Catrina murmured in her sleep, she dreamt of hamburgers and milkshakes, food that seemed so foreign to her now, though any food was welcome, she would have anything that could be chewed even if she couldn't digest it probably she would be thankful of the nourishment. She made a thrashing movement and clipped her head on the boat seat, this brought her crashing down back to the present. She blinked up at the overpowering sun, when the glare had dissipated, she finally zoned in on Jack rowing, he hadn't been lying when he said he was going to take his shirt off. There he was in all his glory; toned, a little pale with some curly chest hair. She could see every muscle he was using, tensing and relaxing, he looked very human – strong but still fragile, a shark would still manage to tear him to shreds.
"How long do we have?" She kicked one of her legs up to stretch it. Jack huffed before giving a resigning sigh.
"An hour, so it's your turn to row." He clattered his oars down and reached out to assist her up, she obligingly took hold of the hands and was up in an instant. The creak of the boat when she took up the oars was unsettling, as if it didn't like its new driver. "Put your back into it, straighten your legs." He said frugally. He had a bad memory; she had injuries that rendered her inflexible. "You've never done a hard days graft in your life have you? Too spoiled." He jibed, giving her leg a little jab. Why is he trying to gauge an argument from her? As if he enjoyed hearing her whinge.
"Put a shirt on!" Catrina exclaimed after finally getting a rhythm going on the oars, he had become content watching her to-and- throwing all the while remaining topless, it was like the beginning a soft-core porn film. "It's not a pretty sight."
"Ha- Oh really?..Sorry to disappoint you, I'm not one of your preppy college boys with gym membership."
She shook her head, clucking her tongue. "I don't think college boys can afford Gym membership, and wanting an education doesn't make them preppy – nor are they mine." You couldn't actually convince someone who didn't have a clue of the real world, Jack had chosen not to be a part of it...criticise all he liked, but presuming all men her age came out of the same mould incensed her. "Some men would love to go to college, they chose work over education...some steal because they have nothing better to do."
"Where has this conversation brought us?" Jack ridiculed. "I thought you would defend the human race." He tipped his head to scrutinise her, something he did all the time, she assumed to get a picture of the average female in the human race, unfortunately for her she came out of a mould that is often used over and over again – this wasn't symbolism for being damaged, she wasn't damaged, she was pretty normal and boring and had the worries of any social-phobic girl. Good.
"You say human race, I'm not going to justify my species to you – cause' even simple humans like I are capable of some horrible atrocities...like you." She beamed and rowed faster to display an impressive agility, it probably wouldn't last long she hadn't eaten since forever.
Maureen and her husband had pinned up that picture, the others swarmed around it.
"My God." Murphy said, his disbelief at finding their prize printed, proof 'she' was still alive or had been kept alive longer than he had expected.
Maureen's tears had still not dried. "She was at a police station – during a shootout, dear god she must have been so scared." She nuzzled into the arm of the man next her who trembled with relief.
"Does this mean she's in land now? I mean she's safer than expected, right?" He deliberated pouring over the article.
"But she's missing...and with another girl by the looks of it." Maureen was flailing over the newspaper as you would in the circumstances. "As long as she's not alone...I'm okay, not with Jack that's a bonus."
They all agreed, one major factor eliminated.
"Isn't it a little disconcerting that she happens to show up in the middle of a shootout ?" Santos chimed, he spoke sense – knowing how unlucky they were it seemed most likely Catrina to be involved. "I'm thinking maybe she could have been the cause, for all we know she could have been corrupted-"
"Don't even suggest Catrina would turn rogue!" Her father defended. "According to the article a cop turned rogue while she was in the interview room and started shooting everybody, she only got out after the assistance of this woman." Dodge assumed his wife would back him up but she was distracted by the other page of the article.
"The woman was a spitting image of a member of the forensics team who was found unconscious in the building."
Dodge frowned. "Why would they mention something as tedious as that?"
Everyone looked at Maureen expecting a decent explanation. "I don't know...they found it odd people identified the woman on the CCTV as this nurse and it turned out the nurse in question was incapacitated..."
Santos nodded. "So it's a case of mistaken Identity."
"-Or the woman was in two places at once." Munder scoffed. "So we got two nurses who look-" He scrutinised the picture before faltering. "Identical...err...hot twins?"
"A detail they would not miss." It was Maureen's turn to scoff.
Murphy calmed down the argumentative atmosphere. "So what do you speculate?"
Maureen didn't want to admit it, soon as she had came across that area of the text she had so many doubts, particularly her ease in Catrina's safety had been knocked. "I really hate to say...but...Demons can imitate people." She forced. She had stifled them. "Oh I don't know, they won't let us off the hook for anything, they'll keep trying to take what's ours...bleed the world dry if they have to, but can't they just let me have my-" Her voice cracked with emotion, Dodge was at hand to take the reins.
"She's right, Catrina's probably got a member of the underworld tailing her."
"You mean the hot nurse could be a demon?" Munder retorted senselessly. "Well that's just great."
Maureen pulled herself together, rubbing her nose. "We could have had demons following us all along...we have never really been out of shark infested water in a matter of speaking, demons can walk anywhere?"
Greer stepped in. "Not in church, if they can't go to church on Sundays that's where I'd be, Catrina should follow suit if she really has got away." Before sheepishly adding. "That's if she was taken in the first place, she could be just on the run. Hell Jack could have just been bluffing!" Santos jumped on this band wagon.
"Couldn't have put it better myself!"
Greer had kept his cool despite the outburst. "So what are we going to do...stick around and see if she pops up...or continue on our voyage?"
Catrina had come to a grinding halt on the oars, they actually clattered out of her hand in her exhaustion. "Oh heck..."She mumbled, sluggishly clawing for them. Jack appeared to have dozed off, or was trying to get a tan and was ignoring her. "We're losing light." She stated over the sound of slopping water as she gained control of the oars. She gave a resigned sigh when he had failed to answer. "Right, who cares?"
"Just keep rowing." He drawled ending her anticipation, though his eyes remained closed.
"How do you know we are going in the right direction, we have no navigation."
"I have the gift of navigation, so shut up and row."
She huffed, he had the chivalry of an ape. How he had the power to seduce anybody was beyond her, to her dissatisfaction he peeped at her through one eye, she could almost detect he was about to do something in his defence, she pretended not to notice and paddled faster.
"Tell me when." He said simply, and it left her thinking for sometime before finally sucking it up and prying.
"What do you mean?" She asked tersely, her stroke becoming stronger and more tiresome. Jack didn't want to comment on how erotic he found it.
He countered her pointed look by pushing himself up onto the seat, giving him some height. "Tell me when you want me to take up that challenge." He said it without a smile which made it a lot more creepy than it was.
Catrina didn't want something else to worry about, she already knew her days were numbered. "I'd consider that more of a threat...don't quit your day job." She hesitated her movements when she noticed Jack had actually zoned in on her chest. "Oh my god...you son of a bitch."
Jack looked up, giving her more evidence of where his eye line had settled. "What?" He said rather cluelessly. And she thought he could read minds!
She pulled the oars into the boat in protest. "I ain't rowing no more." He better not deny it.
"What's a matter with you woman? What on earth have I done now?" Jack exclaimed still holding onto the pretence of being innocence.
Catrina screwed her face up. "You're an ape, demanding, stupid, clueless...and have the wooing skills of an ape, that's what's wrong." She shivered against her will, and Jack continued to stare at her incredulously
"What the actual fuck?" He seemed very good at maintaining his innocence. "Is it your time of the month or something?"
Catrina gaped, typical man to bring that up. "Just take over with the rowing, it'll do you some good – relieve some of that tension." She kicked the handles at him, and he grudgingly took hold of them shaking his head in defeat.
"You're mad, though most women are."
"They'd have to be to go off with you." Catrina retorted with an air of confidence, he stalled mid paddle, and she honestly thought he was going to slap her across the face before he mockingly managed-
"You are having trouble thinking straight, obviously I've had my shirt off too long." He then redressed himself covering his broad shoulders.