FicWad

Chapter 1



It was becoming dark outside. The usual lazy breeze was now building to a hard, gruelling wind, complete with pellets of unwanted rain. The strange howling gusts blew and the old Victorian-style house shook; the pale blue shutters creaked gently, the noise made her glance up from her place on the chair in front of the fire. Ever since she was little she had hated this house. People often wondered why she stayed out all night in an effort to not go home. "Because I can't," she told them with a begrudging look, then whispered quietly, "I can't ever go back there."
She shook her head, fell out of her reverie and threw the book she'd been holding into the cardboard box stationed to her right. She put out the fire and picked up the box. Her skin prickled and she whirled around, the heavy object hit the ground, and the books and other things spilled to the floor. She blinked a few times and snarled, "What the hell are you doing here?"
He smiled kindly at her and brushed his brown hair out of his eyes. "I saw the lights on. Are you alright?" He bent down, and without her premission picked up the books. "You shouldn't be here alone at night. I thought you didn't want to come back?" He sounded bemused.
"I didn't," she replied quietly. "I just needed to get more things." She gestured to the pile of reading material underneath his arm.
"These?" He tilted his head gingerly and grinned at her.
"I got them when I was in the hospital," she admitted and he blinked at her.
"When were you hospitalized, Sarah?"
"It's a long story," she frowned and felt the twinge start in her right temple, a bad sign. Quickly she sunk down on the couch and laid back. "and it's complicated. You'd never believe it." And the truth was that no one did. This house was a reminder of what happened and why.
"Try me," Jamie's eyes lingered on her still frame momentarily.
"No." Her eyes flickered slightly and she stood, moved around the coffee table, and headed into the hallway. He followed her and found that she was standing in the kitchen, her back firmly against the sink and she was breathing lightly, her hands were noticably trembling.
"I'm sorry, I didn't mean to upset you." He reached out and touched a strand of dyed red hair, it slipped through his fingers and the original brown could be seen as she moved into the light. His arms encircled her waist and he brought her close, his sapphire eyes gentle as he laid his head against her shoulder. "It'll be okay, I promise." Promises are meant to be broken don't you know that? She felt her feet move unconsciously until she was pressed up against him. Her arms instinctively draped around his back as he embraced her.
"You can't know that," she blinked at him before wriggling from of his grasp and stepping back out into the hall; it was lit with a small amount of moonlight as she moved cautiously down it and into one of the bedrooms to the left. She opened the door quietly and slipped inside. "You don't know the whole story."
He came and wrapped his arms around her middle. "Then, why won't you tell me?" She watched his eyes flicker slightly as he cupped her cheek abruptly and ran his thumb along her jawline. "I'm never going to judge you. I already know how your mind works, remember? We've been friends forever." He smiled warmly and held her tighter. "What are you doing in here anyway?" He looked around at the near-empty room and tilted his head so that his long brown hair fell into his eyes.
"I don't know," she replied honestly. It took everything she had not to completely break down and crumble against him. "I used to come here when I was younger and she would hold me if I was afraid. But now..." her eyes glistened and she shook her head. "I can't even remember her." Her voice was that of a strangled crying whisper as she stood by the old rickety window and looked out at the low-hanging moon. "She's been gone for seven years and I can't remember her. What kind of a daughter could possibly forget their mother?" She looked pointedly at him and he reached out but she jerked away.
"It isn't as if you meant to forget." He replied softly as he looked at the hard wood floor, very much averting her gaze. He pressed his hand to his forehead abruptly before continuing in a morose tone, "You just...well..." She just what? He watched curiously as her body stiffened as she leaned into the sill, forcing her eyes shut. "Sarah," his voice was suddenly edgy. "what exactly happened to your mother?"

*

With the curtains drawn down low so that no one would ever be able to glimpse in, she worked. Her bruised fingers moved at a steady pace and the ring on her right hand clanked against the table. Someone rapped on the door down the hall. "Shit," she murmured tentatively and stood, her long skirt trailing behind in her wake as she pulled the door open. "How did you find me?" He stepped over the threshold and she glared.
He took off his hat, squeezed his long hair free of water, smiled and said, "I've just come from the meeting with the Beck's daughter," he moved further inside as a clap of thunder broke the restless night. "She talked nicely to me after I kicked Reid out on his ass. I'm not trying to blur her objective if that's what you're thinking. She needs to understand and that's damn difficult because she's refusing to open up. I know that she's aware of why we have been swarming her for nearly two months, but she's so stubborn."
"She's still a child, give her time." She placed a pot on the stove and sat down on the couch near the door. He followed and as he leaned back and took off his jacket she saw the grisly looking mark on his arm. She peered at it momentarily.
"Reid...he was bothered by the fact that I let him know how much Sarah, I mean, Miss Beck was annoyed about him trying to intimidate her. Why are you looking at me like that?"
The girl smiled and pushed her long black hair out of her eyes, the purple streak on the right side catching the light in the room. "Because you're lying through your fucking teeth. We both know where the wound came from, don't we, Jin?"
"Tomiko," he pleaded lightly and glared at her. "It's not as if it's a bad thing. It's just..."
"Just what?" She studied him carefully. They had been anything but friends for months and he was still trying to hide this from her. He'd befriended her when she moved here. He'd always been there for her, he had even been around when her defenses broke and she revealed a terrible secret that had been haunting her for years. "Come on, you know I know what's going on, don't you trust me anymore?"
"It isn't that," his gaze said more then he was letting on. His eyes. She'd always liked that light blue and the pieces of silver in them. Her mouth curled and she let her fingers twitch against the pillow beside her. "you shouldn't be around me, it's not safe." He muttered at once and tried desperately to drown out the hurt in her voice. He felt the tiny hairs on the back of his neck stand up and he shivered.
"Not safe? You sure fooled me by coming here the other night. You wanted to talk, we talked, among some other things, and then you left. You show up now with word that you've seen another woman, but not just any woman, the one you've been searching for all these years. The one that-" his mouth crashed against hers at once, whether it was the means to stop her ranting or the longing to destroy the tingling deep down in his bones, he didn't know. Her mouth was warm on his as he bit her lower lip, his hands slid to her waist, her own draped lazily around his neck. He heard her moan reluctantly as he allowed his fingers to gently run along her hipbone. How well he knew the spots, the places that made her bend to his will, the places no one else could ever release. He smiled against her and she pulled back, flushed and looking not at all like her normal self; her long hair was slightly disheveled and her eyes were wide, obviously she hadn't expected this at all.
"You would have stopped that sooner if you didn't feel protected with me." He smirked and removed his glasses, setting them down on the table, he looked back at her and she looked away, a slow color rising in her cheeks. "I don't like playing games, unless this little plot entails more then I think," she was very aware of his tone, it got that way when he really wanted answers. "Then I'll give in. But if it's just a ploy to bed a cop, I won't comply. I know coming here the other night was rash but I had to talk with you. I never said what I wanted to because you somehow mistook my hug for something more and you shoved me back, remember?" he found her eyes on his bruised arm and she swallowed. "You were so angry and I hadn't done anything. As I left here, I wondered what could have possibly stirred that type of reaction from my embrace. So I did a little background check," at this, she froze and her eyes hardened, as he expected. "and you've got some guts hiding this from me, don't you think?"
"You weren't supposed to know," she muttered quietly, her hands curled in her lap, her eyes starting to blur at the sound of her own anguished voice. She sounded like her mother, those words, those actions, were in fact Aiko's characteristics. She paused in mid-thought to investigate that silently. She did not see how she could have known that about her mother. "that my mother died when I was seven. I never wanted people to know that." She was the only one to know what really took place.
"That's not what I'm refering to," replied the man swiftly. He tilted his head to catch her expression. "I was talking about what we found when we dug deeper, Tomiko. Do you recall the incident that happened three years ago?" He sat very still, looking at her with a sort of calm gaze. He always thought he knew her well, considerably, since she moved here one year ago.
"You came here to interrogate me, you bastard?" the fire in her eyes was getting stronger. Abruptly she raised her hand and he watched the tips of her nails, at first he thought they might be lit from the lamp beside them, but then he realized that it was something more. "You should leave, I do not like feeling threatened." There was a twitch in her finger and it sparked. "I will not ask you again."
"Shit, this is too much." he murmured before bowing his head and hearing the crashing noise beside him. "You have to stop whatever you're doing, please!" He dove for cover as the lamp beside her was hurled into the wall behind him. He was crouched under the kitchen table, very suave indeed. "This is what I wanted to discuss! We found out about your mother's ability!" Everything was quiet now. He peered around at the scene in front of him; the house looked as if it had been damaged by a wild animal, the chairs and dishes were lying broken and the television had been smashed. The girl was standing the the middle of the wreckage with a wry smile. "Tomiko?" Jin's voice was noticably weak. He had never witnessed anything like this before. He softly sidestepped the ruined objects and made his way towards her. That's when he noticed her cloak, it billowed around her ankles and he watched her hair wrap around her neck and shoulders as if an invisible wind had crept into the room, he felt nothing. "Tomiko." he said more sternly. Finally she moved her head slowly towards him to allow him to see her eyes, they were a different shade of green now. "Are you alright?"
"What are you doing here? What happened?" she was looking at him strangely. He knew why within seconds. "Who are you?"
"I-My name is Jin Delaney and I'm a friend of yours," this was ridiculous. "I heard you're not feeling too well, Miss Kashino." He mentally cursed himself for being so formal with her.
"Do I know you?" her eyes were starting to glaze over, he knew what that meant. He let his hands hang at his sides. "There's blood on my hands," she murmured and stared at them. He followed and saw nothing on her skin. "Did I hurt someone?"
"Only a bit," he whispered. "Will you come with me, please?"
"I can't. I have to stay. He's coming soon." She smiled at him tiredly and suddenly pitched forward, he caught her easily and sat with her against the wall, his fingers stroking her hair gently. Who was the person she was talking about?
"Oh, I hope she didn't break my glasses," he smiled contently as she lay against him, breathing, alive, and from the conclusion he had just drawn, in serious danger.