Don Sample
2006-05-27 00:52:02 UTC
Part XVII
"What's the big deal?" asked Cassie as she opened the front door of her
house. "We killed them didn't we?"
"What if there'd been more than two of them?" asked Jack.
"I knew that there weren't. I could only feel the pair of them, and I
listened to them talking. It was just them."
"You should have taken more time to confirm it," said Jack. "You didn't
have to go charging right in. There was no one's life on the line. You
should *always* take all the time you can to think over what you're
going to do, before you do it."
"You're just upset that I didn't tell you my plan."
"Yes. That's another thing that you should always do. Make sure that
everyone on your side knows the plan."
"Okay Jack. I'm sorry. Next time I'll tell you my plan before I do it."
"I plan to hold you to that."
"Yes Jack." Cassie went to the phone. "Now, I'm supposed to call the
Council to tell them that we've had vampires in Colorado Springs."
Jack sat himself down. "Go ahead."
Cassie pulled a card from her wallet to check the number for the
Council's Akron office before she dialled it. It might be 4:00 am there,
but this phone was supposed to have someone answering it 24 hours a day.
Given the hours that Slayers normally operated, Cassie figured that they
probably had more people standing by to answer phones now, than they
would in the middle of the afternoon.
The phone was answered promptly. "WCI. How can I help you?" asked a
familiar voice.
"Uh, hi. This is Cassandra Fraiser, in Colorado Springs."
"Oh, hi Cassie! It's Clem. How are you doing?"
"Pretty good," said Cassie. "We staked a couple of vampires tonight."
"Really!" said Clem. "We hadn't heard anything about vampires in
Colorado."
"There was just the two of them," said Cassie. "I eavesdropped on them
talking for a bit, before we killed them. They'd just arrived from L.A.
They said something about getting away from there while something was
happening between a couple of different groups. Wolfram and Hart, and
Blackthorn."
"Did you say 'Blackthorn'?" asked Clem.
"Yeah," said Cassie. "And Wolfram and Hart. I'd heard them mentioned in
some of the forums. Thought it might be important."
"It could be," said Clem. "But what were you doing out alone?"
"I wasn't alone; I had Jack with me."
"Jack's not a Slayer. Slayers aren't 'one girl in all the world'
anymore. You're not supposed to be going out without Slayer backup."
"It was only two vamps," said Cassie. "I got one, and Jack got the other
one. It was easy."
"It's easy, until it's not easy, and then they kill you," said Clem.
"You should have called us before you did anything."
"That seems to be the popular opinion."
"What do you mean?"
"Jack said the same thing."
"Jack sounds like a smart guy. You should listen to him."
"I'll take that under advisement," said Cassie.
"You should write up a report on what happened," said Clem, "and have
Jack write one too. Email them to Robin Wood. We're trying to keep a
record of everything that's happening: see if we can identify any
hot-spots; nip any vampire, or other sort of activity in the bud, before
it gets out of control. Sounds like you've already done that, but we
still want your reports."
"Okay, Clem. We'll do that." Cassie stifled a yawn. "Oh, sorry, just the
thought of report writing makes me want to go to sleep. It's been a busy
night."
"It's amazing how many Slayers have that reaction," said Clem. "Well, I
won't keep you up any longer. The reports can wait until morning.
Goodnight."
"'Night, Clem." Cassie hung up the phone, and saw Jack looking at her.
"They want a report?" he asked.
"'Fraid so. One from each of us, but not until morning. Why don't you go
home and get some sleep?"
"You too," said Jack. "How long is Carter going to be gone, this time?"
"This mission was scheduled to take a week, but you know what happens
with those schedules." Cassie couldn't remember the last time a mission
had actually gone off on schedule. She tried not to worry about Sam when
she was gone, but it was hard.
"Don't worry about Carter, she's got Major-Me to watch her back."
"So who watches his back?"
"Teal'c, and Daniel. They always manage to bring each other back."
---
Jack read over Cassie's report of the vampire Slaying, and made her
rewrite it, before they emailed it off to the Council. She tried to get
a look at his, so she could copy it, but he wouldn't let her see it
until after she had finished her second version. He just provided her
with an outline of what he wanted to see in it, based on the standard
mission reports filed by the SG teams.
A week later, Cassie was spending the evening at home with Sam. They
liked to spend as much time together as they could when Sam wasn't away
on a mission. They saw a report on TV about some sort of riot that had
taken place in L.A. The news anchor said that there had been an outbreak
of violence between rival street gangs. Some people had been
hospitalized, but the primary damage had been to property. A fire had
been started in the office tower belonging to the law firm of Wolfram
and Hart, and the rioting had kept the fire department from reaching the
scene before it was too late to prevent the complete destruction of the
building. Several people were reported missing, including Senator
Brucker, who was running for re-election and a major supporter of the
Vice Presidential candidate, Senator Kinsey, but so far, no bodies had
been found.
---
Cassie and Sam were finishing lunch when the doorbell rang. Sam got up
to answer it. Cassie heard a familiar voice say, "Hey, Blondie! Is
Cassie in?"
Cassie went to the kitchen door, and saw who was standing on the
doorstep. "Yes she is, and please don't call me that again, Miss
Russell." Sam was saying to Faith.
"I'll make you a deal, Major," said Faith. "You don't call me 'Miss
Russell' and I won't call you 'Blondie.'"
"Fair enough, Faith. Why don't you and Mr.--" Sam caught herself when
she saw the look the man was giving her. "Xander, come in."
"Thank you, Major," said Xander, and he and Faith came into the house.
"Hi guys!" said Cassie. "I thought you were in Africa?"
"We were, but we got called back to help handle an emergency that
cropped up," said Xander. Cassie could see that his skin was deeply
tanned, and he'd lost a few pounds over the last year. That wasn't the
most striking difference from a year ago, though. His eye patch was
gone. She caught herself staring at his eye for a moment, noting that it
didn't quite track with the other one as he glanced around the room. She
managed to pull her eyes away from his prosthetic before she thought
that he noticed that she'd been staring.
"What sort of emergency?" asked Sam.
"Nothing to worry about, anymore," said Faith. "We just had to take care
of that thing in L.A."
"Ah," said Sam. "We were just finishing lunch. Can we get you anything?"
"We've already eaten, but I wouldn't say no to some coffee," said
Xander, and Faith quickly agreed. They passed through the kitchen to get
mugs of coffee for Faith and Xander, and for Sam to warm up her own,
before going to the living room. Everyone found seats, with Xander and
Faith together on the sofa.
"So, what happened in L.A.?" asked Cassie.
"Some friends of ours got stupid, and decide to pull a Samson act," said
Faith. "Thanks to the heads-up we got from you, we managed to get some
help to them, before they *all* managed to get themselves killed."
"What those vampires said about Wolfram and Hart, and Blackthorn?" asked
Cassie.
"Yeah," said Xander. "That was a real mess. I don't know what they
thought they were doing, but we managed to get some Slayers into L.A. to
contain things before they got too out of hand." From the expressions on
their faces, Cassie figured that some people that they cared about were
killed. It was a look that she'd seen on Sam's face, and her mother's,
too many times. "So, anyway, we're here to give you an 'attagirl!' for
the heads up, and to tell you '*What the hell were you doing out
patrolling on your own?'*" Xander finished up.
"I wasn't on my own," said Cassie. "I had Jack with me."
"A seventeen year old kid isn't adequate backup."
Cassie gave him a look. "Oh? What were all those stories I heard about
all the times in Sunnydale when Buffy went out, with just you for
backup?"
"Girl's got a point, Xan," said Faith.
"That was different!" said Xander. "Sunnydale was the Hellmouth!"
"Which means it's a lot safer for me to be doing it here, than it was
for you in Sunnydale."
Xander turned his glare to Sam. "What about you? Why didn't you stop
her?"
"I wasn't here," said Sam. "I at least got her to agree not to go out
without taking Jack along."
"Where were you?" asked Xander.
"Away," said Sam.
"Deep Space Radar Telemetry requires that you do a lot of travelling?"
"Sometimes," said Sam.
Xander gave Sam a slightly cockeyed stare for a moment. Cassie knew that
he and the others weren't happy with her ties to the
military--especially a top secret military program--but they seemed to
accept her assurances that whatever Sam was involved in had nothing to
do with things demonic, or sub-terrestrial (other than the location of
their base.) "Okay, I guess we'll have to live with that. The other
reason we came here is that we want to meet Jack."
"What?" asked Cassie.
"If he's going to keep helping you out, we want to meet him for
ourselves," said Faith.
"Especially if you want us to pull strings for him to get him into
university with you," said Xander. "The admissions interviews for Oxford
and Cambridge should have been done months ago. Giles is going to have
to call in some markers from some old friends as it is. We want to make
sure he's worth it."
"He's worth it," said Sam.
"How well do you know him?" asked Faith.
Sam hesitated for a moment. "I've known him for seven years."
"So, ever since he was about ten?" asked Xander.
"Sometimes, he seemed even younger. He's matured a lot over the last
year."
Cassie couldn't disagree with that. Jack did tend to behave more like a
grownup than the Colonel did.
---
Jack had a quick look around his apartment to make sure that everything
was in order. He'd actually deliberately messed the place up a bit, so
it would look more like a place where a kid might live. It was still
neater than you would expect for a place that a seventeen year old made
his home, but now it didn't look ready for an inspection. His dirty
dishes from dinner were sitting in the sink, instead of being washed and
put away. Some back issues of /Sports Illustrated/ and the current /TV
Guide/ were sitting out on the coffee table, along with his season 1
/Simpsons/ DVDs, and the controler for his Playstation. The pictures of
Charley, and some other momentos of his past life that might cause
awkward questions to be asked, were temporarily put away out of sight.
Cassie had phoned to warn him that Harris and Russell wanted to meet
him, and he'd just buzzed them in the front entrance of his apartment
building a couple of minutes earlier. They should be knocking on his
door any second. He had to remember to be careful about what he said to
them. As far as they knew, he'd never met them before.
The knock came on his door, and he opened it. There were three people
standing in the hallway. "Hi Cassie."
"Hey, Jack." Cassie waved her hand as Harris and Russell. "These are
Faith Russell, and Xander Harris."
"Miss Russell, Mr. Harris, pleased to meet you." Jack extended his hand.
"Just call me Faith," she said as she shook his hand.
"And I'm Xander. When I hear 'Mr. Harris' I look around for my dad."
"Okay, Xander. Please, come in." Jack stepped back from the door.
They all entered the apartment. Xander looked around the place with
interest. Faith was looking intently at him. "What?" he asked.
"Damn, but you look like that colonel."
Jack winced. "I hear that a lot." It was getting to be more of a
problem. He'd undergone a growth spurt over the last six months, and now
he had nearly reached his full height, and his face didn't look nearly
as boyish, anymore. He had tried to compensate by letting his hair grow
out, but when some of the guys on his hockey team had started calling
him MacGyver, he'd cut it back. It was still longer than he'd worn it at
any time since starting at the Academy. He still couldn't manage to grow
a beard, or moustache, though.
"So, he's like your cousin?" asked Xander.
"First cousin, once removed," said Jack. "They say we both look like
Great-Granddad."
"Must be pain in the ass," said Faith.
Jack shrugged. "It's not so bad. We don't see each other much."
Xander was looking around the apartment again. "Nice place. I never
could have afforded anything like this, when I was your age."
"Granddad put his money into IBM, and Xerox," said Jack. "Dad picked
Microsoft, and Apple. I was left with more than enough to support
myself, till I finish school." Actually the Air Force had calculated the
other Jack's net worth, including the present value of his pension, and
paid Jack off in one lump sum, along with a fake background that
explained where the money came from.
"We might be able to help grease the skids for your admission to
university, but we can't afford to pay your tuition, like we're doing
for Cassie," said Xander.
Jack shrugged. "That's cool. Like I said, I'm not short for cash. I can
pay my own way."
"So, how did a kid like you end up living on his own?" asked Faith.
---
Jack told them his prepared cover story. How his father had been killed
flying over Iraq, about a year earlier. Since he was already seventeen,
had no close living relatives, and had the means to support himself well
beyond university, he had filed for, and been granted, emancipated minor
status. His mother had died while he was still an infant, and he had no
memories of her. He had moved all around the world with his father, as
he went from posting to posting. His father had taught him how to fly,
and handle guns and other light weapons. He'd been around the military
for most of his life, and learned a lot about the way they did things.
It took a lot longer than that to tell them. Harris and Russell had lots
of questions about the places he'd been, what he'd done there, and other
things. Before they were done, Jack was pretty sure that they suspected
that his background was fake, and were fishing for the evidence to prove
it. He started doing a little probing into Russell's background. A lot
of the things he'd heard said about her didn't match with her official
records either.
It was after dark when Russell got to her feet. "I think it's time for a
patrol." She pulled a stake out from somewhere--Jack couldn't imagine
where she'd been managing to hide it--and tossed it to him. "You're with
me, Jack."
Cassie looked confused. "What about me?"
"You're stuck with me," said Xander.
"Wouldn't it be better if we all stuck together?" asked Cassie.
"We can cover more ground if we split up," said Faith.
"And this way you get to interrogate us both separately, for a bit, to
see if our stories still match up," said Jack.
"That too," agreed Xander.
"But--"
"It's okay, Cass," said Jack. "I wouldn't mind the chance to ask Faith a
few questions, away from Xander, too."
---
Jack's one indulgence with the money he'd received from the Air Force
was his car. He'd always wanted a Corvette when he was a kid, and now he
had one. He drove it over the streets of Colorado Springs in a manner
that was barely legal, watching Faith out of the corner of his eye to
see how she'd react. She lounged in the passenger seat, as if totally
unconcerned by his style of driving.
"So, Jack, why are you really doing this?" she asked.
"Doing what?"
"Helping Cassie," said Faith. "You're a cute kid. You've got the cool
car. I bet you're popular in school. Shouldn't you be busy trying to lay
cheerleaders, or something like that?"
"I'm not interested in the cheerleaders," said Jack.
"Okay...so how about the football jocks?"
What was with Russell, and her implying he was gay? Jack asked himself.
"I like girls," he said out loud. "It's just that most of the girls at
school are so...immature. I like someone whose interests extend beyond
the latest in fashion, and the pop star du jour."
"Someone like Cassie."
"Yeah."
"So, you're doing this to get into her pants? Got anywhere yet?"
"No!"
"You haven't got anywhere yet?"
"This isn't about that! I've known Cassie since she was a kid. She's
like a--" Jack almost said 'daughter.' "She's like a kid sister to me,
okay? I'm doing this to make sure she's alright."
"That's it? You're just watching Cassie's back?"
"It's important, too," said Jack. "Someone has to do it."
"You sure you're not some sort of adrenaline junkie?"
"I'm sure. Most of this has been boring as hell. Cassie's been going out
on patrols for months, and we've only encountered the two vampires. If I
wanted excitement, I'd take up something like sky-diving."
"Or driving fast cars?"
Jack grinned at that, as he manoeuvred his Corvette through an S curve
at well over the recommended speed. "Yeah, or driving fast cars." He
dropped down to a much more respectable speed before he turned into the
gates of Evergreen Cemetery. He pulled into a parking spot. "We're here."
"So we are," said Faith. "So where now?"
"You're the Slayer."
"This is your town."
Jack shrugged. "Okay. It doesn't really make much difference, but we
might as well go that way." He pointed to a path that led between the
graves.
They walked along, talking quietly. "So you aren't in if for thrills,
and you aren't trying to get laid, you just want to make the world a
better place?" asked Faith.
"Pretty much."
"I'd think that with all your exposure to them, you'd be thinking about
joining the military," said Faith. "Be all you can be."
"That's the army." Jack had thought about it. The Air Force had offered
to take him back, in a few years, once he looked old enough to be taken
seriously as an officer again, but it would be a long time before he
could begin to approach the sort of rank that he had earned. "I think
I've had enough of the military, for a while. It seems like I spent most
of my life on military bases."
"So you want to spend your life helping Slayers?" asked Faith.
"Don't know about my entire life," said Jack, "but there are worse ways
I could spend it."
"This can be dangerous. It might be a short life."
"And I might get hit by a drunk driver tomorrow," said Jack. "I could
still have a short life while doing something 'safe.' I might as well
make the time I have count for something."
Faith stopped and looked at him with a curious expression on her face.
"That's an unusual attitude for someone your age."
Jack shrugged. "I've seen more than most kids my age."
"I suppose you have." Faith pointed down another path. "Let's try this
way."
They avoided any heavy topics for the next little while. Jack learned
that she liked hockey (she was a Boston Bruins fan) and her taste in
movies tended toward action and beefcake. She liked music by bands he
had never heard of. Even after spending six months pretending to be a
teenager, he couldn't understand what kids liked about most of the music
they listened to these days.
Faith suddenly stopped, and held up a hand to signal him to stop as
well. "Wait here," she whispered. She slowly moved forward, scanning the
shadows. She froze, staring into the darkness under some trees. "Come on
out," she said.
Jack saw movement in the shadows. It resolved into a man, about six feet
tall, dark hair, wearing dark clothes. "Hello, Slayer," he said.
"Hello, vampire," said Faith. Jack was behind her, so he couldn't see
the smirk that he heard in her voice.
Jack pulled out his cell phone to call Cassie. The vampire's face
shifted, showing its ridged brow, yellow eyes and fangs. It had attacked
Faith before he finished hitting the speed dial buttons. He pulled the
stake that Faith had given him from his pocket and held it ready, just
in case, while he waited for Cassie to answer.
The fight between Faith and the vampire was like nothing he had ever
seen before. He had been impressed watching Teal'c spar with Cassie, but
that was nothing like what he was seeing here. Faith was lightning fast,
and lithe as a snake as she struck at the vampire. The vampire seemed
slower, but was still quicker than any man that Jack had ever seen
fight, and his larger size put more power into his attacks.
Cassie finally answered her phone. It seemed like it had taken forever,
but really it had only rung twice. "Yeah, Jack. What's up?" she asked.
"Uh...Faith found a vampire," said Jack. "We're in Evergreen Cemetery."
Jack took his eyes off the fight for an instant to confirm where he was.
"Southwest corner, near the Cooper cenotaph."
"That's the one with the tacky angel on top?" asked Cassie.
"Right." Jack stopped talking as he watched Faith and the vampire
exchange a quick series of kicks and punches. Both of them were moving
too fast for him to really see what they were doing. Jack held his stake
in his sweaty palm, wishing there was something he could do. They were
both moving too fast for him see any sort of opening he could use to get
in and finish the vampire off while it was concentrating on Faith. He
wished he had a gun. Bullets might not kill the vampire, but he figured
that one or two through its knees would slow it down.
"Jack! What's going on?" asked Cassie. "Should me and Xander come there?"
Jack shook his head. "No. One way or another this is going to be over
long before-- *Shit!*"
One of the vampire's kicks had gotten past Faith's defence and hit her
squarely on the side of her head. Faith went down. She lay, not moving,
on the ground. The vampire crouched over her, grabbed her by her jacket,
and lifted her neck up toward its fangs.
"What's the big deal?" asked Cassie as she opened the front door of her
house. "We killed them didn't we?"
"What if there'd been more than two of them?" asked Jack.
"I knew that there weren't. I could only feel the pair of them, and I
listened to them talking. It was just them."
"You should have taken more time to confirm it," said Jack. "You didn't
have to go charging right in. There was no one's life on the line. You
should *always* take all the time you can to think over what you're
going to do, before you do it."
"You're just upset that I didn't tell you my plan."
"Yes. That's another thing that you should always do. Make sure that
everyone on your side knows the plan."
"Okay Jack. I'm sorry. Next time I'll tell you my plan before I do it."
"I plan to hold you to that."
"Yes Jack." Cassie went to the phone. "Now, I'm supposed to call the
Council to tell them that we've had vampires in Colorado Springs."
Jack sat himself down. "Go ahead."
Cassie pulled a card from her wallet to check the number for the
Council's Akron office before she dialled it. It might be 4:00 am there,
but this phone was supposed to have someone answering it 24 hours a day.
Given the hours that Slayers normally operated, Cassie figured that they
probably had more people standing by to answer phones now, than they
would in the middle of the afternoon.
The phone was answered promptly. "WCI. How can I help you?" asked a
familiar voice.
"Uh, hi. This is Cassandra Fraiser, in Colorado Springs."
"Oh, hi Cassie! It's Clem. How are you doing?"
"Pretty good," said Cassie. "We staked a couple of vampires tonight."
"Really!" said Clem. "We hadn't heard anything about vampires in
Colorado."
"There was just the two of them," said Cassie. "I eavesdropped on them
talking for a bit, before we killed them. They'd just arrived from L.A.
They said something about getting away from there while something was
happening between a couple of different groups. Wolfram and Hart, and
Blackthorn."
"Did you say 'Blackthorn'?" asked Clem.
"Yeah," said Cassie. "And Wolfram and Hart. I'd heard them mentioned in
some of the forums. Thought it might be important."
"It could be," said Clem. "But what were you doing out alone?"
"I wasn't alone; I had Jack with me."
"Jack's not a Slayer. Slayers aren't 'one girl in all the world'
anymore. You're not supposed to be going out without Slayer backup."
"It was only two vamps," said Cassie. "I got one, and Jack got the other
one. It was easy."
"It's easy, until it's not easy, and then they kill you," said Clem.
"You should have called us before you did anything."
"That seems to be the popular opinion."
"What do you mean?"
"Jack said the same thing."
"Jack sounds like a smart guy. You should listen to him."
"I'll take that under advisement," said Cassie.
"You should write up a report on what happened," said Clem, "and have
Jack write one too. Email them to Robin Wood. We're trying to keep a
record of everything that's happening: see if we can identify any
hot-spots; nip any vampire, or other sort of activity in the bud, before
it gets out of control. Sounds like you've already done that, but we
still want your reports."
"Okay, Clem. We'll do that." Cassie stifled a yawn. "Oh, sorry, just the
thought of report writing makes me want to go to sleep. It's been a busy
night."
"It's amazing how many Slayers have that reaction," said Clem. "Well, I
won't keep you up any longer. The reports can wait until morning.
Goodnight."
"'Night, Clem." Cassie hung up the phone, and saw Jack looking at her.
"They want a report?" he asked.
"'Fraid so. One from each of us, but not until morning. Why don't you go
home and get some sleep?"
"You too," said Jack. "How long is Carter going to be gone, this time?"
"This mission was scheduled to take a week, but you know what happens
with those schedules." Cassie couldn't remember the last time a mission
had actually gone off on schedule. She tried not to worry about Sam when
she was gone, but it was hard.
"Don't worry about Carter, she's got Major-Me to watch her back."
"So who watches his back?"
"Teal'c, and Daniel. They always manage to bring each other back."
---
Jack read over Cassie's report of the vampire Slaying, and made her
rewrite it, before they emailed it off to the Council. She tried to get
a look at his, so she could copy it, but he wouldn't let her see it
until after she had finished her second version. He just provided her
with an outline of what he wanted to see in it, based on the standard
mission reports filed by the SG teams.
A week later, Cassie was spending the evening at home with Sam. They
liked to spend as much time together as they could when Sam wasn't away
on a mission. They saw a report on TV about some sort of riot that had
taken place in L.A. The news anchor said that there had been an outbreak
of violence between rival street gangs. Some people had been
hospitalized, but the primary damage had been to property. A fire had
been started in the office tower belonging to the law firm of Wolfram
and Hart, and the rioting had kept the fire department from reaching the
scene before it was too late to prevent the complete destruction of the
building. Several people were reported missing, including Senator
Brucker, who was running for re-election and a major supporter of the
Vice Presidential candidate, Senator Kinsey, but so far, no bodies had
been found.
---
Cassie and Sam were finishing lunch when the doorbell rang. Sam got up
to answer it. Cassie heard a familiar voice say, "Hey, Blondie! Is
Cassie in?"
Cassie went to the kitchen door, and saw who was standing on the
doorstep. "Yes she is, and please don't call me that again, Miss
Russell." Sam was saying to Faith.
"I'll make you a deal, Major," said Faith. "You don't call me 'Miss
Russell' and I won't call you 'Blondie.'"
"Fair enough, Faith. Why don't you and Mr.--" Sam caught herself when
she saw the look the man was giving her. "Xander, come in."
"Thank you, Major," said Xander, and he and Faith came into the house.
"Hi guys!" said Cassie. "I thought you were in Africa?"
"We were, but we got called back to help handle an emergency that
cropped up," said Xander. Cassie could see that his skin was deeply
tanned, and he'd lost a few pounds over the last year. That wasn't the
most striking difference from a year ago, though. His eye patch was
gone. She caught herself staring at his eye for a moment, noting that it
didn't quite track with the other one as he glanced around the room. She
managed to pull her eyes away from his prosthetic before she thought
that he noticed that she'd been staring.
"What sort of emergency?" asked Sam.
"Nothing to worry about, anymore," said Faith. "We just had to take care
of that thing in L.A."
"Ah," said Sam. "We were just finishing lunch. Can we get you anything?"
"We've already eaten, but I wouldn't say no to some coffee," said
Xander, and Faith quickly agreed. They passed through the kitchen to get
mugs of coffee for Faith and Xander, and for Sam to warm up her own,
before going to the living room. Everyone found seats, with Xander and
Faith together on the sofa.
"So, what happened in L.A.?" asked Cassie.
"Some friends of ours got stupid, and decide to pull a Samson act," said
Faith. "Thanks to the heads-up we got from you, we managed to get some
help to them, before they *all* managed to get themselves killed."
"What those vampires said about Wolfram and Hart, and Blackthorn?" asked
Cassie.
"Yeah," said Xander. "That was a real mess. I don't know what they
thought they were doing, but we managed to get some Slayers into L.A. to
contain things before they got too out of hand." From the expressions on
their faces, Cassie figured that some people that they cared about were
killed. It was a look that she'd seen on Sam's face, and her mother's,
too many times. "So, anyway, we're here to give you an 'attagirl!' for
the heads up, and to tell you '*What the hell were you doing out
patrolling on your own?'*" Xander finished up.
"I wasn't on my own," said Cassie. "I had Jack with me."
"A seventeen year old kid isn't adequate backup."
Cassie gave him a look. "Oh? What were all those stories I heard about
all the times in Sunnydale when Buffy went out, with just you for
backup?"
"Girl's got a point, Xan," said Faith.
"That was different!" said Xander. "Sunnydale was the Hellmouth!"
"Which means it's a lot safer for me to be doing it here, than it was
for you in Sunnydale."
Xander turned his glare to Sam. "What about you? Why didn't you stop
her?"
"I wasn't here," said Sam. "I at least got her to agree not to go out
without taking Jack along."
"Where were you?" asked Xander.
"Away," said Sam.
"Deep Space Radar Telemetry requires that you do a lot of travelling?"
"Sometimes," said Sam.
Xander gave Sam a slightly cockeyed stare for a moment. Cassie knew that
he and the others weren't happy with her ties to the
military--especially a top secret military program--but they seemed to
accept her assurances that whatever Sam was involved in had nothing to
do with things demonic, or sub-terrestrial (other than the location of
their base.) "Okay, I guess we'll have to live with that. The other
reason we came here is that we want to meet Jack."
"What?" asked Cassie.
"If he's going to keep helping you out, we want to meet him for
ourselves," said Faith.
"Especially if you want us to pull strings for him to get him into
university with you," said Xander. "The admissions interviews for Oxford
and Cambridge should have been done months ago. Giles is going to have
to call in some markers from some old friends as it is. We want to make
sure he's worth it."
"He's worth it," said Sam.
"How well do you know him?" asked Faith.
Sam hesitated for a moment. "I've known him for seven years."
"So, ever since he was about ten?" asked Xander.
"Sometimes, he seemed even younger. He's matured a lot over the last
year."
Cassie couldn't disagree with that. Jack did tend to behave more like a
grownup than the Colonel did.
---
Jack had a quick look around his apartment to make sure that everything
was in order. He'd actually deliberately messed the place up a bit, so
it would look more like a place where a kid might live. It was still
neater than you would expect for a place that a seventeen year old made
his home, but now it didn't look ready for an inspection. His dirty
dishes from dinner were sitting in the sink, instead of being washed and
put away. Some back issues of /Sports Illustrated/ and the current /TV
Guide/ were sitting out on the coffee table, along with his season 1
/Simpsons/ DVDs, and the controler for his Playstation. The pictures of
Charley, and some other momentos of his past life that might cause
awkward questions to be asked, were temporarily put away out of sight.
Cassie had phoned to warn him that Harris and Russell wanted to meet
him, and he'd just buzzed them in the front entrance of his apartment
building a couple of minutes earlier. They should be knocking on his
door any second. He had to remember to be careful about what he said to
them. As far as they knew, he'd never met them before.
The knock came on his door, and he opened it. There were three people
standing in the hallway. "Hi Cassie."
"Hey, Jack." Cassie waved her hand as Harris and Russell. "These are
Faith Russell, and Xander Harris."
"Miss Russell, Mr. Harris, pleased to meet you." Jack extended his hand.
"Just call me Faith," she said as she shook his hand.
"And I'm Xander. When I hear 'Mr. Harris' I look around for my dad."
"Okay, Xander. Please, come in." Jack stepped back from the door.
They all entered the apartment. Xander looked around the place with
interest. Faith was looking intently at him. "What?" he asked.
"Damn, but you look like that colonel."
Jack winced. "I hear that a lot." It was getting to be more of a
problem. He'd undergone a growth spurt over the last six months, and now
he had nearly reached his full height, and his face didn't look nearly
as boyish, anymore. He had tried to compensate by letting his hair grow
out, but when some of the guys on his hockey team had started calling
him MacGyver, he'd cut it back. It was still longer than he'd worn it at
any time since starting at the Academy. He still couldn't manage to grow
a beard, or moustache, though.
"So, he's like your cousin?" asked Xander.
"First cousin, once removed," said Jack. "They say we both look like
Great-Granddad."
"Must be pain in the ass," said Faith.
Jack shrugged. "It's not so bad. We don't see each other much."
Xander was looking around the apartment again. "Nice place. I never
could have afforded anything like this, when I was your age."
"Granddad put his money into IBM, and Xerox," said Jack. "Dad picked
Microsoft, and Apple. I was left with more than enough to support
myself, till I finish school." Actually the Air Force had calculated the
other Jack's net worth, including the present value of his pension, and
paid Jack off in one lump sum, along with a fake background that
explained where the money came from.
"We might be able to help grease the skids for your admission to
university, but we can't afford to pay your tuition, like we're doing
for Cassie," said Xander.
Jack shrugged. "That's cool. Like I said, I'm not short for cash. I can
pay my own way."
"So, how did a kid like you end up living on his own?" asked Faith.
---
Jack told them his prepared cover story. How his father had been killed
flying over Iraq, about a year earlier. Since he was already seventeen,
had no close living relatives, and had the means to support himself well
beyond university, he had filed for, and been granted, emancipated minor
status. His mother had died while he was still an infant, and he had no
memories of her. He had moved all around the world with his father, as
he went from posting to posting. His father had taught him how to fly,
and handle guns and other light weapons. He'd been around the military
for most of his life, and learned a lot about the way they did things.
It took a lot longer than that to tell them. Harris and Russell had lots
of questions about the places he'd been, what he'd done there, and other
things. Before they were done, Jack was pretty sure that they suspected
that his background was fake, and were fishing for the evidence to prove
it. He started doing a little probing into Russell's background. A lot
of the things he'd heard said about her didn't match with her official
records either.
It was after dark when Russell got to her feet. "I think it's time for a
patrol." She pulled a stake out from somewhere--Jack couldn't imagine
where she'd been managing to hide it--and tossed it to him. "You're with
me, Jack."
Cassie looked confused. "What about me?"
"You're stuck with me," said Xander.
"Wouldn't it be better if we all stuck together?" asked Cassie.
"We can cover more ground if we split up," said Faith.
"And this way you get to interrogate us both separately, for a bit, to
see if our stories still match up," said Jack.
"That too," agreed Xander.
"But--"
"It's okay, Cass," said Jack. "I wouldn't mind the chance to ask Faith a
few questions, away from Xander, too."
---
Jack's one indulgence with the money he'd received from the Air Force
was his car. He'd always wanted a Corvette when he was a kid, and now he
had one. He drove it over the streets of Colorado Springs in a manner
that was barely legal, watching Faith out of the corner of his eye to
see how she'd react. She lounged in the passenger seat, as if totally
unconcerned by his style of driving.
"So, Jack, why are you really doing this?" she asked.
"Doing what?"
"Helping Cassie," said Faith. "You're a cute kid. You've got the cool
car. I bet you're popular in school. Shouldn't you be busy trying to lay
cheerleaders, or something like that?"
"I'm not interested in the cheerleaders," said Jack.
"Okay...so how about the football jocks?"
What was with Russell, and her implying he was gay? Jack asked himself.
"I like girls," he said out loud. "It's just that most of the girls at
school are so...immature. I like someone whose interests extend beyond
the latest in fashion, and the pop star du jour."
"Someone like Cassie."
"Yeah."
"So, you're doing this to get into her pants? Got anywhere yet?"
"No!"
"You haven't got anywhere yet?"
"This isn't about that! I've known Cassie since she was a kid. She's
like a--" Jack almost said 'daughter.' "She's like a kid sister to me,
okay? I'm doing this to make sure she's alright."
"That's it? You're just watching Cassie's back?"
"It's important, too," said Jack. "Someone has to do it."
"You sure you're not some sort of adrenaline junkie?"
"I'm sure. Most of this has been boring as hell. Cassie's been going out
on patrols for months, and we've only encountered the two vampires. If I
wanted excitement, I'd take up something like sky-diving."
"Or driving fast cars?"
Jack grinned at that, as he manoeuvred his Corvette through an S curve
at well over the recommended speed. "Yeah, or driving fast cars." He
dropped down to a much more respectable speed before he turned into the
gates of Evergreen Cemetery. He pulled into a parking spot. "We're here."
"So we are," said Faith. "So where now?"
"You're the Slayer."
"This is your town."
Jack shrugged. "Okay. It doesn't really make much difference, but we
might as well go that way." He pointed to a path that led between the
graves.
They walked along, talking quietly. "So you aren't in if for thrills,
and you aren't trying to get laid, you just want to make the world a
better place?" asked Faith.
"Pretty much."
"I'd think that with all your exposure to them, you'd be thinking about
joining the military," said Faith. "Be all you can be."
"That's the army." Jack had thought about it. The Air Force had offered
to take him back, in a few years, once he looked old enough to be taken
seriously as an officer again, but it would be a long time before he
could begin to approach the sort of rank that he had earned. "I think
I've had enough of the military, for a while. It seems like I spent most
of my life on military bases."
"So you want to spend your life helping Slayers?" asked Faith.
"Don't know about my entire life," said Jack, "but there are worse ways
I could spend it."
"This can be dangerous. It might be a short life."
"And I might get hit by a drunk driver tomorrow," said Jack. "I could
still have a short life while doing something 'safe.' I might as well
make the time I have count for something."
Faith stopped and looked at him with a curious expression on her face.
"That's an unusual attitude for someone your age."
Jack shrugged. "I've seen more than most kids my age."
"I suppose you have." Faith pointed down another path. "Let's try this
way."
They avoided any heavy topics for the next little while. Jack learned
that she liked hockey (she was a Boston Bruins fan) and her taste in
movies tended toward action and beefcake. She liked music by bands he
had never heard of. Even after spending six months pretending to be a
teenager, he couldn't understand what kids liked about most of the music
they listened to these days.
Faith suddenly stopped, and held up a hand to signal him to stop as
well. "Wait here," she whispered. She slowly moved forward, scanning the
shadows. She froze, staring into the darkness under some trees. "Come on
out," she said.
Jack saw movement in the shadows. It resolved into a man, about six feet
tall, dark hair, wearing dark clothes. "Hello, Slayer," he said.
"Hello, vampire," said Faith. Jack was behind her, so he couldn't see
the smirk that he heard in her voice.
Jack pulled out his cell phone to call Cassie. The vampire's face
shifted, showing its ridged brow, yellow eyes and fangs. It had attacked
Faith before he finished hitting the speed dial buttons. He pulled the
stake that Faith had given him from his pocket and held it ready, just
in case, while he waited for Cassie to answer.
The fight between Faith and the vampire was like nothing he had ever
seen before. He had been impressed watching Teal'c spar with Cassie, but
that was nothing like what he was seeing here. Faith was lightning fast,
and lithe as a snake as she struck at the vampire. The vampire seemed
slower, but was still quicker than any man that Jack had ever seen
fight, and his larger size put more power into his attacks.
Cassie finally answered her phone. It seemed like it had taken forever,
but really it had only rung twice. "Yeah, Jack. What's up?" she asked.
"Uh...Faith found a vampire," said Jack. "We're in Evergreen Cemetery."
Jack took his eyes off the fight for an instant to confirm where he was.
"Southwest corner, near the Cooper cenotaph."
"That's the one with the tacky angel on top?" asked Cassie.
"Right." Jack stopped talking as he watched Faith and the vampire
exchange a quick series of kicks and punches. Both of them were moving
too fast for him to really see what they were doing. Jack held his stake
in his sweaty palm, wishing there was something he could do. They were
both moving too fast for him see any sort of opening he could use to get
in and finish the vampire off while it was concentrating on Faith. He
wished he had a gun. Bullets might not kill the vampire, but he figured
that one or two through its knees would slow it down.
"Jack! What's going on?" asked Cassie. "Should me and Xander come there?"
Jack shook his head. "No. One way or another this is going to be over
long before-- *Shit!*"
One of the vampire's kicks had gotten past Faith's defence and hit her
squarely on the side of her head. Faith went down. She lay, not moving,
on the ground. The vampire crouched over her, grabbed her by her jacket,
and lifted her neck up toward its fangs.
--
Quando omni flunkus moritati
Visit the Buffy Body Count at <http://homepage.mac.com/dsample/>
Quando omni flunkus moritati
Visit the Buffy Body Count at <http://homepage.mac.com/dsample/>