Chapter 23 – Resurfacing
Tyana and Jeff ran stumbling into the hotel lobby and he doubled over trying to catch his breath. "Ty, what the—" he began before she grabbed his hand and dragged him immediately to the stairwell where she urged him to trail after her up to their rooms. When they finally burst onto the correct floor he caught her hand in his and pulled her backwards, slowing her down.
"Calm down, I think they've gone" he assured her, breathing heavily as he gasped for air.
Tyana nodded and then doubled over to catch her breath also, resting her hands on her knees as she tried to inhale calmly, berating herself silently for be stupid enough to put Jeff in danger. Jeff however watched her as she gasped; noting that she was tense and cringing in such a way that told him he should be suspicious. He straightened, still exhaling sharply, and winced at her, waiting to ask her something; what exactly, he wasn't sure yet. Tyana looked up at him at the lack of conversation and noticed the way he was looking her over.
"What?" she asked, straightening herself and clicking her neck.
"Do you know what the fuck that was about? You don't look as if took you by surprise" he observed.
Tyana tried her best to keep her true identity under wraps, not wanting to explain it all again when she could wait a month or two and use the Memory Device to re-install all that he had previously known. "I don't think it's sunk in, what sort of shit like that happens anyway?" she lied, trying to calm her breathing to she could concentrate fully on whatever other lies she was sure were to soon leap from her mouth in a deceitful explosion. Jeff till eyed her carefully.
"You're not in a gang or none of the shit are you?" he jerked his head over his shoulder, signaling the scene they had fled from.
Tyana shook her head and brushed a strand of her blue-green hair out her eyes. "No way. I swear to god, I'm not. I'd be too frailing scared" part of her smiled at that; the last thing she could afford to be was scared. Usually the adrenaline gave her enough kick to ignore any part of her that was trembling anyway. She stopped her thoughts spinning around the subject of fear, or lack of, and made sure she came across as sincere. She trembled her lips a little, batted her eyes, trying to summon tears from within; they weren't hard to find, she just had to recall a few of the scenes she had witnessed in her life and they came flooding down like a dam having burst it's walls. She wrapped her arms around herself, "Jeff what if someone was hurt back there?" she glazed her eyes over for a split second then choked a little, "Oh my god, we could have….we could have…" she choked as if she couldn't bring herself to say it. That was true though; she couldn't say it although it was for a different reason. She couldn't say it because they couldn't have died back there, she wouldn't have let them.
Jeff's eyes softened immediately, realizing she couldn't have been involved; she was suddenly far too shook up. One thing was for sure he noted, it had sunk in for her now. He closed the gap between them and wrapped her in his arms, hoping it would steady her trembling body. He hushed her, stroking her hair, telling her it was ok, they were fine, he was sure others were too. Tyana nodded into his chest and slipped her arms around his waist, squeezing it for a second. She hated to lie to him like this, she felt lower than scum, but it wasn't just a case of it being easier. He was safer not knowing. That was a mistake she had made before on her first mission; by telling Jeff she had pulled him into the danger of her world and he had followed her straight into it, risking life and limb for her. And until she could close down the underground mission and be rid of her assassins it was safer for him not to know; safer to think it was all totally coincidental that these things happened near her. Tyana knew that now; she knew it wasn't such a bad thing that Shadow and Bret had taken her memory device and reversed it for their mission. Jeff had a better life that way, at least until she could be done with enemies for good, and if he was safe she could at least be happy.
She sniffed, drawing in the tears that were real but we being cried for reasons other than the assassin attempt. "I think I want to lie down" she murmured, dragging the back of her hand across her eyes. Jeff nodded,
"Ok. Is Shadow in or do we need to go get our keys?" He asked.
Tyana wiped her eyes again, "she should be in, she told me she would be" Jeff nodded, took her hand and led her down the hall towards her room. He knocked then pushed it open, finding it wasn't locked. Shadow wasn't in the immediate bedroom so Tyana presumed she was in the bathroom. Tyana took a seat on her bed and smiled warmly when Jeff bent to kiss the top of her head.
"You gonna be alright here?"
Tyana nodded, "Shadow's gonna be around and I'll probably just go to sleep anyway" out of the corner of her eye she could see Shadow peeking into the room from the bathroom door. She ignored it and kept her attention focused on Jeff. "I'll call you later, ok?" He nodded, whispered his agreement and kissed her gently. With that he left and Tyana waited until the door was closed until she let out a deep breath and looked over to Shadow.
The pink haired woman instantly stepped out from the other room and swanned over to the bed, creases of concern appearing in her face. "Did you pass out again?" she asked worriedly, assuming that could be the only reason why she would have ever cut a day with Jeff short.
Tyana shook her head, "No. some assassins tried to shoot me again and as Jeff was with me he started freaking, asking why I knew what to do and shit. I had to pretend to get really shook up to get him to forget the notion that I could be involved. I thought it'd be better if I just ended it there, if I spend any more time with him today I'll only end up making more lies and I've gotta keep them all straight in my head"
The way her face was so blunt but so regretful told Shadow Tyana hated lying to Jeff the same way she hated the bastards they were trying to stop from re-launching The Witnessing. She placed an understanding hand on Tyana's knee and patted it. "Good idea, Hun. Hey, at least this way you've got time to get into your mission state of mind, we've only got a couple of hours until we're out of here. Until then, how about we order room service? Ice cream sound good?"
***
Tyana doubled over in pain, the air blasting from her lungs with the sharp kick that had hit her square in the stomach. Before she could straighten she was smashed in the head by the heel of a particularly heavy boot and was sent sprawling backwards, slamming into a wall and slumping to the floor.
"Oh frailllll no Jack-ass" Shadow taunted as she tapped their opponent on the shoulder and they turned, getting their jaw caught unfortunately on the bone-cracking end of Shadow's right. Their head swung to the side and Shadow followed up, punching them once in the solar plexus then ramming the base of her hand into their nose, breaking it with a sickening crack. Tyana struggled to her feet, pushing aside thoughts of how they had both idiotically underestimated their opponent, and launched herself into the air in one fluid movement, her foot connecting with she base of the guy's spine, sending him to his knees as he bent in pain.
"I'll get the chips" Tyana barked, leaving Shadow to demolish their enemy while she went about running to the volt across the large room. She punched in a combination Bret had figured out for her. The volt door clicked open and Tyana wondered how her guider did it, he was so intelligent. She snapped back to reality as she took out the completed chips and slipped them into her back pocket. There was one partially started chip, not quite at the liquid silver stage, and she took that too, putting it in her pocket with the others. Near by she could hear the dull thud of a head hitting the floor and she had to look over her shoulder to make sure that it wasn't Shadow's. She was glad to see her friend was standing over a near unconscious figure. "Let's deal with this crap" she gestured to the chip making machines, closing the volt door, not before changing the code to open it. Together, with the chipmaker almost out cold, they began to cut every which wire they could get heir hands on and then dumped a few devices on the floor to shatter them, just for good measure; and a little therapeutic release—they hadn't expected the bastard near by to be so well trained in fighting, that was their field.
When the place was a picture of destruction Tyana pulled the memory device out of her back pack by the wall opposite and crossed to the shallow breathing body. She paused and looked down at them, watching their hazy eyes flicker onto her with mercy. She shook her head with pity. "sorry buddy, you picked the wrong side" she slapped his cheek to add to her sentence then typed in a code and held up the device right in front of his un-focusing eyes. "Shadow, you know the drill" Shadow laughed and covered her eyes, looking the other way also. Tyana did the same and let her finger slip over the flash button.
And then she applied pressure.
***
Back in his hotel room Jeff slept calmly, his eyes flickering beneath the messed sheath of his eye lids. He dreamt deliciously, something seeming terribly familiar as he did so…
"What?" Jeff asked her as she beamed
for what appeared to be no apparent reason.
She snapped out of whatever trance she was in and her smile widened.
"Nothing…just thinking of you"
Jeff flushed with a gentle sweetness and moved towards her. As he sat there she
noticed the worry slide back onto his expression and a second later a hesitant
hand rose to her cut lip. His eyes stared back with a concerned curiousness and
she smiled at him, as if knowing what he thought. With caution his index finger
moved slowly to her lip and with a pleasurable tenderness he trailed it
carefully over the cut. He winced as he waited for her to show some signs of
pain but instead she just stared back at him, her eyes smiling.
Tyana rested her hand on his leg then, stunning him momentarily but he
recovered within seconds and focused again on her damaged lip. As his fingers
danced gingerly back and forth across it he smiled at Tyana whose eyes were
unhurriedly closing with his touch.
"I hate seeing you hurt," he whispered truthfully, her eyes then peeling open at
his statement. Her right hand reached up and clasped around the hand on her
lip. She smiled,
"I know," she murmured back. The hand that wasn't clutched in Tyana's reached
for her and wrapped around her waist, pulling her onto his lap.
With a smile Jeff leaned in and kissed her jaw gently. Tyana beamed at his
sweetness and before she could do the same to him he kissed her temple. Soon
his lips were dancing across her face gently, making her eyes close at the feel
of it. And just when he pulled back to kiss her on the lips for the first time
a small beeping began. Tyana pulled away from him slowly, sighing as she got
out of his lap and walked over to where her bag sat in the corner. Jeff cursed
whomever it was that was calling her at such an hour and such a moment. He was
so close…
He sighed even in his sleep, treasuring her presence even in his unconscious world. He hadn't a clue that what he was dreaming, what felt so familiar, wasn't just some random sequence dreamt up by his heart. It was his past resurfacing.
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*A/N* Soooo sorry this has been like months to be updated! It's just I had very little time and such a huge case of writers block which I only just managed to out-write this weekend. Anyway, Shadow and Lilmizzxtreme, that you for reading, I hope you continue to do so. :)
