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Chapter 8

There was a knock on the office door, without pulling from the embrace John asked who it was thru the door.

"It's Jake, Forensics has something" Jake told John thru the door. John and Natalie pulled apart

"I'll be... we'll be right there" John said correcting himself, she was in this, she was good according to everyone so he was going to have to trust her, trust that she could take care of herself, he looked at Natalie, she had a few tears on her cheeks and he wiped them away for her, she brushed herself off like all the emotional garbage that just occurred hadn't happened, it was time. Time to work; time to show everyone, to show Llanview, to show John, just how good she was at her new profession.

"Are you ready?" he asked her as he saw her composing herself, she nodded and they walked to the door, Natalie put her hand on the lock but before she turned to open it he put his hand on hers and stopped her. Natalie looked at him, stared into his pools of blue.

"Wait" he told her

"What is it John, what's wrong?"

"I just wanted to tell you again, reinforce it, maybe make it stronger, maybe make you feel it stronger. I Love you Natalie, and ... and well..." John told her he loved her and then a shy bright smile formed on his face. She looked at him curiously.

" And if you want to really make babies right away I'm your guy" he said and she shook her head and couldn't help laughing. She kissed him quickly but softly and they opened the door and went in the squad room.

John and Natalie reached the squad room and saw Jake standing with Bo, they were quietly talking about something and she noticed they stopped when she got closer.

"What's going on?" she asked as she approached and noticed them. John was standing behind her and he too wasn't quite sure of the scene. He noticed there was a piece of paper on the table in front of them, it was unfolded and was a little bit soggy.

"What's that?" John asked, he saw Jake's face when he asked, was he upset about what happened with Nat, with their talk, with the fact that he knew John and Nat were in John's office alone with the door locked and the blinds shut, or was it something to do with the case.

"The ME gave Forensics the clothes the dead girl was wearing to examine, this" Jake said as he held up the unfolded note, the note was written with red ink that didn't smear or erase easily. Jake showed the note to John, John didn't touch it and he read it before he let Natalie see it. " They found this"

Natalie looked at him with curious eye's, she saw John's eye's get extra serious, their color changed almost to a dark blue and she knew that meant fear was setting in again.

"Where did they find this?" was all John could say as he studied the note that the killer obviously left for Natalie to find.

"It was in the back pocket of her jeans, not sure why your guys didn't find it before the ME but they didn't " Jake told John snidely getting a few digs in.

"Natalie probably would have found it if she was on the scene originally, I guess you are only as good as you've been taught" Jake again laid into John with a comment, John just shook his head knowing this had more to do with the fact that Natalie loved him and this guy was bitter, he had no time to get into yet another pissing match with this guy. He ignored him, he heard Natalie clear her throat and knew she wanted to see the note.

'Let me see, what does it say?" Natalie asked as John looked at her, he laid it down on the table, spread out and she looked at it, she read it over and over in her head and then out loud, to try and better understand it.

"I did it for you, all for you, you should have stayed close but now you're here and so am I, a glass to match your color hair" Natalie continued to repeat it, over and over.

"I guess its confirmation that he purposely followed me here, and the last line definitely means it is me he's talking about." Natalie told them as she walked around the room pacing, red wine, red wine she said over and over again, she kept trying so hard to put all the clues together, and she let out a breath as she became frustrated. She took a seat in front of the table, the others watched; Jake moved closer, he stood over her.

"So, what do you do know?" Jake asked Natalie as she smiled, she knew what he was asking, it was a little game they played, a learning game, he trusted her the minute she started working for him and she use to just take things over and not ask, do, not asking any questions so he would always ask her who was the student and who was the teacher, she would have to explain to him as if he was the student what would be the next course of action.

John saw Nat smile at Jake for a moment, even Laugh and as secure as he was because of their earlier conversation jealousy set into his body, his whole body became consumed with it as he heard them speak over the files from Philly, speak almost in riddles, private little jokes she and her teacher, the man that loved her and swore he wouldn't back down, private jokes they shared which he wasn't a part of, those things fueled his jealousy. John still stood back and watched as she looked over old clues with such curious eye's, she was so focused, he hadn't seen her this focused since the pool tournaments. Jake was right, she was good, amazing even; he smirked proudly as he watched her study every little bit of clues.

John began to look over the note the killer left for Natalie. He was finding it hard to concentrate cause every time he looked over at Nat sitting at the table Jake was behind her very close to her back, breathing his warm air on her, talking sweetly to her, he just couldn't get some of the things Natalie had told him he said out of his head, the things about him waiting for her, offering to give her anything she wanted and everything she wanted, telling her he'd marry her on the spot, what a fucking Jerk he was, john thought as he noticed Jake look at him, Jake smiled knowing his closeness to Natalie was bothering John but John wouldn't let Jake get the better of him. He ignored him and went on about his job.

About three hours later sometime after dinnertime Natalie finally pulled herself out of the files she had been studying so close for the past hours. She started pacing the floor, as if on to something.

'What is it Nat, talk it out babe" Jake said and John stood automatically at the word babe, who the fuck was this guy to be calling her babe, John got all pissed inside, he shook it off and walked closer as Natalie stopped pacing, she looked at John for the first time since she started working on the clue.

"He says he did it all for me, now it could mean a few things but. the date the murders started was the date I along with the other four.. I mean three forensic tech's finished our training, I don't want to seem vain here and maybe it's nothing but.. but.. my gut"

"Go with your gut babe, go with it" Jake told her and he smiled at john as if a kid sticking out his tongue, he realized before that calling Nat babe pissed John off beyond belief so he was going to continue it just to get under his skin.

"My gut says.. this is about me...all the murders. Is that possible? Of course it's possible " Natalie said answering her own question

"Now did he kill all those woman for me, so I could find them, did he set Bison up for the fall so I could be the one to break the case, what is his own motive in this?" Natalie said out loud and then she heard John speak softly.

"What?" she questioned him

"What drives a man to do things he wouldn't necessarily do?"

"Love?" Natalie answered and John shook his head that she was right, she smiled briefly at him and then became serious again.

"So lets assume this guy knows me, he thinks he's in love with me, why stop killing in Philly at all, doesn't he want me to find him, so why stop killing in Philly, if he continued to kill I wouldn't have come back to Llanview"

'But he doesn't know that"

"What?"

"He probably didn't think you would leave Philly, I think he may have been trying to advance your career"

"Why and I don't know about that" she told John, she started to rub her forehead for a minute.

"Are you alright?" John asked as he walked closer to her

"Just a headache, and I'm tired, did you even realize it was almost ten"

'No I didn't. Why don't we call it a night, you seem more tired tonight than last night, I'll drive and you can sleep in the car on the way back home" John said and she smiled at him, they for a few minutes forgot Jake was even in the same room with them still.

'Natalie aren't' you staying at the hotel your mom owns?" Jake asked and she nodded.

"Yes, John lives there too"

"Great then, we can all drive back there together, I called and got a room earlier" Jake told them and John grumbled

"Hey man I wouldn't leave my car here if I was you, it's not safe" John told him and laughed.

'Anyways, My backseat is full" John told him as he grabbed Nat's coat from off the chair and started to help her on with it. Natalie gave John as look, a look of annoyance.

"John, he doesn't know his way around Llanview"

"Alright, he can follow us to the hotel" John said and she smiled at him slightly.

The three of them arrived at the hotel; no one was at the desk so Natalie went around the desk and got Jake the only available room, number 8.

"Here Jake this is the only available room" she handed him the key, they all started walking up the stairs to the second floor, John watched Jake also stop walking like them as he approached the second floor.

"What's going on?" John said not knowing that Jake was going to be in the room right next to his.

"I'm in 8" Jake told him and John grumbled something under his breath.

"Did you say something john?" Jake questioned and John said no, neither of them realized Natalie had let herself into her room and left the two of them in the hallway.

"Hey Nat babe, how about a shot of that whiskey you love so much I brought from Philly for you" Jake said to her at her door as she continued to close it.

"No thanks, I'm gonna shower and sleep, that's all I wanna do" Natalie said thru the door, Jake walked closer to John.

"Guess you aren't getting lucky tonight Mcbain" Jake told John with an attitude.

"Good thing for you I'm not these walls are pretty thin, you wouldn't be getting much sleep if I was" John told him and walked into his room. He flipped on the switch and stood up against the back of the door. He was confused why she went into her own room, why she didn't invite him in or come with him into his room. He picked up his cell and called her, he would've just went to the door but the walls were pretty thin, Jake would've known and he didn't want him to or the guy might invite himself to hang out with them.

"Hey, I guess you are in the shower already, I w--" John's words were cut off when he heard her scream, he dropped his phone and ran over to her door, he met Jake in the hall and they pushed her door open.

John's heart nearly jumped clearly out of his chest when he heard her scream, he, they ran into her room and she was standing at the window starring at something out on the fire escape, it was another dead body but this time it was a man, he had on some type of cap, it read LPD, there was an empty wine bottle near the body and the usual blood that was spilled around the body was in Nat's room in a trail leading to from the window to her bed.