"Dude, is that Aaron Abbot?" Reid asked incredulously.
Tyler gave him a patient look. "Duh. You know his and Janie-girl's companies do work together all the time." He paused. "Why? You going to start something? Because these suits are on rent and Janie would kill us if we ruined them."
Reid scoffed. "Yeah right, I'm not going to start anything with Abbot, we have bigger fish to fry tonight."
The two boys looked across the room at whom they had labeled 'their girl,' and they knew she was a perfect choice. Surrounded by a few of the younger attendees of the party, Jane gleamed like a fine jewel in royal blue, vivacious and elegant with her hair coifed.
Reid and Tyler watched across the room as Jane laughed charmingly with her escort of the night. Her partner was dark haired, dark eyed, and blessed with classic good looks as well as a large inheritance. Of course his name would be -.
"What the fuck kind of a name is Beau?" Reid asked Tyler.
Tyler rolled his eyes. "That shitty of a name has got to be a family tradition of some sort. You almost feel bad for him before you realize he obviously comes from old money." He scowled. "Probably hasn't worked a day in his life."
"Baby boy," Reid said, his voice turning mischievous, "I think you're right. And if he hasn't worked a day in his life let's make him work for what he blatantly wants now."
Tyler's mouth turned into a feral grin when he saw Beau's hand linger on Jane's arm a moment longer than it should have. "Let's."
Jane's eyes widened when she saw them heading her way before she pasted a smile on her face. "Hey, boys," she greeted, her voice cool and giving away none of her misgivings about the two's arrival. She turned to the taller figure next to her. "Beau, this is Tyler and Reid," she introduced pleasantly. "They go to school with and are spending holiday with me." Reid and Tyler hated the upper class speech she adopted when in the presence of business associates (When it came down to it, that's all this man would ever be because Reid and Tyler left no room for anyone else in her life).
Reid and Tyler gave Beau charming grins to the older man while they exchanged handshakes.
"Spenser is a good school," Beau stated. "My time there was…. memorable."
Beau's eyes glinted in a way Reid recognized from his womanizing days (days before Jane and inexplicably before he and Tyler really began) and he almost scowled. He had a sudden epiphany that Beau was a cad (inwardly he groaned. He was spending way too much time here if he was using the word 'cad').
"Oh?" Tyler said, perfect brows arching. Reid was impressed – usually Ty' just scowled around Jane's potential suitors (his mind lamented at his use of 'suitors'. God, he needed to escape to some dirty bar fast.). "Which university are you at now?"
"I graduated from Harvard," Beau said proudly.
Jane looked impressed. Tyler nearly scoffed when he saw the man acknowledge her admiration by standing slightly more erect.
"So, you're no longer in school?" Tyler asked.
"No," Beau said, turning disinterested eyes away from the conversation he deemed was turning boring.
"Really?" Reid asked almost gleefully. Jane's eyes narrowed with suspicion.
"Really," Beau deadpanned. He opened his mouth to change the subject. "You know, my family has a house in Italy, Jane. You'd love -."
"You know, Janie here isn't eighteen yet," Reid declared tactlessly with a far too innocent expression on his face.
"REID!"
It wouldn't be the last time Jane chastised the sly blonde boy that night – not by a long shot.
"You're unbelievable!" she screamed, slamming her bedroom door closed. She snarled when the two boys came in anyway. "Get out!"
"Fuck no!" Reid said, practically ripping his tie off.
Jane faltered for a millisecond when she realized the denial had come from Reid rather than Tyler. "I said, 'Get out!'" she said once she recovered.
"And I said, 'Fuck no!'" Reid replied, his voice equally as deadly.
Tyler was strangely quiet but Jane could see him trembling with some unknown emotion.
Jane stomped a heeled foot. "Get out! Get out! Get out, bitches!" Each statement was punctuated with the noise of her foot striking the floor.
"No," Reid stated simply, no longer yelling, just staring at her with impenetrable, icy eyes.
Jane turned away from them, pulling off her shoes and tossing them into a corner loudly. "When I turn around you two better be gone," she warned.
Reid scoffed.
Her eyes narrowed at the two when she saw they were still present. "I told you to get out," she said, "when I'm through with you, you're going to wish you had listened."
"We did nothing wrong," Reid argued.
Jane gave a bitter laugh. "You basically harassed Beau!" She pointed out, hands gesturing in wide, harsh patterns that would've had the boys flinching if they were discussing any other subject. "You two always do this! Did you know his father holds one of the largest contracts with mine? That he, of course, is inheriting? You could've ruined everything for my father! You better get out now before he comes home to throw you out himself!"
Reid laughed. "Honey," he began mockingly, "your old man is so in love with us I'm surprised he hasn't sent us roses and breakfast in bed."
"Fuck you!" Jane cried. "I want you to leave." She moved forward to shove him out the door.
Tyler grabbed her arm before she reached the shorter boy and finally spoke. "We're not leaving," he told her resolutely.
She pushed at him with her free arm before he caught that one, too. She struggled, yelling, "Get out! Fucking leave!" over and over again. Tears began spilling down her face to match her overwrought emotions but she didn't stop her fruitless wrestling.
Tyler let her go on that way for a few moments before shaking her roughly. The dark haired boy ignored Reid's warning to not hurt her. "How can you not get that we're not going to leave you?" his deep voice resonated through her chest and she sagged in a dazed exhaustion.
She halfheartedly struggled some more. "Get out, please." She almost sobbed. "Leave me. Why won't you leave me alone?" She began sobbing in earnest when Reid wrapped his arms around her and her restrained arms and Tyler's hands that were holding them.
"Shh, Janie-Girl," Reid murmured soothingly. He and Tyler went with her when she sank to the floor in defeat.
Seeing that she was no longer going to struggle, Tyler's hands let go of their vice-like grip and began rubbing her arms slowly in a comforting manner.
"I wish you'd leave me," Jane said, head pressed to Tyler's chest. It sounded more like begging than an order now.
"We already said we won't," Tyler said, his voice now gentle.
"But why?" Jane said, child-like, looking up at Tyler with wide eyes. He was momentarily brought back to another time when she had asked him another weighty question on a different, but just as crucial subject (1).
"You really don't know?" he asked in turn, just like the last time. This time there was no latent bitterness in his tone, just unguarded tenderness.
Jane seemed to have not made the same parallels in the situations as Tyler; otherwise she would've avoided saying what came out of her mouth next. "Tell me."
Except this time it ended differently, because instead of Tyler kissing her, Reid tipped her onto her back and told her in a firm voice, "You're an idiot," before kissing her senseless.
Tyler almost laughed. He kind of liked the outcome of this situation rather than the last one. Sliding next to the impassioned pair so he stretched out next to them, he reached over and caressed the side of Jane's face slowly and carefully, as if she might break and the thought of that happening was the worst thing someone ever suggested to him. And it truly was.
Then Jane did something that made Tyler amend the previous statement – he definitely liked the ending of this scene a lot more than the other. Breaking away from Reid softly, Jane turned to him with glazed eyes and she palmed his face hesitantly in return.
This time was different. This time, Jane kissed him.
Jane could feel Tyler smiling against her lips and Reid contentedly holding them. Sighing, she closed her eyes, let go of all her doubts, and finally let herself just simply feel.
Nestled between two handsome boys, who had loved her wholly and incessantly for as long as it had counted, Jane felt complete.
(Completely wicked, as the two boys soon learned. But they didn't mind.)
Fin.
Disclaimer: I don't own the Covenant.
A/N: The end. Really! Only the epilogue left. It took me half an hour to finally decide how to end this fic in a manner that was succinctly Reid, Tyler, and Jane all at once. Totally different from how I pictured it would end when muse struck me, but thank God I impulsively started writing (how my writing usually starts, actually) because I honestly like how it ended.
(1) Chapter Ten, when Tyler first kisses Jane and she abandons him because Reid burst in on them.
For anyone named Beau, I meant no disrespect. I just needed a really old school name.