Wednesday, March 21st 2001
It was strange for James to wake up beside someone when he had been living a chaste life since his nasty split with Jessie, and he couldn't help himself from looking at her asleep in his arms. His thoughts were vividly remembering the night before as he looked at her soft features, and he slowly brought his arm down from her back to her stomach; he was still in disbelief that he had impregnated her. He saw her move slightly in her sleep and he returned his hand to its original position in case his movement would wake her up. He couldn't focus on her face as much as he would have liked to in lieu of the fact he didn't have his glasses on, but her scent combined with the mere feel of her skin against his gave him more comfort than anyone would have expected. It showed that they were healing the savage wound that had torn them apart as friends as well as lovers, and that she was trusting him like she used to; it was one thing in particular that he had missed during the six month void. He glanced at the bedside table to read the digital clock, and he hazily saw that there was still quite some time before he needed to get dressed for work. He saw her move slightly again, so he tried to prevent her waking up by brushing a strand of purple hair away from her eyes (he was still getting used to her hair colour), and he finally noticed something that Jessie had done the night before in the dark; the locket around her neck rested on her skin in isolation, and he realised that she had returned the ring to her finger. He wasn't sure if it meant that she was making a point of returning to him, or if she still wanted to go through with the wedding, but either way it showed that she wanted to keep him company as his girlfriend. She stirred in her sleep again so he decided not to touch her again in case she woke up, and she only became fully awake fifteen or twenty minutes later. She didn't recognise her surroundings for a moment, but her panic subsided when she saw who was holding her, and she stretched before kissing him good morning. He sat up for a second and leaned over to get his glasses now that she was awake, and he discovered that his arms were tingling as life returned to them. He turned to face her again and ran his fingers along her abdomen as he declared his disbelief at his impending fatherhood. It was comforting to hear her laugh and he pulled her body towards him as he kissed her passionately, and it soon became far more heated than either of them had intended. He suddenly broke away from her and looked at her surprised expression beneath him as he apologised and announced that he couldn't sleep with her, but she locked him in his place with her legs before he could get off her, and she wanted an explanation. She looked genuinely hurt, and he quietly told her that he still had to get the results back from the hospital about the blood Deryck had injected into him after Meowth had cut the coil, and until he was given the all-clear he couldn't risk sleeping with her, especially now that she was pregnant. She understood his reasoning, but the idea of his refusal still hurt her and she found herself fighting back the tears as she released her legs. She hadn't returned to him for sex, but now that she found out that he wouldn't sleep with her, it made her upset for some unknown reason. He wiped the tears away from her eyes and he added that he had no protection with him anyway, and he joked that her hormones were already acting up. He ran his fingers along her cheek whilst carefully asking her if she'd meet him again later in the day since he really enjoyed her company, and they made arrangements whilst James began to get dressed.
Elsewhere…
She was there again as he opened his eyes, and the bright light hurt his already stinging eyes. For the first time he looked down at his manacled body; more of his skin was exposed than what he would feel comfortable with, especially since Cassidy and Giovanni had supposedly been keeping him under tight surveillance. He tried to turn his limbs from their restraints, but he was unable to do so due to both the drugs in his system and the fact that the twists of thick metal had cut off circulation in almost every cell of his body. She was rapidly writing notes as she assessed his status, and she could clearly see the anguish and humiliation in his eyes as she ran her cool hands along his exposed skin, and she gained pleasure out of his disgusted reactions. He tried to talk but he found that he was totally parched from whatever foreign substances were in his system, and he heard her vindictive laughter ringing in the room when she saw his lips quivering. His forearms were burning with pain and he wanted to beg her to loosen them; he wasn't even intending to escape, it was more so that he wanted to feel less like a ventriloquist's plaything and more like the person he should be. His annoyed thoughts were continually returning to the murderous scene six months beforehand, and to frequent queries about the fact that he had a pulse when he should be dead after the injuries he had sustained. He opened his eyes again (he had closed them to ease the stinging that had suddenly appeared), and he saw Cassidy leaning towards him with a full 10cm³ syringe of a clear liquid. He hated the look of sheer malice she gave him as she injected it into the vein above his heart, and the last thing he heard before surrendering to a false sleep was:"Sleep well honey; the fun hasn't even begun yet"
**
James was unable to concentrate as he diligently worked in a restaurant as a chef; Jessie's visit had created a lasting effect in his system even though it was relatively short compared to the time he had suffered away from her. He hadn't expected to see her again, let alone accept him back as a fiancé, and in spite of it being his sole desire for months on end, he was left wondering why she had wanted to sleep with him when she had tried to make it clear that he was the object of her hateful thoughts. He hoped that there was a different reason other than her needing a father for her child after trying to work it out with other men, and he inwardly knew that it wasn't her style. He had felt quite upset the night before when she had readily admitted that she had slept with other men when he had stayed 'faithful', and the only way he had kept his feelings successfully hidden from her when she had told him was by firmly reminding himself that she was fully entitled to do so after his brief liaison with Tyra. He knew that he was slipping into deep thoughts again, but he was drawn out of them by means other than a glass of rum tipped over his head; he caught the side of his hand against a heated steel pot and he cursed quietly to himself whilst running it under cold water. He felt a throbbing in his left wrist from the heat, and a waitress noticed that he had momentarily paused from his work as she approached him with another order for him to carry out. He sighed as he covered his burn up for hygienic reasons, and he took the scrap of paper from her to see what was required of him now.
**
Even after all of these months, she detested entering the rather formidable Team Rocket Headquarters to meet a man that had taught her to become terrified of even sleeping in darkness. The only kindness he had ever expressed towards her was when she was given a week off work (unpaid) to grieve her partner's death, and that wasn't exactly heartfelt. She had been forced to wear a formal uniform since she no longer worked in the same job that her partner had accepted on her behalf as what could be described as an assassin, but she had always maintained the firm stand that no matter what she did, she refused to work with anybody else after the way Deryck had turned sour towards the end of his life. It felt eerie to wait in the very same room where James had been beaten up viciously months beforehand, and the irritating idea of turning back time to refuse food when they were starving seemed to echo around her head more now since she became intimate with James, at least then there was the chance she could talk to him without the fear of being murdered. She had seen him going to work many times when she was based in Viridian City, and she had wisely quenched the temptation of hearing his voice talking to her each time as she knew that if she did, the pain she would feel afterwards would be colossally worse than the cowardice she suffered from. Tyra pulled at the annoying length of the skirt she was obliged to wear—although it was knee-length it still felt as if she was the object of unwanted attention from the male thieves in the room, even though nobody was glancing remotely in her direction. She felt her knees fall weak as she stood up when her identity number was called out over the intercom, and she wondered whether or not she should submit her resignation; it was a thought that had crossed her mind ever time she needed to walk towards Giovanni's office and she always chickened out. She knew that death would greet her if the thought was put into action, and it was what she yearned for in lieu of the fact that she hadn't attempted to make a single friend in six months, and that was the only thing she felt she succeeded at. There weren't any shadows around Giovanni's desk this time, and it frightened her more this way as it showed the eyes she had hated since the first instance they had roamed over her mainly clothed body in her application for a job when she was seventeen. A lot had happened in the two years that had followed her first day as a Rocket. She involuntarily tugged at her skirt again, but this time she knew that she was being stared at like a juicy piece of meat, and what terrified her was that it only a matter of time until he became hungry enough. She was ordered to sit down in a sharp voice, and she chose a seat practically behind her to avoid staying in the room longer than necessary. He began talking to her and she heard what her mission was whilst he signed a cheque for her last successful job. She walked back over to the large table once he had finished and she politely waited for the slip of paper to be handed to her so she could make an escape as quickly as possible. He held the cheque out to her, but he didn't let go as he handed it to her, mentioning that she had yet to hear two more pieces of information from him, and she heard an all-too familiar voice coming from the shadowed corner that she had been sitting near, and the three words he said sent a cold wave of nausea down her back.
"Hello again, Tyra"