Spark in the Dark

Chapter 93

Shawn woke up the next morning, alone in her bed. She got out of bed and went downstairs to see Juice sitting at her dining room table, her laptop in front of him. He looked up and saw her.

"Hey. Morning. I hope you don't mind. I got up early and couldn't fall back to sleep. I wanted to see if anything came up about Abel, yet," Juice said.

"No, I don't mind. Find anything?"

"No. Not yet," Juice told her as he shook his head. "How you feeling?"

"I'm fine," Shawn lied. She didn't want to pull his focus from Abel. "How are you?"

"Same as you," Juice said. He saw through her lie and knew what she was trying to do.

Shawn sighed. "This is such a nightmare. I feel so helpless."

Juice nodded. "I know. Me too."

Shawn heard the sound of a motorcycle in front of her house. She walked towards the window and Juice stood and followed her. Tig had parked his bike and was taking off his helmet.

"What do you want to do?" Shawn asked.

"I'll wait upstairs," Juice said and headed for the stairs. Shawn hid her disappointment and went to the front door. She opened it to let her dad in.

"How you feeling this morning, doll?" Tig asked.

"Better now that I've slept."

"Okay, good. I wanted to check on you before I left. I'm heading up to Oregon to keep an eye on Gemma."

"Gemma? Why do you need to keep an eye on Gemma?"

"Ah, shit," Tig said to himself. "You don't know?"

"Oh, God. What now?"

"Gemma killed Zobelle's daughter. It was self defense, but Stahl was there and had already killed an Irishman we worked with. Stahl then framed Gemma for her dirty kill. Gemma's on the run for both deaths. The dead guy's father heard that Gemma had killed her son and that's why he took Abel."

"Jesus. What an absolute shit show."

"I know, kid," Tig said sympathetically. "You need anything before I go?"

"No, I'm good. Thanks for checking up on me."

"I'm your dad. That's my job. You need anything you just call, alright?"

"I can't. I don't have a phone. Weston left it in Cara Cara."

Tig reached into his pocket and pulled out a cell. "Here. It's an extra burner. It's a prepay so minutes are limited."

"Thanks. I'll go to the store and get a new phone later today," Shawn told him. Tig gave her a hug before leaving. Shawn watched him pull away before calling up the stairs."It's safe now. He's gone."

Juice came down a moment later. Shawn had gone into the kitchen and saw that Juice had made coffee earlier. She got a cup and sat down.

"He told you about Gemma?" Juice asked.

"Yeah," Shawn told him.

"I'm sorry I didn't. I just thought it was too much for you to handle for one day."

"It's fine. I'm not mad."

"You sure?" Juice asked and Shawn nodded.

"What are you doing today?"

"I... don't know, actually. I don't seem to have a job anymore."

"What can I do, babe? To make you feel better?"Shawn gave him a small smile.

"Can we just pretend its a normal morning? I can make us breakfast?"

Juice nodded. "I do love your omelettes."

"Omelettes it is."

* * *

After Juice left that morning, Shawn took another long shower. She wasn't sure if she would ever get the feeling of the cold, dirty floor of that supply closet off her skin, but she was trying. Only part of her shower was her trying to get clean. The rest of her time there was spent sitting on the floor crying. Once the water began to run cold, she got out and put on comfortable clothes. The rest of her day was spent lazing around her house. She wasn't sure when the last time that she did absolutely nothing was, or if she had ever actually wasted an entire day like that. All she knew was she was too drained, physically and mentally, to handle doing anything else.

The next day, she went to the cell phone store and got her new phone. The day after that, Shawn decided to clean. She put on her music too loud and cleaned like a maniac. The last room she worked on was the kitchen. She was just putting everything away in the cabinets after scrubbing the shelves when the backdoor opened and Juice walked in.

He had been coming over every night once he was done at TM and staying until morning. Shawn wasn't sure when if he ever went to his townhouse anymore, but assumed he must have since he was always wearing clean clothes. Juice took a look around and raised his eyebrows.

"Doing a little cleaning?" He asked.

"Yeah. I guess I thought two days of moping around was enough."

"If you wanted to take two weeks, no one would mind. However long you need, okay?" Juice told her.

Shawn stepped towards him and hugged him. He hugged her back for a moment. "You reek of bleach."

"Sorry," Shawn apologized and stepped back. "I was planning on showering before you got here. You're a lot earlier than usual."

"Chibs sent me home," Juice explained. "Apparently I'm acting like a dick. It's just so frustrating not finding anything on Abel."

Shawn nodded sympathetically. "I can't even imagine you acting like a dick."

"Trust me, it happens. You care if I grab a beer?"

"Of course not," Shawn said. Juice opened the fridge and stopped. She had scrubbed the inside of it and put everything back in perfectly straight lines with all the labels facing forward. He gave her an incredulous look.

"I already told you I can be a little OCD. Get your beer and quit judging me."

Juice smirked and did as he was told. He handed one to Shawn. She took it and took a sip. Juice watched as she studied her bottle. Her eyes looked a million miles away.

"We're going to find Abel, ok?" Juice reassured her.

"Do you think he's okay?"

"Yeah, I do. I have to." Shawn looked up at him and saw how sad he looked. She put her drink down and reached for him. He put his own beer down and took her hand. He pulled her into him and held her there.

"Do you want to shower with me?" Shawn asked him.

"Are you sure?" He asked. They hadn't slept together since before he was arrested. The closest they had come to it was in the clubhouse when Half Sack walked in on them. She hadn't brought it up since and he didn't want to push her.

Shawn nodded and rose to her tip toes to kiss him. She wrapped her arms around his neck as she parted her lips so his tongue could glide over her's. Juice wrapped one arm around her waist and brought the other up to touch her cheek.

"I love you," he told her when they pulled away.

"Show me."