[A/N: First of all, I'm so, so sorry for the delay! I was a bit busy, plus I started replaying Duskwood just 10 days before the new episode dropped, so I had to speedrun my gameplay. I barely made it xD The new episode was stunning by the way!
A/N 2: WARNING! for a very detailed sex scene.]
Chapter 9
*
"But nobody knows you like I do 'cause the world may not understand
That I grow stronger in your hands."
('Insatiable' - Darren Hayes)
*
You let out a shaky sigh as you walk up the stairs and into the building. You have never been the very anxious kind of person, but it's totally a good thing that you've learned some grounding techniques from the internet because now you need it. You need to get a grip of reality before you spiral so deep in your mind that you have a panic attack in the middle of the ground floor of a police station.
So you look around for five things that you can see: you see police officers talking or organising paperwork. You see desks and computers. You see doors, probably offices. And finally, you see the lamps above your head on the ceiling.
Now you need five things that you can smell: the first thing your nose catches is coffee. Then you can smell the scent of paper. You can also smell people's perfumes, various ones, one of them smells like wild berries, another smells like it costed hundreds of euros. How many is this now? You have no idea, but you're not going to think about this.
You take a deep breath. Grounding seems to do the trick. Your anxiety is still very high, but you've stopped spiralling, your head is somewhat clearer than it was just a few minutes ago. Then, you take another deep breath, and you feel a little shift in your body. You feel a tiny little bit calmer.
But then the woman leads you and Jake into an empty office, it isn't big, just enough for three people to sit somewhat comfortably. If you can even sit comfortably at a police station when you have no idea why you're there in the first place. So, you sit down with Jake next to you, the woman takes her seat across from you at the table. She starts up her laptop which is lying on the desk, and puts a notebook with a simple, blue pen next to it.
You feel your breathing quickening again, your anxiety crippling, and you're on the edge of panicking. You can't take this anymore. So, you burst.
"I'm sorry, Jake had nothing to do with all of this, this whole thing was my idea, mine alone, please, it's all my fault."
You're gripping the chair's handles so hard your knuckles are as white as the paper sheets in the notebook. A minute of silence follows, and you glance up. The woman is looking at you, seemingly taken aback by your sudden outburst. As you glance at Jake, he looks like he's about to say something, but the words are just stuck in him.
"Miss. Please, calm down. I hope you do realise that you are not here to be arrested."
Now it's your turn to be taken aback. Your mouth is hanging open as you stop gripping the chair so tight. Once again, you glance at Jake. He frowns as if he didn't quite understand what the women has just said.
"I'm sorry?" you hear him say.
"If we wanted to arrest you two, we would have done so. You would be in handcuffs," the woman explains slowly, although she seems a bit impatient. She probably did not appreciate your outburst. "But let's take this slowly, and in order. And please, let me do the talking."
"I'm sorry," you nod, gulping.
The woman takes a deep breath, and continues.
"You two are here for an interrogation regarding an investigation." Now she points at the huge board behind herself which only now do you notice. You take a glance. There is notes and pictures all over the board. Pictures of Jake. Pictures of three men. News articles. And the picture of a dead body. The body of that woman who was recently killed in Duskwood. You're staring at it for a moment, and then it clicks. You're just sitting in your chair, shocked. But you don't say anything. You're waiting for the woman's explanation. "As you know, Mr. Danford, we have been monitoring your activity after you have been pardoned."
Jake nods slowly.
"Yes, ma'am."
All you can do is stare at him. You knew he was pardoned. But he's conveniently forgotten to mention the fact that he's being constantly monitored.
"Thankfully, we have not detected any criminal activity on your side, which makes my job a whole lot easier, to be honest." She stops for a second, flipping pages in her notebook. Then she lifts her gaze at you. "On your side, miss, the only thing you have on yourself is breaching the speed limit, using smoke bombs outside of your own land without legal permission which caused incidents on a seemingly busy road. But given your circumstances, and the whole situation, this is the smallest of our problems right now."
"I-- I still don't understand..."
She cuts you off with a hand gesture.
"Now, the point of you two being here is that you two are obviously key witnesses in a case which involves murder, stalking, breaching of privacy, and a road chasing. What you have the right to know, especially Mr. Danford, is that the chasers are government officials."
"I was aware of that," Jake nods.
"But what you are not aware is that these men were responsible for the murder of that young woman from Duskwood." Once again, she points at the board. A voice in your head says a quiet 'bingo'. "That murder is connected to this road chase. Now, you might be wondering how this is all connected to you, why they wanted to get to you so bad. I really wish I had a better explanation, but I don't. It was all their obsession with you, Mr. Danford."
"Excuse me?" you two say in unison. Then Jake continues: "I don't think I'm following."
The woman sighs and it sounds so... regretful. It doesn't really help your confusion, though. She goes on.
"I know this all sounds too... easy or too wishy-washy. I am aware of that. However, after you have been pardoned, Mr. Danford, some people, those three to be exact, just could not accept the fact that you're not in jail for all the charges brought against you in court. They have worked in the shadows, so we did not notice them at first. That's why they were able to kill that poor woman as an attempt to lure you out so you would do something illegal. Anything that they could use against you." She stops again. "But seeing that it didn't work, that you did not do anything inherently questionable, they started tracking you down. Which led to the motorcycle chase outside of Duskwood. We have a reason to believe that after all of this, they were also ready to kill both of you, given the fact that they have shot guns in broad daylight on a busy road with civilians around."
Once again, your mouth is hanging open as you're listening to the woman's explanation. The air is frozen around the three of you as silence follows the woman's words. You turn your gaze at Jake. He doesn't seem as confused as you are, in fact, he's locked eyes with this woman as if he just... understood this insane story.
"They have planned this to get me to do something illegal. Am I understanding this right?" Jake now asks, breaking the silence.
"Yes, Mr. Danford."
"It does sound plausible."
You still don't understand how this could happen. Government officials being so obsessed with a random person that they decide to kill someone innocent and completely unrelated to Jake? No, you are definitely not buying this. But as you lift your gaze at the board behind the desk, there is nothing that says it's all just made up. You understand that even people in ranks as high as the government officials can go crazy in a second and do questionable things. They aren't supposed to, but they do. They were probably so utterly happy to finally catch Jake, and then devastated when he was pardoned.
You have a hard time processing this because this explanation does sound just too... easy as the woman has said before. But at the same time, sometimes people don't need big and deep reasons to do illegal things. The more you think about all this, the more your head starts spinning.
"Now I need you two to answer a few questions and tell me everything you know to help us with further investigations."
You glance at Jake again, and he glances back at you. Then, you explain everything, from the first time you heard the news of the dead woman in the forest to that particular evening when Jake noticed his room was wired. Now you understand... it was probably there to catch him doing something questionable. You tell her everything, every tiny detail, even if it's something that has been discussed before.
*
It takes about an hour, but it's a relief when it's all finally over. A security guard escorts you and Jake out of the building where a black car is waiting for you.
Now that all that anxiety, stress and panic has left your body, you're just feeling tired. This whole morning has eaten up all your energies, and your body is pretty much on autopilot now as you get into the car. On the way back to Duskwood, you fall asleep at one point, and you wake up because you feel Jake's gentle touch on your hand. You glance at him with a clumsy smile, and he smiles back, interlinking your fingers.
You can't believe that all the weight of the last three or four days have finally left you two. In fact, you can hardly believe that it's only been three or four days. It feels more like months. At one point, you fall asleep in the car again, which makes the one hour ride a lot more bearable this way.
After all that has gone down, all you want is sleep. You enter the motel room with Jake behind you. He looks very tired himself, and you're even wondering how he's still standing. The constant stress and pressure on him just don't seem to knock him off. Ever.
Without a word, you collapse onto the bed, you're not even considering changing your clothes or anything. It's barely one in the afternoon, but you're just too damn tired to stay awake. You watch Jake lying down next to you. For the next hour, you're just trying to fall asleep, but sadly, without success. Jake seems to struggle as well, so you turn to your side, your hand on his arm.
"Are you okay?" you ask him.
"Yes," he nods as he wraps his arm around you, cuddling up to you. "Are you?"
"I guess." You let out a heavy sigh. "So many things have happened in the past few days, and I feel like I'll need therapy to get over this."
"Understandable. Do you want to talk about it?"
You sit up on the bed, not taking your eyes off Jake.
"I feel like we should. I mean, what the absolute fuck?"
Jake's lisp curl into a small smile as he sits up as well, looking deep into your eyes.
"I am so sorry that you had to be a part of this," he says genuinely. "I-- I don't even know what to say, honestly."
"I made myself a part of this." You reach out to caress his arm. "It's not your fault that some shitty bastards became so obsessed with you that they were ready to kill you."
Jake nods in agreement.
"If I want to be honest... I don't even wish to know what was going on in their minds."
"I understand. How are you feeling, though? Like... does it not even fuck you up?"
He smiles, taking your hand and interlinking your fingers.
"It does, but having you by my side makes it all easier to overcome."
You burst out laughing. Jake, for a moment, looks very confused by your reaction, so you clear your throat and stop laughing.
"I'm sorry. I'm just happy to hear that is all. Do you think we're safe now?"
There's a moment of silence before Jake says anything.
"Are we ever safe?"
"Oh my," you roll your eyes and he giggles. "I just wanna go home, honestly."
"Me too."
Another moment of silence falls between you and Jake. You're biting your lips, not really knowing what to do or say now, and he's staring at your interlaced fingers shyly. Your heart starts racing in your chest as you squeeze his hand to get his attention. He lifts his glance at you, smiling softly. Then, he slowly leans in for a kiss, his lips against your, and you know that it shouldn't take you by surprise, but it does.
He kisses you once and twice, and before you know it, you're making out with him. Even though his lips are dry, his kisses are soft and loving, and he doesn't seem to be hurried. You wrap your arms around his neck, pulling his body closer to yours, ending up laid on the bed underneath him. His hands slowly slides underneath your shirt, his fingertips gently caressing your skin, giving your a ticklish feeling that makes you smile into the kisses.
You breathe in his scent as you help him out of his hoodie, his hair gets messy in the process, and if you want to be honest, it turns you on a little more. His eyes are sparkly as he looks into yours and leans back into a kiss, returning the favour of helping you out of your shirt. He plants small kisses on your chest as he undoes your bra, making his way lower and lower on your body. As he reaches your belly, he clumsily unbuttons your jeans which makes you giggle. He blushes as he glances up at you quickly before he continues the journey of getting you out of your trousers. You feel his warm breath against your skin as he goes down on you, his tongue is hot, and you need a deep breath as desire and excitement bolts through you, your body jerks as you grab the bedsheet.
You slowly realise that Jake is still in his clothes, he hasn't even given you time to undress him. But damn, he sure knows his way down there. You have to bite your lips and swallow a half loud sigh as he grips your thighs, and your body feels like it's melting.
"Hey," you tap his shoulder gently.
He looks up at you with such concern on his face that makes you burst out laughing.
"What's wrong? What's so funny?"
"I just wanted to say let me do something for you now, but you look like I just scared the hell out of you," you say, giggling.
"I really just want you to feel good," he says with a small, but relived smile.
"I wanna do the same to you."
He leans above you again, giving you a few kisses on your lips before he speaks.
"Trust me, I feel better than I have ever felt in my entire life," he smiles at you shyly.
"And you make me flustered..."
"So what would you like me to do now?"
You think for a second.
"I'll let you take the lead, you're doing very good so far."
Jake takes the lead happily, his finger is a bit cold against you as he touches you. You moan into his kisses as he moves his finger slowly inside you, and your fingers find their way into his hair. With your free hand you manage to unbutton his jeans, reaching into his underwear. He sighs into your kisses as you hold him gently, moving on the bed a bit so you can reach him properly.
"Do you have a condom?" you ask when you feel ready.
"I'm... not entirely sure," he replies with a frown. "Actually, no, I don't. I didn't think of that."
You sit up, grabbing your back pack that's at the end of the bed, reaching into it until you find a small box of condoms you've packed before you came to Duskwood.
"Luckily, I did."
You open the box quickly, some of the plastic packaging lands somewhere on the bed, but you decided to clean that up later. You hand Jake the condom after he's finished getting out the rest of his clothes. You lie back down and he leans above you as you help him inside you. He moves his hips slowly and you hold onto his upper arm, your moans silenced by his soft kisses. Making out gets so intense that at one point your teeth bump against his which makes both of you burst out laughing. For a moment, you even forget that he's inside you.
Having sex with Jake makes you think of one thing: you'd always prefer this clumsy, fun lovemaking over any kind of sex anytime. Because being drunk and having a quick one with a random womaniser just wasn't it for you.
It takes some time, of course, but he makes you come just shortly before he does. After, you both are lying in bed, panting, sweaty as hell.
"Well, that was incredible," you assure him because you have a feeling that the question was hanging in the air.
"Yes, it was indeed."
"Wanna go take a shower?"
Jake nods. So you go and take a shower. The warm water feels soothing against your skin. You glance at Jake. You haven't even taken your time to look at him, his body properly. He isn't very muscular, but you have never imagined him to be. He has tiny little birthmarks all over his back, and now that you look at his face a bit closer, he has a few on his cheeks, too. He smiles as he notices that you're looking at him.
"What is it?" You shake your head with a little blush on your face.
"Nothing. Actually, after shower, we should probably text the others. They're probably worried sick."
Jake nods.
"I completely closed them out of my mind until just now. I will text them, don't worry."
You give him a smile, and he pulls you into a gentle hug.
"I love you, Jake," you say quietly.
"I love you, too. So, so much."