Spy Out Of Water

Chapter 17

"Can I cut in?" 

I looked towards the voice to meet a pair of stone cold, blue eyes. 

"Where's Leila?" I looked around and didn't see the traffic cone anywhere. 

"She went to go talk to Bailey. So?" He held out his hand. 

"I'm gonna go check in with Norman," Jax told us, slowly backing away from the two of us. 

"Maybe I should also-"

"Please, princess?" I haven't heard him call me that in a while. 

I placed a hand on his shoulder, placing my other hand in his. He places a hand on my waist pulling me in close. 

"You look beautiful," he looks down at me. 

"You don't look too bad yourself. Although..." I couldn't help reaching up and messing up his hair a little bit. "That's better."

"I wasn't feeling the combed look either," he chuckles. "So. Jax is your date?" He tried to sound casual. 

"We'd stick out if we came by ourselves. We're just friends," I shrugged. 

"Like us?" 

"We're not like that, trust me. Not that we're like that..." I closed my eyes, realizing the words came out of my mouth before I could stop it. 

"Finley, come on. You can't tell me you don't feel this. You don't feel us," he cupped my cheek.

"Toby, don't. Please," I tried to look away but he wouldn't let me. 

"I can read you. I know you, Fin. And I know for a fact you feel it," he tells me.

"You want to talk facts? Fact. We are on a mission to protect Wesley from some threat that we still don't know. Fact. We don't know what's going to happen on this mission and I'm not going to let any of us be distracted and get hurt. Fact. After this whoever is still left alive is going to go back to their academies. Fact. Once we get back to our respective academies, we are going to finish our training and be assigned our team. Fact. Once that happens we go off to god knows where undercover rarely getting to see or contact any friends and family. Fact. Chances are, after we finish this mission we are never going to see each other again," I laid out for him. It hurt to say and maybe I was being a little aggressive but I had to make him understand. 

"Well how about this? Fact. I love you!" he blurts out, looking just as furious.

I freeze. No. The teenage girl in me wanted to squeal at the fact that he loved me too. But the more mature part of me, the one that knew the implications of what that meant, was devastated. Because it would hurt him so much more when I told him this next part. But it was for his own good. 

"Y-you can't," I stuttered out. His face fell, looking absolutely heartbroken. I wanted to take back my words, but I needed him to be able to let me go when we finished this mission. 

"Look, Finley. It's fine if you don't feel the same way, I had to tell you-"

"Stop," I pleaded. "You can't...I'm sorry...I-I can't do this!"

Toby was about to open his mouth to respond when Jax came up to us looking panicked. 

"I really hate to do this but we have a problem. I can't find Wesley or Norman," he tells us, looking down at his tracking watch, pressing some buttons. 

Toby and I both jumped into action, our conversation on hold. "Where was their last known location?" I asked. 

Jax looked flustered. "I don't know! I'm trying to back track but it's like someone hacked into- I got it! One of the banquet halls!" He quickly flashed us the screen so we all knew what direction to go in, and took off.