AN: Thanks so so so so much to everyone for the excellent reviews. I've never been more motivated to write a story than Ihave been to write this one and I give you guys all the credit! Thanks!


It was still dark when Jack woke up. She felt groggy, sick. Her whole body was shaking, but only mildly. And God, why the fuck was her head pounding? She didn't remember having any alcohol at all, so what was up with the hangover?

She groaned, trying to sit up, and falling back onto ? Indeed, she seemed to be covered up, lying on a couch, somewhere... Her eyes became a little wider as she began to wonder just where the fuck she was. And why didn't she remember leaving the bar? What...what the fuck?

She groaned again, trying to bite back tears.

Just get out, Jack. Do what has to be done. You can break down later when you know you're safe.

She nearly passed out on her second attempt to get up, finding herself weak as well as sick. And worst of all, she felt like she was going to throw up. Did this place have a bathroom, at least?

"Lights up, thirty percent," rumbled a voice in the darkness. It was close to her, but not too close. At least ten feet away, she guessed. She couldn't tell for sure, most of the little energy she had was being concentrated on forcing out the cobwebs that had collected in her mind.

She had to shield her eyes, even against the dim light that came on at the man's request. Her shoulders slumped a bit, her whole body sagging with relief as she let herself fall back onto her side. Across the room Conte was sitting cross legged on the large mat he'd been sleeping on, staring back at her sleepily. From the look of it he too had just woken up.

"What fucking happened to me, Dom? I feel like I got hit by a truck..." she complained, no longer afraid of where she was or who was there with her.

He got up slowly, stretching his arms a bit as he walked towards her with the grace of a large cat. He paused to thunk down in a chair beside where she was lying.

Conte rubbed his face with both hands, still tired from all the running around he'd done the night before. But he had to explain things to her, had to make sure she understood what was going on. He cleared his throat, trying to get rid of the morning phlegm built up in his airway, and crossed his arms over his bare chest. "Jack, do you remember me telling you to watch your drink last night?" he asked, raising an eyebrow at her.

"Mm, not so much, no," she replied, shaking her head slightly, and for the briefest moment he wondered if she was playing dumb.

After a few seconds of intense study he decided to just take her word for it. It was possible she'd suffered some memory loss, everything considered.

"Well, you didn't watch it. Obviously, you drank it. I told you to not drink it because I saw the bartender slip you a drug. And based on how long you've been out, and the slight memory loss, I'm going to guess that it was one of the newer date rape drugs on the market. Which one, I'm not exactly sure, but I know it's one that's probably rather easy for a teenaged boy in high school to get his hands on."
Jack's eyes widened a bit, but not quite with shock or fear. Almost with skepticism. He'd known it would take a minute or two to sink in for her.

"Someone slipped me a roofie? Are you fucking serious? Holy shit. So, what happened, how did I get here..."

Conte raised a hand, motioning downward slightly to signal that she should shut up and let him continue. "I left the bar for about a half an hour, forty five minutes tops, and when I came back you were out on the dance floor, partying it up. The word I would've used to describe you at that point was possessed. A couple of guys from your class were trying to usher you out the front door, telling everyone that you were drunk and they were going to take you home. I grabbed what you'd been drinking and then followed them out to the front parking lot. I told the guys to take a fucking hike and then I brought you here, to my ship. You passed out, and you've been sleep it off ever since."

Thinking he'd finished, Jack jumped at the chance to ask the question that had been nagging harshly at the back of her mind. "Yeah, okay, but you swear to God that I didn't do anything while I was under I'm going to regret later?"

"Like what?" he asked, feigning being dead serious, but on the inside feeling the slight need to tease and torture her a bit if she gave him the chance. It would serve her right for all the crap she'd given him the night before. At least she seemed to be returning to normal...finally...

Jack propped her head up a little on her hand, still feeling tired and weak. It showed in her tone, she was so anxious she was almost stuttering. "Like, did I fuck or get fucked by anyone? I mean, probably nothing really horrible happened in the bar. But, what about us? I mean, it's okay. If I came onto you, I don't care...cause, I mean, you warned me and I didn't listen, so if we did, I won't get mad..." She was beginning to snowball, close to hyperventilating as she struggled and failed to recall what had happened during the large gap in her memory.

"Jack," he said, abruptly bringing her back to her senses. That same amused, cocky smirk played over his face. My how he enjoyed watching her talk herself in circles like that. "Jack, I think you were a virgin when you walked into that bar last night, and you're still a virgin now. I didn't touch you, and I made sure no one else did either. Okay?"

The look on her face when he told her that was absolutely priceless. Wide eyes, slack jaw. It was as though her features had frozen into the perfect imitation of disbelief. "How the fuck did you know I'm a virgin?" she asked, as if she found the concept that he'd figured it out absolutely stunning.

Dom instantly cracked up. He couldn't help it, he simply roared with laughter. Genuine for once, not fake. God, this girl was too much. How did he know? How could he not know? He tipped back on two legs of the small chair, giving no sign of letting up any time soon.

"What?" she nearly whined, hating being left out of his joke. "What's so fucking funny?"

He was surprised he didn't have to wipe tears from his eyes as he finally calmed, looking at her with wicked pleasure in his gaze. "Babe, if you weren't a virgin, you wouldn't have asked that question in the first place. So I figured either no one's popped your cherry, or you've been with some seriously malnourished pencil-dicks. Which I suppose is possible, but highly unlikely. If you'd been with me last night, Jack, you'd know. Trust me. You'd know," he chuckled shamelessly, still unable to believe that a girl who was usually so on top of things had never even considered...

After a two beat pause during which she considered what he'd said, Jack turned those innocent jade doe eyes back on him and softly asked, "How?"

Dom's chair fell hard onto all four legs as he stifled another fit of uncontrollable laughter, managing to reduce it to a short snicker . He leaned forward, resting his elbows on the knees of his black sweat pants, feeling like a parent who needed to explain the birds and the bees to a child. "Well, let's just say you'd be sore, down there." His eyes flicked mischievously towards the 'down there' he meant, and Jack instinctively pulled her blanket tighter around her body. "And I doubt you'd be able to walk today. Especially if I'd been your first."

"Sounds like you really know what you're talking about. You never struck me as the kind of guy who'd be so impressed with himself, Dom," she said, sounding just shy of accusatory.

He chuckled, rubbing the back of his neck with one hand, hoping he was taking on a more modest aurora for her benefit. "Yeah, well. When you lose your virginity at the tender age of twelve and never look back...that has a tendency to happen. I've been with a whole hell of a lot of women. I ain't bragging, that's a fact. The point is that not a single one of them ever woke up the next morning and questioned whether or not they'd been with a man the night before. But, enough with that, I'm getting off track. The other thing I was going to tell you, was that the sports drink you were drinking didn't just have the date rape drug in it. It had Seka in it, Jack. You know what that is?"

She shook her head, her eyes drooping as sleep tried to pull her back into its depths. She didn't know, and honestly, at that point, she didn't care. But apparently Conte wasn't going to leave her alone until she did care, cause as soon as she started slipped off to dream land he grabbed her by the shoulders and forced her to sit up.

"Come on, Jackie girl, no sleep until you hear me out. You've been sleeping for the past eighteen hours and it's time to wake up."

That got her attention, as he'd hoped it would. Her eyes flew wide again as she stared at him, almost horrified. "I've been under for eighteen hours?"

He nodded solemnly.

Jack cringed. "Guess it is time to be waking up then. Do you have any coffee?" she asked, her teeth chattering as chills began to overwhelm her.

Dom smirked. "Yeah, but the only kind I've got around here is the Irish kind."

Jack did something between nodding and shaking her head. She still wasn't entirely 'with it'. "That sounds good," she said absently, and he knew she was lying.

With how messed up her system was, Dom knew for a fact that hardly anything was going to sound good to her for a long time.