Somewhere A Clock Is Ticking

[Oxidizer]

lol, ZOMG that was awesome!! I'm so hyped for the next chapter now! And I so love Zoe in this fic!

[swfc]

"Eve Jacobson's House of Pain." Eve answered the phone with a smile, which quickly faded as she heard what the person on the other end of the line had to say. "What?"

[Oxidizer]

Tanning queen! No guesses for who you're referring to.

[Pierced Musie]

Oooooh that was dangerously delicious. I really should go and read back in this thread, shouldn't I?

[luckyrabbit]

Oooooh that was dangerously delicious. I really should go and read back in this thread, shouldn't I?

It'd probably be a good idea Then you can join in on the speculation. If there's one thing that I love, it's speculation

[luckyrabbit]

I really do spoil you guys

It was a little after three am when Tracey awoke to the sound of P. Diddy (or whatever the hell it was that he was calling himself these days) testifying to the fact that Proactive helped to preserve his sexy. Yawning, she squinted against the bright glare of the television and looked up at her wide awake girlfriend.

"Eve?"

Eve looked down at her, pushing her glasses back up her nose with her good hand. "Sorry, did I wake you?"

"No." Eve shot her a look. "Well, yeah. What are you doing up?"

"Can't sleep, did you know that they commercials between the infomercials? Doesn't seem right." Eve mused distractedly.

Tracey slid a hand under the bottom of Eve's shirt and rested it on her rock hard abs -she'd always been jealous of the fact that Eve could eat whatever she wanted and never seemed to put on any weight-, rubbing a thumb against the scarred skin. "You know if your shoulder's hurting, it should be okay for you to have some more painkillers now."

"Yeah, I just took them. Really, Trace, I'm fine. I'm just not tired…and I have the strangest urge to buy some steak knives. Weird."

"You sure?"

"Yes." Eve slipped her arm around Tracey, who settled back down and rested her head against Eve's shoulder. "Go back to sleep." She pressed her lips to Tracey's hair and Tracey couldn't help but feel that Eve wasn't being completely honest with her and she couldn't figure out why.

[Oxidizer]

You really do, Rabsey.

I love the way that even though they're the good guys they're still pretty off the planet - I think they're even better in this than on the show!

Seriously can't wait for the whole thing, wicked stuff Lucks!

[swfc]

^^ Everything that Andy said!

Love the update! They're just so cute.

Wonder what's up with Eve.... hMMMMM.....

[luckyrabbit]

PART 16

"If I were you, I probably would've stayed in the city. Things are crazy around here at the moment." Belle told Drew, sitting across from him in the booth, empty milkshake glasses sitting between them.

Drew nodded. Dan had only managed to give him the barebones version of what had been going on before Drew had stormed out of the house, but it was enough for him to get that all was not well in the town of Summer Bay. "Hey, I'm sorry about Lucas, I know that you two were friends."

Belle swirled her straw around in her empty glass. "Thanks, I've been trying not to think about it."

"I know how that goes." Drew sympathized.

"Yeah, this must be pretty hard for you."

"Why's that?"

"Well, with your dad and everything."

Drew sighed heavily and rested his chin on his fist, getting all pouty. "Why would it be hard? Peter's dead." He said, trying to keep his tone light and failing miserably.

"Cheer up emo kid." Belle said playfully, reaching across the table and giving his arm a shake.

"I'm not emo!" exclaimed Drew defensively.

"Sure you are, you're always listening to heavy metal."

"So what? That doesn't make me emo."

"Oh please, you're like one step away from picking up a razor blade."

"You're crazy, Taylor!"

"Oh, you love it."

Drew picked up his straw and tossed it at her playfully.

"Oh no you didn't!" She cried, throwing back at him.

"You seem to be getting along well." Amanda observed, leaning against Belle's side of the booth.

"Amanda, I didn't see you there." said Belle.

"That's because I was behind you, sweetheart." Amanda pointed out. She raised an eyebrow at Belle, silently asking how the plan was progressing. Belle smirked in response, it was going great. From behind the counter, Irene watched the exchange with interest. "I was just about to pick up something for dinner, Drew would you like to join us?"

"Oh, I don’t want to impose."

"You won't be." Belle assured him.

"Really, Drew. We could pick up some dvds, make a night of it." Amanda smiled.

Belle grinned. "Yeah! There are a whole load of horror movies I want to see but Amanda is too much of a 'fraidy cat to watch them with me and I don't want to watch them alone."

"And with everything that's been happening lately, it'll be nice to have a man around the house." added Amanda.

Drew's cheeks flushed red and he ducked his head sheepishly. "Okay, you've broken me down. I'll come."

"You would not believe the day I had." Jack said to his wife, the second he walked through the door. "It's good to be home." He dropped his backpack and shrugged off his jacket, not even noticing that Martha didn't move from her position curled up on the couch, she hadn't moved all day. "Did you hear about Eve getting shot? And she's back at work already, I thought that I'd get a couple of days of freedom out of it at least."

"What did she say about Macca?" Martha asked, not even bothering to lift her head from her pillow.

"Uh, yeah." Jack scratched his head, trying to figure out what to say. "It's not good, we know who did it…"

"Then why haven't you charged them?"

"Because…" He wasn't even supposed to be discussing this with her. "There's not enough evidence. It'd just get thrown out of court."

Martha shook her head. "So they're just going to get away with it." She said in disgust.

"No!" Jack said, sitting down next to her and putting a hand on her leg. "No. We're going to get them. I'm going to get them." Martha just stared at him. Whatever she may of said, died in her throat when Rachel wandered in, obviously agitated.

"Sorry." Rachel said vaguely, picking up a stack of magazines and then putting them down again. "Have you seen my phone?"

"Um, isn't that it in your hand?" Martha asked gently.

"What?" Rachel looked down at the Nokia clutched in her left hand. "Oh." She put a hand to her head. "I'm an idiot! Sorry guys." She left the room muttering angrily at herself.

Jack raised his eyebrows, both of them because he lacked the skill to do just one. "What's up with her?"

Martha looked at him like the answer was so obvious he should already know it. "Kim's back in town tomorrow. You know that."

"Oh."

Belle let out a squeak and pressed closer to Drew trying to hide behind his arm, Amanda had gone to bed over an hour ago with an instruction of not to do anything that she wouldn't; that directive left them a lot of room to move.

"What are you doing?" Drew laughed, taking his eyes off the screen. "That wasn't even scary!"

"It was so!" Belle protested.

"Taylor, the only thing that's scary about this movie is how freaking bad it is."

"You’re the one who picked it out, not me." Belle reminded him.

"Yeah well, it's a movie about five chicks locked in a haunted hospital, in their underwear! It should've been good." Drew said, scratching his head, trying to figure out how such a good concept could've turned into the most mind numbingly boring horror movie ever made.

"What, so nudity automatically equals quality?" Drew nodded. "You're a pig."

"Oink, oink."

"Do you really find that attractive?" Belle asked, referring to the blonde bimbo currently on-screen, whose body had been pumped full of so much collagen that she looked like an over inflated balloon.

Drew made a face. "Ew, no. She's not my type."

"So what is your type?"

"Your mum's pretty hot." Drew said, after a moments thought.

Belle rolled her eyes. "She's a MILF, I know." She'd heard it enough times from the idiot boys at school. "Seriously, out of Cassie, Matilda and Me, who would you rather date?"

"Well," He shifted so he faced her. "Cassie is far too orange, so that rules her out straight away. She's a nice girl but I don't want to have to wash fake tan off my hands everytime we make out." He said, making Belle burst out into laughter. "And Matilda's boyfriend just died so that isn't exactly somewhere I'd wanna go so…I guess that I'll have to settle for you, process of elimination and all that."

"Settle?" Belle said shrilly, slapping his arm. Drew made a face and shrugged. "Right, that's it." Belle threw herself at Drew, shoving him back against the arm of the lounge. They struggled for a few seconds, neither willing to give up the upper hand, then their eyes locked. It was one of those magical, romantic moments until…

"ACHOO!" Drew sneezed in Belle's face. Belle squealed and jumped away as Drew sneezed again. "Sorry." Drew apologized, wiping his running nose with the back of his hand.

"Oh, that's charming." Belle said, wiping snot off her face.

Drew blinked rapidly, trying to alleviate the itching in his eyes. "Sorry! I think I'm allergic to your perfume." He let out another sneeze and gave her the puppy dog eyes.

How could Belle resist? "Fine, I'll go and wash it off."

At three am, Tracey awoke to the sound of P. Diddy (or whatever the hell it was that he was calling himself these days) testifying to the fact that Proactive helped to preserve his sexy. Yawning, she squinted against the bright glare of the television and looked up at her wide awake girlfriend.

"Eve?"

Eve looked down at her, pushing her glasses back up her nose with her good hand. "Sorry, did I wake you?"

"No." Eve shot her a look. "Well, yeah. What are you doing up?"

"Can't sleep, did you know that they commercials between the infomercials? Doesn't seem right." Eve mused distractedly.

Tracey slid a hand under the bottom of Eve's shirt and rested it on her rock hard abs -she'd always been jealous of the fact that Eve could eat whatever she wanted and never seemed to put on any weight-, rubbing a thumb against the scarred skin. "You know if your shoulder's hurting, it should be okay for you to have some more painkillers now."

"Yeah, I just took them. Really, Trace, I'm fine. I'm just not tired…and I have the strangest urge to buy some steak knives. Weird."

"You sure?"

"Yes." Eve slipped her arm around Tracey, who settled back down and rested her head against Eve's shoulder. "Go back to sleep." She pressed her lips to Tracey's hair and Tracey couldn't help but feel that Eve wasn't being completely honest with her and she couldn't figure out why.

Most mothers would not have a good nights sleep, knowing that their teenage daughter was downstairs, unsupervised, with a teenage boy. Amanda Vale was not most mothers.

She smiled to herself as she came down the stairs to find Belle and Drew, curled up together, asleep on the floor, a blanket spread haphazardly over them. Amanda briefly considered running back upstairs and getting her digital camera to take a picture to preserve the moment but quickly reconsidered when she realized that that may be pushing it just a little too far. But, from the looks of things, her plan was working perfectly. Ric was far too boring for Belle, she just didn't know why her daughter couldn't see it. Drew was a much better fit and, if he was as well endowed as his father, then that was just an added bonus.

"Come on, sleepyheads." Amanda tapped the two teenagers on their arms to wake them. "Time to wake up." As they woke, they smiled sleepily at each other before quickly realizing that Amanda was in the room and that they'd been sprung. They leapt apart but Amanda didn't even blink an eye. "I thought we could get some breakfast at the Diner, my treat. Drew?"

"Uh, yeah. Sounds good."

"Great." Amanda clapped her hands together gleefully. "I'll go and get changed."

Jack shifted uncomfortably in his seat, uncrossing and re-crossing his legs for the sixth time that minute. He tried to maneuver into a comfortable position. He was being extremely annoying.

"What is your problem?" Rice snapped, dropping his binoculars to his chest. They were parked three houses down from the Wilkins residence in an unmarked car. So far there had been no movement, and as far as he was concerned, it could to stay that way.

Jack bit his lip and looked out the window, trying to ignore the irritating feeling of his more than full bladder. "I need to take a leak." He grunted, crossing his legs again and leaning forward, trying to relieve some of the pressure. It didn't work. "I think I've had one too many coffees this morning."

"So go and **** behind a tree."

"I can't do that, what about Wilkins?"

"I do have a perfectly good set of eyes, mate." Rice reminded him.

"No, I can't. I just have to hold it."

"For three hours? Look, it'll be worse for everyone if your bladder explodes or something-"

"Can that really happen?"

"Do you really want to find out?"

Jack bit his lip and cast another glance at the Wilkins house, wondering if he could risk it. Oh, screw it, he had to go. "Okay, I'm going." He said, opening the car door.

"Hey, make sure you keep out of sight." Rice reminded him as he got out the car. "The last thing we need is you getting reported for lewd conducted. And hurry up."

As Jack made his way back along the street to a cluster of bushes that would provide him with cover, Rice rolled his eyes and brought his binoculars back up to his face. "Oh." He said, watching as the front door to the Wilkins place opened and a young man stepped out, talking agitatedly into his mobile phone. "Oh no."

Rice looked back for Jack and couldn't see him anywhere. "Jack! Come on, man!" He yelled in the quietest way possible, he didn't want to draw Wilkins' attention in his direction. "Jack, we have to go!" No reply.

Rice growled in frustration and turned his attention back to Wilkins who had now finished his phone call and was climbing into his white van. If Jack didn't come back soon they were going to lose him. The van started and pulled out of the driveway. "Dammit, Jack!" Rice hissed a little louder than before, Wilkins overhearing him wasn't so much a problem anymore considering he was already halfway down the street.

"What?" Jack asked cluelessly, jogging back to the car.

"He's getting away."

"Oh ****." Jack pulled open his door and threw himself into the car. "Go." Eve was going to kill them.

There's certain things in this world that no man is prepared to see; walking into the Diner and seeing your ex-girlfriend sitting down and having breakfast with your ex-ex-girlfriend and her lover, was near the top of the list.

"Kim." Rachel greeted him.

"Rachel." He nodded to the other occupants of the table. "Zoe." Eve, her name's Eve! His brain screamed at him but he still couldn't bring himself to call her that. To him, she was Zoe, simple as that. Only it wasn't simple, nowhere near it. When Robbie had come bouncing in to tell him the news, he'd received from Beth, he couldn't believe it. He'd made Robbie repeat himself over and over until Rob had gotten fed up and tossed the phone at him, telling him to give Jack a call if he didn't believe him.

"Kim." Eve replied uncomfortably.

"How's Kit?" Rachel asked, trying to defuse some of the tension.

"Yeah, she's good. Going into the second trimester."

"That's…great." said Rachel.

"Yeah."

"Wow, this isn't uncomfortable at all." Eve remarked on the stilted state of the conversation. At that moment Rachel's pager went off.

"It's the hospital. I have to go" She sighed, grabbing her bag and almost colliding against Kim's hard chest when she stood up. He put out a hand to steady her. "Thanks." She mumbled to him. She looked at her new friends. "I'll see you later." She rushed out, averting her eyes from Kim. For all of the pretense of them still being friends and the fact that there was no ill will between them, she still found it hard to look at him sometimes.

"So…" Kim sighed, leaning on the back of the chair Rachel had previously occupied. "You're a cop."

Eve didn't bother to correct him. He was close enough. At least he wasn't trying to kill her. "Yeah."

Kim frowned, debating on whether or not he really wanted to know the answer to the question that was weighing on his mind. "There's one thing that I don't understand."

"One thing?"

"If you were good all along, why did you switch the paternity test results?" He wasn't angry, not now, not after so long. If he and Hayley had never slept together he never would've been in that position in the first place. If he blamed anyone, it was himself.

"Just because I'm not evil doesn't mean I'm not a borderline sociopath." Eve said flatly. "You cheated on me, so you had to pay."

"Whoa, it wasn't like you weren't cheating on me with her-" Kim gestured to Tracey who was watching impassively. "-the whole time." At least that's what he'd gathered from his conversations with Jack and Rachel.

"Well, actually, I was with Tracey first so technically I was cheating on her with..." Eve realized that bringing all this up would end in nothing but badness. "You know what, this is a very tricky grey area and-" She was interrupted by the ringing of her mobile phone. "I have to take this."

"You have Firestarter as your ring tone?" Tracey asked in amusement as Eve dug the phone out of her deep pockets.

"What, too meta?"

"A little." Tracey answered as Kim watched, completely confused by what they were talking about. She looked at him and realized that they'd never been introduced, she gave him a tiny wave. "Hi."

"Eve Jacobson's House of Pain." Eve answered the phone with a smile, which quickly faded as she heard what the person on the other end of the line had to say. "What?"

Stuart's van had been pulled over to the side of the road by the time they had caught up with it. At first they'd thought it was a trap, something to lure them into blowing their cover and so they drove on by before taking the next off road and coming back around for a second look.

Standing beside the van, Jack held his phone to his ear and kicked at the dirt, trying not to look.

Rice swore under his breath as he pulled the blood-soaked drivers side door open. Stuart Wilkins' body was slumped over the steering wheel, half of his skull was just...missing, turning the entire back portion of his skull into a bloody crater. Blood dribbled from the corner of his lips and his eyes were wide open and fixed, staring at something he could no longer see. But it was the blood and cerebral matter sliding down the glass of the window that did Evan in, he gagged and turned away as Jack repeated his statement into the phone.

"Stuart Wilkins has been murdered."

Next time on Somewhere A Clock Is Ticking: Belle & Drew's burgeoning relationship hits troubled waters…oh yeah, and Eve rips Jack a new one, but you'd already guessed that was coming, right?

[swfc]

OMFG! That was bloody brilliant! Such a long chapter at that! But it was worth the wait! Thanks to the awesome teasers too!

Ooo, rubs hands in glee! Jack getting in trouble and Eve yelling at him!!

Update soon!