Protecting John (earlier: Bad Boy Needs Protection)

CHaPTeR THiRTY FiVe

I was waiting in front of the house, waiting for the guys to come out to start our morning jog. Jules was already out, talking to a caterpillar she found on a leaf, "Don't worry little guy, you are beautiful as you are. Pay no attention to your society which is pressuring you to become a butterfly. You don't have to change if you don't want to."

I smiled at their conversation. Suddenly, I heard footsteps approaching me from behind and a hand rested on my shoulder. Instincts kicked in and I grabbed the hand, twisting my body so that I had the guy in an arm lock. He shouldn't be able to move a muscle now.

"Woah, Q!" I released the arm as soon as I heard Gray groan. I blushed and looked down, cursing myself again for not being able to hide my face behind my hair as it was up in a ponytail. Again.

"I'm so sorry Gray! I took his arm and started massaging it, knowing the amount of pain he must be in right now.

"It's okay, it's okay," he chuckled, his good arm on my shoulder, trying to stop me and my apologetic rant.

Suddenly, the front door opened and the guys came out, dressed in similar attires, ready for a good jog. Their eyes fell on us as Daniel greeted us with a cheerful 'good mornin'!' John's eyes rested on my hands which were currently on Gray's, in the middle of a massage. Looking back up, he gave a curt nod to Gray and started jogging away.

"Well, I guess it's time to jog. You coming?" I asked gray.

He chuckled, "No, I just came to check on you guys. I have to go back to Sarah anyway." He smiled at me and walked backwards.

I waved him good bye and called Jules, telling her to talk to the caterpillar later and started jogging. She followed me, giving a flying kiss to the caterpillar, shouting, "I'll be back little Sir Legsalot!"

We pushed through to reach the boys who were well into the track. I maintained a small distance between us and kept on jogging. Once we had reached the stream, we took a short break and Daniel and Jules filled the awkward silence with a debate on who the better avenger was. Daniel sided with The Vision and Jules sided with Tom Holland.

"That's not even his character's name!"

"Who cares! His smile is enough to make Thanos go weak in the knees!"

After about six more minutes of this banter, John apparently had enough of it and started his jog back home. This shut them up and we all followed him on the beautiful trail back home.

The cottage came into view and I saw John go in, slamming the door shut after Daniel had gone in too. I could hear Grayson whistling his happy tune in a distance and knew that he must be back. I looked into the trees, trying to find him but rather, saw a shadow dart from behind a tree to another.

What!

"Jules!" I whisper shouted at her. When I had her attention, I signalled her about the situation and asked her to go in the house and check up on the boys and to inform them about the situation. If they were okay, she should be back with a gun to help me. I had taken out my gun and kept my knife instead.

Stupid Q!

Hopefully, she understood my signs and I was not looking like the dying walrus we usually looked like.

Why didn't we practice like we planned to?

Apparently, she did understand as she ran inside after giving me a curt nod.

I quietly made my way near the man who was currently hiding behind a thick tree. He must have heard my footsteps as he dashed out of his hiding and charged at me.

Thank God he has no weapons. Only a binocular hanging on his neck.

Was he spying on us?

I kept my thoughts aside for a while as I ran to him, jumped onto his shoulders and pulled myself back down forcing him to go down with me. Then, I twisted his arms behind him and stood with one leg on top of him and a knife pointed at his head.

"Who are you?" I spat out.

He kept quiet.

Suddenly, there was a loud commotion as all three of the guys and Jules came running at me. Jules had a gun pointed at the man's head and raised her eyebrows at me to ask if I was okay. I gave her a nod back and looked at the three boys who were looking stunned beyond words. Jules kept her gun ready as she walked further into the trees to check if we had anymore company.

I pushed the unknown guy's arms harder and repeated, "Who are you? What are you doing here?"

He didn't seem to have any intention of answering any of my questions. I looked up, "Do you think you can find me a piece of rope or something to tie him up with?"

Jules came back and nodded at me. Good, he was alone.

Grayson and Daniel came back running with some rope in their hands. I looked at John to see that he had not moved and that his eyes, filled with worry, were fixed on me. I looked at him and smiled, hoping to convey the message that everything was fine.

Gray and Daniel helped me to tie the guy up and Jules stood in front of him. her normal demeanor was gone and now she was Julia, the one my uncle had trained.

"Who sent you?" she asked in a serious voice. I dusted my hand free and stepped back, trusting Jules with the interrogation. She had this scary persona which forced almost everyone to confess everything.

Daniel , who looked like a scared baby deer whipped his head to look at Jules, and then me, surprised at this sudden change in Jules' behavior.

I went to John and put my hand on his shoulder. He looked up at me.

"Are you okay?" I asked him.

"Um, yeah. Are you?" he asked me.

I smiled and nodded at him.

Then I looked at Gray. "I need to contact Anthony ASAP. This place is no longer safe for us to stay."

Sadness crossed his face as he nodded and ran into the house, probably to call him from the telephone and tell him about what happened. I looked at John for another second before going back to Jules.

"I'll ask politely this last time," she said in a tone even I would be scared of.

"Who. Sent. You?"