It was nearly 10am when Jess finally stirred the following day and it took time to orient, remembering why she was at Scott's rather than Ingrid.

Peering around at the mostly still packed piles along the far side of the room, Jess snuggled back into her blankets and drew a deep, tentatively relaxed breath. For the moment, she ignored those horrid voices screaming at her that this was a bad idea and that Scott was going to get tired of her in the long term.

This was a new chapter. It was all going to be ok. Scott didn't offer things he didn't mean. Everything would be ok.

She rolled out of bed and dressed before slipping out to the kitchen, a little unsure of herself.

This was all different from when he'd taken care of her. There was always the expectation that this was his home, and she was a guest. Now…now it looked like this was her home too, but she wasn't sure what all the rules were.

Scott was watching sports when she came into the shared living space.

"How'd you sleep?" He asked, flicking a quick look over her as she slipped in and sat near him on the couch. Mostly she joined him because she didn't know what else to do with herself. It felt weird going into the fridge on her own for some reason even though she had a ton of times during her last visit.

"It was really good, actually!" Jess told him truthfully, smiling at the ceiling a little as she thought about the differences between Ingrid and Scott's home. "Quiet. Really quiet, which was nice."

"Good." Scott got up, grabbing the empty cup in front of him and headed to the kitchen. "Let's get you fed, and talk about some ground rules."

Getting up to follow, Jess's stomach did a small flip at the words 'ground rules', but she took a deep breath and reminded herself that knowing what the rules were was a good thing and she would be less anxious with them.

As the fridge opened, the first rule entered the air between them.

"Any food of mine in here is never off limits. I don't care what you take, just replace stuff that gets used up if you use the last of it. That being said, I won't eat your food on you. You need it more than I do."

"That seems like a double standard." Jess commented slowly as she accepted the items handed to her and set them on the counter.

"Don't care." Scott got out a frying pan. "Next. You did pretty good last time, but clean up after yourself."

"Yup!"

"Laundry. Don't leave it in the washer for days at a time."

Jess blushed, knowing that was something he overheard when during the 'break in' at Ingrid.

"Right."

"Keep the doors locked."

"Yes!" Jess nodded seriously and was just a tiny bit insulted when the other gave her a look.

"I mean it."

"I will!"

"You better. I'll give one freebee and after that Jason scaring the shit out of you while you're running in the middle of the night with earbuds in will seem like a cake walk."

Jess blinked at him after that utterly grim promise and she drew a long, calming breath. "Shit. I sometimes forget how good you are at being scary."

"I'm serious."

"I know."

"Good." He tossed the eggs from the pan onto plates and Jess added the toast and fruit for both of them. "Open communication. This isn't going to work if we don't deal with problems that come up, when they come up. I'm gone at unpredictable moments and for unpredictable time frames. The sooner we address and deal with something, the better."

"Sounds reasonable." Jess agreed, fighting the twist in her chest over the idea of ever bringing up anything and the anxiety of knowing she was more likely to be the one causing trouble or frustration for Scott.

"Seriously, Jess. Don't you go bottling stuff up because your scared of conflict. I ain't gonna hold back. Neither should you."

"I hate conflict." Jess sighed as they sat down at the table.

"I know you do, but there will be some," Scott acknowledged simply. "Just remember that healthy conflict isn't a bad thing."

"Right."

"Any questions?"

Oh, she had lots of questions. The most burning one that she knew she would never ever be able to ask was where he'd come from last night when he and Jason came to get her. She was pretty sure she would sink into the ground if she ever knew for sure that he'd come from a date or something.

Jess's debate was just long enough for the Scott's expression to sharpen, compelling her to mumble, "Are you still sure you want me living here? I mean…wouldn't having me around…I don't know…cramp your style?"

There was a ghost of a smirk and humor lit up his eyes letting her know he knew exactly what she was getting at. Rather than tease the shit out of her like Sonny or Clay undoubtedly would have done, he just shrugged and said, "Nope."

"Ok." Jess shifted in her seat and asked, "What about rent."

"What about it."

"How much should I give you? And don't you dare say nothing."

Unreadable again, Scott studied her with his arms folded before saying, "You were paying, what, $450 before?"

"Yeah, but it was a dump-"

"Make it $350. First of the month, starting next month. I won't accept anything more."

"But, you already pay for the car and-"

"My car. My house. I get to decide." The way he said it told Jess this was not an argument she would win, so she humbly accepted it.

"Alright…if you're sure. Thank you."

"Yup." Scott looked up from his drink suddenly and said, "Oh. One more rule. If you ever hear me in the night, like if you think I'm dreaming, do not wake me up. I don't care how bad it sounds, you don't enter my room. Got it?"

"Ok."

"No. Promise me, Jess, because there have been occurrences where I've reacted violently when people wake me from nightmares. I do not want to hurt you by accident."

"I promise I won't try to wake you."

"Good." Satisfied, he started half watching the game still playing on the TV in the background. "That about covers it from me. Figure we settle stuff as it comes up."

Jess had to agree with that logic.

The first week went smoothly enough, with only minor hiccups. Despite this Jess was a basket case and her tension was noticeable because she was trying so hard to be a good housemate. She was the tidiest she'd ever been. Her socks didn't get left in random little piles under couches or tables from when she'd gotten tired of them and slipped them off. The laundry got moved along without failure. Her dishes were washed promptly and she took herself shopping for food because she knew Scott could see how much she had left and she couldn't bear that silent, mildly judgmental frown that would appear on his face when he opened the fridge.

The only time her guard went down was the two days he was gone at the end of the week and she was home alone. When he came back, she made sure to be quiet as a mouse while he was sleeping late the next morning and that practice continued into the weekend when he got spun up and then a third time into the next week on Tuesday.

She'd heard him come home from the Monday-Tuesday absence. It was three in the morning and she could hear how tired he was just by the way he stepped.

When he emerged later in the morning, Jess was at the table working on school in the sunlight and drinking tea.

"Hi!" She greeted him brightly.

Scott grunted something as he started for the kitchen.

Taking the hint that he didn't want to talk, Jess went back to her assignment quietly and fought back the turn of anxiety.

"You're being too quiet when I'm sleeping," He growled as he pulled food from the fridge and let the door close with a solid thump. Out of the corner of his eye he caught the way she held in a flinch as the fridge closed and Jess heard a soft, tired sigh.

Recovering quickly from the place that small 'thud' sent her, Jess's brow furrowed as she gave him a weird look. "Um…ok…I thought it was polite to be quiet when people are sleeping?"

"Ordinarily that's true," Scott acknowledged, deciding to give her that one. "But it puts me on edge and I can't sleep right with you moving around as quietly as you have been. Keep waking up thinking someone's broken in and is sneaking around. You need to make as much noise as you usually do when I'm awake."

"Ok…?" Jess was both flustered and confused now. "I'm sorry for not being noisier?"

A smile surfaced then, chasing away the cranky irritation and he said, "You're fine. Just stop trying to be considerate and we'll be good."

"Anything else?"

The anxiety colored her careful question and lines deepened around Scott's mouth. Jess could almost hear him swear even though he didn't say a word.

"No. Not yet."

"I'm…I'm sorry it wasn't a good sleep."

Another sigh slipped out and Scott turned to face her again. "Jess, I don't sleep the majority of the time anyway. Don't worry about it."

The series of expressions that crossed her face gave away the fact that she was biting her tongue and choosing not to comment on that revelation. She figured now was not the time to poke the bear and went back to her work again.

By the third week, Jess was starting to get more relaxed and the chaos that came with school forced her typical habits to come out, loud and clear.

At first Metal started noticing her more 'authentic' self would sneak out when she thought he either wasn't home or wasn't awake.

The girl had a habit of talking out loud to herself in a running monologue while she attempted to get organized for her day. Other times she would start spontaneously singing. That woke him up early one morning after a spin up and he'd listened for a good ten minutes before the entertaining choice of songs broke off suddenly with a soft, "Shit! He's back…I hope he didn't hear all that."

When he came home from work that evening Jess was practically buzzing with energy at the kitchen table and her music was blasting into her ears at an alarming decibel.

"How's studying going?" He asked when she tugged the earbuds out to talk to him. She was coming up on a few tests soon.

"Umm….well…" Jess looked a little startled as she stared at the computer screen. "I was studying…like two hours ago. Now I'm learning how to farm bees and how to harvest honey and that's definitely not what my exam is going to be about."

"How the hell did you go from biochemistry to farming bees?"

The blank expression on Jess's face was comical.

"Well, you see…that's the thing. I don't really remember. There were a lot of stops along the way but I think I got thinking about bees after I stopped for a snack and made tea with honey and then-"

"You mean this tea?"

Metal held up a full, cold mug of tea that was sitting under the three wide open cupboards, the open cutlery drawer and half finished dishes.

"Oh…yeah, that tea. Forgot about that."

Scanning the house, Metal took in the small piles of chaos and nearly completed tasks that had appeared in the week he'd been mostly gone and Jess was left to her own devices. Part of him knew he should be bothered and the other part wasn't remotely annoyed because it was so…Jess.

"Trent might be right." He murmured.

"What?"

Looking at Jess seriously, he asked, "Have you ever considered that you might have ADHD?"

Jess's mouth dropped open, "Why does everyone keep saying that!?"

Amusement pulled around his mouth and Metal shrugged, "I think maybe you should seriously look into it."

Grimacing, Jess said, "I don't have time to! Or the money."

"How much studying do you have left?"

"A bit. Why?"

"The boys were wondering about watching the game here. Apparently I have the best TV out of all of them."

"Oh! That's awesome!" Jess was up out of her chair instantly, beekeeping forgotten, and she started gathering up her random piles of chaos. "Sorry…I got a little distracted this week and kept starting to clean up and then…yeah. Sorry. I'll get rid of all this."

Snorting, Metal headed for his room, "You're fine. There better not be clothes in the washer though. I need to do a load."

The quietest, "Uh oh." followed him and he rolled his eyes. Good thing he didn't have that much to wash.

When he came back the dryer was running and Jess had a bundle of clean clothes stuffed in the hamper at her feet.

Spotting the front door behind her, Metal remembered, "You left the front door unlocked last night."

"I did?" Jess winced.

"Uh huh." He started tossing the clothes in the washer. There wasn't a lingering musty smell, so Jess must have managed to get things moved along within a day. "It was unlocked when I got home at two and you didn't even stir when I came in."

"Opps."

"Do that again and I'll drag you out of bed by your ankles just to prove a point."

Jess's eyes went big as she lifted her basket.

"You wouldn't."

"Maybe not." Metal was completely unreadable as he worked to drive just enough healthy fear into her. Jess seemed to be debating if she should be sweating or not. "Maybe I'll toss you in the trunk of a car instead and drive around for a bit. If you wanna put that to the test, don't lock the door again when you're home alone."

"Holy shit, Scott! Sometimes you're a really terrifying person."

Shrugging, he walked past her and growled, "I warned you about that. Lock the damn door. This is your one freebee. I won't be nice after that."

"Noted." Jess mumbled, carting her basket back to her room and dumping the clean clothes on the bed. She promised herself she would fold it and put it away before bed this time instead of just tossing it on the desk.

Forcing herself to study instead of joining the guys that evening was one of the hardest things Jess had done all week. After an hour, she gave up and came out of her room. She didn't care about football, but she liked being with her 'brothers' and it was a little more lonely living with Scott than it had been during the good days at Ingrid.

Cerberus hopped off his spot to greet her a second time and she made a fuss over him before snagging a spot on one of the couches. He'd been in her room on her bed for about twenty minutes earlier until he heard Sonny open the fridge.

"Jess! Where's your happy place?" Clay asked randomly when she joined them.

She had no idea what they'd been talking about, but the fact she was included now without hesitation warmed her through and through.

"My happy place? Hmmm…" Jess looked off into space before saying decidedly. "Treestand. Middle of the bush. Not a soul for miles. Don't care what season it is. Don't even really care if it's for hunting or not. I just like being in the treestand and hearing the trees. Second to that would be hiking through basically any Park with amazing trails, rocks and trees and water. OH! Actually! You know where there are amazing places to camp and hike!? The Muskokas in Ontario! Ooooo! Or Algonquin Park! Or once we went to this place way North called Temagami! We used to go up to different places in Canada once a year when I was little to visit my dad's cousin and it was the best week of my whole summer, every single time, I mean like, Maine has some pretty great similarities, but Canada is just…I don't know…really…um…what? Why are you guys looking at me like that? What'd I say?"

Sonny shook his head and said with sincerity, "It is just rare that we get to see you rattle off about something you're excited about, Jess."

"Oh!" Jess felt her face go red and she drew her knees to her chest, shifting on the couch awkwardly. "I can tone it back-"

"No, that's not at all what he meant, Jess." Clay interrupted. "He meant it's good to see you come out of your shell."

"Oh! Ok!"

Jess let the 'riviting' moment in the game draw attention back away from her and she flipped through some reel's that Zoe had sent her.

A few minutes later a call came through and her heart flew into her mouth.

Jess muted the call and tried to blank out the screen before any of them saw, but it was too late.

"Who is Peter?" Trent asked from beside her.

"Peter? I don't know anyone named Peter." Jess got up, slipped her phone into her back pocket and tried to head for her room.

"That call was definitely from someone named Peter, Jess. Don't even try to pretend it wasn't!" Trent sounded a little too gleeful now as he followed her.

"It wasn't anyone." Jess insisted, spinning and ducking out from under his arm when he tried to hook it round her shoulders.

"Ohhhh nononono, young grasshopper," Sonny blocked her path now. "You do not expect us to just let you walk away without telling us who 'Peter' is."

"Whoever he is, he's left a voicemail!"

Jess spun round to see Clay had somehow swiped her phone out of her pocket while she was distracted by Sonny.

"Hey! Give that back!

Cerberus jumped up with an excited little woof as the most of the boys closed in on Jess, looking over his shoulder at Brock hopefully. The handler quieted with a soft, "No. No biting anyone's ass. Not today."

"Oh! And he's calling back!" Clay hovered his thumb over the answer button. "Should I answer?"

"NO!"

"Tell us who Peter is then." Scott was looming to her left now and Jess glared at him. He was having way too much fun with this.

"Ok! Fine!" Jess squawked. "He's just a guy from my class who keeps calling me about school stuff, that's all!"

Jess's heart sank when they all exchanged a look.

"Aww. He calls about school!" Trent cooed.

"It's not like that! We are just in a group project together and are the only ones actually getting shit done!"

"Yeah, but ah, he's called you six times in the last two days." Clay was scrolling through her call history like the 'boundaryless' brother he was. "That can't seriously just be about school. I think maybe he might be interested in you, Jess."

Throwing her hands up, Jess huffed, "So what!?"

"Well, do you like him?" Sonny asked.

"No! Not even a little!"

"Then we should really get him to back off." Brock said reasonably from where he was perched on the back of the couch observing. He was way too good at stirring the pot.

"NO!" Jess exclaimed at the same time that the others said 'Yeah!'. "No! I'm serious, don't answer that."

"Awwww, come on, Jess!" Sonny whined. "It'll be fun!"

"No! Scott?"

She must have sounded serious enough because they started to back off.

"Alright, give her back the phone." Scott ordered gruffly.

"Thank you!"

"I still say it's a missed opportunity." Sonny said, half sulking.

Too easily manipulated by the act, Jess signed and said, "I promise if there is ever a time that someone isn't taking a hint and won't leave me alone, you guys will be the first I give my phone to, ok? Just…Peter's a good guy, he's just an international student and English isn't his first language, so he has a lot of questions. That's all."

"Don't let him play you like that." Trent whispered as Sonny grinned triumphantly.

"You heard her, boys. It's official. We get to scare off any guy she doesn't like!"

"That's not what I- you know what? Nevermind. I swear I'll never need to anyway."

"You say that now!" Trent said smugly.

"So that game! Aren't important things happening there?" Jess deflected, pointing at the TV.

"It's a commercial, Jess. For toilet paper."

Looking closer, Jess signed and muttered, "So it is."

"How's placement going?" Brock asked, taking pity on her and changing topics before Sonny could give her a hard time about not knowing the difference between football and a commercial.

"It's great!" Jess brightened instantly. "I get to go all over the Swamp and collect samples, and then study them in the Lab the following week. Then I catalog species and take population samples. The Warden's let me take one of their trucks and go alone most of the time now, so I'm not taking up their time and it's quieter, so I see all kinds of wildlife!"

"That's awesome!" Brock answered, genuine as usual.

"What else is new?" Clay asked. "Feel like I haven't seen you in a while."

"Um…oh! Actually!" Jess flicked her head back so she could see Scott, who was coming back from the kitchen. "I didn't tell you this yet, but, ah…I got a job!"

Scott paused and stared at her, expressionless before saying, "You sure you should be adding more to your plate?"

"No! This is a good thing! I'm actually so friggin excited about it! I can't believe I didn't tell you earlier!" Jess' eyes got bright and excited as she looked at each of her brothers. "Guess where I'm gonna work two mornings a week and one afternoon?"

"Ahhh…garden center." Trent guessed.

"Nope."

"For the state park?" asked Clay.

"Nope, but they wanna offer me a job when I get out of school!"

"At the barn where Pauline works." Scott tried.

"Closer, but no." Jess did a happy little dance and started smothering Cerberus with love as the dog half climbed into her lap, licking her cheek.

"There's only one job left that I could see you getting all glowing and happy like that. A doggie daycare." Sonny said decidedly.

Amazement flickered through Jess and she grinned from ear to ear. "Hell yeah! I'm gonna play with dogs and get paid!"

The rest of the guys groaned at not thinking of it first.

"Which one?" Brock asked instantly. Of all of them, he approved the most and seemed equally excited for her.

"Pawsitive Tails."

"Oh! I've heard decent things about them!"

"Why'd you need a job?" Sonny asked almost coyly while side eyeing Scott. Jess couldn't figure out what that was about or why Scott was so unbelievably neutral right now.

"Because student debt is the worst and also, why the heck would I pass up the opportunity to get paid to get all the doggo love!?" Jess leaned back smiling at the ceiling and recalling her interview while Cerberus invited himself the rest of the way up into her lap. He was too big and she was too small, but he tried anyway. At the daycare, she got to be in the back with all the dogs to see how she would do with them. It was wonderful. "I can't wait for Monday!"

"And how early do you have to be there?" Scott asked, finally letting a smile sneak onto his face.

"I don't wanna talk about it," Jess sighed. It was the only downside.

"How early?" Trent laughed.

"Five thirty."

The laugh that came out of Scott was just not fair at all. He never laughed so loud and the fact that it was over her future misery was just plain rude!

"I can be there on time!" Jess protested.

"Never said you couldn't," Scott answered between chuckles. "But, you are going to be a bear."

"No, I'm not!"

"If you say so!"

"Awww, it's gonna be great!" Brock told her. "You'll be happy to get up!"

"See?" Jess gave Scott sudden spice and sassy. "That's what nice people say! They don't make fun of my love for sleep."

"Oh, there are all kinds of things we can tease you about, and we don't," Brock added, mildly apologetic.

"Yet." Sonny interjected. "You just give it time, there, Snow White."

"Metal's actually being pretty nice right now." Trent commented.

Rolling her eyes, Jess muttered, "I know."

"Glad you found a job you're excited about, kid." Scott finally said with his typical gruffness. "Just don't over do it. Focus on school first."

"Says the guy who dropped out of art school!" Sonny ribbed as he drank his third beer and burped. Somewhere in the back of Jess's head she noticed that it didn't phase her when he did that anymore.

Turning to the team caveman, Jess's brow wrinkled.

"You went to art school?"

"Maybe."

"What did they teach you, the art of being a ninja?" Clay asked, clearly not really believing Sonny either and joking about it. "Or was it the art of burying people?"

Scott smiled and leaned back, turning his attention back to the game. "Bit of both. They also taught us how to dispose of a body correctly."

"I'm never sure if he's serious about that." Jess whispered softly to Trent.

"Neither are we." He hissed back.

Leaning closer so she could talk even quieter, Jess admitted, "I keep wanting to look and see if he really does have a shovel and a bag of lye in the back of his truck, but I don't know how I feel about it being true, so I don't want to find out."

Trent, who'd been taking a drink, choked a little and started to laugh again.

"What is goin on over there?!" Sonny exclaimed with mild irritation as Trent coughed. "I'm tryin to watch the game!"

"Sorry!" Jess offered a sweet smile and the Texan softened. "My fault."

"Don't worry, Jess." Scott rumbled from the other couch. "I only keep the shovel and lye in there for emergencies and I've only had to use it once. Maybe it was twice…yeah it might have been twice."

Eyes going big, Jess spluttered, "How the hell did you hear that?!"

"Yeah, I didn't even hear what she said!" said Brock.

"Neither did I!" said Clay.

Smirking, Scott shrugged and said simply, "Told ya. I learned all kinds of things at art school."