City of Lost Angels

Chapter Nineteen
It's Chocolate Chip Cookie Time

Vince ran a hand through his scraggly hair as she walked down the stairs. He had awoken to find himself alone in bed and became immediately alarmed. His fears were quelled as he rounded the corner and heard voices coming from the kitchen. One male and one female.

"All right, Jess," Jocelyn said as she shifted in her stool. "Preheat the oven to three hundred and fifty degrees."

Vince stood behind Jocelyn and silently watched Jesse preheat the oven. Jocelyn reached over to pick up her glass of tea that sat next to her on the counter, but stopped when she felt someone standing behind her. She slowly turned around and froze when she saw Vince standing in the doorway.

"Hey," she said. A smile crossed onto her face.

"What are you doing up?" he asked in his no-nonsense tone.

"I'm doing great. What about you?" Her smile did not fade.

"Jocelyn, I'm not kidding. Why are you out of bed?"

"I wanted to make cookies."

Vince quirked an eyebrow at her. "Why?"

She shrugged and replied, "I just wanted to. Plus, Jesse said that he hadn't had cookies in a long time."

Jesse raised his hands up in defense. "She asked. All I did was answer."

Vince shook his head and returned his eyes to Jocelyn. "Didn't you hear what the doctor said?"

Something flickered through Jocelyn's eyes that Vince had never seen before.

"Well, a little birdy told me that you weren't one for following doctor's orders either."

Out of the corner of his eye, Vince saw Jesse shift uncomfortably before straightening up the counter. He immediately knew who the little birdy was.

I'll deal with him later, he told himself before focusing on Jocelyn.

"That's not the point, Jocelyn. The point is you have already been hurt once since your accident. I don't want you getting hurt again."

"Accident?" she scoffed. "You mean since someone tried to kill me. And just so ya know I have had my butt on this seat for the past half hour. Jesse has been making the cookies. The only thing I did that was wrong was get my happy little butt down the stairs and into here."

"You let Jesse make the cookies?"

Jesse attempted to respond, but the oven beeped, signaling that it was done heating up.

"Jess, put the cookies in there and watch 'em. I need to go to the bathroom," Joce said in a soft voice before hopping slowly off the stool and heading toward the bathroom on the first floor. Vince followed Jocelyn to the bathroom to make sure she was okay, but turned back around when she slammed the door in his face.

With a heavy sigh, Vince walked into the kitchen and froze in his spot. Jesse was bent over with oven mitts on his hands, peering into the closed oven.

"When do you think they'll be done?"

Vince shrugged and moved closer. He too bent over, the opposite way of Jesse, and looked into the oven.

"They look done."

"But they've only been in there for a minute at least. Have you ever made cookies before, V?"

Vince moved closer to the oven. "Maybe a few more minutes."

Jesse nodded, but they both continued to look into the oven. It wasn't until they heard laughter that they moved. Letty stood next her mom, Samantha, and they were both laughing, hard. Tears were forming in the corners of her eyes.

Both men stood up and acted as if nothing had happened. Jesse slipped off the oven mitts and put them behind his back. Once Letty regained her composure and stopped laughing, she whipped her eyes.

"Where's Joce at, V?" Letty asked. A small laugh floated into the sentence.

A dark look passed over his face as he remembered Jocelyn yelling at him, but he quickly wiped it away. "She's in the bathroom."

Letty quirked an eyebrow but said nothing. It was clear that her mother did not know about Jocelyn's incident. The sound of the bathroom door opening filled the air and seconds later Jocelyn appeared in the door way. Samantha walked over and Jocelyn a hug.

"It's so good to see you," Samantha said, squeezing harder.

Jocelyn clenched her jaw and blocked out the pain. She wasn't in any big rush to tell her mom about what had happened to her.

Letty noticed the look of discomfort float onto her face.

"Hey, ma, why don't you and I go in the living room for a sec? I think V and Joce need to talk."

Everyone turned to look at V. He had a look on his face that really couldn't be described. It was anger, pain, and something else all combined into one look. Jocelyn felt her heart skip a beat when he turned his gaze onto her. Everyone walked out of the room slowly. She could hear Samantha asking Letty something and her and V, but she decided to ignore it.

There was silence between the two. Jocelyn was unsure of what to say and Vince was trying to put his words in the right order.

"I'm sorry," Jocelyn finally managed to choke out.

Vince stuck his hands in his back pocket and sighed. "I'm just worried about you, Jocelyn. I'm afraid that you're going to over exert yourself and end up hurt again."

Jocelyn nodded and wiped at a stray tear that had fallen down her cheek.

"Hey," he said as he pulled his hands from his pockets and walked up to her. "I wasn't trying to make you cry." He brushed his thumb over her cheek as another tear fell.

The feeling of Vince's arms wrapping around her, sent Jocelyn over the edge. "I'm just scared, Vince," she admitted finally. Tears streamed down her cheeks like a waterfall. It pained Vince to see her this way. "I have to look over my shoulder all the time. And I never know who I can trust."

Vince kissed the corner of her mouth and looked her straight in the eyes. "You can stop worrying, baby. I'm going to be here for you no matter what, all right?"

Jocelyn nodded and wiped at her cheeks, but it was useless. The tears kept falling no matter what she did to stop them. Vince pulled her into his arms and laid a kiss on her lips, sending shivers down both of their spines.

"V," she whispered after the kiss had ended.

"Yeah?"

The sound of someone knocking on the front door prevented Jocelyn from saying what she wanted to. And that was, "I love you."

"Joce, it's for you," Letty called out from the living room.

Jocelyn gave Vince a curious look before wiping her tears and slipping out of the kitchen. Her mother sat on the couch with a curious look on her face as well. It was obvious that Jocelyn had been crying.

"Who is it, L…"

The sentence died on her lips when she saw who was at the door. "Sandra! Oh my goodness. What has it been? Four years?"

In the doorway stood Jocelyn's best friend from high school, and the woman who had been hired to kill her. However, she didn't know about the last part.

A/N: Short, I know. I just wanted to get an update up. Sorry. Better chapter next time. Review, please. - Megan