A/N: Thanks for your reviews!

Chapter 8

At eight-thirty that evening, Johanna set about re-lighting the candles as daylight began to fade outside the windows. She sighed deeply; some parts of the city had their power back…but she and Jim were still waiting. A touch of bitterness filled her; her parents had their power back and she wished she could go there and spend the night so she'd have the luxury of having a fan to turn on while she slept but it wasn't an option; the city felt too unsafe to be running around in for the sake of having a fan. What she wouldn't give for a fan…or the air conditioner sitting useless in her window, Johanna thought to herself. The apartment was so hot; they were both uncomfortable and growing cranky; her head pounded from the heat…from the lack of a decent meal…from the stress of the whole situation. She frowned in the dim light of the kitchen, thinking about all the groceries in her fridge that she'd have to throw out as soon as this was over…which only served to remind her that she was still somewhat hungry.

Jim stepped across the threshold of the kitchen, making her flinch as she had been lost in her thoughts. "Sorry, I didn't mean to scare you," he told her.

"It's okay, I was just thinking."

"About what?"

"That I'm sick of living in a natural disaster…I wasn't made for this Little House on the Prairie life," Johanna replied.

He smiled. "I thought you liked that show and enjoyed the books as a child?"

"I do like the show and I did enjoy the books…but that doesn't mean I want to live the lifestyle."

"Can't say that I blame you," he replied. "I'm not exactly enjoying it myself…although I have found myself wishing I had a horse so we could ride the hell out of here since I don't want to drive around this city when there aren't any traffic lights working."

"It probably wouldn't matter if we did have a horse; civilization feels far away right now…probably too far to ride a horse to."

"True…we can't even fantasize about getting out of this."

She offered him a small, sympathetic smile. "Who was on the phone?" she asked, figuring that was why he had come into the kitchen in the first place.

"Roche; he wanted to know if either one of us has court tomorrow."

"I don't," Johanna said with a shake of her head. "Next week is full of court dates though. Do you have court tomorrow?"

"No; like you, I'm busy with court dates next week. I was spending this week making sure they were all prepared; but I told him we didn't have court dates for tomorrow; he doesn't know if the courts will be open since it's unclear if there will be total restoration of power by morning but even if there is, he said that he's not opening the office tomorrow. He knows everyone is tired and drained and will have other things to deal with, and if power is back on, he'd like to try to get the air conditioning fixed before reopening Monday; so no matter what, we don't have to work tomorrow."

"Thank God," she murmured. "I don't know if I could do it if we had to, honestly. This heat is making me feel terrible."

"Do you still have a headache?" he asked.

"Yeah; it's dull but it's there. I took something for it when I got out of the shower, it hasn't had time to kick in."

Jim pulled her into his arms, hating that the heat was taking its toll on her. "I can probably get you to your mom's," he murmured. "We'll go slow."

She shook her head. "No, it's getting late and we don't know if that killer is out there somewhere…and my father would probably explode if we showed up there in the dark knowing that he gave orders to stay put…that would just make my headache worse."

"Good point," Jim replied. "What about my parents? They have their power back."

"No, your mother hates me and would have a fit and I don't want to go out…everything feels too unnerving right now. As much as I hate to stay in with as hot as it is, I feel like we're safer just staying put."

"You're probably right about that; I don't want to take unnecessary risks with you with that idiot on the loose."

She held onto him for a moment longer. "I guess we've made it this long, we'll make it awhile longer."

"We don't have much choice," Jim remarked as he allowed her to slip out of his arms.

"I know," she said as she moved to one of the cabinets and opened it.

"What are you looking for?"

"A snack…I'm still hungry."

"You mean that delicious dinner of Fruity Pebbles wasn't enough?" he asked sarcastically, a grin on his lips.

"Shocking, I know," she laughed as she pulled down a bag of chips from the cupboard. "I'm just surprised you're not laying on the floor, weak from your lack of nourishment."

"That can happen at any moment," Jim told her. "So you better plan on sharing the chips if you really love me and care about my wellbeing."

"Honey, you don't need to worry…this is a crisis, of course I'm going to share the chips," Johanna quipped.

"That makes it sound like sharing is questionable outside of a crisis," he replied as he followed her to the living room.

"It could be depending on which chips they are."

Jim gave her a playful glare. "And what chips would you let me starve over instead of sharing in a non-crisis situation?"

"Doritos," she replied without missing a beat.

"Wow, you didn't even have to think about it," Jim remarked as he settled down on the couch with her. "Just automatically saying the Doritos are yours."

"They are…just like those Fritos are yours."

"I never said the Fritos were mine," he replied.

"Please," she said with an amused smirk. "I never even get near the bag; you keep them under lock and key."

"I do not."

"Then why were they in your glove box?" she laughed.

"You're never going to let that go, are you?"

Johanna shook her head. "Well it did seem odd to look in the glove box for my sunglasses and find a bag of Fritos instead."

"Your sunglasses were in there!"

"Yeah, beneath your Fritos…and I still haven't heard why they were in there."

Jim smirked at her. "If you must know, I went and bought a bag on recess from court because I didn't know what I wanted for lunch; so I got them and a soda and ate in my car. I put the bag in the glove box so it wouldn't get spilled everywhere…and then they'd be there in case of emergency."

"In case of an emergency snack attack?" she laughed.

"Hey, you've been known to get an emergency snack attack yourself…that you then blame on your period."

"That's a legitimate excuse for a snack attack and now that I know you hide snacks in the glove box, that's the first place I'm going to look."

"I'll buy extra Fritos in that case," he said as he dipped his hand in the bag of chips.

"If you really loved me, you'd make sure there was emergency Doritos," Johanna replied.

He nodded. "You're right, true love like ours requires emergency Doritos along with the Fritos. I'll make sure the emergency snack supplies are properly stocked."

"And our emergency blackout supplies; we're going to get on creating that box right away when this is over."

"Agreed."

She was quiet for a few minutes as they munched on their chips but then she broke the silence. "Promise me one thing," she said as she met his gaze.

"What's that?"

"That when this is over we can go to New Jersey and get a decent meal; I don't care if it's McDonalds, Burger King, some diner, a place we never heard of…as long as it has a meal we can eat, I'm fine with it."

"Sweetheart, I can promise you that as soon as this is over and we know it's safe to venture out; we're out of here and at the first unaffected restaurant we can find across the state line."

She smiled. "You really do love me."

"Yes," Jim replied with a smile; "But I'm also starving to death because these meals of snacks and cereal aren't getting it for me so the search for food is really about both of us."

"I knew that all along, I was just letting you seem gallant."

"In that case, we'll pretend I didn't say that."

"It's already forgotten," she replied before sighing deeply.

"What's wrong, sweetheart?" Jim asked. "Besides the obvious?"

"Everything," Johanna replied. "And I know it's just me feeling miserable from the heat and not being able to cook a decent meal…being bored all damn day because we couldn't go do anything, couldn't watch anything…the radio is getting monotonous and on my nerves but we have to have it to know what's going on. I'm just tired and my head hurts and this feels like it's never going to end. I know I'm getting cranky and whiny…and I hate that."

Jim leaned toward her and pressed a soft kiss against her lips. "I feel the same way about myself; I'm irritated with this whole thing…and I hate that I can't do anything to make us more comfortable, especially you…I was trying to make us more comfortable when I bought the air conditioner and now we can't even use it and that annoys the hell out of me and I feel ridiculous for it."

"It's not ridiculous to feel that way."

"Feels like it," he muttered.

"It's not," she assured. "I feel bad that I couldn't provide you with a better dinner than cereal."

"That's not your fault," Jim replied, his hand finding hers.

"It's not your fault either."

"I know…it's just hard feeling helpless," he remarked. "Especially when I know that the heat and humidity makes you not feel well at times."

"I don't think it makes anyone feel good honestly; it's draining…I know it makes you feel tired."

Jim nodded. "It does…and I hate that more than you can imagine."

"Oh I think I can…but I guess in the point of all of this, we just agree that we're miserable and ready to lose our minds from boredom, hunger and living in a crisis situation," Johanna replied.

"I totally agree to all of that…and I know we said we'd stay put, but if we don't have power back in the morning, we're leaving. We can't spend another day like this when we both have parents who haven't gotten their power back."

"Let's hope it doesn't come to that…surely it has to come back on at some point tonight…don't you think?"

"I certainly hope so," Jim replied; but deep down he wasn't very confident about it at all.

At ten o'clock that night, Johanna was dozing lightly as Jim laid next to her staring up at the ceiling, listening to the latest radio report that was declaring that if your power hadn't come back on yet, it would be soon. They had said that an hour ago and they were still in the dark; sweat clinging to his skin. He shifted carefully, not wanting to disturb Johanna since she had finally dozed off; she needed to rest and hopefully keep her headache from becoming a migraine, he thought to himself, his hand falling gently onto her hip. She didn't flinch, and he was glad despite the fact that he missed the sound of her voice keeping him from being alone with his thoughts and boredom. He figured her own boredom had lulled her to sleep; he hadn't exactly been upholding his end of the conversation but there hadn't seemed like much to say.

Jim sighed deeply; he wished he could fall asleep but that didn't seem to be in the cards for him. It had been such a long, boring day…it had made him feel agitated and unsettled; even trying to do some work hadn't helped as he couldn't concentrate on it like he had hoped. Johanna hadn't even bothered to try and open her briefcase, he noted…but then again, she hadn't even been able to focus long on the crossword puzzle she had been trying to do in a magazine. The apartment had felt like an oven and still did; the water in their glasses tepid and in desperate need of ice.

Johanna shifted in her sleep, a slight sigh crossing her lips before her tired eyes flicked open and met his gaze in the candlelight. "What time is it?" she murmured.

"A little after ten," he answered.

She grimaced, raking her hand through her tousled hair. "I wish I hadn't asked."

"I know the feeling," Jim said quietly as he allowed his fingertips to graze across her forehead. "How's your headache?"

"Still dull…it's probably from the heat."

"And the lack of a decent meal."

"Don't forget the lack of caffeine because I can't drink a warm Coke," Johanna added, her eyes closing.

"You'll have a cold drink and a decent meal tomorrow, sweetheart. I don't care if we have to walk out of this damn city, we're leaving if this isn't over by morning," Jim declared.

"I don't know if I have enough energy to walk as far as we'd need to leave the city," she replied. "And being that you haven't been fed decently in twenty-four hours now, I'm going to say that you don't either."

"That's probably true," he said with a sigh of disgust. "We'll have to aim for homes of our parents like I mentioned earlier."

"That's a whole other kind of energy," Johanna muttered.

"Yeah…and I'm not sure I have it either."

"I know that feeling."

He pressed a soft kiss against her forehead. "Try and go back to sleep, sweetheart; I know you don't feel well."

"It's hard to sleep when it's so hot."

"I know," he said softly, his fingers returning to her forehead, hoping her could lull her for her own sake even though he'd be lonely again when she drifted off. Silence fell between them, the soft sound of an old song on the radio making him close his eyes as well. He forced himself to relax and was soon beginning to drift off until a flash of light across his eyelids startled him, Johanna flinching beside him and bolting upright.

"Oh thank God," she exclaimed as he opened his eyes and found the room illuminated by the lamp that had been on the night before.

Jim blinked a few times, afraid that they might be dreaming. "Finally," he muttered.

"After twenty-five hours, we now have a full restoration of power," the announcer on the radio declared.

"That was the longest twenty-five hours of my life," Johanna declared as she got up and went to the television to plug it in.

"And the first thing you're going for is the TV instead of the fan," Jim said with a laugh.

"I'm sick of that damn radio, Jim," she declared as she turned the Tv on before moving to the fan and clicking it on.

"I'm tired of being hot," he stated. "I don't know if we should be turning the air conditioner on at the moment, but I am."

"If we end up in the dark again because of it, I'm going to punch you," Johanna stated.

"I'm willing to take that risk," Jim replied as he got up from the mattress and went to the air conditioner, plugging it back in and clicking it on before closing the other window.

"I guess I should check and see if the fridge clicked on even though the food is a loss now."

"Good idea," he told her. "If it's on, hurry up and fill up the ice cube trays and get them in the freezer."

Johanna hurried off to the kitchen, breathing a sigh of relief as she heard the soft hum of the refrigerator. She quickly filled the ice cube trays and put them in the freezer before she glanced at the window over the sink, seeing the glow of the streetlight and dots of light in the building across the street. Relief filled her and she moved away, making the trek back to the living room where Jim had turned off the radio. She went to the couch, kneeling on the cushion so that she could peer out the window that didn't hold the air conditioner. She could see the familiar shadows of her city bathed in the glow of streetlights. Jim leaned in, looking over her shoulder.

"I've never been so happy to see a streetlight in my life," he declared.

"You and me both," she replied. "Thank God this nightmare is over."

"I agree…we don't have many channels back yet on the TV, but we can at least watch the news."

Johanna nodded. "Tonight, I'm even happy to watch the news."

Jim pressed a kiss to her head. "We can breathe now, sweetheart."

She settled back against him. "Finally…I'm just thankful you were here. I wouldn't have wanted either one of us to be alone during this."

"If I hadn't been here, I would've gotten here, Jo," he said quietly. "Don't you doubt that…I would've gotten here one way or another."

"I don't doubt you…but I'm glad that in a few weeks, we'll be married and under the same roof permanently."

"I'm glad too…I'm also glad this didn't happen the night before our wedding."

"Oh God, don't even put that out there in the universe," Johanna said as she moved away from the window. "We don't want to tempt fate."

Jim laughed. "Don't worry, I'm sure they'll keep everything running for sure now; they don't want to add to the possible lawsuits."

"Just the same, let's not put those bad vibes in the air."

"My lips are sealed," he replied as he settled down on the couch with her. "Maybe we can get some sleep tonight."

"I hope so…because tomorrow we start throwing out the groceries, checking on your place and hopefully finding a decent meal."

"We'll get it all done," he promised.

Johanna curled into his side, thankful that the worst was over that they had come out of it hungry and hot, but largely unscathed compared to some of the images on her TV screen.