She had missed this place immensely, though it was no longer the bullet ridden and nature choked abode that she’d squatted in. Indeed, it had come a long way and taken a goodly amount of cash, but it was all hers. The plant mutant found herself relaxing one day, lounging on the chaise she had decorated the living room with, channel surfing in her boredom. Food TV… Music… Chuck N—eew, History – eh.,, She clicked to local news, and left it there.

From that point, she’d head to the kitchen and pop a bowl of popcorn with the expectation of putting a DVD in and relaxing for the rest of the night. As soon as she returned, she set the bowl of popcorn on the end table and meandered over to the shelf to pick out a movie. When she didn’t find anything she liked right away, she picked at random, flopped on the chaise, and started the tedious process of picking the cellophane off of the case.

Her attention was everywhere tonight, but then it was rapt on the tv when a particular piece of news caught her attention. She stopped what she was doing immediately, the dvd dropping from her hand as it went lax. She couldn’t believe her eyes…

*Jupiter news story insert*

Part of her was rejoicing, and then the other part was crying. He was alive, the one she’d given up on for dead. Oh my god, he is alive! She stood up and fumbled for her phone, punching in some digits. When she reached the person she wanted, she gave him instructions to bring himself to where she was, and after hanging up, she grabbed for a pen and her pad of paper.

“Jupiter,
Please meet me. You’ll know why when you arrive. Transportation will be provided.
All My Love
Layla”

He probably wouldn’t know her as Layla, after all, that was just her stage name. But she didn’t want him to immediately guess it was her, she wanted it to dawn on him once he saw the house. Not only that, but she needed to meet him on her grounds, because she was liable to wreck her bike as nervous as she suddenly felt.

She took a deep breath, and when her former body guard knocked on the door, she handed him the note, which she rubbed the smell of roses onto. Hopefully the message wasn’t too cryptic, she just couldn’t gather her thoughts to send a long letter. It was all happening so fast…

And then the messenger was gone, and she, who stood there in the doorway breathing heavily, turned on heel and went upstairs to change into something besides her night clothes, she chose a dress that looked a lot like the one he had bought her when he’d taken her from this place. And then, she sat there on the piano bench, waiting anxiously.

Jupiter walked to the lobby after splashing some water in his face, changing out of the previous nights clothing and into some fresh jeans and a new white tee. He made his way up to the lobby to see what exactly Lisa wanted, she sounded annoyed and he had learned that messing with Lisa could have certain consequences, while not direct, she could make her self a spitefully indirect pain in the ass.

Once he arrived at the lobby he came to see a rather impatient looking man staring at Lisa, Jupiter immediately sized him up, he looked like he'd be capable in a fight, a favorite to win in most situations...but if he was human, he wouldn't hold up around here. Jupiter rolled his neck and looked to the man.

"What?" He questioned, obvious annoyance at his demeanor implied.

The man turned and held out a note, when Jupiter reached for it he retracted it and added be fore he relinquished the paper. 'You are Jupiter I presume?"

Jupiter nodded and snatched the paper from the man's hands. He opened it and immediately took in a familiar scent. but the name was all wrong, the words were nice and almost as flowery as the smell. He only knew one woman that would send him something like this and her name was not Layla....but what did he have to lose?

"I'll be right back, don't wait in the lobby." he stated coldly to the messenger. He turned to get himself the rest of the way dressed catching a smirk on Lisa's lips as the foriegn male stocked out of the sanctuary. He'd have to ask what he did later. for now he would take the brownies points the statement won him.

He went to his room, Threw on a pair of socks and boots, then he brushed his teeth, all the while wondering who this Layla was and why exactly he had all of her love, he was excited by the prospect that it was an ill advised trap.

She waited nervously, rubbing her palm and pacing. Her bare feet padded over the gleaming floor, and she took a deep breath. Xavia wondered what he was thinking… He was probably going to be mad at her for not being clear in the note, but she wasn’t exactly lying either… She really was this Layla that she had asked him to meet. God, it had been so long since they had seen each other… Was he any different? Was he the same?

The singer sat at the piano again and started to play, trying to relax. But even then, her fingers fumbled. With a curse, she shoved away, darting upstairs to the attic, climbing out on the trellis and onto the roof. She perched on the peak, crouching and folding her hands under her chin and peering out into the road.

It seemed like forever had passed her by, when really, it was increments of 15 minutes when she looked at her watch. Was he even coming? She hadn’t instructed the former body guard to call her back. Damn it for her forgetting!

She swung off the roof and back into the house, quickly heading down the stairs to the foyer again. “Hi, Jupiter… No… Hello there…” This time she was posed in front of the mirror, talking to her reflection… “Hello Mr. Red. Oh god, cheesy!” She raked her fingers through her hair and groaned at herself. “Xavia, silly ass, talking to mirror like crazy girl.” Heavy sigh.

Jupiter rolled his neck once more and preceded out to the lobby, He winked at Lisa on the way out. “Don’t wait up for me. I might be out late.”

She offered a nod and a returned quip. “Don’t come back if you have to bring him.”

“I can’t see that being an issue.” Jupiter stated with a wave and exited his home.

He went outside to see the male leaning up against a white SUV, nondescript but fitting for the sour man. He was still curious as to what he did to earn Lisa’s ire. He wouldn’t ask though. He simply opened the passenger side door, slid the seat as far back as it would go and entered the car.

And they were off, He recognized the neighborhood as soon as they entered it, and was more wary as they neared the house. Someone was messing with him, and might have found the one thing that was vulnerable to him. He hadn’t been able to find Xavia after searching for Syn, when she disappeared. It seemed like it was an epidemic of women in the Abyssi’s lives that were coming up missing.

He looked at the man in the driver’s seat. Deciding that he would be the first to feel his wraith if this was all some sort of set up. The Suv pulled up and after he exited the Car pulled away as quickly. Maybe it was the looks he kept giving him.

He stood at the edge of the sidewalk leading up to the obviously remodeled home. He wasn’t sure if he was properly prepared to meet this, Layla. And so he stood at the curb with his indecision rolling back and forth.

Heard the SUV and took a deep breath. He was there! It kinda felt like her throat closed around her heart, she stood there frozen in place for a moment. For a few moments, she looked toward the door, wondering what he was thinking. Xavia slowly walked to the stained glass door, flipping the porch light on. He’d be able to see her form through the panes, slightly distorted by the shapes and pictures. She hit the latch, and pulled the door open, taking shallow breaths.

And then she looked toward him, pupils dilating and contracting a little, and she licked at her suddenly dry lips.

She was obviously different, her hair was blonde and straightened, her eyebrows sculpted professionally. But she wasn’t wearing make up, she didn’t need it. The breeze picked up a little, lifting the hem of the dress a little so it fluttered around her legs. And she just… Stood there, staring at him, not knowing what to say.

But then she choked out his name and started to walk toward him, too shaky to run the way she wished she could at this moment. When she stopped walking, she was right there in front of him, tilting her head back. A myriad of emotion crossed over her expression, from pain to love, anger, and astonishment.

Her hand lifted to touch his brow, her own puckering as she swallowed noisily. But she quickly snatched her hand away and turned on heel, marching a few steps away. Over her shoulder, she said, “I gave you up for dead.” By the hitching of her voice, he would probably be able to tell she was trying not to start crying.

The last time she had seen him and touched him was the day they were separated in Romania, before Beledodia had put her through many days of torture and had made her life a living nightmare. She wasn’t ever going to be the same since that day.

Jupiter was and always would be confident of one thing, in this world he was at the top of the food chain, things didn't kill him, they only crumpled in his hands. The only thing that had hurt him was the woman before him. One day she was there the next she was gone, a note left in what he thought was a hurried version of her hand writing she was going and not coming back.

Jupiter stared at the woman as she approached him, emotions he wouldn't have been able to begin to decipher ran across the womans face, he had currently mastered two emotions. Angry and not angry.

Jupiters baritone rang hollow, confused and hurt. why should she think he was dead? it was only a little war. "I, In Romainia your note said you were leaving and not to follow." He took a step to follow her and stopped again, he wouldn't force the situation and he was pretty sure she was shaking with anger. Why invite him here with all her love under a false name only to be angry with him? Women were confusing!

She turned again to look at him, eyes kinda glistening, “I was on a mission… I wasn’t allowed to tell you where I was to go…” She was truthful as she spoke. “But let us talk in the house…” she said, and then reached out as if to take his hand, hers clearly shaking. But because she didn’t know if he would or not, she sighed and dropped her hand. The woman then moved toward the open front door of the house, pausing to make sure if he was following her or not, which he was.

Regardless, she walked to stand by the piano, touching the top of it and waiting for a few moments before she started to speak again. “I know I should have told you I was leaving America, but I was so scared. I know I should have just… Trusted you, but at the time, I was so confused, Jupiter.” Loud swallow, “I left for Romania because I signed up for a mission. I am not sure if I can give you the names of the people whom I was to meet with from the states, but there was a man named Beledodia in Romania whom I was to meet with my partner. You found me in the hotel, and then I wrote that note for you not to follow me because I wanted to do something I shouldn’t have… I wanted to call my parents and let them know I lived… But then those people took me.” She pivoted, wiping at her face and licking her lips, “And then I saw you again in the camp… And you wanted me to run, but I couldn’t. Beledodia had men take me from there.”

This is where she choked up, her head shaking a little. “He… Hurt me. A lot. He did unspeakable things.” She had to sit down then, and did so on the bench, going silent for a moment or two so she could breathe. “I don’t remember how long he had me, but I don’t want to. I forgot everything, even you after some time.” Her eyes closed and she licked her lips again. When she opened those eyes, the unshed tears managed to push one passed, and she said, “I spent a year being another person altogether because that sick…. Bastard,” that last word was spat out with the most genuine venom ever. “Took everything I ever loved and knew away from me.” And then she laughed bitterly.

The moment he saw tears in her eyes and realized that she wasn’t angry with him but hurt and still hurting he closed on her and held the little blonde to his chest, He listened quietly, calmly letting her speak through her tale. Listening to every moment of her heart wrenching journey was painful. Jupiter had one very important question to pose to her.

“Does this man still breathe?” The intent in the question wasn’t even slightly masked. “ There would be repercussions to the actions he made if he dared to still breath. Beledodia of Romania had better hope he had already managed to die. Hold her to his chest and petting her back hoping the action was appropriate and not mocking on some level. He wasn’t used to all this nurturing business.

His heart soared to know she was alive, but to know how she had suffered was infuriating, he would leave today to right the situation. He would tear Romania and any nation hiding him apart before he would rest.

“As far as I know, he has died. I don’t even know, but he hasn’t made a move to find me.” She let him pull her to him and wept openly now, but made no move to embrace him because she didn’t know what else to do at that point. “I… Don’t want you to go after him if he is… It is done now. If he is stupid enough to come here…” she trailed off and pulled away, a strange glint in her eyes, “I owe him.”

Taking a deep breath, she leaned into him again, and finally hugged the big man. “I am so sorry.” She choked out, the tears falling more heavily. “I couldn’t even… Look for you when I came back. I became a woman named Layla, a singer. And then I looked for clues when I had the money, just to know who I am. I wasn’t expecting to remember everything… The things I didn’t remember from before I met you, and the things I had forgotten in Romania. I remembered the man who sent his lackeys to kidnap me, and everything else. And I was so frightened…”

“I ran away again, but I used my work to do it… And I spent some of my money on private investigators to look for you, but they had said it wasn’t likely that you were alive after almost two years! So I lost hope…” She pulled away and plopped back down on the piano bench, swiping at the tears in an irritated manner. She had managed not to cry anymore for months, but when he showed up, it all flooded out. “My pappa was very sick because he thought I was dead, too.” Now she was really angry as she spoke, “It was so… important… that I went to see my family. Thank God that I was able to show him I still lived, because he may have died suffering because of that son of a…” She trembled and pounded her fist into her palm.

“If that is what you truly wish...I’ll refrain from hunting him, but I make no promises for what I might do to him or anyone else named Beledodia, if I happen to cross them.” He shook his head and pet the woman more as she wept into his chest and told her tale, told of the effects the bastard she had just pardoned rendered in her life. “I am here now.” He tilted her chin to look at him. with a slight smile on his face he advised her. “I think perhaps you should ask for a refund from these P.I’s, If they can’t find someone as big as me, they weren’t looking.”

He wiped away the tears on her checks, brushing them away with a gentleness that was profound in one that was typically destructive. “You confused me with your new name. I wasn’t sure what to expect until I saw the house even then, it has been so long, too long. I have missed you. Enough tears little flower." He leaned down and placed a kiss on her forehead. "Tell me more of your life as Layla."

She didn’t stop crying immediately, but once she did, she felt like she finally had closure. Her head eventually lifted off of his chest, and she gazed up at him. “I missed you too,” she said, pulling away to grab for some Kleenex and clean up her face. She then indicated the couch, inviting him to have a seat, and she would sit in the chair so she could face him. She would tell him the story whether he stood or sat.

“I woke up in a strange place. There was a kind old man who took care of me and nursed me back to health. I didn’t know who I was or where, it was like being born as a whole new person.” Xavia rubbed the scars on the back of her hand, ones she usually covered with concealer when she was working, and sighed a little. “I didn’t know why, but New York is the place that drew me… When I told him, he was happy to pay for my way back to the States. I don’t quite remember if he is the one who chose my name because I needed ID to get home, or if my manager chose it for me. I had a shady manager, and he worked me hard, but I was starting to turn into the woman known as Layla.” She paused, standing up and leaving him for a few moments to get a couple of imported beers. She brought the open bottles back, set one on the mosaic coffee table for him, and then sat back in the chair. It was rare for her to drink anymore, she usually used the beer for cooking, but it was something she thought he might like and she felt like having a drink tonight.

“Once I started gaining popularity, I also started gaining unwanted attention. The thugs started to come out around Christmas time, and that is when I learned that I wasn’t just Layla. I just wanted to know who I was by that point. I started asking around, and things got worse and worse, and I learned that my manager found out about someone looking for me as Xavia and that I looked like her, and that because I didn’t know who I was, I had to be her. The little weasel got what was coming to him when they tried to kidnap me from my hotel suite.”

“It was a few months more before I remembered everything: my life as a child, the things the man who kidnapped me from my home had done to me, coming to New York, you, Romania… Everything. It was all too much, so I took the offer to tour the country. I felt more secure in the public eye.”

Jupiter listened in outraged silence, He wasn’t typically good at hiding his anger, but for once, he set aside the urge to kill all those that wronged her, He would need more information anyhow. If he got it, he would decide then if he should carve a fiery path through her past that would render, the shady manager, the old man, any and every thug that ever looked at her wrong. he popped open his beer and then hers, He took a long drink from his and appreciated the import and could make a decent guess at where it was from without looking at the label on the beer.

“You know me well enough that it is going to be hard for me to not go and avenge the wrongs put against you. I’ve missed you, I proud of you for surviving it, but that you had to experience it, is unacceptable.” His fingers flexed in and out of fists. His muscles flared. “If you want a room at the sanctuary, I can get you one, your house is beautiful, but there is a strength in numbers there that is matched in few other places.”

He didn’t know what else to say to the delicate flower before him, what could he say? The only comfort he could offer her, she had already refused on the worst of them. why wouldn’t she spare the lesser evils.He could ensure that nothing like this happened to her again, if she let him.

She shook her head softly and lifted her chin with pride, smiling at Jupiter for the first time since filling him in on all of the things that had happened. “Jupiter, I am tired of running away from everyone and everything scary. I bought this house because it stood for something, I bought it because even though it has bad memories, it also has really wonderful ones.” Xavia stood and moved over to him, cupping at his big face with her little hands.

“I know this seems like…. A lot to ask for… But will you trust me?” She would not blame him if he said no. After all, she had left him a few times, even though they were with the best of intentions. “I don’t want to run anymore.” And then she leaned against him again, resting her cheek on his chest.

Her eyes drifted closed and she snuggled closer, and she said softly, “I have missed you more than you know.”

Jupiter nodded. “ I trust you. But I also want to shelter you from all of that. I don’t want you to run, but I want the world to know better than to chase you. It’s not that I don’t like the house, I just want you safe as you can be and I think that is at the sanctuary, but if you don’t like that. We are going to train you to defend yourself.”
A sad smile settled on his face. “I have missed you as well.” He just wished the reason for the missing wasn’t so traumatic. He nuzzled the little woman slightly as she got close. His hands found her sides and he held her tight to him.

As he wasn’t sure what all happened to wood nymph he wouldn’t move a single step further than a light peck and tight embraces. He didn’t want to cross some line that could have been traumatizing. He wanted to ensure she knew she was safe here.

When Jupiter merely kissed her cheek, she didn’t move yet. But she kind of laughed and pulled back to look at his face, “I do not want to give up this house when I have worked so hard to make it a home. But I will make compromise. I will let you teach me the ways of the warrior, if you try to become more at ease with me staying in my house.” Xavia looked into his eyes, she was more serious than he may have ever known her to be. In fact, now that the tears were dry, he might notice how much healthier she looked than ever before, her hair was shiny, her skin was smoother, her eyes more alight. She had healed in a lot of ways!

Whether he answered or not, she’d lean in and kiss him. No, no trauma. No fear, she just gave him what he was afraid to do because she wasn’t the fragile little flower he thought her to be anymore, she was as strong as ever. And it was a lovely kiss.