AN: The long promised sequel to "The Little Things" has arrived!
Jupiter Jones walked in the front door of her house, her cheeks red from the winter breeze and cold hands wrapped around a cup of peppermint hot chocolate.
Closing the door behind her, she set the drink down on a stair to slip off her coat. She sighed gratefully as the warmth of the house chased away the chill. She tossed her coat over the railing before taking a sip of her drink.
"Jupiter?" Her mother's voice came from the living room. "Is that you?"
"Yes, Mama."
"Can you come here for a moment? I need to ask you something."
Jupiter did a one-eighty and glanced into the living room. Her whole family was seated in the room. Something was up. They were never all together in the same room of the house at this time of day.
"Jupiter…" her mother began.
"Just a sec, Mama. I need to make a phone call." She pulled her phone out of her pocket, swiped, and then tapped as if dialing one of her contacts. She half turned to shield her hand and held the phone up to her right ear. Discretely, she tapped the button on her watch. By default, it connected her to her security team, but Caine would get a message even if he wasn't on duty.
Keeping up the pretense of a phone call, she spoke into the phone, "Hi Caine, it's Jupiter. Listen, remember that conversation we had a few weeks about my family?" She paused. "Yeah, well, I'm pretty sure it's now." Another pause. "K, thanks. See you in a bit."
She turned back to face the room. "Sorry, it's just… this looks like a family meeting and I needed to let Caine know I'd be late. What's up, Mama?"
"Jupiter, we are worried about you. Something is going on, has been going on for months and you tell no one about it. I wait for you to tell me, but after a while I see you are not planning to tell me. So I ask the family. I figure you must tell someone. But all I hear are strange stories about tattoos, clothes you cannot afford, and bodyguards. You disappear on weekends."
Cousin Vassily picked up where her mother left off. "You stopped asking for advances on your pay, but you have bought more things than you have earned the money for."
"Plus, there's the boyfriend we've never met," piped up Vladie, "and the fact that you used to love watching sci-fi movies and TV shows and now you can't seem to stand them.
"I see," Jupiter said, stalling for time. "So this is like an intervention. What are you saving me from exactly?"
"The mafia." "Exotic dancing." "Selling your eggs." "I don't know." "A drug lord." "Bad fashions." The rapid-fire suggestions made it impossible to sort out who said what.
Then the doorbell rang, granting her a temporary reprieve. "I'll get it. Back in a sec."
She opened the door and let Caine in. "Your timing is perfect, as always. Are you ready for this?" she asked quietly, aware that her family was watching.
He shook his head. "No amount of preparation could make me ready for this. But since you want to tell your family, it has to be sometime."
He followed her a few steps into the entry. She pulled her glove out of her coat pocket before stepping into the living room. He stopped about a foot behind her and settled into an "at ease" stance.
Her mother looked exasperated. "Jupiter, this is not a good time for guests. We are in the middle of something important."
Jupiter sighed. She handed her phone over her shoulder to Caine. "This is going to take a while. Will you order us all Chinese for dinner?"
He took the phone and retreated down the hallway toward the kitchen to make the call.
She looked each and every one of them in the eye. Then she consciously shifted from her usual role to her Entitled demeanor, the one she'd been practicing at Stinger's farm on the weekends. Her posture straightened and she put on the air of authority that was hers as owner of the earth. Her tone resounded with conviction and authority. "If we're really doing this today, then I need him here."
She watched her family respond to the change. Surprise was followed by disbelief then amusement amongst the younger generation. But those who remembered living in Russia shifted uneasily in their seats, recalling the power wielded by the leaders, police and military. Vassily looked especially uneasy, almost as if in that one sentence she had wrested control of the family from him.
"Your Majesty?" Caine responded immediately and instinctively to the change in Jupiter as he returned to the room.
"We need another chair," she told him.
A moment later, he returned with the chair from the office and set it just inside the room. 'He would choose the most throne-like chair in the whole house,' she thought.
Jupiter sat gracefully and rested her arms on the arms of the chair. Caine assumed his customary position behind her and slightly to her right.
"Jupiter, where are your manners? You don't ask guests to get chairs. You take his hat and coat and get him a chair. Then you introduce him to us," her mother reproved her. Aleksa stood and offered him her hand. "You may have my seat. I am Aleksa Jones, Jupiter's mother. May I take your hat and coat?"
Caine glanced down at Jupiter. She shook her head slightly. He shook Aleksa's hand. "It's nice to meet you, Mrs. Jones. I prefer to keep my hat, coat and place for now."
Aleksa glared at Jupiter. Vassily gave Caine a searching look, clearly wondering why he was taking orders from her, and then shifted his attention to Jupiter. Meanwhile, the women of the house, especially Aunt Nino, lit into Jupiter in Russian. Vladie sat back, enjoying the show.
Jupiter let them talk for a minute and then said, "If we could please return to the matter at hand? I promise there will be introductions in a bit."
When it became clear that nobody was paying attention to her, she glanced at Caine.
He growled low in his throat and loudly enough to be heard over hubbub. "Her Majesty requires your silence."
Vladie laughed. "Jupe, is this guy for real? What is with him calling you 'Your Majesty'?"
"If you would let me get a word in edgewise, I would have already explained," she huffed. "Your assessment that 'something is going on' is correct. I have not shared what that is with any family in the room. I am not in some kind of a jam and in need of help. However, I will explain what's been going. You will find it rather unbelievable at first, but I assure you there is proof and I will provide it immediately following my explanation. Things will go much more quickly if you wait until after the explanation to ask questions."
"Wait, you said 'any of the family in the room.' Does that mean he knows?" Irina asked perceptively, nodding her head in Caine's direction.
Jupiter nodded, then took a deep breath and gave herself a pep talk. 'Okay, explanation, introductions, proof. I can do this. Just like Caine and I talked about.'
"You know superheroes often have a secret identity, like Superman is Clark Kent, mild-mannered reporter? Well, I'm not a superhero, but my secret identity is space royalty."
As she expected, laughter, exclamations of disbelief, and questions about her sanity accompanied the announcement. After several minutes, babble of voices suddenly quieted and everyone looked at her at once, as though expecting her to answer all their questions. In reality, she had understood very little of what they'd said because they'd all been talking at once.
"I'm sure you're wondering how it's possible. The quick answer is that I have the same exact genes as a space queen who died a while back. People in space have this weird thing about genetics. It's almost a religion. Anyhow, her will included provisions for what they call a recurrence – someone with the same genes. So, I came into a rather large inheritance. And that's the short version," she concluded her explanation, knowing that they didn't believe her yet.
"Impossible!" expostulated Cousin Vassily. "You have gone mad."
Jupiter shook her head gently. "Not impossible, cousin, improbable or highly unlikely, but not impossible. I can prove it to you. But first, let me introduce my guest."
She glanced at Caine over her shoulder and he stepped up next to the chair. "This is Captain Caine Wise. Among other things, he is the head of my security detail."
She smiled up at him warmly, catching his eyes for a second. As she stood and turned her attention back to her family, she heard her mother gasp as she put two and two together. She looked at Aleksa for a moment and nodded oh-so-slightly in response to the question she read there. 'Yes, he's the one' and Aunt Nino's eyes widened in realization. Jupiter wondered how long it would take the rest of them to connect the dots. Vladie and Mikka both knew her boyfriend's name was Caine and she had just given them his name.
"Captain Wise knows who you all are already, so I'll skip that part. Now, on to the proof I offered to show you."
She turned to Caine. "Are you sure, Your Majesty? I could do this."
"I can do this, just hold on after they're going." She smiled, slipped the glove onto her hands, and tapped the sequence that started the boots. Caine steadied her as she floated a few inches above the floor, blue light faintly emanating from the soles of the boots.
"So that's why you're so possessive of those boots," exclaimed Mikka.
Most of the family stared in disbelief.
"A pretty little trick," scoffed Vassily.
Ignoring the comment, Jupiter powered down the boots and asked Caine, "You have the med kit in case we need it?"
He nodded. They had both decided that it was best to be prepared in case someone fainted or had a heart attack, and she was going to need it later anyway.
"Good. May I take your coat and hat, Captain Wise?"
Slowly, he pulled off his hat and shrugged out of his coat. She placed them over the back of her chair.
Since he was facing directly into the room, his folded wings were barely visible. As they had arranged, he turned his head to slowly scan the room and show off his ears.
After a moment of stunned silence, Vladie exclaimed, "Nice prosthetics, man! That's some totally crazy body art."
"They can't possibly real," agreed Mikka.
Moltka, her youngest cousin, was staring in fascination. "Can I have a gun like that one?"
To Jupiter's surprise, Caine quirked a grin and moved his ears in ways a full human would never be able to do. Then he winked at Moltka. "Sorry, kid. You have to be licensed to carry one of these. But later, I can show it to you, if it's alright with Her Majesty."
Not giving them time to react further, Jupiter looked at Caine and nodded. He slowly spread his wings. "These are prosthetics. The ears are real."
Vassily's voice shook as it cut through the silence. "What is he?"
"I am a Lycantant, human DNA cut with the DNA of an animal like a wolf. Lycantants are created for military service," Caine answered for himself.
"You know those designer dogs, like the labradoodle? It's kind of like that." Caine scowled at her for using a dog example. Mostly he didn't mind the comparison, but this was her family and he needed a good start with them.
Loud harsh breathing distracted Jupiter. She glanced around, identified Lyudmila as the source and rushed to her. "It's okay, Lyuddy. We're okay. Deep breaths. I need you to take deep breaths. Can you do that for me?"
Lyudmila nodded, but her breathing didn't change. The family crowded around. "You all need to step back. She needs space," Jupiter ordered.
Recognizing the sense in what she said, most of the family stepped away. Irina, who was already sitting next to Lyudmila, started patting her hand gently.
"Look at me, Lyuddy. I'm going to breathe. I need you to breathe with me." Jupiter began a slow exaggerated breathing pattern, keeping her eyes on Lyudmila.
It took a few minutes, but eventually she calmed down. Aleksa brought her a cup of tea and people started drifting back to their seats.
"Where was I? Oh, I was telling you about Caine. He's a Skyjacker, the space equivalent of special forces, like the SEALs or the Green Berets," Jupiter added. "Skyjackers all have wings."
"Why do you have special forces for your security?" Moltka asked perceptively. "Isn't security usually more like the Secret Service?"
"It's a long story," Jupiter and Caine chorused together.
"Also, only two of the members of my security detail are special forces. The rest are just well trained."
"If you'll spring for the wings, they'll be just as good as a Skyjacker unit when Stinger and I are done training them," Caine rumbled.
"They'd better be good, given the training budget you have!" she shot back.
Vassily harrumphed. "You said something about proof? This little demonstration was interesting, but I can think of ways it could be faked."
"In a sec, cousin." Jupiter stepped close to Caine. "Thanks for doing 'show and tell.'" She handed him his coat and hat.
"Grab your warm clothes everyone. We're headed to the back yard."
The doorbell rang. "I believe that the Chinese food has arrived, Your Majesty," Caine said, sniffing the air discretely.
She pulled her wallet out of her pocket. "I got it," she said walking toward the door. A quick glance at Caine confirmed that security had already cleared the delivery person, so she opened the door. She passed the bags of food to Caine, then handed over her credit card.
A moment later she accepted her credit card back. "Have a good evening." She smiled politely before closing the door.
She turned back to find her family staring at her. "What? You didn't think the delivery guy was going to be an alien or something did you?"
Laughing lightly, she slipped into her coat, zipped it up, and then walked down the hallway toward the back yard. Caine followed her so closely that she could feel his breath on the back of her neck. When they passed through the dining room, she said, "You can leave the food on the table."
He deposited the bags on the table and followed her to the back door, pulling on his own coat. This time, he slipped his wings through the specially designed slits. She opened the door and let him go out first to do a security check.
She turned back to find her family still staring at her. "Well, are you coming or what?"
Noise erupted behind her as family members scrambled to find their cold weather clothes. Mikka, Irina and Vladie bumped into one another as they all head for the front closet at the same time.
Five minutes later, everybody stood in small groups on the back deck. "Show yourself," she commanded.
A Keeper appeared near the back fence. Exclamations of astonishment and disbelief exploded around her.
It shifted in a way that Jupiter thought must indicate discomfort. It had strenuously objected to doing this, not wanting to be the focus of a group of terrsies. Part of its job was to do its work efficiently, and more importantly, invisibly. Usually people who saw Keepers were blanked immediately. According to it, the ones that weren't tended to scream and hit them with purses, briefcases or any other convenient object at hand. They had finally compromised on it standing a good distance away.
"This is a Keeper. Keepers are from a planet in the Diorite system. Part of their job is to shield Earth's population from alien encounters." At a nod from Jupiter, the keeper engaged its appearance modification device and suddenly the group was looking at a brown-haired man in his mid-thirties dressed in jeans and a T-shirt. Another nod and the keeper cloaked, a telltale shimmer the only indication of its presence. The shimmer swarmed over the fence and disappeared.
Jupiter raised her arms as though deflecting her family's backlash of speech, emotion and movement. She whistled to get their attention. "If I could please have your attention for the next demonstration?"
She held out her hand to Caine, who very reluctantly handed her his combat knife. Quickly, she made a shallow gash cross her left arm.
"Jupiter! What are you doing cutting yourself like that?" Aleksa surged foward, while the others gasped or stared in shock. "Somebody get me bandages and antibiotic ointment."
"A moment, Aleksa," rumbled Caine. He pulled a large aerosol can out of the med kit and sprayed its contents over the wound. It healed within seconds.
Moltka's "Way cool!" earned him glares from Vladie and Nino who were looking a little sick. A choking noise came from Vladie. The next minute he was leaning over the deck railing and vomiting into some bushes.
"Jeez, Vladie, I knew you didn't like blood, but I didn't know it was that bad," Jupiter commented. "Somebody get him some water to rinse out his mouth with and something flavored to drink."
Irina returned two minutes later with the drinks for her son.
Jupiter was glad they were reaching the end of the demonstration. She wasn't sure how much more of this her family could take. Actually, she'd thought that at least one of them would have fainted or gone into hysterics by now, but hyperventilating and vomiting were almost as good.
"I have one last demonstration for you, and then we can eat dinner. I'm sure you'll think of lots of questions. I'm still pretty new to this intergalactic royalty thing so I might not know all the answers, but I'll do my best."
With that, she tapped a small button on the side of her watch "Is it time, Your Majesty?" Phylo Percadium answered as they had arranged.
"We're ready down here," Jupiter affirmed. The blue transport beam appeared, its endpoint the middle of her backyard. "I'll go up first to demonstrate. It's like the space version of an elevator."
She stepped into the beam and ascended slowly into the hold of the cutter. Her stomach growled almost as loudly as Caine had back in her living room. She really needed to eat. Speaking of food…
Once she'd stepped out of the beam, Percadium started a downward beam out of the other opening. "Hey, after I'm down please turn it off. There's been a change of plans." She smiled broadly, then stepped back into it and floated down. The downward beam disappeared after she stepped out of it.
"So," she asked brightly, "who's first? This one goes up."
They started looking at the ground, each other, a bird in the tree, anywhere but her. It was almost comical how reluctant they were.
Lyudmila took one last look at it and walked back into the house, closing the door loudly behind her. Moltka and Mikka shared a glance, then walked side by side into it. The rest of her family followed in pairs with Vassily and Zeno bringing up the rear.
While they were loading up, Jupiter held a quiet conversation with Captain Tsing via her watch and the cutter.
"Will you do me a favor?" she asked Caine. At his nod, she told him what she wanted.
Then she followed her family up into the space ship. Clapping her hands for silence, she announced, "Let's get this tour started. Percadium?"
The cutter wasn't big. Besides the hold and the bridge, there were four identical cabins with attached facilities, a small room that served as both a dining and recreational area, weapons storage and the engine room.
Caine caught up with them about half way through. "Now we're going for a little ride. The bridge isn't big enough for everyone, so half of you will have to watch from the cabins. On the way back, we'll swap. Mama, Vassily, Nino, and Irina, follow me. Caine will show the rest of you where to go."
To say the bridge was cramped would have been an understatement. It wasn't quite as bad as trying to put seven people (Jupiter, four of her family, and two crew) in a public phone booth, but it was getting there.
She nodded to Percadium. "To the ship," he instructed the nav officer.
Everyone watched as they broke free of the atmosphere, then moved toward the cruiser in orbit around the earth. "The view of the earth from here is magnificent. Let's keep it on screen." Percadium tapped and twisted. And they continued to watch as earth grew slowly smaller.
"Your Majesty," Percadium began. A gentle bump informed her that they had arrived in the hanger of the cruiser. "We have arrived."
"Back to the hold, everyone." Her family followed her and they met up with Caine and the other half of the family.
A ramp angled down from the hole in the hold and Jupiter could see Captain Tsing greeting them a few feet from the end. "A courtesy to Your Majesty's family," Caine murmured quietly.
Vassily said, "Well, Jupiter, nobody has any doubts now." Heads bobbed in agreement.
"This is Captian Diomika Tsing, and she has graciously agreed to host us for dinner." Jupiter made introductions all around.
Captain Tsing spoke up. "If you will accompany me to the mess hall, I believe your food will be ready not long after we arrive."
Tsing led them through a series of corridors.
"Mama, what's wrong?" Jupiter asked. "You have a strange expression on your face."
"I do not know. I have a weird sense of déjà vu."
Others in the group nodded or said "Me, too."
"There's a reason for it, but I'd rather not go into it right now. It's a long story and it's been a long day. I don't know about you, but I'm starving." Hopefully, nobody would bring it back up for a good long while.
When they arrived, Nino glanced around. "It looks like a regular old cafeteria," she groused. "What with this being space and all, I thought it would look different."
"Nino, this is a police cruiser. It's probably designed for functionality and efficient use of space." Thinking of Titus' ship, she said, "I have seen other, more exotic looking, space ships. But none that I would ever wish to visit again."
A splice in a uniform and apron started setting dishes out on a long table.
Jupiter's expression brightened at the smell of Asian spices. "Let's eat."
"Is that Chinese food?" Vladie demanded. "They know how to make Chinese food in space?"
Jupiter laughed. "No, it's our take out. The food I ate aboard this ship was highly nutritious, but rather bland."
Her family headed enthusiastically toward the table, but Jupiter hung back. "Caine, Captain Tsing, would you care to join us?"
"Not at this time, Your Majesty. I need to return to the bridge," Tsing declined.
Caine hesitated.
"Come on, you like Chinese food. Plus, I still haven't finished everything I was planning on telling them."
"Couldn't it wait?" he asked.
She shook her head. "The cat's already out of the bag. Mom and Nino have already guessed. Besides, with everything else that's happened maybe they'll be too overwhelmed to freak out about you not being, you know, fully human and my boyfriend."
He sighed. She reached for his hand. "It'll be okay," she reassured him quietly. "Besides you're a totally badass soldier. You could probably take all of them at once."
He stared at her in astonishment. "That would be both illegal and inappropriate, Your Majesty, unless you ordered me to do it."
"Definitely not an order. It was a backhanded way of saying that you shouldn't worry because you're strong enough to handle it."
"If Your Majesty says so," he replied in a skeptical tone.
She nodded her head decisively. "My Majesty does. Now let's go eat. I'm so hungry I could eat a horse."
He raised an eyebrow. "Your idioms are so colorful. A horse?"
"Well, I wouldn't actually eat a horse. I think it's illegal in the United States." She shook her head. "Politics."
"There better be some Kung Pao Chicken left for me." She called as the two of them approached the table and slipped into the two remaining places.
Family started passing food their direction and the two loaded their plates.
"Caine eats Chinese food?" Vladie asked.
"Why wouldn't he?" she countered. "He's been living on Earth for nine months now."
Conversation lagged for several reasons. They were busy shoveling food into their mouths. Most of them were too overwhelmed by the experiences of the day to make small talk. Plus, being in a space ship seemed to squash the squabbles that usually broke out at the dinner table. Now that was food for thought. Maybe they should have dinner in space more often.
As the meal wound down and conversations started, Jupiter stood and motioned for quiet. "I want you to know that I didn't originally plan to have our dinner on this ship. It just seemed like too good an opportunity to pass up. Also, I have one more thing I was planning on telling you today."
"There's more? I don't think I can take much more," Nino stated definitively.
"Remember when I introduced Caine to you, I said 'among other things, he is the head of my security detail'? Well, one of those other things is that he's my boyfriend."
Over the astonished babble, Nino waved a hand dismissively and said, "Oh, that. Well, now I know why you didn't introduce us earlier and why you didn't talk about him much."
"Also why you never knew his sign," she added thoughtfully a few moments later.
By the time they were finished eating, Moltka was practically dozing in his seat and the rest were yawning, all except for Mikka, who started at Caine with wide-eyed wonderment. "We need some girl talk," she told Jupiter.
"Sorry, Mikka. It will have to wait at least until we get back home."
Tsing arrived. "The cutter is ready, Your Majesty."
"And we're ready to head back to earth, Captain Tsing. Thank you for your hospitality."
"It is a pleasure to serve, Your Majesty."
Half an hour later, they were all standing in the backyard again. Jupiter wished her family goodnight and kissed Nino and her mother. "I have a few things I need to take care of. I'll be in in a while."
"Don't stay up too late, Jupiter. And don't do anything I wouldn't do."
"Mama, I'm not ten anymore!"
Jupiter watched until the door closed behind her family. Then she turned to Caine.
"Well, that went better than I expected. Thank you for your help." She stepped into his personal space and proceeded to show him just how much she appreciated it with a kiss that left them breathless, panting and eager for more.
"Your aunt and cousin are watching from the window, Your Majesty," Caine informed her.
"I figured some of them would," she replied. "But now that we've told them and I'm not hiding you anymore, I figure I can flaunt it for at least a few days. Do you think you can help me with that, Mr. Wise?"
"It would be my very great pleasure." He lowered his head and captured her lips in another searing kiss.
Three or four kisses later, he asked, "When are you planning on telling them about your trip?"
"A few weeks, I think. You wanna give them a real show?"
Caine blushed deeply. "Your Majesty?" he squeaked.
She laughed. "Not that kind of show. I was thinking about taking our boots out for a spin."
He scratched his head as he tried to figure out her tangled idiom. "Yes?"
"Well then, let's go." She started her boots and took off, Caine in close pursuit.
AN: Please, take the time to tell what you liked or didn't like about this story. Yes, I'm leaving it open for a sequel. No, I don't have any of it written or any idea of what to write. I have a couple of other JA writing projects underway, so I'm going to continue working on those. I'll come back to this if/when inspiration hits.