As Lucien was lying in his bed, the house finally quiet and still, he couldn't help but think about the past weeks. He still hadn't told Jean the truth of what he had done only a few hours before Percy Walker had almost stabbed him to death...almost. He had tried to tell her at the hospital, but she had been so scared of losing him that in the end he had lost his courage and half joked about how dreadful he was as a "patient". And wasn't that funny? Because that was the point. He was unable to exercise the virtue of patience. She had asked him to wait to mail the affidavit, that they could try another way, but no, he couldn't and he had done this terrible, terrible thing without telling her. The days that followed his discharge from hospital had been a gloomy affair. Lucien forced to lie in bed for days and nights with nothing to do, his restless mind overwhelmed by all kind of musings, his nights plagued by nightmares and his only light being Jean. His wonderful Jean who sometimes had taken the brunt of his uneasiness. Jean, who had cared for him, soothed him and put him in his place when his brooding had been too much. Jean, whose hands had traced along the skin of his torso for the first time since their engagement to change his bandages and had looked at him with so much love that his resolve to tell her had vanished like snow under the sun, the moment their eyes had met. And now the case of young Charlotte, finally closed, but whose implications had hit them both hard. Lucien had let his mind wander to his Li, a woman now, but his daughter nonetheless and he knew somehow how it felt to lose a child and then to his Jean young and free, all dressed in white for her Debutante Ball, with flowers in her hair. She was beautiful, his Jean, inside and out and she would surely understand why he mailed that affidavit. He did it for love, he did it to protect her, he did it for...Suddenly his lovely train of thought was interrupted by a sharp cry and the sound of a door being slammed forcefully.
He knew the only person in the house would have been Jean because Charlie and Matthew were out with the other policemen and that was also the reason, in addition to fatigue, that had sent him to his room early that night. He had had a lot of trouble lately to keep his hands and mouth to himself and to respect her personal space when he was close to her. His love for her had made him too bold and despite he knew she wanted him too, he could feel it in her kisses, much more fiery than before, he also recognised the struggle with her faith and the moral constraints that were placed upon her.
Jean was never one to be so easily terrified by something and that was enough to chilled his blood. He stood abruptly and let out a grunt when the pain in his side reminded him of his stitches recently ruptured and promptly mended by , but a quick look at the bandage assured him everything was alright. He tried to run up the stairs as fast as he could not minding his half nakedness one bit. What if Jean was in danger? What if she had stumbled upon some thief, some intruder or what if Hannam was back? He arrived at the door of her bedroom gasping lik a fish and threw the door open, she wasn't there. Panic started to rise until he turned towards the corridor and there outside the bathroom door stood his Jean breathing sharply, her eyes terrified, her hair damp. He didn't realise it at first, so concerned he was for her well being, but when she noticed him standing there covered only in his pyjamas trousers she emitted another sharp cry that shook him out of his daze and only then it registered to his mind that she was wrapped up in a big towel, only. His eyes travelled down her body and my god she was a vision.
"Lucien what on earth are you doing?" she scolded, having caught him staring, her eyebrows arched in frustration. He walked the short distance that separated them in two big steps and wanted so badly to take her in his arms because she was still visibly shaken, but given her reaction and that they were both half naked he decided for a different course of action. "Jean, are you alright?" he asked, his concern visibly returning "what's happened?". He was almost sure that there was no mad killer threatening the life of his fiancée, but still Jean was distressed and he would do anything, anything to keep her safe. She was pointing at the closed door in front of her and then she squeaked "There's a spider in the bathroom!".
Lucien let out a small laugh. He was flabbergasted! Surely his brave, fearless Jean couldn't be alarmed by the presence of an insect in their home. He turned his head in her direction again and found her staring at him with all the indignation she could muster. "Oh come on, Jean!" he teased "You can't be afraid of a small spider!"
As soon as the words had left his mouth he know he had made a very big mistake.
"It's not a small spider, Lucien! It's huge and it was trying to kill me!" she retorted.
"What? Jean, please listen to me spiders don't want to kill people. They are very interesting creatures, if you ask me"
Jean had had enough of his opinions on spiders, there was an enormous thing in their bathroom and someone, preferably not her, had to get rid of it "Well, then if they are so interesting as you say, why don't you go in there and spend some time with it!"
Lucien tried to smooth things down, for her sake mostly, but also for his. It wouldn't do to have his fiancée angry at him because of a small creature. "Alright, alright" he said raising his hands in defeat "Now I'm going to catch it and put it outside in the garden so that it can be free to go wherever it wants"
"I still think you should get rid of it! what if it comes back in?" she asked. Why on earth didn't it occur to him that the spider could as easily come back.
"Jean, don't you always say that all animals are God's creatures?" he teased her again, smiling.
Jean was at the end of her tether, of course Lucien would resurrect her own words at the most unfavourable moment. "Oh for goodness sake, Lucien do whatever you want with it, as long as I don't have to see it anymore"
He opened the door softly and looked on the bathroom floor, but nothing, then into the sink, but nothing. He turned to Jean "There's nothing here", shrugging his shoulders "Where was it the last time you saw it?".
She pointed toward the bathtub careful not to step inside the room as if she would be incinerated the moment she went inside "In the bath, it was crawling towards me...I told you he wanted to kill me". A glint of mischief passed in his eyes as he pondered for a moment about his Jean in the bathtub, surrounded by water and foam and he had to clear his throat and swallow hard before he whispered "Lucky chap". She knew she would have had to scold him for his frankness, but in her heart she couldn't and in spite of the anxiety that still lingered, she smiled at him. Lucien's eyes left hers just after a second and landed somewhere behind her. She jumped out of the room. He must have spotted the repellent insect because he flung himself at the wall as soon as she closed the door. She couldn't hear a sound therefore she asked his knight in shining armour "Did you catch it?", one hand still clutching the towel tightly. "No, the bloody thing ran away".
"So what are you going to do now?"
She didn't hear anything, again for some seconds and then Lucien opened the door just a crack to ask her if she could grab a sheet of paper or even better a newspaper. She diligently ran down the stairs and thanked her lucky stars no one was home except the both of them. What would people say? Jean running up and down the stairs half undressed.
Lucien stood just outside the bathroom waiting for her keeping the door closed and their unwanted visitor trapped inside. Jean stopped running rather unceremoniously at a few inches from Lucien's face and she almost bumped into his chest but his strong hands had caught her hips in time and now they were standing so closely, breathing heavily on each other's mouth, partly from the exertion of their hunt and partly for the jolt of electricity that sparked from where they body were touching. The thought of the spider almost forgotten. Jean's eyes kept moving from his impossibly blue eyes, to this mouth and then his chest. Of course she had already seen a naked man before, well not that Lucien was naked in that moment...not entirely anyway, but whenever he was close she felt a kind of longing deep inside her, she felt attraction a kind of attraction she had never felt before. It was if her body was calling to him and every time she had to fight against herself not to let her desire for him overrule her mind completely. This time, though, she couldn't keep her eyes from admiring him and so, when Lucien decided for the both of them to end the agony and cleared his throat, Jean took a step back half grateful, half disappointed.
"Jean...could you...I mean...um... would you..."Lucien wasn't moving though, he was all flustered and was trying to speak while he was also gesturing towards her breasts, towards the front of the towel and for a moment she didn't know what to think. Then she attempted to look down at her own chest to discover what all this fumbling was about. She was still clutching the newspaper in her hand and Lucien naturally wanted to take it from her, but was embarrassed because it would have meant to touch her. She let out a big sigh and passed him their weapon of choice and Lucien bowed his head down at the sound of a whispered "Thank you, Jean".
They opened the door again and there it was, the intruder. "Lucien" she cried "over there".
The next few seconds saw Lucien wrestle with the spider on the floor and then much to everyone's surprise he exclaimed "Oh, Mr. Eugene, it's you!"
Jean saw Lucien with both his hands closed cradling something and she feared that that something was her suspected killer. He stood up and walked towards Jean with a big smile on his face. "Jean, don't be scared it's Mr. Eugene, the spider!"
She couldn't believe it. "Lucien did you give that thing a name?"
"Yes, of course. He's my friend" he replied candidly, moving slowly in front of her
Friend? Leave it to Lucien Blake to have a spider as a pet "Don't you dare coming near me with him in your hands?"
He could see she didn't like it one bit, her eyes were large and she was looking at Lucien as if he would bite her. "Alright, we are going to stay right here"
"Where did you find him?" she asked curiously. Because even in her frantic state she couldn't help herself.
"On the stage. He is one of the spiders from the lab. I actually didn't realise he'd escaped" he could only shake his head in disbelief, while at the same time Jean's eyes grew large and to be honest he was more scared of her.
"Escaped? Lucien that's evidence!"
"They didn't need him at the police station, so I brought him home and put him in a box"
"You mean our home?" she asked incredulous. If it weren't for her eyes throwing daggers at him, he would have wept. She had said our home. He had waited for her to call this house their home for so long now, he could only nod.
"Now you listen to me Lucien Blake, it's either me or him in this house"
He couldn't really understand why she was so categorical about little Eugene. He didn't mean to keep him for a long time, he was just interested in studying him a bit and then he would set him free. He took other two tentative steps and opened his hands a little so that Jean could see Eugene was a totally harmless chap. Definitely not a killer. "Look Jean, I think he likes you" and in that moment, Eugene decided to show Jean his creepy long legs from the small hole Lucien had created with his fingers. Jean jumped back once again and left the room slamming the door loudly behind her.
He had only wanted to tease her a bit and after all spiders were really interesting creatures. Now he had only made her angry. Great, such a fiancé he was.
He found her in the sunroom with her back to the door and a steaming cup of tea in her hands to soothe her, he knew her enough now that he was aware of all the little things that made Jean who she was, the things that made Jean the woman he loved more than his own life, more than his own reputation. She couldn't see him, but he could. Some time had passed since she had slammed the door in his face and he had been left alone with a spider in his hands. Her hair was perfectly coiffed, now and her usual fluffy dressing gown was wrapped protectively around her. He couldn't love her more. The vision of one hour before, Jean damp from her bath, with only a towel to cover her, her beautiful legs, her rugged breath, well that was magnificent, but seeing her like this, in this more domestic, softer version of her usual self, he couldn't help but reach for her and put his hands on her waist. She jumped at the intrusion, "Lucien" she gasped, her heart beating so fast in her chest he could almost feel it. "For a moment I thought..." and she couldn't finish her sentence because he had already turned her in his arms and clutched her to his chest. He felt so bad. He had scared her again. Even for a brief moment she had mistaken his touch for the spider crawling upon her body. "I know and I'm so sorry." he whispered, pressing a kiss to her temple. They stayed in one another's embrace for quite some time, the rhythmic beating of Lucien's heart, the protection of his arms, the smell of him beneath her made her feel safe and loved and all that was almost enough to make her forget about the spider. Almost.
"Where is...ah... Mr. Eugene, now?" the way she stumbled across his name made Lucien smile. She was so precious, his Jean.
"I let him go. I would have set him free anyway, you know. I didn't like the idea of him trapped in a small box." She lifted her face, then and she could see his gaze unfocused and glazed as he spoke "You know, Jean how I loathe close spaces".
She whispered his name softly, then and freed one her hands to trace the line of his beard. The feel of her fingers on his face always brought him back to reality. She was the only person on earth who could ground him and as his eyes looked into hers she smiled and uttered "He was a good friend".
He smiled back at her and it was his turn to place a hand on her cheek and whisper "Yes, he was...but you're going to be my wife" and even if he hadn't formulated it like a question, she discerned some sort of hesitation in his tone. She couldn't have that. After everything they've been through and after everything they certainly were going to face in the future she couldn't have that, she couldn't have him doubt her choices, She couldn't have him doubt her love. "Yes" she said with all the love and the certainty she had in her body and to seal her promise once again she kissed him with everything she had.
