THE CRIMINAL FILES ~ Tragedy at its Finest

T H R E E

/When love's a battle, and life's a war - when I just can't go on fighting anymore. When I'm surrounded: and they're closing in, when I feel bullets graze against my skin...this world's a war zone. And I've got a shield. And I won't surrender. Because your love feels...like an army of angels/

The warmth of the sheets cocooning my body was like the smell of hot chocolate on a winter morning. Sweet, and comfortable. I was up early, like every other day - but I surprisingly couldn't bring myself to get up and physically get ready. For just a few minutes more, I wouldn't to be swallowed up in the comfort and happiness of my bed, and not interrogate people.

However, my plan quickly failed.

I felt a pair of large hands grip around my ankles and yank me out of my cocoon, slinging me over their shoulder. Shaking away my dazed sight from the sudden shimmering of the light, I saw a bare, tanned back with contours where the muscles were located. I was tempted to take my finger and trace every single line, but I stopped myself once I saw Jack and May standing in front of me, with their hands on their hips.

I grunted and instantly grated my teeth together. "Owen Faraday, you will put me down this instant!"

"Or what you'll spank me?" May smiled and giggled, earning a highly audible groan from Jack along with the roll of the eyes.

"I was thinking more of, clawing you're fucking eyes out!" I flailed my arms in the air trying to shimmy my way out of his tight grasp. He loosened his arms and put me down in front of him looking down at me, as I straightened my spine and put on a serious face.

Sure, I was scary in the interrogation room, and to other people - but Owen only saw my threats as empty and harmless. It also doesn't help when he's six foot two and I'm only five foot ten. So to him, I'm like an ant. Something that he can look down upon with the damn smirk of his. The damn, sexy smirk of his.

Wait, what the hell am I saying!?

He smirked at me once again and tossed a pile of clothes my way. "Put 'em on and let's go. I'm hungry." Jack followed Owen out as I held the pair of dark blue skinny jeans in front of me. Taking off my shorts, I slipped my legs through the material and began to pull them up. Buttoning them up, I took off my shirt and put on the rest of my clothes. I slipped on a black blazer after I tucked the hem of my loose, white shirt into the waist-band of my pants.

May opened the door as I gripped my chest. "What the hell?" I asked, brushing through my hair.

She rolled her eyes, clearly not seeing the point of me being upset. "Owen wants you to hurry up." May added after her eye roll.

"Yeah?" I questioned hastily, "Well tell him, that he can go kiss my ass."

"I would but," he paused coming into my field of view. "Some things are most enjoyable in private." He smirked, leaning against the door, his hands in his pockets - pretending to eye me. Though for a second I felt like he wasn't pretending.

I turned my face to the mirror, hoping to hide the slight blush that I knew was rising to my cheeks. Out of the corner of my eye, I saw his dark green eyes trail up my side, practically burning through the fabric. Regaining my confidence, I spun back around to face him and May as I smiled and shoved past him to the car.

"Well?" I asked at the end of the hallway, turning around and purposely flicking my high pony-tail in a sassy manner. I heard Owen chuckle, followed by murmurs between May and him. The sound grew louder as they neared me.

*****

This time it was my turn to sit in the back while I gave Jack a chance to drive the car. May sat in the seat beside him, as his guide. I would've guided him, however, I probably would've acted like a paranoid parent teaching their sixteen year old to drive. While May chatted Jack's ear off, and after the look he gave me in the rear-view mirror pleading for me to help him, I felt Owen's arm go around the head of my seat. The heat radiating off of him was enough to warm an entire house.

His breath smelt of coffee. Three cream, two sugars. If I remember correctly.

Owen hated the taste of black coffee, or any other coffee beside the kind he either ordered or made. Which was three creams and two sugars. Personally, I was more of a hot chocolate or latte kind of person. He also hated Hazelnut latte. I let him have a sip once, when he was helping me paint my new apartment. But his first immediate reaction was to spit it out in the sink.

After laughing so hard that I was close to dying, and multiple glares my way, I bought him his own coffee as we sat on the many boxes that were placed in the living room of my apartment, because I hadn't unpacked yet.

I remember all the feelings that had been swirling in my stomach. Sometimes, I only thought of Owen as a friend - but on other occasions, it was like we were in a serious relationship. And at one point, I felt that it would turn out that way.

We were going on a walk through the park closest to my home, when he told me he needed to tell me something. My first initial thought was nothing. My mind went blank at his sudden need to tell me something. He led me down the street, as we came up to his house. Different thoughts were racing through my mind, and all of them included the outcome of us being together.

He opened the door for me, and when I saw a girl taller than me in one of his shirts and boxers my breath stopped as I looked down for a quick second reclaiming my thoughts. Her hair was down, bleeding off her shoulders and in those two seconds that I saw her, I thought she was gorgeous.

Her long, tan legs were showing and Owen's shirt that was way too big for her body, fell off her shoulder revealing her perfectly chiseled collarbone. Owen walked ahead of me, as his arm wrapped around her waist, and they both smiled. "Kris, this is Caitlin. My girlfriend." She gave me a toothy smile and I even began to hate how perfect and white her teeth were.

"Hi." I said, trying to sound confidence - but I didn't have any. Not seeming to notice she smiled even wider and said hi back. Owen began to tell me how him and Caitlin met, and how long they've been together...however I wasn't listening. I was too focused on the fact that Caitlin was the definition of beauty. And I was the definition of a pain in the ass.

But of course Owen would fall in love with her. She's his type, after all.

For as long as I knew Owen, he always had a thing for tall, long-leg brunettes. I felt silly for even thinking, for a moment, a sweet, sweet moment, that he could possibly have feelings for me.

I was short. Blonde. And my legs weren't miles long. I had blue eyes with a hint of foggy grey. While her's were large, and the color of jade. Almost as if they weren't even eyes. Just shards of those vases at Chinese art museums. Her smile was perfect, toothy, white...her teeth didn't have a difference to them.

"Are you staying tonight?" She asked as I watched her hands slip off his coat in a sexy manner. He hummed and instantly they were kissing. Not even noticing that I left, or that I was even there, I walked down the streets trying to keep the tears down. Sniffing once in a while, I rubbed my nose with the back of my hand and felt rain pour down one me. Like Mother Nature felt my sadness, and reflected it into weather.

When I go into my room I slumped down the door and let the tears fall.

I wasn't usually like this. I was strong. I was independent. Confident. But after my parents shunned me I felt like the only people I had left were Jack, Owen and May. My walls were already crumbling, and then just thinking about them, in his room, underneath the sheets in the moonlight made me feel like the world was collapsing in on itself. Like the world had no longer existed. I calmed myself down, feeling the sudden presence of my kitten Oreo. She had silky black fur, with little white boots.

Sensing my discomfort, she lied down and nuzzled her head into my belly. Getting up, cradling her in my arms, I changed into my pajamas's and went to sleep with her buried beneath my arm.

It felt like she needed me.

And I liked feeling needed.