Justin
I consider the day I finally came home as being one of the top ten days of my life. Possibly one of the best days in all of human existence. I was willing to have a holiday declared or something. I was still on crutches, the cast was off my arm, but it was still going to be in a brace for a while, had some scars, bruises and assorted aches and pains along with a strenuous schedule with the physical therapist, but the point was, I was home!
I knew Jhondie had gotten the place ready for me when I gimped through the front door. I had never kept the place that neat. She even dusted. I wasn't worried about something growing in the fridge though. With Jhondie, food never lasts that long. When I left, there had been a pile of clothes by my bedroom door that I had kept swearing I was going to take to the cleaners, but hadn't got around to it. Now it was gone and I was willing to bet they were all washed and folded. Either that or thrown away and new ones purchased. I never knew with Jhondie. She could leap fences, kick the crap out of six guys and break into the most secured places in the world, but, well, to put it kindly, laundry wasn't her forte.
I had a whole entourage with Jhondie, Dad and the twins helping me into the place. I would have given anything just to have one person drive me home and let me chill for a while and just enjoy knowing that at 3 AM nobody was going to wake me up to ask me if I needed a sleeping pill. Yes, that does happen. And yes, it really does suck.
Before we got to my place, I had demanded real food somewhere. Anywhere. I didn't care as long as it didn't come on a plastic tray and Jell-O was not considered a dessert item. We went to this little Italian place that Jhondie and I had found last year. Found, wiretapped and listened into conversations being held there, it's all the same I guess. Point is, they have the best shrimp scampi that has ever been made in the history of scampi. For once, I out-ate Jhondie. It was just great not eating bland, nutritionally balanced hospital food.
Bryan and Brittany were happy to see me up and around. I think the hospital thing had scared them both. I learned later they thought since I had been taken there and they couldn't see me at first, I must have died because that's exactly what happened when Mom was killed. I felt bad enough over how much I had worried everyone, but now I really resolved to be more careful in the future. Dad was right in some ways. Look how much I had traumatized those two and they were just my brother and sister. What would it have been like if they were my son and daughter and Jhondie had to explain to them why I was gone?
I had been thinking about a lot of things, I guess. When you're stuck in a hospital, time is the one thing that you suddenly have in abundance. I thought about the trip we had taken to Mexico last summer and how much Jhondie had been a part of my family there without even trying. The little brats had long since loved her like a big sister. And I was part of Jhondie's family too. Her Mom was a friend with my Dad and we actually did things as a family, with Ashley and Kayla and Dad with Brittany and Bryan. I think I was starting to really grow up and think like an adult instead of a punk kid. It's amazing what almost getting beat to death will do to a person's priorities.
But when I got home, I swear, I had never walked into anywhere with that much fanfare. Brittany, yes my little sister, fluffed a pillow in the chair I was heading for before I could sit down. Bryan was babbling about some of the stuff that he had researched on the Internet to make the apartment, as he put it, "more disabled-friendly during my convalescence". All I wanted to know was how long it had taken him to learn how to pronounce those words much less remember them for a recital.
They all stayed over for a while until I was ready to choke someone. I had tried to get up and Brittany insisted I didn't need to get up for anything and she could do it for me. I asked her how it was physically possible for her to pee for me. Bryan would have blushed. Brittany looked down her nose and threatened to get a bottle. And that was when Dad jumped up and announced it was time to go. Dad has always had the best sense of timing. Brittany tried to protest that Jhondie didn't have to go, but Bryan practically pushed her out the door saying that a girlfriend was more fun to have around than a little sister when you're old. That was one of those comments where you're not sure if you should hug or slap the kid.
When we were finally alone, Jhondie looked at me and said, "She's semi- right. You do look tired. Maybe you should go and lay down and rest for a while." I motioned for her to come over and I know she thought I wanted some help getting to my bedroom. Instead of getting up, I grabbed her by the front of her jeans and pulled her down so that she was straddling me, her legs folding by my thighs.
"First time in over a month we've been alone together with a door that locks," I said with a grin, my free hand pulling her shirt out from her jeans, "and you think I'm in the mood to rest?"
"Justin!" she started to say and then her protest turned into a pleasured sigh. I know guys say that being with a bunch of women is the best, but the cool thing about a long-term relationship is that you really get to know that person and she knows you. You know what the other likes and doesn't like and what means stop and what means stop and I'll kill you. And from the look on Jhondie's face, she was leaning towards the stop and I'll kill you.
"No!" she finally managed to get out, trapping my hand. She took a breath and tried to look stern. With the flush on her cheeks, she only managed to look adorable. "You are far from healed," she said firmly. "You still need to rest and it's been a hard day for you."
I grinned wickedly. "The day isn't the only thing." She blushed harder, knowing exactly what I meant. "And the only way you're going to get me in that bed is to find a way to lure me there." I hooked my finger in the front of her t-shirt and pulled her to me for a kiss.
She might have tried to protest again, but she's the one with the super- hearing, not me, so I didn't hear anything that could be made into words, so it doesn't count. Although, I have to admit, when you have a cast, a recliner isn't the best of ideas. If I have to explain, then you are too young to hear the answer. But anyways, by the time I got her topless, she had left off with the protests completely and jumped up off of my lap.
Her skin was flushed, chest rising and falling rapidly with the increase in her breathing. And oh God, I don't think a man had ever wanted a woman more when she just smiled at me. "You coming or do I have to carry you off?"
I grinned. Technically, yes, she could do it very easily, however, the differences in our height made it awkward for her to balance properly while walking. Don't ask how I knew that. Just accept it and move on. I grabbed my crutches and awkwardly got to my feet. "You better use that super speed and get in there now," I said, nodding towards my bedroom.
She laughed and then it was like she vanished. The woman was determined to drive me crazy. I knew that for sure now. And I also knew that I didn't care.
*~*~*~*~*~*
I knew it was night when I woke up later. The night of what day, I couldn't be for sure. Jhondie was wrapped around me, so I really didn't care about anything much beyond that and where the Tylenol was. Love is grand and all that, but after hours of excess when you have a cast, the body will remind you why you shouldn't have done all that. This is when having the ability to pop off the lid of the Extra Strength Tylenol with one hand comes into play. It took me a couple of fumbles, but I managed to get it off of the nightstand, open it up and get a couple out without spilling most of the bottle. I had mastered the technique about my fourth week in the hospital as well as dry swallowing the little pills.
I relaxed back on the bed, wincing slightly when Jhondie wiggled to get comfortable before falling back into sleep again. I loved her. Wanted her to be there. But having additional weight on me wasn't the most comfortable thing at the moment. I wasn't going to complain though and get her to move. I had come so close to never being with her again that I wasn't going to let a little pain keep me from holding her.
She was smiling in her sleep and I couldn't help but smile back. Her nightmares had been fading over the last months and I was grateful for that. Even this recent scare hadn't brought them back like before. And for that I would be forever grateful. I wondered if Zack had realized she was doing better now than before and that explained his little nocturnal visit.
I knew that he had spent the night over at Jhondie's when he showed up at the hospital. Jhondie said he left that day for parts unknown, but she was once again reinstated for the contact number. A couple of nights later I had woken up and there was Zack, sitting in the chair by my bed. I wondered how long he had been there, just watching me. That was a creepy feeling, one that I would prefer to never feel again. Jhondie, Dad, even the twins and I didn't have a problem. But Zack was inhumanly quiet, still, just staring. And he wasn't supposed to be in LA.
"Wasn't expecting to see you for a while," I said, knowing he would never be the first one to break the silence.
"You want to marry my sister," he said flatly, making it sound like an accusation.
Oh boy. This could get scary. It didn't hit me until later that he referred to Jhondie as his sister. That was a first for me to hear from him. "Absolutely," I replied without a hint of apology in my voice. "It's not enough anymore to have her as a girlfriend. Like I said before, if you have to ask me why that is, there's no way you'll understand the answer."
He stood, doing that gliding thing that I had only seen Jhondie do before. Zack leaned over me menacingly. "If you ever hurt her," he said in a cold, flat voice, "I will kill you."
I blinked. Not at the threat, though I believed he meant exactly what he said. That wasn't figure of speech. I would be true worm-food. But that it almost sounded like he had just given me permission to marry her. I swallowed. "I'd have to cut my own heat out first before I could hurt her," I finally said.
Zack backed off and without another word, disappeared from my room. And I wondered right then if maybe, maybe, he didn't ask because he finally knew the answer.
Jhondie
Yes, I knew I should have been more careful with Justin when he got home, but he started it! So when he was sore the next morning, it was pretty much his fault. I still made breakfast though and we were smiling and giggling at each other like a couple of kids who had just spent the night together for the first time. It was silly, but I was so relieved at having him home, I couldn't help but to be a little slaphappy.
We couldn't stay apart for more than a few minutes. And I wondered if this were the way it would be like when we got married, always finding little reasons to touch and quick kisses on the side of the neck. I hoped so. I know Dad never left the house without kissing Mom good-bye and there would be times he just looked at her and she would blush. That was what I wanted and those first few weeks when Justin got out of the hospital, I knew for sure I had found that kind of love that gets in there and never lets go.
I think the first month after Justin got back was one of the best months of my life. I know how odd that sounds since he was healing from nearly being killed, but it still was. We were together a lot, and not just in bed either. I think what had happened had a maturing effect on Justin and I. Instead of playing house, we were becoming a family. I wasn't thinking about a wedding anymore, I was thinking about our lives together being married. There were going to be bills and laundry and yes, eventually kids to be picked up from school. Those things had frightened me before, but not now. I was ready for that life and I was looking forward to it. I had enough adventure. I was ready for some reality.
There was one adventure that wasn't going away though. Eyes Only. I had tried to keep up as much as I could with the boss's stuff, but so much had started to evolve around Justin and his contacts and ability to get information. I did the best I could, but I had to tell EO that LA was out of commission for a while, and he just had to make due until then. He wasn't happy about it, but there wasn't much I could do. I was great for the muscle. If you needed to break into a place, then I was your girl, but if you wanted to interview someone, I was the last person to call. Sure, I knew the mechanics of it, and I knew how to progress and force the info out, but Justin had a way of making people honestly want to help without resorting to psy ops techniques.
I think it had a lot to do with the fact that the crusade wasn't mine. As much as I loved being Justin's partner in all this, that wasn't my world really. I was going to be a doctor, not a journalist. And in the beginning, I had tried to push myself into investigation so that it would be my crusade as well, but that wasn't where the heart was. I knew the career path I was on was the right one for me. I had done what I could on this side, and if Justin needed some quick muscle, I was always on call, but I couldn't help but think there was something poetic about the ultimate killing machine dedicating herself to being a healer.
The boss was very happy to see Justin back though. Funny, he never asked what happened. Justin said there were unavoidable issues and that was that. I wondered if Eyes Only noticed the scar on Justin's cheek and chose to not pry or if he had a policy of not probing into his operatives' personal lives. Then again he had also disappeared for months before without a word of explanation, so all was fair, right?
In any case, I was still helping Justin get caught up with the EO stuff, but my zeal for the work was more for nostalgic sake. Justin's work for Eyes Only had been the reason we met and what made us get so close so quickly. We had a lot of time bonding when we had been staking out a place and as hair-raising as a few of those moments were, they still brought a smile to my face. I would be there as long as Justin needed me on the project and that was that.
I consider the day I finally came home as being one of the top ten days of my life. Possibly one of the best days in all of human existence. I was willing to have a holiday declared or something. I was still on crutches, the cast was off my arm, but it was still going to be in a brace for a while, had some scars, bruises and assorted aches and pains along with a strenuous schedule with the physical therapist, but the point was, I was home!
I knew Jhondie had gotten the place ready for me when I gimped through the front door. I had never kept the place that neat. She even dusted. I wasn't worried about something growing in the fridge though. With Jhondie, food never lasts that long. When I left, there had been a pile of clothes by my bedroom door that I had kept swearing I was going to take to the cleaners, but hadn't got around to it. Now it was gone and I was willing to bet they were all washed and folded. Either that or thrown away and new ones purchased. I never knew with Jhondie. She could leap fences, kick the crap out of six guys and break into the most secured places in the world, but, well, to put it kindly, laundry wasn't her forte.
I had a whole entourage with Jhondie, Dad and the twins helping me into the place. I would have given anything just to have one person drive me home and let me chill for a while and just enjoy knowing that at 3 AM nobody was going to wake me up to ask me if I needed a sleeping pill. Yes, that does happen. And yes, it really does suck.
Before we got to my place, I had demanded real food somewhere. Anywhere. I didn't care as long as it didn't come on a plastic tray and Jell-O was not considered a dessert item. We went to this little Italian place that Jhondie and I had found last year. Found, wiretapped and listened into conversations being held there, it's all the same I guess. Point is, they have the best shrimp scampi that has ever been made in the history of scampi. For once, I out-ate Jhondie. It was just great not eating bland, nutritionally balanced hospital food.
Bryan and Brittany were happy to see me up and around. I think the hospital thing had scared them both. I learned later they thought since I had been taken there and they couldn't see me at first, I must have died because that's exactly what happened when Mom was killed. I felt bad enough over how much I had worried everyone, but now I really resolved to be more careful in the future. Dad was right in some ways. Look how much I had traumatized those two and they were just my brother and sister. What would it have been like if they were my son and daughter and Jhondie had to explain to them why I was gone?
I had been thinking about a lot of things, I guess. When you're stuck in a hospital, time is the one thing that you suddenly have in abundance. I thought about the trip we had taken to Mexico last summer and how much Jhondie had been a part of my family there without even trying. The little brats had long since loved her like a big sister. And I was part of Jhondie's family too. Her Mom was a friend with my Dad and we actually did things as a family, with Ashley and Kayla and Dad with Brittany and Bryan. I think I was starting to really grow up and think like an adult instead of a punk kid. It's amazing what almost getting beat to death will do to a person's priorities.
But when I got home, I swear, I had never walked into anywhere with that much fanfare. Brittany, yes my little sister, fluffed a pillow in the chair I was heading for before I could sit down. Bryan was babbling about some of the stuff that he had researched on the Internet to make the apartment, as he put it, "more disabled-friendly during my convalescence". All I wanted to know was how long it had taken him to learn how to pronounce those words much less remember them for a recital.
They all stayed over for a while until I was ready to choke someone. I had tried to get up and Brittany insisted I didn't need to get up for anything and she could do it for me. I asked her how it was physically possible for her to pee for me. Bryan would have blushed. Brittany looked down her nose and threatened to get a bottle. And that was when Dad jumped up and announced it was time to go. Dad has always had the best sense of timing. Brittany tried to protest that Jhondie didn't have to go, but Bryan practically pushed her out the door saying that a girlfriend was more fun to have around than a little sister when you're old. That was one of those comments where you're not sure if you should hug or slap the kid.
When we were finally alone, Jhondie looked at me and said, "She's semi- right. You do look tired. Maybe you should go and lay down and rest for a while." I motioned for her to come over and I know she thought I wanted some help getting to my bedroom. Instead of getting up, I grabbed her by the front of her jeans and pulled her down so that she was straddling me, her legs folding by my thighs.
"First time in over a month we've been alone together with a door that locks," I said with a grin, my free hand pulling her shirt out from her jeans, "and you think I'm in the mood to rest?"
"Justin!" she started to say and then her protest turned into a pleasured sigh. I know guys say that being with a bunch of women is the best, but the cool thing about a long-term relationship is that you really get to know that person and she knows you. You know what the other likes and doesn't like and what means stop and what means stop and I'll kill you. And from the look on Jhondie's face, she was leaning towards the stop and I'll kill you.
"No!" she finally managed to get out, trapping my hand. She took a breath and tried to look stern. With the flush on her cheeks, she only managed to look adorable. "You are far from healed," she said firmly. "You still need to rest and it's been a hard day for you."
I grinned wickedly. "The day isn't the only thing." She blushed harder, knowing exactly what I meant. "And the only way you're going to get me in that bed is to find a way to lure me there." I hooked my finger in the front of her t-shirt and pulled her to me for a kiss.
She might have tried to protest again, but she's the one with the super- hearing, not me, so I didn't hear anything that could be made into words, so it doesn't count. Although, I have to admit, when you have a cast, a recliner isn't the best of ideas. If I have to explain, then you are too young to hear the answer. But anyways, by the time I got her topless, she had left off with the protests completely and jumped up off of my lap.
Her skin was flushed, chest rising and falling rapidly with the increase in her breathing. And oh God, I don't think a man had ever wanted a woman more when she just smiled at me. "You coming or do I have to carry you off?"
I grinned. Technically, yes, she could do it very easily, however, the differences in our height made it awkward for her to balance properly while walking. Don't ask how I knew that. Just accept it and move on. I grabbed my crutches and awkwardly got to my feet. "You better use that super speed and get in there now," I said, nodding towards my bedroom.
She laughed and then it was like she vanished. The woman was determined to drive me crazy. I knew that for sure now. And I also knew that I didn't care.
*~*~*~*~*~*
I knew it was night when I woke up later. The night of what day, I couldn't be for sure. Jhondie was wrapped around me, so I really didn't care about anything much beyond that and where the Tylenol was. Love is grand and all that, but after hours of excess when you have a cast, the body will remind you why you shouldn't have done all that. This is when having the ability to pop off the lid of the Extra Strength Tylenol with one hand comes into play. It took me a couple of fumbles, but I managed to get it off of the nightstand, open it up and get a couple out without spilling most of the bottle. I had mastered the technique about my fourth week in the hospital as well as dry swallowing the little pills.
I relaxed back on the bed, wincing slightly when Jhondie wiggled to get comfortable before falling back into sleep again. I loved her. Wanted her to be there. But having additional weight on me wasn't the most comfortable thing at the moment. I wasn't going to complain though and get her to move. I had come so close to never being with her again that I wasn't going to let a little pain keep me from holding her.
She was smiling in her sleep and I couldn't help but smile back. Her nightmares had been fading over the last months and I was grateful for that. Even this recent scare hadn't brought them back like before. And for that I would be forever grateful. I wondered if Zack had realized she was doing better now than before and that explained his little nocturnal visit.
I knew that he had spent the night over at Jhondie's when he showed up at the hospital. Jhondie said he left that day for parts unknown, but she was once again reinstated for the contact number. A couple of nights later I had woken up and there was Zack, sitting in the chair by my bed. I wondered how long he had been there, just watching me. That was a creepy feeling, one that I would prefer to never feel again. Jhondie, Dad, even the twins and I didn't have a problem. But Zack was inhumanly quiet, still, just staring. And he wasn't supposed to be in LA.
"Wasn't expecting to see you for a while," I said, knowing he would never be the first one to break the silence.
"You want to marry my sister," he said flatly, making it sound like an accusation.
Oh boy. This could get scary. It didn't hit me until later that he referred to Jhondie as his sister. That was a first for me to hear from him. "Absolutely," I replied without a hint of apology in my voice. "It's not enough anymore to have her as a girlfriend. Like I said before, if you have to ask me why that is, there's no way you'll understand the answer."
He stood, doing that gliding thing that I had only seen Jhondie do before. Zack leaned over me menacingly. "If you ever hurt her," he said in a cold, flat voice, "I will kill you."
I blinked. Not at the threat, though I believed he meant exactly what he said. That wasn't figure of speech. I would be true worm-food. But that it almost sounded like he had just given me permission to marry her. I swallowed. "I'd have to cut my own heat out first before I could hurt her," I finally said.
Zack backed off and without another word, disappeared from my room. And I wondered right then if maybe, maybe, he didn't ask because he finally knew the answer.
Jhondie
Yes, I knew I should have been more careful with Justin when he got home, but he started it! So when he was sore the next morning, it was pretty much his fault. I still made breakfast though and we were smiling and giggling at each other like a couple of kids who had just spent the night together for the first time. It was silly, but I was so relieved at having him home, I couldn't help but to be a little slaphappy.
We couldn't stay apart for more than a few minutes. And I wondered if this were the way it would be like when we got married, always finding little reasons to touch and quick kisses on the side of the neck. I hoped so. I know Dad never left the house without kissing Mom good-bye and there would be times he just looked at her and she would blush. That was what I wanted and those first few weeks when Justin got out of the hospital, I knew for sure I had found that kind of love that gets in there and never lets go.
I think the first month after Justin got back was one of the best months of my life. I know how odd that sounds since he was healing from nearly being killed, but it still was. We were together a lot, and not just in bed either. I think what had happened had a maturing effect on Justin and I. Instead of playing house, we were becoming a family. I wasn't thinking about a wedding anymore, I was thinking about our lives together being married. There were going to be bills and laundry and yes, eventually kids to be picked up from school. Those things had frightened me before, but not now. I was ready for that life and I was looking forward to it. I had enough adventure. I was ready for some reality.
There was one adventure that wasn't going away though. Eyes Only. I had tried to keep up as much as I could with the boss's stuff, but so much had started to evolve around Justin and his contacts and ability to get information. I did the best I could, but I had to tell EO that LA was out of commission for a while, and he just had to make due until then. He wasn't happy about it, but there wasn't much I could do. I was great for the muscle. If you needed to break into a place, then I was your girl, but if you wanted to interview someone, I was the last person to call. Sure, I knew the mechanics of it, and I knew how to progress and force the info out, but Justin had a way of making people honestly want to help without resorting to psy ops techniques.
I think it had a lot to do with the fact that the crusade wasn't mine. As much as I loved being Justin's partner in all this, that wasn't my world really. I was going to be a doctor, not a journalist. And in the beginning, I had tried to push myself into investigation so that it would be my crusade as well, but that wasn't where the heart was. I knew the career path I was on was the right one for me. I had done what I could on this side, and if Justin needed some quick muscle, I was always on call, but I couldn't help but think there was something poetic about the ultimate killing machine dedicating herself to being a healer.
The boss was very happy to see Justin back though. Funny, he never asked what happened. Justin said there were unavoidable issues and that was that. I wondered if Eyes Only noticed the scar on Justin's cheek and chose to not pry or if he had a policy of not probing into his operatives' personal lives. Then again he had also disappeared for months before without a word of explanation, so all was fair, right?
In any case, I was still helping Justin get caught up with the EO stuff, but my zeal for the work was more for nostalgic sake. Justin's work for Eyes Only had been the reason we met and what made us get so close so quickly. We had a lot of time bonding when we had been staking out a place and as hair-raising as a few of those moments were, they still brought a smile to my face. I would be there as long as Justin needed me on the project and that was that.