Saving Jane

Chapter Two: "You A Runaway?"

A/N: Hello my beloved readers! Here is a chapter for you!

~ Jane

Dom-T

Dom didn't even realize that he'd gotten out of his seat until the girl looked back at him with a glare that would've made a lesser man crawl. Then she left. Simple as that, she was gone. And it felt… wrong. It should've ended there… but it didn't.

He wasn't sure why he cared about this strange girl. He sure as hell wasn't sure what he was going to say to her when he moved around the booth table and out the door, but he did it anyway. He didn't even see Letty when he passed her, or hear her when she called after him.

He spotted the girl's dark figure easily in the bright and intense mid-afternoon sunlight, walking slowly ten or fifteen feet in front of him. She kept looking over her shoulder, and eventually she stopped and whirled around angrily.

"Why don't you take a picture, buddy. It'll last longer."

Jane-G

What the hell is this guy's problem? Jane thought angrily. She couldn't believe that he'd had the actual nerve to come after her in broad daylight, like she wouldn't say anything about it. Men!

The Hulk slowly walked up to her until he was about six or seven feet away.

"You need something to eat."

"Not you too!" Jane said, throwing her hands up in the air. "Why the hell won't everybody just leave me alone already?"

"We're just trying to help," Hulk said quietly.

"Yeah," Jane scoffed. "Everybody's just trying to help. Well, why don't you just take your helpfulness and shove it up you're a-"

"Hey, what's going on?" The door to the diner had opened and the woman who'd walked in with the two guys earlier came out. She was Latin American, medium build, and she looked like she could hold her own in a regular catfight, though Jane doubted that she'd be much of a problem for her.

"Not that it's any of your business, but the Hulk over here won't quit bothering me," Jane said gesturing to the guy in question with her thumb.

The woman looked over at the Hulk and laughed.

"You mean Dom? He wouldn't hurt a fly!"

Jane folded her arm and made certain that the woman could tell that she was anything but amused.

The woman walked up next to the Hulk – 'Dom' – but stopped short on catching a better glimpse of Jane's face. The woman blanched and went pale. Jane rolled her eyes and turned to leave.

"You a runaway?"

Jane stopped short at the sound of Dom's voice.

"What's it to you?" she returned sharply, turning just enough to see him over her shoulder.

"You got a place to stay?"

Dom-T

Dom had had to threaten reporting her to the cops before she'd agreed to stay with him and Mia for a few days. He had no idea what had gotten into him. Just seeing her – all pale and thin like that… Made him sick to his stomach to think of it.

He had forced her to sit and eat something, though it had been one helluva fight all the way. It seemed getting her to take anything from anyone was like moving a mountain. She hadn't said much. A 'thank you' and 'no way in hell' here and there. Other than that, she just seemed wary of them – even Mia. It was like she was an injured, cornered animal or something, snapping and snarling at anything that got in her path. She seemed to like Jesse though, probably because he didn't seem quite as threatening as Dom, Leon and Vince. It wasn't that she spoke to him more than the rest or even that she trusted him more. It was that when Jesse had stuttered some reassuring nonsense, she had smiled at him instead of snarled. A wave of envy had swelled in Dom's heart when she had smiled, though he couldn't understand why he would feel any kind of resentment toward Jesse over some teenage runaway.

Dom had quickly pushed away the feeling and focused on trying to get her to trust him. It had been hell just trying to get her name out of her, and even then he only got her first name – and that's if she had even given her real name to begin with.

After 'Jane' had eaten, he had taken her to the house, with surprisingly little protest. If Dom had had to make a guess, he would've guessed that she was getting tired of all the staring and unasked questions. It had gotten so bad, that even Dom was getting irritated with his family. Don't they know anything about playing it cool?

It had been awkward showing Jane the guest room. She didn't seem to know what to do with herself. She had mumbled a quiet 'thank you' and Dom had gone downstairs to let her unpack what little she had. Dom had telephoned Mia and asked her to pick up whatever a teenage girl would need over the next few weeks. When Mia had mentioned Jane's intention of only staying a few days, Dom had told her that Jane was leaving their home in her current condition over his dead body, even if that meant tying her to the guest bed.

It had been nearly half an hour since Dom had left Jane to unpack, and he was just about go and make sure she hadn't climbed down the side of the house with the tied sheets when she walked down the stairs, hood down for the first time since Dom had met her.

She was in even worse shape than he'd first thought. Old bruises covered the side of her jaw, and her gaunt cheeks stood out like a sore thumb. She looked more like a walking skeleton than a vibrant teenage girl.

"Hi," she said quietly, stopping at the foot of the stairs. "Uhm, I… I wanted to apologize about how I acted earlier – ungrateful, I mean. I know what you guys were trying to do and I didn't want you to think that I didn't appreciate it. It's just…"

"It's just what?" Dom asked when she didn't continue.

"It's just that I'm not very used to relying on other people. I… I'm not used to trusting people," Jane said, looking him directly in the eyes. Her eyes were open and vulnerable, as though she was offering him a little peek at the hell she'd been through in her life.

Dom nodded his head in understanding and Jane seemed a little relieved that he didn't ask her what she'd meant by her words.

"Are you hungry?" Dom asked.

"Are you kidding?" Jane asked smiling. "After all the food everyone shoved down my throat at the diner, I'll be lucky if I ever eat again."

Dom chuckled.

"I guess we did get a bit carried away after the third sandwich."

"A bit?" Jane folded her arms and raised her eyebrows in challenge.

Both Dom and Jane began laughing. When they finally subsided, Jane was the first to speak.

"I'd like to take a shower if that's alright?"

"Of course, kid. Lemme get you a towel," Dom said, bounding up the stairs past her before she could protest that he didn't have to wait on her.

He was eager to prove that she could rely on him.