Chapter 12

Oh shit, Jenny thought to herself as she glanced up into Cutter's eyes that looked back at her with cold confusion. Could life get any worse!

"What's he talking about?" Cutter demanded, pointing at the door.

"Jen I know you're in! Open up!" Mark's voice called through the door.

"Just, hold on a minute - " Jenny whispered to Cutter, opening the door a crack.

Mark was standing on her doorstep with a large bunch of red roses (which made Jenny squirm just looking at them). Upon seeing her, the smile he had worn was replaced by a look of shock as his eyes studied her face, stopping at her many injuries.

"What on earth happened to you?" he whispered slowly.

"Nothing, I fell," she lied. "What do you want?"

"You fell, " he repeated, looking dumbstruck. "Jen, look at the state of you!"

"I said it's nothing," she insisted, desperate for him to leave. "Can you just go - "

"Who did this to you?" he demanded, letting the flowers fall to the floor.

"No one - "

"You can tell me Jen, I'll kill the bastard!"

From behind her, Jenny felt Cutter pull on the door so it opened wider, allowing him to see Mark. Mark's eyes traveled over to Cutter, looking dumbfounded - Jenny was forcefully reminded of when Cutter was knocking at her house all those months ago, and Mark had interrupted them in the same manner. It was an identical situation, but with the men reversed, and this time she actually had feelings for the man behind her.

"I thought you said you'd broken up with him?" Mark accused, gesturing at Cutter.

"What?" Cutter spluttered, looking at Jenny in disbelief.

Crap, crap, crap, crap!

"I - " Jenny began to explain, but she had no idea what she was going to say.

"Did you do this to her?" Mark interrupted, speaking to Cutter with a look of disgust on his face.

"No, he didn't - " Jenny said desperately, although she knew it looked very bad.

But before she could finish, Mark punched Cutter square in the face, causing him to stagger backwards into the hall.

"Oh my God!" Jenny gasped.

Mark made to barge past her after Cutter again, but Jenny stopped him, and shoved him back outside with her hands on his chest.

"Mark, just go!" she shouted, losing her temper, her ribs aching with the exertion of forcing him out.

Before he could protest further, she slammed the door in his face and turned to Cutter, breathing hard. He was wiping blood away from his lip, looking livid.

"Are you okay?" she asked him quietly.

"Well that depends on your definition of okay!" he shouted as he stormed off back into the living room.

Sighing, she followed him, bracing herself for the argument.

"What the hell is going on?" he demanded, turning to face her. "What did he mean 'what happened between us yesterday'."

"I went round to his place," she answered, looking at the floor in shame.

"And?" Cutter persisted.

"And I kissed him."

"You did WHAT?" Cutter bellowed, his face turning red with anger.

"It wasn't like that - " Jenny insisted, but Cutter turned and kicked the chair in frustration, forcing her into silence.

There was a long pause were they didn't speak.

"I'm sorry," she whispered eventually.

"How could you do that to me?"

"I thought he was the stalker - " Jenny tried to explain.

"Oh right, I get it now," Cutter said, his voice sagging with sarcasm. "You though he was your stalker, so you went round and snogged him!"

"I was trying to get a confession out of him!"

"By seducing him?"

Again, Jenny looked at the floor, unable to answer. However, her silence seemed to say it all.

"Oh Jenny," Cutter said, shaking his head and looking at her with a mixture of disappointment and disgust.

"Look, you're taking this all the wrong way - " Jenny said, desperate for him to see her side of the story.

"How far would you have taken it? Would you have slept with him?"

"Don't be ridiculous!"

"How would you feel if you found out I'd been kissing someone behind your back?" Cutter asked her, still looking furious.

"Awful," Jenny agreed quietly. "I'd feel awful."

"You'd bloody kill me, you mean," Cutter corrected her.

"Your right," Jenny said truthfully. "I'm sorry . . . I just needed to know."

"You're the second woman I love to do something like this to me," Cutter fumed.

"Oh don't compare me to Helen!" Jenny snapped. "What she did with Stephen was inexcusable; what I did was for a reason, however misguided it was - hang on," she suddenly though about his words. "What did you just say?"

"What?" Cutter said, distracted.

"Just repeat what you said."

"You're the second woman I love to do something like this to me?" Cutter said again.

"Love?" Jenny repeated, in spite of herself feeling a jolt of excitement.

"Yes . . ."

"You - you've never actually said that to me before," she informed him, feeling bemused.

"I . . . I know," Cutter stuttered, all of a sudden looking rather bashful.

"You love me?"

Cutter sighed; his anger seemed to be abating slightly

"Of course I bloody love you!" he exclaimed eventually.

Jenny smiled at him; she couldn't help herself, and after a moments pause, he smiled back reluctantly.

She knew that he cared about her a lot, but he had been hurt quite a bit in the past, so she wasn't really expecting him to reciprocate her feelings - well not after such a short while anyway. As she remembered, when this whole stalker thing had began, she thought that the card that was written 'I will love you forever' was from him, and she had been surprised, and yet overjoyed. She didn't want to admit it at the time, but when he had told her he hadn't sent the roses, she had been bitterly disappointed.

"I can't believe you've just said that," she said, laughing slightly.

He shuffled his feet, and looked down at the floor.

"Although," she began in a mock-hurt voice as she approached him. "I didn't really picture you screaming it at me in an argument as the most romantic way of you saying it."

"Ah well, beggars can't be choosers," Cutter replied with a reluctant smirk.

Jenny put her arms around his neck, ignoring her protesting ribs, and pulled him into a kiss. It was slightly awkward considering they both had split lips, but to Jenny, it was perfect. They broke apart.

"I love you too," Jenny breathed, holding him close to her. "And I am sorry, about the whole Mark thing . . . I'll never do anything that stupid again."

"You'd better not," he replied, his voice muffled in her hair.

"I promise."


Next chapter is the last I'm afraid! X