Chapter 18

 

Finally Kait opened her eyes and Jonathan could see a peace that wasn’t there before.  She looked at Jonathan and smiled.  “I knew there was something I was forgetting.”  A yawn escaped her lips.  “I think it’s time for us to hit the sack.  You can take my bed.”

“Then where are you going to sleep?” Jonathan asked getting up and helping Kait up too.

“I’ll sleep on the beanbag chair,” Kait shrugged.

“No, I’m not going to kick you off your bed.  You sleep there and I’ll take the chair.”

“Jonathan, you’re the guest, I’m not letting you sleep in that chair.  You’ll wake up in the morning with a kink in you neck and be all grouchy.  See, I’m not being all noble, this is a purely selfish choice, I don’t want you complaining in the morning,” Kait insisted.

“Fine, have it your way.  You can sleep in the chair and I’ll take the bed.  But if you wake up with those kinks you were talking about, no complaining, okay?”  Jonathan gave in; he knew there was no way he was going to win this argument like this.

“No problem, I’ve slept in it before.”  Kait gathered two blankets from where she stored them under the bed and took a pillow off the bed.  Then she curled up in the chair with her blankets and pillow.  “Can you get the lights Jonathan?” she asked with a yawn just before her eyes closed.

Jonathan turned out the lights and sat on the bed for about half an hour.  When he was sure Kait was sound asleep he soundlessly got off the bed and made his way to the chair. Carefully he picked Kait up and placed her in her bed arranged the blankets around her so she would be comfortable and went to sleep in the chair.

Some time in the middle of the night Jonathan awoke hearing a soft crying sound.  It took a moment for him to remember where he was, and another moment to locate where the cries were coming from.  He was next to Kait in the next moment attempting to soothe away the nightmare.  Kait shot up as if stung; her terror filled eyes unseeing.  It took a few moments for the cloud to clear from her eyes.  She looked at Jonathan in relief.

“It was only a dream.  Shh…”  He continued whispering meaningless words to soothe her.  He brushed the hair from her eyes and tucked her head under his chin and continued to stroke her hair. “You okay now?”

“I’m fine,” Kait sighed.  “Don’t go,” Kait protested when Jonathan went to get off the bed.  “Please,” she added when Jonathan hesitated.

With any-other person Kait still could not allow herself to be vulnerable, but she trusted Jonathan not to hurt her, and right now she just needed someone there for her when she woke up.  Content that she was safe Kait relaxed and allowed herself to fall asleep once again.

Jonathan watched as Kait fell asleep in his arms.  He couldn’t believe how completely she trusted him, he would do nothing, correct that, could do nothing to jeopardize that trust.  This is going to be a long night.

*******

Kait woke up early the next morning.  Sunlight just barely broke through the window casing rainbows on the walls from the crystals that she had hanging by the window.  Kait tried to roll over away from the sun when she felt something heavy lying across her side.  Kait turned to see what it was and she came face-to-face with a sleeping Jonathan.  She blushed when she remembered how she had asked Jonathan to stay with her last night!  He had stayed with her but he hadn’t done anything except sleep next to her keeping her nightmares at bay.

Jonathan detected her movement and opened his eyes.  “Morning Sunshine.”  He gave her a lopsided grin and propped his head up on one hand.

“Morning yourself,” Kait responded.  “I thought you weren’t an early riser.”

“I’ve learned to be.”  Jonathan sat up and looked at the clock and then at the empty bed across from Kait’s.  “Where is Gretta?”

“She went for the weekend with some people to Vancouver.  She’s not coming back until Sunday night.  She felt bad that she was missing opening night but I told her not to worry about it, the play runs this weekend and next, so she could see it then.”  Kait paused a moment and worried her lower lip.  “Thank you for staying with me last night.”

“It was no problem.  You should probably get up, I’m sure Detective Garrett will want to talk to you this morning.”  Jonathan said getting up.

Kait looked at the clock then glared at him.  “At this hour?  No self-respecting person is up at this hour.”  She stuck her tongue out at him and pulled the covers up over her head.

Jonathan succeeded at getting her up and to the police station.  “Miss Fenton, Mr. Gurgin.”  Detective Garrett nodded to them and showed them to a briefing room so they could talk in private.  “Well we have few leads on the flowers.”  Kait sat across from her and looked on expectantly.  “Well, it’s against the law to deliver dead flowers because it’s considered a form of harassment.  So we know that they didn’t come through a floral shop, well at least not directly.  Right now I have people out trying to locate what floral shop that box came from and if we’re lucky we’ll get a lead on who developed that film, not many places develop black and white film anymore.”  Garrett finished.

“Can I see those pictures again?” Kait asked getting an idea.

“Sure, hold on a second.”  Garrett got up and left the room.

“What’s up?” Jonathan asked looking at Kait.  Why would she want to look at those pictures again?  They were creepy enough the first time.

“Nothing really, but I just got an idea.”  Kait shrugged.  She wasn’t sure but she thought she remembered something odd about the pictures.  She hadn’t taken a really good look at them last night but something just didn’t sit right.

Garrett returned holding a box.  “We dusted them for prints and came up with nothing.”

Kait took the box and set it on the table.  “Thanks.”  Kait then began going through the pictures sorting them into piles and then going through each pile individually.

Both Jonathan and Garrett watched her not quite sure what she was doing.  Finally Jonathan had to ask, “Kait, what are you doing?”

“Well if you look at each of these piles, I’ve sorted them out as to when they were taken.  This pile was taken while we were at the beach this summer, this group is when we went camping, these are when we went out on that cruise, and these are from when we went to the movies.  Notice anything that these have in common?”  Kait laid the pictures out so Jonathan could see all of them.

Jonathan stared at each of the pictures in turn until he had gotten through all of them.  Then he looked at her in confusion.  “What am I supposed to see?”

“Every one of them was taken while we were out with a group of your friends.”  Jonathan looked at her astonished.  “Don’t look at me like that.”

“Like what?”

“Like I’ve just grown three heads or something.  It’s true, look at them.”  Kait pushed the piles toward him again.

Jonathan looked at them again.  He picked up each pile and flipped through them one-by-one.  Slowly he put down the pictures; Kait almost couldn’t stand the look of betrayal that she saw on his face.  Someone I know, someone I trust did this?  How could someone I know do this?  What kind of friends do I have that would do something like this?  What kind of boyfriend am I to subject Kait to someone like this?  Jonathan looked at Kait, the pain evident in his eyes.

“Detective Garrett, can we have a minute alone?’  Kait didn’t know what Jonathan was thinking, but by the look on his face she knew something was going on behind his beautiful blue eyes.

“No problem, just open the door and call for me if you need me.”

After the door was closed behind her, Kait took one of Jonathan’s hands that were still resting on the table.  “I know this isn’t the time or place, but what’s wrong?  And don’t say "nothing", because I know you and I know something is wrong.”

Jonathan looked at her, at a loss for words.  Since when has she known me so well?  It’s almost as if she could read my mind.  It’s no use trying to lie to her; I might as well tell her the truth.  “What kinds of friends do I have that one of them would do something like this?  I thought that I picked my friends pretty carefully.  How could I not realize that one of them was deranged enough to go after the woman I loved?” 

The pain in Jonathan’s voice was so deep that it hurt Kait to hear it.  “Jonathan, some people are just good actors, it’s not your fault.  This person is sick, you can’t blame yourself for what he does, none of this is your fault.”

“But it is, can’t you see that?”  Jonathan said looking past her; he couldn’t bear to look at her, thinking that one of his friends was responsible for all the pain and suffering that she had gone through.  “I’m the one who introduced you to all of them.  They all know you were coming over that day.  Luke was even giving me a hard time about it, I mean come on, it could have been anyone of them.”

“Hold, up.  You lost me, what are you talking about?”  Kait asked him confused.

“The night you were attacked, I was supposed to go on a weekend trip with a bunch of the guys but I bailed out because it was Valentines Day and I wanted to do something special with you.”

“Back up,” Kait said getting an idea.  “What guys were going?”

“Jonathan looked at her oddly, “Umm…Mark, Steve, John, Luke, Dave, Ben, and Michael.  Why?”

“They were the only ones that knew I was coming over?”

“Unless they told anyone else, yeah.  Why?”

Kait took a deep breath, she wasn’t happy about what she was about to say, accusing one of Jonathan’s friends wasn’t high up on her list of things she wanted to do, but it was the only thing that made sense.  “Then it was one of them.”

For a moment Jonathan was shocked.  He didn’t want to believe her, but she had a point if they were the only ones who knew she was coming over, then it defiantly could be one of them.  Getting an idea he began shuffling through the pictures one by one again.  After a few minuets Kait couldn’t stand the silence.  “What are you doing?”  Kait asked, her voice barely above a whisper.

“Well, the person who took these pictures won’t be in the picture, right?”

“Yeah.”

“That’s what I’m looking for, to see if any of them aren’t in any of the pictures.”

“Oh,” Kait grabbed a pile and started to go through them too. 

Kait put down the last picture in her pile slowly.  “Well?”  She asked.

Jonathan looked up at her and sighed, “Michael and Luke.”

“I have one of Luke.”  Kait pulled the one with Luke in the background out.  “But that doesn’t mean anything; it still could be someone else.”  Kait tried to reassure him, she knew him and Michael had been friends since high school.

“True, let’s just call it quits for now.”  Jonathan said neutrally.

Kait could see the wheels in Jonathan’s head turning, she knew he was planning something, but she could tell by the set of his mouth that he wasn’t going to tell her.  Kait finished answering the last of the detective’s questions and left with Jonathan.  Once they were in his car and driving back to school Kait decided that it was better for Jonathan to tell her to mind her own business than not to ask, “Jonathan, what’s going on?”

“I’m not sure yet.  But I’m going to find out.  I’m going to Michael’s to get some answers.”

“I don’t think that a good idea.  Maybe we should call Detective Garrett and tell her what we are thinking.”

“No, not yet.  If it isn’t Michael, I don’t want to think I don’t trust him.  But when we get back to school I want you to go to my room and stay there.”  Jonathan handed her his room key.

“Don’t you think your roommate will mind?”

“No, he thinks your cool; anyway, I doubt he’ll be there.  He’s normally gone all day on weekends.  On the off chance that he is there good, but if he isn’t go in the room close the door and lock it.  Keep the lights off if you can and stay away from the window, I don’t want anyone to know where you are, you’re safer that way.”

“I would feel better if you were there and it was the police that talked to Michael.”  Kait admitted worried.

“Don’t worry everything will be fine.  I’ll come up with a good reason to stop by and see Michael, he won’t suspect a thing.  Now remember, keep the door lock.”  Jonathan said as he pulled up beside their dorm.

“I will, as long as you promise to be careful.”

“No problem there.”

“I’m holding you to that.”  Kait whispered and leaned over to kiss him.  She meant it as a simple quick kiss, but she felt a jolt of something the moment their lips came into contact.  She didn’t know how to describe it, she didn’t know what it meant, but what she did know was that she enjoyed it.  It was like finding peace and comfort; two things her attacker had taken from her; two things Jonathan had given back to her

The moment their lips made contact it became more then a simple kiss, it meant so much more and Jonathan knew it.  It was the first time they had kissed since Kait had been attacked.  It was like coming home.  He had know that he missed being close to Kait like that, but he hadn’t know how much he had missed it, it just felt right to have her in his arms.  The feel of Kait next to him sparked the memories of all the plans he had once had for their future.  Who knew, maybe there was hope for those plans yet.

When the kiss ended, neither of them were ready to pull away.  Jonathan placed one hand at the nape of her neck and leaned his forehead.  “Gawd, I’ve wanted to kiss you like that for so long,” Jonathan admitted without thinking.

“I know,” Kait whispered, remembering back to the day by the lake that summer when he had confessed his love for her thinking that she was asleep.  She kept her eyes closed, even though it was childish, she felt if she opened her eyes it would turn into a dream.  A very wonderful dream, but still, only a dream.

“What do you mean?”  Jonathan whispered between shallow breaths.  One of his hands had found its way up into her hair.

“I heard you, that day at the lake,” Kait opened her eyes and brushed her fingertips down the side of Jonathan’s face. They were still only inches apart but Kait relished the feel of the heat radiating off of Jonathan.  “I heard you say you loved me.”

“You did?” Jonathan asked shocked and surprised.  “Why didn’t you say anything?”

“I wasn’t ready,” Kait admitted.  “But I’m ready now.”  Kait took a deep breath trying to steady her nerves.  “I love you too.”

As a response Jonathan leaned in and brushed his lips across hers, “We will finish this conversation when I get back, okay?” Jonathan half told half asked her out of breath.

“Why?”

“Because if I don’t leave now, I’ll never leave and get to Michael’s and end this nightmare.  I’ll be back soon, I promise.”  With one last quick kiss her ushered Kait out of the car and drove off.