There was a knock at the door.
"Jean, can you get that?" Scott asked as he struggled to put on a boot.
"Sure"
Jean jogged over to the door.
"Hey!" smiled Alex with his suitcase.
"Oh thank goodness you're here!" she exclaimed.
He looked at her suspiciously.
"Why did the hairs on the back of my neck stand up when you said that?"
"We've got a mission" Scott said as he came to the door fully dressed in X-Man uniform like Jean.
"Well, where do I put my things?" he asked, indicated to his two suitcases.
"I can put them in the study room" Jean said lifting the suitcases with her TK and moving them to the study room. Scott and Alex gave each other a hug.
"Great to see you again, bro"
"Same here, man"
Just then, Scott's watch beeped and Logan's voice came on.
Just because you live on the outside of Eden doesn't mean that the snake can't bite your asses! Get mobile you two!
"Unfortunately, Eve and I must be going now" Scott told Alex jokingly as Jean came back in the room.
"We need you to do some things for us" Jean said handing him a list and she grabbed Scott's car keys and tossed them at him.
Alex scanned the list of chores.
"Wait, whose Nathan?"
"The retriever!" Scott shouted over his shoulder as he ran out the door, shutting as he left.
"Bye Alex!" Jean and Scott yelled as they ran down the stairs.
"Bye guys" he said simply, knowing they weren't going to hear him eve if he had yelled.
"They have a dog?" Alex said to himself as he re-read #2-'walk Nathan'
"Woof!"
Nathan was pawing Alex's leg, his leash in his mouth.
"So you're my new nephew, huh?" he said as he scratched Nathan's ears.
Nathan barked again.
"So you're the one I'm going have to pamper while your mom and dad are gone, right?"
He wagged his tail happily and Alex sighed.
"All right. You'll get your walk after I…" he checked the list and confusion crossed his face.
"Clean Rachel's litter box? They got a cat too?"
"Meow!"
Alex noticed the orange tabby on the window sill for the first time. Then he looked at the litter box with disgust before turning his attention back to Nathan.
"Do you like Central or Battery Park?"
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"I can't believe this" grumbled Alex. "I come all the way from Hawaii to do their chores! Do you think that's fair, Nathan?"
The puppy ignored him and continued chasing a butterfly he found. Alex rolled his eyes.
"Thanks for the encouraging words, buddy"
Alex stopped by an ice cream stand to get himself something to eat. He ended up decided on a vanilla flying saucer ice cream and sat down a bench to eat it while Nathan curled up next to him.
When Alex was almost done Nathan suddenly woke up. He began panting and barking in a certain direction.
"Nathan? Buddy, what is it?"
Nathan jumped off the bench and began trying to run across the park.
"Nathan!" shouted Alex, pulling on his leash "Nathan, no!"
But it was no use because Nathan twisted his neck and slipped from his collar and began running and barking happily towards whatever he had smelled.
"Crap!"
Alex jumped off the bench and chased after his brother's dog.
"Nathan! Come back here! Nathan!"
He considered blasting around him to scare him but decided against it in case he hit him. Nathan was picking up speed and Alex was having trouble keeping up.
Finally as they got to a clearing, Alex managed to catch up enough to tackle the little dog. He threw himself on the ground and wrestled with the small animal who was still barking rampantly.
"You spawn of Satan! You are going to get me into so much trouble with your father! I swear if you weren't so young, I'd…"
Alex stopped talking as he heard giggling.
His head whipped around and his face colored as he realized that he was being watched by an attractive teenage girl, also with a golden retriever puppy on a leash.
"Oh…I, uh…hi" he stammered.
"Hi" she said still laughing. Nathan kept barking at her dog.
"Shut Up!" Alex demanded of it.
"It's all right" said the girl. "You won't be the first. Jenskott's a very attractive puppy, aren't you girl?"
The dog known as Jenskott let out a proud 'woof' which increased Nathan's drive to get to her.
Alex struggled to put his collar and leash back on. Once they were securely on, he let him go and they both bounded over to the girls.
"You have such a cute dog!" complimented the teenage girl as she scratched Nathan's ears. He barked happily and licked her hand.
"Are you anew owner? I usually know all the dog owners that come to this park"
"Well he is new but he's not…"
Alex was interrupted by Jenskott who had begun barking at a squirrel. The woman unhooked her from the leash and let her run after it. Nathan barked after her and pulled at his own leash.
"Oh no you don't" scolded Alex. "Not after the run you gave me"
Nathan turned back at Alex and gave him sad puppy dog eyes, begging him to let him go.
"No" he said sternly.
He was going to continue talking to the intriguing stranger but Nathan had turned to her with his puppy dog eyes.
"Awww…he's so cute. Can't you let him go for five minutes?"
"Not you too!" he said playfully.
"Please?" she put her face next to Nathan's and stared up at Alex with her own begging face. The girl's puppy dog eyes rather than the dog's ended up getting him. He sighed and let the dog go. He immediately began barking and chasing after Jenskott.
"So" said the stranger as she stood back up "I know three things about you: 1) you're heart is easily melted by a woman, 2) you have no idea how to treat a dog, and 3) you're either a surfer or a bench presser with the body you must have to keep such a frisky animal in line"
Alex quirked an eyebrow and said flirtatiously, "You wouldn't be one of those telepaths would you?"
She chuckled.
"If I was, I'd already know your name"
Alex laughed along with her.
"Alex. Alex Summers. And you are…?"
The girl tucked a strand of green hair behind her ear before extending her hand.
"Lorna. Lorna Dane"
"Pleased to have met you by tackling a dog in front of you" he said as he shook her hand making them both laugh.
"Jen's probably going to be a while. Do you want to sit down?" she asked as she indicated to a bench nearby.
"Sure"
They walked over to the bench and began talking as Jenskott chased a squirrel and Nathan chased Jenskott.
After a good half hour, Lorna checked her watch and immediately sat up.
"Oh my God! I have to get home!" she exclaimed.
Alex jumped up too. He had spent the last ten minutes trying to find a way to ask her out but this sudden departure caught him by surprise.
"Lorna, I, uh, are you, uh, free on Friday?"
She was partly taken by surprise as well but she presented herself better.
"Oh! I…yeah. I'm free. What did you have in mind?"
"Well, I was thinking maybe a picnic here" he said.
"That's sounds great" she said excitedly. "Here's my number"
She pulled out a sheet of paper and gave him her number.
"Be sure to bring your dog" she added.
"My…? Oh! Sure!"
If she thinks Nathan's my dog, then Nathan's my dog I guess he thought.
"Speaking of which…" she said looking around, "where are our dogs?"
Alex looked over Lorna's shoulder to the clearing. The dogs were nowhere to be seen. Suddenly something dawned on him.
"Lorna, is Jenskott fixed?"
Lorna's eyes widened.
They both ran off in different directions shouting for their dogs. They found them doing exactly what they thought they'd be doing.
"Nathan! You animal! Get off her!" Alex pulled the two dogs apart.
"I'm so sorry" he apologized to Lorna as she picked up Jenskott.
"It's no problem" she said blushing. "I'll see you Friday"
"Friday!"
Alex picked up Nathan because he was trying to follow Lorna and Jenskott.
"We sure know how to pick up women, don't we?" he asked Nathan.
"Woof!"
"Yeah, I didn't think so either…" he chuckled.
Another in-between chapter. Reviews will be answered in the next chapter. Hope you don't mind me adding Alex/Lorna and Nathan/Jenskott to a JOTT story.
For all you who don't know, not only is jenskott a fellow fanfic writer, Jenskott is really Nathan's wife in the future in the comics.
Next Time:
"Jean, we need to talk…" breathed Scott.
That's all you get. The next chapter happens at the same time as this one. Till next post, stray.
PS: I have joined the JOTT forum! The website for it can be found on jenskott's (the author's, not the dog's) profile page.