To Live For Tomorrow
Chapter 3
A Captain Power and the Soldiers of
the Future fanfic
By Jeannine Trevizo
9/24/2009
Spoilers: End of
season 1, references to leaked info for unfilmed
season 2.
Disclaimers:
Landmark Entertainment and Mattel – even though they probably aren’t looking
for anything.
Author’s note: more
plot bunnies decided to show up after the last scene… so, another chapter.
Acknowledgements:
The chess playing J/J here come from Windjammer’s excellent fic
“Afterwards” as I never thought of this idea until I read it in this fic. Continued thanks to Janice for beta
reading these. She’s making me start to think this could end up being an
AU season 2 series… but I’m getting ahead of myself. For now…
-x-
Jon slowly woke up in
his room at the power base and did a double take as his vision was filled with
honey blond hair. Then he smiled. He couldn’t help staring for what seemed like
long minutes at her there in their bed.
Reaching forward,
he brushed aside the strands of hair from the bare shoulder of the woman
stretched out beside him. The pale skin that greeted him made him realize that
the events from the previous night had not been another lonely, late night
fantasy, but the real thing. He was in the double sized bed in his quarters
that were now going to be shared for the first time ever.
“Jennifer,” he
whispered softly, leaning forward to place a soft kiss along the arch of her
neck.
“Hmmm,” she
murmured sleepily, and turned so she now faced him, her eyes slowly opening to
pierce him with their icy blue hue. “Jon… I guess we fell asleep?”
He grinned wider at
her simple deduction at their current state of undress and awareness. The previous
evening’s activities had led them to fall asleep. No doubt they’d be hearing
about not joining the others for dinner all day.
It was just
supposed to be his showing her the bed, not… what it turned out to be. But
damn, he was only human. How was he supposed to resist the temptress in pink
silk that he’d found in his bed?
He had never been happier
that their power ‘softsuits’ reverted to the fatigues
when they’re powered down than he had been last night, or else he would have
had to peel off her power suit to get to the pink lingerie that she had been
wearing under her jumpsuit. In fact, their suits were only there when they were
armored after they’d been keyed to the wearer’s DNA. It made working everyday
easier, and if they didn’t, the suits would have been sliced up more than once
or twice when they’d been injured and not armored and
working in the summer desert heat would be a nightmare.
So when he’d seen
those scraps of pink silk, he had to admit that the blood in his veins had
taken up residence somewhere south of his gun belt. It had been a long time
since he’d been with a woman, and even longer since he’d seen anything as sexy
as the woman in the pink silk bra and panties that had pushed him onto his…
their bed.
And the things that
they’d done… that she’d let him show her had made his heart sing and his soul
ache. To have been granted the honor of having been her first – and if he had
anything to say about it – her only lover still awed and humbled him now. He had
never thought he’d have this with anyone again, let alone her. But now here he
was… Jennifer propped up on an elbow, studiously regarding him as he mused
about his continued good fortune to be loved by this woman.
“Looks like. You
sleep okay?”
She smiled at him
then, prompting him to lean forward and kiss her lightly on the lips.
“Yeah. I think Robert and Michael must have added
some extra padding to the mattress, ‘cause it’s a lot more comfortable than my
bunk. Or maybe it was sleeping next to you…”
Jon fought a blush
at the compliment. He did have to admit that he had slept pretty well too.
Shuffling on the bed, he sat up, the blanket pooling at his waist. His change in
position prompted her to do so as well, although she pulled the blankets up in
front of her, covering her body in a concession to modesty that he found
endearing.
“So, when are you
moving your things in here?” he asked lightheartedly, his mind catching up with
his heart on the subject of her being with him all the time now.
“Are you sure you
want to share this big bed of yours every night?” she replied with a small
smile.
“Absolutely. I love you. More today than yesterday, if
that’s even possible. Whatever future we have: a life fighting Dread and
someday hopefully a future with freedom and a family…”
Her eyes suddenly closed
and she swallowed hard, wrapping her arms around her chest, holding the sheets
to her tightly. Last night had been amazing. Jon had been every bit the tender,
giving lover that she’d expected he would be. They’d shared something so
wonderful that she’d been willing to imagine that what they had, THIS, would be all they would ever need. But now, with his
sudden suggestion about a future with a family; it brought forth a deep secret
that no one outside the machine empire really knew. And it was one that she had
been deathly afraid to share with anyone, especially Jon. But now… she knew she
had no choice. He had to know.
“Jon, there’s
something I have to tell you…” she said softly, a slight tone of worry tingeing
her voice as her eyes came up to catch his, tears starting to break from her
lashes.
Her sudden worried
tone brought Jon up short. Something was definitely wrong here, and the way she
was looking at him made his throat constrict in concern. What had happened that
she needed to tell him something now, something that was obviously painful for
her? Had what they’d done last night changed things? He’d thought she was happy
with the change in their relationship… had he been wrong? The only thing he
could do was to somehow give her whatever she needed… time, support, space…
anything he needed to do to show her that he loved her, no matter what.
“Jennifer, whatever
it is, nothing is going to change how I feel about you,” he replied, his hand swiftly
coming to cup her cheek as his thumb brushed at the tears.
She swallowed hard,
grasping onto Jon’s love for her in her soul as she unburied this ugly deed of
Dread’s and drug it into the light of day.
“Part of being a
soldier for Dread… they… did things to all of us; things that made us… less
human.”
He understood,
having heard some of this before… the repression of feelings, the revulsion of
organic beings, and the litany of the machine. Dread had made the Dread Youth
into shells of human beings. Jon shifted so he could catch her face in both
hands now, patiently waiting as she continued to struggle to tell him whatever
she needed to say.
“Emotions are signs
of weakness,” she reminded him, and he nodded slightly, not wanting to speak
and disturb her. “One emotion is love, obviously, and in a way, so is lust…
Dread wanted to make his human soldiers better than their base emotions,
control them with chemicals… but they did more than that… they…”
A sob cut off her
voice as she closed her eyes, her hands moving to wring the cloth before her,
the material barely covering her bare skin as she worried it with her fingers.
He moved his own hands from her face to cover them into his own, holding them
tightly, trying to infuse all the feelings he had for her into the touch.
“All the Dread
Youth, the Overunits… they’re all… they’re sterilized
with… castration and… hysterectomies… before puberty,” she finally forced out,
her eyes coming up to latch onto his, pain and regret radiating within their
depths.
In a heartbeat, Jon
felt as if someone had sucked the air out of his chest along with his very
heart. They… Dread… oh God, he thought, as he looked at the amazing woman
before him and realized what she was trying to tell him.
He’d never even
considered that Dread would consider the natural biology of the Dread Youth to
be such an issue as to surgically alter them all in such a permanent way. But
if he had to look at it from a strictly totalitarian way, it made some sense. Sexless
soldiers able to fight and serve without any of the physical detractors of
their gender made for a more reliable pool of mindless slaves. In all the years
that they’d been fighting Dread Jennifer had been the only Dread Youth to
actually defect, so no one really had known what they went though… she’d never
alluded to him, Matt or the others the physical scars she was forced to bear
along with the emotional and mental ones.
And the only reason
she was even telling him this now was because… damn, he thought despairingly, he’d
been waxing poetic about a possible future with her and she had realized that
she had to tell him what she couldn’t give him; being with her meant that
they’d never have children of their own.
At one time that
thought might have led him to ponder the choice he was making for a while, but following
everything he’d been through without her there with him, the utter completeness
and joy he felt being with her now on top of the agony that was so visible in her
eyes, he knew it didn’t matter. What did matter though was making her realize
that he loved more than anything and he moved to embrace her, his arms pulling
her tightly into his chest as he felt her tremble in his grasp, her arms pinned
against his bare chest as she sunk into his embrace.
“I’m so sorry
Jennifer. That Dread did that to you… to all of them. But… it doesn’t matter to
me if we can’t have children. I need you with me, more than anything else. If
my future is to simply be with you, the amazing, strong, kick-ass yet
compassionate woman that you are, then it’s everything I could ask for… I love
you; that will never change.”
“I love you too,”
she replied, her voice muffled in his chest as she let herself accept his words
and love as she acknowledged that while Dread had cursed the Dread Youth and Overunits to a sexless, loveless, childless future, she had
at least escaped to find the one man who would accept her and love her for who
and what she was.
-x-
They eventually had
to pull themselves out of bed and make an appearance with the rest of the team.
When they arrived together in the command room, everyone gave them knowing
looks. But neither of them responded to or
recognized them, leading to some questioning glances by the three other members
of the team.
“Scout,
any news on getting that last piece of data on troop movements in the north?” Power asked, trying to focus on work even
as Pilot busied herself with other tasks across the room.
“Nothing yet
Captain. We’re hoping to get something more from our contact in
“Keep on it. We
need to use our time wisely before Dread figures out we’re back to full
strength.”
“Well, just be sure
that you don’t go and ‘knock up’ our pilot, or else we’ll be back down to four
again and then Hawk’s gonna be the one stuck flying
the Jumpship…”
Scout’s teasing was
quickly cut off as Pilot abruptly left the command center, resulting in
confused looks from the others and a pained expression on Power’s face. Three
sets of eyes turned to regard him and he ducked his head briefly as he agonized
as to what to do, what to say. After long minutes of consideration over sharing
what was a very painful and private issue, he realized that there were few
secrets in the team that could be kept for any length of time. Plus, the
information wasn’t just about Jennifer… it affected all of the humans Dread had
‘working’ for him. They deserved to know… even if it was hard to hear.
“Captain?” Scout tentatively questioned,
the worry in his voice evident. “Did I say something…”
“It’s… no Scout…
Robert, it wasn’t…” he verbally stumbled, and then took a deep breath before soldiering
on with simply relaying the information in as straight forward a manner as he
could without having it hit him in the gut again. “None of the Dread Youth or the
Overunits can have children.”
Once the words left
his mouth, the silence in the room had been deafening. None of them had known,
just like Jon hadn’t before Jennifer had told him. It was another sobering reminder
of how evil Dread was and why he had to be stopped.
The stretch of
quiet became oppressive, and Robert and Michael made some excuses and left the
room. Now alone with Jon, Matt regarded their Captain and his friend. The truth
was that the older man considered Jon almost like a second son, and Jennifer…
she’d looked up to him like the father he doubted she ever had. These
bombshells about Dread’s human army… about Jennifer… it made his heart ache for
both of them.
“Jon,” Matt
started, moving to his friend’s side before easing into one of the seats there
as Jon slowly folded into the one across from him. “Are you okay?”
Jon started to nod,
but stopped himself. If he was honest, then no he wasn’t
really okay. Jennifer’s stark admission had done three things: one, it
had ripped away any fantasy he’d had of them having children and two, it had made
her feel as if she wasn’t meeting his expectations, which hurt him worse than
the idea of never having kids and three, it had cemented in his mind what kind
of evil Taggart had become.
“Not really Matt.
The fact that Dread could do that to her… to all of them… it makes me angry,
furious even. And the idea that she could think that I wouldn’t want to be with
her because of it… it’s crazy. I told her I wanted her however long we can have…
that I need her more than anything else. Because being without her… that’s
something I can’t live through again Matt…”
His friend nodded.
He understood what it felt like to lose the woman he loved. It was not
something he’d wanted Jon to have to face again any time soon.
“And the fact that
if you guys stay together… get married, that you can’t have kids…” Matt
suggested subtly, wanting to know if Jon had dealt with that aspect of this
yet.
“I know,” he
replied, running a hand through his hair as he faced that future once again.
“But it hasn’t changed anything in my mind. Sure, carrying on the family name,
raising a child with Jennifer would have been… but we’re still in a war Matt.
We couldn’t do that even if we wanted to. So the reality is that what’s
important to me is having her with me… the rest… it’s all icing on the cake,
you know?”
“Yeah, I get it.
But it looks like she’s still upset about it, if that hasty retreat earlier was
any indication.”
“She’s worried,”
Jon said simply, looking Matt in the eyes with a fearful gaze. “I tried to
assure her it didn’t matter, that I loved her no matter what but…”
“She’s being
Jennifer and over-analyzing, huh?” Matt replied, and Jon gave a slight grimace.
“You want me to say something to her?”
Jon considered his
friend’s offer. Maybe Matt could get through to her where he couldn’t, he
thought. If Masterson acting as surrogate father could relieve Jennifer’s
concerns and help him convince her of his sincerity on this issue, he’d do
anything.
“Are you sure?”
“No problem. Just
be sure that you two sit down and fix this for good once she comes to you… I
don’t wanna keep having to
play referee.”
Patting Jon on the
shoulder, Matt got up and went looking for Jennifer. Having helped with her
re-education, he didn’t have to think where to look for her. His love of flying
paled next to hers, and if she needed to think, she was either in the air or in
the Jumpship.
Entering the hangar
bay, he saw the door to the Jumpship open, and
climbed inside. Turning to the front, he barely saw the slight figure in the pilot
seat. Making his way through the ship, he sat down in the co-pilot seat and
glanced her way. She sat there, spanner tool and component chips in hand and
wires poking out from beneath the navigation console. Matt shook his head
slightly at the memory of finding Jon here nearly two months ago with the same
kind of need to be busy while fighting off the pain of having lost her.
“You two cannot
make it simple, can you?” he said with a light, almost teasing voice. “Robert
and Michael go to all that trouble to get you guys a bed and then you have to complicate
things with worrying about the future. A future that isn’t even here right now
and never may be, if we don’t win this war.”
“It’s not that
simple Matt,” Jennifer complained, flipping one of the component chips end over end with her fingers.
“Why
not? We all know you love Jon more than anything,
and he feels the same way about you.”
“If we do this… if
he stays with me…”
“Stop,” Matt said
suddenly, cutting off anything more she might have said and making her swiftly
turn her head to regard him. “Jon’s not with you
for kids or a picket fence or some far off hazy future. He’s with you because
he can’t be without you. I found him right there, where you’re sitting not more
than seven weeks ago, ready to fall apart because you were gone.”
“I…”
“You didn’t see him
Jennifer. He was lost without you. He would do anything, bear anything, sacrifice anything as long as it meant he had you.”
Jennifer swallowed
hard, her eyes misting over at Matt’s words. She’d wanted to believe Jon when
he’d said it didn’t matter about her not being able to have children, but
Robert’s joke had made her question his sincerity on the still raw subject.
She shouldn’t have
doubted him, she thought angrily. Of every single person she’d ever met, he was
the one true, honest person that she knew. And if he said something… he meant
it with his whole heart.
Including
loving her no matter what.
She smiled at Matt,
an honest to goodness happy smile and reached over to catch his hand in hers.
“Thanks… I think I
better go find Jon and have a talk with him.”
“Good. Just
remember… we’re all here for you, you know.”
She nodded and
moved to get up from her seat, her grip loosening on Matt’s hand as she pulled
away, intent on finding Jon and assuring him that she had no doubts about how
much she loved him and wanted to be with him for as long as they lived.
-x-
48-3 Mark 7
Days had passed
following a long, heartfelt discussion with Jon about their future wherein Jennifer
had let her heart lead her back to his arms and their bed. Once she was certain
that he knew what he was getting into and that he was okay with it, that he
really wanted her with him, baggage and all, she’d agreed to move into his
quarters and out of hers.
Luckily she still
didn’t have much beyond her clothes. Everything that she’d had been lost at the
old base, just like everything the guys had. Still, Jon was trying to rebuild
his meager library, having found a few books on scouting missions.
Jon had cleared a
few drawers for her clothes, and had taken some perverse delight in looking
over her shoulder as she put away her underclothes.
“Go away,” she
mock-growled with a smack of her hand to his intruding arm. “Can’t I put my clothes
away without you hovering? You’ll get to see these all in time.”
“Promise?”
She smiled and
turned to give him a kiss. Then Jon’s wrist comm
buzzed to life.
“Jon… Jennifer with
you?” asked Matt, a soft laugh in his voice obvious as he was sure the older
man knew that she was with him already.
“Yes Matt. What’s
up?”
“Robert has those data
disks analyzed from our contact in
“On
our way.”
Jennifer slammed
the drawer shut quickly as she moved to the door of their
room, Jon a half step ahead of her. They swiftly made their way to the command
room where Robert, Michael and Matt were all waiting for them.
“What have we got?”
Jon asked as he eased over to stand next to Robert.
“Dread seems to
have started up a new project – the details on the disk seem to indicate a
terror like campaign. There’s plans in here for introducing
poisonous chemicals into the water supply… the first one looking to be the
remains of the
“If Dread makes
that water undrinkable, thousands of people will die of thirst,” Matt said
quickly, horror tingeing his words.
“And any plant or
animal life depending on that water will be contaminated,” added Michael.
“Do we have a
location where Dread is sending his troops?”
“They’re going to
the source – the headwaters of the river in sector 27 –
“What about the lab
Dread is using to make the chemicals? Shouldn’t that be our focal point?” asked
Jennifer, her eyes cutting to Jon as she worriedly crossed her arms over her
chest.
Jon regarded her
seriously. The data they had was identifying more than one location for the
water contamination, but they had only one pinpointed place for Dread’s troops
to attack. The best course of action would be to stop the chemicals from getting
into the river as well as destroying the lab to prevent future attempts. But it
all depended on time…
“Robert, is there a
timeline in there?”
“Dread’s forces are
supposed to deploy in 48 hours. Which means if we’re gonna
take down the lab, we have to do it before then.”
“Which means more
like 24 hours,” Jon announced honestly, regarding the members of his team.
“We’ve worked in tighter timelines than that before. Matt, Jennifer, get the Jumpship ready to fly in the next six hours – everything in
the best condition it can be in. Michael, check over the armory and assess if
we have enough therm grenades to blow a large size
Dread installation. Robert and I will pinpoint the lab’s whereabouts and
prepare a plan. Get moving people – we’ve got a lot of work to do.”
-x-
Having gotten the
location of the new lab Dread from the data disk, Power had analyzed
information they had on the facility and established a plan to infiltrate and
destroy the lab Dread was using to create the chemicals for his project. Once
everything was ready, the team had boarded the Jumpship,
headed west, just north of the first planned attack on the water supply.
Pilot landed the Jumpship beyond the ruined trees that had surrounded the
area closest to the lab, but still within walking distance. They had one shot
at this, and they had to hope that the troop levels listed on the intelligence
disk were accurate, or they’d be in a lot of trouble.
“Alright everyone,
suit up,” stated Power as the others moved to join him by the door to the ship.
“Power on!” called
the five members of the team as they activate their power suits.
Moments later, armor
in place, the team exited the ship. It took them a few minutes to clear the
tree line that separated the ship from the clearing where the Dread lab was
located. But once they were ready to step out into the open area, they paused,
checking for any security patrol.
“Okay, remember, quick in and out. We find the control room and the power
generator and blow them both. Any resistance…”
“We got it
Captain,” Tank replied, knowing the directive on engaging the enemy.
“Tank and Pilot,
you have the power generator. Hawk, Scout and I will take down the control
room. Fifteen minutes everyone.”
With that the team
carefully moved in. Scout jimmied the lock to the door for the facility and the
team hurried inside. Just within, Tank and Pilot split off,
heading to the left and down a ramp that they expected would lead them to the
power core. Power, Hawk and Scout followed the main corridor, cautiously
looking out for bio-mechs as they hunted for the
control room that oversaw the facility.
Tank and Pilot
navigated their way past a few troopers and found the power core to the
complex. Tank watched their back as Pilot set the timer, placing the device
deep within the works of the machinery. With their part done, they headed back
to the door, prepared to take down any bio-mechs they
chanced into.
For Power’s team,
they weren’t as lucky, and had ended up using their laser stars and a knife or
two to take out the clickers guarding several passageways and the doors to the
command room. When they got inside, they’d quickly destroyed the bio-mechs within the room, and the human workers went running.
The alarms began to sound, and they knew they were out of time. Scout quickly
set the timers on his charges and inserted them into the consoles controlling
the chemical manufacturing.
Once done, the
three of them hurried out of the room, firing at the bio-mechs
trying to cut them off from the exit. Pilot and Tank were at the door, pinning
the mechs between their blaster fire and the
Captain’s team.
With the floor of
corridors littered with metal parts, Power, Scout and Hawk raced to catch up
with Pilot and Tank, who were already out the door. They’d rushed out of the
main doors, the sound of explosions following them as the charges blew, the
last three members of the team being set flying at the force of the blast. As
Scout, Power and Hawk picked them selves up, Pilot and Tank turned back to
regard them, Tank moving to give Hawk a hand as Pilot watched as the building
behind them spewed black acidic smoke and orange flames.
“Bio-Dread!” yelled
Scout anxiously as he saw the metal machine come into the clearing while he was
getting to his feet.
Pilot rapidly turned
at the sound of Scout’s voice, blaster in hand and then froze. The Bio-Dread in
question was twenty feet away but closing. It was the first time since the
original base had been destroyed that she’d seen Blastarr,
and the way he was now stopped told her that he remembered the explosion and
HER as well.
“You!” it growled
menacingly, a roar coming through its circuits
as its hand came up to point at her, lasers
ready to fire.
Before Pilot could
move, she saw blaster fire hit Blastarr square in the
chest, making the technological monster stagger. Then the Captain was suddenly
in front of her, his arm moving backwards to push her back as he kept firing,
almost wildly. They were alone against the Bio-Dread for only a moment before
Tank, Hawk and Scout were there, throwing laser stars and therm
grenades at the thing as well as shooting the monstrosity with all the
firepower they had.
In what seemed an
almost unfair fight, Blastarr found itself assaulted by an onslaught of firepower. It didn’t even have the chance to fight back before it
was over. As its head lolled forward, Power knew they had disabled it – for
now.
“Everyone back to
the ship!” he called out, moving with a hand around Pilot’s upper arm as the
others quickly headed to the ship.
The team hurried
through the makeshift barrier of the tree line that
had hidden the Jumpship from the Dread facility. As
Scout cleared the trees first, he had the door of the Jumpship
open as Hawk and Tank arrived behind him, Power and Pilot following, but at a
slower pace.
“Power
down.”
Four unarmored
members of the team stood by the Jumpship and moved
to climb in. However one still hovered at the ramp, armor still in place. Power
turned back as he realized that Pilot was still outside, standing stock still
like she had when faced with Blastarr.
“Hawk, can you fly
us home?” Power asked, looking to where Pilot stood at the steps of the Jumpship ramp.
“Sure. You guys can
grab a couple of seats in the back, yeah?”
Power nodded in
reply as Hawk headed to the co-pilot seat to get the ship off the ground. Scout
and Tank moved to their stations as well, noting their Captain’s concern
radiating off him.
Still worried about
Soaron or more troops showing up after destroying
Dread’s chemical factory, Power wanted to get Pilot on the ship quickly, but
the fact that she was standing outside ‘her’ ship instead of being inside it
told him that something was wrong.
“Jennifer, are you
alright?” Jon softly asked her, his hand coming to rest on the silver metal
covering her shoulder.
She slowly turned
to him, the dark visor partly obscuring his vision of her eyes. Finally she powered
down and he could fully see the haunted look in her eyes.
“I…” she started, swallowing
convulsively as she fought to control the overwhelming range of emotions
surging through her before she dropped her head and let herself fall into Jon’s
embrace.
Jon caught her in
his arms, pulling her tight to his chest. Seeing Blastarr
had obviously disturbed her. They’d been out on raids and missions since her
return, so he and the others had simply assumed that she’d moved past the
ordeal of her captivity and brain washing by Dread. But they hadn’t run into Blastarr until now. And in seeing it…
Carefully he led
her up the Jumpship ramp and into the seats in the
rear of the Jumpship. Seeing them enter the ship,
Robert moved to close the door and then gave Matt the high sign to take off. Jon
strapped them both in just before he heard the engine thrust roar to life.
As the vehicle took
to the air, Jon brushed a hand across Jennifer’s face, his fingers coming away
damp. “Jennifer… talk to me, please?”
“I’m sorry,” she
said finally, her eyes coming up to meet Jon’s, a few tears slowly escaping
them. She lifted her hand to lay over his where it rested on her cheek. “I
don’t know what happened out there. It was just… seeing Blastarr…
EVERYTHING just came back to me in a rush…”
“There’s nothing to
be sorry about. We… I didn’t even think that seeing Blastarr
after everything that happened to you might trigger…”
She smiled wanly at
his attempt to redirect her reaction to Blastarr to
somehow be his failing. But the truth was that she’d been unprepared for the
memories that had flooded her mind at the sight of Dread’s monstrous creation.
“You didn’t do
anything wrong,” she started as she gently wrapped her fingers around his hand
and pulled it away from her face so she could regard him fully. His hand
gripped hers, not letting her break contact from him. “I had no idea either. When
I turned and saw him (it) there, I… I was suddenly
back in the base, staring it down, waiting to die. I
knew you… all of you would be safe so I was okay with it. But then the feeling
of being ripped apart piece by piece by the digitization beam…”
Jon didn’t know
what that pain felt like. Having heard from Athena how she’d been willing to do
anything to prevent going through it again; from having him have to experience
it, he expected that the sensation was painful, and with Jennifer’s injuries,
potentially more so.
“I’d buried that
feeling… and standing there looking at it so angry with me, I felt the pain
again. Then suddenly I was waking up at that Dread lab again, feeling afraid…
alone. I remembered that I should have been dead, but I wasn’t. I tried to recall
what had happened… I remembered getting to the base, and
Jon felt a surge of
anger spike his blood at the reminder of that betrayal. He had yet to encounter
Locke since he’d lured them into the meeting with false information and the
blank data disk. It had only been the promise he’d made to value all human life
that he hadn’t hunted down the man who he’d thought caused Pilot’s death. That
and his underlying belief that the man had to have been turned, perhaps
tortured to cause him to deceive them.
“Then the rest of
it just rushed through my mind… I couldn’t move…” she said suddenly,
bring his attention back to her from his violent thoughts. “I don’t know what
would have happened if you hadn’t been there… you and the team. It probably would have blasted me before I could have
shaken it off…”
“But we were there
for you… I was here this time…” he said softly, the old recrimination creeping
into his voice from when he’d let her go alone last time… to what had nearly
been her death.
“You were. But what about the next time? If I see Dread in person, or Blastarr again… will I freeze again or have I gotten past
it all now? Is it really over now?”
“It’s over
Jennifer,” Jon reminded her sympathetically, his hands raising hers to his lips
where he pressed a light kiss to the back of her hands. “You survived Blastar, Dread… everything and came back to us, to ME even
stronger. And you have my promise that you won’t ever face it or Dread alone.
I’ll always be with you.”
-x-
48-3 Mark 14
Jennifer had been
working at the work bench in their room at the base when she sighed and leaned
back to stretch out her back. Jon and Matt had gone on a scouting mission and
she, Michael and Robert were at the base, working on a variety of maintenance
projects. Putting down the circuit board she had been fighting with for the
last hour, she got up and regarded the room and all their things. Her eyes
settled on the chess board that Jon had managed to procure somewhere in The
Passages. He’d gone back for the one at City Lights bookstore after the
incident with Athena, but it had been lost in the destruction of the old base.
Now this new one
sat on a small table in their quarters.
Her mind wandered
as she stared at the pieces. When they’d gotten back from dropping Athena off
in The Passages so long ago now, Jennifer had gone to
She’d found out
that she was pretty good at the game once she knew the rules, and Jon had been
a good teacher. Just like he was in a lot of arenas.
She smiled as her
gaze slid to their bed.
She remembered the
spike of fear when she’d gone with Jon to old
Instead it was
Jennifer that he’d been unable to live without…
The door opened,
and she looked up to find Jon coming in, his hands at the latch for his gun
belt as he slowly stripped it off and laid it on the chair by the door. His
eyes caught hers and she smiled.
“Hard day?” she
asked teasingly as she walked to him, her fingers trailing across the chess
board as she moved to meet him.
“Matt and I ran
into company while on recon,” Jon replied as he rolled his shoulders, trying to
ease the ache out of them from slamming into the rocky ground after being hit
twice by the bio-mechs’ blasters.
“You okay?”
“A little banged
up, but fine otherwise.”
“Dread needs to be
a little more considerate of my property. I do not like it when you come back
from a simple recon injured,” she said with a mock-growl to her voice as she
moved to kiss him lightly on the lips.
“I’ll be sure to
let him know next time we cross paths,” he replied with a grin as he moved to
sit in one of the chairs beside the chess table. “How go the repairs?”
“Slow, as usual. I
wish we had better components but we’ll make do. Robert’s on dinner duty…” she
remarked, looking at her watch and realizing they had an hour or two before
Robert would ‘finish’ his attempt at cooking, “you want to play a game and then
head down to see what he’s made?”
Jon glanced from
the chess board to Jennifer’s face and then his gaze glanced to the bed on the
opposite side of the room. A wicked thought popped in his head and he turned
back to regard her with passion-filled eyes.
“That works. And
after dinner, we can come back here, you can let me see you in one of those
nightgowns you got in The Passages and I can read you some of that Tennyson we
found last week and see if poetry really is as romantically mood setting as
they say it is.”
She gave him a small,
wicked smile, knowing that just the sound of his voice rumbling in his chest as
she laid her head on it as he read to her would be just the prelude to an
amorous evening.
“Sounds like a
plan…” she replied as she moved to her side of the chess board, her fingers
lightly playing with his before she laid a finger on a white pawn on her side
of the board, and then sliding it forward one square, “but don’t think that I’m
going to take it easy on you because of it.”
“I never would want
you to,” he answered in turn, his own hand moving to the black side of the
board and mirroring her move with one of his own before reaching across the
table to catch her hand in his. “I wouldn’t want it any other way than like
this.”
-End-