Okay, I got it: No Sonny and Jax! :D Not a problem. I'm writing to please you gals (and guys, if you're out there). And Carolyn – did you say my finals be damned?! LMAO! Yeah, I have them this week but, of course, I had to get another chapter out before I actually crack down and study. :) Expect the next part up soon too; I've got to get this baby going. The good stuff is coming up. ;)

Crazy Little Thing Called Love

"How?" was all Brenda could ask.

She and Jason had been wandering in the woods since they escaped the ones following them. They were definitely lost. In the jungle. In the middle of the night.

"They couldn't have followed us," he started, leading her further through the woods. It was best they kept moving, just in case the men were still after them. "The only contact we've had was when I called Sonny to tell him where we were – that was a cell phone call." He turned to her abruptly. "Does Alcazar have the kind of contacts that could get a trace like that?"

"I don't know," she muttered, with worry. "Maybe."

Jason exhaled in frustration. She saw the anger in his eyes but also an edge of something else creeping in. It looked a bit like fear.

"Are you afraid of Luis?" she demanded to know immediately as he kept on.

"It's not about that, Brenda," he snapped back. "It's knowing what we're up against. I had no idea he had that level of surveillance."

"Well, you might as well give up now," she sarcastically retorted. The fear, pressure and adrenaline were all making her irrational. She wanted to scream at what Luis had made her life. Wandering through forests in the middle of the tropics, constantly paranoid that he was waiting in every shadow, fleeing in fear from a life with him. What would she do if Jason did decide to abandon her? She would have to run by herself for the rest of her coherent years.

Jason dismissed her comment with a quick shake of his head.

"No, I mean it, Jason. It would be easier on everyone if you just ditched me; I mean, why fight Luis? He's too strong; he's got too many connections to beat," she went on, sure that this was the beginning of her mind going. She couldn't stop rambling; her voice was raising and she was trying to convince him to abandon her.

"Why don't you just leave me here?" she found herself suddenly exclaiming. Jason whirled to face her swiftly, clutching her arms firmly to pull her to stop.

"Shut up! I will not leave you!" he yelled to convince her.

There were tears she didn't know she was shedding sliding down her cheeks as she watched his eyes. He was confident and certain in his words and she wondered how she had ever gotten off on such a tangent that would doubt him.

But her tears ate through him and he pulled her to him, his arms holding her securely.

"I swear I won't leave. I won't leave you," he quietly assured her, his hand softly resting in her soft hair to embrace her easily. "I won't ever." She melted into him, her body tired from physical and mental exhaustion, and she clutched at him tightly. She didn't realize how badly she had come to depend on him and she didn't know what she would do without him now.

"Come on," he murmured, always thinking of her safety. "We have to keep moving."

Brenda glanced up at the camera in the hotel as she and Jason stood at the front desk. After finding the road and loosely following it, they decided it would be better to get lost in a crowd than to be stranded in the middle of nowhere as they had been before. They made it to the nearest big city on the primary island a day later. But as she watched the lens film surveillance of the lobby, her arms crossed securely around her as she impatiently tapped her chin, she thought of the ever-watchful eye of cameras. She wondered if Luis could get that surveillance too. Hell, if he could get cell phone traces, there wasn't a lot more he couldn't get.

Jason got the key from the man and led her to the elevator.

"What's my name?" she asked as the doors closed. She was getting the hang of this hiding-out thing.

"We're the Smiths," he informed her. "You're Alice. I'm Sam."

"Sam and Alice Smith? Good Lord, could you have picked worse names?" she criticized.

"I'll give you the honor of doing it next time, Alice," he remarked, stepping off the elevator and reaching their door. She slowed as he tried the key.

"How many 'next time's will there be?"

"I'm going to call Sonny and see where he is," he replied, entering the room.

"What about the trace?"

"There's a secure line in case of emergencies; he'll get the message then call me back from it," he said as he dialed a number into the phone immediately.

Brenda softly sat onto the bed, wondering if Luis was on his way to find them where they were at that very second.

"How long do we wait?" Brenda asked, stopping in the doorway from the bedroom. It was well into the night and hours since Jason left a message for Sonny.

Jason shook his head with a shrug as he turned his gun over in his hand again. "Until he calls."

"What if he doesn't? What if something happened to him?" she reasoned. "We just sit here and wait until Luis's men come barreling through the door again?"

"We're safe here," he assured her and checked the clip in his gun again. "You should get some sleep."

"Yeah, you should too. You look just like I feel."

Jason glanced up at her and could see the exhaustion in her eyes. "I'm serious; you need to lay down."

Brenda saw he had no intention of sleeping with her around. As if he had to stay up to keep guard. Her arms crossed protectively as she stared down at the carpet and decided to be honest with him; it was the only way he would understand.

"I can't."

"What?"

"I can't go to sleep," she clarified seeing his baffled expression.

"Why not?"

"I don't know; I mean, I'm sure it's psychological or whatever but. I just can't."

Jason watched her speak curtly and to the point. When she was talking about something she really didn't want to, she did that. Normally she was able to ramble when she talked but when it was about something real, and painful, she tried to say as little about it as possible.

"Brenda, if you're afraid, you don't have to be," he replied. "I'm going to be right here in this next room."

She shrugged with a small smile. "Doesn't matter."

His brow was furrowed with confusion as he studied her. "But you can sleep," he argued. "You slept every night when I was there."

Brenda slowly nodded, still not able to meet his eyes and he made the connection.

"Wait a minute," he said. "Are you saying you can't fall asleep unless I'm there?"

She may have been holding her breath; he couldn't tell. But he definitely could see the mask that she had put on to guard herself; it was expressionless, but it was an admission, nonetheless.

The thought that she needed him next to her before she could let her defenses down struck him to the core. And if was just about being protected, she would be fine with him in the next room. But it was more than that.

Jason stood slowly; she still hadn't looked at him; and he nodded toward the room. "I'll be in in a sec."

"Forget it," she murmured and turned back to the bedroom, as if just then realizing what she had revealed to him.

Jason sighed as she closed the bedroom door. He knew their previous ideas of one another was the primary reason they did what they did. If he were anyone else, she would never be so defensive but they had such a history. It was as if she felt she had to put up higher walls because he was "Jason" to her – the one she always fought with. And he had to stop himself from thinking of her as who she used to be to him as well. Being with her now, he knew better.

He went ahead checking all the windows, exits and such. He went over his weapons, keeping the gun on him always. After all the precautionary errands, half an hour had passed and he turned the lights off in the living room.

Jason carefully opened the bedroom door, sliding in silently. Brenda pushed herself up from her side urgently at the sound of the door opening and he gently spoke.

"It's me."

"I thought I locked it," she grated out. He recognized her voice was hoarse and it sounded as though she had been crying. He wasn't arrogant enough to speculate that it was about him at all; he was sure it was more about her life now. On the run, hiding out and afraid for her life. Afraid of Luis Alcazar.

He did lock the door and she hesitantly lay back on her side as he went to the other side of the bed. He looked upon her small frame beneath the sheets highlighted by the slight moonlight as he peeled away his shirt. Shedding the jeans last, he carefully climbed under the cover. He paused for a moment, glancing at her back facing him. He could see by the way she crouched over, she was taking great care at hiding her face. She was still weeping.

Jason slowly edged closer, his warm hand resting on her arm, as he settled to lie behind her.

Brenda clenched her eyes shut, willing herself to stop crying. The feel of him supporting her so steadfast, made her feel so much more at ease. She even sank back into him, desperate for some steady force in her life.

When her soft body rested next to his, Jason's eyes drifted shut at the glorious sensation. Her hand slowly reached back, taking his, and pulled his arm around her waist.

Jason's head hit his pillow with surrender, realizing she knew what she was doing to him. But he didn't want to fight her; it felt too good to hold her this way to fight it.

"Goodnight," she murmured. It was symbolic more than anything else. They had shared moments before but were always able to mask it with one excuse or another. Now, he was holding her, so closely to him, in bed and she was speaking: making sure he acknowledged that what they were doing, they were doing it consciously. Not because she was drunk, not because they were half asleep, but because they wanted to.

"Night," he whispered, the sweet scent of her enveloping his senses.

It was far too late to deny that pounding in his heart now. He really loved her.

…