I awoke on a table. Not the best way to awaken, let me tell you. More so when you instantly try and sit up fast because you think you're still in mortal combat with a crazy Russian maniac in a college classroom.
"Easy, Jericho." Chloe said, placing her hands firmly on my bare chest to keep me from sitting up. "Be still, please. You're not ready to move yet."
The room we were in would've been pitch black if not for the only lamp across the room on the wall. I noticed that it flickered at times, as if the wiring wasn't the best or that it was old.
Then I noticed Chloe's hands still on my chest.
"Where are we?" I groaned, allowing her to push me back down on the table, that I realized was actually a hospital gurney. Chloe was sitting beside the uncomfortable bed and kind of close, really, but since I felt like I’d almost died I let it slide.
"Flagstaff," she said, removing her cool hands from me and placing her arms on the side of the gurney, the black sleeves of her jumpsuit barely grazing my right arm.
"Okay, when are we?" I asked, closing my eyes because leaving them open was giving me a headache.
"2342," She said quietly.
I opened one eye, looking at her with it, "The year I die?"
"Jericho, this is where Klaus went. We had to follow him," Chloe said, standing so I could see her face better. "I don't know what's going to happen to us but I'm just glad that you're... you didn't..."
She was trying to look around the dimly lit room and not at me, which I was guessing was her way of not crying, a method that wasn't working at all because a tear escaped and landed on my shoulder.
"Cold hands and warm tears. Where do I sign up?"
Chloe glared at me, more tears streaming. "Will you please just try and be serious? I thought you were dead."
I sat up slowly, my face level with her glaring one due to the tall gurney of which I was residing.
Har har har. Like the way I just worded that?
"I don't know, Chloe. Since I might be dead some time soon I'd rather not be too serious. Might miss something," I said, trying to swing my legs off the gurney, except my right leg was strapped to the confounded thing.
"Say, Chloe?" I asked, frowning at... what the heck was that thing? "What's, uh, messing with my leg?"
It looked like a robot hand that was hooked to something that extended from the darkened ceiling. "It's fixing your leg. When it's done you'll be as good as new." Chloe said, glancing up at the arms base. "Except this is a rather old model and that's why it's taking twice as long. It's the only one the Rebels had."
"So we're Rebels, now? Sweet," I said, flopping back onto the ragid gurney. "How'd we end up here, anyway?"
Chloe sat back down and explained what had happened after I'd passed out in my classroom. Evonne had left for a hospital ASAP once he'd exited the room, loping down the hallway while carrying Louise.
"Was she alright?" I asked.
Chloe shrugged one shoulder slowly and shook her head. “We didn't stay around long enough to follow up. The gunfire had attracted the authorities and all we could do was use the gauntlet and follow Klaus."
Piper.
"Where is Piper?" I asked, too fast, maybe.
Chloe's face was impossible to read as she said, "Sleeping." She went on to explain we'd landed in the heart of Flagstaff after the jump and Klaus was waiting with a few guns. "We ran for a while before going into an access tunnel to the underground. I ended up having to self-destruct the Dragonov and seal us in to get away from them."
"So when did we turn Rebel?"
"They found us after an hour of wandering the tunnels. Things have changed in the past two years, Jericho. The Rebels aren't just flies to the Bears anymore, they're actually in the war now." Chloe seemed bothered by this so I decided a change of subject was in order.
"I'm guessing you were the one carrying me the whole time the two of you were running for your lives," I said, taking her hand. "Listen, Chloe, I know our relationship hasn't been the best ride so far but for what its worth, I'm glad you didn't leave me to die in my own classroom."
Chloe looked incredulous. "How could I have left you?" She asked in a sort of quavering voice, placing a hand on the side of my face.
What was she doing?
"I don't know," I said, rolling my eyes around in animated thought. "I suppose if the sight of blood was your Achilles--"
Then she smothered my lips with hers.
In case you love every word that I say and would hate to miss out on hearing me say one-
I was about to say heel.
The kiss was, well, to put it way mildly, unexpected. I felt like an idiot because my eyes were open and I could see that hers weren't. The kiss wasn't exactly a fun one nor was it a spontaneous passionate one.
It was almost a harsh, hungry, needy type of kiss. Like, to the point of if she hadn't kissed me she might have died.
"I'm glad you're feeling better," A female voice said and the kiss ended abruptly and Chloe instantly stepped away from the gurney.
It was Piper, standing at the entry way to the medical room, which, now that I looked, didn't exactly have a door to it.
Geez. Why do these things happen to me?
Not only did I have to deal with the fact of my untimely death looming over my head and possibly around the next corner but I also had to deal with a love triangle.
"Why did you do that?" Piper asked Chloe, who couldn't face her for some reason.
Hm. Maybe since Piper knew that she had kissed me then it wasn't a triangle after all...
"Because I think I love him," Chloe said.
...Nope. Definitely a love triangle if I've ever saw one.
And you didn't think that this tale could get any worse, now did you, whoever-you-are?
Yeah. Me neither.
"Here's a great idea," I said, sitting back up with much effort, "Why don't we put this little awkward conversation on hold and resume it after we save the world?"
"You think?" Piper said, her arms crossed while she completely ignored my idea and me as well, actually.
Chloe turned then, facing Piper. "What do you want me to say?"
Piper shrugged. "I just thought that if you planned on taking him from me you should at least know for sure," she said, her voice low and almost menacing.
"I wasn’t planning on taking him," Chloe said, crossing her arms. Piper’s face was a tad vague when she studdied the Russian girl. I had a sudden vision of the two of them entangled in a ball of claws and hair on the floor and panicked.
“Say, guys,” I tried again, “Can’t we just talk about this?”
Before anyone could say another word the machine above me beeped loud twice and the restraints on my leg unclasped, making a hissing sound. “It’s finished,” Chloe said, “Try and walk.”
Swinging my legs off the gurney, I lowered my bare feet to the freezing stone floor. “Wow, that’s cold,” I muttered before attempting my first steps on my patched up leg. “Freakin’ amazing…” I said while I walked around the room, “It isn’t even sore, or anything. You guys don’t happen to have a pill that can cure Alzheimer’s by any chance, would you?”
“So you wanted her to kiss you?” Piper asked then, totally oblivious to the fact that I was a walking miracle.
“Of course not,” I said, all confident and stuff, too.
“You weren’t exactly pulling away,” Chloe threw in, leaning against the concrete wall of the small room.
“That’s the most unfair statement ever, Chloe, and you know it,” I said, glaring at her. “And it was, like, literally two seconds long. A motherly peck, at best.”
“If you kissed your mother that way where I come from my people would have your tongue and entrails out and string them on a pole.” Piper said.
“Okay, I think we’re losing sight of the fact that Chloe initiated the whole kiss, here…”
“And I think you’re losing sight of the fact that you need to get your act together and just pick one of us,
for Odin’s sake, if that's what it takes,” said Piper, backing toward the exit. “I’m not angry at anyone. I just wish you’d make a choice, Jericho.” Then she was gone with Chloe right behind her.
What the helheim had just happened?
“I could die today,” I yelled after them while standing there like an idiot. “Thanks for not freaking out about that and totally making me even more stressed about my untimely, imminent demise, people.” I shouted.
They didn’t answer. Which was completely fine because I wasn’t sure that I wanted them to rush back in and be all like, “Oh, Jericho, I’m so sorry that I forgot today was your un-birthday.”
Yeah, that would’ve been awkward and maybe even a tad horrifying, too, depending on if they both got on their knees and clasped their hands together like lost orphans.
And what was with Chloe just leaving? I mean, we'd kind of already been caught red lipped, as it were. Her staying and saying something like "Sorry for ruining your life again" wouldn't have been that big of a deal.
I stayed in the room as long as I could, pacing mostly and trying to get the Andy Griffith theme out of my head so it wouldn’t be the last bit of music on my mind before I died. But since I didn’t have any other reason to stay there, except, you know, to not die, I walked out the doorway.
My mind was reeling with thoughts of death while I walked down the dimly lit hallway and how I hoped it wasn’t like the movie-that-I’m-not-going-to-mention-the-name-of-because-copyrights-to-it-are-most-likely-very-expensive, because in that death-related film, teenagers escaped one death only to fall prey to another more gruesome fate.
I was glad the hallway wasn’t too long because it was kind of creepy. Pushing through the only door at the end of the creepy hall, I was blinded.
Shielding my eyes, I waited until they adjusted to the brightness before removing my hands. Then my mouth dropped open.
It was the largest weapons mass production site I’d ever seen. The brightness, however, came from enormous floodlights that bordered the operation. “Dude…” I muttered, still blinking at the lights as I walked down the iron catwalk and took in the Rebels while they worked. I passed everything from rifle assembly lines to sites dedicated to the construction of gigantic mechs. Ahead I saw Chloe and Piper leaning on the railing and watching some sweaty workmen below attach a long barreled cannon of some kind to the back of a tall black suit as they chatted away with a few official looking guys standing next to them. Even feral Rebels had to have someone in charge, I guess, was what I was thinking when I approached them.
“The miracle man lives,” said one of the guys who looked a few years older than me. “Thank whatever god you pray to that these ladies saved your life, friend.” The other of the two chuckled.
“Wow,” I told them. “Now I can finally tell the Black Eyed Peas just where the love has gone." I outstretched my arms to the closest of them, "I think a hug is in order because of this great find. Ferg will love me forever for this."
"Don't take it, Jax," Piper said without taking her eyes off the weapon construction. "He might decide to hug Kristoff after he has given you one."
I stared at the side of her head in disbelief before saying, and only because I couldn't think of anything else clever to say, "I went on a three week fishing trip with you, woman. You haven't deduced at all that I really like being around you?"
"Yes, it was the most wonderful three weeks of my life," she said, turning her head to glance at me. "Then I saw you kiss someone else and it kind of stole the thunder from our little outing."
"Whoa, whoa," I started, pointing at her for some reason, "First off, you totally got the thunder saying from me. And I--"
I was about to delve into a long (well, not that long considering Chloe had just put the moves on me a few minutes ago) story about how Chloe had just put the moves on me a few minutes ago...
Bah. Now I'm repeating myself. Stupid chicks.
Okay.
Breath in, breathe out.
Wow. That was really relaxing. Now, where was I, exactly?
Oh yeah, me trying to defend myself in the whole kissing thing.
"Jax, Kristoff," I said, nodding to each of them as I said their names. "I know we're all probably about to go somewhere unsafe and die for our country, or whatever, but could the two of you just, like, I don't know, go away for a few minutes, or something?"
They looked incredulous, behooved, put off and frankly not to happy with me right then and both looked to Chloe for- I'm not sure. Approval?
"Leave," Was all Chloe said and the two lapdogs left without another word.
I frowned after them. "And you're calling the shots why?" I asked Chloe.
"I'm not really sure. I guess because I'm helping them break into Klaus's facility tonight," she said, turning her back to the weapons and workers, leaning her elbows against the catwalk rail. "So what's up?"
"You're a thorn in the side of the romance Piper and I share and I wish you wouldn't have kissed me, replacing said thorn with a molten katana filled with the souls of Romeo, Juliet and the Baudelaire children." Is what I should've said. But, being the charmer that I am, I, respectfully, or course, worded that bomb of truth a completely different way, as to soften the blow of me not being hers, if you will. I didn't get all romantic of stupid, or anything. I actually just ended up throwing the honest-to-God truth out there to see what would happen.
"Do either of you know just how crazy this whole thing is?" I started, looking at them. "We're all from different times and by everything remotely natural we shouldn't even know each other- much less have to fight over each other."
"I'm not fighting over anyone," Chloe said confidently.
Scoffing quietly, Piper glanced down the catwalk. "Could've fooled me."
Chloe faced her and glared but didn't say anything. There really wasn't much to say.
Can you feel the awkwardness just by my retelling of this part? Because my hands are sweating again on my end. Awkward doesn't even begin to describe it, actually.
"Seriously, guys," I began again. "The end is extremely freakin' nigh and we're acting like eigth-graders."
I didn't feel the need to tell them I was eight when I was in the eighth grade but I can assure you that, although all thoughts of women weren't exactly there then, I did mentally document all of my fellow classmates acting like idiots about things that could've waited till at least summer.
"My heart has been yours since the first day you came to our village," Piper said suddenly, throwing me, and Chloe too, I could tell, for a loop. "I don't have to defend myself or make excuses, Jericho. I know who I am and what I want. And I want you."
Countless years of cinema will ruin a guy with romance, let me tell you. I mean, generally love isn't laid out so simply in films and books and after that day I could see why. Once you take away all the bells and whistles it wasn't that complicated.
To Piper, anyway. "You two should talk. Come find me when you're ready to go save the world," Piper said, walking down the catwalk.
"Piper-" I tried to say but she just held up a hand and kept walking.
I thought it'd be a little less awkward for Piper to be gone but she wasn't forty feet away before I could tell that it was going to be just as uncomfortable a talk as ever.
"I didn't love you the first time I met you," Chloe kind of blurted, like the words had been dying to get out.
"Well, you were trying to kill me then," I decided to remind her. "So we're one Piper, zero Chloe now."
"You didn't give me many reasons to even like you then." She said, turning back to the workers below us.
"And I've given you so many since?" My mind was reeling and I just wanted to go back to bed.
Look, whoever-you-are, you wanted to hear this whole story so you better just take the funny awesome action with the horrible awkwardness, capisce? I wasn't having the best time myself, in case you were wondering.
"You have," she said, keeping her eyes on the construction below us.
"Somehow I feel that the glove was always meant for you, Jericho. I keep wanting to think that you're helping me save my father and the world. But the closer we get to our goal I keep realizing that I'm the one helping you." Turning to me she stepped close, touching my arm. Geez, but she was touchy feely today. "You've already saved me countless times--"
"You've saved me plenty of times. And one of mine doesn't count because technically Piper saved you on Svalbard," I countered, trying not to step away from her as she advanced again.
"I don't want to spend another day without you, Jericho."
Wait.
What?
"I'm not sure I'm following you," I said as she planted a peck on my jawline, which made my mind freeze, but not in the whole googly-eyed lovey-dovey freezing way you're thinking.
Something wasn't right.
Placing my hands firmly on her shoulders, I softly pushed her away and looked deep into those beautiful eyes of hers. The ones I'd caught myself staring at for the past week that felt like an eternity. The very eyes that made me melt at the times when they weren't glaring.
Except this time, after I stared at her in silence for close to twenty seconds, they looked different when the girl smiled at me.
"Who are you and what have you done with Chloe?" I said quietly, absentmindedly releasing her and slowly lowering my arms.
I couldn't believe what I was seeing.
"You're not as dumb as I first thought although it did take you longer than I would've thought someone who knew my sister well enough should have," she said, stepping close to me again and bringing her lips close to my ear.
Then she said, "It's a pleasure to meet you, cutie. My name is Beck."
Chapter 34