AN: Just a note that there is considerably more swearing in this chapter than is typical for my writing, not that most people really care. Anyway. Thanks for reading and being here!

Three months of mostly minor, yet friendly interactions had passed since Full Metal, and by proxy the team, had 'adopted' Jess. She grew less reclusive and seemed to come out of her shell more the instant she spotted them even if they never spoke that evening.

Then one night, out of the blue, something was off. Jess didn't have a poker face to begin with and there was a guarded air about her. She seemed to be avoiding all interaction with them. Instead of brightening when she spotted one of them, a troubled look clouded her features and she was quick to look away, pretending she hadn't seen them at all.

It was only Trent, Brock and Metal that night. They hadn't seen much of her all night and she'd left with her group before any of them had a chance to even say hello. Then a few minutes later one of her friends came back in and made a beeline for them.

"Hi, I'm Stacy! I'm a friend of Jess! Is there a chance any of you are good with cars? Jess's car won't start and it's kind of our only lift home."

Surprised, but not at all bothered, the three got up and grabbed their coats.

"Yeah sure, we can come take a look."

After a lot of tinkering and playing around with the beat up old engine of the rustbucket Jess drove, the three came to the collective agreement that there was no way even they could get it to run.

"Try it again." Brock called from the front of the vehicle.

The poor little Jimmy Blazer coughed and spluttered, but it didn't start and Jess looked about ready to burst into tears.

"Yeah, it's either the starter or the spark plugs, Jess." Trent closed the hood. "Shouldn't be too bad to fix but you aren't going anywhere tonight. You can leave it overnight and it won't get towed, if you want to deal with it in the morning."

"Thanks for trying." Jess said closing the driver door with a little more force than was necessary. Her friends were whispering and gathered off to the side, all still more than a little tipsy. "Guess we'll have to split a cab."

The girls groaned.

"Where do you live?" Trent asked, his posture careful and non threatening. "We were headed home soon anyway and could give you a lift if you wanted?"

"Really!?" The curly redhead was all over the offer. "That would be great!"

"Stacy-" Jess was visibly flustered and her eyes flicked nervously around the group, that unnamed fear coloring her body language more and more.

"Oh shush, Jess. You know these guys and you know how gross and expensive taking a cab can be!" Stacy turned back to Trent. "A ride would be great, if it's not too much out of the way? We live on the corner of Mabel St. and Cork, near the east end? Do you know that area?"

"Yeah! That's actually right on the way…only problem is one of you is going to need to ride with Meta- Scott. We only have room for three."

There was a moment of hesitation because while Trent and Brock had been chatty and amiable, Scott had stayed fairly silent.

"I'll go with him." Jess said quietly, hiding a shaking hand in her pocket as she put her keys away. "If that's ok? I can also take a cab if-"

"It's no trouble." Scott jerked his head to the left. "Truck is parked down there. Come on."

"Thanks." Jess cast a glance over her shoulder and waved to her friends as they climbed into the back seat of Brock's car.

The walk was a quiet one that put Scott on edge. Something was definitely wrong. Jess hadn't been this nervous around him since they'd met.

"Everything ok?" He asked, digging out his keys as they neared his truck.

Jess didn't answer right away, something in her eye telling him she was a thousand miles away as she reached for the door handle automatically.

"Jess. Hey!"

"What?!" Jess flinched, pausing mid step up into the seat.

"I asked if you were ok. You're acting like something's wrong."

Jess stared at him blankly for a moment before heaving herself the rest of the way into the truck and closing the door. Her coat immediately got twisted in lap, hands wringing it as if it were going to talk. She chewed the inside of her cheek.

Concern welled in his gut and Scott deliberately didn't turn on the engine yet so the doors wouldn't lock.

"Jess. Talk to me. What's going on."

Drawing a shuddering breath, Jess finally spoke.

"Look, um, before we get on the road? I need really need to get something cleared up and I'm so sorry that I'm even bringing this up and before I do, I feel like I owe you an explanation-"

"Jess, you never owe anyone an explanation."

"I guess…but, I really want to give you one."

"That's different. You were saying?"

"Ah-so, a few years ago, some people who I thought were my friends and people I could trust ended up doing some pretty awful stuff and…well, it just makes it really hard to trust people again…you know?"

"Yup. I get it and there's no judgement from me, if that's what you're worried about."

"I don't want you to think that I don't trust you, or the others," Jess said in a rush, eyes wide and earnest, but still flaked with that underlying knot fear. "Because I do, and to tell the truth I haven't felt this safe going out with friends to any place in a long time, and I really don't want to lose that so please just keep what I said before about it being hard to trust people in mind when…I tell you this next part?"

Scott brow furrowed and he struggled to keep his voice quiet. "Jess, what's going on."

"Two weeks ago, when you and the guys weren't around, this woman approached me at the Bulkhead. I'm like, ninety-five percent sure she was just spouting bullshit about you and the others, but there's this stupid five percent stuck in my head and I can't get rid of it which makes me feel guilty, but then also scared, and then more guilty because it's like I'm losing everything I've gained in the last three months-"

"Ok, just slow down a minute." Scott held up a hand and leaned his weight back towards the driver door so he could see Jess better. "What woman?"

"I don't know. I didn't catch her name," Jess rubbed her palms on her knees rapidly, scanning the side alley he was parked in and avoiding eye contact. "But she acted like she knew all of you, and like she was doing me a favor, saving my skin, warning me away with all these horrible things."

The dawn of understanding washed through Scott as he put the pieces together and with it an anger he hadn't had to face in a very long time surfaced. It forced him to stay quiet for a good minute.

Finally he asked in a hard voice, "Was this woman tall? High heels, tight pants, dyed red hair, fake lashes, too much hair spray and a horse tattoo on her neck and shoulder?"

"Yeah, actually, that sounds just like her."

Scott swore and clamped his hands around the steering wheel. "That bitch."

"I'm sorry-" Jess's hand twitched towards the door handle and her voice was instantly colored with heightened anxiety. "I shouldn't have-"

"No, don't you dare say sorry," Scott's growl was darker than she'd ever heard. "You've done nothing wrong. And yes, you should absolutely be telling me. If what she told you has you spooked, even a little, then we need to talk. Now, what did she say?"

"It's ok, it wasn't-"

"No. Jess," Scott drew a breath to level his shaking voice. "This woman has torn through enough of my life already, which isn't important. What's important is that now she's manipulating you to get to me, and I'm not going to let that happen. Now, please, tell me what she said. Let's get rid of that five percent of doubt stuck in your head."

"Are you mad?" Jess asked cautiously, back ramrod straight as she braved a glance at him.

"At you?" Scott shook his head, jaw still clenched. "No. Not even a little. At her ? Furious. Tell me what she said."

"She said that all of you are really dangerous." Jess started picking at her nails and had Scott looked then he would have felt a stab of guilt. Her hands were shaking.

Scott snorted humorlessly. "She's not exactly wrong there, but you already knew that. We're frogmen. It comes with the job."

"Said to watch out because you're all a bunch of womanizers and Sonny was the worst of the bunch."

"Sonny might be a bit of a dog, but not in a bad way. Not the way she means." Glancing over to see the unspoken question in Jess's eyes Scott shrugged. "Sonny likes strip clubs, there's no hiding that. I'm pretty sure those women take more advantage of him than he ever could of them, Jess. Trust me."

"Oh. Ok, that makes a lot of sense, actually."

"What else."

"She said you're all really good at acting well meaning and like good guys, but not to get too close or I'd find out the hard way what you're all really like. And she said that you guys get off on killing people." Jess raised her shaking hand to her brow line and let her fingers worry at her scalp as she talked faster. "Then she asked if I had seen in the news about that group of marines who got arrested for drug smuggling and human trafficking…then hinted that maybe there should have been more arrests."

"Wanna know how many human traffickers I have shot and never lost sleep over?" Scott asked a little darkly. "And no, that doesn't not confirm that I enjoy killing people. Anyone who says they get off on killing people is sick in the head. Do we joke about it, yeah. It's a way to cope with something so heavy."

The tiniest fraction of tension left Jess's shoulders at his words.

"What else."

"Nothing-"

"Try again. I can see your hand twitching for the door. There's more."

"S-she inferred a lot that I really don't want to repeat, but," Jess practically whispered. "She said I should definitely never ever be alone with…you…specifically."

Scott slowed his breathing.

"Do you believe her?"

"No. Absolutely not." Jess shook her head adamantly.

"Jess. You've known me and my team for three months, mostly just in passing. I am not going to be upset with you if the answer is yes."

"It's not. She was really convincing with it all and I nearly believed her, but the second she said that I knew she had to be lying because…because you're not like that. I can't believe something like that about you. She's wrong."

Jess cast a hesitant look at him, posture brimming with stress and a terrified hope lining her face.

Scott studied her for a good two minutes before saying quietly, "There's still that five-percent that's worried she was right and that you're wrong, because you were wrong once before and trusted the wrong people."

Tears instantly sprang into Jess's eyes and her right hand lifted again for the door handle. She stopped herself before her fingers could make contact with the metal and she tucked the limb back into her coat, twisted in her lap saying, "I'm sorry."

"I don't know who taught you to apologize so damn much, but I'd really like to bust their head in." Scott told her, leaning back in his seat, crossing his arms and shaking his head while watching her reaction. "That and I really worry about you sometimes, you know that?"

Startled, Jess met his steely gaze properly for the first time that night. "What?"

"You had this on your mind for what, two weeks? And it's had you spooked, which I do not blame you for in the least. But then you sit on it until after everyone else has left and you are alone with a supposedly questionable, dangerous, grown ass man, in his truck, blocks from the bar, in a side alley, in the middle of the night, with no reliable transportation home and a cell phone that's about to run out of battery. Yeah. I really do worry about you."

Jess gapped at him, mind trying to catch up and mouth working for words.

Shaking his head again, Scott went on, his voice taking a lecturing edge to it.

"What the hell were you thinking? If I had been someone else, would you have done the same thing? I sure as hell hope not!"

"But-She was lying about-"

"That doesn't matter! You had doubts! This specific scenario is not one you put yourself in when you have any doubts about someone being a safe person or not!"

"I was pretty sure-"

"And yet you still checked four times to see if I had locked the doors, your hand keeps twitching for that handle and you needed to bring it up before we started driving. How 'sure' is that?"

"Sure enough to know you weren't going to hurt me if I brought it up? I don't know! You said you were good people! I just needed you to tell me she's batshit crazy and that it's all lies!" Jess's voice climbed with both defensiveness and confusion.

"I am good people! She is definitely crazy and they are all fuckin lies ." Scott said gruffly. "That's not the point!"

"Ok, fine!" Jess nearly yelled now, tears leaking out as she talked. "I know it was stupid, I did the second I got in the truck but by then it was a total train wreck and I was afraid you be offended if I said was scared to go alone with you and I didn't want to risk losing you putting up with me and looking out for me just because I listened to some weird woman and didn't trust you like I should have because I should and I do and I just didn't want it to be true so-"

"Breathe."

Jess gulped air and finished, "…I don't know. I just hoped it wasn't true?! Holy shit I really am so dumb…this is like…oh my god…I didn't learn…I am so dumb."

Scott just stared at her, expression unreadable and a long silence stretched out.

"D-do you want me to get out?" Jess asked meekly, trying and failing to stop the flood coming from her eyes.

"What?! No. And even if I did there's no fuckin way I'm letting you walk around those streets alone at this hour."

More tears overflowed and Jess met his steely gaze miserably, "I'm such an idiot, Scott."

"I never said that. I said that I worry about you. There's a difference. But yeah, as plans go, this one was not your best." He reached forward and turned over the key in the ignition, letting the truck roar to life. "And I will say this; if you ever do something like this again, I'm gonna kick your ass, I don't care if it's from beyond the grave. I'll come back and do it. Got it? Have the conversation in a public place with a clear exit and backup."

Jess nodded, still trying and failing to mop up her face while biting her quivering lips.

"Jess. Look at me."

She did reluctantly.

"Are we good? Bat-shit, crazy lady didn't say anything else that got into your head?"

Jess shook her head. "No. That was it."

"Good. Glad we got that cleared up. Are you ok?" Scott paused with his hand on the gear shift. "Jess? You don't seem like you're ok."

"I'm sorry!"

"You really gotta stop saying that. Tell me what you need."

"I-I don't know." Jess scratched at her arms, rocking a little in her seat as she burst into tears. "I'm such an idiot…w-what if I'd been wrong?"

"You weren't. And this isn't like the last time you were in a bad situation. You are with someone you can trust. Period. As serious as I am about you not doing something like this again, don't waste time on the what ifs. Learn. Move on. Easy as that."

"Are we still good?" Jess asked tearfully.

"Look, kid, I don't usually befriend random college girls who use the bar like a library, but you are still my favorite. We're good. You are safe. Now, how do we turn off the crying? With my sister it was always a hug. Do you need one of those?"

Smothering another sob, Jess nodded more vigorously than he'd expected.

"Get over here then. This hug has an expiry date."

Despite the growly words, Jess quickly found herself wrapped in a gentle bear hug worthy of any good uncle or brother. It lasted the perfect amount of time, effectively calming her and giving her a reassurance that words couldn't.

They were silent for a while as Scott drove through quiet roads, taking her home.

"So. Now would probably be a bad time to mention I'm a serial killer…"

Jess didn't miss a beat, half-heartedly glaring at him and saying, "You are not funny. Besides, it's a statistical improbability for there to be two in one car."

Scott grinned and asked, "How's that five percent of your brain now?"

Jess managed a watery smile. "Better. I'm s- I mean- thank you."

"Any time."

Jess waited a few minutes, visibly gadging Scott's mood and choosing her words.

"So…who was the witch who started this whole thing?"

"Valerie." The man rumbled, his knuckles tightening on the steering wheel. Jess tensed and glanced at the speed. They were still holding a comfortable speed for being in town despite his obvious anger. "The woman is nuts. I figured that out too late, about four years ago. We dated briefly. I ended things quickly once it was clear she wasn't the kind of woman I wanted to be around and she didn't like that. Made my life a living hell for about six months before I finally got a restraining order. She disappeared after that. It would seem she's back in town."

"I'm really sorry I even considered what she-"

"Hey. Enough with that. You are not at fault here and we already cleared all that up. Relax. I know how well she lies. It's ok."

"What should I do if I see her again?"

"Stay the hell away from her."

Jess's jaw set with a sudden anger. "She can't just spout stuff like that about you!"

Scott pointed a finger at her, never taking his eyes off the road, and said sternly. "I'm serious. Don't get on her radar, Jess. Steer clear. It's bad enough she knew to approach you."

Silence descended again and Jess moved to check her phone before she remembered it was nearly out of juice.

"How did you know my phone battery was dying?" She asked suddenly.

Scott nearly laughed. "You checked the low battery alert three times before we ever made it to my truck. You're short. It's easy to see the screen when I'm walking next to you, not that I was snooping. Just happened to look at the right times."

"Huh." Jess made a contemplative face before nodding. "Good to know. Oh, if you go left here you can avoid the construction on Cork St…oh, nevermind. Looks like you already knew that. We're right on the corner, just before Mabel St, on the left. The house has a lot of character, so we just call it Ingrid, because it reminds us of an little old lady…not that that matters. I really hope my friends aren't giving Brock and Trent any trouble. Pauline was kinda wasted earlier and she says really weird things when she's drunk, and Zoe will make really nerdy references to shows and movies that most people don't get. Stacy is just really outspoken."

The tension sitting around Scott's shoulders eased a little with her rambling and he replied with the tiniest of smiles. "I'm sure they can handle it. That it there?"

"Yeah! The second driveway is ours. Neighbor gets cranky when we use the other one."

Scott pulled the truck in and put it in park. "Right. Before you go, I just wanna double check that you're ok and that we covered everything we needed to."

Flushing with embarrassment, Jess nodded, "Yes. I'm ok."

"And you promise that you told me everything?"

"Yes."

"Good. One last thing. Unlock your phone and give it to me."

Jess complied and handed it to him without hesitation.

"I'm giving you my number. If you're ever in trouble, or ever tempted to confront someone about some rumors you'd heard the way you did tonight, I want you to call me." Scott's gruff growl was clipped but genuine. "If it goes to voicemail or I'm away, call this number instead. Rob's a buddy of mine. He'll help you out, no questions asked."

"You really don't have to do that." Jess murmured, blinking rapidly.

"Want me to delete it?"

"No!"

A smirk tugged at the corner of the man's face and he handed her back the phone. "Didn't think so. Take care of yourself, Jess."

"Thanks for the ride," Jess slipped out of the truck and added, "And everything else."

Scott nodded then, when he spotted the hesitation before she closed the truck door, he said, "If you apologize one more time I'm setting off my car alarm and pissing off all your neighbors."

A laugh broke the air and Jess closed the truck door with a grin, hurrying through the dark to the house. He didn't pull away until she was inside and just as he put the truck in reverse, his phone chimed with a new message.

~ Thank you Scott. I promise not to abuse the power of having your number.~

Jess hit send and peeked out the window. She just caught the smile and head shake as Scott drove away so she figured she hadn't crossed any boundaries.

The temptation to obsess over how the night went was there, but with things going from bad to worse, to not as bad, to better, Jess was exhausted and just wanted to go to bed.

Things were cleared up with Scott, she wasn't haunted by the thought of 'what if I'm wrong and that woman is right', and her car could be dealt with in the morning.

"Oh good! You're home!" Stacy was on her way out of the bathroom, stumbling into the wall a little as she went. "You're friends are really great! Did you know they don't live very far from here?! Well, at least one of them does. I don't remember who though…I kinda almost threw up in the car."

"Brock has a DOG! A DOG, JESS!" Zoe yelled from her room.

"Oh my god! ZOE! GO TO BED! NO ONE CARES ABOUT THE FRIGGING DOG!" Pauline hollowed from the attic floor.

Zoe gave a cry of indignation. "I CARE ABOUT THE DOG AND JESS LOVES DOGS YOU-YOU CAT LOVER!"

"Yeah…anyway…" Stacy leaned against the wall and smiled at Jess. "What's more important than all that is how old are they anyway?"

"Wow." Jess walked into the bathroom and closed the door without another word.

"What?!" Stacy called through the door. "They're kinda hot!"

"This is weird. I'm not listening. Go to bed and sleep it off." Jess called back.

"You are no fun."

"But ya still love me."

"Good night."

The next morning Jess stumbled down the stairs at nine while the rest of the house was still down for the count. Even without drinking she was exhausted the morning after a late night out. She opened the fridge to make something to eat only to be reminded she hadn't gone grocery shopping in a long time.

"Guess I'm doing that this morning." She muttered, letting the door slam shut and shuffling to the entryway to grab her coat and keys.

"Oh shit…my car." Jess smacked her head against the door. "What the frick am I going to do about my damn car."

She didn't know what she was going to do. There was no way she could afford to pay a mechanic bill this month, not to mention she didn't know how she was going to get back to the bar to get it without paying a cab fee.

Stuffing her hands in her pockets, Jess hunted for her keys.

They were gone.

"No…nonononono…SHIT!" She started emptying her pockets. "Where are they!? I had them last night…I had them in the…oh shit, did I drop them in the parking lot? No, I needed them to open the door- No, scratch that, the girls left it unlocked…where are they!?"

Pulling her phone out of her back pocket, Jess went to start searching for Scott's number only to find she'd forgotten to plug it in the night before and the reason it had been such a quiet morning was because the phone was dead, not because no one was calling or texting her.

"Oh for-" Jess found a chord and plugged it into the wall in the kitchen before going back to trying to find her keys.

She checked the messy shoes and coats area while she waited for the phone to charge enough to turn on. Without any luck, Jess went back to the phone and turned it on. A few minutes later it came to life with all kinds of notifications, missed alarms and reminders.

"Crap."

She scrolled through, instantly opening a new text message from 'Full Metal'.

~ Left your keys in my truck. They're in your mail box.~

Relief flooded her and Jess hurried to the front door. Throwing it open, she marched out to retrieve the key set from the box. The blue, rusty old Jimmy Blazer in the drive stopped her in her tracks.

He brought it back for her.

Going back in to her phone, Jess wrote-

~Morning! Thank you for finding my keys and for bringing my car back! How did you get it here!?~

The reply didn't come in for about an hour when the girls were all finally emerging from their prospective rooms in the worn down house.

~ Replaced the spark plugs. Drove it over. Should be good to go for a bit now, but that rust bucket is held together by prays and string so I can't promise anything. Careful driving it.~

Then, just as Jess was frantically typing a 'Thank you' and 'What do I owe you', another text came in.

~ Don't even think about asking what you owe me. The answer is not a damn thing.~

A half smile half cry fought for control over Jess's face and she sent: ~ Thank you~

A thumbs up emoji was the only reply she got.