STAGE 1
PART 5
It had been about two weeks since the first set of flowers and Tarzan was beyond pleased with himself. He had been randomly leaving Jane flowers from Tanta's garden, sometimes with a note sometimes not, in the most unlikely places, her car, in a coffee mug, her purse. And then after they were found he would dutifully report back to Tanta about her reaction.
'Of course, I won't tell her about the rose I left on the bathroom sink while Jane was showering yesterday morning,' John thought to himself with a purely male smirk. He settled himself into a comfortable crouch on Jane's apartment building roof and waited for Nikki to appear. She had finally decided she wanted answers and had called to him yesterday to set the meeting. 'To bad the shower curtain hadn't been clear,' he continued sighing a little at a lost opportunity. Before he could really get into that train of thought he heard the roof door creak open and went to see who it was.
Nikki scrambled out onto the roof, grumbling to herself the entire time about stupid males and their masochist tendencies. She had been doing fine with letting John, Tarzan, whatever, do his own thing. Right up until he left the rose while Jane was in the shower, after she found out about that, at the top of her sister's lungs, she had stormed up here and demanded that Tarzan had better have his sexy, jungle boy backside up here today or SHE"D do some hunting. She was still stalking around looking for him when she felt a hand on her shoulder.
"DON"T DO THAT!!!" Nikki shrieked as she jumped. She spun around and whacked him on the arm, then glared when he just stared at her with this slightly confused look.
"What did you want?" John asked with a tilt of his head.
Nikki grumbled under her breath for a bit and the answered, "You were doing great with the flowers until yesterday. What the hell, made you put that rose in the bathroom while she was in the shower? I had to put up with ten minutes of her ranting and then another five as she ran out the door because she was late."
'Jane hasn't said anything about the notes, not even to Nikki,' John realized in wonder. Out loud he asked in a wounded tone, "Jane was mad?"
"More startled and hiding behind anger. She wasn't expecting her admirer to get in that close. She's actually loving this though she won't admit it," she replied in a soothing voice, reaching out to lightly stroke an arm. "It's one reason she hasn't reported it as a stalker. For all her being sensible she's a die hard romantic at heart." As Nikki kept talking John tuned her out until he had one ear on what she was saying so he could plan how he was going to work the next drop. When Nikki finally said good-bye he made the appropriate grunt and waited until she had gone safely back downstairs before heading over to Tanta's.
As he dropped into the garden he heard struggling from inside the house. He shattered the back door in his rush to get inside, and pulled up short as the scene registered completely in his mind. There before on the floor was a rather tall, well built man with a bleeding head wound and a bloody bat beside him. A few feet away was Tanta, also on the ground, clutching her arm and trying to back away from the other man in the room, who had been lining up the killing shot when Tarzan had burst in.
At the commotion John made the guy's gun hand automatically jerked up and around, firing at the intruder. John managed to dodge enough that the bullet only grazed his arm and then charged. The gunman realized he had made a possibly fatal mistake and did the first smart thing since his buddy talked him into the gig, he ran like a bat outta hell. John paused for a second trying to decide if he should follow the man who had dare hurt his Tanta or help Tanta. Finally, his more rational side won and he turned to Tanta to see how badly she was hurt.
"Tanta, you okay?" John asked quietly as he moved over to her to check her arm.
"I'm alright, honey. Take more than a couple of hooligans to take out this old bat," Tanta reassured him as she struggled to stand up. He helped her into a chair and then went and secured the guy that was still unconscious. He then walked over and called it in and waited with Tanta until the sirens were to close to ignore any longer. He gave her a peck on the cheek and slid out into the garden where he could watch and make sure they treated her alright.
After everyone had left he went back in to make sure he had his enemy's scent. Once he was sure he had it, he bolted out of the house and began hunting. It took most of the rest of the day but Tarzan finally tracked him to a run-down apartment building. Inside it looked like no one had lived there for years; the walls were stained and spray painted, rats and other things scurried around in the shadows. Tarzan cautiously crept through the place, identifying and dismissing what his senses were telling him until the only thing left was the scent and sound of his prey. He finally found his quarry laying semi propped up against a back wall in one of the apartments. Beside the guy were the gun and a glass pipe of some sort and a lighter. Tarzan crept up on him and was about to pounce when he realized the guy was passed out.
'Well, hell. What's the use of beating him to death for hurting Tanta if he's not awake through most of it,' Tarzan grumbled to himself as John finally started to win over the more primal mindset he had fallen into. John picked the guy up and hauled him outside, leaving him beside the building. Once there, he went and found a pay phone to call 911. He waited on the roof of a nearby building until they got there and he noticed that Jane was one of the ones who answered. Then he realize why the rooftop looked a little too familiar, he was in Jane's territory. He followed her to the hospital and after a quick survey found out that this was the same hospital that Tanta was in. He slid in through an opening in the roof and made his way down to her room, stopping at a cart with flower arrangements to liberate a few flowers for her.
When he got he could hear voices within chatting lightly.
"So you caught that other hooligan did ya? Well, that's good," Tanta was saying as she settled back against the pillows a little better.
"Yes, Ma'am. Once you're feeling a little better we'll need you to do a line-up but if the gun we found matches up with the bullet they removed from your arm it would just be a formality," Jane explained with a smile, liking the feisty, old lady. If she had known that the feisty, old lady she was liking was sitting there calmly sizing her up to see if Jane was good enough for her boy then she probably wouldn't have Tanta liked nearing as much.
"Well, young lady, tell me about yourself. Do you have family, husband, boyfriend?" Tanta asked deciding since Jane was there and Tarzan couldn't stop her she might as well be a nosy, little, old lady.
Jane gave her a startled look and replied before she really thought about it. "Well, I have a younger sister, Nikki, who's in college. I'm not married but I apparently acquired an admirer. He's been leaving me flowers in allsorts of places. My desk, car, yesterday he left a rose on the bathroom sink while I was showering," she trailed off as she tried to figure out who it was once again.
Tanta sat back and quietly fumed, 'I'm gonna tan that boy's hide when I get out of here. Leaving that flower while she was washin', the very idea.'
Outside the room John tried not to bang his head against the wall as he heard Jane confess that last stunt. 'Tanta's going to kill me. Maybe I should go enlist Aunt Kathleen's help for awhile,' he thought as he tried to think of ways to get out of this newest trouble.
Back inside, Tanta came out of her fume and decided to be nosy some more. "You have any idea who the admirer might be?" She asked just to see if Jane was even close in her suspicions.
"I thought it might be this one guy I met a while back but some of the flowers had these adorable poems with them and I don't think he can write," Jane said still lost in thought.
Tanta tilted her head, "What do you mean you don't think he can write? Was he raised in a jungle or something?"
Jane gave a mysterious little smirk and replied under her breath, "You have no idea." A little louder she said, "I'm afraid I'm going to have to go. Those reports won't write themselves. You take care of yourself and get plenty of rest, alright? And next time leave the bad guy catching to us, huh?"
"I'll try, honey, I'll try. You be careful out there you hear?" Tanta quipped as Jane leaned down and gave the sweet old lady a hug. With a final wave Jane was out the door.
Meanwhile out in the hall, John couldn't decide if he wanted to jump for joy because Jane thought his notes were adorable or yell at Tanta for the jungle crack. When he heard Jane coming out of the room he quickly ducked into another one until he was sure she as gone, after that he slipped into Tanta's room.
"I was wondering when you'd come by to see me," she greeted with a bright smile as spied the flowers in his hand. John went and found a cup that looked like it might hold and took care of them, placing them on the bedside table.
"Are you truly alright, Tanta? When I saw what was happening I just went primal and just barely managed to check myself when he ran," John asked softly as he laid his head on the bed near her hand.
Tanta took the hint and started stroking his hair in soothing reassurance, "Yes. I'm fine. But what about you, is that blood I see on that arm?"
John looked down at the arm in question and gave a small snort, "I didn't even realize I was hit. It's just a graze, nothing to worry about," he reassured in turn. Tanta nudged him until he went and forged for supplies to clean it out. After he was done, he went back only to find Tanta asleep. He crept in and pulled the blanket up a little higher and kissed her on the cheek.
As he made his way back out the same way he came in, he spied another flower arrangement cart and borrowed a few daises from it. He waited outside Jane's apartment until she went to sleep and then very careful crept in and left the daises where she see them first thing in the morning and carefully brushed a feather-light kiss across her lips in thanks for Tanta. After that he slid back out of the room and into the night.
A.N. That's all I have for now. Review and tell me what you think.