The Many Faces of Tully

Half an hour later I meet Jace in the lab. His hair is gelled up to the side and he seems more awake now. His long sleeved, gray shirt is pushed up his forearms. His shirt makes his eyes stand out even more. His jeans are dark blue and I realize I like him in dark blue jeans better.

As soon as he sees me he starts apologizing, “Tully, I’m really sorry. I wasn’t really thinking when I said that. I didn’t mean it-”

“I know,” I cut him off from whatever he’s about to say. “It’s okay. It’s just a figure of speech. I shouldn’t have reacted like that,” I try to brush it off. He doesn’t buy it.

“Still, I know you, and I should have caught myself. I should never say stuff like that around you. I shouldn’t have been so insensitive. I’m really sorry.” His eyes burn into mine, and I don’t know what to say.

“I forgive you,” I say after a moment. “Don’t you have a video you wanted to show me?” I say to distract him.

“Yeah, I do actually. And it just might actually convince you that I could survive your power, and you might consider trying it.” He walks over to the only couch in the lab and sits down right in the middle. His laptop is sitting on the coffee table and its already hooked up to the TV in there.

“I won’t,” I tell him. I walk over and sit right next to him. He left me such little room that I’m practically sitting on his lap, but I don’t mind. My stomach flutters again.

“Just watch the video,” he says and gets the video ready.

I’m suddenly nervous for the video. What did he do to himself that would be anything close to what I do? He’s about to push play but I reach forward and catch his hand.

“Do I want to watch this video?” I look up at him, scared. He just stares at me. He’s searching my face for something. I don’t understand the look on his face. It isn’t his search for information look that he normally has on, it’s different.

“I’m sorry. What?” he says after a moment. Did he really not hear me? I realize that I’m still holding on to his hand. I let it go and sit up straight.

“I don’t want to watch you hurt yourself. What did you do to yourself?” I ask him. I can’t look away from his eyes. I’m already sitting close to him, but I want to scoot closer.

“I didn’t do anything to myself. Hutsi did.” He turns and faces me.

“Hutsi?” I choke out. This is bad. “Jace, what did you do?” My eyebrows pull together and I frown at him.

“Can I just show you the video?” he says awkwardly.

“I don’t want to see that. I don’t want to see you hurt yourself for no reason,” I tell him. I can’t see him hurt. It would be painful.

“Why not? You can see now that I’m fine. I healed from it just fine. You watched all my other videos just fine.” He cocks his head.

“Well that was before I really knew you, okay?” I admit to him. “I can’t watch you do that to yourself now, no matter if you’re okay or not. What did you have him do to you?”

Jace sighs. “Had a large boulder thrown at me,” he admits. I gasp. “I thought it would be the closest to what would happen if you exploded on me. And I think I was right. All of my ribs were broken, I had-”

“Don’t,” I cut him off quickly. “Don’t tell me. I can imagine it. Why would you do that Jace? I’m not going to let you experience it. You won’t survive!” I nearly shout at him. I can hear the desperation in my voice.

“I have a better chance than the twins, and you let them go up against you,” he calls me out.

He’s right. I did go up against them, knowing they probably wouldn’t be able to survive. But I can’t do that to Jace. No matter what his odds were.

“Tully,” he starts again after I don’t say anything. He puts his hand on my cheek. “I can survive it Tully. Let me show you. Let me try,” he begs me earnestly.

“Why? Why do you want to know?” My voice shakes slightly with emotion. My heart is thudding unevenly in my chest.

“So you don’t have to be afraid of being near me.” His words burn with intensity and they make my heart skip a beat. He’s doing it for me? I don’t like where this is headed. We’re treading into dangerous waters. I can have feelings for him, but he can’t have them for me. Not good. Not safe.

I pull away from him. “I was wondering,” I change the topic. “You know how we were joking with Nash this morning?” It’s the first thing that pops into my head.

“Yeah?” he says somewhat reluctantly, and lets his hand fall.

“Well, I was wondering if he could survive the life being sucked out of him.”

“Are you trying to tell me that you do have weird siren succubus powers?” He looks at me amused. He probably thinks I’m trying to scare him away from me.

“No. I can’t do that, but you can.” I watch as his face immediately hardens.

“No,” he says sharply.

“No he can’t survive it or..?”

“We won’t know. I won’t do that. I won’t try. Weren’t you listening when I told you? I don’t want to be capable of that.” He leans away from me.

“We need to strengthen all of our powers. What if it’s just you up against the evil guy? Are you just going to sit there and just heal from whatever he throws at you? You’re going to have to take him down, and I’m sure you can. You should really gain control of that power. Try it on Nash.”

“No,” he refuses.

“You can heal him right up if you do it. At least you can actually undo it. I can’t. Once my heart rate gets passed a certain point, there’s no going back.” I try to make him feel better. It doesn’t work.

“What if I can’t? What if I’m like that too? What if I can’t control it?” he asks me desperately.

“Now you know how I feel. You make me do it, so I can try to control it. If I have to do it, then you do too,” I rebut.

“No.”

“That’s how I feel too. You won’t do that, so I won’t explode on you.” As soon as those words leave my mouth I know it was a mistake. His eyes glint then.

“I’ll do it if you do it,” he challenges me.

“What? No,” I almost shout at him. He smiles.

“Yes. That’s the only way I’ll practice that, if you practice on me.” He crosses his arms and seems really pleased with his ultimatum.

“Guess you’ll never practice that skill then.” I cross my arms too.

“Let me know when you cave.” He smirks. I glare at him.