john murphy, WITCH

11 | Catch Me if You Can

At first Winnie was hesitant to leave the camp at all, her nerves had been on edge as she tried to understand if the hundred were truly with her. Deciphering allies from foes.

She voiced her concern to Murphy as they sat together, Winnie facing North keeping watch and John facing South, on scout to keep their private moment away from prying eyes.

It was midday and surprisingly almost too hot to work. Winnie lay down on the undergrowth with just her t-shirt on

"What if I leave and they all turn against us or think they can get away with murder or something. I remember my father saying it was like that in his early days. Hard to maintain control."

"That's strange." Murphy replied as he picked up a twig to fiddle with, pulling away the bark.

"What did you just say?" Winnie didn't want that answer and she propped herself up on her elbows to watch him more intently.

Murphy continued as he was, "You don't actually talk about him at all, considering he's the reason you're doing all this."

"He's not the reason." Winnie lied and she thought she did quite a good job at it. John Murphy begged to differ.

"Don't kid yourself Winnie, you know as well as I do that he was training you to take over his mafia," Murphy flicked a piece of his branch onto her and smiled, "You just happened to get a much better show down on Earth."

Winnie fished the piece out of her hair, it was already in a state that would have terrified even the worst of mother's.

"Not true. If I was on the Ark I would have gotten a gun."

"But you wouldn't have gotten me."

"You flatter yourself too much John." But it was true, John trumps gun any day, not that she was ever going to admit that.

"I'm just doing it because you fail to do so, I need to get validation somehow Winnie. I can't survive without it."

Winnie didn't need to fake her shock as at first she thought he ended his sentence with 'you'. Then she saw the smirk on his face and realised that of course he wouldn't have said anything at all like that. That's just what she wanted him to say.

"Validation huh? That's a new one." Winnie teased and rose her leg to kick him gently, "So what kind of thing do you want from me. Do you want me to call you handsome," She put on a fake accent, like one she had heard in an old film, The Wizard of Oz if she remembers rightly, "Gee, John, you got me. You're the only guy for me. Big and strong, don't ever leave me John, I just don't know what I would do."

Winnie had been edging herself upwards so when she finished her impression she was sitting facing Murphy and hey were only inches away.

Murphy loved the way she laughed at herself, the accent was patronising and he has heard it before when they were in the Skybox and has hated it ever since. But he wouldn't complain about the words Winnie spoke because they were music to his ears.

They sat there for a moment, Winnie felt her heart beat increase. Both of them were waiting - youthful and daredevil excitement was all they felt - eyes flickered to lips and then back again to watch the other do so. There was a tension in the air of this intimate moment that only two people could possible share.