Sixty Seconds

Why hello there 24

**Smiles innocently* I updated! I figured I may as well finish the story and do the editing after. I'm too lazy to write it all again. So anyway, hope it was worth a wee bit of the wait, hopefully I will update soonish.... Please Vomment! It made me really happy to see all my new readers who added this story to their library, so thanks guys! (I hit 200 votes a while back and didn't even notice but eeekk!!)*

Jessica

I walked into the kitchen the next morning and found Carter on the sofa.

“I’m going back to bed.” I groaned and turned away. At the sound of my voice he hopped up off the sofa and dragged me back.  I turned to him. “I thought you said you’d stay in hospital” I hissed at him.

“Yeah, Then last night happened” He hissed back. The bruising on his face had cleared slightly and he’d pulled out a few stitches.

“I’m fine” I insisted, still annoyed at the fact he was back against the doctor’s orders. I avoided eye contact with him. Not wanting to look at his black eye or clean white bandages. Instead I focused on the clock, watching the second hand tick by.

“Only because of an idiot with a baseball bat” His voice hadn’t lost the hissing tone which meant he was still amazingly pissed.

“Hey Jess, Hey-Oh God...” Joshua’s voice trailed off and he looked sheepish.

“No, Not God, me.” Carter told him, looking thundery. “What happened to not involving normal people, especially him!”

I could see Carter was jealous, and I wasn’t entirely sure if it was because Alex had saved me or the fact that I seemed more at ease with Joshua than with him, or maybe he was just annoyed at life.

“It was my fault, I called Alex, Okay” I told Carter. “Not Joshua, I would be surprised if Joshua knew his number.”

“Why didn’t you call me?” Carter asked, Thundery look darkening.

I looked at him in annoyance. “You were shot and in hospital, which is where you should still be!”

Carter turned to Joshua. “I need a word alone” Joshua nodded and they left me steaming on the sofa. I grabbed my phone from the side table and checked my messages. All two of them. One was from a life insurance company. Which I had a silent laugh at, the other was from Alex. I opened it up and read his idiotic message about wondering if I was okay, then he asked if I wanted to go out later, then at the end he realised he was working and declined himself. I smiled at him and wished him luck at his job and waited for Carter and Joshua to come back.

I heard a raised voice and decided to snoop. Tiptoeing over the cold, tiled floor I pressed the door to the study open slightly.

“Sending her back is the only way to protect her” Carter’s voice insisted.

“You really think that if we send her back with a ‘sorry we don’t need you anymore’ card that everything is going to be okay again? That they’ll leave her alone? They won’t and you know it. If you send her back she can turn to Alex and he can try to protect her, but what is he really going to be able to do against them? If you send her back you’re going to lose her.” Joshua’s voice cut in after Carter’s.

“What do you mean lose her?” Carter asked sounding pissed off.

“Lose her in every way you can lose a person. You’re terrible at telling how people feel you know, you think she hates you, when in fact she thinks you hate her. You need to realise that pushing people away won’t protect them. Pushing Becca away didn’t save her.”

“Don’t bring my sister into this.” I heard Carter threaten. I peeked through the key hole and saw Carter facing the desk and leaning on it, his knuckles turning white. Joshua stood a bit further away, closer to the door.

“She’s dead and you still push her away” Joshua folded his arms.

“SHUT UP!” Carter yelled and turned to push Joshua against the wall. Joshua stuck his hands up in surrender and Carter let him go.

With his hands still up Joshua said softly. “Look, just think about what I said. She’s a fast learner and she’s survived living with you. What else could go wrong?”

Carter grimaced, half from the pain of stretching his wounds and from the thoughts twirling around his head. Joshua turned to the door and I scurried away, leaping onto the sofa and picking up the TV magazine.

“I didn’t know you could read upside down, Jessica” I heard Joshua laugh as I gave him daggers, he had evidently recovered very quickly from Carter’s outburst and had a quick recovery time or he was just used to it.

“You’re an ass” I told him as he opened the front door. He winked and left the house, leaving me and a possibly dangerous Carter alone.

“You really are talented if you can read upside down” I heard Carter say from the door, I turned to him hesitantly. His form was relaxed as he leaned against the doorframe. 

“Well, I do have many secret talents.” I said lightly.

“No doubt, but being innocent isn’t one of them” Carter told me, his tone even.

“I was curious”

“Curiosity killed the cat”

“I’m not a cat” I declared. I threw the magazine on the sofa.

“No, but you’re an idiot. What were you thinking?! Walking back alone, you could’ve been killed, If Alex hadn’t of arrived when he did I could be bloody well identifying your body right now!” Carter’s voice escalated into a shout.

“Well, you’re not! I’m not the only one who can’t follow orders! Take a look at yourself, you should be in hospital! Not here complaining to me about me!” I shouted back to him.

“Observation doesn’t mean they observe you! It means they leave you to die of boredom; I’m a soldier, not a couch potato!”

“I know you’re a freaking soldier! I’m reminded every day! ” I was reaching extreme in the angry scale, all the emotions from the past weeks were all coming out in one big angry burst.

“Not for much longer! You can’t stay! It’s too dangerous” Carter had stopped leaning against the doorframe and was standing straight.

“So is jumping from a twenty storey roof but no one stopped me then! No one cared!” I screamed.

And suddenly my lips met Carter’s.