Midnight Angel [Jenlisa FF]

~'~'~ Chapter 26 ~'~'~

The sun had already been down an hour by the time Lisa turned her car onto the road that led to her beach house. Though it was better to return to town with Jennie at night, she'd have rather gotten home hours ago. Between their outing yesterday, and everything that had happened today, she was exhausted. she knew Jennie was as well. She'd slept most of the trip back home, but was now awake, silently staring out the car's side window.

Lisa couldn't blame Jennie for her morose mood. The meeting with the FBI earlier this morning had gone well, but it had been draining. Lisa couldn't help but wish the timing had been better. The trip to Santa Monica yesterday had done so much for her. By the end of the day, she'd been laughing and smiling as if all was right in the world. Then the call from Ryan had come, requesting that they meet with the investigating team.

From that point on, Jennie had become quiet and withdrawn. She hated that her perfect day had been ruined. It couldn't have been helped, though. If Jennie ever wanted to be freed from the chains that kept her existence secret, she needed the FBI's help. She'd gone willing to the meeting, but it was obvious to Lisa that she would have rather not been there.

As requested by Jennie, her friends Jisoo, Jin and Jackson had driven up to LA and met them beforehand. They'd been more than willing to help in any way they could, and their support had bolstered Jennie's courage. The five of them had had breakfast at the hotel Lisa had checked herself and Jennie into for the night and then gone to the FBI's field office in Los Angeles.

The meeting had been, in a word, long. For three hours the investigating team Ryan had gone to questioned Jennie and her friends. Lisa was mostly a bystander until her role in the whole thing came into play. The rest of the time, she'd simply offered moral support to Jennie as she'd faced down the stoic men in suits asking her to recount the last seven years of her life.

In order to get as clear a picture as possible, the agents had asked Jennie to start at the very beginning: the day Cameron Walker raped her. Though seven years had passed since that horrible day, it hadn't been easy for Jennie to verbally recall the horrible event. But she'd done it, and then gone on to relay all of the things that had happened afterwards. Between her, Jisoo, Jin and Jackson, they'd given the agents a detailed history of how Jennie had been ostracized, harassed and condemned.

From there, they'd moved on to the murders of Michelle, Donna, and Owen Kim. Jennie was only able to give Meager of details about the deaths of her family members. Until recently, she'd only known what had happened that night. Her friends had conveyed to the agents what had happened afterwards, what was said in town, what they'd believed, and such. All Jennie had been able to add was that she'd lived in the attic of her house, sneaking out occasionally at night, and knowing only that her mother, sister, and brother were dead.

Lisa picked up the story from there, relaying about her move to Cambria, about seeing a figure on the beach, and about how the people in town had acted when she'd questioned them about the person. She explained hearing about the ghost story, meeting Jisoo and Jin and hearing about Jennie Kim, and then all that had occurred afterwards, including finding out that Jennie was really alive and being hidden by her father.

Though the ordeal had been tiring and draining for all of them, Lisa had to give the agents credit. Not once during the three-hour session had they been suspicious or condemning. That's not to say they believed everything at face value, but they had listened with open minds. When questions needed to be asked, they asked and respected the answers. Lisa had worried that they would be wary of Jennie or the truth of the situation, but it had seemed to her that the agents were on their side.

There had been quite a debate at the end regarding Jennie, something Lisa suspected would happen. Technically, Jennie was wanted for murder, but the FBI saw the flaws in that accusation. They had wanted to keep Jennie in LA and put her in a safe house until they had more information or were able to resolve the situation somehow. Jennie adamantly refused. The agents hadn't been happy, but they also knew they needed Jennie's cooperation to help their case. In the end, they allowed her to leave, with the added order that she maintain her secret presence and that she be available if needed.