Outwitting the Fox Ch. 04

"There is an awful lot we don't know about this situation, and now that I'm about to add a child into the mix I suddenly find myself motivated to figure out exactly where all the chips lie - call it my nesting impulses kicking in."

Rider picked up where she had left off.

"We've been in contact with Jeremy Madox who has been in Aruba, in contact with the royal family for the past two years. He has his fingers in a lot of pies, and yet he hasn't heard Alexia mentioned anywhere. We're assuming, until we hear differently, that the Devon's are happy to let sleeping dogs lie.

"The Changers Council on the other hand: they're the one's we're worried about. They're more dangerous for the mere fact that they're closer. The Council is the real power here - the royal family are pretty much their hand puppets.

"What we do know is that the Council has taken steps to shore up support for the Devon family by executing the remaining Theris bloodline. Marcus has confirmed that Alexia wasn't included in that particular headhunt.

"We don't know for sure why, but there is strong evidence that they simply didn't know where she was. I lived with the royal family in Aruba. No one spoke about Alexia, and when they did the general consensus was that she had most likely already been executed by the King. No one has heard a thing about her or her location since the day her parentage came to light.

"We also know that someone - if not the Council - has been looking for her. Last week the witch who has been looking after Jeremy's property in Fern reported that a female wolf breached her wards. The wolf didn't get into the house, but she got close enough to realise that Alexia, Jeremy and I were no longer living there."

Alexia took over again. "So we know someone is probably trying to track me down. We just don't know who, why, or how close they are. That's one too many unanswered questions for my comfort.

"I think we need to lock down the security in a big way. I want a more secure perimeter around the house and surrounding woods. It's way too easy to get into the house without being detected. I'm open to suggestions on how that should happen, because I have no idea on how to lock down over 30 acres of open wood."

Rider spoke up again. "I want every single person in this house to brush up in a big way on hand to hand and weapons. Sabeen, if you're not too busy I'd like you to organise hand to hand. I'd like to see a couple of sessions a week, with everyone who feels qualified taking a turn at leading a couple. Jess, could you please work on the weapons. Make sure everyone has up to date licensing, and that nobody is going to shoot something they shouldn't."

When Sabeen and Jess nodded in agreement Gabriel took over. "My rules about loaded guns in the house stay in place however. It's just too dangerous."

Guns made him a little unwary, especially after Max had been shot a couple of years ago.

"Also I've decided to shift the operational section of the office into town. Allowing strangers and clients to come into the house with little to no security clearance is asking for trouble. Rob has agreed to manage client meetings, and Ginny and Sarah will move to full time employment as investigators there." The two stoats nodded in agreement.

"Rob will pass on jobs to me, and we'll organise and run them from the house, as per usual. For obvious reasons we won't be taking on anything big until further notice. We'll be focusing on small jobs with existing clients, and at no point will the house, or Alexia, be left unattended." Gabriel took a good look around the room making sure everyone understood his meaning.

After a few more minutes (hours) of (boring as hell) discussion the meeting finally wound to a close and took on a more social tone. Jess nearly didn't notice the change in tone because for the last half hour she had been staring at the wall across the room and trying her best to screen out the scent of Finn lounging casually in his chair next to her.

Every so often his knee would brush hers, and she'd jerk her legs away from him.

The minute she realised she was free Jess lurched to her feet and headed to the door. Freedom!

She could go have a shower and then crawl back into bed.

"Jess, wait." Finn called after her.

Ignoring him she carried on walking.

"Jess, stop, we need to talk about this." Finn ran after her, catching her arm, and steering her towards the stairs and his room.

Back in the office the rest of the team stared after them in confusion - except for Marcus who did his best to look extremely interested in his glass of water.

Gabriel had a nasty feeling in the pit of his stomach. Finn and Jess? Finn had better not have done something stupid to his fox. Jess was much too good to be with a guy that didn't appreciate her - and if Finn made her cry then Gabriel would have to beat him up.

***

Jess scowled as Finn herded her into his room. Great. He wanted to chat. And he was in her personal space.

"Where have you been all day anyway?" He asked as he nudged his door shut with his heel.

And now she was in his room again, alone with him again. She really had to work on those graceful exits.

"I've been sleeping."

"Ah. Lazy, Jess, what about all that work Gabriel's paying you to do?" Making it clear he was teasing with a wink.

"Oh he doesn't actually pay me, he just throws a plate of gruel into my workshop every so often." She said with forced lightness.

"Is it just me or is the easy banter thing not happening quite so easily today as it usually does?"

Jess opted for silence. Of course the banter thing wasn't as easy as it usually was. Sleeping with Finn had changed pretty much everything.

Unfortunately back when she was just pretending to be his friend she knew exactly how to gossip, and joke around with him, now she didn't quite know how to act. At least Finn seemed to be having the same problem. Aside from him steering her into his room he hadn't tried to touch her yet.

"So Alexia's pregnant then..." He said uneasily.

"Yup. She's all grown up and procreating." Jess replied

"Rider's over the moon. He would have been doing cartwheels."

"I think the only reason he didn't was because it would have killed his tough guy act. Also Alexia would have thrown a whole heap more than just a ham sandwich at him for it." Jess didn't have to force the grin that came at the thought of her ham sandwich sailing towards Rider's face.

"Funny how they're both positive it's a girl."

"I really don't think Violet's such an awful name. Alexia made it sound like he wanted to call her Wasabi or Dogtech or something really disturbing, like Edith."

Rider sprawled on his bed, finally relaxing. They could do this. They were friends first and foremost after all. Jess seemed to agree with him, she took a seat on the bed next to him.

He did have an armchair in the room somewhere, but it was always overflowing with a mixture of clean and dirty washing - and everyone knew that you didn't go rooting through a guy's dirty washing pile without rubber gloves. So the bed it was.

"Edith isn't so bad. Spoon would have been interesting." Finn said.

"Or Apricot."

"Television." The wolf chuckled.

"Heyleeh, or something nice and white trash, involving lots of unnecessary vowels." Jess said giggling a little.

"I personally will be naming my first-born Spork." Finn said with a completely straight face.

Jess went still beside him on the bed. That may come about a lot sooner than he'd planned. A wave of nausea rolled over her.

Noticing the change in her expression he sat up gracefully. "I'm joking. I'm not really looking at cubs of my own at this stage, but if that changes I'll go for something classic and strong. Like Serpent. Or Death-Metal."

"Good choice. I prefer Serpent to Death-Metal to be honest, but that's entirely up to you."

Was it just her or was the room suddenly warm as hell? And not in a good way. Nausea, hot flashes... They meant nothing of course. Because Jess was NOT having babies, and definitely not with Finn, that was for sure.

Jess moved to stand up.

Finn stopped himself from roping his arms around her waist and dragging her back onto the bed like he usually would have. Instead he grabbed her arm imploringly.

"Wait. Jess, I need to apologise. When I was talking to Marcus before, you didn't hear what you think you heard. Well, you did hear it, but that's not what I was saying."

"So what I heard you saying wasn't what you were saying?" Jess was dubious, but she stayed sitting.

Finn grinned. "Exactly. What I was trying to say was that I really like being friends with you, and that I just didn't want that to change. Of course, we all know I'd be lying if I said that sleeping with you wasn't amazing, so I don't want that to change either..." He creased his brow. This wasn't coming out the way he wanted it to.

"So what you're saying, Finn, is that you just want to be friends with me, but you want to have sex with me too?"

"Yes! I knew you'd understand." He said, relieved.

"Right. You want a Fuck Buddy."

For the first time Finn noticed the dangerous spark in Jess's eyes.

"I'm not comfortable with that terminology... I just don't want anything to change. I'm enjoying our friendship. I don't want to give it up."

"No, Finn, What you want is to have your cake and eat it too. Trust me though, when I tell you that that was the last slice of cake you'll be getting from me."

"What? Why? What we've got is pretty great!" Finn nudged her shoulder with his own.

When she didn't look up and meet his eyes he took hold of her chin and turned her face towards him. Jess took a good long look into his eyes. They were warm and friendly, like they always were. Her breath caught in her chest and it felt like her heart skipped a beat.

Finn blinked and the spell was broken. She couldn't keep doing this to herself. Jess knocked his hand aside and stood up away the bed. Perhaps she should just come clean. It would be embarrassing, but at least they'd both know the truth.

"Listen, I'm sorry, but I can't do what you want. It would destroy my emotional stability. That's why I shouldn't have slept with you in the first place. I've got feelings for you Finn. I can't just sleep with you - I want the whole deal. I'm too far gone on the whole crush thing to just settle for sex with someone who wants to stay friends."

Finn stared at her for a moment. She had feelings for him? Big feelings?

"Listen, I'm not trying to insult you or anything I'm just not looking for a relationship." Finn heard himself say.

He was almost sure he meant it.

"Yeah, it's too late. I'm pretty much already insulted. I think it would be a really good idea for me to go now Finn." Jess sighed.

She let herself out of the room, and headed across the hall to her own. That was pretty brutal. He really had no interest in having a relationship with her? She was willing to break the rules for him too. That didn't happen every day.

She slipped out of the clothes she'd thrown on for Alexia's meeting, and crawled back into bed. She wasn't distraught or anything. Just disappointed - she'd known he wouldn't go for it, but it wasn't nice to have it confirmed.

She was pretty sure the dull ache in her throat, and the tears that wouldn't seem to stop, would go away after a few hours sleep. If she was sleeping she wouldn't have to be awake and thinking about Finn, and his stupid eyes, and his stupid grin, and his stupid hair, and the stupid way he cuddled her. Like a friend.

Stupid, stupid, stupid...