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Chapter Fourteen

Elizabeth stood under the spray, enjoying the massage setting on the head more than she thought she would. It soothed all her sore muscles, having slept for so long, which was an oddity, felt more than refreshing, it was positively invigorating.

She took a few minutes to do her daily routine, hours late but better late than never, after the conditioner had been washed away, Elizabeth turned the temperature up and stood near the back of the glass enclosed shower, letting the steam gather as she luxuriated in the fragrant mist.

Normally she wouldn't allow herself this time of indulgence but her head was a mess. What she knew and what she thought she knew were miles apart. Life a week ago had been simple in the scheme of things. Trusting Epiphany was fairly easy, she had been relying on her since she could remember really but throughout her time with Epiphany, she hadn't opened up to anyone and a small part of her preferred it to stay that way. One couldn't be burned if they didn't trust other people. It was trusting people that got her in this predicament to begin with and while logically she knew that wasn't fair, if you couldn't trust the people who were your parents, then who could you trust? But not trusting people was safer on her heart and soul.

This thing, whatever it was, with Jason, was leaving her with a bad taste in her mouth. Her mind screamed that whatever 'this' was, was just fleeting but her heart, that cursed object seemed to override all her good thoughts and intentions and wished to dive right in.

What she knew of him left her with a good feeling but there was the scared voice of her younger self, always bleating about not knowing him well enough to offer any sort of judgment. Besides, with her lack of experience and inability to tell the good guys from the bad, she was kind of flying blind.

"How do I go against my own instincts and ignore what is staring me in the face?" Liz asked aloud.

The only answer she was afforded, a simple, yet most annoying, "Meow…"

"How in the hell did you get in here?"

When she was greeted by nothing but silence, Elizabeth shook her head before turning the taps off before making her way out of the shower and there, sitting on the sink vanity was Cleo. Taking the towel off the heated bar, Elizabeth almost moaned at the divine sensation. "Stop staring you little pervert. I don't watch you when you are naked…" She said peevishly.

A simple rising of a furry eyebrow was all she was given, with an occasional glance at the water tap, as if she was trying to indicate her desires by implanting them in Elizabeth's mind.

Letting out a huffing breath, Elizabeth turned the cold water tap on and watches as the furry brat flicked her tail up, while bending her head to begin lapping at the streaming water. "You know, I have to wonder, which one of us is trained."

After donning her clothes, Elizabeth settled on the side of her bed, still no closer to figuring out what she was going to do with all these feelings. The logical side of her thought it was best to ignore and evade but the little girl who used to dream of love and getting married, was putting up one hell of a fight. Could she be accused of having a split personality? Knowing that if she put it off any longer, someone was liable to come looking for her, Elizabeth stood, turned off the brats water supply and made her way downstairs, feeling much like she was walking towards a firing squad, not friendlies..

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Jason stood but within moments, began pacing, unaccustomed to this odd feeling that was spiraling through him. Taggart wasn't incorrect when he called him a frozen block of concrete, but it wasn't because he couldn't feel things, more often than not, it was he felt too much, so the only way to survive what he did, was to partition his emotions, but the downside, the longer they were left unused, the more easily it was to hide from them.

His job was simple, he carried out the orders he was given and protected those by being good at his job but Elizabeth Webber…she was a contradiction to everything he knew. She made him feel things he had never felt before; she made him want to be a better man, not because of what she went through but in spite of it. She'd lived through hell and still lived a fairly normal life. Some may consider her broken but he saw the strength that resided within. It was that strength and this inner light that drew him, like a moth to an open flame.

Would he, could he, avoid what was happening and if he did, would he regret it for the rest of his life, perhaps even longer? Unsure of how long he was lost to his thoughts, Jason slowly raised his head, then finally his eyes; taking in the wavering looks he was being given. Ranging from curious all the way to humor, it wasn't a feeling he could honestly say he had felt before, mostly people just looked at him like he was a killer.

"What are you all staring at…I had a moment, everyone is allowed to have them." Jason said before flailing his arms at the peanut gallery. "Shut up…" Jason trailed off as he watched the smirks appear.

"Epiphany, didn't you tell Elizabeth that you'd be ordering food?" Jason asked trying his best to throw the attention off himself. Without turning, Jason heard Johnny and Francis's laughter.

"His analytical mind didn't serve him well in that moment." Johnny fake whispered.

"Actually Jason, I did. About…" Epiphany trailed off as she looked at her watch. "Thirty minutes ago."

Shock wasn't an emotion Jason felt often but twice in such a short period of time was seriously playing havoc with his mind. "Oh…" Was all he could think to say.

Jason's ears perked up when he heard the telltale 'Meow' come from above. "Do I even want to know how long the cat used me as a bed?" He asked, still feeling like he was standing under a blazing spotlight.

Francis said, "I think she wasn't on you long enough to eat a few times and use the litter box, otherwise, you were her bed." It was said with a certain blandness but Jason could hear the humor underlying the response.

Pinching the bridge of his nose, Jason slowly made eye contact with one of his best friends, saying in a deadly voice, "There better not be any photographic evidence."

Johnny's loud and boisterous laugh, told the enforcer all he needed to know. "Assholes…the whole lot of you." Jason said before quickly glancing at Epiphany and amending his statement, "I meant them…"

"Sure you did…would you like to freshen up before dinner?" Epiphany asked.

"Yes, thank you. I'll just run home and be back soon. Francis, Johnny, stick around." Jason said, his eyes conveying that he meant not just on the door but inside.

"No problemo boss." Johnny said in his serious voice but if Jason wasn't mistaken, the humor was still dancing in the Irishman's eyes.

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Elizabeth took a fortifying breath before she moved down the stairs. Men with guns weren't…well, technically, there were men with guns waiting for her but not in the most sinister sense. "Evening all, how has everyone's day gone?"

"Good."

"Great."

"Fine."

She heard the response from the three people sitting around the living room.

When she finally brought her eyes off her feet, she realized Jason wasn't there. It was on the tip of her tongue to ask but she didn't want any more attention on her and feared that by asking such an innocuous question, it could be misconstrued and her thoughts and feelings were already misconstrued enough.

"That was quite the girl shower you took there." Johnny said on a laugh.

Rolling her eyes when a blush stole across her cheeks, Elizabeth hastily said, "I was enjoying the massaging shower head, I was stiff and sore…" Realizing how that could be taken, she quickly dashed to the kitchen, her face flaming as red as a lobster. "I hate my life!" She exclaimed quietly to the already condensed water glass, making her realize she had been staring at the glass longer than she thought.

By the time she found the courage to go back, Jason was back and sitting on the sofa, the only place she could sit was next to him. On a surge of defiance, she thought of taking a seat on the floor but realized it could be construed as petty or childish.

As the looks bounced between the two of them, Elizabeth's threshold for acceptance was reaching its limits. "What?" She all but shouted.

"Shouldn't you be more relaxed, after such a long…shower?" Johnny asked.

Instant mortification. She couldn't believe he would say something like that in front of Jason but instead of letting embarrassment win, Elizabeth volleyed with, "Wouldn't you like to know? I am sure you've never had a shower, quiet so…relaxing."

Johnny sputtered for a good minute or two, his eyes shifting between her and Jason before he finally found his voice. "I've had more than my fair share of relaxing…showers, thank you very much."

"That's enough children…" Epiphany said, trailing off. "I don't know how or when it happened, but I seem to have acquired three more children since arriving in this Port city."

Francis gently patted her hand, "You couldn't possibly think of me as one of your children Piph."

It was now Epiphany's turn to blush. She was about to flee when a knock sounded on the door. "Thank God, maybe you'll behave better when your stomachs are full."

"Don't count on it." Jason muttered. After all these years, he still hadn't found a way to get a leash on Johnny and the way he turned everyone into a court jester.

"A girl can dream." Epiphany said as she opened the door and too their order from the guard. "Thank you Marco."

"Welcome, Ma'am."

Epiphany quickly handed out the covered dishes, appreciating that the diner label what each one was, for easier distribution. "The first sign of a food fight and I'll show you how I deal with wayward children, got it?"

"Yes Ma'am." Was said in harmony by the three of them.

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