Chapter 6

Tuesday

HPOV

I dreamed again of my ordeal.

Tommy carried me to an abandoned juice factory. I kicked, hit and scratched at him to make him let me go. Nothing seemed to phase him. He just kept the same sneer the whole time. It was unnerving. When we arrived he kicked a door open without seeming to exert any energy. He then carried me to a section with five huge vats. They were labeled as grape juice. He found the opening. He flung me over one shoulder and held me upside down by my legs. He used his other arm to open the door and grabbed a chair. After he set the chair in the middle of the empty vat he did a quick look around. He found some twine and tied my arms behind me and bound my legs after I tried to kick him. Then he left the room.

It was cool in there and had a strong sickeningly sweet grape smell. It took me a while of twisting my wrists and hands but I gained enough slack to reach the buttons on my watch-com. Feeling around I was able to call Jake.

"Jake, I'm in an abandoned juice factory." I needed to let him know where to start.

"I know." He replied. "I'm here. I'm looking for you. Why can't I see you?" I felt some relief knowing he was near by.

"Because I'm tied up in a chair. My wrists are bound together but he doesn't know about the watch-com. I was able to activate it to call you. " I explained.

"Tell me where you are." He commanded. I could hear footsteps nearing the vat. I was afraid if Tommy knew what was going on he would break the watch-com and any communication I had with Jake would be broken.

"Shhh. He's coming. I'll leave this on and try to get the information to you but don't say anything. If he hears you he will break…" I stopped as the door opened.

"Hello, My Love." Tommy greeted.

"Why do you have me tied in a vat? And why does it smell like grape in here?" Hopefully Jake would be able to use that information to find me.

"That information is meaningless, My Dear. What is important is that you are about to be the mother of an all-powerful being. You should be honored." Honored? Not hardly. I just wanted to get out of here and catch this monster.

"Now just sit back and relax." Then Tommy reached out and grabbed my shirt by the collar. With a quick yank he ripped my shirt wide open. I shouted at him angrily. How dare he? But my ranting was cut short as he started to change.

It was the most horrifying sight I have ever seen. Tommy's sneer twisted and warped. His throat expanded as the monster worked its way up and out his body. When it reached his face I saw his sneer was filled with hundreds of razor sharp teeth. They moved towards me as it came out of Tommy's body through his mouth. Once it was all the way out Tommy's body crumpled into a heap on the floor. I had no idea whether or not he was alive.

The monster grew in size in front of me. It was a putrid yellow with green spikes over its back. When I saw the tentacle arms with a drill-like hand, I screamed. I knew if help didn't arrive in seconds I would die. The drill started spinning and advanced toward me. I continued screaming. It was grazing my stomach when suddenly it exploded in a mass of blue slime.

I woke with a start. It was morning. I could feel comforting arms wrapped around me. I was lying tightly next to Jake. I had one leg wrapped around one of his legs. One of my arms was hold tightly around his waist. My head was resting on his bare chest. I realized his chest was wet with my tears. I could hear Jake whispering soothingly to me. I felt him kiss the top of my head. I sighed in contentment.

I lifted my head to look at Jake. Our faces so close I could feel his breath on my skin.

"Good morning." He said with a gentle smile on his lips.

"Good morning, Jake." I smiled shyly back at him. He hadn't loosened his grip on me so I laid my head back down. I was so comfortable, so safe, so warm. But realizing how intimately I was wrapped around him I knew I had to move before I made him uncomfortable.

"What time is it?" I asked.

"Almost 10:30."

"Oh my goodness!" I jumped up, immediately missing the warms of his arms. "We are late."

"No, we are not. Mr. Cooper said he would let us sleep in and pick us up around 11:30 – quarter to 12 for lunch." He was propped up in bed on one arm. "The Troop cant meet with us until lunch time, remember?"

"Oh." I felt a little silly standing there. I wanted nothing more than to crawl back in bed with Jake I saw him glance down at my legs. Embarrassed that I was just wearing a t-shirt I pointed to my room. "I should go get dressed." I blushed and walked out of the room backwards wanting to keep him in my sight as long as possible.

Once in my room I just sat down on the bed. I was so confused. What is happening here? First there was the dance and almost kiss the other night, but what about being so intimately wrapped together this morning? There was no awkwardness, just that nothing else felt so right. Could I be falling for Jake? It was making my head hurt. I filed it in the back of my mind for later. I needed to get dressed.

At 11:40 Mr. Cooper arrived to pick us up. We had some sandwiches Mr. Cooper had picked up at a nearby deli. We were in HQ when Sandy, Mandy and Drew arrived. Mandy rushed over as soon as she saw Jake. She threw her arms around him and kissed his cheek. He said hello to her but his eyes never left mine. She tried to sit

between us but Jake scooted closer to me and patted the area on the other side of him. What confusing signals! He wanted to be near me but also sit next to her?

Urgh. Boys are confusing.

It was time to debrief Mr. Cooper on what happened the night before. Each of the five of us took turns giving our own version of what we had witnessed. I was told that after checking out and cleaning up Tommy the others snarked him. They told him he won the Young Faces of America contest. That he met us, even told him he took me to the dance (but that we had a great time). It all needed to coincide with what his parents were aware had happened. Of course they left off the whole evil monster in his body part.

Jake and I stayed for a little bit longer in HQ to file our written reports then asked to be dropped off at the mall. We were both way past clean clothes. We assured Mr. Cooper that we would be able to navigate the subway system to get back to the hotel. He dropped us off and promised to be back at 6pm to pick us up for dinner.

We separated for a bit in the mall while we each did some shopping. I knew I didn't want him with me while I bought some new panties. There was no way I was going to wear dirty ones. I was already wearing my last pair of clean ones as I always pack extra. I needed some new pajamas, jeans and a couple tops.

Shopping didn't take long. With all the extra time we decided to do some site seeing on our own. I had wanted to see the Capital Building so we headed there. There was a tour group just starting when we arrived. I was so engrossed seeing all the architecture, art and interesting facts that it wasn't until I felt a jolt go through me that I noticed that Jake and I were holding hands. I'm not even sure who grabbed whose hand. Either way I felt warm waves moving up my arm. I looked down at our hands and smiled. I moved my hand slightly so that I was able to change the position so that our fingers were entwined. That sent another jolt through me. My heart was racing. I wondered if Jake would pull away. Hesitantly, I looked up at his face. He was looking at the statues of the presidents in the hall but he had a small smile on his face.

After the tour we decided to just ride around on the subway. It was fun watching all of the people that got on and got off. We held hands the whole time. Realizing we needed to get back before Mr. Cooper arrived, we reluctantly got off at our stop.

It didn't take us long to get ready, which was good because we didn't leave ourselves much time. I put on my new skinny jeans and a flowing blue tank top. I left my hair down but scrunched in ringlet curls. After a touch of eyeliner, mascara, blush and lip gloss I was ready to go.

We arrived at La Fontanella's Italian restaurant. Sandy, Mandy and Drew were already there. Drew's 17 and was able to pick up the girls. Mandy patted the empty seat between her and Drew and motioned for Jake to sit. I sat between Mr. Copper and Sandy right across from Jake.

Dinner was delicious. I got the shrimp linguini in a garlic butter sauce. It was heavenly. I think I even moaned a few times it was so good. It was nice to be able to sit and hang out with everyone without any monster business over our heads. I was getting irritated at Mandy hanging on Jake's arm. Once even while crossing my legs I might have accidently kicked Mandy in the shin. Oops, my bad. I could see Jake and Sandy each holding back a giggle as I sweetly apologized for the mishap.

"Somebody's got it bad." Sandy leaned over to whisper to me over dessert of tiramisu.

"I don't know what you are talking about." I said keeping my voice low.

"You have a major crush on Jake." She explained talking slowly as if I was too slow to comprehend.

"There's nothing going on between me and Jake." I protested.

"But you wish there was." She chuckled. "I can tell by the way you watch him."

"Well, he's with Mandy." I knew I didn't have a chance.

"Mandy dates a new guy every week. Jake just happens to be new therefore enticing to her." I narrowed my eyes at Mandy. The little floozy better not hurt Jake or she will have to answer to me.

I wanted to redirect the conversation away from Jake and me. "So what about you and Drew. Its obvious you like him."

She looked over at Drew, who was engaged in conversation with Jake. She blushed. "Drew is older, cooler and handsome. Besides as a Troop coworker he doesn't even know I exist. I'm just the "smart one." He might not even know I'm a girl."

I looked over at Drew and saw him sneak some glances at Sandy. "Oh, he knows." I told her. "We might just need to remind him a little."

Her eyes got big as she looked at me. I smiled and told her to come to the hotel before dinner tomorrow.

Before leaving back to the hotel I saw Jake and Mandy slip away. My heart sank. They were probably off in some dark corner some place making out. Doesn't matter, its not like he was mine, I told myself to make myself feel better. I knew it did matter though.

It was a little after nine by the time we got back to the hotel. On the way back up the elevator my curiosity get the better of me. "You and Mandy seem pretty cozy."

"Huh?" He asked confused.

"The two of you disappeared for a while." I decided to just go ahead and torture myself. "You two advancing your relationship?" He looked like he had no idea what I was getting at. "You know, kissing?"

His eyes got bigger as he caught on to what I was thinking. "No, no. It wasn't like you thought at all."

"Really? What were you doing then?" I was hopeful but then again what else would they need to be alone to do?

"We went to talk."

"About?" I knew it wasn't any of my business but I wanted to know where they stood.

"If you must know, I told her it wasn't going to work out between us." Just then the elevator opened and he got off quickly. I could tell he wanted the conversation to be over. I was floating on air. There was no Jake and Mandy. Jake was available!

After roaming around the mall and the city all day we were both a little tired. I went to change into my new pajamas. I put on a purple silky cami top with matching shorts. They felt soft and cool against my skin. I knew they looked good on me even though they showed a little more flesh than I was used to. I brushed my teeth and ran my fingers through my hair.

I started toward my bed but then through of how cozy it had been the last two nights sleeping in bed with Jake. I turned before I reached my bed and walked into Jake's room.

I could feel Jake's eyes on me and heard his sharp intake of breath. My heart started beating faster. I smiled at him and nodded toward the bed. He chuckled as he scooted over and lifted the covers for me.

I lay down on my back next to him, staring at the ceiling. I waited for my heartbeat to slow down and my breathing to regulate.

"Jake." I started.

"Yeah?" I felt him roll onto his side toward me.

"Thank you." I said still looking at the ceiling.

"Of course, Hayley. I wasn't going to let the monster hurt you." He stated in the its-just-my-job tone.

"I know. You would help anyone." I knew this. Its one of the things that makes Jake such a great Troop member. I rolled onto my side toward him and propped myself up on one arm. "I meant thank you for everything. Thank you for taking care of me, for holding me, for making me feel safe. For everything." I saw him look at me like he was going to try to explain it away. "I know it's not just your job. Your job ended after you killed the monster." I paused. "Thank you for caring. You are my hero."

He chuckled at this and rolled back onto his back. "So doesn't every hero get a kiss on the cheek from the beautiful lady he saves?" He joked hoping to lighten the mood.

My heart started to pick up the pace again. I leaned over him resting one arm on his chest and shoulder and the other next to his head. I could feel his heart beating fast under my hand. I leaned down to kiss his cheek but as my lips were about to make contact I paused. Then slowly I slid my lips, brushing them across his cheek stopping in front of his lips. My head was tilted to the side. I could feel his warm breath on my lips. His eyes were watching me. Then without another thought I kissed him.

This only lasted a few seconds but felt the spark where our lips met. I pulled away to look in his eyes to try to gauge a reaction. His eyes were wide in surprise.

Thinking I made a mistake I started to move farther away. That was when I felt one arm go to my waist and a hand at the base of my neck as he pulled me down for a kiss.

Where the first kiss was soft and unsure, this kiss was passionate and needy. I was stunned at first but then eagerly took to kissing him back. My lips left his to kiss along his jaw line. When I got to his ear I gave a light tug on his earlobe with my teeth, breathing into his ear. He let out a groan and grabbed both sides of my face and brought me back to his mouth. I felt his lips part and he gently sucked in my bottom lip. This was driving me crazy, causing me to moan resulting in my lips parting. He took that as permission and I felt his tongue snake into my mouth. I grasped at the feel of his tongue. He wrapped his arms around me pulling me closer. I felt his tongue caressing mine. It was soft but intense at the same time. My whole body turned into a tingling quivering mess.

After a while of the most intense kissing I have ever experienced, we slowed down. Finally after leaving the last of my kisses gently at the corner of his mouth, I sighed contently and lay down with my head resting on Jake's bare chest.

We lay there. He was rubbing my back with one arm, the other behind his head. I was caressing his chest. I was never so grateful that he sleeps shirtless.

Everything felt so perfect in that moment. I fell asleep to his gentle caress.

A/N I plan to take this story until they leave DC. I'll probably end it there. Water spilled on my keyboard making it hard for me to type. So it might be a while till I update again. Luckily I already had the chapter typed in but adding this author's note is taking forever.