From Italy, with Love

"Jess NO! You can't leave me! You're always leaving and never telling me when you're coming back. I hate you forever now."

"I'm sorry, at least this time I'm telling you I'm leaving. And shut up, you aren't going to hate me forever."

It was mid June and the two best friends stood in a long corridor with about 500 other students. It was graduation day and everyone was dressed in their cap and gown. Although Jess was at the beginning of the line with a last name starting with A, she ran to the back to find her friend and tell her of her plans. Upon hearing about this proposed leave of absence, Kim folded her arms and scowled at having been left behind.

"We were supposed to do stuff everyday this summer and now you just decided to go. I know this biology crap is important, but why this summer?" the distraught girl exclaimed as she saw her summer becoming quite boring.

As much as Jess had seemed cold hearted, she hated seeing certain people in distress, Kim being one of them. "Kim, I'm not leaving for a biology thing."

"What? Then why are you leaving?"

"I'm going, well, remember the Smithsonian?"

"Um, yea. Wait! This has to do with those guys, doesn't it?"

"Yes, something happened where I need to go with them for a while, plus well…" Jess stopped herself as she didn't want to reveal the real reason she had agreed so quickly to leaving. This didn't go unnoticed by Kim.

"Did leaving guy come back? He did, it's written all over your face. I finally caught you in one of your lies! Why didn't you tell me?"

"Oh for heaven sakes," Jess exclaimed with a laugh, "there isn't anything going on. Nothing is happening there." That was a lie too, she thought. "But please don't be angry with me. I told you the real reason I'm leaving, well not really, I just told you who I'll be with. I'll try and sneak you postcards, OK?"

"That's crap. You better send me something everyday or I'll never forgive you."

"You know, you have a lot of empty threats. You should stop hanging around with me."

"Whatever," the now smirking Kim retorted.

"Listen, they're calling us to go out, I got to get to the front again. I'll see you right after it all."

"You're leaving me again! Always leaving, never returning." But Jess had already gone to take her place with the A's. It was time to graduate and start a new chapter.

Her last night at home was very hazy when Jess would try to remember what had happened. She knew she went to a huge party with many of her fellow graduates, but many of the details were lost on her. Although she didn't drink, she came home feeling like she did. The next morning didn't bring much in the way of relief.

"Hey, get up. You'll be late for your flight."

"What now?" the confused girl mumbled when her dad began shaking her to wake up. "Ah, right…biology." Jess almost began laughing, but held it in for obvious reasons. "Has Kim come yet?"

"Yea, so get dressed."

Luckily Jess had packed the day previous since she knew she would be too out of it to attempt the task later. That or her anal retentive tendencies were breaking through again. She slipped on the clothes she had laid out and checked herself in the mirror. All was well; she just wished she could shake the headache. Outside waited her friend who agreed to see her off.

"I'll write daddy, and don't worry about me, OK?" The two had depended on each other for three years now since her mom had left and leaving him seemed a daunting task all of a sudden.

"I won't, just don't do something stupid."

"You mean, stupider than usual?" The two laughed and waved goodbye. Jess had inherited her distaste for long good byes from her dad. A wave was sufficient. They knew that they would miss each other; contact was unnecessary.

"Tell me what you learn while you're there!"

"Crap…" she muttered under her breath. "OK DAD!" Jess climbed into the car, turned to Kim and told her she was expected to learn now. "Who learns anymore? Hahaha"

The drive was rather silent aside from a few random comments made by each girl. The two had always found something to talk about and now they road in silence. Only when they arrived at the airport did the conversation flow more freely.

"Ah, Kim, don't cry. You'll make me cry and no one wants to see that. It's like that stupid marching band banquet all over again."

"Well, if you weren't leaving I wouldn't have to cry, now would I?"

"I said I would write, I promise I will. I'll tell you all the interesting things and even the non-interesting things just to fill up pages and pages."

"Fine, I'll just be content to hate you forever for this."

"That's all I ask." The two finally began laughing to ease off the tension. Taking up her carry-on, Jess began walking away. This time she almost felt compelled to give Kim a good bye hug, but instead she just waved. Jess would regret that later.

"I can't believe you are allowing her to come, Lupin," a scowling Fujiko said with a sigh.

"Well, I can't believe we allow you within 100 yards, but you're still here," a sarcastic voice in the corner remarked.

"Oh, shut up Jigen. But really, why is she coming?"

"There are a few reasons, but revealing them would take away from my mystery," the smiling thief responded.

"Or add to your madness," the samurai by the window added.

The attention in the room shifted suddenly, though, when the man in black stood up quickly. Without saying a good bye, he walked towards the door and made a quick remark that he would be back with Jess in about an hour.

"What was that all about?" a confused Fujiko asked.

"Did you notice, Lupin, he waited exactly 5 minutes after when he said he would be leaving?"

"Yea, he was watching that clock like a hawk for the past two hours like it was his job. Who does he think he is fooling us with that crap? He really ought to just admit it."

Fujiko was fully baffled by what she was hearing. She hadn't noticed any of this and felt a bit out of the loop. What did it all mean that he was watching the clock, what did it matter? Fully annoyed at this point, she finally asked, "What are you guys talking about?"

"Jigen." The thief indicated, "He has been watching that clock all day waiting to go pick Jess up. The stubborn bastard won't even admit it. He purposefully waited 5 minutes exactly after he said he would go pick her up just to make it seem like he didn't care. Goemon and I are making bets on when he'll actually say he likes her. I say never, Goemon says when pigs fly."

"How can you two even tell? He wears that hat over his eyes all the time."

"Just trust us, my dear, and do try and be nice to her. There is no need to be jealous; I'll still love you all the same."

"Oh shove it, Lupin." Fujiko didn't know what to think of a new girl coming in. She wasn't used to sharing the female spot light, especially not with someone whom the three men all liked. She had only known this girl for the short time they were held captive and from that she gathered nothing aside from Jess being a complete shut off sometimes. Fujiko's main concern was if this new person could be used to her advantage.

"Go, go, go, go, go…" Jess kept repeating in her head as she stood behind an elderly woman who was taking her time getting out of her seat. The plane had finally landed, and after what felt like the longest flight ever, Jess wanted to get off. It was bad enough that she was antsy after one hour of sitting in class, but 9 hours on a plane was enough to make her go insane. During the entirety of the flight, the sarcastic brunette had kept herself occupied by listening to (to many people's surprise) Broadway music. But, you can only listen to Les Miserables so many times before wanting to gauge your ears out. For now she was content with carrying on her running dialogue in her mind of, "Go, go, go, go, go…"

"Man, where is she?" the man in black thought to himself. Standing by the gate with all the other people made him a bit uncomfortable. Around him he noticed all the waiting lovers. Watching one girl spring into the arms of one of the waiting men took him off guard for a moment, but his gaze returned to the gate. Finally, behind an old woman appeared the purpose of his journey to the airport. She seemed a bit tired and was looking around. Biting her lower lip, she was nervous.

"O where o where the hell are they?" Jess hummed to herself. Her little melody was cut short by the site of a familiar looking man on the fringes of the crowd. "I spy with my little eye something in black!"

Jigen was glad she had spotted him so that he didn't have to make a scene about getting her attention. As she walked towards him a broad smile spread across her face and her eyes lit up just as they had that poker night so long ago.

"That was possibly the longest flight ever."

"Yea, any overseas flight is pretty friggin' terrible. How are you otherwise?"

"Aside from the massive jet lag, pretty good. I still can't believe I'm actually in Italy, then again I'm amazed by some of the dumbest things." Jess' train of thought ended when she began looking around her. To every side of them families and couples were hugging and kissing; the two of them continued to stand still. "You know, we are possibly the most awkward people ever."

"Would you want it any other way?" Jigen remarked with a grin. He looked down for a response but she was looking down again. She always did that when he was trying to read her; it drove him nuts. After a brief pause she finally looked up.

"Let's do something now." Her eyes were so full fire that it alarmed the gunman who was but a few inches from them.

"Well, I told them I would be back in an hour…"

"Please, I just need to walk around after being on the plane." Jess began looking around as if expecting someone to pop up.

"Has anyone been following you? I thought we had taken care of them, but if they are still following you…"

"No, I'm just a little spooked," her gaze turned straight towards him as she continued, "just don't tell anyone, OK?"

Her brief moment of vulnerability produced a smile on the gunman's face. "I'm sorry, sweetie, are you scared now?"

"My god, you'll never let me live that down, will you?"

"Nope, it would take all the fun out of life. Here, let me take your bag and we'll go find something to do. They can live without us for a while. If not it will just prove that I really am the brains of that group."

As the pure excitement of getting off the plane subsided and the full realization of being in Italy hit her, Jess realized how unusually close she had moved to the man next to her. She looked up, put her hand on his shoulder and gave him a peck on the cheek.

"Thanks for getting me out of there."

Her action took him totally off guard as he jumped slightly. That made the brunette laugh heartily which in turn made the object of her laughing scratch his head and smile awkwardly.

"At least I'm afraid of someone killing me and not of a kiss."

"Hey, for all I know it could have been poisonous."

"This is true, you're always hearing about those girls who kill unexpecting men with their kiss of death." The sarcasm was laid on thick, but that was made what made him like her in the first place.

"Alright, fine. Let's get out of here then." The two walked out with Jess doing much of the talking (more so teasing.) She didn't even notice the man to her left walk closer to her than usual.

Dear Kim,

I'm here in Italy and it's quite wonderful. The trip was ridiculously long and of course I listened to my annoying Broadway music, I'm sure much to the dismay of the people sitting next to me. There isn't much to say in terms of happenings as I just got here, but I must admit that I do miss you a great deal and wish you were here so you didn't have to deal with "Extreme" and "Nice." They don't know I'm gone so if you ever need an excuse to get away from them, just say I had a break down or whatever. Try to refrain from giving empty threats…at least follow through on a few hahaha. OK, I'm going to sleep off some jet lag.

From Italy, with love

Jess

P.S. You win. You did catch me in a lie. Something is going on.