Link: Every Day Is Your Last Title Page and Description

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I spent my next Liberty with Erica. She talked while I listened and messed with her hair. I learned a lot about Jack, things he never told me. I understand why he'd kept it to himself, though. He'd endured so much pain, it's amazing he was only as nuts as he seemed to be! No one want's that to show.

I learned a lot about Rich, too. She didn't talk as animatedly about him as she did Jack, but she knew all his secrets! I don't know what it is about being a beautician, but women will bear their souls to us the way guys do with a bartender. They tell us things they won't even tell their shrink!

For Jack's part, he was just so damnably, blissfully, innocently, ignorant of Erica's feelings toward him it was hard to watch! It wasn't that Jack didn't see her that way because she was younger, but because of something much more basic. She was his best friend's sister, and that made her almost like his own. It's a little creepy if you think too hard about it!

Jack wasn't one to look a gift horse in the mouth, though. Erica loved him, and had loved him through some of the worst times of his life. He wasn't about to let that get away, no matter who she was.

---

Following Erica up the stairs, Jack was in a bit of a daze. He had a hard time reconciling that the girl ahead of him was 'Buttons'; the girl who was always there. Heading into an empty bedroom, she turned on a light and pulled him in, closing and locking the door behind her. Jack gulped nervously as she did.

"Do you know how long I've waited for this, Jack?" she asked, moving to him slowly as he tried backing away anxiously.

Smiling weakly with a quiver in his voice, Jack tried to humor his way out of whatever it was he'd gotten himself into. "Few minutes? An hour? What exactly are we talking about, here?" Downstairs he'd been happy to make Richard squirm by hitting on her, and honestly that's all he thought it was, Erica messing with her brother, but when he hadn't known who it was that Brooke had set him up with, he'd been mesmerized by her. Now that they were alone and he knew who she was, there was no one to impress but her, and he realized she knew him too well for false bravado. His knees hit the back of the bed as he continued to back away from her, causing him to fall back and sit.

Slowly, Erica walked to him, her hips swaying to draw his attention. Smiling that she could make him this nervous, she settled her mind and desires and stopped in front of him. "First, there's one thing I want more than anything, Jack. Something I've waited years to do!" Pulling him up to stand again, she wrapped her arms around him and tucked her chin over his shoulder. "I've missed you!" she almost cried.

Relief washed over him as he hugged his Buttons in return. "I... I missed you too, Buttons! Erica! Sorry!"

"It's OK, Jack!" she laughed. "You can call me Buttons! I don't mind much, anymore!" She pulled back from her hug and regarded him. "I've grown up, though!"

"So I noticed!" Jack complimented her. He still could hardly believe that the stunning woman in front of him was the same girl he'd nearly trampled more than a decade ago. Half laughing, he couldn't take his eyes off of her. "You look, amazing!"

Guiding the both of them to sit next to each other on the stranger's bed, Erica smiled and blushed. "Thanks! That means a lot coming from you!"

"Me?" he asked confusedly. "What's so important about my opinion?"

"You really don't know, do you?" she sighed lovingly.

Trying to figure out what she meant, the words she'd said sparked a memory of the day he'd woken up from the coma. His eyes wrinkled up in memory of the pain. He'd slowly begun to regain consciousness, following the sound of the voice, and after all this time the words finally started to make sense.

"So anyway, that's all I've been doing in school. Just trying to get through each day while Mom's at Aunt Edina's is hard enough without all the kids in my classes asking me how Richie got put in jail. I hate him for what he did to you, but even so, I don't like him being in so much trouble. I... I guess that's all. I love you so much, Jack. You really don't know, do you? I wish I could tell you, but I guess you'll never know."

"You were in the room with me, when I woke up." he commented. "I heard a voice, I mean, before I was really awake." He paused and his eyes went wide. "It said... No! No, you said, 'I love you'!" Even as he said the words, a thousand memories flooded his brain. Every time he'd seen Erica, from the first day they met all the way up until the day before he and Richard had left for North Carolina, and it all started to make sense.

"Erica, how long..." he began to ask.

"Since forever!" she interrupted with a happy note in her voice.

"I... I wish I'd..." He stopped as Erica put a finger on his lips.

"It wouldn't have mattered, Jack. Back then I was too young for you." She looked down as she spoke, then looked into his eyes. "But not anymore!" she smiled.

Swallowing hard, Jack looked into her happy eyes. "Erica, I... I care for you, a lot! Hell! I love you! You're my Buttons! My miracle girl! But... but you're Rich's sister!"

Scooting next to him until their hips touched, she lowered her voice to a sultry whisper. "But I'm not your sister, Jack. I love Rich, don't get me wrong, but..." She gathered her courage to say the words she'd spoken so many times, but never to his face. "I... I love you, Jack! I think I always have! From that first day you knocked me down! I think I always will!"

Stunned at hearing the words spoken out loud, Jack could feel his heart race. His ears rang with an overload of emotions. He felt lightheaded, dizzy, and just like he was thirteen all over again and lying in a pile of spilled papers. "Erica..." was all he managed before he could no longer formulate words.

Wrapping her arms around his shoulders and leaning forward around in front of him, she pulled him to her. Wanting this moment to last, she moved so slowly that at times she felt like she could hear her muscles contracting. Her lips quivered as she anticipated what she'd wanted for so long.

Slowly, tenderly, she touched her lips to his. A wave of feelings washed over her, threatening to drown her in them. Desire, happiness, longing, hope, fear, need, joy, and dread all jumbled into a tangle of emotions that made her cry both tears of joy and sadness at the same time.

Jack was so overcome with mixed emotions he didn't know what to do. He wanted to kiss her more deeply, but he also wanted her to stop. He wanted to push her back on the bed and ravage her, but he also wanted to run. He wanted to hold her and feel her body against his, but he also wanted to push her away. He wanted to see her in the throes of passion, but he also wanted to see her running from him. In the end he decided that all he could do was sit there and let her do what she needed, but before he realized it, he found himself kissing her in return, and liking it far more than he felt he should.

Slowly pulling away, ending their kiss, she sighed in a tearful whisper full of hope and dread. "So long! I've wanted to do that, for so long, Jack! I... I love you!"

Seeing the tears running down her face, he reached up, cupped her face in his hand, and wiped them away with his thumb. She turned her head slightly and kissed his hand gently, her eyes closed as tears fell. She sobbed; crying into his hand with all the pent up emotion in her heart until she felt it would never end. He in turn drew her to him, softly tucking her eyes against his neck and shoulder as she wrapped her arms around him so tight she felt she might crush the life out of him. Holding her gently, Jack just ran his hands along her back, trying to comfort her.

When at last her emotions were spent, she pulled back and wiped her face soaked with tears. "S-Sorry, J-Jack. I..."

"Shhhhhh." he quieted her. "It's alright!" Pulling her back into his arms, he just held her. "I've got you, and I'm never letting you go."

Erica slowly pulled away from him with shock in her eyes and her mouth hanging open speechlessly.

Finally, he half-smiled at her. "Well, until I gotta go to the bathroom that is!"

Her look of shock at his words melted into a grin of pure joy. "Jack!" she laughed. "You...! You...!"

He looked at her with a dumb expression. "Well what do you expect! You fell in love with me, didn't you?" he said smiling. "You think I was gonna let comedy gold like that slip by unused?"

She threw her head back in utter hilarious joy. "Jack! God, I love you!" She closed on him again, this time kissing him hard, needfully, and passionately. Her hands wound up through the short crop of hair at the base of his neck, pulling him into her with a ferocious desire. Her lips parting, she felt his do the same, their tongues touching and sending spikes of pleasure through her with such strength that she jumped in fright of their intensity.

Their kiss slowed until finally she felt the hunger ebb. She knew it would return, so she basked in the happiness of the moment. Smiling, she pressed her forehead against his. "Thank you!" was all she could say.

Chuckling giddily, Jack felt like he'd just inhaled a tank full of laughing gas. "My God, Buttons! That was intense!"

Nodding against his brow, she composed herself and slid away from him knowing she needed the space to have coherent thought.

Feeling her move away, it suddenly felt like someone was ripping him in half. He started to move towards her again until he felt her outstretched hand stop him. Looking at her with a look that was equal parts pain, desire, and confusion, he forced himself to back away until she lowered her hand.

"Whew!" she breathed out. "You have no idea how hard it was to stop you, Jack! Do you know how badly I want you right now? How long I've ached for this day?"

Composing himself, he drew a breath and exhaled slowly. "Right. Thinking. I can do that!" He looked up at her and grinned his half-smile, forcing her to wince as though she'd been pricked by a needle.

"Jack!" she begged. "Now stop it! Please? I... We need to talk, OK?"

Standing up, Jack walked the room slowly. "OK. I... I know we do. I can do that."

"Can you be serious? Just for a little while?" she asked hopefully.

"That's a pretty tall order, Buttons..." he joked. Forcing himself to push aside his humor, he grabbed the chair that sat in front of the stranger's desk and straddled it backwards. "OK. So let's talk. Seriously."

Erica took a breath again and looked at him. Seeing his funny face bent into seriousness almost hurt her physically, but she needed to know. "Jack, I... I've been in love with you a long time. I... I need to know if you... if you feel anything towards me. If you ever have."

"I love you, Erica." Jack sighed. "I have for years, but, I... I never thought..." He hated himself for not seeing it all sooner. Standing quickly, he threw the chair to the floor and screamed at the ceiling. "God, why! You had the chance to clue me in! Why'd you let us suffer!?"

Coming down from his rage, he remembered his eternal drifting and his self reflection; the millions upon millions of things that happened to him that had brought him to this point in his life where he could feel the utter elation of Erica's love for him. His fury spent, he chided himself for challenging God's wisdom, for presuming to think he could see all ends, and for thinking that he knew better than God that things would have been better if he'd known sooner.

We still would have been just as separated. The needs of our lives dictated that. he realized. I would have known, and she would have known that I knew. Who knows how that knowledge, too soon in our lives, would have twisted our love into something it was never supposed to be? Full of angst, longing, despair, anger, and hate towards one another for not throwing our futures away and running into one another's arms. Finally, he just laughed and fell to his knees.

Erica didn't know what to make of Jack's outburst. Seeing him fall made her run to his side in spite of her fear. "Jack! Are you..."

Unable to help himself, he laughed. He laughed until he cried, and then he just cried. Feeling Erica take him in her arms the way he had done for her, he cried like never in his life. The pain and anguish of a lifetime poured out through his eyes, and he held on to her for dear life.

After it was his turn to be emotionally spent, he wiped his eyes and laughed at the idiocy of the situation. "Sorry! I know you want me to be serious. It's just... I feel ridiculous! A grown man, a Marine, bawling like a baby!"

She smiled at him and caressed his cheek, taking her turn to wipe away his tears. "I don't think it's silly, Jack! I think it's beautiful!" She sat on the floor with him until he regained his composure. "You alright now, love?"

Nodding, Jack stood up, helping her to stand next to him. "Well, now that that's out of the way." He gestured toward the bed and picked up the chair, resuming his seat. "You asked me a question, if I ever felt the way you do. Not until today." he admitted. Seeing her disappointment, he held up his hand. "It had nothing to do with you, Buttons! Not your age, your beauty, not anything you could have done. I swear!"

Seeing he was being completely serious, she just nodded and accepted his answer at face value and waited for him to explain.

"It was Rich." he sighed. "He's why I couldn't see you. It's not his fault, but you were his sister and, to guys anyway, that means 'Hands off! This isn't a girl, this is a sister!' Do you understand? It's not even something we think about. It's just something we do, instinctually, I guess. There was nothing you could have done or not done to make me see it!"

"I could have told you I loved you to your face." Erica pointed out guiltily, looking at her lap. Looking up at him, she nearly started crying again. "Then you would have known, but I was too scared! Too afraid you'd reject me because I... I was just a little girl to you!"

"Hey!" Jack comforted. "It's alright!" He sighed and tried to explain. "Do you remember when I told you I had to get hurt? That I needed it? And you didn't understand why?"

Erica nodded, looking up at him.

"Do you understand now?"

She thought seriously for a moment, trying to justify the pain he'd endured and why it was needed. Her mind rebelled at the idea, wanting to spare him every pain of his life. "No!"

"You love me, right? Just as I am? Good and bad, strength and faults, right?" Seeing her nod enthusiastically, he continued. "I wouldn't be me, the person you love, if it weren't for those things! Would you still love someone who looked like me, but wasn't me?"

"No!" Erica cried. "I don't love you for the way you look! I love you for who you are! The man..." Her own reply finally brought understanding of what it was he'd been trying to tell her. She paused, unable to formulate the words she needed to say. Slowly she looked at him with new eyes, and smiled. "I'm a foolish little girl sometimes, Jack!" she admitted.

Standing up, Jack pulled her to her feet, the two embracing where they stood. "I wouldn't change a thing in my life, Buttons! Because of this moment, right here, right now! Being able to hold you, touch you, kiss you..." He pulled back to look her in her eyes. "...to love you? It's worth all the pain, sadness, loneliness, and heartache of a hundred lifetimes!" He pulled her close to him and kissed her. "I love you, Buttons!" he said with a smile. "Is that enough?"

Erica nodded through tears of joy. "Yes, Jack! It's enough!" Pulling him into another passionate kiss, they heard yelling and horns from below.

When their kiss ended, Jack smiled at her. "Happy New Year, Buttons!"

"Happy New Year, Jack!" she replied through her own smile.

Kissing slowly and tenderly once more, the two reveled in the moment of the New Year before parting. Hearing the crowd below quiet down, the two sat back down together to talk.

"So, you say you've always loved me?" Jack asked incredulously.

Erica nodded. "I have a confession to make. I've had a crush on you since I was ten!"

"Who me?" Jack laughed. "I don't think I'll ever get tired of hearing that!"

"Then I'll remind you of it often!" she laughed back at him. "Something to hold over your head when we're fighting about money or kids!"

"Kids!" Jack yelped. "When did we have kids?"

Slapping his arm playfully, Erica pursed her lips. "When we do! Someday, maybe. I don't know, maybe you've changed in six years! Maybe I won't want to spend the rest of my life with you now!" Her humor dying down, she looked at him. "Seriously though, I... I want to take it slow. I think we should get to know one another all over again, as we are now."

"I think that's prudent." Jack nodded. "After all, I need to stop thinking of you as just Buttons and start thinking of you as a woman." His eyes drifted over her body. "A really, really, gorgeous woman!"

Blushing, Erica looked away. "Jeez, Jack! You're too much, sometimes!"

"I'm serious!" he defended his opinion. "I think you're just about the most beautiful woman..." He sighed and paused for effect. "...on the second floor!"

Grabbing a pillow, Erica smacked him with it playfully. "You're gonna pay for that someday!" she threatened.

Jack took hold the pillow and pulled her over to him with it slowly. "I want another kiss!" he said mater-of-factly. "It'll help me get used to seeing you as a woman! Honest! It's strictly for my own self-improvement!"

"Oh?" she asked. "What'll you give me for it?"

"The same in return!" he replied.

Moving closer, Erica could feel his breath on her lips, making the hunger inside her rise once more. She pushed forward into him, wrapping her arms around him and relishing the feel of his lips and tongue against hers. She found her hands clinging to him, groping and grasping, trying desperately to pull him tighter into her. Her lithe legs wrapped around his waist as she moved to sit on his lap, their lips never separating for a moment. With her arms wrapped around his neck, she pulled their bodies tightly against each other, a moan of need escaping.

They stayed like that for a time unknown to either of them, lost in one long moment that never seemed to end. Finally, with the hunger abated once more, she stopped and could only pant in a further need that she knew she wasn't ready for. "Jack?" she gasped. "I... I need to stop! Please?"

Groaning with unfulfilled desire, his love for her outweighed his need for her, and he slowed his kisses just as they'd begun trailing down her neck to stop just below the collarbone. "OK." he relented, making his body just be satisfied with holding her.

After a few ragged breaths, Erica could think again. Lifting Jack's chin up, she looked him in the eyes with a wild desperation. "Make no mistake, Jack! I want you! All of you! Right now!" She smiled and kissed his cheek before turning shy. "But... um... there's something... something I need to tell you. I... I've loved you since before... I mean, I never could..." She tried to make the words come out, but she just couldn't find them.

Slowly, Jack realized what she was saying. "Oh! You mean, you mean you've never..." It dawned on him then just how deep and powerful Erica's love for him had burned. "Never?"

She shyly shook her head. "I've never even kissed a boy before tonight! I... I couldn't! I never gave up hoping that..." She looked into his eyes. "I only ever wanted you, Jack! No one else! Ever!"

Jack cleared his throat. "Well, alright then. We'll..."

"...take it slowly!" they said together, ending in laughter.

Pulling herself up off his lap, Erica flopped back on the bed even as her body screamed for more. "I'm sorry if I... well... If it's any consolation, you got me... um..."

Looking at her, Jack waggled his eyebrows. "Ready for beddy?"

Erica burst out laughing. "God, Jack! You are perfect! Don't ever change!"

"I'll try, but I remember my old man, Buttons. Don't get too attached to this hair!" he joked, making them both laugh uncontrollably.

Their mirth slowing, Erica moved off the bed and held out a hand to him. "Talk done! Now fun!" she giggled, pulling him to his feet. Passing a mirror on the way to the door, Erica stopped and gasped. "My God, Jack! I look like shit!" Quickly, she opened her purse and took out some cotton swabs and started removing mascara from under her eyes and off of her cheeks. "How can you even look at me like this?"

Coming up behind her, he put his hands on her waist and kissed her head while looking at her in the mirror. "You look beautiful to me."

Grimacing, Erica nudged an elbow into his ribs, causing him to fade back defensively. "That's for lying! It's a beautiful lie, but if I look this bad, I want you to tell me!"

"OK, Buttons!" Jack chuckled. "I'll tell you if you look fat in those jeans!"

She looked down at her hips in the mirror. "Do I?"

"God, no!" Jack yelled. "Good Lord, woman! Don't you eat?"

After Erica finished touching up, she turned to Jack and smiled. "There! Now how do I look?"

Looking at her earnestly, he surveyed her face for flaws. "You have a speck of something black in the corner of your left eye." he pointed out.

Turning and looking in the mirror, she retrieved another swab and cleaned it out. "Mascara." she noted. Turning back she asked, "Better?"

Kissing her quickly and gently, he smiled. "Perfect!"

Coming out of the bedroom door, they both saw Richard and Heather sitting glumly at the top of the stairs.

Waving a hand at them, Jack couldn't resist. "Look! Chaperones! I didn't think college parties had those anymore!" he said loud enough that the two could easily hear him. When Richard stood up and walked over to them, he smiled at his perturbed best friend. "Don't you know parties are for having fun, Rich? You're killing Heather's good time!"

"Jack!" Richard wanted to throttle him. "What the hell have you two been doing in there!? You were in there for over two hours!"

Erica tried to get between the two. "Richie! It's none of your business what we were doing! Get away from him!"

"Buttons?" Jack said softly. "Will you please let your brother and I handle this like men?"

She turned to him. "You are not going to fight over this!" she insisted.

"No one said anything about fighting, Buttons." Jack said calmly. Looking Richard directly in the eyes, he nodded. "We just need to talk."

"We'll see what needs doing, Jack!" Richard spat. "So let's have it then! Got anything to say for yourself, funny man?"

Closing his eyes, Jack exhaled. Opening them again, he once more stared Richard down from below. "Rich? Do you know me at all? Have you ever known me to be anything but civil to a lady, even alone?"

Feeling his outrage start to shrink like an ice cube in a microwave, Richard was at a loss. "Um... well, no..." Re-gathering the anger he felt was justified, he glared back at the smaller man. "...but there's always a first time, Jack!"

Unfazed, Jack took a breath. "We talked, Rich. And cried. Both of us."

The anger he felt was suddenly replaced with confusion. "Huh?" Turning around to face the two ladies, he pushed open the door to the bedroom Jack and Erica had just come from and shoved Jack back in. "We'll be a few!" he said to them, following Jack in and slamming the door behind him. Scanning the room for evidence of anything untoward, when he found none he turned at last to his best friend. "Jack!? What the hell goes on?" His face turning ashen, he asked, "Did something happen to Mom or Dad?"

"No! No! Nothing like that!" Jack said, waving his arms dismissively. "It's Buttons!"

"What's wrong with Erica!?" he demanded, closing with him, ready to wring the truth out of him, if needed.

"Nothing's wrong with her, Rich!" Jack sighed happily. "She's just in love with me!"

Richard felt numb as his heart skipped a beat. "She's what?"

Pacing the room away from Richard, Jack flung his hands up in confusion. "She's in love with me, Rich! And this isn't a new thing, either!" He turned and faced his oldest friend. "Rich, she's been in love with me for years! Since before we left home! Since before Wendy! Since... Hell, according to her, since the day we met!" He stopped, letting his arms fall to his sides. "Well, not since the day we met, I mean the day you and I met, that was a full day before Buttons and I even knew..."

"Jack!" Richard barked.

"What do you want, Rich? It's still me! Still Jack! Same guy!"

"I want you to be serious for a minute, damn it!" he shouted. He looked at Jack with murder in his eyes. "Jack, did you ever..." his voice trailed off menacingly.

Jack's eyes bulged at the unspoken accusation. "Rich! No! God, no! That's... What the hell's the matter with you! Jesus! She was a little girl!"

"Well, she got it in her head to like you somehow, Jack!"

"Love, Rich!" he forcefully corrected Richard. "Not like, love! She loves me! She loves me! She loves me! No matter how you say it, it keeps coming out the same!" He lowered his voice before finishing his thought. "Wonderful."

Richard's anger broke under the strain of Jack's re-spoken words.

"Rich, she's not a little girl." Jack pointed out. "She's a grown woman, and she loves me." he laughed.

"How long have you known?" Richard asked seriously.

Jack checked his watch. "Uh... pfft! About two hours. Why? You wanna make an anniversary of it?"

"Jack!"

"Sorry!" he held his hands up defensively.

Richard forced himself to be calm. "So you had no idea about this before tonight?" Seeing Jack shake his head seriously, Richard almost collapsed as he sat on the bed. "Shit!"

"Now what!" Jack asked defensively. "I didn't do anything!"

"Not you, ya jarhead!" Richard spat back. "What are we gonna do about this? How can we make her snap out of it?"

"It's not a hypnotic trance, Rich!" Jack retorted. "She's in love!" He braced himself as he said the rest. "And I don't want her to stop."

Richard looked at Jack as though he'd gone mad. "What? Are you nuts? We have to fix this! You're..."

"I'm what, Rich!" Jack snapped at him, stepping forward. "What? Unlovable? Unworthy? Too low a station for your sister? What, is it because Mom and I were so poor we could never afford a nice house? Or a car? Or cable TV? Is that it?" He lowered his voice as he looked at the shocked expression on Richard's face. Sighing, he parted his hands and dropped them down to his sides again. "Rich, don't I deserve to be loved, too?"

He hung his head, ashamed of what Jack had stopped him from thoughtlessly saying. Shaking his head, he bit his lower lip and sighed. "Jack, this can't work. You and Mom hate each other!"

"Last I checked, Erica's an adult and this is almost the twenty-first century." Jack stated simply. "She doesn't need anyone's permission to love me." He paused briefly before letting the other shoe drop. "And I don't need anyone's permission for me to love her back."

Richard looked up at him perplexedly. "How can you love her, Jack?" he asked. "She..."

"How can I not, Rich!" Jack shouted. "I've known her most my life! She's too wonderful not to fall in love with! I'm surprised she doesn't have a hundred broken hearts pining for her!"

"But she's my sister, Jack!"

"And I love her!" he shot back.

Silence sat between them like a thick blanket. Finally, Jack turned away from his best friend. "Rich, we're not asking your permission. We don't have to. We don't need anyone's! Not your mother's, your father's, yours, Heather's, Brooke's... anyone's!" He turned and faced his greatest friend and protector. "But I would like your understanding. It's not like we're gonna go out and get married next month, Rich! She wants to take it slow, and so do I. We need to... to find each other. We've been apart six years!"

"How long have you been in love with her?" he asked quietly.

"I've loved her for years, Rich. She's my miracle girl! My Buttons! It's not the way she loved me, but the way I love you, ya' jarhead!"

"So, how long have you been in love with her?" he asked more directly.

"Since the moment I knew who Brooke's mystery guest was, Rich. That the beautiful woman who came as my 'not a blind date' was my Buttons!"

Richard chuckled at the memory of setting up his mother as his Prom 'not a blind date'. "Nice callback, leatherneck!"

"Dillweed!"

"Seabag!"

"Woah! Low blow! That's a penalty! One more and you're disqualified!"

Richard laughed low and slow. "Look, Jack. I... I'm sorry, alright? You're right. You do deserve to be loved. And if Erica... well... loves you, then... then that's just the way it is."

"Well!" he scoffed. "Why don't you make sound like she's just been stricken with some disease or something, Rich!"

"No! I didn't..." he stopped as Jack started to laugh. "Oh, you son of a..."

Running from the room laughing, Jack pulled the door closed behind him, holding it shut. While Richard tried to pull it open, Jack looked over toward Heather, Brooke, and Erica who were standing nearby and looking stunned. "Don't worry! Everything's fine!" he assured them.

"What'd you say that set him off?" Brooke asked as Erica ran up to him.

Her eyes growing wide at the memory of just how intimate they'd almost gotten, Erica whispered, "Did you tell him what we almost did in there?

"Nope!" Jack said, straining to hold the door. "Just made a smart ass remark is all!" Quickly letting go of the knob, Richard tumbled backwards into the room as the door flew open.

Heather took up a place in the doorway, blocking Richard's mad dash out to the hallway to clobber Jack. As he came running up, she cleared her throat.

"What?" he asked, breathing heavily and wanting desperately to get to Jack.

"I was wondering if it was as good for you as it apparently was for Jack!" she asked nonchalantly. "He certainly came out all smiles!"