All in the Head

A/N: Takes place sometime during Bound by Blood

Jeff watched Beth dance around the room in nothing but her bra and panties. It was about four in the morning and they still hadn't gone to bed. "You're really sexy when you do that," he commented with a grin.

Beth giggled. "You think so?"

"I know so," he said as he watched her grab on to the bed post and dip back as far as she could go. "Come here baby. I want you next to me."

She started to climb up on the bed with him when she saw something in the corner of the room. "Oooh, come here my little baby," she cooed as she slowly stepped over to the corner. "Come here to Mommy."

Jeff frowned and looked at where she was looking. He saw absolutely nothing out of the ordinary. "What are you doing Bethy?" he asked as he rolled off the bed. "What the hell are you seeing?"

"It's a baby tiger," Beth said happily. She reached out and started stroking the air. In her mind, she probably really was petting a baby tiger. "Jeff I want to keep it!"

"Uh…okay," he agreed. Honestly, what else was he going to say? He couldn't just tell her no. That would make her cry and he hated it when she cried. It made him sad. "I guess we can keep it."

"Yay!" she cheered. She kissed him on the cheek and then reached out to pick it up--only to stop in her tracks. "Wait, get back here you dumb tiger! You can't be my pet if you run away!"

Jeff just watched in complete disbelief as she started chasing the "tiger" all the way around the room. He was now having a hard time deciding whether she was just playing and making all of this up or if her loony brain actually did see a baby tiger. Then he came to the conclusion that it didn't really matter either way. So, with that in mind, he just sat back down on the bed and watched her.

The door opened a few minutes later and Hunter came into the room. "What the hell is she doing?" he asked slowly.

"Chasing a baby tiger," Jeff replied. He grinned when she finally scooped absolutely nothing into her arms and cradled it like a small child. "I think she just caught it."

"O….kay," Hunter said very slowly and deliberately. He looked completely and utterly confused. "I'm not even going to try to make sense of this. I think I'm just going to leave the two of you alone now."

Beth looked up at Hunter and gasped. "Oh my God! There are bugs flying around your face and trying to eat it! You need to do something!"

Hunter just kept staring at her in disbelief. "Okay, James told me you were a loony, but he didn't say you were a hallucinating loony. I think that qualifies as false advertising."

Jeff studied Hunter's face carefully. He didn't actually see the bugs Beth claimed that were there, but he didn't say that. In fact, as he looked at his girlfriend out of the corner of his eye, he saw the mischievous look that was there. She was just fucking with him and Hunter. And since she seemed to be having that much fun doing it, he decided to get in on the action. "You know, I think I see them too," he said with a nod. "They're all big and gross and stuff."

Now Hunter appeared to be getting really freaked out. "Guys, this is not funny," he informed them. He swatted the area around his face. "I don't see any bugs!"

"Of course you wouldn't," Beth said as she rolled her eyes. She looked at him like he was completely stupid. "You have an untrained eye. But don't worry: Jeff and I will help you."

"Yeah," Jeff agreed. He grabbed a book and held it up. "Come here Hunter, I need to kill them with this."

Hunter quickly backed up. "Oh fuck no. You just want to hit me in the face with a book."

Jeff made a high pitched whining noise. "Oh come on Hunter! That's not what I just want to do. I might get you with a nut shot while I'm at it."

Hunter quickly bailed and Beth burst out laughing. "I knew you would get your head in the game!" she squealed as she hugged Jeff tightly. "Isn't pretending so much fun?"

"Yeah," he admitted. "But I can think of one thing a lot more fun."

She frowned. "Oh really? And what's that?"

"Taking this book, finding Hunter, and then breaking his big old nose with it."

She giggled. "Yeah, okay, that would be more fun."

He grinned and kissed her. "I knew you would see things my way. Now come on. The last one to get to Hunter is a rotten egg!"