Hope you enjoy. :) Mentions and use of some dialouge form S1 Ep 4 and 5

Then there was that time where Aidan made things clear. Not that Joss was ever to find this out; not even Sally ratted him out, but that could have been because she was too preoccupied with her own afterlife drama. At first when Joss had come home the day after the full moon wearing douche cloths, which were easily too large for her and clearly belonged to a man, or at least some fashion challenged woman who was stuck in the 90's, and informed him she had met another werewolf, A man called Ray, Aidan had mixed feelings. It was good that she was meeting "people" with her affliction and he thought maybe this person could help her. At the same time, you could never be too careful; there were some real psychos out there. He would know, having been one of those psychos, although a balanced one, for many years prior to his change of attitude and lifestyle. He also found that he was surprisingly disturbed at the idea that this person had seen her naked…

"He's been watching me."

"No," he said, unsurprised. If the man had another set of cloths, of course he had been watching her. Again the idea that someone else, even if they were another werewolf, had seen his friend so vulnerable made him feel…he stamped down his irritation and turned towards the microwave to get his "breakfast"

She stared at him for a moment and then sighed and sunk down into one of the chairs at the table. Her hair was a mess, sticking up in all directions and there was a smug of dirt on her cheek. It was almost endearing. "Just when I begin to think there's hope, like real hope that I can be like everybody else, I wake up and I'm in,"

"I'm in hell!" Sally moaned coming into the kitchen and interrupting Joss, although it was clear she was about to say the same thing. "I died, and now I'm actually in Hell!"

Joss rolled her eyes, "Aidan and I were just talking about how I'm in hell, but whatever. Lets talk about you. " Her sarcasm seemed lost on the ghost.

"I just spent my night watching Danny and Bridgette simper and swoon over each other. If I had bodily fluids, I'd spew them right now," Sally declared with vehemence.

"Who is Bridgette?" Aidan asked, glad that he had a distraction from his anger? No, that definitely wasn't it. Confusion that he was upset about some guy seeing Joss naked in the woods? Maybe.

"My best friend, who I've known since third grade, who I now realize is a brutal whore!" Sally informed them both, prompting them to ask why she just didn't leave when Bridgette and Danny started making out. This of course caused Sally to launch into another rant, this time about how she has to go wherever her mind goes… She sat on the counter finally, and then sighed and looked at Joss.

"Why are you dressed like a douche?"

Joss almost spit her juice out, and Aidan, still trying to figure out if this meeting another werewolf thing was a good thing for his best friend, said absently,

"Joss met another werewolf,"

"Awe,"

"Who's stalking her," he finished, studying his nails and not looking at the young woman sat at the table. He could feel her gaze burning into the side of his head.

"Eww," Sally gave Joss a disgusted look, although the disgust was most certainly not directed at her.

Joss was still staring at him. "I'm going to shower," she finally said, standing. He could hear the tightly coiled emotion in her voice, as well as a bit of disgruntlement directed at him for telling Sally about her new "friend". No doubt she was on the verge of having a freak-out. Once she had left, Sally turned to him,

"What do I do?"

"I'll tell you what you do. You uh, you be strong and you focus on other things." Was he giving her advice or himself, he slightly wondered. He really needed to figure out what was going on in his head.

Sally hopped down from the counter and gave him a look of derision. "Maybe I'll have your will power after I've been around for a century or two." Her tone implied so many things other than the current situation. And then she too left the kitchen, probably off to moan to Joss about her girl issues some more. Although Joss wasn't really that type of woman, much to Sally's chagrin.

He took a sip of his mug of blood and grimaced, quickly shoving it back into the microwave. There was nothing that ruined the start of his day more than a cold mug of blood …except the idea that some werewolf stalker had seen Joss naked…he definitely needed to sort out his thoughts.

Later in the day when Ray had come to the hospital and asked about Joss, Aidan had already decided that he had to do something to distance himself a bit from her, if only for a while. Not too much of course, they did live together and she was his best friend, but something was definitely changing in their relationship, at least for him. So he suggested that she should talk with Ray and let him help her. He even pulled out the half amused- half pleading smile he knew usually got her to do what he wanted. She sighed and walked over to Ray looking mildly pissed off but resigned.

"One cup of coffee," she said holding up a finger. "Tomorrow." She walked away without sparing Aidan another glance; he could tell from the way she moved she was really exasperated.

"Sweet," Ray called after her. "That's awesome honey!"

Joss turned back and gave him a derisive look. "I'm not your honey," She said coolly and then kept walking, her annoyance level only increased.

Aidan watched her go feeling slightly bad for increasing her anxiety level even more but this would be good for her, he was sure. Good for them both maybe.

Of course that didn't mean that he wanted the man on his couch; their couch.

"You were right," she told him as she leaned against the counter and watched him squeeze blood into his mug. "Ray's a pretty decent guy. Uh...he doesn't have a place to stay. I was thinking maybe he could crash here for a while."

He glanced up to see her with her hands on her jean clad hips, looking at him expectantly. "Really? Cause we hardly know him," He said dryly, almost dismissively.

She raised both brows and turned towards the oven. "Really? You're the one who told me to give him a chance," she paused and turned to look at him, as she leaned against the counter. "So, what? You worried about having more than one werewolf in the house?" she asked cautiously.

He didn't need this today. Not after what was already going on with Rebecca, was his initial thought, closely followed by how could she even think that he would think that? "Of course not," he told her gently. They looked at each other for a moment, and he was hit with that same feeling that had been bothering him earlier. Then she smiled slightly and said, "Good."

And that was that, especially since Sally had no objection to Ray being there. He put up with him for almost a month, distracted by his situation with Rebecca, but when he came home needing blood and couldn't get any because Ray had dumped it all out to make room for his rump roasts…well…

"It's been great the help you've given Joss, but you will be moving on after this moon."

Ray smirked, "Bet you'd like that wouldn't ya?" he tone was suggestive.

"It might be for the best, your welcome is wearing a bit thin here," Aidan was way too hungry to be dealing with this now. Why had he ever encouraged Joss to bring this bastard into their lives? Ray suggested that Joss wouldn't agree with him then, but Aidan knew better.

"Joss will do what's right." He knew that, like he knew that the sun rose in the east. It was a simple, sure fact of life.

"Who's to say what's right huh?" Ray challenged, "Some guy who's showing her how to survive, how to thrive? Or some...undead thing that lets her tag along like a pet. It's only a matter of time before she realizes and sees you for the leech you are. "

"Oh," Aidan pushed away from the table and squared up to Ray, "you picked the wrong time to screw with me Ray." He could tell that Ray was sizing him up, and that he was pleased that his comments had affected him.

"What are you going to do?" Ray asked "Rip me to shreds in this kitchen and prove to Joss what a murderous scum we both know you to be?"

Aidan smirked slightly," You are not worth my time Ray. You are not worth Joss' time. You will leave our house after the next full moon, or I will rip you apart. Believe me, between the two of us, Joss isn't going to pick you. Nor will she miss you when you're gone."

He stepped around the werewolf, intent on figuring out how he was going to cope without food for the night. He wasn't going back to Rebecca that night that was for sure.

"She's never gonna want you," Ray called after him, causing him to come to a halt. "Yeah, I've seen the way that your eyes follow her, the way you look at her. But kind goes for kind and you, well you're just not her kind. Although…I don't blame you, she does have real nice set of-"

Aidan was back in front of him in an instant, his grip on the monster gnawing in his chest practically non-existent, "You do not talk about her like that," he said in a dangerously low voice. "Joss is not some woman you picked up at the bar and brought back for a good time. If you lay even a finger on her, if one hair on her head is even out of place, what I will do to you will have you begging for death."

Ray eyed him evenly and once more Aidan turned and walked away, heading for the stairs. He looked back at Ray, throwing back one more barb, "Oh and if I wanted Joss, I could have had her months ago. Like I said Ray, its never going to be you."

When Sally told Aidan that she had figured out Danny had killed her, the rage he felt was the perfect excuse to take out some pent up emotion, about Bishop and his crazy plans, about his own frustration with his life at the moment and about how uneasy and upset Joss had seemed that morning, and the look in her eyes when Ray had said they were changing together that night; something had happened to make her afraid and leery of the other werewolf, probably something to do with what had been implied at Sapp and Sons. Of course Sally convinced him to not go after Danny, pleaded with him. Later, the next night, after he had taken out Bishop's priest, he felt slightly better. Enough to indulge Joss in her "ritual of normalcy".

"So, what happened with Ray?" Sally asked as Joss ate chicken like it was going out of style and Aidan watched her, amused.

Joss' exuberance, the vivacity that seemed to have possessed her since she made them sit down at the table, faded and before she spoke, told them that Ray was gone, Aidan just knew that something was wrong. Really wrong.

"And the other night, those degenerates you rolled?" they locked gazes and he knew that she understood what he was really saying.

"Ray rolled," she said almost inaudibly and then softly, but earnestly, "that's gone too."

Sally was looking between the two of them obviously confused, but Aidan ignored her, instead keeping a level gaze on his other roommate. He could tell that something was still wrong. Joss picked up her wine glass, but instead of drinking said in a slightly bland tone as if she was telling them it was going to rain, "Oh, fun tidbit. Turns out that Ray is uh the one that did this to me. Made me what I am."

"You're kidding?" was all Aidan could think to say, his thoughts racing. At least Sally asked if Joss was okay, which is what he should have done, he thought.

"Yeah, I'm awesome," She quipped. "Who wouldn't want to meet their weredad?" The three of them laughed slightly and then she asked for the Salad.

Aidan continued to watch her though and he knew, no matter what she said, that she most definitely was not okay. When he had threatened Ray those few days ago he couldn't have known that the man had already hurt Joss irrevocably. As he watched Joss smile at something Sally said, he knew without a doubt that if he ever saw Ray again, if that dog ever came sniffing around, he would put him down. Painfully and without remorse. Ray might have been right in his taunts about his feelings for Joss, in fact he was beginning to suspect that he was very right, bastard that he was. At the moment, he couldn't find it within himself to care. Joss deserved to be looked out for and that was exactly what he was going to do.