Chapter number 33. The point between romance and friendship

Peter sat in his office deep in thought, he had one elbow on his desk with his hand holding his face up and his other hand twiddled a pen between two of his fingers, baning the end up and down on the desk, "Still no luck?" Lara asked as she came in and saw her boyfriend in the state he was in.

"No" he huffed.

"Well I though this might help" she smiled at him, holding out a cup of coffee which he greatfully took.

"Thanks".

"That's ok. So you still have no idea who the emails are from?"

"No, one of the computer guys is doing an IP address check for me, but I doubt that will get us anywhere, if this guy is as smart as we think he is he wouldn't be stupid enough to send it from his own computer".

"Well there's still a chance" she encouraged him.

"yeah I guess so" he sighed.

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Martha woke up and looked at the alarm clock on the bed side table of the Holden's spare room that read 1:30 am. She rolled over to go back to sleep but was distracted by Jack sitting on the chair next to the bed. "Jack" Martha said, still half asleep, "it's one thirty, shouldn't you be in bed?" she grumbled, opening her eyes properly and studying him as he staired at her with a twinkle in his eyes.

"Couldn't sleep, new bed" he explained giving her a soft warm smile that made her smile back at him.

"I thought you'd be itching to get back in you own bed" she said, giving into his warm gaze.

"Yeah I was, but I forgot how much I'd gotten used to sleeping on a brick" Jack sighed, "and I had a few things on my mind".

"Good things I hope".

"Mostly" he said, looking down at his hands, "Look Martha about before-".

"Jack, you don't need to explain".

"Yeah I do, I still can't explain it properly to myself, I want to be with you Martha, I really do" Jack promised.

"Yeah I know that Jack, but it just needs time".

"Yeah maybe" Jack nodded.

"What do you mean maybe?"

"It's just, everytime I close my eyes I see Serena and I just feel bad for loving you, I mean, she didn't even know about us, and now it's too late to say anything".

"Actually she did know" Martha told him sitting up on the bed cross-legged..

"But how?" Jack asked, "you told her?"

"I'm sorry Jack it was just-"

"No, no, don't be sorry" he cut her off, "it's better that she knew, she didn't deserve to die without knowing the truth".

"Yeah, that's probably why it slipped out the way it did, she was just talking about all these things she'd never admitted to before, even little things, and there I was hiding something bigger than all her confessions put together... I just, I couldn't hide it".

"So that's how she knew" Jack sighed.

"What do you mean?"

"In the letter she wrote me... she said that she knew that I loved you" he started.

"And let me guess she said it was ok?"

"Yeah".

"That's exactly what she said to me" Martha told him, "she was so calm about it too".

"She just wanted us too be happy" Jack added.

"Yeah I know" Martha said, forcing a weak smile before looking down at her fingers that were twisted together nervously, "she was good like that wasn't she? She just wanted people to be happy. She was even happy the first time she found out about Dylan, there wasn't even a moment of shock, she just smiled and looked at the positive that she was a step mum for so long without knowing" she smiled contently at the memories, "I know I wouldn't of been like that".

"Yeah me nether, but that was Serena" Jack spoke softly, almost with the slightest amount of sadness in his voice, "positive and accepting".

Martha just nodded, looking up at him, he'd moved from the chair where he'd been before, and he now sat on the edge of the bed with his body turned towards where she sat.

"So what does this mean for us then?" he asked, realizing that they'd both been wanting to ask the same thing since earlier that evening.

"I really don't know, I mean were not just friends are we?"

"No were not" he admitted honestly.

"And were not quite up there in the romance department ether" she added, "so were kinda stuck in the middle I guess".

"Is there a point between romance and friendship?"

"Well there can be now" she smiled, "so what do you say we call it then?"

"I don't know, how about confused?"

"Ok" Martha laughed.

"Well now that were officially confused, I should probably get back to bed and crash".

"Yeah I should get some sleep too".

"Good night" he whispered, leaning forward and pulling the covers over Martha as she lowered herself back into bed.

"Good night" she whispered back, closing her eyes as she felt Jack gently kiss her on the forehead before leaving and shutting the door quietly behind him.

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