This story is connected to 'Cake and a Lizard' in which Connor needs Jess' help to sneak Rex out of the ARC. This story is about the distraction Jess provides for him.

After Connor had left, Jess started to think about what kind of distraction she should cause. She had to somehow focus everyone's attention on her. And it had to be something that wasn't obviously a lie. She was glad that she still had a few hours time to plot.

But her day was busy and she didn't have an opportunity to come up with a plan, until it was almost time. Cutting the power and blaming it on a computer failure seemed a bit drastic and might even be dangerous. And then Connor would probably get called back in to help fix the problem. No, anything computer related was out of the question. She closed her eyes and concentrated.

A Spider, she suddenly thought, her eyes flying open again. That was perfect, because a spider could hide well and she really hated them anyways. So when Connor waved at her, telling her he was getting ready to leave, she took a deep breath and screamed as loud and as shrill as she could.

This immediately granted her the attention of every person around her. She kept screaming and jumped up from her chair, backing away from the ADD, staring at the floor in front of it. When everybody came closer she looked up and started talking to the person closest to her. It happened to be Lester.

This should be fun, she thought, grabbing his arm. "Did you see it? Is it still there?" she asked, trying to sound as scared as she could.

"Did I see what?" Lester asked, not sounding very pleased. He tried to free his arm from her grasp, but she refused to let go.

By now someone had notified the soldiers and the first men came into the room, trying to figure out what was going on. They looked confused when they couldn't see what the problem was.

"It was awful. And that thing was huge, too." Jess sobbed, finally answering Lester's question. She was confident that now everyone in the building was either here or very close by now. Connor should be safe.

More soldiers, including Becker, were arriving, ready to shoot some terrible creature. Jess had to fight not to laugh, when Becker came over.

"What is the problem?" he asked, scanning the room, trying to find whatever had caused this commotion.

"That's what I was trying to find out." Lester said, sounding annoyed, still having Jess clinging to his arm. "She hasn't made much sense yet."

"Alright. Hey, Jess, listen to me." Becker said, focusing on her now. "Tell me exactly what happened. Don't be afraid, we can handle it."

I'm sure you can, Jess thought while biting the insides of her cheeks to keep from giggling.

"It was a spider." she finally admitted, certain that she had bought Connor enough time to get Rex and get out.

"A spider?"Becker asked, eyes wide in disbelieve. Jess nodded. "An enormous black spider. It crawled over my foot and scared me half to death." Now Becker had a hard time trying not to laugh. Maintaining a straight face with some difficulty, he told his men to go back to their stations.

"I will take care of that spider." he added for Jess' benefit, grinning widely. He exchanged his gun for an empty glass container and started walking around the room, eyes on the ground. Suddenly he crouched down, apparently catching something in the glass container and closing the lid.

"Alright everyone. The spider has been secured. You can all go back to work now." He straightened and walked over to Jess and Lester, prying her fingers off Lester's arm. Lester sighed in relief and went straight back to his office, shaking his head as he walked away.

Jess silently tried to sneak out of the room, while Becker was watching Lester, but he she didn't get far. He caught her with an arm around her waist and walked her back to her chair.

"I didn't know spiders bothered you this much." he said, still grinning at her when everybody else had gone back to work.

"Well, they do. They have too many legs and move way too fast. I never liked them." Jess defended herself.

"Even the imaginary kind?" he asked innocently, holding up the glass container in which he had trapped the 'spider' earlier. It was, of course, empty. He had seen right through her.

"Uhm." Jess swallowed. "You knew?" she asked, slightly nervous now. He had known, but he hadn't said anything. Instead he had played along.

"Lucky guess." He shrugged and grinned at her, moving closer to her making her feel cornered. Like a predator stalking its prey, she thought and suppressed an involuntary shiver. He was way too close, it was distracting.

"Sooo, what do I have to…" she started and had to stop, when an image of her reaching up to kiss him, intruded her thoughts. She could feel herself blushing and it seemed to amuse him a great deal. Yup, way too close, she thought, taking a deep breath in an attempt to calm herself. Get a grip, girl.

"What do I have to do to buy your silence?" she tried again.

He pretended to think about that for a moment. "How about you tell me what your little act was about over dinner?" he suggested.

Jess was surprised, she hadn't expected this. "Are…are you asking me out?"

"I guess I am." he told her.

"Then, okay, yes, I'll tell you over dinner." she agreed, her heart beating fast in excitement.

Later, during dinner, she told him why she had made up that spider. He wasn't exactly happy with her or Connor, but it was too late now and he promised not to talk to anyone about it. Apart from this, their date went very well and they both had a great time.

When he took her home Jess kept wondering, if was going to kiss her goodnight. It didn't seem that way when he turned around to leave, once she was at her door.

"What kind of imaginary creature does it take for you to kiss me?" she called after him, before she could stop herself.

He turned around again, came back and pulled her into a tight hug. "No more imaginary creatures, okay?" And with that he lowered his head and pressed his lips on hers. Now I won't need them anymore, she happily thought as she parted her lips to deepen the kiss.

When he finally left a few kisses later she remembered something. "Uhm, Connor has to sneak Rex back in tomorrow morning." she said nervously.

He stopped, shaking his head in disbelieve. "Don't worry. I'll think of something." he finally told her.