Chain Reaction Generation Three Summary: Chapters 21-30

Charlotte goes into work the next day, still not made up her mind completely whether or not she wants to quit. They have a pretty good day. After they close, Jarvis starts apologizing for fighting with Tommy yesterday. She says she broke up with him. Jarvis asks her out, sort of, saying maybe they could go next door and talk about it (next door is a restaurant). She tells him no. Jarvis, still reeling with almost-unbelief that she's actually single right now, forgets all about how he'd planned to wait a little while once she finally breaks up with Tommy before telling her how he feels... again.

He spills it all, wanting to kiss her if he gets the slightest hint that that would be okay. She warns him not to, ready to knee him in the groin just like she did with Tommy last night. Infuriating woman. So, he decides NOT to kiss her, but...

...come very, very close to it, shocking her. He keeps his lips mere centimeters from her skin, moving around, whispering how he loves the way she smells. Then he hovers over her lips, and she closes her eyes like she expects him to kiss her, like she wants him to. He asks her out instead.

That wakes her up, and she gets mad and quits.

He chases her outside where he tells her she can go ahead an quit (which isn't okay with him, btw) but she can't deny she felt something back there. She tells him stop living in a dream world, that they may have once been friends but that she never wants to see him again.

She goes home and texts Dwight what happened, wishing she could talk to him face-to-face, but he's at the Everton dorms. She and he continue texting back and forth over the next few months, but Jarvis doesn't give up. He keeps coming by to apologize, leading her to almost punching him. She just can't have a relationship with Jarvis! Dwight, however...

...he finally comes home for a weekend, and she goes to his house to visit. He's telling her about how they caught his roommate cheating off his schoolwork, and he's devastated because of it. They talk for a bit longer, and she tries that flirting thing that Chloe and Isabella have been trying to teach her. She flirts with Dwight and tells him that she has a crush on someone, and she's very glad he's home this weekend from Everton.

That... doesn't work like she wants it to. Dwight gives her the exact same reason she's been giving Tommy and Jarvis: that he's not interested in having any romantic relationships right now, that he just wants to be friends. Ouch.

So she runs outside. Worried about how he's hurt her feelings, he runs out after her, and they talk. Then, she tries to "pull a Tommy" on him.

But he pushes her away. She asks him if he's gay. He tells her he's not. (He's actually bi, but that doesn't matter right here.) She doesn't just want to be friends. So, Charlotte loses another friend.

Charlotte likes picturesque spots. She likes the positive energy that they give off, so she can often be found at such places. One such evening and after receiving a tip from Chloe, Jarvis finds her at one of them.

He begs her to come back to work. Charlotte can't. She just can't. She doesn't really understand why other than she can't bear the pain. She doesn't want to date Jarvis because she's worried that if something happens, she couldn't bear feeling his pain. But that's not working--because she's feeling it right now. It's unbearable for her. And it scares her. She subconsciously thinks to herself 'I can't bear pain like that again.' (This gets explained in better detail later.)

Eventually, she gets up and runs away from him.

It's been four months since their last talk, six months since Lottie quit at the store. Jarvis goes through the motions of life, only living for his store.

Then someone walks over to him, recognizing him.

Isabella.

They talk. He sort of fills her in on what's been going on since the last/first time he met her. He doesn't give names of anyone, so she has no idea he's talking about her niece. She agrees with his hypothesis that he's totally screwed everything up with this girl and that maybe he misread the look in her eyes before he'd almost kissed her. Jarvis gets mad, mad that he's been chasing a girl who will never want him.

The evening/early morning wears on, and they get closer. He gets her phone number, and he wonders if he should give up on Lottie.

(I adore this pic, especially since the last chapter had such bad, horrid lighting.) This is the day after Jarvis meets Isabella for the second time. That's Chloe in the pic.

The past six months, she and Tommy have been getting closer. At first, all she was doing was helping him get over Charlotte. It drove her crazy that her sister could break up with someone like him. He started getting better, and they stayed good friends. Chloe would like more, but she's worried he'll see her as a replacement for her twin sister.

She likes to stand right at the edge of the cliff while she looks out over the water--to get rid of any peripheral of land, making her feel like she's flying.

This makes Tommy nervous when he finds her here, and he calmly asks her to step away from the edge.

She's never worried about falling, so she dances around just to tease him.
Then her foot slips!

He quickly reaches out to grab her and pull her back, and they both shake in fear while he drags her even further back from the edge.

She realizes that she's wearing shoes with slick soles, and that she did something really stupid just then. All Tommy can think is that she's too daring for her own good, and he wraps his arms around her as far as possible, thinking that if he held on to her tighter, she'd be safer. Tommy is a bit of a male chauvinist, but he has good intentions about it.

He tells her there are other things to do at the cliffs, and they light the bonfire. Then he surprises her by kind of putting his arm around her, even if Chloe wished he'd step closer. He thanks her for helping him get over Charlotte, and all she can think is Charlotte--again?

Then he tells her he did his school report on her. The assignment was to pick someone, past or present, who has overcome something difficult and how he or she did it. He tells her how she grew up without a mom and how she was willing to accept the help offered from people around her. That takes a different kind of bravery. He tells her he thinks she's amazing.

So Tommy gets a "Tommy" pulled on him. (not the gun, the action) So maybe he likes, somewhat, Chloe being daring, and he relaxes into it. Just when Chloe realizes what she's doing, she quickly stops and backs up.

He asks her why she did that. At first, she tries to pretend she didn't, unable to believe that just happened. He finally gets out of her that she thought he was being really sweet. So he teases that if that's how she reacts when he's really sweet, he'll keep doing it. She's starting to freak out, and she tells him she needs to go fix dinner. It's 3 o'clock, and he calls her bluff.

He doesn't want her to escape without figuring out why she did that. He could easily guess, but his confidence there isn't as strong as it once was. He asks her if that was an accident just now. She answers yes because she wasn't going to do that yet. The 'yet' had slipped out unintentionally. Before he can ask, she points out that he said she was amazing, implying it was about her and not her sister.

"Everything I was always looking for I found in you," he tells her. (melt) Yes, it's weird that she's a duplicate of the girl he's liked since a kid, but he does acknowledge that Chloe is a different person. He already, of course, thinks she's beautiful, but she has the qualities he wished Charlotte had had. Basically, I'm saying it's not because she's her twin.

Wait a minute... He said something sweet. He smiles, pulls her hands up and behind his shoulders, and steps closer before wrapping his arms around her waist. That means he gets to kiss her, right? Chloe's reeling, unable to answer, so he kisses her. It's not a big one, but it's no peck either. She says she needs to wrap her head around all that's happening. They agree to meet at the café tomorrow. Chloe practically skips all the way home.

The next day after school, Chloe sits and thinks about how much she desperately needs this coffee. She could hardly sleep last night for being so happy. She's so into her thoughts that she doesn't realize that Tommy has been standing there a full minute before finally saying her name loudly to get her attention.

He sits, and they talk. He compliments her and is relieved when she doesn't try to shoot it down.

Then they talk about yesterday. Tommy is dying to know if she'd thought more about what happened, if she'd wrapped her head around it yet. Was it a mistake? She answers that it was a mistake that she wanted to happen. But she's still worried about the whole twin thing.

He reiterates some on what he told her yesterday. He says that he kept wanting Charlotte to be who Chloe was, that he kept trying to make it happen but couldn't. Then, when the he and Chloe became friends, he realized how blind he'd been. He more than just likes her, likes her.

They make it official.

Chloe's happy, and Tommy's relieved she finally got the message.

That's pretty much it for Chloe, so wrap that up with a bow and a 'happily ever after.' At least, so far as to where I am in my writing.
Back to Jarvis:

He's on a date with Isabella, his first date ever, actually. He's thrilled that trying romantic stuff actually works this time. After eating at a more-expensive-than-usual restaurant, they take a walk. She's talking about something, but he's not paying attention. She's talking about Chloe and Tommy, but she doesn't use any names! Then she notices his blank, but happy stare. She apologizes for rattling off about something he's not interested in, and he tells her he's just happy she decided to come out with him today. She smiles and tells him that he is the sweetest person she's ever met and that if being out with her today makes him happy, he deserves it.

And Jarvis gets his first kiss. She pulls back quickly, not even realizing the significance of what she just did. It was just another thing for her, a sweet thing, but not as big a deal. Jarvis decides he wants more, so he goes for it.

Thing is... he doesn't know when he's supposed to stop. He could do this all afternoon. (It's a lunch date, obviously, but I thought I'd mention that.) He finally realizes something's up when she starts shaking, so he pulls back, still holding her.

She asks him where he learned to kiss like that, and he's secretly thrilled that he happens to be a good kisser. So, he kisses her again, but this time, he doesn't stop when she starts shaking. He just has to hold her tighter. He considers inviting her back to his place, but he's a bit embarrassed by it now. He guesses from Izzy's (how he refers to her) hair, makeup, jewelry, manners... that she belongs to a wealthy family.

Speaking of family, he really doesn't like her last name is Taylor, but he chalks it up to it probably being a popular last name. After all, she looks nothing like Lottie.

Back to Drake:

He comes back to Eden finally, and Valentino doesn't know him. So, Laura stays with Drake to let Valentino get used to him again and get used to living at Drake's house. He still calls Laura 'Mama,' and cries for her when she goes back to live at her house. Drake decides to hire an au pair.

Then, he gets a call from Ethan. Malcolm Landgraab has escaped prison... again. This time, though, he murdered two cops and bus driver. They catch his two accomplices, but they still can't find Malcolm. Ethan has a hunch, and he asks Drake to come along. Drake realizes that's probably because he knows he won't ask questions, unlike how Alex would do.

They find Malcolm on the Landgraab property near the hidey-hole that Tony had once revealed to Ethan. Upon seeing Malcolm, Drake gets some semblance of a conscience. He doesn't want Ethan to shoot Malcolm... mostly because he's Emily's brother (and that would ruin Ethan) but also because it just feels wrong. Drake knows he's a killer; Ethan isn't. He passes Ethan, and a Goth pulls a gun on a Landgraab.

They talk, but everyone is shocked by who else comes along and pulls a gun...

Mikey!
(He wants to be called Mike or Michael, but his family stubbornly won't adjust, so neither do I hehe.)(yet)
Mikey exclaims how Malcolm shot his mother, ripping his family up. He wants to kill him.

Drake is ready to shoot should the man in orange move at all. He will not hurt Emily's nephew! Ethan barely keeps his cool while creeping toward Mikey. Then, just as Ethan starts to jump and make a grab for the gun, Mikey fires.

Malcolm looks at Mikey with all the shock that Drake feels before crumpling into a heap, shot in the heart at close range.

It's too late for Ethan to prevent his son from becoming a murderer. The two struggle on the ground while he belatedly gets the gun away from him. Drake goes and checks to find that Malcolm is, in fact, very dead.

Mikey fights his father off him, using his weight to his advantage. He sees himself as a hero.

Drake immediately starts planning what possibilities they have in order to keep Mikey out of jail. Mikey doesn't care. He says let the cops come; he's a hero. Ethan and Drake don't think he has much of a chance convincing a judge of that.

So Drake tells Mikey to do exactly as he says.
And I leave that there for now. >:) Believe me, plenty more on this later!

For now, back to Jarvis:

He meets Graham and Brielle, having no idea they're also Lottie's grandparents. He's nervous about meeting Graham, but he realizes that as long as he's respectful, everything is fine.

At dinner, he really doesn't want to talk about his family, especially with all the media buzz from recent events. (No one knows Malcolm is already dead, of course. There's a hunt still going on.) He also hopes that Izzy leaves out the bits in his childhood and teen years when he lived in a tent. They're a wealthy family, how could they possibly understand? (Oh, Jarvis... if you only knew...)

Not talking about family is a thing for him, so Izzy doesn't talk much about hers after that first date, but by the time they start reaching their two-month mark, she wants them to meet him. There's a charity function coming up where they'll all be there. Charity function: yep, wealthy family.

Isabella gives him a makeover, and he says he feels like a dressed-up monkey. She laughs and says then he's a cute and sweet dressed-up monkey. Then she gushes how she wants him to meet her nieces. They're twins.

And the pieces finally... FINALLY start coming together. Only now does Jarvis wish he'd learned more about her family.

Red hair. A twin. Last name Taylor. He knows that voice. And she looks amazing.
Lottie is Isabella's niece.

We back up like two minutes and switch to Charlotte's pov. At first, she says hi to Jarvis, then... no. Just no. It can't be.
He says hello to her as well, almost unable to find his voice, and Charlotte drags Isabella into the next room.

She realizes that maybe she could've spent more time with her aunt like Chloe always has. How is it she's never mentioned Jarvis to her? Sure, she had to keep it a secret while he was a teen, but... And she'd always just said 'my boyfriend' the one or two times she'd mentioned him.

Izzy realizes that Jarvis only once said a name when talking about an old friend: Lottie. She figures out 'Lottie' is Charlotte, and Charlotte feels the icy daggers hitting her skin as her aunt glares at her.

Jarvis is kicking himself for not trying to find out more with the last name similarity. Lottie still feels Isabella's anger and the challenge in her eyes. Charlotte knows she's outmatched. Isabella is beautiful.
So, she says some trite well-wishes and escapes outside as soon as she can see that the two of them aren't looking.

There's a pretty, little sculpture garden in the back of the museum, and she goes to it.

Only NOW does she realize she loves him. And she's a monster. She knew he might find someone someday, but why does it have to be her aunt?! And she has no right to be jealous.

She and Dwight had slowly been becoming friends again, and that's when she figured out that he wants to become a psychologist. He told her that because of her acute empathetic ability, she felt ALL the pain her father felt when her mother died, which was far more than any toddler should ever have to feel. He told her she never wants to feel that again, so she pushes away those people who mean the most to her and chase the "safe" ones like he was. (this discussion started after she asked him if he was ready to date. he said he was but that she's in love with someone else) She thinks he's brilliant, but he got one detail backwards. She doesn't want someone else to feel the pain her father felt should something happen to her. In pushing him away, she felt she was protecting Jarvis.

Jarvis finds her exactly where he'd hoped he would: in a picturesque spot. Charlotte panics when she sees him, also figuring out that the path in front of her is a dead end. The only way out, other than jumping the wall which she just might, is to get past him.

She tries, and he side-steps her and asks her to dance. He doesn't wait for an answer.

She knows she has a crying fit in her very near future, but she doesn't want Jarvis to see. All Jarvis can think is how breathtaking she looks and that dancing is a very good excuse for holding her in his arms. But she keeps coming up with excuses to stop! So he just keeps shushing her. Lottie can't take it anymore, and she starts crying. Jarvis wipes her tears, asking her to explain, that he might've once tried to guess but that his confidence there is a bit shot. She asks him to stop wiping her face. But she's still crying!

"Yes, of course I am! That's what people do when they're miserable! The worst is I know I deserve it. Why can't you just leave me be so that I can bash myself to pieces for pushing you away?"

Then Jarvis makes full use of his good kisser ability. I make like the pic is just the very first few seconds and it heats up quickly. There isn't even the slightest pretense of dancing as Lottie has the best kiss of her life, not thinking of anything else but him. But then, when the thoughts do return, she knows she's kissing her aunt's boyfriend, but for now, she doesn't care. She loves him, and if this kiss is all she ever ends up getting from/with him, she'll take every second she can.

For Jarvis, love and lust explode as he starts wondering how quickly he can peel this dress off her. Eventually, she pushes him away, but she doesn't leave, merely walking towards the dead end. He doesn't like the space she opened up between them, and he closes it, wrapping his arms around her.

He begs her not to walk away, especially now. She reminds him he has a girlfriend, but in his mind, that's something he can work out later. Now is so much more important. As he responds to her question: he was starting to have feelings for Isabella, but he's loved Lottie almost his entire life.

She tells him she's been too screwed up in the head to admit she loves him too.
So of course he has to kiss her.

Unfortunately, now they have an audience.

I'm trying to summarize. I really am! So I'm cutting this very short. Isabella is hurt but will be okay. She growls to Charlotte that if she hurts Jarvis then she'll never speak to her again. As it is, the two of them had better stay clear of her for a while. (Charlotte smiles in this pic because she can feel Jarvis' resolution to choose her because he loves her down to the marrow of his bones.)

They talk for a minute before Jarvis wants to give her a tour of how he's decorated his apartment.

The tour doesn't make it very far, however. Already, Jarvis is wondering if it's too early to propose and thoughts that go along with that. He's also really turned on and again wondering how quickly he can get her out of this dress (again, yeah, I know). She stops him, though.

Another thing I have to leave as-is:

She pulls back and gives me a look that tells me I need to cool it, even if she's also smiling. I could happily lose myself forever in her eyes. I imagine they're like a maze and she's at the center. And at the center hide all her secrets, stuff I hope she shares with me, stuff that I hope that explains why she does what she does, did what she did. I love her. I imagine the two of us grown old together with our grandkids running around and playing at our feet or older and asking for money. We'd be living in a better house than this apartment but also talking about this place with fond memories... Memories I want to make.

Charlotte is slightly smiling because she's wondering (worried) if that's how he does his hair nowadays. He tells her it was Izzy's doing, and he can go wash it out if she doesn't mind waiting a few minutes. She says as long as she gets to see the real Jarvis, it's fine.

That gives him an idea.

click here to go to summary chapters 31-40