This is for all the Jack/Erica fans who are disgruntled by the events of 2x08. I still have hope that J/E is the endgame! For the purpose of this fic, I'm assuming about 2 weeks have passed since 2x06.
Comfort sex.
What a freaking cliché.
That was the first coherent thought Erica Evans had as she awoke. Hobbes had left hours earlier, thankfully seeming to understand what had between them hadn't been…more than it was.
Lust, fear, despair, loneliness, grief and a need to connect to another human being, even if just on a basic, physical level…it had been all of that. Not something to feel guilty over, but perhaps a little uncomfortable if one of them had more emotional investment in the encounter than the other.
It was why the Bureau discouraged fraternization within teams.
She hoped things wouldn't be too awkward.
After stripping the bed, a shower and a fresh set of clothes, Erica made her way down the stairs and flinched at the sight of the alcohol sitting on the counter. Pouring herself a cup of coffee, she retrieved her phone and checked for missed calls. There was an email from Chris, asking how she was doing.
Jack hadn't called her back.
He always called back.
Yesterday had not been a good one for them. Maybe he was right to think that she was acting out of grief and rage, not taking into consideration the loss of innocent lives. He'd tried to reach out to her, to act as a moral compass and voice a different opinion and she'd shut him down hard, demanding he follow her lead.
The thing was, she was fairly certain he would have done so in the end, but she just hadn't had the energy to get into a discussion about it.
Hitting redial, she listened to the ring tone for several seconds before someone answered. By Hobbes.
"Hello?" It was quite a polite greeting from him.
"Hey," she replied, hoping they could just be adults and not have the typical morning after weirdness. "Um, did I call…."
"Jack's phone," Hobbes replied, tone a bit curt, but nothing out of the ordinary. "He's not here. His phone was on his cot, but he didn't come in last night."
"What?" That couldn't be good. "He left his phone."
In this day and age, no one intentionally left their phone behind when they went out.
"Yes."
Damn.
During the drive to Hobbes's basement, Erica contacted Chad, Sid and even St. Josephine's in an attempt to locate Jack, but he wasn't anywhere to be found. That was bad.
Clearly she wasn't the only one concerned, because Chad was arriving as she pulled up and, upon descending into the basement, they found a freaked out Sid chattering at Hobbes.
"Do you think some of Anna's minions grabbed him?" Sid was saying as he paced the room. "I mean, if they've figured out who we are, things could get bad…damn, we should have some way of tracking each other…besides the obvious cell phones…"
Hobbes offered her a nod and small smile in greeting, the latter of which earned a raised brow from Chad. She returned the nod, a bit stiffly, hoping he'd let the matter drop.
"Look, I know we're all on edge," Hobbes said, trying to talk Sid down from another panicked outburst. "Maybe he went out for a drink and…made a friend."
Erica glanced over at Jack's cot, his crosses and Bible. "You think he went out and let himself get picked up by a stranger?"
That didn't exactly sound like something Jack would do.
Hobbes's eyes bored into hers. "Everyone deserves a bit of comfort now and again."
Sid and Chad exchanged glances, picking up on the subtext but not really understanding. "Okay," Chad said slowly, breaking the awkward silence. "Maybe he's with a friend then. Family? An Army buddy?"
Shrugging, Erica said, "Outside of us, I don't know who he'd go to."
"Let me see what I can find." Sid tossed himself into a chair in front of the computer and his fingers flew across the keys. After a minute, he sat back and said, "Okay, this is what I got on Jack…He's originally from Minnesota…Huh, never met anyone from there…Masters in History and Theology…Priest…Army Chaplain…Purple Heart, Bronze Star, Global War on Terrorism Expeditionary Medal and Iraq Campaign Medal…Don't really know what that means, but it sounds impressive….Family…a niece here in the city. That's it. I can try to hack into his cell records, see who he's been calling.
Though Sid didn't know what Jack's array of medals meant, Erica did and Hobbes clearly did as well. But that wasn't pressing at the moment. She jotted down the address of the niece that Sid had found and said, "Let's see if…."
"Did anyone check the church two blocks over?" Chad asked, then shrugged when they all turned to look at him. "I just mean, before we go storming over to some strange woman's home, I think we should at least check it out."
Erica wondered why she hadn't thought of that.
"Worth a shot," Hobbes conceded with a nod, but he still grabbed an extra handgun and tucked it under his coat. He tapped Sid on the shoulder, "Keep at those records, just in case."
Just in case. That seemed like a good plan.
"O Lord, Jesus Christ, Redeemer and Savior, forgive my sins, just as You forgave Peter's denial and those who crucified You. Count not my transgressions, but, rather, my tears of repentance. Remember not my iniquities, but, more especially, my sorrow for the offenses I have committed against You. I long to be true to Your Word, and pray that You will love me and come to make Your dwelling place within me. I promise to give You praise and glory in love and in service all the days of my life."
"Lord Jesus Christ, I ask today to forgive everyone in my life. I know that You will give me the strength to forgive and I thank You that You love me more than I love myself and want my happiness more than I desire it for myself."
"Lord, forgive me for my sins, faults and failings, and for all that is bad in myself or that I think is bad. I reject all that superstition and choose You alone as my Lord and Savior. Fill me with Your Holy Spirit."
"O God, mercy and forgiveness
are Yours by nature and by right.
Receive our humble petitions.
Though we are bound tightly by the chain of our sins,
set us free by the power of Your great mercy."
"Amen."
Chad had been right. Jack was at the small chapel, kneeling in the empty pews, quiet voice echoing in the large room. His head was bowed and hands clasped and he hadn't reacted when they entered. Out of respect, Erica had held the others back, allowing him to finish his prayers, but after the amen, she took a step forward.
Only to be brought up short by the start of a new prayer.
Salve Regína, Mater misericórdiæ; Vita dulcédo, et spes nostra, salve. Ad te Clamámus éxsules fílii Evæ; Ad te Suspirámus, geméntes et flentes in hac lacrimárum valle…."
"He's been here since before I got in."
An elderly little woman had crept up behind them on soft soled shoes. She held an old fashioned feather duster in one hand and turned her gaze toward Jack. "Father Connolly said he was here at five when he came to light a candle."
It was past 9. Hobbes had probably returned to the basement around 1 am and she'd called Jack and missed him at 10:30...had he been here the whole time?
"What's he saying?" she heard Chad whisper to the older woman and Erica found that she was curious about that as well.
The woman eyed them suspiciously for a moment, then said, "I've heard several rosaries, the Prayer for the Forgiveness of Sins, Prayer for the War, Morning Prayer of the Soldier, A Prayer for the Preservation of Faith, Prayer in the Time of Conflict, Prayers for Victims of War, for Leaders, for Friends and Loved Ones, for the Dead, Those Who Mourn, Combatants…Some in English, some Latin."
The older woman shrugged as they stared at her. "Like I said, he's been here a while."
With that she bustled off, muttering about people interrupting 'the nice young man's prayers'.
Now that she knew Jack was, in fact, safe, Erica did hesitate to interrupt him. They didn't have anything urgent to do at the moment and she had the feeling he'd somehow know what had gone down between herself and Hobbes the night before.
It was silly.
"Gimme his phone," Chad said and Erica was so surprised that she forked it over.
The reported walked into the church as she and Hobbes took seats in the back, watching. Chad stepped into the pew beside Jack and the former priest turned to acknowledge him. They were too far away to hear what was being said clearly, but Chad handed Jack his phone before settling down on the bench.
Jack turned to look back at them and made a hand gesture that clearly said, "Just a minute," before returning to his prayers.
"See," Hobbes said, "No reason to worry. He just wanted to be in his comfort zone for a bit."
If he'd been there more than eight hours, Erica considered that to be more than a bit, but that would wait for later.
Jack's phone records turned out to reveal nothing new. Basically the only people he ever called were St. Josephine's, Erica, Hobbes, Chad, Ryan or his niece. He'd never even called Sid. Poor guy clearly didn't get out much.
On the table, Sid's own phone buzzed and he grabbed it up eagerly.
Damn, just a text from one of his roommates.
Micah is yelling at the squirrels again. Random co-eds are afraid. Should I try to get him indoors before they call the campus rent a cop?
He really needed to get his own place. YES!, he texted back, then paused, I'm assuming you got it on video.
Duh. Also, I'm the drunkest dude in the tree.
Dumbass. With a sigh, Sid tossed his phone back onto the table and it slid off, skittering off the side and onto the floor where it slid under Hobbes's bed.
Lovely. The mercenary probably had the thing booby trapped.
Cautiously, Sid crouched beside the bed and felt around for the missing phone and was unhappy not to find it quickly. Lifting up the edge of the blanket, he peered under and saw the phone beside a stack of small boxes. Happily, he grabbed the device, then cursed as his wrist jostled a box, causing it to tip over .
Squeezing his eyes shut, he hoped there wasn't anything super explosive in the box.
After a moment, discovering that he was still alive, Sid opened an eye and looked at what had fallen from the box. It looked almost like a packet of birth control, but the lid was open and there was something blinking inside.
Curiosity getting the better of him, Sid picked up the…whatever it was and inspected it. The small, oval disc inside had a glowing red stripe down the center. He'd never seen anything like it before.
The door opened and there were soft footsteps on the stairs. Sid turned on his butt to see who it was, hoping it wouldn't be Hobbes, 'cause he wasn't ready to die and he was sure the big man wouldn't take kindly to Sid's snooping.
Fortunately, it wasn't Hobbes. In fact, he'd never met the lovely young woman who was presently staring at him curiously. After a moment, he recognized her as Lisa, Anna's daughter and a Fifth Column ally. Another really hot woman who was a lizard underneath. Weird.
"Hi," he said scrambling up from the floor and hoping he didn't look like too much the fool. "I'm Sidney Miller. New guy on the team."
She nodded and replied, "I'm Lisa. Erica has spoken kindly of you."
"Really?" It was always nice to be acknowledged. "You too, I mean, you're like a secret agent up on the ship…."
"Why do you have one of our detonators?"
Sid glanced down at the device in his hand, suddenly extremely uncomfortable. It was a detonator and who knew how many explosive devices Hobbes had hidden around this place. He had heard jack muttering about C4 in one of the cupboards. "It's a detonator? V technology?"
"Yes," Lisa said, stepping forward and touching the device to make the red glow disappear. "It's deactivated now."
"Thank you," he breathed in relief, then looked at the device in his hand. "Why would Hobbes have this?"
Lisa held out her hand and said, "May I?"
Passing her the detonator, Sid watched as she did something, then frowned. "This is odd. It's been used…Oh no."
Her big eyes had grown troubled and her pretty face paled. The scientist in him screamed to know how that happened if it wasn't her real skin, but he contained himself to ask, "What?"
"This was used two weeks ago," she said bleakly, then shook her head. "I heard mother and Thomas speaking about using a human asset to take out Cohen, but I didn't know who…."
Explosion. Two weeks ago. Eli Cohen. Damn. "When Erica's ex got killed," Sid breathed. "Oh, man, this is not good. Not good at all. I mean, Erica's been understandably grrrargh! since it happened and now this is so not going to sit well with her."
Features grave, Lisa nodded then looked around. "I was hoping to speak with Erica. She wasn't at her house and I thought she might be here…."
"They went looking for Jack…." His phone buzzed and he looked down.
Jack at church. BBS - Chad
"…and they'll be back soon."
"All right," she said and took a seat in one of the chairs. "I suppose we'll get our answers then."
Sid nodded, hoping that he appeared as composed as the V princess did, but doubting his success.
After all, they were going to have to confront Hobbes about the detonator and the big mercenary was scary as hell.
Although, he'd be willing to bet Erica could be equally scary, especially if fueled by the kind of rage that was probably going to come from the whole 'detonator in Hobbes's stuff' reveal.
Sid really missed the days when all he had to contend with were idiotic roommates and the cutthroat halls of academia.
TBC….
Comments, pretty please? They help fuel the muses and keep me writing!