Author's Note: ::pointing and laughing:: Ha Ha you believed me. I got you. Nah nah na boo boo. I thought that that chapter went well…and so did you apparently from the way you guys came out of the wood work to review. Wow, I had no idea so many people were reading this story without writing me reviews. Bad non-reviewers. Good reviewers, I like you. Sorry this installment took so long my mom's surprise birthday party was this weekend and I had to go down to Memphis to be one of her surprise presents…that's so cool. I'm a present. Anyways. Have any of you ever realized that if you are out in public and just sit down on the floor, for example the hallway of a theater, people find you intensely interesting? So much so that all of them feel the need to come up and talk to you? Trust me, they do. And when you try to explain to them that you're a present so you can't go home…explaining four times over that 'no, you didn't get kicked out of your house, you just aren't allowed to come home.' There's a very big difference there…you become even more intriguing. Fun stuff. This story is drawing to a close…next chapter I'll give you options on what I'm going to be writing next. Stay tuned for that.
Review like mad little bunnies!
Comin' to Get You
Chapter 19: Bleeding here
"How?' was all Zane could manage to get out for a long moment as Jondy laughed up at him. That infuriating laugh was going to be the end of her if she wasn't careful. She stretched out on their couch, a pillow under her back and another under her legs. They had made it back to their apartment, Alec and Max following as Zane carried Jondy. She wasn't seriously hurt but she wasn't up to the long trek after two days of being under heavy medication.
"Neat trick, huh?" she grinned from her position on the couch pushing her feet under Sasha's body to keep them warm. Zane was having trouble breathing as it struck him once again how close he had come to loosing her for good. "Zack taught it to me a while back actually…I thought everybody knew that one. Apparently not."
"Apparently," Alec ground out but couldn't stop the smile that spread across his face.
"Well, color me red." She batted her eyelashes innocently at both men. Even with the bruises blossoming across her face along with angry red lines left by some man's knife she was beautiful. Full lips twisted into a smirk, long dark lashes falling over blue eyes, and delicate cheekbones; it was as though the experience had refined her, polishing her, rather than tarnishing her.
"You going to tell us what you did?" Max asked, sitting down next to Jondy and handing her a glass of water. "He took your pulse and didn't even know you weren't dead."
"Zack explained it as 'giving everything to the ground.' We have an amazing amount of control over our bodies so I just kind of slowed my breathing and heartbeat until there was almost nothing left. Then I 'forced' my body heat into the ground." She shrugged then winced when the movement caused more pain than expected. "I don't know how I do it exactly, I just do it. I'm kinda like Nike."
Zane let his head fall onto her shoulder and sighed, "you took a long time to wake up."
She touched his head gently with light fingertips, "sorry. It's hard to get everything jump started again."
"Great entrance though," Alec said with a smirk.
"I thought you might appreciate that." Her eyes went back to Zane and she grinned, "I'm sleeping in your room tonight, by the way."
"Why?" His face fell for a second as something occurred to him. "Not that I'm complaining or anything."
"You didn't clean my room while I was held captive by psycho cult members."
"I need to clean your room? You're the one who was stupid enough to fight in it."
"I'm also the one who was beaten bloody, given heavy sedatives, and got shot." She lifted her chin and narrowed her eyes. "You're cleaning!"
"She got you there," Max said with a smile, lightly slapping his shoulder.
"You could help me," Zane said with a smile as he wiggled his eyebrows.
"Nope," she grinned back, "I gotta stay here incase she needs me." Her eyes flitted to Alec who was watching in rapt fascination at sibling rivalry. "Alec will help you."
He blinked several time, wondering how that had happened, "excuse me?"
"You'll help him or I'll be forced to put you in a world o' hurt."
Alec turned to Zane and gave him a strained smile; "I'll help ya."
"Thanks."
"Don't mention it. She's quoting Original Cindy I'm in trouble otherwise," he clapped Zane on the back and stood slowly ruffling Jondy's hair gently before turning on his heal.
Jondy fiddled with a fray on her jeans as she and Max watched Alec and Zane walk quietly into her room exchanging sighs and rolling their eyes. She shifted her eyes to Max, who was still watching them with a smile tugging on her lips. She waited, biting on the inside of her cheek, until large brown eyes turned to her. "We're leaving soon," she started without preamble.
"Max nodded and swallowed, "I was hoping you'd stick around for a while."
"We were going to…I just think we need to find Zack before the next catastrophe hit me in over the head."
"Sound judgement anytime you're in Seattle," Max was watching her hands rest entwined in her lap.
Jondy smiled and slapped her arm gently. "It's not like we won't come back." She laughed throwing her head back when Max started pouting, her bottom lip sticking out. "Don't think for a second that I'm ever letting you go long without a call from your resident jut box crazy girl."
"Of course not," a smile broke out on Max's face. She leaned forward to hug Jondy, who patted her arm awkwardly, not in a position to return the full hug.
"I just thought I should give you a heads up that we'd be leaving when I don't look like I've been attacked by an evil cheese grater from hell."
"I was enjoying having you around."
"Understandable since I'm fun to be around," Jondy grinned, showing off perfectly white teeth. "So much fun, in fact, that I deserve ice cream…lots and lots of ice cream.
"So you want ice cream now?"
"Uh huh," Jondy nodded her head happily her hair bobbing up and down over the couch arm. "Of the moose tracks variety." There was a loud crash from the other room followed by Alec's call of "oops." Jondy winced and turned to Max slowly, "why do I have the sudden feeling that I have no more lamps left in my room.
"Wishful thinking that it's all he's broken so far."
She shook her head and then smiled, "I wanted new ones anyway." She grinned, "Maybe I can get some with neon green tassels! That would be so God awful that it would have to be cool." Max just shook her head and got up to get ice cream.
Zane stuck his head into the living room with a sheepish grin, "hey, Jondy?"
"Yeah?"
"Remember that blue sweater you wear all the time?"
"Yes," Jondy's eye's narrowed slowly.
"You never really like it, did you?"
Alec's head came into view, "I mean, if something happened to it you wouldn't be crushed or anything, right?"
"No!" Jondy's jaws dropped, "that was my most favoritist sweater in the whole wide world! You bastards!"
"Calm down, I'll buy you a new one," Alec called with his hands held up in surrender.
"He did it!" Zane's head disappeared once again followed by Alec's.
Jondy pointed at the bedroom and looked at Sasha, "sic 'em!" Sasha dropped her chin onto her paws and looked at her with large brown eyes sadly. Jondy whimpered before turning to Max, who was scooping ice cream into a bowl trying not to laugh, "I think I'm gonna need a whole lot of that."
"Poor baby."
"I told them to clean, not to destroy or make a bigger mess!" She shook her head and ran a hand through her hair unhappily. "Break one more thing and I start singing the song that never ends! You'll never survive the onslaught!"
"What if we broke something before you said that?" Zane asked, wisely keeping his head from view.
"You little…"
"Ice cream!" Max called cheerfully handing the full bowl to Jondy and sitting down with one of her own.
Jondy shoveled in a scoop of ice cream and pouted, she heard an "oh shit," and lost it. "Get out of my room and get out of my room now!" There was a loud tromping noise and Zane and Alec came into view grinning and clapping each other on the backs. "I realize you don't enjoy cleaning but did you have to break my stuff to get out of it?"
Zane's smile dropped off his face as he watched her eyes go wide and tear up. She sniffled gently and his shoulders slumped. "I'm sorry, we didn't mean to. We only actually broke the lamp."
Jondy batted her eyelashes up at him, "good, then go finish cleaning…Alec?" She smiled sweetly.
"Yes?" he asked warily his eye narrowing.
"Break anything else of mine and I'll break your kneecaps…now finish my room." She smiled up at Max; "men are just easy."
"Tell me about it." Max shook her head smiling softly once again watching Alec's retreating backside.
Jondy watched from beneath her lashes and couldn't stop the soft laugh from escaping. "You really like him don't you?"
Max met her eyes before looking down at her hands, "I guess."
"Don't lie." Jondy slapped her shoulder; "you're adorably head over heels."
"We aren't…"
"If you say 'we aren't like that' I'm gonna smack you over the head so hard. Original Cindy warned me about your little prancin' act, and ain't no way I'm lettin' you get away with it." Jondy smirked, "and if you aren't 'like that' yet, girl, what you waitin' for? Get jiggy with it already!"
"Excuse me?"
"Oh, please, that fine piece of ass in there is all yours." Jondy leaned in and whispered, "start taking advantage."
"All right, you want to toss around advice for getting busy?" Max made a whip like motion with her neck and raised one black eyebrow playfully. "How about you?"
"What about me?"
"You gonna get busy with Zane?" she said delicately her wide brown eyes growing larger.
Jondy opened her mouth, blinked, closed it, then opened it again, "maybe…someday." She shrugged, "I have reasons for not jumping Zane's bones immediately. You are already with Alec, you don't have reasons not to."
"And what are your reasons."
"They're big ones, way big, so big." She lifted her arms up and spread them out wide. "Way out there kind of big."
"Scared out of your mind aren'tcha?"
"No…not exactly. I mean, I wouldn't use those words exactly." She made hissing noises through her teeth. "Scared, me? Nah, not possible, nope I refuse to believe it."
"Jondy!"
"What?"
"He's in love with you; it's so obvious not even I can find fault, even with the sibling thing." Max nudged her gently. "Why haven't you…gotten things straightened out yet?"
Jondy swallowed softly and let her lips lift ever so slightly down at her hands. "Have you ever fallen from something really tall? Like I did tonight," she laughed and waited for the nod. "You know that disorienting feeling when you've stopped moving but it seems like the rest of the world is still tilting back into line?"
"Yeah, kind of." Max cocked her head and noticed that all noise from the bedroom had stopped.
"It hasn't stopped tilting yet since I fell last time."
"What do you mean?"
She shrugged, "I'm afraid that one of these days I'll wake up and have forgotten him."
"Ben?" Max asked softly, her voice cracking as her brows drew together. Jondy nodded mutely biting her lip, not looking at her anymore. "Jondy…"
"I know I won't…I'm just worried that it might happen." She let her head fall to the side as she stared at the wall blankly. "If I kiss someone, like Zane, too many times I won't remember how he kissed, or I won't associate his smell with watching the sunrise from a rooftop anymore."
"Jondy…"
"It's stupid."
"No, no it's not." Max smiled and put her head on Jondy's shoulder closing her eyes as she felt her fingers toy with her hair.
"Yes it is…I could never forget Ben, ever." Max felt her smile, "I just need the world to stop tilting for a little while. Just long enough for me to catch my breath." Jondy stopped and her eyebrows pulled together in confusion. She sat up straight causing Max to lift her head.
"What?"
"The apartment is curiously quiet."
"Curiously."
"Time to…investigate." Jondy pulled herself up onto her feet gritting her teeth and waving Max's helping hand away. "I'm gonna have to have a talk with that cheese grater from hell about this."
"You tell it, sister."
"Trust me, you're gonna walk in here tomorrow and I'll be having a fight with a cheese grater."
"The part that worries me is that you're right."
"If I was rich you could call me eccentric." She stopped right in front of her bedroom door and sighed before she pushed it open gently. She peeked her head into the room and then pulled it back throwing her hand over her mouth to stop from laughing.
"What is it?" Max pushed her aside and peered into the room, pulling out with a giggle. "Well, then, such hard workers they are."
Jondy pushed the door all the way open to see Alec sprawled out on her bed one arm thrown over his eyes and Zane with his head bowed over his lap a book lying on the floor next to his hand. Both were asleep. "And they barely got anything done, slackers." She leaned down next to Zane running a gently hand through his silky black hair. He snorted and shook his head, blinking his eyes up at her warily.
"I was cleaning."
"And I just found a barrel full of monkey's in the hallway." She smiled, "com' on. At least get up on the bed."
"Are you gonna sleep with me?" He asked, his voice husky with sleep.
She glanced up onto the bed where Alec lay smack dab in the middle of the king sized bed and then to Max who was trying not to laugh. "Sure. Let's do that." She motioned with her head for Max to help her as she rolled Alec onto his side farther over to the other side; an annoyed grunt was his only reply. Jondy started to lean down to help Zane up but stopped right before her side protested and she smacked him upside the head.
"What was that for?"
"Get onto the bed."
"I'm not sleeping with Alec," he said indignantly with a pout that rivaled Max's.
"I'm not telling you too. I'll be sleeping between you." She smiled at Max. "Climb on in on the other side. It's a sleep over."
"Didn't you used to do that all the time with Brin and Syl?" Zane asked with his eyebrows pulling together sleepily as she flicked the overhead light off.
"Yup, but there was a lot less sleeping and a whole lot more talking." She crawled from the end of the bed until she was lying on her back between Zane and Alec. She felt the bed shift as Max laid down next to Alec. "Night, guys."
Two grunts and a "'night" were her answers before she let exhaustion pull darkness across her eyes.