Author's note:

If you hadn't already noticed, I've started a new Finding Sky story called Once The Storm Is Over. Feel free to check it out! :)

4th May 2013

Yves turned the engine of his car off and stepped out onto the sidewalk, greeted by tall trees edging the woodlands that surrounded the town. Looking around, he didn't see a single soul about, kind of strange for a Saturday afternoon but Yves guessed that most people were probably out enjoying the rare sunshine.

He pulled his phone out of his back jeans pocket and read the text he'd received this morning.

Meet me by the woods on the end of Baker Street at 1 today. I have something I want to show you xxx

Yves had no idea what Jess wanted to show him and why she would choose somewhere so quiet and empty. He looked around, but couldn't see her-

"Yves!" Her head popped around the side of one of the trees, causing him to jump. He saw that she was wearing simple clothes: jeans, ankle boots, and a waterproof jacket, with beige lipstick and blue eyeshadow on.

"Jeez, Jess. You almost scared the life out of me," he groaned, a hand on his chest as his heartbeat started to slow down.

Jess giggled, a goofy grin on her face. She seemed to be bouncing with excitement, reminding Yves of when they were kids and the adults always used to say: 'That Jess, she has so much energy she doesn't know what to do with it. She's practically bouncing off the walls.' It was rather endearing and it made him unable to not smile himself.

"Come on." Her hand beckoned him towards her. "I want to show you something."

Curious, and more than a little confused, he went over to her and caught sight of Miso chasing something in the distance. As Jess led Yves down the trail in the woods that had been set out years ago for people to walk through, Miso rushed over to trot alongside them.

Yves didn't question Jess when she left the trail, simply followed her through brambles and watched his step on the uneven ground. When they came across a fallen tree, Yves stepped over it first then turned around to help Jess over. He tried to look like he hadn't noticed her wincing in pain when her left leg hit the floor a little too hard – he knew that she'd hate him mentioning one of her weaknesses.

Finally, they came into a clearing with a rundown shed in. In a sing-song voice, Jess said, "Ta-da!"

Yves wasn't sure what was so special about this shed. It was small and the wood was rotting, the door hanging off its hinges. Ivy grew on the outside walls of the shed, and a low tree branch touched along one side. "Uh…" Yves tried to come up with something to say. "I mean, it's… It has charm?"

Jess laughed out loud and sat on the low branch, waiting until Yves sat next to her before she continued. "No, no. I know that it looks horrible but there's a story behind it. You've probably heard of it before, everyone has." She took a breath before telling the myth that Yves was all too familiar with. "Years and years ago, there was a couple who were madly in love. They were perfect for each other in every way and called each other their soulmate. Then something terrible tore them apart and the man was too heartbroken to stay in town with all the memories they had there together. So he built this shed and lived here, never venturing into town because he was too scared of seeing his lost love. But then, taking him by surprise on a beautiful sunny day, his lost love turned up at the shed and declared that she missed him. They kissed right there, outside the door of the shed, before heading back into town where they spent the rest of their lives together. The man didn't bother with the upkeep of the shed after that because he had no need to. Nature took over and this is the result."

"I've heard that for years," he admitted to her, rolling his eyes. "Everyone in town has. Can't say that I've been here before though, it's never really been something that I wanted to find."

"Me neither. But once, after a bad argument with Parker, I took a walk to calm myself down and ended up here by chance. I guess I enjoyed the romanticism behind the tale attached to the shed and I couldn't stop thinking about it, so I come here whenever I need to be alone."

"What's romantic about this place? It's a crumbling mess and the man in the story was a coward when he ran away. If he really loved her, he would have stayed in town and fought for her after something 'tore them apart'," he made quotation marks as he said the last three words. "It's a load of rubbish."

"Are you kidding?! It is so romantic! He gave up everything in his life when he lost her because he didn't see the point in anything without her. How tragic is that?" She let out a little, dreamy sigh. "I wish I had a guy that loved me so much that I meant the whole world to them."

"I thought that's the way it was with you and Parker," Yves said casually, not wanting to bring Parker into the conversation but needing to say it.

Jess shrugged her shoulders and looked away from him. "I guess it was a little bit, yeah. But I feel like if I meant absolutely everything to him, he wouldn't have been spiteful enough to be with other girls whenever we broke up. I wouldn't have done the same thing to him either. The good times we had together were great but… I don't know. I'll always love him; he was my first everything. But there's no going back to how things were, not anymore."

"I find that hard to believe," Yves softly said. He felt like he was trying to get Jess to go back to Parker, which wasn't at all what he wanted, but he had to get this off his chest and get her talking about him so she wasn't bottling it all up anymore. "Even when we were kids, it was always you and Parker. You two getting together was inevitable, I reckon. I think everyone just thinks you two are a done deal, and that you'll end up getting back together eventually and getting married and having attractive children."

"It's not going to happen." Jess sounded sad and wistful. She shook her head before saying, "It was always so volatile between us and I don't want to be in a rocky relationship again. We always tried to make it better between us but there'd always be something that'd ruin things. I'm not ready to date again, but when I am, I want the opposite of Parker. I just want something different, you know?"

She stared at him for a second before giving him a forced grin. "Let's not talk about Parker. I brought you here to thank you for everything you're doing for me. I know I've said thanks a thousand times, but I wanted to do something for you and this was the only thing I could think of. I'm letting you share my hideaway."

Yves smiled, accepting the change of subject easily. At least he understood now why she was so cold towards Parker at school. He was slowly starting to piece things together to understand the way Jess thought which helped him get to know her better.

"Well, I'll treat the shed with respect then," he answered her, chuckling.

Suddenly, Miso started barking repeatedly at a loud volume. She had been doing her own thing whilst Yves and Jess had been talking and was now out of sight, but they could definitely hear her.

"What the-"

"Something's wrong," Jess stood up quickly. "I've never heard her shout like that."

They went to find Miso, with Jess panicking as she called the dog's name. They found her a few minutes away, barking still like crazy. Her body was tense, tail tucked between her legs and her ears pulled back. She snarled and pawed the ground as if about to attack.

Yves looked ahead of them and saw a man stood there. He was Korean, his dark hair slicked back, and he was wearing a black suit and tie. He looked smart yet intimidating, and totally out of place off the trail of the woods. Yves realised that he recognised the man as being the person sat in a car outside Jess' house a couple of weeks ago.

"Hey, there's your uncle," he said to Jess. He briefly wondered why the man was just stood there and why Miso would react this way towards a family member.

Jess spun to face him, confusion written across her features. "What? He's not my uncle, why would you think that?"

"You said your uncle was coming to visit and this guy was outside your house the night I dropped you off after the party. I just assumed…" He supposed it was maybe a little dim of him to think that just because the guy was Korean he was Jess' uncle, but he hadn't really thought much of it at the time. "He's not your uncle."

"No. I've never seen him before in my life."

They both turned their heads back to the guy and watched as he put his hand inside his suit jacket, producing a gun. He aimed the gun at them and pulled the trigger, the sound of the gunshot echoing in the air around them. Yves ducked, grabbing Jess' shoulder and pushing down so she did too, the bullet whizzing above their heads and narrowly missing them.

Due to his family helping the net catch criminals, they had quite a few enemies around the world. This meant that Yves had had plenty of training in self-defence and how to react in dangerous situations, training that came in handy now. He already knew the best solution in this particular situation: Run.

"Jess, come on! Run!" He tried to drag her away but she pulled out of his grip and ran back over to Miso, grabbing the dog's collar and tugging her away. Miso seemed to relent when she saw that they were running away from the man.

The three of them ran next to each other and Yves was pleased to see that Miso stayed tight by Jess' side, protecting her. When the next gunshot went off, Jess screeched and stumbled, losing her footing and hitting the ground with a thud. Yves knelt next to her, glancing backwards to see the man walking towards them at a leisurely pace as if he knew that the two teenagers didn't stand a chance against him. Miso put herself between Jess and the man, growling.

"Jess, get up," he gasped, grabbing her arm again.

"I can't. My leg… I've never pushed it this hard before, it hurts," she told him, tears welling in her eyes. The bang of another gunshot made them both jump and Yves had the feeling that one was just for fun on the man's part – he no longer had moving targets so surely he would have been able to hit them then. Who the hell was this psycho and why was he after them?

"You have to," he said desperately, terrified for both of them. He pulled her up and took her hand in his, pulling her into a slow jog. "You can do this, Jess, please."

She didn't reply out loud but she tightened her grip on his hand as they started to quicken the pace into a full on run again. Yves looked sideways at her and could see pain all over her face, but there was also determination there to keep going.

Yves had never been more proud of her.

Yet another bang went off and a moment later Yves felt something tear into his bicep. He gritted his teeth to stop himself from moaning in pain or making any noise at all that would distract Jess from running. He just had to get her out of the woods and into the open where there'd hopefully be more people around to deter the man from shooting at them again.

Yves longed to throw a fireball at the guy or use telekinesis to hit the man in the face with a branch or something, but it was just too risky despite how useful it would be. He couldn't risk exposing himself to the man, or even to Jess, and what if his aim was off and he started a full on fire in the woods? His parents would kill him.

They ran and ran, never letting go of each other's hand. When they finally broke through the treeline and onto Baker Street again, Yves breathed a sigh of relief when he saw the familiar sight of his car. A woman walked on the other side of the street pushing a pram, not paying any attention to them.

"Yves," Jess said his name, out of breath. "I can't see him, I think he's gone."

Yves turned around and saw that she was right: the man had disappeared from sight. He felt himself finally relax.

"Oh my god! You're bleeding!" Jess let go of his hand and touched her fingers lightly against his right bicep, her eyes wide with panic still. "Yves-"

"I'm okay," he tried to calm her down. "It doesn't even hurt." That was a lie. He reached up to move her hand away, linking their fingers together again. With his other hand he pulled out his phone and scrolled through his contacts before clicking the call button. The phone was answered after four rings. "Trace? There's been a situation…"

After spending an hour or so at the police station recounting what had happened, Yves' older brother, a cop named Trace, drove Jess and Miso home. Trace was a nice guy and Jess decided that she liked him. He reassured her that Yves was at the hospital having his arm seen to and he was totally fine. Jess knew that she would still end up calling him later just to double check.

Once home, the first thing Jess did was take some painkillers for the aching in her leg. She couldn't believe that she had had such a workout and hadn't collapsed – she hadn't thought she was capable of that just yet. Maybe it was the adrenaline, or maybe she was just stronger than she thought. Whatever it was, she wasn't going to push herself like that again for a while yet, not wanting to risk overworking her leg.

She searched the fridge for something nice to eat, feeling disappointed when there was nothing there she wanted. Leaving Miso at home, she caught a taxi to the local supermarket.

Walking around, she began to fill her basket with comfort food she felt she needed after such a stressful day: ice cream, chocolate bars, chocolate cake, jam donuts… She was ready to stuff her face on the treats.

When she turned onto the aisle where the pizzas were, she stopped when she saw a familiar person. Kelly Zimmerman, Parker's mom. She was wearing her nurse's scrubs, these ones being white with little teddy bears on them, and was struggling to push a trolley with a dodgy wheel. Her dark hair was tied into a messy bun at the top of her head, and she looked more worn out than usual. Kelly was only in her mid-thirties but she looked a few years older in her exhaustion.

Jess thought about turning around and avoiding Kelly and any awkwardness, but Kelly had always been so lovely to her even when she and Parker weren't together, so she didn't want to be that rude. When she saw Kelly smack the trolley in frustration, she strolled over to the woman with a friendly smile on her face.

"Hey, Kelly. Would you like some help?" She offered, reminding herself that she'd been raised to respect her elders and be polite.

"Jess!" Kelly beamed and accepted the help. She carried Jess' basket whilst Jess pushed her trolley. They made small talk for a few minutes before Kelly said, "I haven't seen you since the accident, so I just wanted to say that I'm glad you're okay. I was so sorry when I heard what happened, and I know that Parker was terrified for you – it was awful seeing him like that. You're okay now though, aren't you?"

"Yeah, I'm fine now," Jess replied, nodding her head. "I'm getting there. How are you? You look a little tired, if you don't mind me saying."

Kelly sighed. "I've been doing more shifts at work recently. I have to; we need the money. I'm having to rush around here now so I can get home and make some more calls. I'm working tonight and Parker hasn't been home for a few days."

"Really? That doesn't sound like him," Jess frowned, worried. She had wondered why she hadn't seen Parker at school, not that she'd been purposely looking out for him.

"He's staying with my nephew in New York. He's told me where he is but I haven't heard from him since. I'm not rushing him to come home, he needs his space sometimes, especially now. The only thing is the usual babysitter I have when Parker isn't around can't work tonight, so I'm going to have to call around before my shift. I'm sure I'll find someone."

"I'll do it," Jess replied instantly. She knew that once she had time to properly think this through she might regret it, but she wanted to help Kelly out. She deserved it.

"Oh no, you don't have to do that," Kelly said as she grabbed a box of tea bags from a shelf. "I'm sure you have better things to do on a Saturday night."

Before the accident, that would have been the truth. However tonight Jess' plans consisted of watching Netflix and eating all the junk she was about to buy. "Honestly, I don't mind. The girls love me, and you know that I know their routine. I helped Parker babysit them plenty of times."

"Well, I suppose it would be better if the girls were comfortable with the person watching them, especially Amy…" Kelly thought this through before giving Jess a very grateful smile. "I would really appreciate that Jess. Thank you."

"It's no trouble, just tell me what time to come around and I'll be there."

As they continued making their way around the store, Jess silently added some bags of sweets to her basket for Parker's little sisters. They meant a lot to Parker so she'd always tried to get them to like her, so it was just habit to do something nice for them.

Jess just hoped that everything went smoothly tonight, with it being the first time she'd babysat the girls without Parker there.

In the next chapter: Jess babysits Parker's little sisters.