Chapter 18
Decebel had left the waiting area, Jen and Sally had decided to find a deck of cards and chillax, as Jen liked to say.
"So, do you think Fane and Jacque have…" Sally let the word draw out in a question.
"Have what?" Jen asked as she looked at her cards. "Do you have a two of hearts?"
"Go fish," Sally said absently. "Have, ya know, done it." Sally whispered, leaning across the table.
Jen was looking at her cards with such concentration it was almost as if she were willing the one she needed to appear in her hand. "Done it? What, you mean has he bitten her? Three of spades?" she added.
"Go fish. No, Jen, that is not the 'it' people refer to when they are talking about 'it'." Sally was making quotations signs with her fingers as she spoke, which effectively gave Jen a look at her cards.
"Six of clubs, excellent. Give it up, I saw it," Jen told her, holding her hand out, making a 'give me; gesture.
"It's not even your turn, you cheat. Now listen to me," Sally tried again
"Sally, good grief. How you and Jacque have stayed so pure with me as your best friend I'll never know. Sex, say it with me. S-e-x," Jen said, sounding it out letter by letter.
"Shhh! Don't say it so loud." Sally looked around to see if anybody had heard.
"Why? It's not like people don't know what it is, or don't know that everyone is doing it. Now give me your six of clubs, hussy."
"Fine, here," Sally growled, slamming the card on the table.
"Touchy, touchy," Jen muttered as she placed her own six of clubs on top of the one Sally had laid down.
"The answer's no," Jen said absently.
"No what?" Sally asked and then added, "Jack of diamonds."
"Damn," Jen mumbled and handed Sally the card she had requested.
"No, I don't think they have done the deed."
"Why not?" Sally asked, surprised.
"One," Jen said, leaning back in her chair, tilting her head to the side as she looked at Sally. "Jacque won't until she's married."
"Yeah, but it's Fane. I mean look at him. You're telling me if you got that alone you wouldn't throw those ideas out the window?" Sally interrupted.
"Do you really want to talk about what I would do if I got that," Jen nodded her head toward the direction of the hospital room where they knew Fane and Jacque were, "alone?"
Sally shook her head and waved her hands. "Point taken. Okay, move along, what was number two?"
"Two, Fane is too chivalrous with all that, 'I respect your choice to wait' crap. He could seduce her if he wanted. Jacque would fold like a bad hand of Texas hold 'em. And three, we'd know if they had." Jen began to look at her cards again as if she had just cleared up the mysteries of the world.
"What do you mean we would know?" Sally asked her, laying her cards down. Jen lifted her eyes to Sally and slowly reached across the table and picked up her cards. She picked out the ones that matched hers then laid them back down."I don't have anything you need, so go fish."
"Jen, I'm serious. How would we know? I don't think Jacque would tell us, she's too embarrassed about that kind of stuff. She never told us about what she and Trent did."
"Trent was not Fane," Jen began. "We would know because it would be written all over her. She would have the morning after glow, the little grin on her face of knowing that her innocence is gone and she lost it to a freaking Greek god."
"Huh," Sally said thoughtfully. "I've never seen that look on you before." She looked at Jen questionably.
"Of course you haven't, I'm a virgin. That and no Greek gods have offered themselves to me lately, but I haven't lost faith." Jen threw that out there like it was no big surprise.
Sally's jaw dropped. "You’re a WHAT?" Sally's words came out just as Decebel walked up.
"Yes, Jen, you’re a what, exactly?" He asked her, voice serious as ever, eyebrow raised.
Jen glared at Sally. "One word, Sally,"
Sally held her hands up in surrender. "Oh, believe me, I have not forgotten what you will do if I say a word when I'm not supposed to. I knew I should have gotten rid of those damn dolls," she grumbled.
"Hi Decebel," Jen said, grinning innocently and acting as if she had just noticed his appearance.
Decebel narrowed his eyes at her, then his face wiped clean like a cloth running across a dry erase board. "Vasile and Alina wanted me to invite you both to come eat with everyone in the hospital cafeteria."
Jen tossed down her cards. "I could eat. What about you, Sally?"
Sally was still staring at Jen with shock-filled eyes. "You, you, Yoooouuu," Sally kept saying to Jen, with different inflections in her voice.
"Sally, let's move past this and get on to more important things, okay?" Jen took her IV pole in one hand and Sally by the other hand and began pulling a reluctant Sally away with Decebel to follow.
"What could be more important than the fact that you're a mmrrm." Jen had slapped her hand across Sally's mouth. She was trying to keep from losing her balance and knocking her IV over and she looked back at Decebel, who was watching in curiosity.
"You will have to excuse us for a sec, Dec, she swallowed her tongue. I'm just going to help her cough it up. We can meet you down there," Jen said sweetly while she continued to keep Sally's mouth covered.
"Okay then." Decebel sounded unsure as he walked past the two girls. He looked back at them one more time before turning and walking away muttering in Romanian.
"What is wrong with you?" Sally sputtered when Jen finally uncovered her mouth.
"I have a reputation to maintain. You can't just go flapping at the lips that I'm as pure as you and Jacque," Jen said, hands on her hips, lips set in a tight line.
"Oh, believe me, Jen, no one would ever confuse you with being pure, virginity be damned," Sally shot back at her sarcastically. "Out of curiosity, does Jacque know?"
"No and she doesn't need to know. What's the big freaking deal, Sally? So I'm not as experienced as I let on. What does it even matter?" Jen was getting irritated at her friend's curiosity in her sex life, or lack thereof.
"It's not really that it's a big deal as much as it's just, kind of disappointing," Sally said, sounding deflated.
Jen looked at her through half-hooded eyes. "Okay, so what I'm hearing you say," Jen started then paused, shaking her head in disbelief."You're disappointed that I'm a virgin? Did I misunderstand you? Is my hearing going bad or are you just a dumbass?"
"Okay, let me esplain it like this, Lucy."
"By all means, Ricky, esplain away," Jen responded dryly.
"So, you know how when you are a kid and you see Disney World on T.V.?" Jen nodded her understanding as Sally continued. "It's so amazing and bigger than life, they show you the fireworks above the big beautiful castle that every little girl dreams of living in, and you think 'wow, I want to go there'."
"Are you seriously comparing me to an amusement park?"
Sally shushed her. "Wait for it."
Jen motioned for Sally to get on with it.
"Finally your day comes and your parents take you to Disney World. You're going to see the beautiful castle you've seen so many times on T.V. Only when you get there and walk up to the big castle, you realize it's just a big castle-shaped building with a hole going through the middle where people are walking in and out." She blew out a deflating breath. "Even though it was still a pretty awesome place, it was a little disappointing that the castle wound up being a fake."
Jen just stood there staring at Sally. She didn't really know what to say, she was truly baffled by the fact that this news was having such a detrimental effect on her best friend. "Sally, you do realize that you just compared the news of my virginity to an amusement park castle right? Just want to be clear on that."
Sally nodded, biting on her bottom lip. "Yeah, now that you put it like that it's really kind of disturbing," she said, closing her eyes and shaking her head. "I guess I was just expecting you to be the one to tell me what it was like, ya know? Kind of like how you were the first one of us to shave your legs, and try tampons, and wax your bikini line," Sally said wistfully.
"Well, the night's still young my sweet, innocent flower. Who knows what could happen between now and tomorrow morning?" Jen laughed at Sally's dubious look.
"Come on, Virginia, let's go get something to eat." Sally darted out of Jen's reach, knowing she was going to try and hit her at the sound of her new nickname.
"Sally," Jen growled out a warning, unable to move quickly due to the annoying IV.
"Did you say something. Virginia?" Sally continued to tease. darting here and there to stay out of Jen's slapping hands.
Fane and Jacque looked up from the table when they heard Sally's singing all through the cafeteria. She was belting out at the top of her lungs Train's "Meet Virginia". A very pissed off looking Jen was dragging her IV pole as quickly as she could without falling, trying to catch up to her quarry. By the time Sally had reached the table, she had tears streaming down her face from laughing so hard. She leaned over the table, panting, finishing her serenade. "Her confidence is tragic, but her intuition magic, and the shape of her body, unusual, meet Virginia!" Sally ended dramatically, arms in the air like Vanna White indicating where Jen now stood. Much to Jen's chagrin the entire cafeteria broke into applause.
Jen pasted on her most dazzling smile and waved at everyone adoringly, but to Sally she muttered under her breath, "This is war."
Sally bowed to her audience and then to the table where all friends sat clapping as well. Decebel stood up and walked over to Jen. It was obvious he was trying not to laugh, and Jen was disappointed because she really wanted to know what he looked like when he was cracking up, but it was at her expense so she could stand the disappointment.
"Why don't I help you to your seat?"
Jen grabbed Sally's hand. "That would be nice, thank you, Decebel." She drug Sally behind her as she followed Decebel to the seats he indicated. As he was pushing Jen's chair in behind her while she sat down, Decebel leaned forward and whispered in her ear. Jen's body went rigid. Sally looked at them curiously, then looked at Jacque to see if she was seeing this. Jacque shrugged her shoulders in an 'I have no clue what's up' manner. Sally watched as Jen tilted her head up to look at Decebel. She batted her eyes sweetly and smiled a very sensual smile. Sally noticed Decebel's eyes begin to glow. "Hey, Fane," Jen raised her voice about the noise in the room.
"Yes, Jen?"
"Didn't you say something about your kind healing fast?" She asked him, never taking her eyes off of Decebel. It was then that Sally noticef Jen had placed her hand around Decebel's wrist of the hand that he was propping himself up on the table with. It looked like a flirtatious gesture unless you were seeing it from Sally's view and could see that Jen's other hand was wrapped around the butter knife next to her plate.
Fane cleared his voice, unsure of where Jen was going with this. "Yes, that is correct, we do heal a lot faster than-" Before Fane could finish what he was saying, Jen interrupted.
"Okay thanks, that's all I needed."
Jen moved faster than Sally had ever seen her move, but it was like everything was happening in slow motion. Jen raised the knife as her grip around Decebel's hand tightened. At the same time, Sally and Jacque yelled, "Decebel, run!" Decebel realized what was happening and moved quicker than the eye could see grabbing Jen's wrist before the knife could make contact with his flesh.
To Decebel's credit, he didn't give any indication that a knife had just nearly been stabbed into his hand. His golden eyes were glowing and Sally thought she could see flames in them. "Jen, you might want to, um, go sit by Jacque, or ru-ru-run. I'm just saying," Sally stuttered.
Jen's gaze never wavered from Decebel's. The whole table sat frozen, waiting for his reaction. Decebel slowly pulled the knife from her hand, he smiled slowly, showing Jen that his canines had lengthened. "You're running out of checks, Jennifer."
"Depends on whose checkbook you're looking at, now doesn't it, Decebel?" Jen matched his cold sarcasm.
Before they could continue their sparring, Dr. Steele walked up to Vasile and asked to speak with him in private, so naturally the whole table got up and followed them.
They ended up back once again in the family waiting area. Jacque was beginning to think that no other families came to this floor because they were the only ones ever using this room.
"Vasile, when I said privately, I meant just you," Dr. Steele told him.
"I understand, Dr. Steele, but everyone in this room will know what you have told me in a matter of hours."
"More like minutes," Sally added.
"Good call," Jen said, going to bump fists with Sally. But she stopped just short, remembering that she was supposed to be mad at her. Sally just rolled her eyes.
"Fine," Dr. Steele said, giving up on trying to persuade him otherwise. "I got Jennifer's blood results back."
The whole room seemed to hold their breath. Jen stepped forward slowly, forgetting about the IV attached to her, and had Sally not caught it, would have fallen on Jen's head. Jen never even noticed.
"What were my results?" Jen asked apprehensively.
Sally and Jacque both stepped up on either side of Jen in a show of silent support.
"Jennifer, do you know anything about your genealogy?" Dr. Steele asked her.
Jen just looked at her blankly. Sally nudged her. "Jen, she wants to know if you know about your ancestors?" Still no answer.
This time Jacque tried. "Jen? Your lineage, descent, forebears, pedigree-"
"I got it, Jacque," Jen cut her off.
"If you mean, do I know of any non-human blood in my family, then the answer is no," she told Dr. Steele.
"I'm not sure if it is a were-gene or not. Since Jacque is not full blooded I need more of her blood to compare it to Jennifer's. I will come by her room later tonight to get her after the lab techs have gone home. I don't want anyone to ask questions."