Summer of Jonnor

What You Leave Behind

Jude was asleep on his back, his eyes darting under closed lids as he dreamed. In his dream, Taylor was holding her hands over his eyes. She pulled them away, and in the dream Jude opened his eyes and smiled. He met her gaze. "It's perfect." Despite her track record and all that she could do, when he had given her those instructions, they were so short and few in number. He was not expecting that "Ronnoc" would be so amazing....

Jude awoke, mumbling something under his breath.

Connor pulled him in tighter. "What babe?"

"Connor," Jude said clearly, and his eyes quivered open. He smiled. "Morning."

"You were saying my name in your sleep. Were you dreaming about me?"

Jude's mind went back to the dream. "Oh, yeah." He smiled even bigger and kissed Connor.

"Must've been good. Want to help me set up my Mac?"

"After breakfast," Jude promised, "which isn't happening until I get a half-hour of Connor time at least."

"Make it an hour," Connor kissed him.

"I love it when you twist my arm," Jude said, "I give...you got it, an hour."

***

While Connor was in the shower Jude was on FaceTime with Taylor. "Have you talked to Sophia?"

She nodded. "Yeah, this morning. She's holding up. It's gotta suck though."

"For sure. So...what's the next step?"

"We take the blood sample into the FBI field office on our next visit. Sophia's been working with forensics already, so she'll have them try to extract DNA from it. Problem is, we need a source from Robin Getty to compare it to. We all leave traces of ourselves everywhere we go. The challenge is getting a sample that we're sure she left behind."

Jude frowned. "So how do we get one of those?"

"Well, I thought it was going to be difficult to do, but it turns out we may have a lucky break. Her husband is hosting a car wash event at his house to raise money and increase awareness of her disappearance, and they're looking for volunteers. So I put you and Connor down for the car wash detail and Sophia and I for refreshments. It's this afternoon starting at one o'clock. My dad will pick you and Connor up at twelve-thirty."

Jude nodded.

"Now," Taylor continued, "let's talk Project Ronnoc. Do you want regular updates, and do you want to participate in the planning, or should I just run with what you gave me?"

He shrugged. "Your ideas would probably be better than mine anyway." He thought of his dream. "I have the feeling you're going to do great. And thank you—again. It means a lot to me that you want to help."

She smiled. "It's going to be fun, and awesome. So if I have questions I'll ask...otherwise, I'll just wing it."

"Sounds great," Jude said. He heard the shower stop. "Well, I better go. Connor will be out in a minute."

"Alright. See you later." She gave the camera a fist bump.

Connor came into the bedroom, drying his hair. Jude lifted his hands up. "Why are you doing that?" Connor asked.

"Your gun is pointing at me."

Connor looked down. "Oh so it is. Are you telling me you don't want to be shot?"

"Maybe, maybe not." Jude lowered his hands and winked.

Connor smirked at him and grabbed a clean pair of boxers. "It only points at you like that because it likes you. It's loaded, too. With all this stuff going on I haven't jacked off for days."