Disclaimer: Blah Blah Blah… you know what I have to say, so I'm not going to say it again. If you really miss it, close your eyes and imagine it's there… Thanks to everyone who reviewed! It just brings so much meaning to my life to know that you all care…Special thanks to Val, for all her help with this chapter… Everyone ready for some TYLER JEALOUSY? READ ON!

Chapter 3

Acting and Swimsuit Shopping

            Jamie turned to Val as she puller her dark blue jeep into the mall parking lot. "Ready for another round of  'EMT Love Connection?'" he joked with a suggestive raise of his eyebrows. Val giggled.

            "And what did you have in mind?" she asked, "More acting?" he paused.

            "Uh, I guess so." He replied finally. Her eyes widened in shock.

            "YOU MEAN YOU HAVEN'T PLANNED THIS OUT?! WHAT'S THE MATTER WITH YOU?!" she smacked him lightly upside the head.

            "HEY! Watch my hair!" he cried, ducking to avoid a second hit. She fell back into her seat dejectedly,

            "So now what?" she sighed, massaging her temples. Jamie shrugged,

            "We play it by ear?" he offered unconstructively, "You know, you didn't have so much of a problem with this back at the station."

            "Yeah, well, at the station you made it seem like you knew what you were doing." She snapped.

            "Look, I can't give you a script, all right? But if a plan is what you want then fine…" his voice trailed off as he thought… "All you have to do is model those swimsuits and not treat me like an escapee from the nut house while I pretend to worship the ground you walk on." They grimaced simultaneously, which caused Val to crack a smile.

            "You're right," she said, "I mean, they bought it at the station, right?" she nervously pulled at her fingers. Jamie nodded, unbuckling his seat belt,

            "You ready to go? Cause I mean, sitting here is loads of fun and all, but my shirt is absorbing all the sunlight reflecting off of your hair." She shut off the ignition.

            "Was that a compliment?" she laughed, "No need to get into character yet James."

            "Whatever do you mean Valerie darling?" he said cheesily, stepping out of the car and opening her door for her with an exaggerated bow.

            "Caitie was right, you're completely mental!" she giggled. He put his arm around her waist as they walked toward the entrance, and to his surprise she didn't push him away, but instead leaned into him.

            "I know I am… that's why I'm so hopelessly devoted to you." He replied, holding the door open for her as she walked through. She rolled her eyes.

            "Hey, there's Tyler and Hank…" she noticed that Tyler was staring worriedly at his watch, "Are we late or something?" she was met with another shrug from Jamie. "You're absolutely useless." She sighed, still smiling. Val waved at her friends, who spotted them and began to walk through the crowd to meet them. "You ready James?" she whispered out of the corner of her mouth, her gaze focused on Tyler.

            "Ready as I'll ever be- and don't call me James!" he mumbled back. "Hey guys, what's up?" he called as soon as they were within hearing distance.

            "Long time no see… what kept you?" Tyler said as a greeting, apparently they were "late or something".

            "Oh, umm, minor musical trauma on the way over… he wanted to listen to his CDs, I wanted to listen to pop, we stopped to argue~ long story short, I won." She explained quickly. Jamie knew to play along.

            "Not fairly." He shot back "Every time I tried to put a CD on you pushed the radio button back to your station!" he continued indignantly. "I had to listen to the song 'Drowning' by the Backstreet Boys 3 times!" that was actually true, she gave him a playful shove.

            "You liked it, you know you did." He made a face.

            "I'm never riding with you again," he vowed, "Not unless I can bring headphones."

            "Hey! I let you listen to Lifehouse!"

            "Yeah, only cause you liked the song 'Breathing'"

            "-Guys, could you break up this little love fest so that we could get going?" that was Hank, who was standing back, watching them amusedly. Tyler poked him in the ribs angrily with his elbow. "Ow! I didn't mean it like tha-" he was met with another jab, and he quickly closed his mouth. Val blushed

            "Yeah, I guess we better get shopping before all the good swimsuits are gone." She began to walk in the direction of the swimsuit shop, and the guys followed her lead. Jamie stopped when he felt a light tap on his shoulder.

            "Excuse me young man." Jamie turned to face on older woman addressing him; standing next to her was an even older looking man.

            "Yes Mam? He asked pleasantly, as they didn't seem to want to yell at him or anything. "Hey, guys! Come back for a sec!" he called to his friends, who were already a couple of stores away. They turned around and walked quickly back to where he stood.

            "In trouble again Waite?" Tyler teased, eyeing the older couple standing in front of his friend.

            "Very funny Connell." He said, shooting him a glare before turning back to the lady. "What was it you needed Mam? He said politely, Hank raised his eyebrows, "Mam?" he mouthed to Tyler over the lady's shoulder, he was met with a shrug from his friend.

            "Well," the lady began uncertainly, "my husband George and I were watching you and your girlfriend in the parking lot a couple of minutes ago, and I just wanted to track you down and tell you that it was really wonderful to see a young man treating the object of his affections with such care and respect! You really don't see a lot of gentlemen like you these days…" she trailed off, and Jamie realized that she was trying to figure out his name.

            "Jamie." He said helpfully. She grinned.

            "…Jamie. Why, you two reminded me of George and myself when we were young… of course that was years ago…" she laughed, smiling at him like a proud mother. The impact of what she was saying finally hit Jamie. She was talking about HIM AND VAL.

            "G-girlfriend?" he stammered, she continued to smile, not noticing the looks of confusion etched on his and his friends' faces. Jamie saw Val walk out of the crowd towards them, looking extremely irritated.

            "Hey guys, what happened? I got to the store and you guys weren't there!" the lady turned to face her,

            "Oh! I'm glad that I got to see you before I went, see, I was talking to your boyfriend here, and I just wanted to tell him about how I thought that you two made the sweetest couple!" Val's face filled with surprise

            "B-boyfriend?!" she looked at Jamie, "James Waite, what did you tell her?" she said angrily, hands on her hips. He backed away defensively.

            "N-nothing Val! I swear, she just saw us in the parking lot and came up to talk to me!" realizing that the couple was still there, Val's anger faded, and she was embarrassed by her outburst.

            "Thank you so much, but Jamie and I have to be going now." She said with a patient smile. The old woman nodded,

            "Take care of him now, he certainly is a wonderful young man." She gave Val's shoulder a gentle squeeze and wandered away with her husband.

            "Oh, I'll take care of him all right…" she muttered, spinning around to look Jamie in the eye. "Explain." She commanded. Jamie sighed.

            "Ok, I was following you to the store, and this random lady taps me on the shoulder and tells me that she and her husband were watching us in the parking lot and that I was a gentleman or something… I have no idea what we did to make her think that! Maybe she got us mixed up with another guy and girl? I said NOTHING." He insisted. She looked over at Tyler and Hank for confirmation.

            "Yeah nothing/ didn't say a thing." They said simultaneously, still looking extremely mystified. Her face relaxed and she suddenly burst out laughing, leaning on Tyler, who was closest to her, for support. They were puzzled and a bit scared by her sudden mood swing.

            "Riiiight, can we go then?" he suggested awkwardly. She was laughing too hard to respond, so she simply nodded her head.

            "What's so funny?!" Jamie demanded. Val had a tough time catching her breath.

            "She thought we were- I was- g-girlfriend!" she managed to choke out, before going into another fit of giggles. Tyler, reassured by her laughter, soon began to laugh with her, as did Hank, once he understood what was happening.

            "I don't see anything relatively humorous about it." Jamie grumbled, standing among them in annoyance.

            "W-what the heck went on in the parking lot man?" Hank asked between chuckles, ""Did she spot you two making out or something?" Tyler stopped mid-laugh and looked at Val anxiously, waiting for her reply.

            "No, they couldn't have been… she likes me-she wouldn't-" he thought, panic already beginning to cloud his mind. "But he had his arm around her- until they saw us… maybe she and Jamie were-"" STOP IT CONNELL you're jumping to dumb conclusions again- just like at Homecoming… Val would NEVER kiss Jamie… right?" he noticed that her face had turned fire-engine red, but whether it was from anger at Hank's question or from the embarrassment he couldn't tell.

            "No! Nothing happened in the parking lot- right Jamie?" she looked at him for support. He had an odd smirk on his face. "Maybe I shouldn't have laughed at him…" she worried. "Jamie, tell them that nothing happened." She ordered.

            "Nothing happened." He said obediently, the smug grin still plastered on his features. He put his arm around her waist again. "Ready to shop Val?" he said, walking ahead of Tyler and Hank towards the store.

            "What are you doing!" she hissed looking over her shoulder at Hank and Tyler. They'd stopped laughing and were staring open mouthed at them. Tyler had a look of extreme hatred on his face, his glare focused on the back of Jamie's head. "Jamie, this isn't funny… he's gonna kill you." Jamie's grin grew wider.

            "Oh yeah? Watch this." He bent his head down and whispered in her ear. "Start giggling, like I'm telling you the cutest thing you've ever heard." He said. Val giggled obediently, and he moved his head down to kiss her neck.

            "Jamie! Stop!" she cried, astonished at what he was doing. She pushed his head away.

            "How does he look now?" he asked devilishly, she glanced at Tyler. His hands were balled into little fists, and she thought she saw the little vein in his neck beginning to pulse.

            "Let's just say you don't want to walk home alone tonight- cause if you don't show up for work tomorrow the first place I'm checking is the morgue." Jamie gave a small laugh as they entered the swimsuit shop,

            "Good."

***

            "I'm going to kill him- and I'm making sure to do it slowly and painfully." Tyler growled. Hank thought he could see the steam coming out of Tyler's ears, and he recalled that the only other time he'd seen his best friend this angry- well actually, he'd never seen Tyler this angry. Not even when he was upset about William.

            "She did pull away from him when he kissed her… that's a good thing, right?" Tyler shot him a look that said, "Are you kidding me?" and Hank figured that since he really wasn't helping the situation in any way, shape or form, he'd best stop talking. He watched as Jamie and Val entered the shop, Jamie's arm still looped around her waist. He hoped for Jamie's sake that the rebel didn't do anything foolish in front of Tyler anymore… the blonde had just about reached boiling point, and things would only get really ugly really fast. Hank decided that he'd be in another shop when the inevitable happened and Tyler strung Jamie up by his feet and dropped him off the second story of the mall headfirst. "Maybe we should, um, follow them?" he suggested, already steering his friend towards the shop that they had entered. Val was flitting to and fro amongst the rows of bikini's while Jamie sat waiting for her in boredom, half heartedly offering opinions about the different cuts and colors. She smiled nervously when she spotted them.

            "Tyler! I'm glad you're here! Finally someone that can be of some help to me." She gave Jamie a dirty look and continued shopping.

            "No problem." He replied, taking a seat next to Jamie, who stiffened slightly and avoided eye contact. Hank stood at the shop entrance. He realized that he had no reason to even be there; after all, he was the only person on the squad that wasn't in love with Val Lanier.

            "Hey Val?" he called,

            "Yeah Hank?" she replied, not looking up from a rack of tankinis.

            "I'm going to, uh, leave cause, I, uh," she chuckled at his awkwardness.

            "Yes Hank, I'll meet you at American Eagle." She said, walking into the dressing room with her arms full of bathing suits. Tyler and Jamie silently wished that they could join him, but each of them were unwilling to leave to other alone with Val, for different reasons. Jamie was worried that she tell Tyler everything as soon as he left, and Tyler was worried that Jamie would- well, let's just say he didn't want to give the rest of the old ladies in the mall something to talk about. "You guys?" she called from the fitting room, "I'm coming out- laugh and face my wrath." Evidently they hadn't heard her, because as she peeked out of the fitting room she saw that they still remained slouching on the couch. "Well if this doesn't wake them up…" she thought, a wicked grin on her face. She stepped into their range of vision, and had to fight hard not to laugh at their reactions. Tyler sat straight up and stared at her in awe

            "You- that's- I-I like that one" he stuttered. She was wearing a light blue strapless bikini that matched the color of her eyes exactly, with a darker blue sarong tied around her hips.

            "Got it in black?" Jamie proposed, trying not to stare too hard. She scrunched up her nose.

            "Black? Ewww, that color is so…"

            "Not you?" Tyler offered helpfully. Val nodded in agreement. "Besides," he continued, "she looks great in this one." Another blush spread across her cheeks.

            "Thanks Tyler… I like this one too."

            "I never said she didn't look good in it… I just like the color black, that's all..." Jamie said defensively as she headed back into the dressing room. "So are we done here?" he shouted hopefully through the closed door. She gave a skeptical laugh.

            "Done? Sit down James… I'm not even close." Jamie groaned audibly and threw himself back onto the couch. Earning pitying glances from the sales women sitting behind the counter.

            "What have I gotten myself into?" he moaned.

***

AN: So there's the long awaited (yeah right) Chapter 3! Yay! Did you like it? It took forever and a day to figure this one out, though I don't really understand why… Anywho, you guys really came through, 21 reviews! Wow! I feel so… special. Thanks to Val, again, for all her help with reading and her ideas… Without her I'd still be staring at a blank word document! Thanks to everyone who reviewed, for your input, ideas, opinions and so on… I tried to email everyone that reviewed to show my gratitude, but not everyone left an email address, so leave one when you review and you'll get a letter too! I'm hoping for hmmmm, let's be optimistic and say, 41 reviews this time? Come on, I know you guys have got it in ya… Chapter four comes next… probably the last chapter, why? Because I really don't feel like dragging this out, it won't be funny anymore if I make it too long, and I'm running out of things to write anyway… but no fear! I'm working on some new stories… In fact here's a poll for my next one…

 POLL: Which would you rather see? Val gets stalked or Val gets hooked on caffeine pills? (Yes this one's gonna be a tear jerker.) I have ideas for T/V AND (here's a first for me) J/C in both... so tell me which one to write!