Jack groaned. Reaching over, he grabbed the phone and silenced the alarm. Beside him he felt Elsa stir as she opened her eyes and stifled a yawn. Leaning over, he watched as her eyes widened upon catching sight of their clothes that had been discarded on the floor.
"I can't believe that I agreed to this again," she murmured, pulling the bed sheet over to cover her naked body. "You are a bad influence on me."
Smirking, he leaned down to steal a kiss. "Hey, don't blame me. It was your sister who suggested I sneak in last night. I just agreed to it. Besides, I don't recall you complaining," he teased.
He chuckled quietly as Elsa flopped against the mattress and let out a loud exhale. "Just get dressed already," she urged. "If we are going to run the risk of my parents catching us, I'd rather that we are both dressed at the very least."
Grinning, he rolled over and climbed out of bed. Bending down, he picked up her nightgown and tossed it to her before slipping on his own clothes. It was true, it had been Anna's suggestion for him to sneak in to spend the night again. They had gone out to a movie the night before with Anna, Kristoff, Lana, Fred and Jamie. Anna had claimed that because it was the weekend, her parents would not be waking until at least 7am, therefore, Jack could enjoy the luxury of sleeping in until 6am.
He had willingly agreed. Despite the ungodly hour that he had to wake up at, in order to avoid getting caught, he couldn't deny that he enjoyed the feeling of falling asleep with Elsa in his arms. Fortunately, it had not taken much to convince Elsa to agree to it. Especially with Anna vowing to once again do her part to keep them from being caught.
Slipping his wallet, keys and phone in his pocket, he watched as Elsa peeked her head out the door. Slowly she made her way across to her parents room and pressed an ear to the door. Turning her head, she gave him the sign that they had agreed on and let him know that it was safe to leave the room. Stealthily, he creeped down the stairs and unlocked the door before stepping outside. He paused at the door and waited for her to follow him out.
He stopped to press one last kiss to her lips before jogging to his car and climbing in. Buckling up, he watched as Elsa strolled down the path to pick up the Sunday paper from the lawn before looking around. He grinned, he knew that she was still worried that they would be caught and was doing her best to appear casual. Starting the motor, he pulled away from the Blanchard house. His eyes glanced in the rear view mirror as Elsa slowly disappeared from his sight.
Elsa smiled. Her eyes fell on Rapunzel who gave her one last wave before sliding into the passenger seat of Flynn's car. Her cousin had just filled in for the night shift at Kingdom's and had been kind enough to wait while Elsa locked the store up.
Stifling a yawn, she made her way towards her car. Around her, groups of people ambled along the footpath while they enjoyed the warm summer breeze. Reaching into her pocket, she pulled out her phone and checked for messages. She had briefly contemplated calling Jack and having him meet with her somewhere, but had decided against it. The weekend and her day at university had left her exhausted.
"Good evening, Elsa. Your boyfriend not with you tonight?" a smooth voice drawled.
Looking up, Elsa froze as she caught sight of Hans leaning lazily against her car holding an A4 envelope in his hand. Her eyes widened as he stepped towards her. "B...boyfriend, I d...don't know what you're talking about," she stammered, reaching in her handbag for the pepper spray that Jack had bought for her.
Hans laughed, his hand reaching into the envelope. "Didn't your parents teach you about lying? I'm talking about your relationship with Jack Frost. A relationship that I'm willing to bet good ol' Mum and Dad don't know about," he sneered, stepping closer. "Although, it is romantic. Why, you're like the Romeo and Juliet of the business world. It's even more romantic when you consider that Jack spent years crushing on you, only for you to ignore him...well, until now that is."
She swallowed the lump that had formed in her throat. Tightening her grip on the pepper spray, she pulled it out. "I'm warning you now, Hans. I'm not afraid to use this on you," she threatened, holding the spray in front of her.
"Oh, that is cute. I'm guessing that your little boyfriend bought that for you. He wasn't too pleased with our previous 'chat' and seemed quite determined to protect you. Of course, that was before the two of you had even started dating," Hans snickered.
She glared at him. Keeping her head high, she attempted to step around him. "How I came to own this spray is none of your concern," she stated.
She watched as Hans stepped closer to her, blocking her movement. "You are correct. The spray and how it came to be in your possession, is not my concern," he declared, pausing to smirk at her. "However, I do have something in this envelop which concerns not only you, but Mr Frost as well."
She gulped. She could feel her palms getting sweaty as she nervously wrung her hands. She was doing her best to appear calm and unphased on the outside, even if the fear was eating her up internally. She watched as Hans slowly reached into the envelope to pull out some sheets of paper before holding up a flashlight to allow her a better view.
"See this, Elsa?" Hans asked, shining the light on the printed photo's. "Don't the two of you make an adorable couple? Sitting there just a few short metres from where we are currently standing and enjoying a romantic picnic together. You don't even seem to care who could see the two of you making out."
She gasped as her eyes fell upon the pictures from the picnic her and Jack had shared the previous Tuesday. Somehow, Hans had managed to snap a series of photographs of her and Jack. There were photo's showing them as they lazed against each other to eat, or held hands. He had even managed to get a photo of her sitting on Jack's lap with his arms wrapped tightly around her while they kissed.
"Y...y...you spied on us?" she cried, her hand moving to cover her mouth. "Why?"
Hans nodded and slid the photo's back into the envelope. "Well, to be honest neither you or Jack were shy about displaying your...err...affections. However, yes, to answer your question I may have made a special trip in just for the two of you. I have my answers as to why," he remarked. "Don't worry, Elsa. I'm not an unreasonable man. In fact, I am more than willing to strike a deal with you. If you do something for me than I can make sure that these photo's never see the light of day."
Blinking, she stared at him. Her gut instinct had told her months ago that there was something untrustworthy about Hans. In the months that had followed, his actions had only sought to strengthen her distrust of him. "What makes you think that I would agree to any kind of deal with you?" she asked, glaring at him.
"Because, Elsa," he replied. "I'm going to give you a choice. Your sister's happiness, or your own."
"Anna?!" Elsa gasped, crossing her arms in front of her. "Leave my sister out of this."
Hans chortled. Crossing his arms, he looked down at her with disdain. "That's where you have a choice, Elsa," he began. "You see, I am a proud man. I come from a good, wealthy family with good social standing. I have everything that you could ask for, basically. I have never had much difficulty with the ladies until your sister came along - "
"You didn't deserve my sister," Elsa hissed. "She's far too good for you."
"Settle down, Elsa. I've not finished," Hans sneered, waving his hand. "As I was saying, life was good for me. Well, at least it was until your sister came along and embarrassed me. Poor, sweet, naive, Anna. You would have thought that a girl so desperate for love would have been easy to get into bed, but no. She not only refused me, but word somehow got out that she turned me down -"
"Yet you still attempted to humiliate her and spread lies about her on your pathetic little Facebook page," she broke in, clenching her jaw as she continued to glare at him.
"Let me finish!" Hans ordered, slapping his hand across her cheek. "God, you Blanchard girls are so rude. As I was saying, word somehow got out that your sister and I didn't sleep together and that made me look like a liar. To make matters worse, she then went and got together with that weirdo, Kristoff. I need you, Elsa, to convince your sister to break up with that freak and come back to me. Once her and I are back together, we will go out for a few dates before I dump her and undo the damage that she did to my social status."
She gripped her cheek, her face flushed with anger. "You mean to tell me that you want me to convince my sister to break up with a kind, caring guy who treats her well and who she dotes on, so that you can come crawling back to humiliate her. You're doing this just so you can attempt to fix your bruised ego?" she scoffed.
Hans nodded. A sly smile crossed his face. "Matter of fact, yes," he replied. "You convince Anna to break it off with Kristoff and come back to me and I will make sure that these photo's and your relationship remains a secret. If you don't then I will see to it that Daddy gets a copy of these lovely pictures. The choice lies with you, Elsa. It is either your happiness, or Anna's."
"You're vile," she snarled, clenching her fist.
Hans scoffed. "No, I'm cunning. You have until Friday to make your decision, Elsa. Will I be deleting these photo's from your computer, never to be seen again, or will I be sending an email to your dear old dad?" he sneered. "Oh and by the way, you can keep the print outs. I've got the originals on my laptop."
She watched as he turned on his heels and walked away. Digging in her handbag, she found her keys and let herself into her car. She could feel herself trembling as she pulled the phone out and dialled Jack. He answered on the third ring, his husky voice was full of concern as he arranged to meet her at the park near their houses.
Jack pulled his car into the deserted parking lot that lay adjacent the park. He'd managed to arrive a few seconds after Elsa and had followed her to pull in to park beside her car.
Switching the motor off, he climbed out and opened the door to Elsa's car. His eyes fell on her blotchy, tear-stained eyes. "El, what's wrong?" he asked, pulling her to him.
She said nothing. Instead, she reached down to grab her handbag and led him towards a bench which lay underneath a lamp. Sitting down, he pulled her onto his lap. His eyes fell upon a red mark on her cheek.
"El, how did you get the mark?" he asked, softly stroking his thumb over her cheek.
She didn't answer. Her body shook as she burst into tears. Sighing, he tightened his grip on her before running his hand up and down her back in an attempt to soothe her.
"Hans," she cried, pulling out a few folded pieces of paper from her handbag and handing them to him.
Frowning, he took the paper and unfolded it. His eyes widening as he took in the images of him and Elsa that had been captured. "How?" he gasped.
"I don't know, Jack," she cried. "He spied on us and has threatened to send copies of these to my dad. He wants me to convince Anna to dump Kristoff and go back out with him so that he can dump her and reclaim his bruised ego."
He sighed. He already knew that Elsa would not put Anna in that position and he couldn't ask her to. Hans was a jerk and Anna was happy with Kristoff. "Elsa, maybe it's time that we tell our families," he suggested. "You know, tell them before Hans does."
He felt Elsa's body tense up as she turned to look at him. "Jack, how?" she gasped.
Leaning in, he pressed a kiss to her cheek. "Together, we'll do it together. It's mostly your family that is likely to be trouble and even then it will help that we have Anna on our side. Honestly, I don't think my uncle will care too much. He may be pissed to start off with, but my cousin Thia knows and she will back me up for sure," he vowed. "I still want to know how you got that mark on your cheek, El."
He watched as her hand moved to stroke her cheek. Her eyes flickered to the ground before looking at him as she bit her lip. He gasped. "Elsa, please tell me that he didn't that it wasn't…"
She nodded and turned her head away. "He did," she whispered. "I cut him off and he didn't like it so he...so he -"
He could feel the anger rising inside of him. "So he slapped you?" he growled.
Elsa nodded. Letting out a strangled cry, she turned to face him with tears in her eyes before bowing her head. "I'm sorry," she whimpered.
Sighing, he pulled her towards him and pressed a kiss to her forehead. "It's not your fault, babe," he said soothingly.
"However," he continued. "Hans is going down. This is the second time that he's threatened you and now he's actually gone and laid a hand on you. He is not going to get away with this. I'll make sure of it."
"Jack, please. I don't want you to get hurt, or do anything stupid," Elsa cried gripping his hand.
He tightened his grip on her before moving to wipe her tears away. They sat in silence for a few minutes until Elsa's tears had ceased falling. He could feel the anger continuing to rise within him. He knew that Hans was a dirty-handed liar, but the thought of him actually daring to physically harm his girlfriend had left him furious. It was taking every inch of self control for him to remain calm, but he had to. Elsa was counting on him to be strong.
He felt Elsa shuffle as she pulled out of his grip and stood to his feet. Sighing, he got up and took her hand in his. They walked back to their cars. Leaning against his car, he pulled her towards him and wrapped his arms around her. He reached one hand to cup her face as he pulled her closer for a kiss.
Breaking apart, he rested his head against her forehead. "You have to go home and get some rest. You've had a busy weekend and a busy day," he murmured.
She nodded. Tilting her head, she pressed one last kiss to his lips. "I love you," she whispered before sliding into her car.
"I love you too," he echoed.
Carefully, he shut the door behind her and watched as she started her car and put it into reverse before he slid behind the wheel of his own car. Starting his car, he slowly backed out of the park and followed her out, watching as she went in the direction of her own home before he turned and headed in the opposite direction.
Elsa could feel the exhaustion taking over as she switched the motor off and exited her car. It was only when she opened the front door that she remembered she had failed to let her parents know that she would be late getting home.
Sure enough, her father was curled up in his lounge chair with his dressing gown wrapped tightly around him and waiting for her as she entered. "I thought we had a rule, Elsa." he chided, standing to his feet. "You were late and neither your mother, or I can remember getting a phone call."
Sighing, she turned to face him. "I'm sorry, Dad. I got held up by something urgent after work. It completely slipped my mind," she murmured.
Taking a deep breath, she prepared herself for the scolding that was about to come. She watched as her father let out a deep sigh before he opened his mouth.
"Alright, Elsa. Don't let it happen again and don't forget that you are working in the office tomorrow," he cautioned.
Nodding, she turned on her heels and ran up the stairs to her room before her dad had time to change his mind. The last thing she felt like, was getting into an argument with her father at 11pm on a Monday night.
Carefully, she closed the door to her room. She padded across to her chest of drawers and pulled out her nightgown. Slowly, she peeled off her clothes and placed them in the clothes hamper before slipping into her nightgown. Crawling into bed, she grabbed her phone and set her alarm for the next day. She then sent a text to Jack to wish him good night and to remind him that she would be working in the head office tomorrow.
Jack clenched his jaw as he parked his car in the university car park. Quickly, he exited the car and checked that it was locked.
The news that Hans had blackmailed and slapped Elsa had left him furious and he wasn't going to let him get away with it. Fortunately, he had a few friends from his hockey team who shared classes with Hans. A few simple text messages was all it had taken to find out the time and location of Hans' morning class.
Storming across the grounds, he made his way towards the building where Hans' class was supposedly held. He arrived just in time for the students to start filing out of the room. Clenching his jaw, he waited until his eyes fell on a familiar auburn-haired male.
"Hans," he growled, stepping forward. "We need to talk."
Hans spun on his feet, his mouth curling into a smirk as he looked him up and down. "Ah, Frost. I was wondering how long it would take for you to turn up to play the hero. I'm guessing that your little girlfriend went running to you last night, am I right?"
Jack glared at him. "You are going to pay for what you did, you asshole," he threatened. "I'll teach you to threaten and then lay a hand on Elsa."
Hans snickered before raising his hand and beckoning for Jack to follow him outside. "Okay, Frost. I'll play your little game, but I do suggest that we step outside first."
He could feel the adrenaline building as he followed Hans outside. A part of him knew that he shouldn't be so willing to fight him, but the urge to make the arrogant man pay for scaring and harming Elsa was overpowering him. He needed to protect her. He looked up, shooting daggers at Hans back as he led him towards a secluded part of the university grounds before coming to a stop.
Hans turned to face him. "You are a protective one aren't you, Jack? So willing to protect your pretty little girlfriend, even before she was your girlfriend. Do you think that you'll be so brave once her daddy finds out about your relationship? You know he's going to be pretty pissed off. He really doesn't like you, or your family. I'm pretty sure that he wouldn't want you playing with his daughter," he sneered.
"I will protect her against anyone and anything that threatens her," he vowed, glaring at Hans.
Hans laughed and waved his hand derisively. "How romantic," he snickered. "You know, I actually anticipated that you would be out for me today. After all, you somehow managed to overpower me the last time I threatened Elsa and her stupid little sister and that was before you had started dating her. I can only imagine that you're even more protective of her now. You know, since she's actually got on her back and spread her legs for you. So this time, I came prepared."
He turned and watched in horror as two large, brawny males stepped out from behind him. He heard Hans let out a loud chuckle as one of the men grabbed his arms, twisting them behind his back. Groaning, he turned his head to watch as Hans and the other man aimed punch after punch at his stomach.
He glared as Hans stepped back to admire his work before swinging a punch at his face. Numbly, he felt his head drooping as another punch was delivered to his stomach. He could feel himself growing weak with each punch. Wincing in pain, he felt as the man holding him released his hold and pushed him roughly to the ground. Blinking, he rolled over and stared up as the three men stood around him, laughing derisively before proceeding to deliver a kick to his ribs. He could feel himself losing consciousness as the continued their assault. Finally, he felt himself being pulled to his feet so that Hans could deliver one last punch before tossing him to the ground.
A/N- Cliffhanger..sorry guys. As always thanks for your reviews and support. Special thanks to the beautiful Thenamescatcher/ Catcher Yarrow for drawing my first fanart which can be seen as my cover art for this story. Made my day to see it and I love the 'Red string of Fate' which can be seen connecting them.
Until the next chapter Keep Calm and Ship Jelsa.