I know it's a short chapter you guys, but it will really help get the ball rolling here!
And anyway, first of all, I would like to thank my total super special awesome friend, HomestuckVS, for helping me out with this chapter! Thank you so much for being there and giving me every ounce of encouragement you have given me thus far! Biggest freaking abrazo, EVER!:D :D :D
And that goes for all of you too! I love you all so much and y'all will never know how much it means to me when someone drops in a review, or favorites or subscribes to not only to this story, or any of my stories, but to me! I can never possibly thank y'all enough for all the support you've shown me! From the very bottom of my heart, mind and soul, THANK YOU THANK YOU THANK YOU ALL SOOOOOO MUCH!
GIVE ALL THE ABRAZOS! (Abrazos means hugs in Spanish, btw:D)
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Chapter 8: One Day At A Time...
On the ride back to the Strider's apartment, Jane kept sneaking an occasional glance out the corner of her eye at Dirk. Try as he might, Jane could tell his mind was preoccupied. She could read it in his body language. He kept his chin perched on his thumb, like he was lost in thought or something. And every time a car would pull behind them, he would whip his head around to get a look at the vehicle, like he was worried it was following them or something.
There was definitely something going on that he wasn't telling her, and she if she was going to be helping them she needed to find out what it was soon.
As she parked her car in the apartment's parking garage, Dirk got out first and looked around to see if there was anyone suspicious around before getting his little brother out of the car.
When he didn't see another soul lingering about, other than Jane giving him weird looks, he extracted his two very reasons to live out of the vehicle.
"You got your medicine Little Man," Dirk asked, lifting up Dave's half asleep body.
"Yeah, it's all right here," Dave groggily said, lifting up the bag in his hand as he buried his sleepy head into his brother's strong shoulder.
Car rides always made Dave sleepy. That was always Dirk's cure when Dave wouldn't go to sleep when he was really little; he'd take him for a ride in the car. Sometimes Dirk would have to drive around the block for what seemed like an hour, but it always worked.
And now every time Dave rides in the car for over 30 minutes, he catches himself nodding off. Sure, it didn't take 30 minutes to get from the Egbert's to the apartment; but it feels like it when you have a full stomach and a life form inside of you sucking up ever last spare ounce of energy you have left. By the time Jane pulled into their space, he was almost to la-la land.
Dirk smiled as he looked down at the sight of little brother with his freckle sprinkled cheek pressed up against his shoulder, his shades astrew on his face. Dirk kissed the top of his forehead as they entered in the elevator.
As if Dirk's behavior on the ride home wasn't weird enough to Jane, his behavior when they parked was even stranger. Before he got Dave out of the car, he kept looking around, as if trying to see if anyone was watching, or following, them.
In her going on 10 years in the FBI, she has seen this behavior before, many times. And alot of those times, that behavior was expressed by either criminals on the run, or someone that saw something they shouldn't have.
Jane had no idea what was going on in the mind of dear friend, but she prayed to God, for Dave's and the baby's sake, that for whatever reason Dirk wasn't either one of those.
The ride up to the Strider's floor was quiet as the two adults in the elevator didn't utter a word to each other, other than the occasional smile when one caught a glance at the other.
When the three finally made it to the door of the Strider apartment, Dirk told Jane, "I'm going to go lay him down," as he opened the door and made a B-Line to his brother's bedroom.
Jane simply nodded in reply.
As Dirk made it into his brother's room, he gently laid his baby brother on his bed and removed his shoes before tucking him in tightly.
He took the bag of medicine the doctor gave him and put it on his nightstand, as a reminder to medicate when he wakes up. And he tightly closed the curtains in his room, so no intruding light, or prying eyes, could come in.
Before he exited the room, he gave his brother another kiss on the forehead and smiled as he gave him a quick rub on his stuffed belly.
"Night...you two," Dirk quietly said as he shut the door behind him.
When Dirk walked back into the living room, Jane was waiting for him on the futon.
"Is he asleep?" Jane asked as her friend took the seat beside her on the couch.
"Yeah," Dirk said, putting his hand on his hip, where the gun was located.
Dirk thought for a moment, how he would explain everything to Jane. After a moment of thinking, he thought it was just best to go head and come out with it.
Jane looked over at Dirk, who seemed to be lost in thought at the moment. He had his hand over toward the right on his hip, like he was either trying to conceal or reveal something that he had hidden.
'Could that be the reason why he's been acting so strange?' Jane couldn't help but ask herself.
'It's now or never,' the two thought as they turned toward each other.
"Dirk." "Jane."
"You go ahead," Jane politely said.
"There, there's something I gotta tell you, or show you rather," Dirk said as he pulled out the gun that was secure on his hip.
Jane threw her hands over her mouth in shock. In that moment, Jane thought her worse fear had come true.
'Oh my God! Oh my God! Oh my God! He's killed someone!'
"Before you freak out," Dirk said placing the gun on the coffee table, "no I didn't kill anybody."
'Although I should have,' Dirk thought.
The news came as a relief to shocked Jane, but that just raised more questions than it answered.
Why did Dirk Strider, lover of all sharp and pointy objects, have a gun in the first place?
"When I was talking with English, he gave me this gun," Dirk took a breath, "for protection."
"Last night, after all y'all had done left," Dirk continued, "I paid a visit to Noir. I didn't kill him, I just like to think I made him wish he was dead."
Jane couldn't believe what she just heard. Yes, she knew Dirk Strider was prone to do stupid things on impulse, but not that stupid. In all of years and many adventures with Dirk over the years, she could not possibly believe he would do something so reckless and foolish; especially when it involves Dave.
Jane knew Dirk would never do anything to intentionally put Dave in any sort of danger, but his actions may have done just that.
Now Jane is never the one to act on impulses, but was not one of those times.
Upon hearing what her friend just admitted, Jane impulsively raised her hand and slapped Dirk across the face, and hard. Someone had finally knock some sense into the blond. She just wished she had done it 24 hours ago.
When the moment pasted, she threw her hands over her mouth in shock of what she had just done.
"Oh my God, Dirk! I'm so sorry! I don't know what came over me!' Jane instantly apologized.
All Dirk could do was laugh and say, "It's okay Janey. I needed some sense knocked into me," Dirk said rubbing the stinging side of his face, "I just wished somebody had done it 24 hours ago."
Jane giggled a little, "I'm surprised Jake didn't do it for me."
"Nah," Dirk said, "He just shook his head and told me I was the stupidest bastard that ever 'shart between two shoes'."
Both Dirk and Jane laughed at their friend's crazy British sayings. Whenever they all were in high school, they would get Jake riled up on something, anything, just to hear his british accent go 90 to nothing. Dirk often told them at Jake's wild British rants were the reason why the voice recorder was invented.
After the two laughed offed the idea of their near and dear friend going into another one of his rants, the room becomes quiet for a moment.
Until Jane asks the inevitable.
"So what are we going to do?" Jane asks with genuine concern in her voice, "We're not going to be able to keep something like this a secret for too long?"
'Crap,' Dirk hadn't thought about any of that.
Sure, at the Egbert's, they were all just joking. But this is serious stuff.
How were they going to pull this off? Sure, Dirk could pull Dave out of school. But what about their monthly period with the social worker?
I mean she almost written up Dirk for not taking Dave to the doctor when he was puking his guts out (on a particular visit); what was she gonna do when she saw Dave's stomach was sticking out like a basketball?
She's have him sent off and boom, front page news all over the country.
"And what about when he goes to deliver the baby? What do we do, just show up at the hospital with a pregnant male teenager and say 'Hey, we need to have a C-Section over here.' They're not gonna fall for that, they're gonna find out," Jane continued.
That was another thing that slipped away from the mind of Dirk Strider. How on earth were they going to deliver this baby without the feds finding out? And Jane did prove a good point; it's not like they could just show up at a hospital and say they needed to have a C-Section on a pregnant teenager and them not find out.
They could do a home delivery, but that was a long shot. I mean who would be willing to do an emergency operation on a pregnant teenager outsider of a hospital? Maybe Dave's doctor could help them out with that?
And Dirk didn't want to think about what they would do about a birth certificate.
As if he didn't have enough on his mind already, Jane had one more thing to bring up.
"And what about Noir?" Jane asked, "You say you didn't kill him, right? What are we going to do if he shows up? What if he tries to see Dave, or the baby?"
Suddenly, the blood from Jane's face drained and her skin looked white as snow, "Dirk, what if he tries to take Dave or the baby..."
"Sshhhh, don't say another word," Dirk said, placing a finger over Jane's mouth.
That is one thing Dirk has thought alot about.
Dirk already knew they do if Noir just decided to showed up one day and tried to see Dave or the baby; or, God forbid, try to hurt either one of them. If Noir so much as looked at Dave or the baby, Dirk would tear the man apart, limb by limb. He would put that gun Jake gave him, and a few of his swords, to good use.
"I," Dirk took a deep breath, "I don't know what we're going to do down the road from now. We're just going to have to take it one day at a time," Dirk said as he looked into Jane's crystal blue eyes.
"But I do know this," Dirk continued, "if you so much as get a glimpse of Noir breathing in the same direction as my little man, you blow his head clean off of his shoulders. You got that?"
Oh Jane had no problem catching that. Like Dirk, that was something she wanted to do a long time ago. And if Noir was so blond, or stupid, enough to come anywhere remotely near Dave, she had absolutely no problem in doing so.
"Aye aye captain," Jane gave a two finger solute.
"That's my girl," Dirk said.
The two smiled at one another as they looked into each other's eyes, slowly they leaned in and pulled one another into a kiss.
That kiss soon evolved into a full blown make out session and before either of them knew it; Dirk was searching through his wallet looking for the one thing that would keep Dave from becoming an uncle before the night was over with.
Just some fluff for all you Dirk/Jane fans out there.
Who knew that talk of murdering someone would be so romantic!