Metamorphosis

Disclaimer: I own nothing

A/N: I think you will find the title of this chapter is more of a metaphor…not literally taken, you'll see what I mean. Read on.

Chapter 24 (Naked Before Him)

Trina cuddled up beside Jason on his couch in the office and turned her eyes onto the television. His strong arm curled around her and she let herself sink into his chest. "How many people have asked about us?" She pursed her lips and raised her eyebrows at him. Jason's head perched onto his left hand and he rolled his head to her.

He smiled at her, and the corners of his lips buried into his chin. "A few people were wondering how our relationship started, among other things. I told them it isn't really their business to know the how's and what's of our relationship."

"You could tell them, if you wanted." She didn't mind. Part of her would love the attention, despite she still preferred their relationship being private. "I don't think it would hurt to tell them how we started dating. I don't mind." Although, people knowing they were together made it seem all that more real, and of course less like a dream. "I may ask you to pinch me though."

"Why?" He chuckled.

"To make sure this is still reality and not a dream."

"It's real. We're dating and those in our group are now privy to it." Jason looked to the door and hugged her shoulders. "You know, I'm glad Jenny is finally leaving us alone." His chest sank with a soft exhale and Trina tilted her head up to see him gazing lovingly at her.

"I was attracted to you from day one." A blush crept over her cheeks and she moved her hand across his abdomen, then wrapped her arm around him. "I admit, I didn't pursue that attraction because I wasn't ready." Jason lifted his hand up to her chin and casually swept his thumb across her cheek. She closed her eyes and started to smile at the soft brushing motion. His chest rose and her eyes slid open. "But I also thought if I started dating anyone that Jenny was going to try to sabotage that in some way."

She was grateful that ship had sailed as well, even if she was weirded out by it. "Did she ever explain what happened? What she was doing?" Her shoulders fell and a subtle breath escaped her.

"No. Aside from the group activities and meetings, I haven't seen or heard from her since that day you two got lost out in those woods." She let her gaze drop and lowered her head to his shoulder. "Why? Did she explain it to you?"

"In a way…" There was only so much she knew to tell him. Jason was aware, as was a good part of the group-thanks to Jenny in the earlier class sessions-that a former boyfriend tried to go too far with her, but she still felt the aggravation and annoyance that said ex was with Jenny. "You know the drug rehab facility on the other side of the forest?"

His brow furrowed and she felt his strong hand rubbing her back in a soothing clockwise motion. Her shoulders rose and a sigh of content vibrated from her body.

"Of course. One of my duties is to keep in correspondence. They're required to send the names of all their counselors and patients." She furrowed her brow and felt a sharp pang in her heart. It was likely that Jason was at least aware of who Ross was, if nothing else.

She leaned upright and dropped her hand down to his. "You don't contact them, or you do?" A wrinkle formed between her eyebrows and her nose scrunched up.

"I don't." Jason pulled his arm back from behind her and waved it sideways through the air. "Not unless I absolutely need to." She smiled at the seriousness overcame his expression. "They're to contact us if there's any reason for us to believe a safety concern exists."

"Such as?"

"If one of their patients gets out of their facility, they need to let us know if that patient is a potential threat so we can lock down our campsite until they inform us that everything is clear."

Trina looked down for a moment. Jason furrowed his brow and raised his hand to her hair, sliding it through in a grooming fashion. "Is everything alright?"

"Yes." She tried to lower her volume to keep her voice from shaking. The last thing she wanted to do was give herself away at this point. "Do you recognize the name 'Samuel Ross', by any chance?"

"I think so." Jason scratched his chin and studied the floor for several seconds. "Yeah, he's on the personnel list of those working at the center, now that I think about it."

"Okay." She breathed out and turned her gaze to the door. "It should be Jenny's place to say, but since she doesn't seem to want to explain it…that is her boyfriend." Jason's eyebrows rose and his mouth opened up, but hung in silence for some time.

"Wow. That is…" He ran his hand over his neck and frowned. "When did that happen?" Trina folded her hands in her lap and shrugged off the fear that was nipping at her. The last thing she wanted to do was scare him off or make him uncomfortable, but she was beginning to trust she could talk to him.

"I think she said it's been a couple years. She met him during one of her walks or something, I don't know." Trina pushed her fingers through her hair and dropped her hand down to her leg with a sigh. "That's not really the important thing. Unless…" Her eyes darted away from him and he turned towards her. "Unless you're concerned about the why and everything."

"I'm not." She raised her head up and felt his hand slide along her shoulder. Her eyes fell to his hand, then slid up to his face, and a smile spread across hers. "I could be, but if she's done bothering us, then great. I have no reason to be concerned since I haven't dated her for several years."

"Right."

"So what's bothering you?" Her eyebrows rose and she turned her head abruptly towards him. "I can tell something's on your mind. You can talk to me." She hesitated and clenched her eyes shut.

"I'm scared of pushing you away or making you uncomfortable."

"You have my word. You won't push me away easily." His hand folded over hers and his gentle squeeze sent waves of comfort rippling through her. Her chest was in pain from the vicious pounding of her heart, and her body was starting to heat up.

"Okay." She closed her hand around his and looked into his eyes. Pressure filled her gaze and she could feel moisture building up beneath her lower eyelids. "Please don't leave me." She took a deep breath and shut her eyes in hope that the gesture would keep her tears from spilling out. "Ross was also one of my exes."

Jason's hand loosened briskly and she let out a gasp. "Wow." His voice grew quiet and Trina's eyes shot open. Jason's expression was calm, but the surprise was evident in his eyes. "Who would have guessed both our exes would hook up?"

"Yeah." A sore chuckle fell from her lips and she looked down to her feet. "Um. Do you remember a while back during one of the classes when Jenny was provoking me? I lost it and basically told the entire class that one of my exes tried to attack me?"

Jason's face dropped and his eyebrows meshed together. "That was this Ross guy?" She nodded and waited for him to say something. Jason closed his mouth and looked across the room, his eyes looked heavy and his forehead pulled down as his eyebrows flattened over his eyes.

Her heartbeat flickered and her blood could be felt shooting through her veins as her anxiety started to rise. "Jason? Please say something." He blinked once and looked at her with a warm smile.

"Sorry, I'm just processing." Relief calmed her heart and she let herself be pulled into his tight embrace. "I'm sorry for what you went through, but you seem like a strong woman who made it through so much." Jason slid back and brought his hands to rest on her upper arms. Her mouth curled upwards and her eyes slid into his loving gaze.

"It's just…I trust you with that. I-what are you thinking? I don't want you trying to contact the guy or anything, just-"

"No. I have nothing to say to him." She let out a sigh and dropped her forehead onto his upper chest. His chin came to rest atop her head and she hugged his waist. "Although I feel like I should ask…I'm not heartless, he's dating my ex." Jason took a deep breath and she turned her head up and smiled; impressed with his concern. "And no matter how crazy she is-"

"Ross was there. In the cave that day. He's the one that stopped Eric from hurting her. So we talked, and he said he regretted what he did or tried to do to me, that his actions were influenced by the drugs he was on at the time…He's clean now, and Jenny seems to trust him, so I wouldn't worry."

"Then that's all I need to know." He pulled her closer and kissed the her on the top of her head. "I want you to know, I will never do anything to hurt you and I will never try to force you to do something you don't want to do or something you're not ready for."

She nuzzled his neck and let her body melt into his arms. The sense of security she felt was tremendous, but that wasn't the only feeling she got from him. She was safe, loved, and for the first time she felt like somebody other than her father actually cared about her.

"You know something, Jason? The funny thing is…Ross is the only one of my exes to ever apologize for what he did. The worst one, and he's the one that felt remorse."

"That's a good thing."

"Counting him, I had three really bad ones. Marcus and Mitchell were the other two." She felt comfortable opening up to him now, now that she got the biggest weight off her chest, she would be more than happy to let the remaining pressure drop from her. "One beat me and the other stalked me."

She let out a shaky laugh and swept her fingers across her eyes. "And Dad, my dad terrorized the hell out of all three." Jason's eyes sparked with intrigue and he leaned his head back, chuckling once. "Before he got too busy to give me anymore of his time, you know, he was protective as hell."

"You don't say."

"Yeah." She leaned upright, remembering how her father's rage came crashing down onto her exes. "Like with Ross. We were in my bedroom. Tori was arguing with mom and dad, and I heard her slam her bedroom door, so I called out to her and pushed Ross away. She gets Dad, he comes running up, and next thing I know Ross is pinned to the floor."

More specifically, David slammed Ross into the wall and jammed his forearm into the back of the man's neck. Then he twisted Ross's arms behind his back, slammed him into the ground and pushed his foot down on the guy's head.

David held the man in place like that until the police arrived at the house to subdue Ross.

Jason curved his arm around her and bent his wrist up. His hand slid across her hairline and pulled her bangs away from her face. "What changed?" Trina shook her head and furrowed her brow.

"I'm not really sure. He just became distant from all of us. Try as we might, we could never get his attention. Tori did what she could to try and make mom and dad proud by literally excelling at everything she could at that school-performing in all the plays and all the concerts-but mom and dad never bother with her anymore. Even I developed that habit of trying to force people to like me or being overly dramatic about everything just to get noticed…never worked."

Jason tilted his head and pointed to the phone on his desk. "Last time you talked to the guy, it seemed like he was finally coming around."

"He is, I guess. I don't know why or how, but I figure it has something to do with Tori." As far as she knew, things were no better back home than they'd been in the past. Tori was struggling with stuff she didn't want to talk about, Trina knew this for a fact, and of course all her friends were becoming distant because of this.

"Tori's kind of kept to herself too." Trina scrunched her nose and crossed her arms. "I don't know. There's only so much she tells her friends, and then she and I are still fairly close, but I know she's keeping something from even me."

"What do you mean?"

"Well, you know how you can tell when someone close to you has something wrong or when they're lying?" He nodded. She thought back to some of Tori's most telltale signs, the small things she didn't think people would catch.

Ever since she was a girl, whenever Tori was hiding something, she would avoid eye contact with everybody in the room-looking off to whatever direction no one was around, she would curl her lips inwards and her left foot would begin to tap the ground.

In recent years, Trina caught Tori doing this more when the aspect of relationships came up. Her friends never paid any mind to it because they never tied the gesture to her hiding anything.

"Well, sometimes this guy Robbie will pursue her, asking if she would date him. She turns him down, but mostly because he is kind of a creep."

"He's the one that you said kissed you in a play and thought it was real, right?" Jason raised an eyebrow and Trina smacked her lips.

"Yes."

"Okay." He winked and started to chuckle. "Just checking."

Trina leaned back into the couch and furrowed her brow. "Sometimes they'll ask her why she turns guys down or why she doesn't actively try to date anyone that asks her out and she'll say she's not interested…but then, there's this little gesture she makes, one that they don't catch because they don't associate it with anything, but ever since she was a girl she's been doing it. She's hiding something."

The truth was, Tori hid so much from her friends-and even her family. Trina was afraid she was becoming distant too. It felt like their entire family was doomed to be destroyed.

"I think she's got a mess she's trying to fix back home. The tone in her letters seem indicative of that, and I think she's doing something to make Dad finally come around."

"Isn't that a good thing?"

"It is. I just hope maybe things will start to improve for everyone."

"I'm sure they will, Trina." He put his arm around her and she turned her head to him, smiling gently. "For your sister and her friends, or your family, maybe it's similar…broken trusts, distant relationships, you got to figure everything's going to crash at one point or another."

"Yeah…" Her heart sank and she dropped her head. His hand cupped her left cheek and gently guided her back to him, where his reassuring expression enticed her.

"But when things crash, there will always be somebody there to pick up the pieces. I'm sure your sister has someone looking out for her, I'm sure she's trying to be that person for your family-and maybe even her friends, if that's possible."

"And…me?"

"I'm here." A shade of crimson overtook her cheeks and her body began to lean into him. She swept her arms around his neck and felt her heart leap into her throat. She started to speak, but held back her emotions with a quick and silent whine.

"Jason, I…" His right hand slid down to her shoulder and brushed down her arm, leaving a trail of chills in its wake. Trina closed her eyes and inhaled slowly as his hand curled around hers.

The words she wanted to say were on the tip of her tongue, but she held them back out of fear.

I love you

How hard could they be? Three simple words, but the weight they carried was a powerful one. It would mean she'd be giving her full heart and her trust completely to this one man, this man who made her feel in such a way that she had never truly encountered.

Her voice broke and her forehead fell onto his. A shiver swept through her body and once again moisture was building up in her eyes.

What if he didn't feel that way about her yet? If she said those words and he didn't reciprocate or was pushed away because of the timing, she would be crushed. Still, she entrusted in him some of the deepest and darkest moments of her life and he didn't turn away. He didn't run.

"Thank you for listening to me. For not running away."

The truth: She bore so much of her soul and heart to him that she felt like she was naked before him. She was vulnerable, and he had to know that.

"I wouldn't run from you."

She felt subtle movement and then his lips brushed up against her trembling lips. Her heart burst and her arms tightened around his neck. Her tears fell from her eyes and she held him in place for several seconds before pulling back.

Trina set her head gently on his shoulder and drew out a sigh as his arms curled around her waist. "Hold me like this," she whispered, "Whatever you do, don't let go of me. Please."

The words meant more to her in this instance than just her desire to cuddle alongside him. After all, Jason was right, he was the one there to be the rock she needed in finding her own sense of self; and she hoped that he was his as well.

What are your thoughts and observations? There's a lot to discuss in this chapter it seems. What do you think is meant by Tori hiding something? (Though those of you following the side story will already know what it is she's hiding). Do you think Jason feels the same way as Trina is beginning to feel? Do give your thoughts