With his adrenaline pumping it was an easy choice for him to ignore Lily's comment about Grand Larceny. He would think about the penalties he might face after they had dealt with the current situation.

"I guess I need to take lessons from you." Jacen retorted as the vehicle lept forward, peeling out of the parking garage, "You can instruct me on the best way to recharge you and then escape before anyone can identify us."

This was crazy! He was a law abiding citizen that had been an Army Ranger for years and then joined the NYPD. How in the world had he gotten dragged into vehicle theft? Part of the reason was because of the blond woman sitting beside him but another part was completely selfish. Jacen didn't want anyone knowing about his being a mutant. Not yet. That would change to many things in his life and right now he was to busy adjusting to himself to be able to adjust to everything around him changing as well.

"50th & Reno." Jacen confirmed without a moments hesitation as he turned in the correct direction. It was actually somewhat surprising on just how natural all of this felt. Not only was he able to manage driving a get away vehicle but he was also keeping a mental checklist of everywhere he had touched anything. A quick wipe down of the vehicle would destroy all prints and then there wouldn't be any evidence that he had even been in the car.

As the sirens finally fell silent, announcing the arrival of more police officer at the hospital, the two escapees were pulling their stolen Porsche into one of the few shadows parking spaces that seemed to be just out of sight of the convenience store cameras.

"Make sure you didn't leave blood on anything." Jacen instructed as he reached dug through his pockets looking for some type of cloth that he could use for a wipe down. Glancing outside the vehicle he saw an oily rag that had been thrown on the ground and he immediately opened the car door and snatched it up. "Tell me everywhere you touched." Jacen continued as he ran the rag over the steering wheel, door handle, shifter, seat belt, and instrument panel, "If we leave even a single fingerprint or drop of blood it'll be in the case file."

A few minutes later the pair was walking along the street, heading away from the 7-11 but back toward the hospital. Though it might have seemed odd to Jacen it made perfect sense. No police officer would expect their perp to head back in the direction of the scene of the crime. They almost always continue to flee away from the crime even after a vehicle dump. After about five minutes of walking Jacen was finally able to wave down a cab. As the man and woman slid across the somewhat sticky vinyl seats, Jacen provided his address and just that fast they were on the last leg of their getaway.

"You OK?" Jacen asked softly as he looked back over at Lily, his voice just loud enough for the young woman to hear over the sound of the sports talk radio station that their driver was listening to.

The feeling of the car slowing roused Lori. She hadn't realized that she was tired until she was waking up, but it had been a crazy day. An acceptable level of charge simmered inside of her, but that didn't mean she was free from the effects of the dangerous drain earlier... and the brawl itself was rather tiresome not to mention their heart flip-flopping escape in a stolen car. Hmm... if she had a diary, today really would have made for a good entry.

Lori climbed out of the car feeling a bit wooden from sleeping upright. She pointed out some places she though she'd touched, seat belt, door handle, glove box, and pulled all the hairs she could readily see from the seat itself before Jacen wiped that too. She didn't think about blood, in fact, she hadn't really thought that her IV wound never got patched up and runnels of it went down her elbow. Luckily she had her arms folded across her middle and that meant tacky blood stains on her peptobismol scrubs. It was probably dried before she got in the car anyhow.

Jacen directed them to walk toward the scene of the crime and Lori just yawned. It was her bed time. Seriously.

"Hey lookie there, little Lottie got herself a new boyfriend..."

Lori proceeded as if she hadn't heard a word of the cat call that came from the shadow of a building she knew to be a paper warehouse. That was the thing about ditching a car too close to her dad's mobile home. Sure, she knew every in and out of the place, but that meant the place often knew her ins and outs too. She didn't recognize the voice anyway. Had it been a friendly she might have... what? waved? She shook her head at herself. What was she doing? This was getting too weird.

Once safely in the cab, Lily was pleased to hear Jacen's address. He asked if she was okay and that alone was almost enough to make her cry. Her face contorted momentarily before the feeling passed and she was able to be strong enough to control her face. There was someone to take care of her. Maybe not forever, but all she needed right now was the knowledge that it was going to be okay. It didn't have to be just her.

She nodded somberly to Jacen before she lay her head against his knee, swollen eye down. She didn't have to fight just now. She didn't have to worry about the police because she one... or whatever Jacen was. Ex-military? She didn't have to wait for home, she didn't have to tip the cabby, she didn't have to mastermind anything. She did her thing and now it was someone else's turn to take the reigns. She closed her eyes and smelled the lingering cigarette smoke on his trousers from the bar and felt safe.

Sometimes a lot could be said without using any actual words. Jacen could tell that Lily was so tired that it was probably bordering on the edge of exhaustion. She had been through a lot today and there was no way she'd had time to recharge especially being near him. It was a strange feeling, wanting to be near someone to protect them but knowing that your very presence might make them weaker than normal.

As the two of them sat in the cab, Jacen's gaze was locked on Lily's face. At his question a range of emotion had gone over her face but still she hadn't said anything. She nodded, trying to tell him that she was OK but finally her energy ran out. Slowly leaning over, she stretched out on the seat and used his leg as a pillow. Without thinking he reached over and gently stroked her blond hair as he lifted his gaze back up to the road they were traveling. There were going to be things to deal with once the police decided to try and contact him at his house but until then he was going to focus on taking care of this young woman.

"We're here bub. That'll be $13.50!" The taxi driver's words broke through his silent contemplation. Jacen honestly wasn't sure exactly how much time had just passed but they had made it back to his apartment and it appeared that Lily was asleep.

"Keep the change." Jacen said quietly as he handed the taxi driver a ten and a five before stepping out of the cab and then walking back around to the other side. Reaching in he carefully took Lily into his arms, cradling her gently as he turned and walked to his building.

The night air was cool and even though he was walking with a beautiful woman in his arms, Jacen could feel his head beginning to clear. "A car... I stole a car." The man thought to himself as he went into the building and then slowly climbed the stairs up to the appropriate floor. The worst part about all of it was that Jacen didn't feel bad because he'd stolen a car, he felt bad because he didn't feel bad. Really all he'd done was what was necessary to keep Lily and his secret safe.

As soon as they were in the apartment Jacen made a bee line for the bedroom. While still holding the petite woman in one strong arm he pulled back the sheets and then carefully laid her down. In her worn out condition it was the work of a moment to slip off her shoes and then removed the now blood stained scrubs. Carefully pulling the sheets back up Jacen covered the young woman completely and then walked over to the closet to select a new change of clothes. Since there was no way he could let her leave in scrubs that would mean a shopping trip. Moving quickly Jacen stripped, doing his best to ignore how tired and achy his body felt before he pulled on a fresh pair of jeans and a tight black t-shirt. As he pulled back on his socks and shoes he glanced over at the clock and stifled a groan. Where in the world would he find a women's clothing store that was open at 4:30 in the morning?

Movement. Strong hands and warmth. The overwhelming smell of Jacen. Lily rolled to her side groggily and realized that she was in bed. Nude. Her one eye scrunched closed tightly and she pulled the sheets that smelled so good closer to her face.

Weight depressed the edge of the bed and she half rolled toward Jacen just from the tilt on the mattress. "You wha-?" She was sure he was talking to her she just couldn't seem to focus on his face and words. She ended up closing her good eye and thinking about the words as he repeated them. "Small." That about covered what size clothes she wore. "You don't have to get anything fancy. You'd never remember all those numbers anyway..." She started to roll over again, but apparently he had something to write with now. Had he left and come back? Was she missing time?

"Shirt, small. Pants, 6. Shoes, 7 and a half. Bra 36B thankyouverymuch." The end sort of slurred together, but he got the idea. She pulled the sheets over her head. She was done. Sleep now.

It took several minutes to get through to Lily what information he needed from her but finally her sleep fogged brain was able to communicate via rather slurred speech the sizes that he would need for shopping. For a man like Jacen that knew so little about shopping there was really only one option when it came to a late night clothing pick up like this and that was one of the dreaded big box stores. Some people hated them while others loved them. For Jacen, it really didn't matter. As long as he could get in and get what he needed at this time of night he would be extremely happy.

Stepping out of his apartment building and into the cold Jacen automatically reached for his truck keys when he suddenly realized that the vehicle wasn't here. "Damn!" He swore under his breath before turning and trudging over to the street. It appeared that his only option would be to get a cab.

***

Since Lily had seemed to be sleeping so soundly Jacen decided on taking the cab over to pick up his truck so after a short cab ride and a short drive in the truck he finally arrived at his shopping destination. By now Jacen knew that he had to be looking at least a little bleary eyed but he stoically pressed onward to complete the mission he had taken upon himself.

Walking through the shoe section was probably the easier part of the shopping trip and in short order he had picked out a pair of black leather sandals that would hopefully work for the blond back at his apartment in his bed. Trudging over to the clothing section Jacen did his best to pick out something stylish but with his foggy brain it was quite possible she would hate it. Heck... at least she'd have clothes. Finally settling on a pair of white jeans and a black shirt Jacen turned toward the department that he had been dreading. Even as he walked into the lingerie department he could feel his neck flushing ever so slightly. Picking out a bra and panties for a woman was never an easy task especially when you were trying to keep from conveying anything to sexy. Quickly settling on two pairs of panties, one white and one nude, as well as one black bra and one nude bra so that Lily would have her choices, Jacen turned and hurried for the check out lane. "Home... bed... hurry..." Was all that he could think as he made his way through the check out line.

***

"This is Jacen King, badge number 72170." He said in a weary voice over his cell phone as he called in to the watch commander, "I was involved in an incident this evening that sent me to the emergency room. Some detectives were there to question me but when all the excitement happened they left before I could talk to them. I won't be coming in to work tomorrow due to my injuries but I will come in a little later in the morning to file a report. I'm going home to sleep now so tell the detectives to stay away from my house so I can get some shut eye. Thanks."

With that important phone call out of the way Jacen stepped out of his truck and walked back into the building and up the stairs to his apartment. For a moment he almost left the shopping bags right out in the open but at the last minutes decided to carefully stow them in the guest bedroom closet. Hopefully that would keep Lily from slipping out without his realizing it so that they could at least talk for a little bit the next morning.

As he walked back into the bedroom it was apparent that she was still asleep as her blond hair fanned out over the pillow. Smiling rather tiredly Jacen went through the motions of stripping down to his boxers and then climbed into the sheets beside the beautiful woman. "Sleep well." He murmured drowsily before almost instantly drifting off to sleep.

The water soothed her. Each rush of wave rolled gently up against Lily's cheek and lapped at her eye, gentle kisses of foam and salt. The sounds were amazing. Grains of sand grinding and rubbing gently, the ebb and flow of the purest water she'd never seen, and the growly gurgling...

[/blockquote]

gurgling?

The far reaches of Lori's consciousness condensed into a fine, hot point. Her stomach was so empty that she moved her aching body to double over in order to make it feel like less of a hungry void. Food. She needed food in the worst way.

Her head had been laying against Jacen's bare chest. No doubt every calm breath was the reasoning behind the ocean scenery she imagined. She'd only seen that stuff on TV. Sure, she'd been out to Coney Island once, but Lori had never been to an honest to god beach. And the water... she gingerly touched her eye, realizing that both were indeed open.

Lily sighed and made her way to the bathroom. No shower until Jacen came back to the land of the living, but she could at least check out the damage. She had a beautiful shiner smack dab over her left eye. Some of the colors contained there, she wasn't sure she'd ever seen on human skin before. Damn that kitty packed a punch! The bruise was deep, showing mostly reds and purples that would continue to blossom until it reached sickly greens and yellow.

The bend of her arm ached and showed a lovely bruise around where she had taken out her own IV. Lily scraped at the crusted blood on her arm until she was mostly clean. Her ribs sported a perfectly straight line of a bruise and her knees and elbows were covered in raspberries, kisses from the concrete that were the achiest kind of scrapes. All in all she wasn't too hurt. Most of it was superficial or bruises and for that she was thankful.

Her next order of business was to find something to wear. She could have sworn Jacen had asked her about her bra size last night, but that meant he was either a weirdo-pervert or she was dreaming that he was a weirdo-pervert. Lily eked into Jacen's closet and pulled on a deep blue dress shirt that was long enough to cover most of her. She buttoned one or two buttons before giving up. She didn't have the manual dexterity just now for this kind of thing.

Finally, Lily made her way to the kitchen. She had been dreading this. Home economics was not her strong suit, cooking was only second to last on her list of "I can't do that." Last, of course, was laundry. So simple sounding, but so strange that things always turned out greyish pink when she washed them.

She poked around half-heartedly until she found some simple looking items to cook: pancakes and some medium sized shells. Not together of course, she had that much sense, but she was cooking the noodles as a sort of back up. Pancakes were a bit beyond her exptertise. But boiling water -- that was un-screw-up-able, right?

The sky was black and the dark clouds made it look like a starless night.
Ranger team Alpha was moving along the through the deserted city,
searching for the elusive target that they had been assigned to capture.
The informant was in one of these dark houses and without some sort
of sign to look for the team would be forced to execute a house to house
search. Right at that moment, King suddenly came to a halt, holding
up one hand in a closed fist to make all the rest of the team come to
a stand still as well. Something wasn't right. Something was off about this
whole situation and then it hit him. The scent in the air. Something was
burning! Was there an actual fire or just smoke? Could it be the signal?

Slowly Jacen began to wake up. He was still groggy and it took him several moments to realize that the scent of burning in his dream was very real and very present. Glancing over at the empty pillow beside him he yawned and slowly sat up, pivoting around so that he could settle his feet on the floor. Standing to his feet, Jacen paused a moment, doing his best to regain his balance before he began to walk out into the living room. The fact that he was only in his gray boxers either never penetrated his still weary mind or he just didn't care as he padded quietly out to the kitchen to find out exactly what Lily had gotten herself into.

The kitchen was the scene of a valiant battle that was going on between woman and pancake batter. Thus far it appeared that she had succeeded in making one... no two pancakes that on the outside appeared fit for human consumption but the pancake batter was obviously higher up on the score card. The trash can beside her bare legs showed evidence of many blackened shapes that may have been meant to be pancakes but had somehow missed the mark entirely. On the back of the stove a pot continued to boil, apparently forgotten by Lily as she focused on trying to somehow outwit the batter that was giving her so much trouble. It was amazing just how damn cute she looked as she stood there, concentrating on the food while wearing one of his dress shirts and nothing else. The way it flapped open in the front, revealing some skin but not all was almost more tempting than if she had been standing there nude.

"Don't cook much breakfast huh." Jacen observed in his gravely morning voice that wouldn't disappear until after he had drunk something. It was rather amusing to watch but as he felt his own stomach beginning to rumble he knew that it was necessary for him to step in and assist the blond warrior.

"Keep working on those pancakes while I see about scrambling up some eggs." Jacen said with a yawn as he turned away from Lily and made his way over to the coffee maker. In just a few minutes time the coffee filter was in place and filled with ground dark roast Columbian coffee and the tank was filled with water. As he turned back toward the refrigerator the sound of the coffee pot beginning to percolate could already be heard.

"Good morning by the way." Jacen said as nicely as he could with his morning voice as he began to whip up eggs in a bowl and place yet one more frying pan on the stove. A few minutes later, after spraying the pan with some non-stick cooking spray and pouring the now whipped eggs into the pan, he once again turned his gaze toward the pot that was still boiling on the back of the stove. "Uh... if you don't mind my asking, what's in the pot?"

Pancakes were a stupid idea. Honestly who invented a glutinous substrate bonded by viscous fowl gametes!? She could diagram the chemical bonds in pancakes but she couldn't keep them from burning... or being undercooked. Lily flapped yet another burned on one side, still wet on the other into the trash.

"Don't cook much breakfast huh." Lily jumped flinging a molten hot, partially coagulated pancake onto her foot. She kicked, stubbing her toe and sticking the gooey pancake onto the front of the oven. One long drawn out curse word rang out in her mind.

Lily tossed the spatula onto the counter and followed after it, pulling herself up onto the counter and off her feet. She grabbed a paper towel from next to her and cleaned off her foot. At least it wasn't sparking too. Jacen proximity gave her at least that. "I don't cook." She admitted this fact of life as if it weren't obvious already.

She was so hungry and none of this was working out. Now Jacen was awake and she had two pancakes. Lily grabbed one of the rubbery flapjacks and gnawed at it. It was cold and very heavy, but she gobbled it up like it was everything a pancake should have been. At least The eggs were smelling nice. Jacen encouraged her to stick with the pancakes though. Lily dabbed at her foot again before sliding back to her feet.

"Good morning by the way." Lily stopped with just her toes touching the ground. Good morning? She breathed out slowly. "Yeah..." She honestly, couldn't remember the last time she'd stuck around until morning... let alone gotten a good morning. She had to conquer those pancakes. Lori stirred the batter once more and got ready to pour out another cake.

"Uh... if you don't mind my asking, what's in the pot?"

"Oh Shi--!" She grabbed the pot handles (which of course were hot and illicit more curses) and dragged the pot off the burner. She flipped the wrong burner off (confound the knobs and their ambiguous diagrams!) and poked at the mush with her pancake spatula. "Noodles." She lamented. "It was backup incase the pancakes didn't pan out..." She glared at the pile of bubbling mush and wondered if it were at all edible. One pancake, no matter how dense, was not going to quiet the monster in her tummy.

As soon as Jacen said the words, 'Good Morning' it seemed as though Lily froze and even though she did her best to keep her face neutral he thought that he could detect just a note of uncertainty in her expression. "She's not used to hanging around for the morning after." Jacen thought as he began to busy himself with the scrambled eggs, "Probably also one of the reasons she's not great with cooking breakfast foods."

Jacen knew that he was no expert chef or cook but honestly... how hard was it to scramble eggs or cook pancakes? Though as he continued to watch Lily struggle the idea of toast instead of pancakes was becoming more and more appealing.

As Lily scrambled to retrieve her extremely over cooked pasta and stared at the bubbling water as though her best friend had betrayed her, Jacen did his best not to laugh. It looked like it was time for him to step in and officially take over breakfast preparations. "You," Jacen said with a gravely chuckle as he took the pot of pasta from her and unceremoniously dumped it out in the sink, "fix yourself some coffee or something and go sit in the living room. I'll finish up here."

After a gentle nudge to get Lily moving any direction that involved her leaving the stove behind, Jacen turned his focus back on breakfast. It wouldn't be fancy but it would deffinately be filling. There were currently eight eggs cooking in the pan and once he had disposed of the last of the pancake batter he moved on making eight slices of toast. Sure it might be a little bit of over kill but Jacen knew that he was really hungry and from the looks of things so was his blond friend.

"I think there's some ham in the fridge..." Jacen muttered to himself as he swiftly cleaned the mess out of Lily's pancake pan and then places it back on the burner. After quickly moving the eggs around to keep them from burning he walked over to the fridge and after a few moments of searching found a package of thick sliced deli ham. Grabbing out a handful of slices Jacen tossed them into the hot pan, creating an enjoyable sizzle as soon as the meat landed.

"If you're ever here for breakfast again, we're going out." Jacen said resolutely, "I'm not a great cook either."

She was exiled from the kitchen. It definitely wasn't the first time, and probably wouldn't be the last time either. Lori had spent her time developing other skill sets. She didn't need to know how to cook or entertain guests or nonsense like that. She could do plenty of other things that were more complex. She just had to remind herself of that fact as she poured herself some coffee and drowned it in sugar. She didn't care for milk or cream or any of that, just combination sugar and caffeine straight to the veins, please. Most preferably she'd put some downers in with her uppers, but why waste the good stuff?

Lily gripped the warm cup between her hands and went to settle at the table. She didn't like this... this feeling. This morning after with no night before. This help and this morning. It was all wrong. This was breaking too many rules for her to feel okay about it. Next thing Jacen would be taking her to meet his parents and they'd be talking about having babies. Om my god, she had to leave right this instant.

Leaving her coffee at the table, Lily went back to the bedroom. What was she doing here? She had to pace as she thought about this logically. He helped her. She had... helped him learn he was a mutant, but that wasn't worth much. Any moron with an x-gene could have done that. He gave her the option to shower. Was she getting too attached to the idea? She'd gone grimy for years now and it didn't seem to both most people.

She turned, abandoning her pacing and going to visit the bathroom. A good hard look faced her from the mirror. She was not doing this. She was not going to like or depend on Jacen. She was going to use him for the showers and if she had to ditch him later, there would be no tears. She nodded at herself and touched her raccoon eye. Lori did fine on her own. She didn't need someone now, and she wouldn't need someone tomorrow.

The eggs were coming along just fine and as their scent combined with the odor of frying ham, percolating coffee, and toasting bread, Jacen could feel his mouth beginning to water. Nourishment was what he required and this was going to fit the bill perfectly. "Gettin hungry Li..." He began to ask as he glanced up to find a coffee cup resting on the table but no blond woman in sight.

"If she ran out on me again then I swear... next time it's a hotel room!" Jacen grumbled under his breath as he turned away from the pans in order to pour himself a large cup of black coffee. Continueing to mutter and grumble unintelligible words to himself Jacen turned back around and focused on getting the food plated in bowls or plates large enough to contain them. The eggs were done but perhaps just a touch runny and the ham was beginning to hit the stage of having its edges be that dark brown that is almost black. Anyone looking at the food would see that it was obvious this was not done by an expert chef by right at the moment Jacen really didn't care.

In just a few moments Jacen had the table set with mismatched plates, forks and knives. In between the plates was a large serving platter that held both buttered toast as well as fried ham and a chipped serving bowl that contained the slightly runny scrambled eggs. Sitting down Jacen went ahead and served himself, doing his best to ignore that fact that Lily was nowhere to be seen.

"Food's ready!" Jacen called, his voice noticably clearer and less gravely now that he'd starting drinking some coffee. Not bothering to wait for a response he began to dig in to the food, doing his best to pointedly ignore whether Lily decided to respond or not. If this was the way she wanted to thank him for saving her life by giving her a charge and then getting her out of the hospital then so be it. It would be a helpful reminder that she was just a cheap booty call for when he needed a fix.

The call rang out for food. Not so bad... She could do this. Lori poked around in vain for a hair tie. Oh what she would give for a hair tie right about now. Lori looked for anything that would cover up her horrid black eye, but of course this was a man's bathroom and the most helpful thing was lotion. She could maybe put on lotion near Jacen...

Lori scuttled in for a breakfast rendezvous, not at all expecting such a rigid Jacen. Was the fact that she noticed tension between his shoulders an indication that she was caring too much? She took her seat quietly, unsure of what to say. Thank you? She didn't say thank you... usually she didn't have a reason to. Sorry? She wasn't quite sure that was appropriate either.

She eyed the reddish marks on his exposed skin. "How are you...?" Was about the best she could do for polite conversation. She wanted to know the cat hadn't gotten him too bad at least.

She sipped timidly at her coffee for a moment before spooning out some eggs for herself. He was no world class chef, but at least the apartment hadn't burned down. God, why did she care if this place went up in flames at all? She'd set her own house on fire and it had bothered her less. Lori munched the bread and eggs feeling quite miserable. She had to get out of here.

So she was still here. That was... something. Honestly Jacen wasn't completely sure whether he should be happy or upset about that fact. A part of him was glad that Lily hadn't just slipped out this time but another part of him almost wished she had. In a lot of ways things would be easier if he only thought of the woman as a mistress and not someone he might really develop feelings for. "I've got to much on my plate right now." Jacen tried to reason to himself as he took another bite of eggs, "I can't handle a relationship too."

As Lily asked her question he could feel some of the tension releasing from his shoulders. They were still keeping thing relatively impersonal and that was just fine. No need to talk about feeling or try and draw the other person into deeper water. Swift flowing and shallow so that they could enjoy the ride without having to worry about drowning. That was the way things should be.

"The cat didn't do to much damage." Jacen replied, glancing up and offering Lily a wry smile before turning his gaze back down to the eggs, "The scratches on the chest were pretty much superficial but she managed to take a chunk out of the arm. It'll heal but I'll probably end up with yet another 'manly' scar."

Dropping the conversation for a few moment, Jacen fell silent as he focused on quickly downing a decent sized portion of ham, eggs, and coffee, along with two slices of toast.

"What about you?" Jacen finally asked quietly as he toyed with a small pile of eggs that were still on his plate. Lifting his gaze back up to the blond woman he raised an eyebrow questioningly as he focused his gaze soley on her face while pointedly ignoring all the skin that was still bare, "I know they got the eye and drained your reserves. You OK other than that?"

Eventually Jacen would have to go get the bags of clothes he had purchased for the young woman but he wasn't quite ready to let her leave. This time HE would make the choice on when she got to leave. It wasn't her running out on him, this time he was in control and he was going to get at least a little bit of polite conversation before he sent her on her way.

She nodded at Jacen's question. "I have some nice bruises, but it's all superficial." A rather limp grin graced her lips, but it was better than the uncertainty that had plagued her earlier. "I've had worse... not worse than the drain, but that was a pretty tight spot." She tucked her blonde hair behind her ear and though she did not feel that she could meet Jacen's eyes for some reason, she did feel the need to shovel breakfast down her gullet.

Jacen was always good for a meal. He must have thought her a starving ragamuffin for all she gobbled up in front of him. Lori relaxed a bit, feeling better the more she ate. Of course Jacen was still not interested in something deeper. They were still civil here. They were still adults who could avoid their feelings and lie to themselves if they so chose. That made some flutter of panic die down in her chest. Oh man, actual relationships were so beyond her, and she just wasn't ready to quit showering... speaking of...

"We're still vomity smelling aren't we?" She realized the puffiness around her eye had made one of her nostrils unable to take in enough air to smell. She prodded at her tender eye again muttering to herself all the while. "I am going to get that cat..."

She was bringing up a subject that would lead to yet another shower incident and to be quite honest, Jacen wasn't sure that was really where he wanted things to go at this moment. Obviously noone would ever here him complain about that sort of situation if that was where things did head but something just seemed off today.

"I expect one of the doctors gave you a sponge bath when you were out because you smell fine." He replied with a slight chuckle before looking back at his plate and shoveling down the last forkful of eggs. "I on the other hand, had the priviledge of remaining conscious so there was no sponge bath in my hospital experience." Jacen continued as he stood up and walked back into the kitchen, placing his now empty plate and in the sink. For a moment he stood there, trying to come to a firm decision about what he should do. He needed to shave and shower. Those were the items that must take top priority but even as he turned away from the sink and back toward Lily he felt his resolve wavering. There was an obvious opportunity to get this hot blond in a hot steamy shower for the second time. Could he really turn it down?

"I need to shave and get rid of some of this scruff." He said quietly, his eyes searching the young woman for a moment even as he gave in to the desires that had plagued mankind for a millenia, "After that, I'll be available to help wash some of the tangles out of your hair, but only if you're interested of course."

There, he had given in to temptation and had extended an invitation for the blonde beauty to once again join him in the shower but there was no reason to just stand there like an insecure little boy waiting to see if a girl will go to the school dance with him. No, Jacen was ever inch the manly man so without the slightest hesitation he turned and strode toward the bathroom. Dishes and leftover food could be dealt with at a later time. Even showers and the naked women that participated in them could be enjoyed at a later time. For now he had a mission and that was to get rid of the pesky whiskers that had come in over night.

Within a few minutes Jacen had spread a thick lather of shaving cream over his face and started the faucet running with the hottest water possibly. Dipping his raze under the water in order to slightly heat the blades Jacen stared at himself in the mirror. "Hypocrite." He thought as he lifted the razor and slowly scraped it across his skin, separating the prickly hairs from the skin below.

For some men, shaving is a chore. But for Jacen it was more like a therapy. Along with removing the stubble that had begun to show, it was as if he were slicing away the unease that tried to cloud his mind. Here, in what probably amounted to the most dangerous situation than thousands of men would face in their day, he was in complete control. The razor blade moving across his skin wasn't the slightes bit scary even though it passed within millimeters of vital arteries. Finally, with the shaving finished, Jacen felt much more like himself. As his left hand moved to set the razor down on the counter his right moved to shut off the running faucen but suddenly he froze. There was something on the floor partially hidden behind the toilet. Leaving the water running Jacen walked over and picked up the knobby leather wallet that he had never seen in his life. "What the hell?" He murmured to himself as he flipped it open to see an ID for a woman he had never seen before. Who could have dropped this in his bathroom? Ever since meeting Lily he hadn't had any women over so that meant... Lily.

Quickly stowing the wallet in the cabinet under his sink Jacen turned off the faucet water and opened the bathroom door as he glanced out toward the living room. "Your options are open Lily." He called, doing his best to keep his voice light and cheerful, "The shower is in here or there are bags of clothes for you in the guest bedroom closet." Without another word Jacen stripped off his own boxers and then walked over to the shower and turned on the water so that the room almost instantly began to steam up. Whether a certain blond joined him or not, he WAS going to feel clean!