Shout-outs: obh614, KitKat1995, and VampirePrincess86

Disclaimer: I own nothing.

Rated: T

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Chapter 2

"Your apartment?" Jake repeated, frowning.

"Yes, this is my apartment!" She answered. "And you're trespassing!"

"I'm trespassin'? Listen darlin', I'm rentin' this apartment legally, I just signed the papers this afternoon for a month-to-month lease," he retorted.

She was looking him sympathetically, like maybe she thought he was a crazy person or something else. "Okay, listen, you are clearly drunk. So, I'll get my keys and put you up in a hotel for the night."

"Clearly, you're the one who's drunk," Jake answered. "Do you make it a habit of breaking into apartments that don't belong to you?"

If she was getting impatient with him, she didn't let on. "Wait a second, I can prove this is my apartment. Just wait there and don't move!" She ordered as she brushed past him and went into the bedroom.

A few seconds later, she returned with a picture frame in hand and held it out for him to take.

Jake frowned and took it without looking at it. "What's this?"

"This is proof that this is my home," she answered, nodding assuredly. "Go on, look at it."

He sighed and glanced at it, doing a double-take when he saw the redhead that was standing in front of him in the picture, sitting next to Eve Baird and drinking a brightly colored drink that most likely had booze in it.

Jake released a deep breath, trying to wrap his mind around what this meant. Because the girl standing in front of him was supposed to be in a coma, not walking around her apartment like she was healthy.

The warning Ezekiel Jones had given him while he had been at the realtor's office earlier that day came back to him.

Cassandra Cillian's apartment is haunted. . .

She wasn't dead though, he told himself, people just couldn't haunt houses unless they were truly dead and buried.

He looked at her again and found that she was staring at him, clearly waiting for a reaction to their situation.

"Um, are you Cassandra?" He asked.

"Yes. . ." she trailed off, looking worried that he knew who she was without her telling him. "How did you know that? Have you been stalking me? Did you break into my apartment to hurt me?"

"I did not break in!" Jake answered. "I have a key. I'm rentin' this place! Before today I didn't even know you existed!"

"Oh? Well, how do you know my name then?" Cassandra challenged, the worry lines were still etched deeply in her forehead as she started to tap one foot with, what Jake assumed was, anxiety.

"I, um, guessed," Jake lied, wondering vaguely if he had gone a little insane between lunch and bedtime. Seeing somebody who was in a coma had to make him certifiably crazy. Unless Cassandra really had died over the course of the day.

"Oh. . . well, it still doesn't explain why you're here in my apartment," Cassandra said, breaking into his train of thought.

"I already told you!" Jake answered. "I'm rentin'. . . oh never mind! Why don't you call your friend Eve and have her straighten ya out? She'll confirm my story!"

Cassandra hesitated for a moment before shaking her head. "I couldn't call her now! It's way past nine-thirty! They're probably in bed. Besides, Eve would never rent out my apartment to a man! Especially while I was still living here. . ."

"Do you not remember anything from the past few weeks?" Jake asked bluntly.

Cassandra frowned. "Now that you mention it, things have been sort of a blur lately. Like all the days have been blending together. Come to think of it, I can't remember what's been going on up until today. Do you think somebody drugged me?"

"How would I know?" Jake answered.

"Right. I don't think we've ever met before tonight," Cassandra said, she looked at him closely. "We haven't, have we?"

"Noooo, I just got into town two days ago," Jake replied. "And I would certainly remember meetin' somebody like you."

Cassandra looked slightly offended. "And what's that supposed to mean?"

"Just that. . ." Jake trailed off, realizing how ridiculous he would look if somebody walked in and saw him talking to somebody who probably wasn't there.

He tried to rationalize what was going on, he was exhausted. . . grieving. He probably needed somebody to talk to. He had probably seen a picture of Cassandra. That combined with Ezekiel's comments about the apartment being haunted was the reason she was standing in front of him.

"Just that what?" Cassandra asked, interjecting into his thoughts for a second time in a span of a few minutes.

Jake released a deep breath and closed his eyes. "Nothing," he answered.

When he opened his eyes again, she was still standing in front of him, looking way more than a little lost.

"I'm going to bed," he told her. "Tomorrow, we'll figure out what's going on here. Okay?"

He fully expected to wake up the next morning and for her to be gone, leaving him alone just like he wanted to be.

"Fine," Cassandra said. "You can stay just for one night, but you have to leave first thing in the morning."

Jake chuckled. "Whatever you say darlin'."

He turned to go back to the bedroom, but her voice stopped him again.

"Do you mind sleeping in the guest room?"

He groaned he had seen the guest room when he had been exploring the house earlier. It was cozy enough, but he was definitely too tall to fit into the guest bed she had set up in there. And there was no way that he wanted to cater to the whims of quasi-ghosts. So, he didn't know why he found himself agreeing to her request.

He woke up early the next morning because You Belong with Me was blasting from the living room. Jake turned on his back and pulled the pillow over his face, trying to block out the noise so he could catch a few more hours sleep.

And then it dawned on him, there was music playing and he hadn't turned it on. He tore out of the guest room; Cassandra was standing near the CD player, holding the Fearless case in her hand. He closed his eyes and pinched himself as hard as he could, thinking that he was still stuck in a dream but when he opened his eyes again, she was still there, singing along with Taylor Swift.

She whirled around and looked at him, her face lighting up into a smile. "Oh! Good morning!"

"Good mornin'. . ." he answered, shaking his head. "What are you still doin' here?"

Cassandra laughed. "I told you silly, I live here. What else would I be doing here?"

"I thought. . ." Jake trailed off and turned around. "I'm goin' out, there's some things that need explainin'."

"Where are you going?" Cassandra asked, turning off the music and following him to the master bedroom.

"To talk to your friend Eve," Jake answered as he went through his suitcase and got out a new set of clothes to wear.

"Oooh, I'll go with you!" Cassandra squealed. "I feel like I haven't seen Eve in days."

"Yeah," Jake said, looking at her. "Yeah! That's a good idea, why don't you come with me? Then we can see exactly what's going on together. Now I'm going to get changed, why don't you wait out in the living room for me?"

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Eve was at the office by herself when they got there. She was talking on the phone and jotting notes on a pad of paper, but she smiled welcoming at Jake when he came in.

"I'll be with you in a minute," she mouthed.

Jake nodded and took a seat, picking up a real estate listing catalogue and flipping through it while he waited.

"She didn't see me," Cassandra said, looking surprised as she took the chair next to his. "Can you believe that she couldn't see me!? We're best friends!"

Jake grunted in way of answer and turned the page, pretending to be absorbed in looking at the houses because Eve clearly couldn't see that Cassandra had come in with him. He didn't want to give the blonde any reason to think she had rented out her friend's apartment to a crazy person.

Eve hung up and got up to greet him. "Sorry about that Mr. Stone, Jones hasn't come in this morning yet. So, Brenda put me in charge of the phones until he got in. Is there anything I can do for you?"

"Um, yes, actually. I was wonderin' if you could answer some questions for me," Jake answered.

"I can try," Eve answered. "What do you want to know?"

Jake tried to laugh. "Well, I almost feel awkward asking you this. But it's been buggin' me since last night. . ."

Eve pursed her lips together. "You must want to know what happened to Cassandra."

"Well, livin' in her home, bein' around her stuff has gotten me a little curious," Jake answered, trying not to glance at Cassandra.

Eve sighed. "I understand, unfortunately I'm busy until this weekend. Do you think your curiosity can hold off until then?"

"I guess," Jake answered, sighing too, glancing at Cassandra and guessing he was going to be stuck with her for the foreseeable future.

"Okay then, stop in again later and we'll talk about having dinner," Eve said, putting her jacket on and shoving paperwork into a black satchel. "Good gods, where on earth is Jones!? "

"She can't see me?" Cassandra asked as Eve left, swearing and getting her cell phone out to call her missing assistant.

"No," Jake answered.

She frowned. "What's going on here anyways?"

"I wish I knew," Jake replied, holding the door open for her as they both exited the real estate agency. "It looks like I'm stuck with ya for the time being though, because it doesn't look like you're goin' anywhere right now. People are goin' to think I'm crazy."

Cassandra's frown deepened. "Why?"

"Because Cassie, as you've already noticed nobody else aside from me can see you! I dunno, maybe I am goin' a little crazy. That sort of stuff can happen after. . ." he trailed off and shook his head. "Except you aren't the person I'd exactly want to see if I were going crazy."

"What are you talking about?" Cassandra asked. "What happened to you?"

"It doesn't matter," Jake answered. "Come on, let's get out of here."

She hurried after him and tried to reach for him, not noticing how her hand didn't quite touch his shoulder. "Hold on for a second! If we're going to be spending a lot of time together then don't you think you should at least tell me your name? I mean. . . if I have to call you or something?"

"Oh my name. Um, my name is Jake," he answered. "My name is Jake Stone."

"It's nice to meet you Jake," Cassandra said, smiling at him and looking almost too adorable for words.

"Yeah, you too. . ." Jake said as he started to walk again, he turned around when he noticed she wasn't following him. "Well, are you comin' or not? I don't just wanna leave you here by yourself. I kind of feel responsible for you."

"I'm coming!" Cassandra answered, hurrying to catch up with him again. She fell into step with him and they walked back to her apartment together in silence.

TBC. . .

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Author's Note:

This is pretty good for me, two chapters in one day for a story that's a WIP! Honestly, I was kind of encouraged by the positive response to this story. I have decided that Saturday will be an update day, so if nothing is going on this weekend (for reasons that have to do with the day I was born) I will try and have an update for you. In the meantime, I hope you'll tell me what you think!

Love,

Holly, 1/20/2015_