Disclaimer: I do not own Sasuke Uchiha. He belongs to Kishimoto and the manga/anime of Naruto and Naruto Shippuden. I am simply borrowing him for my own twisted amusement.

A/N: Heyo Everyone. First off I'd like to say "thank you" to Wolfy-sama and Alinys for reviewing. And yes, Sasuke is suffering from Jesse's cramps. Little shit deserves it all the way! Mwuahahaha! Anyway, here's chapter fourteen. I hope everyone enjoys it!

Chapter Fourteen

Surprise, Surprise

God, Sasuke felt like shit. Ever since he woke up this morning his lower abdomen kept feeling it was being ripped apart from the inside. He hadn't felt this sick in so long. He sat outside on the back deck, taking in the warm summer sunlight. It was late in the morning now, and Jesse had already gone to work. Her friends also headed off to do whatever it was they were going, leaving the house to himself.

Without Rachael and May constantly giving him dirty looks and making chafing comments to his face, he was able to relax. Although it was hard to do with his stomach threatening to tear itself apart. He didn't have diarrhea and he didn't remember eating anything that might have gone bad.

Ever since the Stone sisters showed up on Jesse's doorstep Monday night, he had to walk around on his tips toes. He couldn't implement his plan with them around constantly watching his every move.

Surri scratched at the screen of the sliding door, meowing loudly. Sasuke looked over his shoulder at the jungle cat and decided to let her out. Once the door slide open couple of inches the cat squeezed out and sniffed around at the porch below her paws before deciding to leapt down and explore the grassy lawn.

Sasuke watched with amusement as the cat started chewing on grass and then flopped over and rolled around on her back being all cute like. He let Surri wander, keeping her in his sights while she slunk along the porch, keeping close to the house.

Guess Jesse doesn't let her out much, Sasuke thought as he followed her. The cramps in his stomach seemed to ebb every now and then making it easier to move around. He really needed to get back to training. Just because he was stuck in a foreign world for a year didn't mean he could slack off.

"Guess, I'll just have to work on my taijutsu for a year," he muttered as Surri's ear perked up at the sound of a car approaching. She turned her head as a white truck roared through the neighborhood before disappearing around the bend in the road beyond the house. He had to admit where Jesse lived it was quiet, peaceful. A good place to live away from the annoying noisy world.

She seemed to like quiet as much as he did. Although that quiet was often interrupted once she started blaring what she called music. But to be honest, she was a pretty quiet person for a roommate. When she wasn't being snarky and making a fool out of her.

Sasuke noted an old green truck approaching. It was slowing down as it came near the house. On instinct, his hand went for the weapon hidden in the one of the pockets of his sweatpants. He stole an knife from Jesse's kitchen when she wasn't looking. He didn't like the idea of being unarmed in this world. The damn goddess had made sure of it when she sent him here.

The howling of a dog could be heard inside the vehicle, the head of a beagle could be seen on the passenger side, barking away like tomorrow as Sasuke stood in the front yard. Out of the corner of his eye, he noticed that Surri had disappeared into the bushes, frightened.

"Hey Sasuke!" Marcus Wilds greeted as he shut off his truck and hopped out of the vehicle. Sasuke's hand relaxed around the concealed weapon as the farmer let the beagle out.

Probably should pick up the cat, he thought idly as the beagle came bounding towards him barking away.

"Now Cloey. That's just Jesse's roommate. You be a good girl!" Marcus scolded the beagle as she sniffed around at Sasuke's bare feet with the hackles raised up on her back. The dog liked him as much he liked it.

Sasuke waded into the bushes to find Surri. She wasn't that hard to find. She had wedged herself in between the house and one of the pots. He easily pulled her out of her hiding spot and placed her securely in his arms as she immediately tensed at the sight of the beagle running around. She hissed at it as it rose up on its hunches sniffing and barking at her and Sasuke.

"Brought over some bags of fertilizer. Jesse said she was hoping to plant those pots of Nanking cherry some time this week," Marcus explained in a booming voice as Sasuke walked over with cat in hand. The smell of barn clung to the air around the farmer, making Sasuke's nose immediately scrunch up in distain. "Mind giving an old man an hand?"

"Let me put the cat inside," Sasuke said.

"Oh!" Marcus's eyes lit at the sight of Surri in Sasuke's arms. He laughed. "Seems you and Surri are getting along just fine. She's such a sweet little thing, ain't she? Surri, hi kitten. You a good girl, aren't ya? Before Jesse moved out, Cloey and Oscar would gang up on Surri quite a bit. Poor thing had to hide upstairs in Jesse's room all the time!"

Marcus patted the Bengal on the head. Surri leaned in the touch and uttered a meow. "I'll start carrying the bags in. Good to see you let out her. Jesse usually doesn't like her cat being outside."

Sasuke left the farmer at his truck and put Surri inside the house. "He sure does like to talk," Sasuke muttered to himself sliding the screen door close. Surri was already at the door, begging to be let out again.

"Maybe later," he told her as she meowed at him, turning in circles and looking at him with her wide olive green eyes.

It didn't take long to get all four bags of fertilizer into the garage. Sasuke had seen the landscape around Jesse's house and had wondered about whether she was into gardening or not. Just another thing he learned about his odd host. And odd was putting it lightly.

He ignored the painful tightening in his lower abdomen as Marcus chatted away about the farm and about his wife and other things that really didn't concern him. He humored him though. If he could get close to her parents and passed this parent test of Jesse's, he would be one step closer to getting her to fall for him.

"So have you started looking for a job yet?" Marcus finally asked. It looked like he wasn't going anywhere any time soon.

Sasuke watched the beagle named Cloey out of the corner of his eye as she kept pacing back and forth in front of the green pickup truck. She didn't trust him with her master apparently. "We're looking into it."

"Heard Farmfresh is hiring at the moment," Marcus replied with a shrug.

Sasuke never heard of this "Farmfresh" before, but just nodded pretending he understood what the man was getting at.

"Anyway, better get back. Giles and I are trying to plant deer corn this year, but those damn crows keep eating it faster than we can blink," Marcus rambled on as he straightened up from where he was leaning against his pickup. "Cloey, come on. Cloey, good grief, stop raising your hackles at him, you crazy dog. Come on, Cloey."

Cloey let off an warning growl at Sasuke and bounced over to her master. Marcus scooped her up in his tan arms and deposited her into the truck before shutting the door. He was about the head over to the driver's side, when it seemed like he remember something. "You know, it might take a bit to get an job round here. The farm could use a extra pair of hands."

Sasuke raised an eyebrow intrigued. "Are you offering me a job?"

"It'll be under the table of course till you find yourself something else. Honestly, you don't have to take it. Farm work probably doesn't sound too appealing to a city kid, but I wouldn't mind the help. I'm sure I can find something for you do to," Marcus said with a shrug. "That way you're not just sitting around all day while Jesse's at work."

Sasuke smirked. "Sure. Why not?"

Jesse leaned against the side of her desk, putting a caller on "hold" while she handed a young brunette with a Mohawk an receipt through the window that separated the office space from the waiting room. This morning was particular busy. It felt like everyone and their mother decided that Wednesday morning would be the opportune day to make an visit to the good doctor.

Jesse was going to be so freaking glad once they closed down for lunch. The Advil from this morning had worn off around ten and now she was developing a slight tension headache in between the eyes along with the cramps. She adjusted her glasses and frowned as she switched the caller onto an available line.

"Hello, this is Doctor Manson's office," Jesse said. There was a note of irritation in her voice that she was having trouble hiding when she spoke. Damn raging hormones.

" Hi…I have a question about the prescription Doctor Manson's prescribed my son. Would it be possible if he can take it with Tylenol Cold And Flue Relief ?" woman's voice on the other line inquired.

Jesse sighed. Great, the one question she couldn't answer. She was a secretary, not the doctor. "Ma'am, you'll have to ask your pharmacist," she told the caller.

"Well, ain't you apart of the Doctor's office? You should know this question," the woman accused in a huff.

Jesse kept her voice low, trying her darnest not to snap at the woman. Be nice to the lady on the line, Jess, she told herself. Remember the only reason why the question annoys you is because your hormonal from your period…. Dammit.

"If you want, ma'am, I can take a memo and give it to Dr. Manson," Jesse offered, hoping that would appease the woman. She did not want to get in an argument over the phone with an patient. Not that it happened much…

"Fine. Fine," the woman said, sounding put out by the simple fact Jesse wasn't qualified to answer her about her son needing to mix medicine while he was sick. That was up to the good Doctor Manson to decide. So like an good secretary Jesse inquired what prescription Mrs. Elizabeth Anderson's son, Jeremy, was taking and then made a quick reminder for herself to ask Eric when he was finished visiting with his current patient.

Eric was actually John's nephew and the one who put an word in for her with his uncle during her search for a place of her own. Eric was thirty-five and an pretty awesome employer, who knew how to keeps things lively around the office. Each room of the clinic had been painted an different color with an different border that ran the length of the wall. All the floors were done in a honey oak stain and even the chairs out in the waiting room were actually comfortable to sit in. There were fun photos of Eric and his fiancée from their vacations in Paris, France and in Venice, Italy spread around the office. As well as models cut out from colorful construction paper in abstract forms suspended from the ceiling in the waiting room. One of Eric's unique hobbies.

"Alright, Gwen you take care." Speak of the devil….

Eric was a fairly attractive specimen. Not startling handsome or pretty boyish. He was a stocky guy with a bit of a belly, but there was warmth to him that filled the room when he walked in. He was dressed in a shockingly bright yellow sweater over a baby powder blue undershirt and of course navy blue khakis.

"You too Eric. Thanks for squeezing me in on such short notice," Gwen Evans called to him before she headed out into the waiting room. She was a regular, with a long history of dealing with horrible depression issues. She had just changed her medication again and the new stuff apparently wasn't working just the way it should.

"No problem, hun. We can't have you feeling like that," Eric said.

Gwen laughed before closing the door and appearing back at the window to schedule her next appointment in six months. Jesse sighed after the woman left and slumped in her chair, listening to the quiet murmur of patients' voices outside and the quiet clicking of keys as Caroline typed away.

"What's this?" Eric asked when he found the post-it note on the face of his laptop on his desk.

"Oh. Elizabeth Anderson called wanting to know if it was okay for her son to take Tylenol Cold and Flue Relief with his meds," Jesse explained.

"Ah, that's the kid with the strep throat," Eric muttered and smiled sympathetically. "Poor thing was running an fever of hundred-and-one." His fingers danced across the computer screen bringing up the necessary information. "Let's see what did I prescript him, again…"

"Penicillin," Eric murmured going about his task. "Yeah, he'll be allowed to take it, if it'll help the poor kid sleep. You know, Jess, you should think about getting that flu shot. There's a lot of nasty viruses out there this summer."

"No thanks," Jesse replied with a snort. Eric gave her an look that clearly stated "your choice, your foul." She sighed. "You know I hate needles. Hate... Hate… needles."

"You're worse than Angela," Caroline chuckled from where she sat at her desk, reviewing something. She was referring to her two year old. "It's just a shot, Jess. One prick and they're done."

"Still…. No. Thank. You," Jess replied stubbornly.

Jesse pulled into her driveway a little past six, feeling like the day couldn't end fast enough. Her cramps were giving her hell, feeling every time she moved her insides were ready to come out of her ass. She had an tension headache the size of the Lake Eerie and even with an extra dost of Advil seemed to do little to touch it.

God, I haven't been this miserable in a quite a while. What the hell did I ever do to mother nature to make her pay me back this bad! Jesse wondered in a rather pissy mood on top of that. Just then the sound of car slowing as it approached her house caught her attention.

An white Volvo pulled into the driveway with Coral's friendly aged face behind the wheel.

And when I thought the day couldn't get any worse, Jesse thought, groaning out loud. She like Coral. She really did. Coral and John were a awesome couple to have for landlords, but Jesse still hadn't gotten up the nerve to call them about her newly acquired roommate. Simply put, she had been procrastinating…. Big time…

And now I'm going to pay the Piper for lollygagging around the mulberry bush, Jesse thought with a sense of doom as Coral got out of the car and waved at her with a big smile on her tan face.

Coral was one of those women who loved being active and being outdoors constantly. During the summer months her skin was the color of mocha thanks to her Puerto Rican heritage. She loved being out in her beautiful garden behind her home, hiking with her husband and her children and their families or out on bike rides. Thanks to her active lifestyle, Coral was the very imagine of a petite feminine woman with tightly curled hair, laughing lines around her eyes and mouth, and warm dark brown eyes.

Coral immediately gave Jesse an hug "Hello, Jesse! You're looking cute as always," she cooed. She scrutinized her face for a second once she pulled away from the hug. "Or less cute considering the fact you look awful at the moment. Are you getting enough sleep? I know your writing is important to you, dear, but you shouldn't sacrifice your sleep over it. Are you feeling well?"

"Heheh… Sorry about that," Jesse started to say. Instant guilt flooded her stomach. She knew Coral and John trusted her as an responsible tenant. Not to mention the couple treated her like their own daughter, so the fact she had been avoiding bringing up the whole having an new roommate issue with them let her feeling even crappier. "It's that time of the month and mother nature thought she'd be extra nasty with me this month."

"Oh, you poor thing," Coral declared. "Come on. You should go inside and relax. I remember those days. My periods always put through me for a loop too. Poor John always felt so sorry for me when I had a particularly bad month. I would spend hours in a hot bath, trying to relieve the cramps. Oh, are you having guests over? John and I noticed there's been an extra car in the driveway while we going by the other day."

Guilt gnawed away at her insides. Shit. Shit. Jesse let out an uneasy laugh. "Y-Yeah. Rachael and May are staying the week. You know having some girl bonding time together since we've all been so busy as of late."

Lair, lair motherfucking pants on fire, her mind hissed at her venomously. God, she should just say it already.

"Coral, there's been something I've been needing to discuss with you, but I haven't quite found the time to bring it up and…" Jesse started, figuring she might as well dive right into the deep end of the pool and get this whole issue resolved now before Coral went into the house and came face to face with Sasuke.

"By the way, how does your new roommate feel about having three women constantly around? I mean, the poor dear is so awkward socially, I can only begin to imagine how he feels about having three others women around for an entire week," Coral interrupted her, using that tone in her voice. You know that tone, right? The one mothers uses when lecturing their children about making questionable decisions?

Jesse turned to give Coral an "WTF" look. What was she talking about?! "Uh… Wha?"

"I understand that Rachael and May are your closest friends and you're eager for them to get to know your roommate so he knows how wonderful they are, but he's not even been here an handful of days yet, sweetie," Coral went on as they rounded the corner of the house. "Don't you think it's a little soon…. You know you have an entire year for him to get to know your other friends. You should let the poor thing settle in first after all and spend some quality time with you first…"

"Hold on a second, Coral," Jesse said, trying to interrupt Coral's rambling. Was she talking about Sasuke? She hadn't even told John and Coral about Sasuke yet, let alone inform them about the fact she was going to have an roommate move in with her in the first place. So how…how?!

Jesse's mind was running around in circles as Coral lectured her about proper roommate etiquette. How did she know then? How did she know that Sasuke was living here with her? She hadn't told either John or Coral a thing yet.

What? What? What?! Jesse's mind kept screaming as she and Coral stopped on the back porch. She shook her head trying to clear the confusion on her face. Get it together, Jesse. Just play along. Come on, girl! You can do this! You can figure out the details later on how this came about!

Jesse let out an another nervous laugh. "You know me, Coral. I tend to dive in head first instead of wading into things," she said, her voice cracking around the edge as she tried to reign in all the questions filling her head as to how the hell Coral got her hands on such information. She sure as hell hadn't a said an thing to either her or her husband. Maybe she ran into her mother somewhere? But the way Coral was talking, it made it sound Jesse had told her herself?!

"Yes, well, next time, dear, think ahead," Coral scolded her with an gentle smile and a pat on the cheek. "Now go on inside and get the rent and bring him out. I'd like to meant the boy whose planning on stealing your heart."

That made Jesse pause in opening the sliding door. She gave her land lady a look. "Stealing my heart?"

"Come on. Do you think I don't see what's going on here, dear? The boy moved across the country for you!" Coral said with a sly grin. "Obviously he has an hidden agenda. One concerning making you his. No boy would just up and leave all he's ever known for nothing. Now, go get him. I want to see this young man who plans on spiriting away our little Jesse."

Jesse wanted to face palm at the idea of Sasuke sweeping her off her feet in a romantic way. "Coral, I think you're spending too much time out in the sun," she told her before heading inside to get her rent money and find where Sasuke was hiding.

She found Rachael sitting at the kitchen nook working away on her laptop with her student teaching stuff spread out across the table. "Hey," She greeted her with a slight wave.

Rachael looked up and saw the unease on her face. "Uh-oh. Something happened."

"Apparently Coral knows about Sasuke being here," Jesse explained with a sigh, placing her hands on the counter to support herself. Her mind was still reeling from this little surprise.

"So…" Rachael made a little gesture for Jesse to explain why that was such an big deal.

"Rachael, I haven't said an single thing to her or John about his being here yet. I don't fucking know where she got the information!" Jesse hissed unhappily. She should be relieved, but the idea that Coral knew-that she fucking knew- bothered her. It made an unpleasant tight knot form in the pit of her stomach. Something was wrong. She just fucking knew it.

"Really now. Well…" Rachael looked off to the side towards the window that looked towards the backyard. "That would be definitely a shock. You think she ran into your folks then while she was out and about and came by the news that way?"

"Probably…. More than likely, but she's acting all happy and weird and stuff," Jesse said, trying to find an way to describe how Coral was hinting at the fact Sasuke was here to supposedly "wisp her away" like Prince-Freaking-Charming on his noble white steed and ride off into the sunset with happily ever after written across the top. "It's like I told her. Me. She's acting like I told her about him staying here for a year, but I've been putting off calling them on that because I didn't know how to begin explaining why I suddenly had an new stinking roommate!"

Rachael remained quiet for a long moment, before saying "Well damn…"

"Yeah… My thoughts exactly," Jesse said with a sigh. "Anyway… Have you seen Mr. Crabby-Abby? I have to go introduce him to Coral."

"Not since this morning before I left to go drop May off at college," Rachael replied with a shrug. "Probably got lost somewhere… Speaking of May…." She checked her phone. "I better think about getting ready to go pick her up. She should be about done with her classes for the day soon."

Jesse sighed again and headed for her room to go grab the rent money. Okay, so Rachael hadn't seen Sasuke since she got back from her student teaching. So then where was he? She checked his room. He wasn't there.

She frowned, and then went into her room over to her dresser. She opened the bottom draw and pushed aside her winter sleeping apparel to find the small blue box she kept the rent money in. She counted the stack of bills to make sure it was all there, before putting the box back where it belong and covered it again. She closed the draw and headed back out, wondering where her reluctant roommate could have gone. Just what did Sasuke do during the day while she was at work? It was something she thought about from time to time, but it wasn't really something she gave serious thought to.

Maybe he went for a walk, Jesse thought mentally going over the facts she knew about Sasuke. It was more than likely. Sasuke's favorite past times were training and taking nice long walks after all.

Although it was also the possible he was just staying away from the house because Rachael was home. Rachael and May did not think highly of Sasuke at all and Jesse didn't blame them. He was a arrogant bastard, who had an bad habit of making an ass out of himself. So when it came to Rachael and May berating him, she didn't interfere. In fact she popped up some popcorn and sat back to watch the show. It was quite entertaining to see Sasuke get his balls busted by her two best friends in the whole wide world.

And that probably made her a bad person in someway, but really did she care? He kind of deserved it. Like a lot….

"Sorry, Coral, but Sasuke's MIA right now, so maybe some other time you can pop in and meet him," Jesse offered once she stepped outside onto the back porch to hand her the rent money.

Coral looked positively crestfallen. "Well, that's too bad really," she said as Jesse handed her the rent. Her face instantly brightened. "Oh! How about you and him come over for brunch on Saturday then?"

Coral could be relentless sometimes…

Jesse sighed yet again. "Sure. That would be… lovely," she replied as she tried to imagine Sasuke eating brunch in Coral's yellow and blue bright cheery kitchen with it's lacey white curtains and little bunny-rabbit figurines…. She had to keep herself from laughing at the imagine in her head.

"Good. It's settled then!" Coral exclaimed with a cheer and gave her tenant an warm bear hug. For a woman of her size, there was some strength in those arms. "I expect you two be over by eleven! See you on Saturday."

Jesse couldn't help but smile as Coral walked away with a bounce in her step. That woman sure did love having company over. Between the Pamper Chief parties, book club once a month, and her grandchildren always coming over, Coral's household was a busy one.

"Still… how the heck did she know about Sasuke? I haven't mention a thing to her or John yet," Jesse muttered out loud, bewildered. She ponder over how her land lady found out that she had Sasuke living with her and how she was taking it all in good strike. Why hadn't she rebuff Jesse for not telling her sooner? If she had learned from Jesse's mom then Coral should have been furious with her for not saying anything. And Jesse's mom surely would have called by now demanding as to why Jesse had lied to her in the first place about telling Coral and John about her new roommate from San Diego.

"This makes no sense," Jesse said. Her headache was getting worst just thinking about it…

"Oh, it can when you have an goddess on your side, dear," an familiar voice sang in her ear.

Jesse froze. Oh dear Lord… Of course….

Suddenly the answer to her questions was right there, right behind her. She turned around to find the pesky goddess of love smiling away like she done her some great favor. Which in all actuality she had. "Thanks. That's at least one less thing I have to worry about now."

"You're welcome, dear," Benzaiten said with a laugh.

Jesse frowned. "So… When did this happen?"

"Oh, that's nothing you need to worry about, dear. Just be glad I made sure your dear land lord and his wife was taken care of," Benzaiten said with chuckle as she phased through the door and into her house.

"Hi, Benzaiten. Long time no see. Would you like to come in and have some lemonade?" Jesse deadpanned. "God, she just waltzes on in like she owns the fucking world. I think my headache has reached an whole new level now."