First chapter = disclaimers

Well, another short chapter, but I wanted to do all the revelations in the final chapter, so this one had to be shorter.

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Ellen glanced at Steve as they sat on the folded down tailgate of his truck. They were supposedly watching the stars as they munched on a bucket of ribs-to-go from a restaurant that Steve refused to name.

"So, do you think he's noticed I'm gone yet?"

"Who? Dad or your date?"

"My date, of course, Mark probably foresaw this and bugged your truck."

"No, actually he put a video camera in it."

Ellen laughed until Steve pulled the afore mentioned camera out of his pocket.

"You've got to be kidding me. He actually put that in your truck?"

"Yes, he'd have had sound too, but I caught Amanda trying to slip it in when I stopped at the hospital this afternoon. Dad was sneaky though, Amanda didn't know anything about a video camera. He must have put it in without telling anyone so I would stop looking after I found the sound bug. Dad, of course, denies everything."

"So, how did you find the video camera?"

"I hit my rear view mirror by accident. I saw a tiny speck in the reflection. Sure enough, there was a tiny snake camera running down to a recording unit underneath my back seat. It was angled to record the whole cab."

Ellen smiled and lifted her to-go soda, "To your father, may he never quit being so sneaky."

Steve rolled his eyes, "Yeah."

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Jesse rubbed his hands together as he strolled through the party. Life was good, he'd just gotten off of the phone with the newspaper, and they had agreed to hire Ellen on a temporary basis. It Had taken quite a bit of work, but Jesse Travis did not hang around the Sloans without picking up a few of their unusual tactics.

"Mark, Amanda, how are you guys tonight?"

"Fine," Amanda replied, "What's gotten into you Jess? You look like you swallowed a lightbulb."

"Yes, why do you look so… glowy?" Mark asked

"Well, with a little persuasion and out right begging, I managed to get a job."

"What, but Jesse, you already have a job," Amanda looked at him, perplexed.

"Oh, not for me, for Ellen, you know, so she can stay and hang around Steve, make him less depressed and moody and ornery and…"

"We get the picture. But how did you do it so quickly?" Mark interrupted.

"Quick?! Oh, I mean, I ah had some good connections and stuff. What can I say, I'm good. I should be an agent."

"I wouldn't go that far," Amanda grinned.

"Wouldn't go that far about what Dr. Bentley?" Alvin Tremble slid intrusively into their conversation.

"Oh, we were just discussing ways to get rid of you. I thought I should push you into traffic, but Amanda thought that that would be going to far," Jesse said in a jovial voice.

Dr. Tremble looked back and forth to see if it was some sort of inside joke that he should laugh at, but the shocked expressions on Mark and Amanda's faces did not reall give him a clue to what was going on.

"Come again?" he asked perplexed.

"What Jesse means doctor…" Amanda began, but Jesse soon cut her off.

"What I meant is that you're a big, egotistical two-timing jerk who slept with his patients. Now, I was trying to get rid of you quietly, but I can loudly tell everyone in this room what you are."

Alvin looked to the other doctors, but their silence indicated that they agreed with Dr. Travis.

"Fine then," he huffed, "I'll just collect my date and we'll be going."

"Don't bother; she left about an hour ago. Besides, who do you think told me all about you?" Jesse spoke quietly, but with determination.

Dr. Tremble's jaw hung open. He closed it a few times only to have it drop again. Unable to come up with a suitably stinging reply, he left.

Mark's eyebrows rose to the top of his forehead, "Where did that come from?"

Jesse shrugged his shoulders, "He was getting on my nerves, besides we don't need him anymore."

"That still wasn't very nice, Jesse," Amanda reprimanded.

"That guy didn't deserve to have me be nice to him."

Mark chuckled, "True enough. What say we go back to my place and wait for the love birds to come home?"

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Steve smiled down at Ellen as he walked her up the sidewalk to his front door, "I suppose we should go in there and face the curious masses."

"Now who's blowing things out of proportion? Three people is not a mass, Steve."

"It is when they're the three people that are in there."

Ellen smiled, "Well then, why don't you declare your love for me again? As a bolstering of fortitude, so to speak."

Steve smiled back, "And because they're all peeking out of the window?"

"Naturally."

He shook his head slightly, then plunged down and kissed her lightly. He broke off, waved at the window, then swooped down for a more serious encounter.

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