Midnight Angel [Jenlisa FF]

~'~'~ Chapter 27 ~'~'~

With only a sliver of moon showing, the back porch was almost pitch black as Jennie and Lisa sat on the bench. They weren't talking, simply enjoying the peace of the night. Jennie hadn't said much since the visit with her father earlier in the evening. She had to be worried about her father and what Ryan had called and told them, Lisa figured. None of this was easy to deal with.

After the call from Ryan, Lisa had joined Jennie and Mr. Kim and filled him in on what they had done, the meeting with the FBI and what they hoped to accomplish. As expected, Mr. Kim was not happy with their actions. he thought they were putting Jennie at risk. Which they were, but it was their only choice. By the time they finished explaining to him, and convincing him it was the right thing to do, he seemed to accept it, if reluctantly.

Mr. Kim hadn't wanted to leave Jennie. he was worried about her safety and wanted to protect her. Before he'd left, he'd asked Jennie again to come home with him, telling her it was safer for her there, but Jennie refused to go. She'd told him she couldn't go back to that house, that there were too many bad memories for her there. As much as he'd hated it, Mr. Kim hadn't been able to fight her on that issue. So he'd left her at Lisa's, making sure Lisa knew that if anything happened to Jennie, it would lie solely on Lisa's shoulders.

The burden was a heavy one for Lisa to bear, and she sincerely hoped she didn't let Mr. Kim down. Things seemed to be moving fast now that Ryan and the FBI were involved. Lisa had no idea what was going to happen next, but she knew something was. It was all going to come to a head soon.

Next to Lisa, Jennie shivered. "Are you cold?" she asked, raising her voice a little so it could be heard over the soft tune of the radio she'd set in the kitchen window before they'd come outside.

"No," Jennie denied. "I was just thinking about the call from Ryan."

"You're worried," she assumed, rightly so.

"It's kinda hard not to be," Jennie admitted, shifting on the bench to sit sideways and face Lisa. "They're going to know something is up when the FBI barge into the police station and want files and stuff."

"Probably," conceded Lisa. "But they're not going to know why. There is no reason for them to suspect that you being alive and innocent is the motivation behind the FBI's moves."

"What else could they think?"

"That the FBI is investigating the Cambria police force," she posed what she thought they would think. "Ryan said they are going to take other unrelated files to try to throw them off a bit. Plus it will give them a basis of the PD's competency. They want to see if the cops did their job on other cases. If they did, it's all the more proof on your side that your case was purposely mishandled."

"I never thought of that," Jennie mused, amazed at the FBI's train of reasoning. "I just hope everything goes okay for them tomorrow."

"I'm sure it will," she assured her. "Ryan and his team know what they are doing."

Jennie cocked her head and looked at Lisa. The pale, barely-there moonlight highlighted her cheekbones and shoulders, but left the rest of her shrouded in darkness. she was so much bigger than her, but she'd never once felt threatened by her. From the first moment she'd met her, she'd felt safe in her presence. She guessed it was her gentle, caring nature. Some people gave off an essence of coldness and hate, but everything about Lisa was pure and good.

Where would she be if Lisa hadn't come into her life? She'd still be sequestered in her attic rooms in her father's house, living under a veil of grief and depression. Lisa had changed all that. she'd thundered into her life and brought the sun back. Jennie had hope now, hope for the future, hope that she would some day be just a normal girl again. Even if her innocence wasn't able to be proved, there was no way she could ever repay Lisa for all that she'd done for her.