Ok, so here is the last part of part one. This chapter was originally the last chapter of this fic, and I was going to continue in a sequel, but I am going to make an effort to meld everything into one story. It should work. I think. I hope. Updates might become sporadic after this, although I do have the next chapter written. I will make the same promise here that I have made to the readers of my HP fic, and that is that I will never abandon a story. It may take a while but this will be completed. Enough rambling, I hope you all enjoy the chapter. :)

The last time she decided to keep count, she didn't really mind so much. Not like she used to, when she would vehemently deny that there could be anything other then platonic interaction between she and Aidan. There would be many times after this, she was sure, that people would get the wrong impression, but was it really that bad?

"Are you ready to go Mrs. Cook?" she asked as the orderly, not Mike thankfully (the man could not take a hint), helped the elderly woman into a wheel chair.

"I'm going to take you down to get your x-ray done."

The older woman nodded, and Joss thanked the orderly before pushing the chair out of the room and down the hall. As they went, Mrs. Cook chatted to her and she found she was glad for the distraction. Her mind had of late been stuck on the night Hegeman had turned up on their doorstep, specifically the moment when Aidan had kissed her. Of course Joss had been kissed before, she had been planning on getting married and she'd had a few boyfriends in high school; it was the way that Aidan kissed her that had her floored. She had felt it as soon as their lips met, an all-consuming fire burning in her belly and threatening to explode forth. It had been all she could do to not just jump him right then and there and have her way with him, and from the way things were going it probably wouldn't have been too hard to convince him. It hadn't been lust. That she could explain and be satisfied with; if It had only been lust then she wouldn't be thinking about it so much. It was hard to describe, but when Aidan had kissed her and even after wards when he left, as erratic as her pulse had become and as hard as it was to calm her breathing down, she had felt right, safe even. It was startling, because Joss had not felt that since before she had been scratched and become a werewolf, and to feel it now, in the arms of her vampire room mate/best friend, well that definitely bore some thinking about.

She knew, of course that she loved Aidan, that she was in love with him; had done so for weeks. But knowing it and feeling it, actually fully realizing it, were two completely different things. And now she wasn't quite sure what to do and how they would move forward from this. Aidan seemed to want to ignore it, although in the past two weeks there had been moments when she would catch him looking at her with an unidentifiable look in his eyes. Sally of course wasn't aware that her two roommates had been making out, so she would be of no help unless Joss told her what happened. Which she most certainly was not going to do. Maybe. Probably. Who was she kidding; she will probably have spilled her guts to her ghost friend by the end of the week.

"Is your husband coming to see you today?" She asked Mrs. Cook as they headed for the elevator.

"Oh, yes. It's our granddaughters birthday, so he'll be coming by later after her party. I made him promise to tell me all about it."

Joss smiled, "That's nice. How many kids do you have?"

"Five, and let me tell you they were all a hand full and a half. But children always are I suppose. Do you have any?"

They had joined the small queue in front of the elevators now. "Kids?" Joss laughed lightly. "Oh no. I can't even keep a steady relationship going."

"Well, you'll find someone someday. Pretty girl like you, there's got to be someone out there."

Joss nodded and then was struck with a thought. Normally she would never consider discussing personal information about herself with a patient but she really needed some third party impute, "Mrs. Cook, can I ask you something of a personal nature?'

The older woman looked back at her, intrigued, "Shoot."

Joss resisted the urge to laugh and said, "If a man, who you consider a good friend, a close friend, kisses you one day and then pretends that it never happened, what would you do?"

Mrs. Cook snorted, "Toss him to the curb."

Now Joss did laugh and shake her head. The elevator dinged and people began to file on. Joss maneuvered the wheelchair on and found herself squished against the sidewall of the elevator. Just as the doors were about to close a hand shot through blocking their progress. Next thing she knew Aidan was squished in on the other side of the wheel chair. He smiled slightly when he saw Joss.

"You forgot your phone this morning. I put it in your locker."

"Thanks. I don't even want to know how you made it into the woman's locker room without getting caught for peeping tomism," She replied dryly.

He smirked and, as the elevator shuttered to a stop and the doors opened, he winked at her before stepping out onto the floor and striding away.

"That the guy?" Mrs. Cook inquired as the elevator began to move again.

Joss could feel a slight blush staining her cheeks. "Yeah, that's the guy."

Mrs. Cook nodded. "Well, if you've got that handsome young man interested in you, I'd say you're lucky. I take back my suggestion of before. That one looks like a keeper."

As they exited the elevator, Joss couldn't help thinking that the woman was right. Aidan, despite everything that had occurred within the last year, was definitely a keeper. Time would tell what would come of this thing between them, but for now she was just glad that he had come into her life that night when she was being attacked by those vampires. She wouldn't trade what they had for anything, even her returned humanity.

End of Part one