Resurrection

Chapter 8

Jesse and I decided to go see Father Dominic the next day, before I had to go babysit. It was after school, and I went into Father D's office, waiting for Jesse and Spike to arrive. I thought it was best not to tell the good father what was going on yet. Jesse could tell him, and, if need be, I would explain what he could not.

When I first got to Father Dom' office, he looked up, a little surprised (which was weird, since the receptionist had told him I was going to be coming in), and told me to sit. I did thankfully, since I had just had to run the track for gym last period, when it was scorching outside. Those teachers really need to learn to pick the cooler days to have us run.

"Susannah," he said pleasantly, "what brings you here?"

I smiled at him. "Actually, Jesse and I need to tell you something. We kind of, um, need your help."

He glanced down at my stomach and then quickly brought his eyes back up to my face. Um...okay. "What do you need to tell me?" If I wasn't mistaken, he sounded a little...nervous.

"We can wait until Jesse gets here, Father D."

He nodded, still looking as nervous as ever. I noticed him glance at my stomach again and I think that's when I finally caught on to what he was thinking.

"Wait a second," I said, and Father Dom looked at me. "You don't think I'm...pregnant, do you?"

To say he looked shocked would be an understatement. "Well," he said. "I was, um, wondering—"

I rolled my eyes. Very disrespectful, I know. But, seriously, it looked as if he thought I was some kind of slut that got herself knocked up. No, I was not like that. Jesse and I have not had sex yet, and, by the looks of it, wouldn't until we were married.

I mean, we have not even reached second base yet. For me, that seems a little pathetic, but Jesse just says he wants to respect me and not take something so precious away from me so early.

Psh. Like virginity is precious. I really could care less. If Jesse was the one to take it, I would seriously be honored.

But, anyway, back to the conversation.

I cut Father Dom off with, "Jesse and I are not having sex, Father Dom. The news is actually something a little more...shocking."

He still looked uneasy. I guess maybe he was thinking what else could be more shocking than me being pregnant?

Oh, I believe there is a lot more that can be shocking. Believe me.

We had to wait another five minutes (in awkward silence) until Jesse and Spike got here. I was kind of annoyed by having to wait, but when I saw how haggard and tired Jesse looking, I wasn't really annoyed anymore. I was kind of surprised. I mean, what happened?

I voiced this to him after he kissed me on the cheek when he arrived in the office, and he just said in my ear, quietly, "I will tell you later."

I nodded and sat back down again — I got up tp greet Jesse. It was common courtesy. Especially when it comes to the one you love.

Jesse gestured for Spike, er, Scott, to sit on the bench against the wall, since there were no more chairs in the office.

"Jesse, Susannah, what is this about?" Father Dom asked.

Jesse turned to look at me and I nodded. He turned back to Father D and said, "Well, it appears that you will have to make up another identity, Padre."

Father Dominic looked confused. "Another identity?"

It was clear that Jesse did not know how to explain this. I guess it was up to me. "Father Dom, I found Jesse's cat, Spike—" I noticed said cat looked up when I said his name. I guess he finally recognized it. Weird. "—in the middle of the road the other night. He was mangled, near dead. I took him to the vet..."

And then I continued to tell the rest of the story. Father Dom seemed very intrigued by it, surprised too. Well, that was the expected reaction, I guess. It's not everyday a cat is resurrected and turned into a human.

"So let me see if I understand this," Father Dominic said once I finished the story, completely out of breath, too. "You found Spike in the road, almost dead, and brought him to the vet. The vets could not do anything, so you brought him to Paul and he did some kind of resurrection on him, which turned him into a human?"

I nodded. Yep, that was it. All in a nutshell.

He sighed. "You know, making an identity out of nothing is not a very easy task. At least with you, Jesse, you were actually previously a human."

I saw Jesse smile a little, but not much. I wasn't really sure what was bothering him, but he said he would tell me later, so I was okay with it for now—although, very curious.

"I know, Father D," I said. "But you're the only one who will be able to do this. I mean, you did it with Jesse—"

"And that was not a very easy task. He has to have a birth certificate, social security num—"

"I know, I know. The whole shebang." I sighed. "Please?" I tried as my last resort.

Father Dominic smiled. "I was not going to say no from the beginning. I was just letting you know how difficult a task this is."

I smiled gratefully. "Thanks. I really appreciate it."

"As do I," Jesse said from next to me.

I glanced over at him and smiled, then turned my head attention back to Father Dominic. "So it's set then? Is there anything we can do?"

He thought for a second, then glanced at Spike, then back at me. "Well, I think you should start with getting some job applications. Something preferably a little easy, considering his, um, status."

I nodded. "Okay, I can do that." Then I looked at my watch. 3:56. I had to babysit at 4:30, so I had plenty of time to go home and change, get the skirt for Sarah, and then go to the kids' house.

"Well, it seems as if we are done here." Father Dom stood up, as did Jesse, and walked over to the door to let us all out. Jesse held his hand out for me to pull me up, and I took it gratefully as he pulled me gently to my feet.

I asked Jesse what had happened before he came to the Mission. He just said there were some difficulties with Spike. Apparently he didn't know how to put his clothes on. Instantly I felt bad for Paul when he had to dress him.

Oh well. He kind of deserved that anyway.

- § -

"Oh, my God."

I bit my lip. I wasn't sure if that was a good 'oh, my God' or a bad one. My nervousness obviously showed, since Sarah looked up at me and smiled and said, "No, I don't think its bad. I love it! Oh, wait'll I show my mom when she gets home..."

And she was all ready out the bedroom door and going to Melissa's room to show her. I heard an "Omigod!" come from the room and instantly a smile appeared on my face as I was walking out into the hallway.

You did good, Simon, you did good.

For once.

I went into Melissa's room and saw them both on her bed, admiring my handiwork. "So," I said, leaning against the doorframe. "I take it you like it."

Sarah jumped up off the bed and, surprisingly, hugged me. I was so shocked by it that I almost fell back when she embraced me. "Oh, thank you so much, Suze!"

Hesitantly I hugged her back. I had major personal space issues (except when it came to Jesse), but I put that aside for that moment.

She pulled away and looked up at me—she was 13 and shorter than me. Her mom was not a very tall woman, so I really didn't expect her to be. She was probably only five foot at the most.

"Um," she said, suddenly a little nervous. "I'm sorry."

I cocked my head to the side. "Sorry? For what?"

She looked down. "For being mean to you when you first started babysitting us. It's just...well, my mom is constantly getting new babysitters and it just gets annoying. Most of them are just there for the money and don't care about us at all. But you...well, you're not like everyone else, Suze."

Gee, thanks. Like I didn't all ready know that.

But nevertheless, I smiled at her. "Thanks. That means a lot to me." And it did. Just as she had said, I was not like everyone else, and that actually meant something to me now. Something good. Instead of always being the 'freak' or the 'strange girl,' I was now unique.

- § -

No.

I picked up another one off my bed and held it to me in front of my mirror.

Ugh. No. Not at all.

All these clothes and nothing to wear. How could that be?

There was not one piece of clothing that I could wear tonight. Jesse wouldn't really care, but I did. I had to look my best, even if we were only going to dinner and then watching a movie at his place.

What I needed was...casual, yet sexy.

Okay, I guess it was time to go see my mom. She was bound to have something.

So I walked down the hall and knocked on her bedroom door. She called her me to come in and I did. Instantly she knew I was having a problem.

"Suzie? What's wrong, honey?"

I sighed, frustrated. "I have a date with Jesse tonight and I can't find a single thing to wear."

She smiled. "Ah," she said, "love."

Well, duh.

"Okay, let's go see what you have, honey." And she walked out of the room and back into mine. She started rummaging through my closet, looking for something, anything.

Been there, done that.

"Aha!"

I looked over at her. She couldn't have possible found something worth wearing tonight. She turned around with a low-cut camisole. It was a silky material with an empire-waist and it was beaded along the cut.

I almost forgot I had that in there.

She smiled and went to find a pair of pants for me to wear. She extracted a new pair of jeans. I noticed that she grimaced at my old torn-up jeans that were in the drawer.

"This and a pair of flats and you'll have Jesse drooling."

I smiled gratefully. I went over and hugged her, saying, "Thanks so much, Mom. I really appreciate this."

"You're welcome, honey." She looked at me with a huge grin on her face. "Oh, you're growing up so fast. Soon you'll be out of the house and going away to college..."

I knew this was coming. She always does this, now that I'm approaching the end of my senior year of high school.

I smiled at her. "Mom, I'll come and visit, you know that."

She smiled through the tears that were brewing in her eyes. "I know. I know." And then she hugged me again. "Okay, I'll leave you alone to get ready now."

- § -

After dinner, Jesse brought me back to his place. I was kind of skeptical, because, you know, we couldn't really be alone because of Spike and everything. Oh, wait, my bad, Scott.

But anyway, I voiced this to Jesse and he just chuckled and put his arm around me. "Worry not, querida. He's with Father Dominic. Apparently Father Dominic wants to show him some things."

I just nodded and snuggled into him. Well, at least we were able to be alone tonight. It seems like its been forever since we've spent alone time together.

I sat down on his couch when we got to his place. He went searching for a movie and something to drink for both of us. Meanwhile, I just sat there thinking about how this night would go. Would we get in any make-out sessions? Or, you know, get past second base?

Nah. Probably not.

I mean, I hoped that would happen, but Jesse was just too conservative.

Sigh...maybe he would change his mind eventually.

Jesse came back in the room and smiled at me. He put both of our drinks down on the coffee table in front of me, and then he went to pop the DVD into the DVD player. Then he came back over to me and sat down, putting his arm around me securely. He took the remote in his hand and pressed play. Instantly the movie started playing.

I moved closer to Jesse, burying the side of my face into his chest. Jesse just tightened his arm around me.

About an hour into the movie I felt my eyes start to drift closed. I hadn't really realized how tired I was until then. Or maybe it was just the atmosphere - me laying on Jesse, his arms around me, the quietness of the house besides the movie playing...

I don't know. But I just fell asleep like that.

And all too soon Jesse was waking me up. "Susannah? I'm sorry, querida, but the movie is over and I need to get up."

Groggily I moved my head off of him. I heard him laugh lightly and then he got up off the couch to put the movie away.

"Jesse? What time is it?" I asked.

He looked at his watch. "Almost eleven o'clock."

I nodded, still a little sleepy. "My mom wants me home at midnight, so we have plenty of time."

He smiled at me and put the movie box on the coffee table. "Maybe you should go home, Susannah. You're tired."

I smiled at him, then leaned in to kiss him. He responded quickly and very happily. He pulled away though, saying, "I'm serious, querida. If you're tired—"

"Jesse," I intervened. "I'm fine. Really."

"Susannah, if you're tired, then maybe I should take you h—"

I groaned. "Oh, come on. Don't do this, Jesse. I'm really, really fine. Now can we stop arguing and get back to kissing?"

He grinned. "If that's what you want?"

"Oh, you have no idea."

And then his lips were on mine again, his body pushing me into the leather couch. His kisses were the best — welcoming, enticing, passionate. It was crazy. I just craved them. And all the other things that came with them. The shivery feelings I got when he caressed the skin on my stomach or my lower back. The feel of his lower body pressed against mine...

I shuddered then, thinking about that.

But that just caused Jesse to pull away. "Is something wrong?" he asked, concerned.

I shook my head. "No, everything's just fine," I said with a giddy smile.

"Good," he said and he was back to kissing me again.

Maybe he's changed his mind about all of this. Or...maybe someone spiked his drink.

Inwardly I snorted. Who the hell else would be around to spike his drink? Unless Spike was actually here and was experimenting. Or...a ghost? No, I would have sensed them—

"Ah!"

Jesse hopped off of me quickly. "Susannah? What's wrong?"

I looked down at my feet, where I had felt something wet hit them. Wet and...slimy.

"Oh! Oh, Shelly its just you..." I was relieved. That really scared me. I thought it was some slug or something...ew.

Jesse just chuckled. "Of course its only the dog, Susannah."

I sent a mild glare his way. Mock me, why don't you. Oh, wait, you all ready did.

Jesse looked at his watch. "Oh, I really should get you back, querida. It's 11:45..."

I nodded and got up. I squatted down and pet Shelly for a few moments until Jesse was ready to take me home. Then I went with him down to his car and he drove me home.

But the way there I was thinking...what if Shelly hadn't interrupted? Would Jesse have gone any further?

A/N: SO sorry its been so long since I've last updated. But now I have, so you can review for me. :D