Disclaimer: I own nothing! Leave me alone! *hiss*

Author's Note: Welcome, to the long awaited Rob's point of view story! This story is the time between books 4 and 5, when Jess catches Rob with Miss Huge Boobs. Please PLEASE review. I can't tell you how much it helps me continue. Check back soon for the second part!

The smell of oil hit me like a hammer. It was a familiar, welcome smell that I recognized as one of home. There was nothing more reassuring than knowing that you could fix something that regular people couldn't. And as I wrestled with Nancy's, my current customer, carburetor, a feeling of satisfaction grew in me. As usual, I fixed her car, and as I slammed the hood down, I wiped off my hands on my jeans. "Your car's fixed. You really should get a whole new car. I can only do so much with that monster."

A delighted squeal erupted from Nancy. Her blond hair bounced as she jumped up and down, and she threw her arms around me. She giggled and said "Oh Rob! You are a god, an absolute god!" And then, again as usual, she kissed me sloppily.

Yeah, that's me. Rob Wilkins. Owner of the local mechanic shop. That ownership happened recently, along with my acquisition and redecoration of my mother's house. I'm also a student at the night community college. I'm a pretty busy guy.

But before you ask, no. Nancy is not my girlfriend. She's an extremely excitable customer who kisses the mechanics on a daily basis. But I have a girlfriend. Sorta.

Her name's Jess. Jessica Mastriani. Yeah. Lightning Girl. Or ex Lightning Girl, if the headlines I read consistently about her were correct. But she's more than headlines. She really is.

Jess is jailbait. I mean that in a...well, it's not good. For me, it's never been. The moment she moved back to the W section in detention, she drew my eye. Not many girls would talk to us W's in this town. Then again, not many girls in this town would be put in detention for punching the star football player. So when she responded to the note I'd passed her, I was determined to meet her.

I was one of the last people to see her before her powers began. And I was the first guy to take her out on a motorcycle. And I'm pretty sure I was her first kiss too. She nearly fell off my motorcycle at the time it happened. I still remember her eyes after. Defiant, nervous, and over the moon in happiness. It was a look I'd memorized carefully.

It was the look she had when she told me she loved me. Which I never wanted her to say. It made telling her I couldn't date her until she was eighteen far worse. But that's what I did.

And I regretted it every day.

How was I to know she would go to damn war? The one place she could go where she had to have known I couldn't go, and she went there.

If she had decided to move to Washington, I'd have hopped on my motorcycle and followed her plane there if I could guarantee we would be together. But no. She went to freaking Afghanistan.

The little fool.

She didn't know that every day I woke up, haunted with thoughts of her. She didn't know that I constantly worried over her. She didn't know that every day she was somewhere I couldn't help her, I panicked. I had been there for her through every stupid adventure, each time where she scared me so much that I nearly lost the control I needed.

Fool.

Through her emails, we kept in touch, and in the meantime, I built my life up. I bought my house. I bought the garage. I went to school. I became THE guy. The one her parents wouldn't hate. And I did it for her.

So ever since the war, I've been waiting. I check in with Douglas daily to see when she'd be coming home. He told me this week was the week.

Which is why, for once, I didn't push Nancy off. I let her kiss me, because I knew that it wouldn't be long before Jess would come home. I was going to be happy soon. So one kiss? What could it hurt?

I soon found, it could hurt a lot.