Title: Checkpoint
Author: Allie Stillwell
Summary: After one of his top employees goes missing, Dr Quest is forced to send Jonny and Jessie in undercover to save the man and his family.
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The house wasn't as big, and there was an almost complete lack of anything vaguely laboratory-centric, but the most important thing was that the climate of Southern California was much more bearable than either the Keys or Maine.
Jessie Bannon was especially aware of this fact as she stretched out on the back patio of the newest of the Quest houses in Avalon, California on the tiny island of Santa Catalina. In the not-so-far distance, a cruise ship was moored with excited tourists being taxied back and forth on slow-moving motor boats so that they could take advantage of the souvenirs being offered by profiteers along the road that crept from edge to edge of downtown Avalon. It was days like these when the locals holed themselves up in their houses on the outskirts, biked up to the distant protection of the Wrigley Memorial Gardens, or headed down to Two Harbors to visit that not-so-close friend who just happened to live in the less popular of the two cities on the island. From Wrigley Terrace, however, the occupants could look down upon the streets of Avalon, watch the divers and boaters tend their equipment on slow days, see the catamaran bussing people over from mainland California, and even see the orange flickers of swimming Garibaldi through binoculars, all without the bother of mixing themselves with the masses of people undulating through the city on any given warm day in the summer.
She was dressed in shorts and a tank-top, her green eyes covered with sunglasses against the bright July sun. Her hands were placed behind her on the cool, shaded red tile, supporting her weight as she leaned back and let her pale legs rest in the sun, hoping to let their colour catch up with her slightly tanned arms that emerged after an awful burning from skin diving that left her shoulders, back, and even lower buttocks peeling. Blowing a stray red hair from her face, she looked up to see Jonny Quest walk up to her with two tall glasses of ice water. He squinted against the sun and laughed a bit as he watched another boatload of tourists alighted one of the taxi boats.
'At least we went to the grocery store yesterday,' Jessie said, a tone of resignation in her voice as she reached up to take the frosty glass from Jonny.
Jonny started to sit down but was nipped by Bandit, who had just come up behind him. Pushing the dog between them, Jonny sat down beside Jessie and leaned back against a hand as he drank his glass of water. 'They'll be gone before night fall, and then we can just go back to being slow and boring.'
Bandit licked at the condensation on the outside of Jessie's glass, and after taking a long drink at the water, she tipped the glass so the dog could drink some of the cold water inside before taking it back up to her own lips and slouching forward as she took another drink.
'Ew, Jess,' Jonny said, making a face as she drank from the glass. 'Bandit spit in that.'
She shrugged and then watched after Bandit as he ran off towards her father, who had just opened the tall glass doors leading out to the patio. Jessie smiled broadly at him, but he was stiflingly serious as he looked down at the two college students.
'Jonny, your dad just got back from the laboratory at USC Wrigley,' he said grimly, and Jonny raised an eyebrow. 'We need to talk to you.'
'What's wrong, Dad?' asked Jessie uncomfortably, setting down her glass and standing up. Jonny set his glass besides hers and looked up at them.
'We'll talk about it inside.'
Jonny and Jessie gave each other covert, questioning glances as Race turned and walked back towards the doors, the two twenty-somethings following close behind.