Hello to anyone who finds this! Although this is marked as part of a series, it can also work pretty well as a standalone, so don't let that put you off if you aren't in the mood for anything too lengthy. If you do feel like reading the rest of the TGIL series (which covers all the books from Rob's POV) then head on back to the beginning! They're all labeled in their summary.

You might notice the rest were written long before this one. I tried to match the same voice/writing style, but if there's any really noticeable difference between this and the rest, that's probably why. Well, that and the fact that unlike the rest of the series, this isn't a direct rewrite.

"I think we could make it home." Jess leaned up to speak right into my ear, or at least as close as my helmet would allow, without unwrapping her arms from around my waist. We had been riding on the Indian when I'd noticed the weather, and she apparently disagreed with my decision to pull over right where we were, on the highway in the middle of nowhere. Well, nearly – I'd gone just another couple miles up the road to a place we could take shelter. Still, that was nothing compared to the half-hour it'd take to get back to a town. "It's not that bad."

"Yeah, right," I scoffed. I tapped at her hands until she let go, reluctantly. "C'mon, hurry up."

She got off the Indian, and I did as well. Even as I wheeled it towards the nearby barn, she sounded reluctant.

"Really, it would be fine. You might have to come in and wait out the storm at my house, but it'd be fine. We could hang out in my room…" When I looked back at her, Jess had taken her helmet off and was twirling it around on her finger, all innocent-like. As if her machinations weren't totally obvious. She was not gonna trick me into making out with her again.

I mean, not that I'm deeply opposed to making out with Jess. It has been kind of a recurring theme lately that I like doing just that maybe a little too much, to the point that after everything that happened earlier this month I finally gave up on trying not to date her. One of the perks of admitting that we have a relationship is supposed to be making out. Still, I'm trying to be responsible about it, and everything.

"Except that your bedroom is on the second floor, so we'd probably have to go down to the basement," I pointed out. "You know, sit around down there with your family for however long it took to pass."

Jess blinked back at me for a moment. Then she skipped over, stepping in front of me to pull the door open so I could go in.

"Actually, I think the wind's picking up!" she said. "Better to play it safe when it comes to dangerous weather, I always say."

And there it was; I knew that would work. If there's anything reliably able to derail Jess, it's the idea of introducing me to her parents.

"Sure, you're always careful," I said. Maybe I let a little bit too much of my skepticism show in my voice, because Jess made an annoyed face as I passed her.

"Excuse me, I can so be careful," she insisted. "Just because there have been one or two occasions where I have found myself unavoidably placed in danger – due to the reprehensible actions of others – does not mean that I'm not a perfectly responsible person."

"Oh, yeah, I agree," I said. "I mean, it's not like the last time you were in a big storm, you snuck out alone to go confront a dangerous ex-con who wanted to beat you for kidnapping his step-daughter."

"I did not sneak out to confront him! You know very well that I was bringing back Shane, and – first of all, they were the ones to kidnap Keeley in the first place –"

"Or, the time before that, decided to lean against a set of metal bleachers and got yourself electrocuted," I said. Jess's jaw snapped shut. I tried to resist adding anything else, but her expression was just too funny; I had to bring it home. "Lightning Girl."

Jess looked like a dog caught drinking out of the toilet: embarrassed, guilty, but also like she honestly didn't see why she was wrong in the first place.

"I am choosing to believe," she said haughtily, after a moment, "that you are simply lashing out due to worry. Rob, it's okay – I promise, we're gonna be fine."

She stepped forward to put a reassuring hand on my arm, and I rolled my eyes, dropping the kickstand.

"Of course we are," I agreed, and went over to shut the door behind us, taking a quick look at the sky while I did so. The color wasn't too bad yet, but it was definitely getting greener. Not to mention, Jess had been right about the wind picking up, and the few clouds I could see were moving by pretty quick. "Since we're gonna go down to the cellar."

With the door shut, it was dark in the barn. Not completely – despite not having any windows, this place was pretty old and had been abandoned for years by this point. So there were a few spots where some light still shone in through cracks in the walls, and if I hadn't already known about the cellar from when I first explored this place a couple years ago, I'd have been a lot less confident in it as a shelter. As it was, I didn't have much hope for my bike if the tornado went over us… but there was no way I'd be able to get it down the ladder, so I just had to hope for the best on that one.

Jess grumbled a little more as I went about fetching my flashlight from under the seat of my bike, and grabbed out a bottle of water and some granola bars while I was at it. From what I could gather, according to her mumbling as we wandered around kicking at the dust and straw on the floor in search of the trapdoor I remembered being around here somewhere, she thought I was being too paranoid and that there probably wouldn't even be a tornado, or if there was it wouldn't come near us, or if it did the barn would be fine, and – what seemed to be the central point – this was not the date she had hoped for. Apparently at the very least we could sit outside and watch the weather approaching for a while first.

That was fair enough, honestly. I felt the same way – not about all her weather complaints, although those might have a point too. The odds were, we'd be completely fine, and as someone who has lived my whole life in a state that has multiple tornadoes a year, I didn't usually jump straight to going underground unless I saw active spiraling going on nearby. You'd just lose so much time if you panicked over every tornado watch. Still, I felt justified in being extra careful today because the weather was getting worse pretty rapidly, we did happen to be out in the middle of nowhere, and… well, Jess might have a point about me being worried. The last time I figured she'd be fine in a storm, she got struck by lightning. I know it wasn't exactly my fault, but I still felt kind of bad about it, especially given the whole gaining-psychic-powers-from-the-lightning-and-having-her-life-turned-upside-down thing that followed not long after. So, maybe I was making us go down to the cellar sooner than I otherwise would have, so what. It wouldn't do any harm.

But I saw her point about the date, too. It'd only been a few weeks since I finally gave up on denying what was going on between us, and… well, I kind of wanted to enjoy Jess being my girlfriend. We had gone out once already, technically, but we pretty much just hung out at Chick's that Saturday. It was a good time, but not exactly private; I had figured that we could do something else soon enough just the two of us. But, at first, things had been really busy for Jess what with the press about what we had discovered the footballers were up to, and when that had all died down she still had school, so this was our first real chance for an actual date. And, yeah, it hadn't been much in the first place – we were just going to drive around for a while, maybe go into the next town and catch a movie. I didn't really have much time to plan anything – or, I didn't plan anything while I was moping around wondering when Jess would have free time that didn't conflict with my work schedule, and then when she did I couldn't think of anything really interesting that I could afford. Not that I admitted that to her; she'd seemed delighted by the vague plan I gave her, anyway.

Just our luck that a tornado would hit.

By the time we had both climbed down the rickety old ladder and let the trapdoor shut above us, I was feeling pretty lame. I mean, it helped that the wind was picking up a lot more now, loud enough to sort of justify my caution, but we were still spending our date sitting on the floor in a dirty abandoned cellar, completely in the dark except for my flashlight. Just the two of us? Sure, but still not a great time. Especially since I worried, a little, that there would be too much reminiscent of our recent experience with Heather Montrose.

Jess occupied herself with exploring the small space – there wasn't much to find, just a couple of rat droppings here and there – and then making shadow animals using her hands, but that didn't exactly last long. She only knew how to do a bird, a dog, and a weird-looking thing she claimed was a coyote. Soon enough she gave up, and headed over to where I had sat down against the wall.

She stood over me for a moment, shining the light right in my face.

"Hey," I squinted, lifting a hand to block it. "Mastriani, what –"

"I'm cold," she said. I sighed, and started to shrug out of my jacket. I had a feeling that once I gave it to her, it'd be another one lost forever – she still hadn't returned the one I lent her before – but, well, I try to be a gentleman. Not to mention, there was a weird tone to her voice that made me think maybe I wasn't the only one noticing similarities, here. I mean, it was no used condom carpet, no horrifying filthy tub, but…

"No!" she blurted. "No, don't, then you'll just be cold instead."

"Um," I said, trying to angle my head so I could see her in the darkness. She still had that weird voice, but it was hard to tell exactly how bothered she was when I couldn't see her. "No, I'm fine."

"No," Jess insisted, and then she pretty much flung herself into my lap.

I'm pretty sure she didn't intend to knee me in the gut on the way down, but I'd been worried about whatever that weird tone was and was just starting to stand up, and we kind of collided in the middle.

"Oof," I wheezed, "ow, hey –"

"Sorry, I didn't mean to –"

We might have kept right on talking over each other, but two things happened that shut us up nice and quick: first, the sound of the wind got a lot louder, and something over our heads crashed to the ground. Second, and in my opinion way more immediately relevant, I realized that Jess was pretty much straddling me at about the same time she appeared to notice that I'd grabbed her around her waist to hold her steady.

The flashlight had fallen down next to us in the collision, and I could finally see her face in the dim light. Rather than the fear I had worried about, she had a very different sort of expression.

"Really?" I couldn't help but ask. "You're cold?"

In retrospect, I should've caught on to that one right away. Sure, we were underground and it was windy outside, but it was still only early September. Not to mention, Jess's claims that she runs hot anyway were the whole reason she didn't bother to bring a jacket of her own for the bike. I probably would've realized sooner if I hadn't been worried about her emotional state instead. Shows me, I guess.

Jess didn't seem particularly embarrassed to be caught out in her lie, but then again she never did. Instead, she just grinned at me, and reached up to slide a hand around the back of my head. She leaned in, and… well, at least this wasn't her bedroom. I leaned up to meet her.

I don't know exactly how long I rewarded Jess's blatant trickery, but it was more than a few minutes. On the one hand, we were dating now, and everything, and this was one of the few chances we'd had to actually kiss since we started going out. Also, to be honest, I was enjoying this just as much as Jess was. On the other hand… we'd only been dating for a little while, our relationship was still sort of technically illegal, she was sitting on my lap, and I was enjoying this.

I pushed her away, gently but firmly.

"Alright, enough." My voice was a little shakier than I would've preferred. "Get off me."

Jess was breathing hard, and did not look especially inclined to listen. I looked up at her, and then had to look away, clearing my throat.

"Mastriani," I said, staring off into the far corner of the room.

"Fine," she grumbled after a moment – except, I could hear very clearly in her voice that she was smiling. Also, before she climbed off my lap and moved to sit down next to me instead, she leaned in one more time to kiss me on the corner of my mouth, really fast.

"Hey," I scolded.

"What?"

Something about her voice stopped whatever I'd been about to say. It was just too… warm, and affectionate, and a little rough from kissing. I don't know, it just – got to me.

"Are you still cold?" I asked instead, lifting my arm up in a silent offer. Jess took it immediately, fitting herself into my side and leaning her head against my shoulder. I wrapped my arm around her, and we just sat there for a while, listening to the sound of the wind.

"I guess you were right about the storm," Jess said after a few minutes. "Hopefully the Indian's okay."

"Don't remind me," I shuddered. It didn't actually sound like the tornado was passing directly over where we were – it'd have been a lot louder than even this if that were the case – but who knew if that would change. Not to mention that crash we'd heard a few minutes ago. Hopefully it was just a stray board or something, and not my bike.

We got quiet again. It should have probably felt sort of awkward, but honestly… I was pretty comfortable. Jess leaned into my side even more, and I could feel her relaxing fully into me, her breath against my shoulder slowing. I hadn't been cold at all, but the warmth of her resting against me was nice, and it really wasn't any kind of chore to just sit and enjoy the – well, not the quiet, since the wind was still pretty loud, but the white noise at least.

Eventually though, it had been long enough that I felt a little thirsty. The flashlight, which we'd left just laying on the floor ever since Jess jumped me, was still within my reach with my free hand, so I picked it up and shone it around the room until I saw the snacks I'd brought, sitting by the bottom rung of the ladder.

"I'm gonna get the water. You want some too?" Jess didn't answer, and I nudged my shoulder up a little, turning my head to look at her. "Hey, Mastriani…"

I trailed off. Jess was sitting with her knees bent into me, her head resting on my shoulder. Her eyes were shut, and her breathing slow and steady, her face completely relaxed. She'd fallen asleep.

I just stared at her for a moment.

"Mastriani," I said again. "Wake up – Jess..."

She didn't wake up, or really react in any way. That wasn't surprising – aside from the fact that Jess absolutely gave off the impression of being the kind of person who slept like a log and was a huge pain to wake up, I hadn't been talking very loudly anyway. To be honest, by the time I said her first name, I was pretty much whispering. I could barely hear myself over the wind, let alone loud enough to wake her. I didn't try to shake her or anything, either. If anything, I held her a little closer. Not really out of any conscious decision so much as I just… noticed I was doing it after the fact.

Looking down at her, calm and quiet and lightly holding onto the edge of my shirt with one hand, I felt weird. Kind of dizzy. I felt sort of honored, which really didn't make any sense because this logically shouldn't have been anything new. Jess liked me, I knew that. She made no secret of it, never had – and I knew she trusted me too, given all the kinds of things she had involved me in. I'd busted her out of a military base, investigated multiple missing kids, and faced down killers by her side. Sure, she didn't often tell me everything she was planning, but that was more because she knew I'd stop her from doing stupid and dangerous things if I had foreknowledge of them – I mean, I still tried, but advance warning would have made getting in her way easier. Nothing about this particular situation was special, really.

Except it felt special, somehow. I looked at her and the fact that she liked and trusted me enough to be here, to want to date me at all and especially to so easily fall asleep on me… it felt huge. I felt fondness welling up in me like a physical sensation, heavy in my chest and tight in my throat. It made me think about how comfortable this was, how easily I could imagine us sleeping together in the same bed someday – just sleeping, not even anything more active. Just Jess, cuddling up to my side and probably stealing all the blankets every night, sleeping half on top of me and trying to kiss me with horrible morning breath when we woke up no matter how many times I told her to brush her teeth first.

It was scarily easy to imagine. Jess sleeping on me like this felt – too much, way too huge, and I had to look away a second later. That wasn't going to happen. I knew it, and Jess knew it too – if the way she had me pick her up at the end of the block for today was any indication. Sure, she'd tried to invite me back to her house, but I saw how quickly she changed that tune when I pointed out we might not be alone there.

Not that I had any desire to hang out in her basement with her folks, either, but still.

So I knew it would be beyond stupid to get all caught up in daydreams of something like this ever happening again – that was way too serious. I didn't even like Jess that much! I mean, I liked her, but we were just dating, nothing more.

I told myself all this, and it definitely helped to calm me down. Still, I couldn't quite bring myself to get up, even though I knew I should. I was thirsty, yeah, but not that much. And if Jess was falling asleep so easily, maybe she was really tired. I couldn't really remember if it was time for any big tests yet or anything, but I guessed she might be stressed out over studying or something. She could probably use a nap.

I turned the flashlight off – no sense in wasting the battery if she was just sleeping anyway – and settled back against the wall a little more. I'd let her sleep for a while.

Jess made a quiet noise and twitched a bit. I squeezed her arm and without even thinking about it, kissed the top of her head. Immediately afterwards, I felt my cheeks get hot, but Jess just relaxed again. Still, I started to pull away… then stopped.

What the hell. She was asleep, she wouldn't even know.

I tipped my head over to rest on top of hers, and shut my eyes too.

-xxx-

I woke up with a crick in my neck, and my ass was numb from sitting still too long. Still, at least I'd woken first – not by long, because as soon as I remembered where I was and who I was holding, I sat up fully in surprise, and the movement jolted Jess awake too.

At least the extra few seconds gave me a moment to compose myself. I cleared my throat and pulled away as she yawned and started to sit up on her own. Groping around for the flashlight, I finally noticed how quiet it was.

Not from Jess – she was stretching and standing up, and already starting to talk – but I couldn't hear the wind.

I mentioned this as I turned on the light, interrupting Jess in the middle of her apology for falling asleep on me. I didn't exactly feel bad about that, especially given that she didn't sound sorry at all. She was quickly distracted by the news, and insisted on being the first one up the ladder to look around.

We were lucky, it turned out: though there had obviously been some pretty strong winds, my bike was fine. The crashing noise must have been made when an old metal trough had fallen over from where it had been propped up on one of the walls. The barn was pretty much in the same shape as it had been before, otherwise. It was getting dark, though – when I checked my watch, I realized we must've been asleep for at least an hour or two.

Given the time, and the fact that a tornado had very possibly passed through part of town for all we knew, I figured it would probably be a good idea to just cut things short there and take Jess home now. She didn't argue when I suggested that, either. I don't know what she'd told her parents about where she would be – obviously not the truth – but maybe she was worried that they would try to call wherever she'd said she was going and freak out when they couldn't reach her. Given the kind of situations their daughter regularly got herself into – not to mention the last big storm she'd been caught in – I couldn't even blame them if they did. That didn't make me any more eager to confront her dad (who happens to be my mother's boss) about where she had actually been, though.

We made pretty good time heading back into town. There were definitely some signs of wind damage here and there, but nothing worse than some fallen branches and one broken streetlight. If a full tornado had developed, it didn't seem to have come this way. It all kind of made my caution feel a little over the top, but I couldn't bring myself to regret it. Getting stuck under that barn hadn't been so bad, after all.

Jess seemed to agree. At least, when I pulled up at the corner two blocks away from her house to let her off my bike, she refused to walk away until I took my helmet off to say goodbye properly. This felt kind of counter to the whole point of dropping her off a couple blocks away, to me, since it wasn't exactly inconspicuous, but I didn't say no.

This kiss wasn't as involved as the ones earlier. Just firm, warm, and certain.

"I had fun," Jess said, pulling away. "I mean, even if we never actually made it to the movie."

"You had a nap."

"Next time, we'll just have to go straight to the movie theater first," she continued, completely ignoring me. Jess is particularly good at that, ignoring what everyone else is saying to just plow on ahead with her own plan. "Maybe, um, we could go next weekend?"

"Maybe," I said. "I don't know, I might be working."

"It's a date, then," she grinned. See what I mean, about the ignoring thing? I really shouldn't be as charmed by it as I am, it's actually very annoying a lot of the time.

"Sure," I drawled, rolling my eyes. I was only humoring her, but – well, she'd just ignore me if I disagreed, anyway. "See you then."

"See you."

I drove off first – not past her house, but turning in the street to head back the way I'd come. It took a little longer to get home than usual, due to a fallen tree blocking the road near my house. Well, I probably could have just gone offroad and driven around it, but one of my neighbors was already out there with a chainsaw, so I stopped to help him haul the pieces away once he'd finished cutting them. It was a nice distraction from my thoughts, which had been kind of stuck on the memory of sitting with Jess under that barn.

Still, I couldn't help coming back to them – later that day, and even a couple times throughout the week. People kept calling me out for smiling to myself, some nicer than others but all varying degrees of mortifying that made it hard to pick which was worse (on the one hand, my mom has perfected the knowing smile that feels like she can read every thought in my head – on the other hand, Chick's loud teasing was not only more involved but also more public). I insisted to all of them that it was nothing, that they were imagining things… but I'm pretty sure no one believed me.

I couldn't help it, though. Even if it had just been one small moment in a completely derailed date, something that hadn't meant anything special to Jess and wouldn't ever be repeated… it had been nice. I kept thinking about that, about how nice it had been.

When the rescheduled date finally rolled around (two weeks later, since I did end up working over the weekend and not even Mastriani can bulldoze her way past shift assignments), I made sure to check the weather before we left. It was supposed to be incredibly nice – not too hot, not too cold, zero chance of rain and definitely no tornadoes expected.

If I felt a little disappointed – well, no one else had to know.

I was playing a game on tumblr where people sent me two tropes and a pair, and I replied with how I would write a fic for them. meri47 sent in an ask for 'Stranded Due To Inclement Weather' and 'Sleep Intimacy', and this popped fully formed into my head pretty much instantly. Despite thinking I was finished writing anything for this fandom, I decided I had to do it!