Part One, Chapter Two

Her heartbeat picked up speed, but not from being startled. Distantly, she knew she should have been. She should have been chastising him for his sudden appearance behind her. He moved so quietly, and had probably been in her bedroom this entire time, shrouded in its deepening shadows, but he had also become such a part of her life over the last few months. She was starting to believe that there was a hidden part of herself that always knew when he was close, sensed his nearness. It had gotten to the point where she was so used to him being there, being a part of her life, that it was noticeably lacking when he wasn't. Like a part of her was spending the moments while they were apart, waiting for him to come.

She turned to face him, his name on her lips. He stood on the other side of the room hesitantly. His clothes and hair wet from the rain outside. His eyes lost in the shadows tracing over his features. It took her a moment to find her voice. It usually did when he appeared to her like this.

"John, what are you doing here?" Oh, she hoped her words didn't sound as conflicted as she was feeling. She was alternating between pleasure at seeing him, and the defensiveness that the same pleasure had sparked.

And there was fear. More than a little bit of fear. The very idea that merely seeing him could do this to her was frightening. She didn't want to need something – no, someone – so much that it could have this kind of effect on her.

But if there was one thing that having John in her life had taught her, was that there were some things that you just didn't get a choice about.

His answer was slow in coming. His tone hesitant. "I'm not sure. I couldn't sleep, so I went to the rooftops of the city… And then the storm came." As if to accentuate his words, muted thunder rolled in the distance as the rain picked up speed. His eyes strayed over to the window for a moment, before coming back to rest on her. Brow furrowed slightly as if he was confused about something. "I didn't know where else to go."

There were a half a dozen different things that she could have told him in that moment. One, that he actually did have a home to go to, a home that he shared with his aunt. Two, it was late, and he shouldn't be here. Three, what was he even doing out at this hour of night after the day – no, make that week – they had had, although she really already knew the answer to that one.

But, looking at him, there were other things that she suddenly knew. Things that she wouldn't have known if it hadn't been the events of said week.

He wanted to be close to her. He needed to be. That was what had brought him to her tonight. He had done this almost every night since their first encounter several months ago, whether she had known it then or not, but tonight was different in a way than all those previously. The fact that it had begun to rain was just a coincidence that had pushed him to actually seek shelter in her bedroom.

After what had happened recently; the multiple attacks on her person, and the abuse he had just a couple of days ago been forced to endure, it was only natural the he would want to come to her. Granted, he may have come to care deeply for his aunt. But them… they'd been through hell and back together, and it would have been a lie if she didn't admit to herself that there was a part of her that wanted – and quite possibly needed – to be with him too.

Spending those few days with him in the wilderness had forced her to change her view of him. Up until then, she had been able to keep him inside that little box firmly labeled 'innocent' and therefore off limits. But she had seen a side to him then… no, not a side; She had finally seen him. Amazing how it had taken her to this moment to finally figure that difference out. He wasn't innocent. Or at least not in the ways she had tried to make him out to be. He was a man that had been forged in the fires of a hell that had broken countless others. He had survived in a violent world not meant for humans, and he had claimed that world as his own.

And she knew then that he would do it again. She could see it in the lines of his face and the look now in his eyes. That previous night out at the train tracks had been the turning point. He had made his choice then when he had pulled back from killing his uncle. He had made the choice between the world he had known for most of his feral life, and the one that he had been brought to. He had made a choice between the primal instincts honed under the jungle canopy, and a future with her.

He had made the same choice that he had made when he was a boy. A young boy stranded in the jungle with the blood of both of his parents still on his tiny body. He had chosen to live. To learn. To survive.

And he would, she realized. She knew he would. It would be a long, hard process, but when the day finally arrived that it all came full circle for John, Jane had a sinking suspicion that Richard wouldn't know what hit him.

~*~