Participants:
| Scene Title | I Want To Know |
|---|---|
| Synopsis | After eleven years apart, Delia asks the rough question no man wants to hear. |
| Date | September 20, 2010 |
Gun Hill — Ryans Apartment
When the first few rays of the morning pass through the bedroom window, it's met with the low groan of frustration and the curl of the tall redhead's form into the one sharing her bed. She's stayed up with him almost all night, trying to ease his pain and keep his sleep restful.
Delia shifts her head, the aroma of sandalwood and cinnamon causing her to take a deep breath and let out a sigh before she finally opens her eyes. They flutter open fairly quickly, as though she can't really believe what she's seeing. She felt him, she smelled him, now she's seeing him there but it's all fairly surreal. Mostly because of the fact that her father hasn't let out any roars of anger.
Lifting her head, she brushes one hand over Jaiden's forehead, feeling for a temperature before she smiles at him. "Good morning, how are you feeling?" Her voice is a little low and husky for the morning, probably because she just woke up. He's still in his clothes, she's in the shirt he gave her and not much else.
Well, he's still in his clothes, more or less. Shoes were kicked off at some point in the evening to thud noisily to the floor, and his shirt - what there was left of it - is in the wastepaper basket by the door, the blood now a dingy brown instead of the bright red that it was. His shoulder is wrapped tightly in a mass of bandages, a faint tinge of red showing where his shifting in the night caused him to start bleeding slightly.
Still, he's woken in far, far worse places and with far less pleasant companions.
"mmmph." Jaiden groans, one olive eye opening, barely more than a slit, blinking away the sleep as he shifts, making sure to keep his right arm from moving too much. "Okay, I guess….a little sore thanks to the shoulder. Thirsty too." His head turns slightly, brows arching at the sight of her in the shirt he gave her, left hand coming up to muzzle her hair. "I dreamt of you, you know. You were there, after all."
"I didn't want to intrude, I was just trying to keep the bad dreams away. So you could have a good night's sleep." Delia admits softly as she rests her hand on his chest and brushes her nose against the side of his neck. She lays with him for another moment or two before lifting her head up and again and letting loose a long sigh. "I'm usually better about getting up than this, I promise."
Whether or not he needed the excuse is moot because the redhead slowly sits up and stretches out her arms in a windmill. The little moan that goes along with it is another protest at the early hour, but nothing too verbal. "You stay right there, I'm going to get you some water." Finally after a good stretch, she crawls over the Australian and comes to a stand on the floor. "Then we're going to take another look at your shoulder and redo that bandage."
She doesn't have a housecoat, so she peeks out of her bedroom and then jogs out to the kitchen. A half a minute later, she's back with a glass of water and sitting beside him on the bed.
To Jaiden's credit, he does not try to see if she's wearing panties beneath that shirt. Rather, when Delia climbs out of bed and stretches, Jaiden takes this as an opportunity to sit up himself, slowly and painfully, supporting himself on his left arm, scooting back to rest against the headboard with a sigh.
"You weren't intruding, Delia. It was comforting knowing you were there, really. Best night of sleep I've had in a week, and that's even with the bullet that went through my shoulder."
When she leaves, he takes a moment to look around the little room that Delia calls home, just curious, really…
There's not much to it. The bed, a night stand, a small book case and dresser, and the open closet. The furnishings are spartan at best, the few bits of clothing that she has are hanging on wire hangars in the closet, four outfits and a couple of pairs of scrubs. Unlike the packed room that he saw in the dream, or even the child's room a decade ago, it's almost depressingly bare.
Beside the bag is the medical kit that she brought up from the clinic the night before. Reaching into it, Delia pulls a plastic bottle of pills and shakes two out into her palm. They are quite regally presented to him along with the glass of water and a big smile. "Just tylenol for now… but it'll help."
Her eyes drift over his form after he takes the water, finally fixing on his face after a long study. The redhead blushes bright red as she meets his olive eyes, the small smile that creeps across her lips is suppressed by the capture of the lower one between her teeth.
Dear Penthouse Forum,
I never believed it could happen to me. I was recovering from being shot after a time jump when I ended up in a 20 year old girl's bed!
Jaiden is put together rather nicely, even with the bullet wound, and as he reaches for the tylenol, he winces slightly as he overextends just a little. "Thank you, Del…I appreciate it." he says after gulping down the tylenol and a few swallows of water, his eyes closing after a moment, relaxing on the bed with a sigh. "I don't need anything stronger than that. I don't like the way opiates make me feel fuzzy."
His eyes open after a moment, flicking over her form, barely concealed in that shirt he gave her, taking note of that blush and the way she bites her lower lip. Oh, to know what the girl was thinking!
"I'm uhm.. glad you spent the night," Delia says finally. One of her hands raises up and rakes through the red spiral curls, trying to straighten her hair as best she can. Perhaps to look presentable for him, maybe just because she's nervous. It's not long before she pulls the entire mass over one shoulder, tugging on one of the thick locks as she gazes down at him. "Maybe you can again… soon."
It's her very shy way of telling him that she really likes that idea.
Her tongue comes out a little to run along her lips, wetting them, still she hasn't torn her eyes away. The blush across her cheeks and nose hasn't abated in the slightest and she squints a little, maybe because she's trying to read his mind. But she can't. "Jaiden… I… What… what I want to ask you… uhm…" She takes a deep breath and lets it loose slowly as her lids slide down to half cover her eyes. "You keep saying, maybe there could be something more… I wanted to know what it would take.. I mean.. What is stopping more from happening?"
She reminds him of the way someone would act when they're in front of the principal after being caught doing something they shouldn't have been, concentrating on her hair to distract from the person it's attached to. He lifts his left hand and beckons her closer, patting the bed next to him where she spent the night curled against him, keeping him warm and safe, both in the real and the dream.
"I don't want to be cliche, or to beat around the bush, Delia. I don't want to hurt you, and I want to be sure that I'm not going to hurt you. It's me that's resisting being more because…." He bonks his head lightly against the headboard, looking to the ceiling as he gathers his thoughts. "I've never really been in a relationship before. Sure, I've dated. had a few girls who I thought would be serious, but it never worked out."
Crawling over him to get to the side that she slept on all night, Delia sits facing him, watching his lips as he spins his reason. "Oh…" It's all she can say, averting her eyes from him completely, she chews on her lower lip for a little while before speaking up again. "I haven't either." But he knows this. Lowering her head, she stares down at her fingers for a while, clicking her nails together in a nervous habit.
"How are you going to be sure?" The redhead finally asks, still not looking up at him. "You told me to speak from the heart, I just want to know what's going on. If I'm… I mean… If you don't want anything to happen, if you just want to stay just friends, I'd like to know. I just don't want to be … You know… The one everyone laughs at because she just can't take a hint."
The side she slept on was his good side, and Jaiden's left arm moves up to curl around Delia's shoulders, pulling her against him, leaning over to rest his cheek on the top of her head - an odd half-way embrace. He holds her quietly for the longest time, barely daring to speak, barely daring to think.
"I just don't want to be hurt or to hurt you. I don' t know how I'll know. I don't know how I'll be sure." He turns to give a gentle kiss, his lips brushing over her cheek gently. "I don't want to leave you wondering, but I don't know the answer myself. Isn't that funny? I'm so together otherwise, but put me next to a pretty girl who wants answers and I lose all sense of reason." His eyes close, the man relaxing against her, seeming to be frail….like the lightest breath of wind will send him spiraling away. "There's so much….I mean….you and I….could we even?"
Her arms slip around him so easily as she nestles against his side. Tilting her head back, Delia looks up at him with an expression of dismay. "I don't want to either, but… I think it would hurt more in the long run." Pausing for a second, she brushes her lips softly against his. It's likely that he can feel her heart quicken by their close contact and the faint touch of lips.
Trailing a fingernail over Jaiden's chest, the redhead seems a little nervous as he keeps giving reasons. "I'm not asking you to marry me, I'm not even asking for anything more than you can give." Her cheeks redden a little bit as she tries to form the words that leave her a little breathless even thinking about. "Jaiden… I… All I want to know is if I should keep waiting for you." The way she says 'waiting'; there's a little flare of her eyes like the word doesn't mean exactly what she's saying.
But then he asks, and she smiles a little. Trying to look as cool as a cucumber even though her reds are red like fire. "Can we evennnn….?" She's leading him now, wanting to hear the rest of the question before she confirms.
His eyes close tightly, his arm going around her to hold her close to him. "No…" he says softly. "You don't need to wait anymore."
The young woman's heart is racing so hard that she has trouble controlling her breathing. "You mean… for you? Or… at all?" Her tone matches his in volume, pitch, gentility. Pressed close to him she tilts her head up again and traces his lips with a light touch from her own.
"What do you think?" His voice is twinkling, almost, just like his eyes, as he bends to kiss her softly on the mouth.
Delia's eyebrows twitch down a little as she squints up at him, "I— I don't know… I just want to be sure and you to be sure. I don't want make a mistake with this." She closes her eyes halfway into a rather lazy expression, her hand coming up to cup his cheek. "I've been waiting for someone… thing… special. You know that… I just don't want to be a notch and I don't want to be a side dish."
Narrowing the gap between them, she rubs the tip of her nose against his, "When you're sure… You're not going to have to wonder."
"I don't do the one-night stand thing." Jaiden says softly, leaning back a little, letting out a soft breath as he pokes her lightly in the ribs - affectionately, even. "I haven't done anything like that since just getting out of the army. One night stands are just…." He waves a hand. "that's just quick pleasure, but there's no connection, which is what I really want."
It's not that he's afraid of Ryans or Huruma, it's that he really, really likes Delia and doesn't want to screw things up. He couldn't live with himself if he made her not like him. "I want to be friends, Delia. I…" He fixes her beneath his gaze. "I want to try."
Blinking a few times, Delia takes a few seconds to process exactly what she heard and slowly, a brilliant smile spreads across her face. "I really want to try too, Jaiden." She can't wipe the smile off her face as her eyes flit over his face, memorizing every detail.
"So… Can I— ask you on a date? I heard Attack of the Killer Tomatoes is pretty bad."
That gets a laugh - a good one - from Jaiden, who curls his arm around Delia's shoulders and pulls her in for a quick kiss. "I'll make the popcorn, and we can watch it at my place. I"m sure i can find a DVD of it _somewhere_ around New York."
Bad movies. Their relationship starts with bad movies.