

I rolled over to look at the glowing alarm clock. The curtains were also faintly glowing, the sun trying to shine through them. Jared must have closed them before he left to wherever he was really going, whatever he was really doing. It was five o'clock. I never usualy was able to sleep for seven hours at a time, especially not during the day, but mayby the way I fell asleep had something to do with it. If I could fall asleep tht way every night (morning) I would. A big reason I hadn't wanted to move in with Jared after I had left the Titans was the bed problem. We had just started sleeping together and I had been a little afraid of what he would expect from me. But if everytime we shared a bed was like that...

Jared popped his head around the door, his grey eyes alight with familiar mischief. His black hair fell around his face, gently displaced, and his smile told me he was remembering the half hour before I fell asleep. As always, it was slightly smug.

"Good afternoon sleepyhead." he greeted me. I sat up, clutching the white sheet to my chest, noting he had taked off his shirt again.

"How come you didn't wake me up?" I asked as he sat down on the side of the bed, eyes playful. I had to rip my eyes away from his washboard-like set of abs and muscular biceps, curtasy of his Red-X job.

"Your too beautiful when your sleeping." He grinned, smoothing my hair down. I was in need of a shower. His hand lingerd on my cheek before falling down to rest on the covers. I cocked an eyebrow.

"And when I'm awake?" I asked in disbelief. His compliments always caught me off-guard and made me feel a little ridiculous because I couldn't just take them. It was stange, suddenly being an object of desire. I was expecting his love for me to fade, but it never did. Sometimes it gave way to lust, selfishness, frustration and even anger but love was aways there, beween us.

He lent over and kissed me on the lips, quickly. The taste of coffee lingered.

"Equally if not more stunning-" he kissed me again, tilting my chin up gently. Again, the taste of coffee along with his apealing smell of sweat, soap, oil and colonge.

"-though you do tend to be a bit more arguementative in this state." he added, against my lips. I grabbed the back of his head and held him to me in a breathless kiss. He wasn't complaing. I released him and sprang up, taking the sheet with me. He rolled off the bed just in time.

"Your becoming very unpredictable." he said in amusement from the floor.

"Your fault." I retorted, wrapping the sheet securely around my naked body.

"You know that sheet is partialy see-through right?" he grinned, eyes crinkling mischieviously. I scowled heavily, realizing he was right.

"I'm going to have a shower." I told him, headed for the bathroom. "Alone!" I added just as he stood up eagerly, almost falling over himself. Just to be sure I spelled the door shut once inside. Not that I didn't want him in the shower with me, just that I didn't want him in the shower with me, just now.


Richard Greyson

"No one under the name Raven Roth or Jared Wilson was on a flight out today." Cyborg announced in frustration, slamming the end-call button down on his comunicator and gripping the steering wheel hard. Beastboy spoke up from the backseat of the T-car, where he was sitting a little too close to Terra again, though she definatly didn't mind this time either, judging by the furious blush on her face and the hopeful smile she was wearing these days. It frustrated me to no end, neither of them were paying much attention to the situation at hand- the fact that Raven had gone off with a known criminal without telling any of us!

"Maybe their not really where Jared said they were?" he suggested lightly, and I knew that would be all the contrbution we would get from him today.

"No, Jared likes to tell you exactly what hes doing, so you feel even worse when you can't stop it. He wouldn't lie about this." Cyborg growled. Starfire, chewing her lip next to Terra, looked much more worried now, and I felt it internally. She was far away, I knew that. I could feel it from our bond, so I knew there was no way they'd gone to Steel city for the weekend or something like that. Overseas? That was taking things to a whole new level, one I didn't want them to be on.

"Maybe they have done they 'eloping'?" Starfire suggested, her voice hopeful. Even though she was not Red's biggest fan, since he took her best girlfriend away from the tower, she would still be excited and happy about a wedding. A shudder went through me at the thought of Raven in a white dress on some Australian beach, sun setting, flowers in her hair and a ring on her finger, standing in front of Jared.

"No. Rae would move in with him first." Cyborg said riggidly, his shoulders stiff with the same thoughts I was having.

"Unless Beastboy pushed her over the edge, and Red was there to catch her with a marriage proposal." I growled, trying to make Beastboy feel something. He ignored my comment.

"So uh, where we headed?" Terra asked tentativly. I glanced at her innocent face for a second and decided I couldn't be angry at her. It wasn't her fault Beastboy's brain turned into mush everytime she was arround.

Cybrog turned into a rough neighbourhood, graffiti and taped up windows everywhere. A stoned girl watched us go past with the most bloodshot eyes I had ever seen. She would have been extremly pretty otherwise. Terra's blue eyes widened in horror.

"Since Jared and Raven apparently never got on a plane, we're going to his house to look for clues." I said addamently. Beastboy straightened up, his eyes wide and attentive.

"I'm listening now." He said quickly. I smirked. Something inside told me he would be. He hated Red-X. Beastboy and Raven had harboured a complicated relationship before he came along, and Red had just made it ten times worse with his goading and snide comments on the sideline. Since Raven was only at the Tower when she was accompanied by her bodyguard boyfriend, Beastboy was taking a disintrest in her as well, when he really only wanted Jared gone. The chance to rifle through Red's things would overtake any desire to be unhelpful finding Raven.

I had known where Jared's house had been for a long time. I had typed the adress into our special maps system, and had seen a 3-D view of the house, so I long ago knew that it lay in a street of partial squalar. When I thought about it, the thief had been smart when he moved here. No one expected anything more shady than the copious amounts of petty crime and drug dealing that had and probably always would be going on.

But before now I had made myself promisde not to go there. It would have resulted in a fight. If I wanted to talk to Red, I called Raven and told her to pass on the message, usually a warning after The Titans had delt with a theift that seemed a little too complicated for H.I.V.E or any other untalented criminals. But now, when this was for Raven, I had no problem going to Jared's house, and searching through everything.

Cyborg parked the T-car on the street, glaring around at any house that had people near it, in case they approached the car. I hoped they stayed away too, if the car got damadged I would hear about for the next few days until it was fixed.

"Second floor." I told an over-eager Beastboy. He jumped out of the car, taking Terra with him by the hand, and raced over to the apartment block. The rest of us followed suit, my adrenaline pumping as we climbed the stairs. We were going to see where the theif lived, where he takes Raven when she's not at her apartment. What would be inside? Would the exterior be just a rouse, and the interior filled with stolen riches? If so, I was going to have a lot of fun hauling them outta here.

The sound of children gigling carried throughout the floor, and it just didn't sound like something Jared would be surrounded by. Maybe his walls were soundproof so it didn't borther him that much.

"Cy?" I asked with a smirk. He gladly bent down by the lock and examined it. Then he gently inserted and small chrome-coloured rod into the key-hole and waited for a few seconds while we stared at him. Then there was a click, and the door swung open as heremoved the rod and folded it up. He shrugged at our gapping faces.

"Just a little something I've been working on. Its the quietest way to open any door."

We all grinned and entered the apartment, careful in case he had alarms or traps. When nothing happened, I let my curiosity reign, and so did the others. The apartment was relativly small, clean and sparsly decourated, though there was a big flat screen.

"You sure you got the right place?" Terra asked. I replied happily that I was, and went straight through a door into what I thought was the bedroom. Starfire got started on the kitchen, the place she was the most likely to understand which things should be there and which things shouldn't.

The bedroom was more compact, with a large, suspiciously expensive and comfortable double bed, a cracked set of draws, a desk, and a window. The venetian blinds covering it were skewed and missing a panel, so I could see some of the outside, mostly just part of a rusted tin roof from the next building. But my thoughts were focused soley and painfully on the bed. I tried to stave off thoughts about wether Raven had slept in it or not, and ripped open the first draw. It creaked and protested on its wooden runners, and revealed nothing but t-shirts and sweaters inside. The next draw was the same, with pants and shorts. In the next draw, my heart became hard. It was the underwear draw, filled with boxers, socks.... and a pair of black panties. I highly doubted they were Red's. Judging by the lack of lace and other trimmings you would expect on underwear like this, they were definatly Ravens.

I really hoped he had stolen these for some perverse reason, rather than Raven having simply left them here.

I rammed it shut with exsessive force, causing Cyborg to poke his head in with a questioning look. I shook my head and catiously opened the last draw. Jackpot.

This draw had no clothes. Inside was a goldmine of objets, from the four large bundles of cash to the stack of false passports.

"Cy, get back in here." I called out, so naturally everyone did.

"What is it Robin?" Starfire asked breathlessly. I held up the stacks of cash. Beastboy took it from me with huge eyes, so I shot him a warning look. This had to be saved as evidance against Red should we ever be able to arrest him, not pocketed.

Picking up the stack of passports and flipping each one open. "This explains why they didn't board the flight. He used fake passports." Cyborg muttered.

I frowned deeply.

"Do you think Raven knew about it?"

Cyborg shrugged grimly and showed me a passport under the name Marie Tilly. Raven's photo was in it. I grabbed the other passports, flicking through them. James Avery, Kevin Dubose, Samuel Thomas, Elspeth Wilson and Daniel Hennison. Four fake passports for Jared and two for Raven, plus the ones they had used to get on the plane to Australia, ahd their real ones. They were very good fakes, and if I had seen one by itself I would have testified it were real.

This was highly illegal.

Another stack, this time of facedown photographs, lay under the passports. I picked them up and flipped them over. Raven was on the first one, a very recent picture of her sitting at a table and smiling at someone out of the frame. Jared must have been fast to take it. I don't really recall seeing her face like that. Crinkled up in brief happiness.

In the next photo she was glaring at the camera. That was more like what I was used to.

The next one was of a pretty woman with dark curly hair. In her arms there were two smiling children, obviously related, showing off their missing front teeth. The next photo was off Jared with the same children. Secret family? I kind of hoped so. But I knew knowing our luck, and Red's, Raven would probably stay with him even if there was a family from the past. I had seen the way they looked at each other, the way Jared was her comfort and her protector now. It had been obvious when Beastboy had pulled his little stunt, and instead of running to her room, Raven had run to him.

He was much too young to have a secret family anyway. All these passports had the same age on them, twenty-one, so I took it as the truth.

"Woah look at this!" Beastboy thrust a photo in my hand. "Little Red-X."

The photo was shot in someones yard, and a pale yellow panelled wall was visible in the background, along with a dark grey cat stalking across the back, trying to get away. The picture was of a family, mom, dad, and two kids. The woman was blond and pretty, smiling and holding a tiny blond child in her arms, who was grinning from ear to ear. He was maybe two or three, judging from his size. The man was large, with muscled arms and harsh black hair pushed back. There was a scar running down one his entire right forearm, possibly defence wounds. He was holding onto the legs of the boy up on his shoulders.

The kid had the exact same smirky grin that I hated, and in this photo he only looked about ten. Jared Wilson with his family.

For some reason this made me feel uneasy, as if we were really doing something we wern't supposed to. Criminal's and Hero's wern't supposed to bring in their personal lives, but I guessed since they both broke that rule it didn't matter anymore.

"Red-X has a family?" Starfire asked a little sadly.

"Of course Star." I answered. Somewhere out there, a mother must be wondering what her son is doing. And his little brother, who would be about fourteen now judging by the picture. What if he thought X was a role model? Jared was even more irresponsible than I thought.

Starfire took the picture and stared at it, tears welling in her eyes.

"Raven has told me they are dead." She whispered guiltily. She clearly wasn't meant to tell us. Raven had probably sworn her to secrecy. "But look at them Robin. His parents are so pretty and handsome and it makes me sad."

I didn't feel any sympathy for Red-X. Nearly all our parents were dead, and while now I could see the path Jared took to get to being Red-X more clearly, it didn't change the fact that he took that path.

"All of them?" Terra asked. Clearly this was affecting the females more. Starfire shook her head.

"Benjaman was taken away by-" her emerald eyes grew wide. "Australians!"

Now this, I was interested in.

"Taken away?" I asked. Why would Jared not have been taken? Oh right, cause he was a smart-ass now, and it would have been even worse back then. Starefire looked confussed, as she often did when trying to grasp a word she didn't know very well.

"Adding- no...ad....ad....adopting!" she said finally, and everything started to click into place. Australia. So they hadn't gone for a simple holiday. Jared had gone to look for his brother.

"So he's tryna find this Ben kid?" Cybrog asked for comfirmation. I nodded.

"Looks like it."

"But he can't just waltz into his house and demand his brother come back! What if Ben doesn't want to go?" Beastboy demanded. While there was something noble about going to find his brother that made me respect him a little more as a person, even though I couldn't quite put my finger on what it was, Beastboy had a point. Would Jared result to something criminal to make his brother come back with him?- of course he would.

"Vat are you doing 'ere!?" A scandalized voice rang out through the apartment, followed by the appearance of a beautiful and furious woman at the door. I scrambled up, discretly shoving any passports near me into my belt. Terra threw her hands up in surrender at the sight of a small knife the woman was wielding as protection.

She was a foriegner, with big dark eyes and thick dark hair, not to mention an amazing body partially hidden by her office clothes.

"I asked you vy you are in dis apartment." She said, moving forward.

"Mama?"

A small child of around three moved into view, her face worried. Tears were welling up in her big dark eyes, the same as her mothers. Damn it.

"I told you to stay inside Reny!" she scolded, all the while keeping her eyes on us.

"Look, I'm sorry we just-"

"Broke into my friends house?" she hissed, pushing her child out the door. We moved into the living room, bigger and safer than the bedroom because there was more room to escape her little knife. If she was Red's friend, than she was probably had more practise with it than she was letting on.

"Why is he in Australia?" Beastboy asked stupidly. I sighed. The woman frowned but faltered.

"You know Jared?" she seemed surprised, and lost all fierceness.

"Uh not well. We know Raven." Cyborg said, putting it mildly.

"Oh. Vy didn't you say so?" she asked, sliding the knife back onto the block it came from. Then she paused, and a furrow came into her brow. She seemed young to have the child that was poking its head around the door again curiously. "Are you ze friends zat work for ze government?"

She obviously had no idea about Red's activities, or Ravens, but she seemed to know them well otherwise, or thought she did.

"uh....yeah."

Her eyebrows came together.

"Zo you are alzo ze friends who dizzaprove of zere relationship?" she asked retoricly, and sighing as she scooped up her child. Somehow I thought that if more people knew, we wouldn't be the only ones disaproving. I wasn't even sure other criminals knew. They probably thought he was in Jamaca for a holiday.

"You don't know the whole story." I settled on. She raised a dark eyebrow, in such a Raven-ish way that we all shut up.

"I'm zure I don't. But I'm zure you don't eizer."

This had me thinking she did know about the whole Red-X thing. Maybe the kid was in on it too, because she didn't seem to like us much either.

"Why you in unca Jay's house?" the little kid demanded. Unca Jay?

"While you are Raven's friends, I am also Ravens friend, and that alone does not give you the right to break into peoples apartments."

"Jared seems to think it does." I heard Cyborg mutter. When we were acting like criminals it was time to leave. We knew where and why Jared had gone for sure. That was more than I expected to find out.

"Your right, we should leave." I said, making my way towards the door, checking the passports were still tucked into my belt. I had seen a few of the others grab some stuff, but I wasn't sure if it was important or not. We had to get out now, before we aggitated this woman any more.

"Hm." The woman held tight to her child as she passed. "Jared vill hear of this when he gets back." She warned. I nodded. Fine by me.


Jared Wilson

When she came out of the bathroom, a towel wrapped protectivly around her wet, naked, glistening body in place of the sheet, I was waiting for her with some of the things I had brought on my errands today. Raven stared me down suspiciously, water dripping from the tips of her hair and down the curved tops of her breasts in rivules.

"I got you presents." I grinned happily, drinking in the sight of her. Securing her towel with one hand, she held out her other, showing me the glass necklace and the saphire promise ring I had given her glistening in her palm.

"You've already given me plenty of presents." she grumbled, as if they were punishments instead of gifts. Though she did wear them everyday, the necklace hidden underneath shirts that covered too much. It was hard to look fiecre and vulnerable at the same time, but Sunshine somehow managed it as she frowned at me with no clothes on.

"But these presents are necessary." I promised. Angel sat down next to me, arranging her towel so it covered her thighs addequetly. I wondered why she bothered, considering I had seen every perfect, delishish bit of her. She glared at me, knowing exactly what I was thinking.

Trying to contain my glee, I held up the first thing I had brought for her, a simple black... bikini. I enjoyed her look of horror.

"No.." she protested, but I held up a hand. Her violet eyes narrowed delecatly. One false move and I would be in another demension before I could beg for mercy.

"C'mon Sunshine. Australia means lots of water, and this is the most modest thing I could bring myself to buy."

So true, so true. I thought I had done quite well. When there had been so many skimpier choices that would have just barely covered her body...

"How do you know it will fit me?" she demanded, a pink blush creeping across her cheeks. I glanced over her thin, curved form next to me on the bed and shrugged offhandedly, fighting the urge to press her body to mine and inhale her scent of hotel soap, inceanse and herbal tea.

"I guess I know your body well." I couldn't help but grin at the truth. It wasn't exagerating to say I had memorized her body every time I touched her, so I could go over it in my mind during the more boring of my buissness lectures. I could go so far as to say her hips kept me sane enough to gain my buissness degree.

Raven gaped at me me, embarrased and increadulous. I hoped the bathing suit did fit her perfectly because her expression then would be even better.

"And the second thing..." I annoucned, when it looked like she had nothing to say. This was a feeling I loved. The feeling of smug happiness and exileration after rendering her speechless. I help up the simple, knee-legnth (Much too long) navy dress. Her eyes scraped down it brutily.

"Why would you feel the need to buy me a dress?" she asked cuttingly, spitting out 'dress' like it was a dirtier word than the sailor's language she frequently uttered.

"For tonight. The resturant my PI booked is loosly formal."

With an explantation, she sighed quietly and took it. Then she shot me a pointed look, eyebrow raised. I stared back, seeing the way her dark lips curved down at one side, and the perfect pale grey shadow of her long neck on her collarbone.

"Get out." she prodded me flatly. I grinned and kissed her pouty lips, quick, but deep, before exiting the room, cherishing the blush curving up her face. She shut the door with her powers behind me, and I went to put on my dress pants and dinner jacket, resigned to the fact I wasn't going to get to make love to her for at least another couple of hours, so I might as well put clothes on.

I was bouncing around the room, waiting for the clock's hands to move so we could leave and talk to my PI. Kyle Coopland had promised to be on time, since he usually had a problem with that. He often called hours after was schedualled, and it drove me crazy. In his last phone call, he had told me he had actually sighted Ben and that he more or less knew the area he lived in. We could start searching it tomorow.

To think tomorrow I could see my brother again made excited and nervous in equal measures. It was unlikely he would remember me, but he had to at least remember his real mother. She had carried him around and spent every moment with him. When he had to attend school a few weeks before she died, I remembered her crying as we left in the car with out father, who had been tight-lipped as to why.

"Jared?" Raven asked, leaving the bedroom, and presenting her back to me. The zip was undone, and she looked frustrated, presumably from trying to do it up herself. I took one look at her long bare back and was over to her in a second.

"Are you ready to go?"

Her hair was dry and clean, curling slightly with its new length. It was down to her breasts by now, and she bared a strong resembulance to a sarcastic Eve from the garden of Edin when naked. I zipped up the dress slowly, wishing I was going the other way.

"As soon as you want." she said, turning around to look at me with a searching expression. "Are you nervous?" she asked with a raised brow. I shook my head and she rushed back into the bedroom to grab the only formal pair of shoes she owned, the fetish-inspired ones her 'aunty' gave her. When she came back out she was scowling slightly.

I led her to the car and wondered what my parents would have thought of her. It wasn't like in the ten years of my life they were present for we talked about girls. Maybe the odd, "When you get married..." cut off by my protests that girls were gross. I wished they were here to see her. I had a feeling that even back then, when I was ten and she was seven, she would have fascinated me.

Maybe I would get a chance to find out what my family thought, if Ben agreed to talk with me. And if he didn't, I would make him.


Well how are you gonna do that Jared? oh wait, I know already.

Review!