STAGE 1
PART 3
John made his way across the rooftops a little less recklessly than normal so he wouldn't break the first of many gifts to his lady. It was just an old jelly jar, cleaned out and filled with water and flowers but to him it was almost as precious as his locket, the same locket he had let Jane keep as the first sign of his devotion to her.
'Although she doesn't see it that way, she probably thinks I don't know she has it or that I don't care,' he grumbled to himself as he stopped atop the station where she worked. He retraced his steps from when he escaped the first night he'd met Michael. That had been fun, he escaped the cage they had tried to put him in and got to inform his rival in no uncertain terms that HE was going to pursue and win Jane. 'All in all, that hadn't been bad a night's work,' John thought, his trademark smirk coming into full play as he watched everybody scurry around below him. While he waited for an opportunity to present itself, he decided to add a little something that would confuse her more than anything else. He left the jar by his watching point and looked around for something to write on and with.
He remembered being able to read and write a little bit before the crash but the skills weren't needed in the jungle so they faded into the back of his mind until Tanta asked one night if he could read or write. When he replied that he didn't know she took it upon herself to re-teach him. After a few sessions he remembered and the more he practiced the better he got, finally to the point Tanta said his handwriting was more beautiful than most handwritten books she had seen. Of course, John never seemed to manage to get around to telling his uncle or Jane but in his defense he usually had other things on his mind at those times.
He thought about all this while still looking for something to write with that worked. There were all kinds of broken pens and pencils but nothing usable. He finally decided to use a broken dowel rod and a not quite empty lighter to write with. After he burned enough on the sharpened end to use it as a makeshift pencil he wrote a quick note on some stationary someone had left.
He looked down just as he finished and noticed a guy being brought in that was putting up enough of a fuss that John could slip down and leave the flowers and note without anyone seeing him. He crept down the stairs and used the chairs and desks as cover at one point very nearly being seen by Jane herself. She had turned around and was searching the bullpen with her eyes as if she had sensed something or someone. Eventually she shrugged her shoulders and turned back to the problem at hand.
'Damn! That was close, too close. Her head may still be denying what we are to each but her heart is getting as good as I am at sensing when I'm near,' he thought as a little thrill of panic raced through him. He quickly left the jar and note in the middle of her desk where she couldn't possibly miss it and the high-tailed back upstairs. He settled back down at his vantage point and waited, wanting to see her reaction to the gifts.