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Love is Strong	By : harry102 Category: +M through R > New Adventures of Jonny Quest, The Views: 8124 -:- Recommendations : 0 -:- Currently Reading : 1
Disclaimer: I do not own Jonny Quest, nor any of the characters from it. I do not make any money from the writing of this story.

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“Dude, you do know your early right?” were the first words out of Jonny’s mouth as he ran up to help Mark with the large cooler he was carrying.

“Yeah I know, but you know Carrie,” he explained. “She’ll have a conniption fit if she’s late for anything. Besides we figured we could get everything set up a little before the rest of the crew showed up.”

“Yeah, thanks a lot,” Jonny replied in a tone that was clearly not very thankful and quickly caught Mark’s attention.

“Hey Romeo, did we interrupt something I hope?” he asked with a smile in his voice.

Mark’s question caught Jonny off guard for a moment, but he hastily recovered and then found himself a little angry.

“No jerk off, and I don’t appreciate the implication. Don’t talk about her like that.”

“Sorry, you know I was really just kidding, right?”

At this point Jonny was frustrated, and misdirecting his emotions. Not that it ever took much for him to defend Jess’ name. Any inappropriate comment made about her, true or false, meant jokingly or not, really got to Jonny bad and he dealt with it accordingly. He knew Mark didn’t mean anything by what was said, but he also wanted to hit something real bad in that moment. Good Jonny won out, however, and he apologized.

“I’m sorry Mark. I didn’t mean to get angry, it’s just that it’s her last night and I want everything to go smoothly. It could be awhile before we’re all together again.”

“It’s cool,” Mark accepted. “Let’s just have a good time.”

“Sounds good to me,” Jonny replied as he bent down to help Mark with the cooler.

“What the hell is in here?” Jonny asked as he felt the weight in his upper arms.

“We only brought the good stuff Romeo,” Mark started with a devilish grin. “And a lot of it.”

“Oh Jesus Christ,” Jonny said in a mock disapproving tone. “I am not driving all your drunken asses home tonight, so watch yourselves.”

“Hey now, we won’t let that happen. You just worry about Jess, or Mary, or Linda, or Sarah, or one of the other girls that will be fawning all over you like always.”

“Yeah yeah yeah, whatever man. You’re just jealous.”

“Hell yeah I’m jealous, but don’t tell Carrie that.”

“Don’t worry, your secret’s safe with me. I do value my life,” and they both laughed as they made their way closer to Jess and Carrie.

It kinda flatters Jonny that his nickname is Romeo to most at Rockport High, but it mostly confuses him since he can’t think of anything he’s ever done to merit the name. Sure plenty of girls flirt with him, and he knows he can probably have every one of them. The only problem is that he doesn’t want any of them, and he never has. The phrase ‘You only want what you can’t have’ has always particularly annoyed Jonny. It’s ironic that even the most confident person can be completely unconfident when faced with getting or losing what they really want the most.

He wishes that Jess thought he was Romeoesque because he knows how much she loves Shakespeare. Mostly, however, she just rolls her eyes and gives him a knowing smile when she hears someone call him that. People at school assume that Jonny has slept with many women and that he can have anyone he wants. He tried a lot when the rumors first started to refute them all as lies, but no one believed him so he eventually decided to just ignore it all together. He just makes sure that the person who matters the most knows the truth. Funny thing is though, Jonny always feels the need to tell her about the rumors that are untrue, but she always seems to already know. Jonny’s certainly no Romeo and Jess sees that, but she seems to like him anyway so he figures he can’t be that bad.

As Jonny and Mark approached the girls, they seemed to be having an intense conversation. Unfortunately, Jonny couldn’t hear anything being said before the girls noticed their arrival.

“Well, I guess it’s a good thing Jonny was here to help you with that thing Mark,” Carrie started right in on him as they dropped the cooler by the rocks.

“Yeah, I was pretty lucky. Imagine him being here since he planned the whole thing. Shocker of the century.” Mark yelled back in a sarcastic tone.

As they continued to fight per normal, Jonny made his way toward Jessie and saw that she had a big grin on her face.

“What’s that smile for?” he asked

“Well, I was just thinking that maybe I won’t miss everything about Rockport,” she said as she gestured towards their fighting friends.

Jonny smiled too. “Yeah, sometimes it’s hard to believe they haven’t killed each other yet.”

“Hey, just give us time,” Carrie piped into their conversation.

“Oh, so sorry,” Jonny said with a grin. “Have we called a cease fire for the evening?”

“In honor of Jess, yes we have.” Carrie stated. “Now quick give me a beer so I can keep that promise.”

Mark obliged his girlfriend at the speed of light, and the four of them talked and joked around until the rest of their friends showed up to get the party started.

Once everyone had arrived, they all just played music, talked, and laughed about old times. For the first hour, Jonny was hanging out with the guys and trying to avoid Mary’s drunken advances. He wanted to hang out with Jess, yet didn’t want to interrupt her goodbye with her girlfriends. He wasn’t drinking at all because he was driving, but also because he wanted to remain clear headed to talk to Jess.

Unfortunately, he noticed about two hours into the party that Jess wasn’t so clear headed. It was around 3:00 in the morning when he looked over at her for about the hundredth time surrounded by her friends and saw that she was having a little trouble standing. Eventually, she gave up and just sat down. He couldn’t really understand why she was so affected since she was still nursing her first beer, and had had a large dinner at the restaurant earlier. As he walked over to make sure she was ok, however, he noticed the shot glass in her other hand and immediately looked at Carrie to see the bottle of Irish Whiskey she was holding. He figured then that Jess must have just been sipping her beer to chase the Whiskey shots she was doing. What he didn’t understand was why she was getting drunk in the first place. She rarely drinks at all. He was also worried that a drunk Jess would ruin his plans for the rest of the night.

As she saw him approaching, Jess tried to get back on her feet and lost her balance. Reacting out of instinct, Jonny caught her and pulled her straight up before she could hit the ground. As she was coming up, she threw her arms around his neck and pulled herself closer to him until her mouth was at his ear.

“You always catch me,” she whispered and nuzzle his neck a little.

“I always will,” he replied and then rubbed her back.

“You promise?” she asked, sounding like a little girl.

“Of course I promise,” Jonny answered in that soothing way you do to calm someone that is drunk and emotional, but he meant every word.

“Then I know it’s true because you never break your promises to me. You’re the only one that never has, ya know. Please don’t start now because I’m leaving. Don’t leave me, ok.”

He knew this was drunken talk, but clearly she was afraid about something, and was willing to open up now that she had a few drinks in her. When she looked like she was gonna start crying again, that signaled the end of the party for Jonny. He just wanted to get her home at that point and figure out what was really upsetting her.

“Jess, where is all this coming from?” he questioned softly so that none of their friends could hear. “Look at me.” He demanded with quiet ferocity, and then continued in the same tone once she did. “I will never ever leave you. Absolutely nothing in this world could make me, ok?”

He remembers that his words seemed to calm her down a little, but he wanted to quickly say goodbye to their friends and head home so that they could talk some more. Jonny grabbed her hand and led her around to say good night to everyone, and then held her close around the waist so that she wouldn’t fall on the way back to his car.

On the drive home, Jess had herself curled up in the passenger’s seat. Jonny was convinced that she had fallen asleep until he heard her soft cries. Those sounds tore at his heart like nothing else because he didn’t know how to help her, and he couldn’t hold her and drive at the same time. He had to settle for taking one hand off the wheel to take her hand and massage it with his.

“Please don’t cry, Jess. Just tell me what’s wrong and I promise to make it better if I can,” he said gently.

She didn’t respond, she just turned herself around and curled up at his side to cry into his chest while he drove. He just stroked her hair and told her to let it all out.

Years of living in the Maine Compound had taught Jonny how to get around IRIS without waking his father or Race, but it wasn’t as easy with a drunken best friend clinging to his side. They eventually made their way to Jess’ room, albeit very slowly. Considering that she was barely conscious as they walked through the door, Jonny had resolved himself to the fact that he was gonna have to wait to tell her how he felt. In that moment he decided that there would be no more plans. He was just gonna tell her when it felt right.

He took her to her bathroom to throw up a few times, helped her brush her teeth, brushed her hair back into a pony tail, helped her wash her face, then waited outside the door while she went to the bathroom and thanked God that she didn’t fall off the toilet. When she came out, he took off her shoes, took out her earrings, and then finally helped her to bed and covered her up. He got onto the bed with her for a few moments because he wanted to make sure that she fell asleep on her stomach. As he lay there staring up at the ceiling, and then over at her, and then back again, he couldn’t help but feel sincerely depressed. Not only had this night not gone as planned, but she was leaving him in a few hours.

As his train of thought began to lead him down a road he did not want to travel, he decided it was time to get up and go to his own room. As he made his way off Jess’ bed, however, he felt her grabbing at his shirt and was surprised to see her eyes wide open when he looked down.

“How are you still awake?” he asked slowly as he laid back down on her bed and faced her with his head propped up in one hand while his other went to brush the hair out of her eyes.

“Please don’t go. I want you to stay.” She said quietly and thickly. He could tell even talking was an effort for her at this point.

His eyes got a little wide at her request, and he couldn’t exactly talk for a second so they ended up just staring at each other for a few moments like they had earlier in the evening.

“Are you ok?” he finally choked out.

“Yeah I’m fine,” she answered.

“Liar,” he accused softly.

She smiled at this and then turned onto her back to rub her hands over her face. She wasn’t really buzzing anymore, just really uncomfortable. He could tell by the way she kept opening and closing her eyes that her head was spinning in about five different directions. “I feel like mush,” she said.

“I think your gonna feel worse in the morning, J.”

“Please don’t remind me,” she begged and then moved around trying to find the most comfortable position. She eventually settled back on her stomach. “I think lying down is the problem,” she declared after a few moments, and then made a move to get up off her bed. She only made it to her knees, however, and then fell onto her back so that they were now head to toe. “Stop laughing at me,” she said in a slightly whiny voice.

“I’m not laughing,” Jonny defended. “I’m just enjoying the show. I didn’t know you were a funny drunk Jess.”

“Shut up,” she said with a small laugh as she made her way back towards him crawling on the bed. He couldn’t help but laugh.

“You look like a blind dog searching for food right now,” he chuckled.

”Hey, you’re not much better yourself, Hotshot,” she started. “I seem to remember a night a few months ago when our very positions were quite switched, miser. I mean miter. Mifffer.” She couldn’t get what she wanted to say out, and then just broke out into a fit a giggles.

“Do you mean mister, Jess?”

“That is exactly what I meant thank you very much,” she said as she got back up on her knees again to wave her finger in Jonny’s face. Mid-wave, however, she lost her balance a little and ended up on top of Jonny’s chest. He was forced onto his back again from the unexpected weight and thought she would roll off onto her stomach again, but she seemed content to stay right where she was.

“This is comfortable,” she said as she snuggled up closer on him and mostly into the fetal position. “I’m just gonna stay here ok?”

“Yeah, that’s fine,” he barely remembers answering. He wasn’t about to argue. He was perfectly content to hold her close for a few hours. After all, it could be his only chance to do so.

He focused for a few moments on her steady breathing, but couldn’t let her fall asleep without knowing what had upset her earlier in the night.

“Hey, Jess,” he whispered.

“MMM,” was her only reply.

“You ready to tell me why you got upset earlier. Because you know I’m hardly the type to just let that go right.”

He could tell that she was now more awake again because her breathing had become more rapid. She was either upset or nervous. He just rubbed her back and tried keep her calm. “Please just tell me,” he almost begged.

“I guess I’m just a little scared,” she said quietly.

“Of what?”

“Losing something I love.”

“What are you afraid of losing,” he asked with fear and anticipation both clear in his voice. He quickly recovered, “I mean I think your only going to gain by going to Harvard, I don’t think you’ll lose anything.”

“I’m gonna lose us,” she cried as she got up on her knees and sat back carefully. “We’re gonna lose us,” she sobbed with even more tears coming down now. “Do you even care?” she whispered in an unbelievably hurt voice.

He guesses that in her vulnerable state she took his lack of immediate response to mean that he didn’t care. In truth, he was still getting over the shock of her referring to them as “us.”

Once he realized how upset she was getting, however, he was up like a flash with her face in his hands. She tried to pull away briefly, but he wouldn’t let her. “Jess, Jess please look at me,” he pleaded.

“Tell me what you’re talking about, Jess. Just explain to me ok.”

She looked a little angry, but complied, obviously very tired at that point. “Jonny,” she whispered and looked into his eyes. “For as long as I can remember it’s been us, it’s been me and you against our parents, against our enemies, against the world, just against everything. And now I’m going through this huge life change without you, and your gonna be going through things without me. I know I can handle it all by myself. I’m not afraid that I can’t do it by myself because there’s not a doubt in my mind that I can. I can do it all without you. I’m just afraid because I don’t wanna do it without you”

Jonny could not breath. He knew she was drunk, but this had to be coming from some place real he thought. He didn’t say anything because he didn’t want to interrupt her.

“It’s just seemed to me,” she continued with a deep sigh and she looked away, “that you just don’t care as much about all this as me. So I guess that just makes me a little sad because I thought we were best friends.”

“We are,” he said quickly. “Why would you think I don’t feel the same way you do?”

“It just seems like you haven’t been very sad over the last month. Not that I ever want you to be sad, it’s just that you’ve been in a really great mood even and I just thought you might be a little more upset to see me go. I know your hardly lacking for female attention, it’s just that...I don’t even know what I mean.”

Jonny didn’t talk immediately because he wanted to collect his thoughts and make sure to say the right thing. He wanted to tell her that the only reason he was happy over the last month was because he thought she wanted to spend her last night with him, and that he was gonna tell her he loved her, give her the locket, and then she would be his. He couldn’t think how to get that out though, so he decided to just play it by ear.

“Jessie,” he started slowly and waited until she was looking at him. “I can’t even begin to explain how...how much you mean...how much I’m gonna miss you. Do you think that this whole month hasn’t been hard on me too? It’s been one of the hardest of my life, especially this last week. Every time we did something that we’ve done a hundred times before, I couldn’t help but think when we’d get the chance to do it again. I didn’t want you worrying about me being sad and I didn’t want you to be sad, so I just put on a front. You know, you can usually see right through my fronts,” he paused for a second and they both smiled. “I guess you were too busy putting up a front of your own to notice mine, huh?”

“I think we’ve both been doing that lately,” she replied.

“I think your right.”

They both remained quiet for a while absorbed in their own thoughts, and Jonny could tell that she was really tired now.

“We have to be up in three hours, ya know?” he reminded her.

“Yes I know, and I’m gonna be a wreck” she complained.

He laughed a little and stroked the side of her face. He didn’t want her going to sleep thinking he didn’t care. “Please tell me you know how important you are to me, Jess.”

She smiled genuinely, and told him that she knew. He could tell then that they were ok, so he suggested trying to get some sleep.

“Ok,” she agreed. “I want to give you something first though.”

His curiosity was piqued and he watched as she tried to make it to the drawer beside her bed.

“Do you want me to get it?” he asked

“Yeah, that would be good,” she said thankfully and lied back down. “It’s right in my top drawer.”

Jonny reached in quickly and grabbed a medium-sized brown box. “What is this?” he asked with a smile.

“Just open it silly.”

Jonny didn’t’ need to be told twice. He hastily opened the box like a little kid on Christmas day. Inside, he found two black Motorola cell phones. He pulled them out with a confused look on his face. They already had phones. “What are these for?”

“They’re for me and you,” she explained. “They’re prepaid for a ridiculous amount of minutes, and I can easily add more if we run out. Although, I don’t think even we can talk that much,” she smiled. “Just because I’m gonna be in another state doesn’t mean I still don’t want to know everything that’s going on with, and I need to keep you up to date. I just don’t want things to change too much, ya know. And I figure this way we can talk whenever we want and how ever long we want without having to worry about our fathers flipping over phone bills. I think e-mail is good and all, but a little impersonal don’t you?”

“Jess?”

“I mean, don’t worry or anything. It’s not like I’m gonna call you every five minutes,” she continued.

“Jess?” he tried again

“I just think I may need to hear a friendly voice every now and then.”

“Jess?” he said a little louder this time and finally caught her attention.

“Yeah,” she replied, and actually looked kinda nervous.

“Thank you, I love it. And what makes you think I wouldn’t want to talk to you every five minutes, we practically do now.” he said smiling.

“Yeah,” she agreed. “I just wouldn’t want to drive you crazy.”

“Well, if it hasn’t happened yet,” and he let the statement hang with a grin on his face.

“I’d hit you with a pillow right now if I had any semblance of balance in me. So you don’t think it’s too much?”

“Not at all,” he replied. “I actually had a similar idea.”

“You did?”

“Yeah, and don’t look so surprised. Great minds and all,” he said with a small laugh.

“So why didn’t you go through with it?” she asked

“Honest answer?” he asked.

“Always,” was her response.

“I didn’t want you to think I was smothering you. I know college is a time to meet knew friends and everything. I just didn’t want to hold you back. I mean if you’re on the phone every five minutes that could make it hard to meet people.”

“Yeah, I guess your right,” she said. “Know what though?”

“What?”

“New friends would be great and everything, but I have all the friends I need. I want you to know that no new friend is gonna take your place.”

“Well I am one of a kind,” he replied with confidence.

“That you are,” she said through laughter.

“You’re pretty special yourself, Ace,” he told her after the laughs had stopped.

“Thanks,” was all she said, and then she leaned in to give him a great big hug. They held on to each other for at least five minutes sitting upright in Jess’ bed until she finally pulled back a little to look into Jonny’s eyes.

He could see that she was totally gone at this point. Her eyes were glazed over and she could barely keep them open. He wondered if she would even remember the night when she woke up in the morning.

“Jonny?” she asked quietly

“Yeah, Jess?”

“We never got to that kiss tonight?”

Jonny thought that he must have fallen asleep for a moment and dreamed what she just said, but clearly he hadn’t. He couldn’t believe that this moment was finally here. He hadn’t misinterpreted her actions earlier. She did want to kiss him then, just like he did her. And she wanted to kiss him now, just like he did her. As they moved closer together, however, Jonny came to the realization that he didn’t want their first kiss to be a drunken experience, and one that she might not even remember. So with every ounce of self-control that he ever had in him, Jonny took his mouth away from hers and placed a gentle lingering kiss on her forehead.

“Come here,” he then whispered to her, and pulled her down against his chest. They spent a few moments trying to get comfortable, but once they did, Jess was out like a light and Jonny was left wondering if he was gonna regret not kissing her for the rest of his life.

Four months later, sitting in his room alone, he certainly does. ‘Only ten more minutes before I can call her’, he thought. ‘Great,’ his mind told him. ‘That leaves you ten more minutes to think too, and we both know that’s plenty of time for you to cause some major damage.’
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Love is Strong