Twin Fire Signs ✓

Chapter 22

"We really need to sit down and talk." I tell Johnny, once we're back at the Baxter Building. Reed, Sue and Von Doom are in the lab and Ben and Alicia are off doing god only knows what. Juliette was safe, sleeping in her pack-and-play so I grabbed Sue real quick. "Johnny and I need to talk. Juliette is asleep but can you just keep an ear out in case she wakes up? I know you guys have a lot going on right now..."

"Jackie, it's ok. I got her. You go deal with that whole mess."

"Thank you! Provided that the world doesn't end, I owe you big." I say before running back to Johnny. "Let's go." I say as I walk past him. We fly off and land on the roof of the old apartment building where we lived together years ago. "It's like time stood still here." I observe as I take in the same musty furniture.

"As much as I miss those days, I'm glad we're past them." he says, looking at me from the corner of his eyes.

"Why do you say things like that or like what you said at the bar? Why didn't you sign the papers? Why didn't you come after me?"

"When you first left, I fell into a lot of bad habits. I was drinking myself into a coma. It was the only thing I could do to get you off my mind."

"And your bed-warmers? What about them?" I ask. 

"It was like some kind of cosmic joke. No matter how hard I tried, it just didn't happen. It was like fate or karma or whatever was having the biggest laugh at my expense." I nod, silently thanking whoever had a hand in that, that he hadn't been able to sleep his way up and down the East Coast.

"What happened Johnny? You get this haunted look in your eyes when you think no one is looking."

"I woke up in the hospital one morning. Sue and Reed were there. I had been at a club the night before and I guess someone slipped something in my drink, but I had already been too wasted to notice. I overheated, and passed out and someone brought me in. Reed thinks that my powers caused my body temperature to burn hotter to get that shit outta my system."

I gasp, tears in my eyes. "Johnny..." I say, taking his hand in mine. 

"I checked myself into rehab after that and got a good therapist and was going good for six months. And then you show up again and..." He trails off, looking out over the city.

"Are you saying this is my fault?"

"No I just, get really stupid around you and I fell back on what I knew, which isn't an excuse." 

We fall silent and I take a moment to think about everything that was just said. "So you really haven't slept with anyone since me?" I ask in a small voice. 

"No. And I had hoped, after everything that happened, that if I could prove to you..." I cut him off, pulling him into a kiss. And after everything, every boneheaded decision made by both of us, kissing him felt like coming home. 

We get back to the Baxter Building and he pulls me into a bathroom. As the door shuts, his lips are on mine again, demanding as his hands work fast to remove my clothes while mine do the same.

Once he's gotten my shirt over my head and my bra joins it on the floor, he attaches himself to my breast and I moan at the sensations it's causing me. He backs me up, into the shower, blindly turning it on to mask the sounds I'm making, and moves his mouth back up to my neck, causing my eyes to roll into the back of my head and my head to hit the wall of the shower. 

The water is cold at first, causing us both to jump before our body temperatures flare up and cause steam to fill the bathroom. He picks me up and I wrap my legs around him, both of us moaning as I sink down on him. 

Our reunion is quick, hot and needy, Johnny thrusting up into me, hitting that spot deep inside me that rips a moan from my throat, not giving a damn who hears us. His thrusts become more erratic before he spills into me, groaning my name in my ear as I pump every last bit of his orgasm from him. 

We stand there for a bit, our heavy breathing mixing around us as we fight to get it back under control. He sets me down, holding onto me to keep me from falling, and shuts the water off. I hand him a towel and he wraps it around his waist, drawing my attention to how his torso forms into the shape of a "V" as it gets closer to his hips.

I wring my hair out and let it cascade down my back as I wrap a towel around myself and we leave the bathroom, holding hands. 

"Mr. Storm, Miss Richards." a voice calls from behind us. It's Captain Raye. "We're leaving to intercept the surfer in 10 minutes, with or without you."

"Were you just waiting outside the bathroom to try and catch him in a towel?" I ask, jealousy clouding my judgement and causing me to heat up, the remaining water left on our bodies steaming off. She gives us both a look before turning around and walking away.

"She was kidding." Johnny says, trying to diffuse the tension between the two of us. She rolls her eyes at him.

"Why are you so down on him? You don't even know him, not really." I say, eyes flashing blue. 

She takes a step back before regaining her composure and schooling her expressions. "Actually I know him very well. Both of you actually. I read your personality profiles. Confident, reckless, irresponsible, self-obsessed, borderline narcissistic." 

"That's enough," I tell her as Johnny starts to frown. 

"And then there's you. You have the brains of a Richards and the socialization to not be an awkward outcast like him but as soon as this one didn't want you anymore, you ran for the hills." She adds.

I start breathing heavily and my fists light on fire and I'm about to charge her before Johnny stops me, grabbing me and pinning my arms to my sides.

"All I see is a guy that almost got his team killed and a girl who was too scared of being forgotten that she ran away." Raye finishes. 

"You don't get to talk to her that way. I'm the one that messed up in London. I'm the one who's been off his game." Johnny tells her.

She scoffs. "This isn't a game." she says before walking away.

I turn away from Johnny, furiously wiping at my face, trying to hide just how much her words hurt me. 

"Hey, what she said, it isn't true. You are so much more than that. You are the one that kept me going, hoping one day I'd get the chance to make it up to you." he says, pulling me into a hug. 

We stand like this for several minutes. I feel safe in his embrace. I'd always felt safe in his arms but right now, I felt completeness here too. I see someone walk past us, giving us a look and I'm reminded that we're still in towels, just standing in the middle of the hall. "We should probably go change." I say. "We're leaving here soon."