Another chapter. I better get my act together because I only have seven chapters written and at this rate i'm going to catch up and then updated will never come. Eek.

Anyways, I hope you enjoy

Xoxo


Jessa was in DC a week before she decided to call Derek. At first she debated whether she should, but he had told her to call if she was in his 'neck of the woods' when he gave her his card. They had arranged to meet for lunch in Virginia, so she packed her bag and checked out of the dirty motel she had been staying at. It took her a little over an hour on the bus and she got off half an hour before they were due to meet, which gave her just enough time to check into a motel and walk to the café that Derek had suggested. When she arrived she was a couple of minutes late.

"So sorry I'm late." She apologised, taking a seat opposite him at the table.

"It's fine." Derek assured her. "I gotta say, I was surprised that you called."

She shrugged, "You told me to call if I was ever around. Plus, I'm going to need a guide." She would be lying if she said she wasn't flirting just a little bit.

The waitress approached and took their orders before disappearing again.

"So," Derek began, "What are you actually doing here?"

Jessa shrugged again, "I felt like it was time to leave."

"So what? Are you here permanently?"

"I don't know yet. Depends if I can find a job."

"What have you been looking at?"

"Just waitressing jobs. It's all I have experience in."

"I stand by what I said the other week, you'd be good in a job like this."

"What? And be a fed?" She scoffed, "Like they'd let me in."

"You won't know until you try." Jessa shrugged so Derek changed the subject, "Tell me Jessa, what does someone do for fun in Middle Of Nowhere, Nebraska?"

"Fun?" She chuckled, "Work mostly."

"Work? Really?"

"Yeah, I mean, like you said there isn't a whole lot around so I work. I used to use my free time for college but when I finished my degree there wasn't a whole lot else."

"What did you study?"

"Folklore and Religion."

"Really? How did you get into that?"

Short of telling him the truth, she couldn't think of a plausible lie so she shrugged, "It just always interested me I guess."

"That's cool."

There was a moment of awkward silence before Jessa asked, "So where are you from?"

"Chicago. What about you? Did you grow up in Nebraska?"

"No. I moved in to the Roadhouse when I was seventeen. I was born in Kansas, but raised on the road."

"On the road?"

"Yeah, my dad was a salesman so we travelled a lot. Never stayed in the same spot more than a few weeks."

"What about your mom?"

"She died when I was four."

"I'm sorry."

She smiled politely, not sure what to say about it. "After that Dad took a travelling job and packed us all up and off we went."

"Do you have siblings? I mean, I know you have a sister but do you have any more?"

Jessa shook her head, "Jo isn't my sister. At least not by blood. Her mom took me in when I was seventeen, after I ran away." She told him, "I have two brothers, though I haven't spoken to them in seven years."

"Older or younger?" He asked, not wanting to pry about her running away.

"Dean is my twin, and Sam is four years younger. What about you? Any siblings?"

"Two sisters. One older, one younger."

The waitress returned with their food. Jessa took her burger and offered her a thankful smile before she disappeared again.

The rest of their lunch passed in the same way, they took turns asking questions about one another and would answer when they felt comfortable.

After a little while, Derek checked his watch and declared that he had to leave.

"Thank you for lunch." Jessa said, "I'm glad I have a friend here."

He smiled, "Do you need a lift to wherever you're staying?"

"Nah, I'm at a motel down the street. I'll walk."

"You sure?"

"Yeah."

"Alright. I should get back to work." She watched him walk away and climb into a little black sedan and drive off.

When he was out of sight she turned and walked back to her motel.


Jessa was lounging on her bed with a cigarette between two fingers and a bottle of whiskey in her hand. She took a gulp from the bottle followed by a long drag on her cigarette before slowly letting the smoke out of her lungs. What was she thinking, moving across the country like that? She had no skills, no plans, she had moved on a whim and now she was beginning to regret it. She barely had any money left and would need a job soon.

She was so caught up in her thoughts that she barely heard the knock at the door. Sighing, she swung her legs off the bed and grabbed her gun from the nightstand. Years of hunting left her with some habits she was happy not to break. When she reached the door she noticed, for the first time, that it didn't have a peep hole. She cocked the gun ready to fire if needed before opening the door.

"Derek?" She couldn't hide the surprise in her voice when she saw the agent standing there. He had obviously just come from work because he still had his gun strapped to his waist. "What are you doing here?" She slipped the gun into the waistband of her jeans.

"Thought I'd keep you company." He shrugged, then glanced at the bottle in her hand, "Big night?"

She shrugged and opened the door further for him to enter through. "Average night. Want a drink?"

"Ah sure."

Sticking the cigarette between her pink painted lips, she went into the small kitchenette and began opening cupboards until she found one with a couple of dirty cracked glasses. She grabbed two and washed them in the sink before pouring two generous amounts of whiskey in the glasses. While he wasn't looking she hid her gun in one of the empty cupboards.

"How'd you know where I was staying, anyway?" She asked, setting his glass on the table in front of him before sitting on the other chair.

"This was the only motel within walking distance of the café." He glanced around the room, "This is hardly a nice place."

She shrugged and stubbed her cigarette out in the ash tray, "I was raised in places like this."

"Really?"

"Dad moved around a lot and his job didn't pay a whole lot." She said simply.

"That's hardly a life for a kid."

Jessa shrugged, "I didn't mind. I liked the freedom, plus I didn't need to make friends at school because we were only going to leave again."

"Then why did you run away?" He asked looking down at his half empty glass, "I mean, if you want to answer. You don't have to."

She shrugged, "After a little while, the freedom wasn't freedom. We weren't allowed to go anywhere or do anything. We had to stay in the motel and wait for him to return so we could pack up and head to the next crappy motel."

"Have you spoken to them since?"

She shook her head and got up to retrieve the bottle and her smokes, "No." She didn't tell him that occasionally she would track them. She never found anything, of course. Except once, Sam was at Stanford and she was so proud of her little brother, even if she couldn't see him. "Want some?" She asked, topping off her glass.

Derek slid his glass over to her and she filled it before passing it back.

They chatted for a while longer, and before either of them realised they had a mostly empty bottle of whiskey and were sitting far closer than they had been previously.

When the bottle was empty Jessa threw herself down on her bed, reaching for a cigarette. Before she could reach her lighter, it disappeared from the nightstand.

"Hey." She groaned, plucking the cigarette from her mouth.

"You shouldn't smoke." Derek chuckled, holding her lighter just out of reach.

"Derek, come on. Give me my lighter." She reached for it but he moved further away. She missed this righted but grabbed on to his wrist. In his drunken state he fell forward onto the bed, his face mere centimetres from hers. She slid her hand from his wrist to his hand where he still clutched her lighter.

Her hand paused there longer than she should have, and after a moment Derek threaded his fingers through hers. She could feel his breath against her face as his dark eyes bore into her green ones and he lowered his face to hers, kissing her deeply.

It wasn't long before the kiss became more heated and Jessa fumbled with the buttons on his dress shirt and slipped it from his shoulders. Without breaking the kiss Derek pulled his gun from his hip and set it down on the nightstand.

It didn't take much longer for them to shed the rest of their clothes as they both let their walls fall away.


When Derek woke, Jessa was sitting on the window sill smoking.

"Morning." She greeted with a smirk. "I got breakfast and coffee." She pointed to the bag and paper coffee cup.

"Thanks." He climbed from the bed and pulled his trousers on before grabbing the coffee and drinking eagerly. "What time is it?"

"A little before eight." She told him, stubbing out her cigarette and climbing down from the windowsill.

"I have to get to work." He sat on the end of the bed and bit into the breakfast roll Jessa had got him.

"Can't you skip?" She asked with a mischievous glint in her eye.

He smirked back, "I can't."

She smiled and lowered herself onto his lap, straddling him, "Are you sure?"

He chuckled, but didn't answer because Jessa pressed her lips to his in a deep, passionate kiss.

"Jessa, I have to go." He whispered between kisses. "I have to get home before work."

"Or…" She smiled cheekily and pulled her shirt off, "You could go straight to work from here."

He grinned against her lips and trailed his hands down her back, deftly unclasping her bra. Jessa grinned and broke their kiss to pull her bra off completely. She kissed him again, running her hands over his head and down his bare chest loving the feel of his tight muscles under her touch.

Derek deepened the kiss and it became more urgent and flipped her on to her back, trailing kisses along her jaw and neck. Jessa gradually guided his mouth back to hers before she undid the button on his trousers. Derek trailed his fingers down Jessa's bare sides feeling her lightly shiver beneath his soft touch.

He chuckled as she let out an involuntary moan of pleasure, before they were interrupted by the ringing of Derek's phone.

"Ignore it." She told him, occupying his mouth in a heated kiss.

"I can't." He climbed off her and snatched his phone from the table. "Morgan." He answered, "Yeah, give me thirty minutes." He sent Jessa an apologetic look as he said it.

"You have to go?" She asked when he hung up.

"Yeah. Got a case."

"Need to use the shower?"

He nodded, "If I can find my shirt."

Jessa laughed, "Over there." She pointed to the end of the bed, where it lay almost under it.

"Thanks." He grabbed it from the floor then locked himself in the motel's tiny bathroom.

He emerged minutes later, fully dressed. Jessa still sat in the same position on the bed, only now she too was dressed.

Derek grabbed his phone from the table then started patting his pockets, "Gun?"

Jessa pointed to the nightstand.

"Right." He attached the gun and holster to his hip. "I have to go." He gave her one last kiss before disappearing out the door.


Derek was gone for eight days. During that time Jessa couldn't help but think about what he had said at the café, that she would be good at a job like his. The more she thought about it, the more plausible it sounded. Was it really so different from Hunting?

It was on the sixth day that she finally decided to go for it, and apply. She was thankful for the laptop computer that Ellen and Jo had given her for a going away present, and that night she applied for the FBI academy.