Ben was halfway through his shower when he realized that in his urgency to avoid the looming confrontation with Tripp, he forgot to grab a change of clothes. But he figured with everyone gone to bed he should be fine this once. Not that he was remotely ashamed of showing his body. He just didn't want to make Ciara or Claire uncomfortable. In fact, he'd always taken pride in his body & gone the extra mile to maintain his physique.

Some might even say he was a bit obsessive, but it was the one thing he could always control & after the pain & fear of his childhood, he refused to ever let himself be that defenseless again. He used to box to clear his head, but that was before things went so wrong with Abby. Part of him wished he could go back to it, but with his past, boxing might not be the best way to convince people he'd changed. Maybe he could take some kind of martial arts instead. They said it was good for discipline, and ever a person needed a disciplined mind it was him.

"Really?" a voice huffed out of the darkness moments before a lamp came on in the living room. "You think you don't have to wear clothes now?"

Ben startled & turned to face his new if reluctant roommate. "I forgot to grab a change of clothes in my rush to get clean." He waited a beat. "This place has great water pressure."

"Well, don't make a habit of it," Tripp replied with disgust. "We don't need you making the girls any more uncomfortable."

"I don't plan to," Ben swore. "I'll just head to bed & be out early tomorrow. I've got my first day at work and I probably won't be back until late."

"I wish you wouldn't be back at all," Tripp grumbled.

Ben huffed a sigh. He figured he might as well deal with this now because he likely wouldn't have the energy after a long day landscaping. "Look, I know you would rather I not be here. I even respect you for wanting to protect the girls from me, but whether you believe it or not, you don't need to worry about me. Ciara is my friend and I would never hurt her. So I'm gonna just going to go to work every day so I can save up & find my own place as soon as possible. With the hours I'll be pulling for this job, you probably won't even know I'm here. Ok?"

Tripp seemed to try to bite his tongue & fail. "You know what? No, it is NOT ok. None of this is ok," he growled. "You kidnapped Ciara and tricked her into thinking you're her friend only to go off your meds scare her and try to burn her alive in that cabin. You don't belong anywhere NEAR her, and I will protect her this time."

"I did NOT kidnap her," Ben gritted out. "I found her with a dead cell phone on a blind turn in the road in the middle of nowhere late at night. I had no car or cell phone or charger so I carried her in my arms to the first shelter I could find and I took care of her. She didn't want to stay alone with a reformed serial killer because of ME. She didn't want to face the bastard who couldn't wait to get his dick wet with her friend because she wasn't ready. You can't blame me for that." Ben took a deep breath to calm himself. "And we did get close. We talked. We vented. We became friends. And nothing you say or do is going to change that. If she needs me, she knows I will always be there no matter what."

Finally losing his temper, Tripp yelled, "You need to back off! You think you & Ci are so close, but it's not like what we have."

Sick of this kid's jealous temper tantrum, Ben can't resist poking at him. "Oh, I don't just think it. I know we're close. I even know about that spot that drives her wild. Do you?"

Tripp sees red & lunges for Ben, just as Ciara opens her door in search of a late night snack. "What the hell are you doing, Tripp? What's going on?"

Tripp manages to pull back from is attack before he inadvertently hit Ciara. Not that he would have anyway as Ben's reflexes were quick enough to pull her out of harms way. "Ciara-"

"Are you really trying to attack Ben?" she demanded. "Tripp, I thought you were better than this. We voted he's staying. That does not give you the right to pick fights or attack him!"

"You didn't here what he said."

"Oh?" Ciara turned to Ben.

Ben sighed and looked down. "I just told him we got close in the cabin, became friends. He didn't want to believe it so I might have mentioned how you're ticklish."

She chuckled shaking her head at him. "Ben!"

"What? It was the first thing that popped in my head."

Rolling her eyes at him, she turned back to Tripp who was fuming. "So you accost him on his way to his room from taking a shower to somehow prove he isn't my friend, & then nearly attack him because he is? What is wrong with you? Ben IS my friend, and we DID get close in the cabin. How many times do I have to tell you he SAVED MY LIFE and took care of me! He did NOT force me to stay against my will & he did NOT set that fire! So leave him alone!"

Ben couldn't help but smirk from behind Ciara as Tripp stood fuming yet trying to seem repentant toward Ciara. "What's going out here?" Claire demanded, rubbing her eyes until she saw Ben standing in nothing but his towel. "Holy shit!"

"Ok, I definitely need to put some clothes on," Ben sighed.

"Don't bother on my account," Claire quipped, still staring.

"Seriously?!" Tripp burst out.

"What?! He may be a psycho, but this psycho's hot & I've got eyes! As long as I'm stuck living with him, there might as well be something good about it."

"You should try his pancakes," Ciara chirped.

"But not my carrots."

"I'm sure we have ketchup around here somewhere," Ciara teased looking up at him as she elbowed him.

However, he had his hands in his hair so there was no defense when his towel fell. "Fuck!"

"Oh, god!" Tripp gasped.

"Wow!" Claire breathed, eyes trained.

"Uh-huh," Ciara agreed before she snapped out of it, turning away & standing in front of him as Ben rushed to grab his towel and cover up.

"I'm gonna head to bed and get some clothes on," Ben said demurely. "As I was telling Tripp, I start my new job so I'll be gone before sunrise & won't be back until dark. Good night."

Ciara couldn't resist peaking as he rushed off towards his room. A throat cleared & Ciara turned back around to face Tripp with wide eyes. "Um, I'm gonna call it a night. Sweet dreams."

"More like wet dreams," Claire quipped, under her breath, as Ciara slipped back into her room.

"Claire!"

"What?! You don't want me so I'm single. And I have eyes. Just because I wouldn't let him touch me with a ten-foot pole doesn't mean my eyes stopped working! Good night, Tripp."