DISCLAIMERS: in Part 1

Hidden Desires, Part 15

©2002 -Vertigo-

Wade hid behind a rack of mid-length nighties as he spoke to Jodie. He was thrilled to have his suspicions proven and find out that Cayden was in love with Brooke. The tall woman never actually said so, but Jodie insisted that she was. Jodie also said that Cayden was practically panicking over her feelings, and they both were determined to find out why.

After his long talk with Brooke in the storage room, he knew without a doubt that she was in love with Cayden. Now the impossible tasks of getting Cayden to first admit it, and then putting them together lay before him and Jodie. Wade wasn't entirely convinced that Cayden puked from her hang over either. His tall room mate was most likely petrified at herself and her runaway emotions.

After hanging up the phone, Wade stared expectantly at Brooke's phone number. He was very excited when she gave it to him, instructing him to call her should anything change with Cayden, or if he had something juicy to tell her. He thought this definitely qualified as juicy. Cayden was home sick needing some heavy duty TLC and, maybe some chicken soup. He grinned deviously.

************************** Brooke was skeptical. At first she fought Wade, knowing she was probably the last person Cayden wanted to see, after all, Brooke felt responsible for the tall woman's predicament. However, after hearing how sick Cayden was, she felt bad, bad enough to go with Wade's devious plans. Stepping out of the haven of her room, she was surprised to see her parents gone. Not knowing how much time she had, she quickly changed into much smaller clothes, took out a frozen container of Gramma Millie's chicken soup and threw that along with some Pepto into a bag. On her way out the door, her mother caught her.

"Brooke! Where are you running?" she held Brooke by the hand.

"Ma!" Brooke squirmed away. "You scared me! I'm just going out for some air." she said, looking away.

Mrs. Hewitt narrowed her eyes and tapped her foot. "It's 100 degrees out there." She peeked into Brooke's shopping bag curiously.

"Okay, I'm going to take soup to a sick friend," she confessed.

"Cayden." Harriet said, tight lipped.

"Mom, she's sick and home all alone." Brooke batted her eyelashes and pouted.

"Poor dear! Is she alright? What happened?"

"Umm, I think its a stomach thing."

"Well, Gramma's soup should do it." Harriet said confidently, as Brooke inched her way towards the door. "Oh honey, did Cayden actually invite you this time?"

"Uh, yeah?" Brooke tried.

"Hmph, well you just go tend to her." Mrs. Hewitt wasn't sure Brooke wasn't being taken advantage of. After what happened at the party, why would Cayden suddenly want to have Brooke at her sick bed?

******************

Wade snickered evilly as he thought about Cayden's reaction to seeing Brooke show up at the door. Cayden absolutely despised company when she was sick, she hated coddling even more and Brooke was certain to mother her. He couldn't wait to get home. He already pictured Cayden in a napkin bib.

*************************

Brooke was surprised to find Cayden's apartment door open when she arrived. She checked the number on the door several times before becoming alarmed. As she was about to yell inside to see if Cayden was there, a gigantic cat came waddling through the house and sat at her feet. She raised both eyebrows in amusement. "Wow, aren't you enormous?" she said as she squatted down to let the cat sniff her.

"MAOW!"

"Is your mommy home?"

"MAOW!"

"You're no help at all, are you." She sighed and stepped over the cat, closing the door behind her. She was a little spooked about the door being open, and scanned the room for anything unusual. A muffled groan emanated from somewhere inside and Brooke grimaced in sympathy. "I bet I know what that means." she mumbled, searching for the bathroom. When she found it, she sighed. Cayden was draped across the toilet groaning.

Sensing company, Cayden glanced to the right and then banged her already aching head on the toilet seat. "Kill me now." she whimpered.

"Cayden! Stop that!"

"I want to die." she groaned, and not from the hangover.

"You poor baby." Brooke squatted down and pulled Cayden's damp pony tail off the back of her neck and blew on the damp skin.

"You leave the door open and anything can wander in." The tall woman tried to shrug Brooke away then groaned painfully.

"Are you gonna throw up again?"

"Well you know," she half whispered, "Once you open those flood gates..."

Brooke rubbed Cayden's back as she heaved, frowning guiltily at how clammy she was.

"Go away." the tall woman squeaked.

"No." Brooke left the room and started opening closets.

"Then slit my throat." Cayden moaned.

Brooke returned with a wash cloth, wet it with cold water and put it on the back of Cayden's neck. "Feel good, you big baby?"

"No, I hate it, I would like to be alone please. This is kinda personal."

Brooke ignored her completely. "Can you stand? Are you finished?"

"God, Brooke, can't you just go?" Cayden begged.

"If you think I'm going to leave you here laying on the floor with your face in the crapper you got another thing coming! Shit, why do you have to be so stubborn! I'm here, you're sick, I'm going to take care of you. Dammit, Cayden."

"Riley." the tall woman choked out before gagging.

Brooke held Cayden's hair back and waited, but nothing happened. "I think you're empty."

"Great observation, Brooke. Do you have a degree in the obvious?"

"Stop being so freaking impossible and get the hell off of the floor. I have Pepto for you."

Cayden frowned, but crawled to her knees. "Tell me, does it get any more humiliating than this?"

"Probably not, unless you shit yourself."

"Well, thank god for small mercies." Cayden managed a semi-menacing glare while she flushed the toilet.

"Yeah, I get the point and you don't scare me. Get up and wash out your mouth." Brooke tried pulling the heavy woman up by her arm.

"May I at least have some dignity?"

"Oh, yeah, sure." Brooke left the bathroom and went to the kitchen, she was surprised Cayden was taking this as well as she was. After how Wade described the probable scenario, she expected hellfire and brimstone. The blonde frowned. Maybe she feels too awful to put up a fight? A wave of guilt washed over her. This is all my fault too. Boy, she must really hate me right now.

*****************

Cayden brushed her teeth and growled all the way through it. JODIE! I will kill you. I will behead you and pull out all of your nails with a pliers. No, I'll pull out your nails first, then behead you. What were you thinking? What the hell am I supposed to do with HER in my house?

*****************

Brooke was melting the soup in a pot when she heard Cayden come up behind her. She turned around reluctantly with a guilty smile. "Hey, I'm making some soup," she said softly, "I know you don't feel like it now, but if you take some Pepto, you'll be in the mood later."

Cayden blinked several times then raised an eyebrow. "What are you doing here?"

"I heard you were sick and since its my fault..."

"You feel guilty. Well, that's quite alright. I don't need soup, you can go now."

Ahh, that's the Cayden I expected. "It's over now. I saw you throw up and there's nothing you can do about it. Why don't you change into some comfy clothes and crawl into bed or something."

"You're just gonna stay here even after I threw you out?" Cayden asked, wide eyed and frustrated.

Brooke stirred the soup. "Technically, you didn't throw me out. You said I can go, which is true, I'm capable, but I'm not leaving. Go lay down somewhere, your head must be killing you."

Cayden's mouth opened but she didn't speak. She was beyond flustered. Her head did hurt from banging it on the toilet, her throat hurt from throwing up, and her stomach was unusually perky at the smell of chicken soup.

"Did you take the Pepto yet?" Brooke wondered as she turned off the flame.

"Uh, no."

"Well, what are you waiting for? The soup is done all I have to do is nuke it when you're ready."

"MAOW!"

"Looks like the cat is up for some soup." Brooke joked.

"Yeah, he is always up for food."

"What an adorable baby you are. What's your name big guy?" The blonde reached down to pet the dancing cat.

"La La Bird."

Brooke looked up in disbelief. "You're kidding."

"No, it's Wade's cat, I had nothing to do with it."

"That's just sick." Brooke said seriously.

"Yeah, and he swears the cat is simply big-boned." Cayden added.

"Okay. Well then, La La Bird, I'll fish some chicken out of the pot, while your human changes her clothes." Brooke stood up and gave Cayden the once over. "You can't be comfortable in that sweaty shirt, and for gods sakes take off your shoes and stay a while."

Blue eyes widened and Cayden kicked off her shoes where she stood.

"Better, now go change."

Cayden hung her head in defeat and looked at Brooke through her lashes. "Requesting permission to shower ma'am."

"No need for sarcasm, go take a shower if you want but I'll still be here."

Cayden watched helplessly as Brooke went into the living room, sat comfortably on the couch and found the remote. She scowled and followed her, snatching away the remote. "Mine." she said possessively.

Brooke sucked her teeth. "I don't know why I was worried. You and daddy will get along just fine."

"What are you babbling about, If you recall, your father is the only family member I haven't met and I have no intentions of it either."

Brooke heard Cayden, but didn't respond. The tall woman folded her arms across her chest as she spoke and green eyes were currently enthralled with the view.

"Fine, ignore me. I'm going to shower and you may as well go cuz i'm going to sleep afterwards." She pouted, then disappeared.

Brooke let out a deep breath when she heard the shower running. It was next to impossible to remain firm with Cayden. Every time she looked at the tall woman, she had to fight the urge to jump on her and kiss her to death, even after she puked which was hard to figure out. In order to pull off her act she had to channel her mother which also disturbed her no end. She had to be cool and no-nonsense, a trait which inexplicably vanished while with Grant, but now that she remebered how it felt to be stubborn, she wasn't going to closet it any more. Cayden thinks she's tough, well, she ain't seen nothing yet. Brooke had to get up and figure out how to work the cable box, since Cayden disappeared with the remote, and when she finally got it right, she sat back on the couch to watch her soap. Only a little while later Cayden reappeared.

"I can't believe you're still here?"

"You aren't getting rid of me so fast."

"Is that a threat?" Cayden approached the couch with a raised eyebrow. "It's a promise." Brooke made eye contact and didn't waver.

Cayden didn't understand, she was currently using the scariest glare in her repertoire and Brooke wasn't even faltering. Without knowing why, blue eyes looked away first. "I drank the Pepto."

"Good, now come sit down and relax, you really should sleep some."

"You seem like you know what to do, you must have a lot of practice. Drunk much?" Cayden said with a snicker, sitting down as far away from Brooke as she could.

"Actually, no. I had my first hangover last weekend and all I had was a headache."

"I hate you."

"I know you do. You can get closer to me you know. I don't bite."

"Yes you do." Cayden blurted out, then narrowed her eyes to cover the blush that occurred recalling Brooke's teeth on her neck.

"Heh, I suppose I do. Don't worry though, you're ill, I'll behave myself." she teased.

Cayden rolled her eyes. "Wait a minute!" she stood up. "Why am I doing this? Why am I letting you treat me like this? What's wrong with me?"

"Your defenses are down and you're sick. I won't tell anyone know what a big baby you are. Besides, you want me."

Cayden gaped. "I do not!"

Brooke waved her hand. "Oh please, tell that story walking. It was YOU who kissed ME. Twice."

Cayden just stood there breathing heavily.

"Yeah, that's what I thought." Brooke smliled smugly.

"I was drunk!" Cayden protested.

"Uh huh, and my tits made you do it."

"Fuck you!"

"Maybe, when you feel a bit better."

"I don't ever want to." Cayden yelled, then grabbed her head in both hands.

"Now look at what you did," Brooke huffed and forced Cayden to sit on the couch. She sat down next to her and tried to put Cayden's head on her lap.

"What are you doing?" Cayden fought.

"Just put your head down and let me rub it."

"No, I will not let you keep treating me like a baby." Cayden argued, trying to get up.

Brooke pulled Cayden down easily, the tall woman was weaker than she was letting on. This made Brooke feel even more like taking care of her. "Shut up, Cayden Riley, and just lay here."

Cayden obeyed, voicing her protest. "I do this under duress." she said, even though she hadn't the strength to stand up any more.

"Ok, I put it on the record. Shhh." Brooke soothed, staring down at the scowling profile. She wanted to do so many things at that moment, touch Cayden's lips, run her fingers through the long wet hair, trace her jaw.

"Oh my god! Is that a soap opera!?" The tall woman tried to sit up, but Brooke pushed her down. "I will not watch this, no fucking way."

"You have no choice, you confiscated the remote." Brooke gave into one impulse and started tracing Cayden's jaw, where the muscles were all tense and clenching.

Cayden swatted her hand away. "Why do you have to do that? Its bad enough I'm laying here..." she turned her head to address Brooke's face and wound up staring directly up at the blonde's breasts. "Can't you do something about those? Jeez!" she reached up to push them away but then realized that would require her touching them and quickly put her hand down. She closed her eyes and turned her head back. "I don't belive it, I'm trapped here."

Brooke's eyes narrowed. Yes, she could think of a million different things to do with her breasts, especialy with Cayden where she was. She had technicolor dreams involving that very thing, but outwardly though, she just snickered at the tall woman's outrage. "Never mind them, they can't hurt you if you just close your eyes."

Easy for her to say! They're right there! If I turn my head... GOD! I have to get up, I need to go into my room and shut the door, I need... "Ohhhhh yeah." Did I just groan out loud? Oh my god! I can't even control my yummy sounds. This is insane!

Brooke grinned to herself while running her fingers through Cayden's hair. It felt so nice, so soft and she didn't ever want to stop, especially after that moan.

"You don't have to do that you know." the brunette protested weakly.

Brooke smiled, Cayden had lost all her fight. "I know."

***************************

Wade waited all day for Cayden to call him, he expected her to scream at him at some point, but she never did. This frightened him, but not enough to face the wrath of Cayden should he wake her. He was dying to get home and find out what happened, because apparently Brooke either didn't show up, or didn't stay long, or he would have gotten a phone call from Cayden a long time ago. In the mean time, he called Jodie to check up on her. This saved him any trouble, putting all the shit on Jodie if she wakes her up.

******************

The phone rang until the answering machine picked up, and Jodie frowned. She tried again, this time, hanging up before the machine. She waited, thinking of the consequence of waking Cayden up out of a hang over nap, then decided she could take her and dialed the cell phone.

*****************

Brooke didn't know what to do as the phone kept ringing. She cringed, hoping Cayden wouldn't wake up. The tall woman fell out some time ago, after much protest, and was sleeping soundly, her head still on Brooke's lap. The blonde relaxed when it seemed the caller gave up but as soon as she breathed deeply in relief, a small phone on the coffee table began screeching and vibrating. She reached for it in a panic, thinking maybe she'd hide it under a pillow, when she saw "Jo" on the display. Figuring no harm, she pressed the talk button. "Jodie?" she whispered.

"Uh, that's not Cayden."

"No, it's Brooke. Cayden's sleeping."

"Brooke!" Jodie shouted. "How the hell... wait just a second, Cayden's sleeping and you're whispering... how close is she in proximity to you?" her mind began conjuring up all sorts of images.

"She's on my lap."

However, that was an image she had not anticipated. "On your lap." she repeated, hoping Brooke would elaborate.

"She fell asleep almost two hours ago, after telling me she'd never be able to while on my lap." Brooke whispered smugly. "Now she's drooling on my thigh, and I'm watching television."

"Her head is on your lap. Ooohhh. You have no idea... never mind. Anyway, I can hardly believe she allowed you in the house in the first place! And now she's sleeping on your lap? Congratufuckinglations Brooke, you just did something incredible!"

Brooke smiled cockily. "What did I do?"

"You've tamed the savage beast." Jodie snickered.

"Don't say that just yet, she was pretty weak and had no fight. Wait until she wakes up, I'm sure I'm in for holy hell."

"You can take it I'm sure. After all, you got this far. Well, as long as I know she's in capable hands... hey just where is that other hand of yours anyway?" Jodie joked.

"Tangled in her hair. Long story."

Another answer Jodie didn't expect. "Okay." she said suspiciously. "I'm coming over, you'll fill me in on all the gory details. I want to know just which feminine wile you used to seduce Cayden onto your lap."

"A girl has to keep some secrets ya know." Brooke teased.

"Oh, I like you. We're going to keep you. I'll catch you later."

"Bye, Jodie."

Brooke hung up the phone and stared down at Cayden's face. A small indulgent smile graced her lips as she traced the sleeping woman's lips with her fingers. Cayden would kill her if she knew Brooke had been taking all these liberties with her sleeping body, but Brooke would have to be dead not to take advantage of this situation. She was tasteful in her explorations, and always wound up back at the tall woman's lips. They were chapped, Cayden was probably dehydrated, and Brooke kept feeling the rough skin of her lips and recalling how soft they felt on hers. Brooke couldn't wait for Cayden to wake up so she could pump her full of fluids, and of course, see those beautiful blue eyes. They'd most likely be glaring at her, but they were equally as enchanting whether giving her the sultry look of last night, or drilling a hole in her like earlier in the day. The blonde sighed and moved her explorations to Cayden's shoulder, and then her arm. The tall woman wasn't as muscular as Brooke was, but what she had was well defined, giving the illusion of brawn. Green eyes closed as Brooke's fingers curled around Cayden's bicep. She'd had very detalied dreams where she was grasping this particular muscle, and Cayden was definitely not asleep at the time. Her eyes popped open as the tall woman began to move. Brooke was able to dislodge her tangled hand and quickly held them both in the air so if Cayden woke up she couldn't accuse her of touching her in her sleep. To the blonde's amusement, and her dismay, Cayden settled down in a different position all together, lying on her back with her left foot on the far armrest, her right foot and arm hanging off the couch and onto the carpet and her face up in the blonde's lap. Cayden's mouth was way too close to Brooke's breast for her to be comfortable, and if the brunette was to wake up in that position, she'd surely throw a fit, blaming Brooke's breast for molesting her. Not knowing how to change the tall woman's position without waking her up. Brooke let it go for now, hoping that maybe she'd move on her own. In the interrim, she just concentrated on not screaming as the blood flow returned to her hand.

************************

As luck would have it, Wade and Jodie met on the sidewalk just outside Cayden and Wade's apartment building. Jodie stopped him from going upstairs, filling him in first on the phone call she had with Brooke. Wade was a non-believer and had to see this for himself so he ran up the stairs, forgoing the elevator, and flung himself into the apartment. He ran frantically into the living room and gasped. "Oh my god! Jodie was right!" He then proceeded to throw himself on the floor in a faint.

When Jodie arrived, she stepped over the swooning Wade and stood in front of the couch with her hands on her hips. "Has she any idea where her mouth is?" She wondered.

"No, she just turned over a little while ago and I was afraid to wake her." Brooke explained in a whisper.

"Well, it's high time sleeping beauty rises." Jodie said with an evil grin.

Brooke winced as Jodie began puling individual strands of Cayden's hair. "Jodie, that's gotta be annoying as hell."

"I know." the waitress replied with a snicker.

Cayden grimaced and swatted at her head a few times before smacking herself in the face. Oh, yeah, she thought groggily, Hang over. She became semi-conscious and let her hand fall back down when it stopped and leaned against something foreign and soft. She brushed her knuckles across the surface a few times trying to register what she was touching, and suddenly a new surface formed within the soft one. Furrowing her brows, she peeked open one eye and was completely disoriented. A snicker to her right made her open both eyes quickly and when she focused, her half open eyes widened enormously. She opened her mouth to speak, and a croak came out.

"Morning, beautiful." Jodie teased. "I bet you can use a cold drink about now."

Cayden pulled her hand off of Brooke's breast and scrambled into a sitting position, getting dizzy as she did. She looked to Brooke, who had a very humorous expression on her face, then to Jodie who was standing with her hands on her hips. She tried to form some spit in her arid mouth and swallowed. "Well, I was sleeping!" she said nervously. "How was I to know what it was?"

"Hey, it didn't bother me at all." Brooke said with a grin.

"Yeah, and you don't see me complaining." Jodie added with a smirk.

"Fuck off, the lot of you. Where's Wade? Why isn't he jumping at the chance to tease me?"

"He fainted." Jodie said, pointing to the floor.

"Candy ass." Cayden muttered, getting to her feet shakily. She was horrified that she was groping Brooke's breast unbeknownst to her, with an audience, but she'd never let on.

"I'm not really fainted." he said getting up. "I saw you feeling Brooke up. For shame Cayden."

"I repeat, fuck off." She began to make her way into the kitchen.

"Cayden, I have some soup for you, let me warm it up." The blonde followed the tall woman.

"I'm capable." Cayden shot.

"I'm aware of that, but you're also dehydrated and probably weak as a kitten." Brooke said, putting a bottle of water in front of her. "Drink this while I heat it up."

Jodie and Wade looked on in amusement as Cayden dilligently opened the water. "Oh look, I did that all by myself, and weak as a kitten to boot." she drawled then guzzled nearly half the bottle at once.

"Don't fight me Cayden, you know you'll lose." Brooke said, with her back still turned on the tall woman.

Jodie covered her mouth as Cayden stuck her tongue out at Brooke's back and then made childish mimicking faces at her. When Brooke turned around suddenly, Cayden was the picture of innocence.

"Here." Brooke placed a bowl of soup in front of Cayden, then sat down opposite her at the table.

"You're not gonna just sit there and stare at me when I eat are you?" she asked crankily.

"Why, do you need me to feed you?" Brooke asked sarcastically. Cayden glared at her and clenched her jaw. "You're going to make your headache come back if you keep that up." Brooke pointed out. "Fine, you big baby, I'll go inside while you eat. You have to be starving by now. "

Cayden turned her glare on everyone in the apartment before picking up her spoon and eating. The soup smelled so damned good she wanted to shove her face in the bowl and slurp it out, but she curbed that desire and opted for the spoon. She couldn't let everyone know that Brooke was right.

Brooke carried a plate of soup chicken into the living room, right past the shocked duo of Wade and Jodie, with La La Bird hot on her heels. When she sat down on the couch and looked up, she almost laughed out loud. Jodie had the exact same expression on her face as the first time she saw her, prompting Brooke to think she was retarded, and Wade looked like he was about to drop down into another dramatic swoon. "What?"

Jodie pointed towards the kitchen, her mouth agape. Wade pointed at Jodie and nodded rapidly.

"Oh, her? She's easy." Brooke said with a snort. "I totally expected the worst, but if this is as good as she gives, ha, I can take it."

Wade and Jodie watched as Brooke fed La La chicken. Wade turned towards the kitchen and looked inside, then shook his head in wonder and smiled warmly at Brooke. "Can't argue with a woman who feeds my La La." He said with a chuckle.

"Well, I was kind of afraid not to. He was staring at me for hours." Brooke joked. "Ya know, I don't know about saddling him with a name like that. It may be why he turned to food."

Wade rolled his eyes, "Oh good, and here I thought I liked you." he teased.

Cayden shuffled into the living room. "Hey, Brooke, I want seconds. Do you think I should get up on my own and get it?" She asked obnoxiously.

Brooke crinkled her nose. "Go right ahead, I think you're capable."

Cayden looked outraged, but the need for more food forced her back into the kitchen.

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