Panic clutched at Jeffrey's throat and threatened to smother him to death with every passing second that the doctors refused to speak to them. He was pacing now, faster and faster until it looked like some kind of demon was jerking him about. The only thing stopping him from completely freaking out and doing something rash was Skye's family waiting alongside him for news. They were all in varying states of grief.

Mr. Penderwick's face was buried in his hands and Iantha had an arm wrapped around him. Rosalind was holding Lydia close to her, the youngest Penderwick had cried herself to sleep. Batty had her legs pulled up to her chest and her face rested in her knees, rolling herself up into a protective ball. Jane was sniffing and still wiping her eyes occasionally; though, most of them had already gone through their severe crying stage. Ben's expression was oddly blank for being one of the most excitable Penderwicks, he looked numb. None of them could have felt half as bad as Jeffrey though.

Guilt gnawed at his chest. It was his fault. Skye was going to die and it was all his fault. If only he had been paying more attention. If only Skye's shove hadn't knocked him aside. Jeffrey shook his head and swiped angrily at his eyes. He had thought he was done with crying by then, but the heaviness in his stomach and throat told him he wasn't even close to being finished. What was taking the doctors so long? Jeffrey suppressed the urge to grab someone and demand to know what was going on. She had to make it. If Skye died, Jeffrey knew he wouldn't be able to cope. Skye was strongest person in the world, she couldn't die. It seemed all ridiculous, it had to be some terrible, practical joke right? She was fine. She had to be hiding somewhere closing by and chuckling over it all. Her family was in on it too, and so were the doctors. Jeffrey's head whirled as his conspiracy theory grew wilder with his paranoia and disbelief.

His reason came crashing back to him as the doctor showed his face and delivered the news. She was going to be fine.

Jeffrey was so relieved his stomach twisted and he thought he was going to be sick. That was all he had been waiting to hear. He slipped away his first chance once the Penderwicks had their backs turned, and they didn't notice. If he stayed and saw Skye, he knew everything would come crashing out. He didn't dare risk that.

...

Skye blinked blearily and stared at the white ceiling above her. She could hear a constant beeping sound that felt like it was matching her heart beat. It was kind of unsettling. Then, Jane's head popped up above her and that was even more unsettling.

"Jane, get out. I'm trying to sleep." Skye growled and tried to flip herself over so she could bury her face in her pillow.

"She's awake!" Jane announced. Was she crying? The rest of the Penderwick family rushed to Skye's side in a flash, all of them clamoring and talking over each other. Skye was even more confused, until she finally looked down and saw that she was in a hospital bed. Only then did everything come back. She had been shot.

Skye tried to look down at her right shoulder, but the whole area was bandaged and she wasn't quite sure if she could feel it, it seemed numb.

"How are you feeling, Honey?" Skye was at last able to pick out a phrase in the scattered chorus her family had given her.

"Terrific." Skye made a face at her hoarse voice and still spinning head. "How'd I get here?"

"Do you remember what happened?" Rosalind asked.

"Gunshot wounds don't lead to amnesia as far as I can tell." Skye grumbled and tried to push herself up. "I was at the convenience store-"

"In the middle of a robbery!" Jane cried. "Shadow and Armageddon stopped it. It's all over the news! They're saying that Shadow saved your life!"

"That I don't remember." Skye frowned.

"Look! It's there on the news again!" Her younger sister turned up the volume and everyone turned to watch the tv.

-the police have confirmed now that shots were fired on the scene, and one of the hostages was hit. Thanks to the quick thinking of resident vigilante Shadow, the girl was kept stable until the medics showed up. Shadow fled the scene before she could get apprehended once again, and though there's been witnesses claiming Shadow's partner Armageddon was on site, he wasn't seen leav-" Mr. Penderwick lowered the tv's volume again.

"Imagine having your life saved by Shadow of all people!" Jane practically swooned on top of Skye's bed. Unable to push her off thanks to her bad arm, Skye settled for glaring at her. Jane didn't seem to care. "What's it feel like, Skye?! Wait I've got to write this down."

Ben held out a card for her. "Me and Batty made it for you. Jeffrey helped with the spelling."

"Jeffrey did?" Skye tried to look like she didn't care, but she examined the card carefully. "He spelt 'Thermodynamics' wrong."

"I told you we should have used the dictionary." Batty nudged Ben.

"He's a grown-up!" Ben protested, "Grown-ups are supposed to know how to spell everything."

Skye would have laughed if she hadn't felt so sick. Rosalind was first to catch on to it (She had always seemed to have a sixth sense for that sort of thing). "Why don't we keep it down, alright? She just woke up after surgery, we don't want to overwhelm her."

"I'm fine." Skye scowled.

"Rosalind's right." Mr. Penderwick intervened. "We're all tired and excited now that Skye's fine. Rosalind, will you drive the others home and put them to bed? Iantha and I will follow in the van soon."

"I'll find the doctor and tell him, she's awake." Iantha nodded and helped Rosalind usher the other's out, everyone calling back their goodnights to Skye. She was glad of their visit, but too tired and relieved to protest their going away.

"What time is it?" Skye mumbled to her father.

"Two-thirty in the morning. You were brought into surgery almost immediately after you arrived here, but you gave us a rough time of it." Mr. Penderwick stroked her head. Skye couldn't bring herself to complain it was too comforting. "How are you feeling?"

"Remember that time I broke my arm and ankle jumping off the roof to prove to Tommy that I could do it without breaking anything?"

"Yes."

"I'd say its about ten times worse and I can't even feel pain yet."

"The doctors were worried at first, you were shot at point blank and the only way you survived it was this." Mr. Penderwick held up Skye's small but very fat book on Optics, it had a bullet hole straight through it. "It was in your shirt pocket, and the doctors said it helped deflect the bullet into your clavicle instead of damaging any major arteries."

"That's my light reading." Skye grinned weakly. "Do you get it? Because Optics is the-"

"Shhhh. Yes, I know the study of light, Honey. You should relax, don't talk if you don't feel well. Knowing your passion for physics I know it's almost hard to resist the temptation."

"I had three chapters left and then I was going to start up on Molecular." Skye complained as her eyes shut, too tired to keep them open even though she wasn't particularly sleepy.

... ... ...

"He's acting funny." Jane nodded in agreement with Rosalind, the first thing Skye could make out from their whispered conversation by the window.

"Who?" Skye had a feeling she knew who, but she remained nonchalant as she jumped one of her checkers over one of Ben's. Her family had separated their visits into two groups. Rosalind, Jane, Batty, and Ben in one and Aunt Claire, Mr. Penderwick, Iantha, and Lydia in the other.

"Jeffrey." Jane's voice held a strange air to it. As if she was trying to drop too many hints and inside scoops all at once. "He hasn't come by to visit once."

"So?" Skye kept her voice disinterested. "Maybe he hates hospitals."

"He waited with us while you were in surgery." Rosalind shook her head. "He snuck out as soon as we heard you were alright, while all of us were distracted with the news."

"He's stopped by the house at least twice, and he's texted me four times asking how you're doing." Jane made no room for excuses.

"Maybe he's scared." Batty suggested.

"Of what? It's not like you can see the injury unless Skye shows it off again."

"Want to see it?" Skye moved.

"No!" Jane and Batty covered their eyes.

"Yes!" Ben looked up eagerly. "Can I poke it? Rafael would be jealous, he was bragging so much when he got a wrist brace, but this is ten times cooler."

"Maybe later." Skye promised tousling his hair. "What's Jeffrey so scared of, Batty?"

"You." Batty was solemn.

"Me?" Skye hadn't been expecting that answer, and it was more off-putting because Rosalind looked thoughtful, as if she agreed with Batty. "He's not scared of me. Why would he be scared of me?"

"Because he likes you." It was Jane who spoke up, rolling her eyes as if she thought Skye was being ignorant. The condescension would have normally irked Skye, but she couldn't be bothered by that, besides Jane was already continuing to speak. "Everyone's scared of the object of their affections, haven't you been reading my book? If you ask me, we've all seen this for the longest time, he's not very good at hiding it. And like I said, he keeps asking us how you're doing, that alone should tell you how much he cares."

"If that's so, then why is he scared all of a sudden?" Skye demanded. "He never could stop bugging me before."

That got Jane.

It didn't get Rosalind, but she had enough respect for Skye's privacy that she waited until they were leaving and she was the last one in the room. And then she only answered Skye's question with an ambiguous statement.

"Because he's worried that he'll act on those feelings now."

...

Jeffrey ran his hands over his face. He hadn't slept too much over the past three days, even despite Jane's assurances that Skye was not only doing fine but would be out of the hospital that day. He had been throwing himself into the vigilante lifestyle the past few days, alternating between being Shadow and Armageddon so no-one would figure out what was up. Every time he pulled on Skye's hat he felt like he was suffocating. Every time he got a flashback to her keeling over, and heard what he had thought her last words were going to be. Why would she say- NO.

Jeffrey hit harder, ran faster, and pushed himself harder, and he still couldn't put his mind to rest. The more he pushed everything out of his head, the more he tried to resist it, and the more everything threatened to bubble out and overwhelm him. He couldn't even process most of the emotions jumbling around in his head, it was too much pressure.

Jane asked him why he didn't just visit Skye, and Jeffrey had recoiled at the idea. Talking to Skye-even just seeing her at that moment sounded like the worst idea known to mankind. Jeffrey was one hundred percent sure that he would lose all filters whatsoever and he couldn't trust himself to not say something stupid. Part of him knew that he'd have to face her eventually, but a bigger part of him was coming up with a million different ways he could avoid her. The most doable method on the list was him living a hermitic existence up in a cave in a mountain. Even then he wasn't sure he wouldn't run into Skye by some freak coincidence.

Jeffrey debated just getting it over with. Maybe it was best he confront her when her family was around, that way they could keep it safe. They'd have to watch what they'd say, but there would be no risk of-

"You know, someone once told me that I wouldn't be able to keep my cool around Shadow, that I'd freak out. But I still don't see it."

Jeffrey shrieked and spun around from where he was pacing. He was in a condemned building of all places. Who else would go into a condemned building? Jeffrey knew it was a stupid question with an obvious answer before he even saw Skye standing there, her arm still in a sling.

"Skye. Hi, Skye. How are you feeling?" Jeffrey stammered around, trying to recover but failing miserably. "They checked you out of the hospital? That's stupid, obviously they checked you out. I mean, what are you doing here?"

"Since when is it a crime to check out a condemned building in Boston at ten o'clock at night?"

"Since they created housing codes, Skye. It is illegal. Does your family know where you are?"

"Absolutely not. I was feeling stifled, they're acting rather clingy. They're being overly-considerate." Skye huffed her hair out of her face in annoyance. "It was bad enough being cooped up in a hospital for so long. I detest hospitals."

"Your family's going to be worried. You should go home, are you even supposed to be out and about with that arm?"

"Jeffrey, I got shot in the shoulder, it's not contagious as far as I can tell. And since when did you care whether my family worried or not? Apparently you've known about my vigilante identity for some time and you never thought about my family then." Skye motioned for him to hand over her hat and scarf.

Jeffrey cleared his throat nervously as he pulled down the scarf. "So...you...uh you remember that then?"

"How many times do I- Yes, I remember everything! Amnesia is not a side effect to getting shot in the upper chest!"

"You remember everything?"

"WHAT DID I JUST-"

"So...you remember what you said at the end there, before...you know...before you passed out." Jeffrey rubbed the back of his neck and refused to make eye contact.

"...You know on second thought, amnesia doesn't sound that unlikely. I'm..I'm not sure I recall?" Skye was folding and re-folding her scarf with her one free hand. "Who knows? You know they say shock is real killer in moments like that. Maybe you didn't-"

It began to feel like they were both avoiding the big issue, and it was starting to irritate Jeffrey. Three days was too long to have all that going through his head and twisting his stomach. Three days was too long a time to go without enough sleep and keep everything bottled up. He interrupted her.

"Why'd you do it, Skye?"

Skye's mouth automatically clamped close and she shoved her hand into her pocket, sending the scarf fluttering, unwinding at her side. It was obviously the exact conversation she hadn't been looking forward to. Perhaps she had thought she would have been able to avoid it by sauntering in like nothing had happened. Like there was no problem.

"You can't throw yourself at every bomb, at every bullet and expect to come out all right. You're not exactly replaceable."

"What was I supposed to do? Let it hit you?" Skye's eyes flashed, already ready for a fight.

"Why not!? I was the one with the bulletproof vest!"

"Bulletproof vests aren't invincible, Idiot. They don't give you the ability to bounce bullets off your chest like Superman."

"It wouldn't have been as bad for me though. The fact that you survived it at all is a miracle. You got shot point-blank!"

"I'm not scared to die, Jeffrey. I know the risks and for all my preparations I know I can't predict everything, but I wouldn't do this if I wasn't prepared for those consequences."

"Well maybe some of us aren't prepared for those consequences, Skye!" Jeffrey snapped in frustration. "What about your family? What about me?! You're waving it off like no biggie, but you're not the one who would have to deal with the after-effect of your death!"

"We all go someday. Mine would have just been sooner than later, and human nature adapts. You would move on eventually, everyone does."

"You know that's a load of bull. What about your mother!? Have you gotten over her? You can't tell me that that doesn't still hurt! That her death doesn't effect you at all!"

"That's different." Skye said tersely. "She was perfect. She changed everyone's lives for the better. She mattered."

"And you don't!? DO YOU HEAR YOURSELF?! YOU THREW YOURSELF AT A GUN FOR ME! FOR ME!" Jeffrey struggled and barely pulled his tone back down to a reasonable volume. He was already feeling a wave of panic set in at his own words. "How am I supposed to live with that and not feel guilty!? We can't just brush that aside like it's nothing, Skye! I've been worried sick! I'm exhausted, I haven't slept in twenty-four hours, and my head won't shut up. Why me? Why would you-? You're the one with a family, everything that is important. It's not like I have anyone!"

"Why are you making this a bigger deal than it needs to be?" Skye groaned in frustration and slouched her shoulders. She grimaced at the pain that shot threw her arm at the abrupt movement. "Why can't you just drop it?"

"This is a- Is your arm okay?- big deal, Skye." Jeffrey insisted fervently on the edge of a breakdown. "Nothing about this makes sense. You don't make any sense at all, and if you refuse to talk about this how am I supposed to be on the same page? So why'd you do it? Why can't you stop throwing yourself in the way of every blow that comes my way? You can't take all my hits for me, and you know I can handle myself. So the real million dollar question here is why you still-"

"I can't stand the idea of you getting hurt, okay?" Skye cut him off. She winced at his sudden silence, his waiting for her to continue what she had to say. "I...you're-you're the best friend I have. Both with and without the mask."

"...you're mine too." Jeffrey admitted, rubbing the back of his neck. She was more than that.

"I dunno, I kind of get stressed out ever since you got yourself cut in the alley. I keep overanalyzing everything and worrying that you're going to get hurt again, and that I won't be able to protect you." Skye was frowning down at her shoes and busily restuffing her scarf into her pocket.

"Oh." It made a lot of sense. Jeffrey wondered why he hadn't realized it sooner.

"Ever since I figured out who you were too, everything kind of changed. It was like the first time I realized just how human and breakable you were. That you weren't just some cocky dude with a flair for punching crooks, but someone with a life and a future. It was harder to distance myself, no matter how much I wanted." Skye sighed and fidgeted with her hair. "I'm sorry that I scared you like that, but I'd still do it again, Jeffrey. We both know that you would do the exact same thing; so, can we just leave it there?"

Jeffrey was silent, still absorbing Skye's words. He felt light-headed and light-hearted. Jeffrey had never had someone actually care that much about him- someone who was so willing to give up their own safety to protect his- and it left him frightened, dizzy, and ecstatic all at once. He didn't know what to think or say. He wanted to express himself fully to Skye, bare his whole soul and tell her that she meant just as much. He would do anything for her and that was slightly terrifying.

Skye seemed to get him at least somewhat, because she wordlessly held her hand out to him. It was a question and Jeffrey knew exactly what his answer was. Jeffrey shook his head and pushed her hand aside in favor of sweeping her up in a hug.

Everything was going to be fine. He'd make sure of it.

"I'm still mad at you." Jeffrey had his eyes closed, and his voice was muffled because his face was buried in Skye's good shoulder. Skye didn't answer, but the way her good arm wrapped cautiously around his back was good enough for Jeffrey.

...

"Skye! Jeffrey's here!" Jane's tone was far from subtle.

"So?" Skye yelled back up the stairs. A little irritated that her first impulse was to grin at the mention of Jeffrey's name.

"HE'S HERE TO SEE YOU."

"AND HE'S NOT AN IDIOT. HE KNOWS WHERE I LIVE, JANE." Skye responded, raising her voice to match Jane's volume.

"AND I CAN HEAR EVERY WORD YOU TWO ARE SAYING!" Jeffrey's voice rang out to join their's.

"THE WHOLE STREET CAN HEAR WHAT YOU'RE SAYING." Rosalind put them all to shame. "I'M TRYING TO PUT LYDIA DOWN FOR HER NAP."

"Sorry, Rosie."

"Sorry."

"Jane started it." Skye huffed.

"But you participated." Jeffrey sauntered down the basement stairs like he belonged there just as much as Skye. Considering the amount of times he had hung around as Armageddon while she worked, Skye supposed he kind of did belong. There was no way she was going to say she had missed him.

"I missed this." Jeffrey said as he tossed his jacket onto the washing machine without even looking.

"Kind of weird seeing you come from upstairs like a normal person." Skye noted as she set about clamping the legs of the table she had just glued on.

"What's that do?" Jeffrey crouched down next to Skye and watched curiously.

"I'm making sure the legs are in tight as possible before the glue settles and hardens." Skye grunted, trying to turn the handle as much as she could.

"Here. That looks like a two hand job, no matter how strong you are."

Skye let Jeffrey take over screwing the clamp in as she held the leg in place. They copied the same movement for each corner.

"It looks nice." Jeffrey admired as he stepped back and dusted his hands off on his pants. "You're going to paint it right?"

"Varnish." Skye corrected getting to her feet. "And I've got to run the sander over it one more time before that."

"That's the machine that makes the big 'Vrrrrnnnnnnn' sound right?"

Though his description was comedic, Skye had to admit he wasn't wrong. "Yeah, that's the one." Skye set about putting her tools in order, aware of Jeffrey tracking her movements.

"When's the sling come off?"

"Honestly? I would have taken it off two days ago. But they all weren't having any of that. Too paranoid, but I guess I owe them that much. I've actually been taking it off when they aren't looking." Skye pulled it off to show Jeffrey. "There was only so many one-armed push-ups and pull-ups that I could do. I didn't want my right arm to be massive and the left arm to look like a limp noodle."

"...You just had me clamp the legs on your table when you were fully capable of doing it yourself?"

"I'm more than capable of clamping legs onto a desk even with one hand. You just offered and I wasn't about to pass up free labor."

"Nefarious. Making me feel sorry for you. You are a manipulator."

"Hardly." Skye rolled her eyes and tossed a wrench over her shoulder. It landed in the toolbox without her looking. Jeffrey applauded politely. "Manipulation's one thing I can't get behind. It involves a lot of fake sincerity and lying in my opinion. I think you should mean everything you say, keeps things more simple that way. I hate complications."

"Yeah, we made everything complicated enough even without all that nonsense." Jeffrey chuckled. "But you can't tell me that you wouldn't watch what you say to avoid hurting someone's feelings. Like what if I asked you how this t-shirt looks on me?"

"I'd say it looks fine on you."

"Now I know you're lying, I look more than fine." Jeffrey tossed his head and flexed his muscles.

"You look better in green." Skye hadn't meant to say that. Why had she said that?

Jeffrey's head whipped around at her words. "What?"

"Nothing."

"No. You said I look better in green." Jeffrey crossed his arms smugly and leaned against the wall next to her. "Do I sense an ulterior motive for you making all my equipment green?"

"No. I just like green." It definitely wasn't because his of eyes. "Stop reading into it."

"How can I not read into that? You're practically admitting that you like seeing me in green."

"It wasn't like that. I was merely offering an opinion. You look better in green than you do in gray." Skye insisted, hating that she was beginning to grow flustered. "Simple as that. I told you I always mean exactly what I say and nothing more."

"No matter what?" Jeffrey's smirk was getting on her nerves. Skye knew he was up to something with his question, but she couldn't back out.

"No matter what." She nodded and turned away, starting to get thrown off by his close ,proximity.

"So you meant it when you implied that I was an angel?"

Skye froze. Internally, every curse word she knew began to run through her head.

"C'mon, I mean if we're applying your rules of logic here it should be rather straight forward."

"Logically speaking I was dying and therefore such statements shouldn't be used against me." Skye kept her back to him.

"Logically speaking wouldn't you agree that words that you thought were going to be your final words should be given their proper weight and therefore in all actuality be used against you?"

"Not without a lawyer present."

"Are you going to sue me for you hitting on me?"

"I wasn't hitting on you. I was using a pick-up line to defuse the tension of me getting shot." Skye was indignant. "You use pick-up lines all the time, but once I use one I'm the one who's hitting on you?"

"Me using pick-up lines is me hitting on you." Jeffrey said in disbelief before he could stop himself. He clamped his mouth closed and stepped back.

Malfunction. Skye's brain was offline. Time to check the router. Rebooting. Please wait while she worked to process all the information. "Um..."

"I mean..." Jeffrey mumbled sheepishly. "You're the only person I really use them on. I couldn't talk like that to anyone else."

"Oh." Skye's brain still hadn't completely kicked in. Jeffrey was rambling now and she wasn't sure she was focusing on all of his words.

"I mean it started with Shadow, but then there was the night where you were stitching me up as just yourself and I couldn't stop myself. I hated myself for it too, but then it kind of worked out because you were Shadow and you were Skye and I kind of couldn't stop after that, even though you didn't seem to appreciate it at all. I couldn't stop-"

Skye usually hated her own impulsivity that drove her into acting without the rational side of her brain thinking things through, but as her lips crashed onto Jeffrey's she couldn't find it in herself to complain. Jeffrey seemed to feel the same way too, because he kissed her back.

...

"AH-HA" Jane threw the basement door open. She looked sorely disappointed to see Skye and Jeffrey sitting six feet apart from each other, Jeffrey on the washing machine and Skye backwards on her computer chair.

"Ah-ha?" Jeffrey raised an eyebrow curiously.

"Never mind." Jane pouted. "What are you two up to?" Her voice dripped suggestiveness.

"We were talking." Skye pointed out.

"That's it?" Jane wiggled her eyebrows, trying to get more out of them. It had been two weeks since Jeffrey and Skye had been reunited after she had gotten back from the hospital, and there was still no sign that either one had confessed to each other. Jane was on the verge of locking them in the closet together or something else equally drastic.

"Just talking, Jane." Jeffrey confirmed patiently.

"That's all you ever seem to do." Jane muttered to herself.

"What's that?" Skye furrowed her eyebrows at her suspiciously.

"Nothing." Jane said innocently. "Did you finish the new chapter of my book?"

The book that drew heavily from what she observed of Jeffrey and Skye's lives, and the romance that she had to greatly exaggerate.

"It was alright. Too much angst for me." Skye shrugged. "If I wanted more of that kind of thing in my life I'd put a V6 engine in a sports car."

Jeffrey and Jane both gave her a blank look.

"You know a crappy minivan engine in a car like-"

"Please do everyone a favor and don't make another mechanic metaphor for as long as you live." Jane told her.

"I liked this chapter." Jeffrey cut Skye off before she could subject them to a lengthy discussion on terrible cars. "Though you kind of left us on a cliffhanger there, is the driver in your story going to survive getting shot like that? It's been two months and we still haven't gotten the next chapter."

"You can't rush art, Jeffrey. You of all people should understand that." Jane patted his shoulder condescendingly.

"Exactly." Skye nodded sagely. "Take as long as you need, Jane. In fact if you even decide that this book isn't worth it, I won't be too disappointed if you don't finish-"

"But you don't need to wait any longer." Jane announced triumphantly and produced another stack of papers. "Here's the next chapter. In this one we're finally going to get the long-awaited confession of love that we've been waiting for."

Skye groaned and fell out of her chair dramatically. "Somebody get me bleach to pour into my eyes."

"Here." Jane handed her the jug unsympathetically. "Jeffrey, be sure to read the chapter out loud for her so she won't miss anything when she goes blind. That's a great idea, you two should read it together. Right now. I'll give you some privacy."

Jane flounced back upstairs.

"Okay, I know I'm completely oblivious, but I think even I got all those insinuations." Jeffrey declared.

"Good for you. Promise you won't take me to the hospital when I drink this, no matter how much pain I appear to be in?"

"Stop being so drastic."

"I'm not being drastic, I'm being serious." Skye sulked as he took the bleach away from her. "I'm a little tired of everyone's hints that we'd be perfect together. Even Iantha suggested that you'd be the perfect person to bring to that hockey game I'm going to on Tuesday night."

"Who are you taking then?" Jeffrey sounded a little worried.

"You of course, Super Dork. But that's not the point." Skye waved dismissively.

"Why don't you just tell them about us? That we're..." Jeffrey paused. Even he didn't know what they were exactly. What did four kisses and two hangouts at a paintball joint constitute as?

"Because they're all going to freak out. You've never seen how excited my family can get. Believe me, it's not pretty." Skye shuddered.

"It'd give us more excuses for why we need to leave so hurriedly." Jeffrey focused all of his attention nails, pretending to try to get a piece of dirt out from under them.

Skye hummed non-committedly and pulled the vest back out from under her desk where she had hid it when Jane had burst in.

"I mean, there is something between us. Right?" Jeffrey insisted, wiping his damp palms on his jeans.

Skye shrugged and handed him the vest. "Try it on."

Jeffrey obeyed. "I mean I've always been interested in you, Skye. And I guess what I'm trying to say-"

"I even added pockets to yours, since you're so against cargo pants." Skye interrupted, tugging on different areas of the vest and roaming her eyes over it with a practiced eye.

Like always, Jeffrey was finding it a little more difficult to breathe with her so close.

"It's great, but back to the-"

"I even improved my previous technique. If I keep improving the material I could make billions selling it."

"That's cool and I like it, but, Skye-"

"Aren't you going to ask me what it's made of?" Skye crossed her arms and looked offended.

Jeffrey sighed and looked back and forth between Skye and the vest he wore. He gave in. "Fine, Skye. What's this made-"

"Boyfriend material." Skye blurted out, not even giving him time to finish.

Jeffrey stared at her blankly, trying to make sense of her words that had done a complete 180 from what she had been chatting about before. Boyfriend material. Boyfriend material. Bring in the defibrillators because Jeffrey needed his heart to be jumpstarted back into life.

"You mean it?" Jeffrey asked her breathlessly.

"Well technically it's made of a compound of both kev-" Jeffrey kissed her before she could finish, grabbing the nervous hand she had begun to run through her hair. Five times. That was their fifth time kissing, and yeah Jeffrey was counting.

"I'm assuming that's a yes, then?" Skye sounded just as out of breath as him.

"Yes. Absolutely. You're irresistible when you drop a pick-up line, even if it's cliché."

"Good to know one of us is good at that sort of thing then." Skye grinned.

"My pick-up lines are stellar! I got you didn't I?"

"Jeffrey, your pick-up lines were probably what held you back in the first place, that and I genuinely didn't like you."

"You like me now though, right?" Jeffrey insisted.

Skye appeared to consider this. "Well, I would take a bullet for you."

"Too soon." Jeffrey winced. "I appreciate the gesture but that's a sore spot. I'm still mad at you."

"No, you're mad at Shadow." Skye grinned cheekily. "I'm just Skye, humble mechanic who happened to get caught in a crossfire. As far as I know, you weren't anywhere near there."

"Well that's too bad, I thought I was agreeing to be Shadow's boyfriend not Skye, the grumpy, mad scientist's."

"As if. I've been told by a reliable source that Shadow is a figure of awe and inspiration, no way she'd go for someone like you."

"Really?" Jeffrey demanded, though he was grinning.

Skye smiled. "No."

...

Thanks for all the reviews guys, it's the only thing that's kept me going on this story, this chapter was a real doozy to write.

KoalaLover-ABC-123: This is the last real chapter. I might do a short epilogue if I feel like it and if I've thought of something that'll add to this. I'm glad the last chapter was a hit with you, and I hope this one fulfilled all your expectations.

Natblake: You see the Snickers bar is only worth about 5+ in health; so I don't think Jeffrey would have been able to bring back with just that. I'm glad you liked that last chapter despite the long cliffhanger I left you with.

GM01: Yeah it escalated pretty fast, I had to get those chumps to get the ball rolling. I'm still wondering how much Jane would have approved of my methods... Thanks for sticking with my little story for so long.

Nijibrush: I forced you to wait for this chapter for so long, and I'm sorry for that, but I was so thrilled that I was able to get so many reactions from you with that last chapter. I love that you've stuck by me from almost the very beginning and I hope you'll see me through even more down the road.