Queen's Pawn to Queen Four

by DKGWrites

Lena goes to Jack's apartment to discuss investing in his nanobyte project. It's the beginning of their professional relationship and the next leg of her journey within her new organization. Do not read this unless you have read "Queen Takes Pawn"

This fic is a prequel to the first book in the Next of Kin series. If you haven't read that yet please do not continue. This contains spoliers. If you're read NoK and the first prequel Queen takes Pawn, well, here's the second of several short pieces of some backstory I plan to post. I hope it helps to flesh out some of these characters and fill in some questions for you all. As always, thank you so much for reading and for your lovely comments. This community is lovely. I can't thank you enough for joining me here and keeping me motivated. – D.G.

When his doorbell rang, Jack Spheer tucked the scientific notes he had in hand rather haphazardly onto a shelf. He grabbed several textbooks from the couch, piling them up on the coffee table to make room for sitting. He grabbed the t-shirt off the lamp and the socks from the floor, racing down the hallway to toss them into the only bedroom. He came back out perhaps twenty seconds later, pulling on a clean polo shirt and closing the door behind him. As he ran back through the hallway, he stopped quickly, turning and hurrying into the bathroom where he sprayed some aerosol before making his way back into the living room where he promptly tripped on another pile of textbooks.

"Owww! Motherfff—!" The doorbell rang again. "Coming!" He grimaced, looking down briefly at his foot as if to make sure all of his toes were still there and facing in the right direction before hurrying to the door. He took a deep, cleansing breath and opened the door with a smile. "Lena."

"Jack." Wearing a leather jacket, jeans, gray cashmere sweater, and sunglasses, Lena smiled up at the young man as she stood on the steps of the apartment above the garage. "I was beginning to think I might have the wrong place. Am I too early? I can come back—"

"No." Jack reached out, taking Lena's hand when she started to turn away. "Please, don't leave. You're perfect. I mean, you're right on time. Your timing's perfect. I was just uh…I stubbed my toe." He backed up, allowing her to enter.

Pulling off her sunglasses and hanging them casually off the front of her sweater, she looked down at his bare feet. "Which one? Are you all right?"

"Oh, fine," he replied with a laugh. "Too many books in the walkways. You know how it is."

She laughed in response. "I do. The life of an academic is a fire hazard." Casually she touched his face. "Are you growing a beard?"

"A…a what?" He blinked.

"A beard," she replied with a smile. "The last time I saw you, I'm not sure you could even grow one."

He tried to put his hand on hers, but as hers slid away, he only touched his own cheek. "Oh. Hmmm. I seem to have neglected to shave today…and perhaps yesterday…maybe the day before."

"The life of an academic," Lena repeated.

"Do you like it?'

She shrugged. "My father would occasionally let his beard grow. He said it made a man look distinguished, but it's your face, not mine."

"Well, I'll consider it then." He rubbed briefly at his three-day scruff, then gestured further into the apartment. "The living room is this way."

"Thank you." She followed him into the next room, patiently watching as he moved more things about, making a more spacious seating and discussion area.

As they both sat, she on the couch and he in a chair, he asked, "So, did you read my proposal?"

"I did, three times."

He sat up a bit straighter. "And?"

"And I'm here, aren't I? Jack, this is intriguing." She patted her large purse, the resounding thumps indicating its solid contents. "Do you have backers?"

"Well…" He rubbed at the back of his neck. "I've put my money in, but that has only gotten me so far. It's progress, Lena, progress, but I need a bit more to push this forward. I do have an interested party but…" Jack sat back in his chair, his lips twisting to the side.

"What is it?" Lena asked.

"Did you ever meet someone and find they're nothing like their reputation?"

"Of course."

Jack nodded. "Have you ever met someone and found them to be worse?"

"Well, you've met my mother."

"Lena, she's not that bad."

"She's not your mother." When Jack only opened and closed his mouth again, saying nothing, Lena asked, "Who's this anonymous backer who makes Lillian Luthor look good, or can't you say?"

"You won't tell anyone?"

Spreading her hands in front of her, Lena replied, "Jack, this whole deal is between us. You can trust me." Then she smiled.

Jack smiled back. "I know I can, Lena. All right. The backer is Maxwell Lord of Lord Industries. Do you know him?"

Cocking one eyebrow, Lena replied, "Unfortunately."

"That good, huh? So my instincts aren't off?"

"He's…he's a friend of Lex's, a bit of an anti-government nut but definitely an anti-meta nut."

"Anti-meta?" With a small smile, Jack shook his head as he leaned toward the girl again.

"Sorry, I mean he's with Lex on his anti-alien, anti-Superman campaign that's been growing of late. He's volatile."

"How is Lex?" Jack asked.

"I don't know that I can honestly answer that," Lena mumbled. Reaching into her oversized purse, she pulled out the proposal that had brought her to the meeting. "Jack, your work is brilliant. You know that, don't you?"

"Well, yes."

"Brilliant and humble, those are admirable traits in a man."

Crossing his arms, Jack leaned back in his chair once more. "As if you'd recognize humility if it bit you in the ass, Miss Luthor."

She laughed. "I'll add funny to that list."

"Don't forget charming."

"Who could forget charming? At any rate, color me intrigued. No, interested; I'm interested. I hope you consider me a more trustworthy potential backer than Maxwell Lord."

Hands on his knees, Jack sat up straight. "That sounds very interested."

"Then color me very interested. How much do you need for your next leg of this project?"

As Jack dragged his hand through his hair, he stood and paced around the small living room. "Need? I'm not sure about need. Lord has been waving big money at me, Lena, big money. He wants to move me out of the garage I've been working in and set me up in my own lab. He's talking new state of the art equipment, research staff, peer-to-peer consulting with some of the brightest minds in the industry. It's all incredibly exciting."

"Sure, all you have to do is hand over your ideas, and yourself, to Lord, right?"

Jack deflated, shrugging.

"Jack, simple question here. Would you rather work for Lord or work with me?" Lena ended the question biting on her lower lip.

Sliding onto the couch next to Lena, he grabbed both of her hands in his. "I want to be with you, Lena. I want to be your partner."

Lena looked down at her hands enclosed in his, then looked back up holding his gaze.

"Uh…" Swallowing hard, he slid about a foot back and withdrew his hands. "Your business partner, I mean. I want to work with you."

"Ah. Well, that's good because I'd like to work with you also." Reaching into her bag again, Lena pulled out an envelope and handed it over.

"What's this now?" Jack asked, opening the envelope.

"My father's will stipulated that I would start receiving my trust in annual installments when I turned eighteen. I've spent a small bit, but that's what's left in the account after the first annual payment. I'll have another installment before I graduate. Will that work?"

Hand over his mouth, Jack rubbed at his face and then nodded. He dropped his hand. "You can provide this annually?"

"More, a bit more. What do you think? Partners?" Lena stood, holding out her hand.

"God yes!" Jack engulfed Lena in a hug, holding her close. "This is amazing, Lena this is…" He pushed away until he had her by the shoulders and could look into her eyes. "This is everything."

"It's just money, Jack. The two things Luthors are very good at are making money and spending money." As Jack was holding her shoulders, she had to tilt her head back to meet his eyes as he stepped in close.

"No, you're good at being extraordinary, Lena. You're making all my dreams come true."

"Uh…" A hand on his chest, Lena applied gentle pressure and smiled slightly when he stepped away easily, his hands dropping to his sides. "Well, don't get too excited yet. I still need to graduate and then prove I can be more than a financial partner. I need to back up the money with the science."

Grinning, Jack said. "I've read a few of your papers. I'm already impressed."

"What papers?" Lena asked, her brows pressed together.

"Your college papers."

She shook her head. "How?"

"Our parents are matchmakers." He shrugged. "I remember them all, but I very clearly remember the first one. My father came by to visit me one day and dropped off a paper. He said he thought it might be interesting to me. He said it had been written by the child of one of the people with whom he sometimes does business. It was titled 'Determining Part Feature Sequencing in a Feature-Based Environment Using Genetic Algorithms.' Does that sound familiar?"

Lena nodded. "I wrote that in my sophomore year. You read it?"

Instead of answering, Jack replied, "How old were you when you wrote it?"

"Sixteen."

"Right, so we'll be just fine on the science. I'm sure you've learned a lot in the past two years."

She laughed. "Definitely. I'm old enough to vote and everything."

"And old enough to know there's no one worth voting for."

Laughing again, Lena shrugged and said, "Oh, I knew that when I was seven. I'm glad we're going to be working together, Jack. This should be fun."

"Definitely." He walked her to the door.

As they stopped, she turned and asked him, "Jack, you said matchmaking."

"Hmmm?"

"You said our parents are matchmakers. What does that paper, as damn sexy as it was, have to do with matchmaking? Perhaps a bit of poetic liberty on your part?"

"Oh, um…" Shrugging, he admitted, "I didn't see my father for a few months, but when I did, he asked me what I thought of the paper. I told him I thought it was brilliant. He asked what I thought of the author." He pointed at Lena who smiled. "I told him I thought she was brilliant, too. Obviously. He told me he was glad to hear it, then suggested I not avoid the next Luthor family Christmas party invitation."

"I don't think I've seen you at one recently."

"That was just this past year," Jack said with a head shake. "I told my father I was sure I'd catch up to you at some point, that academics traveled in the same circles. He took the paper from me, said he had to return it to your mother, and then handed me your picture. I stared for I don't know how long before I asked who it was. He reminded me you weren't twelve anymore, then flipped the picture over. Your phone number was on the other side. I got a very brief speech about him and my mother wanting grandchildren one day, then he left."

"Oh, well…" Lena looked awkwardly around the room before smiling just as awkwardly and shrugging as she said, "You didn't call."

"I couldn't. I mean, look at you. You deserve someone who can give you proper attention. This project, the nanobytes, they're my life. Lena, have you ever had something that was your whole life, your whole everything, and it had to come first? It had to be the only thing because if there was anything else you'd neglect that?"

Nodding quickly, Lena said, "Absolutely. Sometimes there's just something in your life that has to be more important than everything else combined, something for which you'd do anything to see it flourish. You have the right priorities, Jack." As she turned to the door, he spoke again, and she stopped.

"But, hey, sometimes that most important thing can be someone else's most important thing too. That's even better, right?"

With another quick smile, Lena nodded once. "I'll be in touch."

As she walked out the door, he called after her, "Talk to you soon, partner!" He waved, smiling broadly.

Lena put on her sunglasses, smiling at him as she walked away. She made it down the outside stairs, down the street, and around the block. Twice she looked back to find Jack still watching her. It wasn't until she had made it halfway around the block and the black car pulled up next to her and stopped that her body language changed, going from professional to angry as she yanked open the door and got in.

The woman in the driver's seat was in her early to mid-thirties, blonde with short hair, blue eyes, and pale skin. She waited until Lena was buckled up to pull away. "How did it go, young one?"

"Ugh."

"What is that? That is an unhappy noise. It went poorly? He will not work with you?"

Whipping off her sunglasses, Lena replied, "I feel like Margaretha Geertruida Zeele."

"Who?"

"Mata Hari."

"The spy." The blonde nodded. "You did not strangle him with stockings, did you? Not only do we frown upon killing; that would make your mission a failure."

"I don't think that was a thing that truly happened, though I think Jack might have let me do it to him." Lena sighed. "I don't understand men, Oskana. How can they be both so intelligent and so utterly unwise at the same time? Worse yet, why is the world run by them?"

"I can help you with none of this. Many men are both utterly necessary and useless." She shrugged. "Though I suppose the same can be said about many women. So, you were successful, and there was no murder?"

Lena shrugged. "I was successful, and there was no murder. Why does being successful at my job feel so…blah."

Oskana laughed. "Blah. This I like, this American word. Blah is the feeling I have on my tongue in the morning after many drinks but not too, too many, yes?"

"Yes," Lena agreed. "You want to go get blah-faced?"

Smiling, Oskana replied, "First we file a report; then we get blah-faced. When do you see this Jack Spheer again?"

In her purse, Lena's phone buzzed. She pulled it out, her frown deepening as she read the text she'd received. "Well, tomorrow night for dinner if I'd like. Jack wants to go over some details he has for the business. That was awfully…fast."

Oskana smiled. "You are good at this. If I were queen, I would promote you. You are too good to be a pawn and too smart to not have aspirations for more."

"The only aspirations I have are to protect my family."

"The higher up one is in the organization, the more control one has over that. You know chess, Lena Luthor. If you could be any piece, would you be a pawn?"

Biting at the pad of her thumb, Lena considered that briefly before she replied, "No, no I would not."

Her smiling growing, Oskana said, "When I am queen—"

"Kalia's queen." Lena stared at the side of the other woman's head.

Still looking at the road, Oskana nodded. "And I am her loyal bishop. So long as she makes the choice to hold her square, I follow her."

"What do you know?"

"Me?" Shrugging, Oskana replied, "Do not be concerned, child. Today, you did well. Tomorrow, you have a date?"

"A business meeting," Lena replied. She started texting. "I'm going to tell Jack I have to check my schedule. I'll see what the queen wants me to do."

"So loyal. So admirable." Reaching across the car, Oskana squeezed Lena's forearm.

Putting her phone away, Lena asked, "Where is Kalia? She usually briefs me."

"Because you are new, and you are her pawn. I am her bishop, and it is my job to prepare mission parameters so she can deal with more important matters. Right now, that is what she is doing."

"Oh." Lena studied her hands. "So, she…? I mean, from now on will you…?"

"Child, she is away on a mission. She cares for you. Do not be…how they say, in the dumpster?"

"Down in the dumps?"

"Yes, that," Oskana agreed. "Do not be down in the dumps. You are the queen's pawn. She recruited you herself. When she is back in this country, she will see you."

"Thank you. I'm just a bit flustered I suppose. I expected her to be here when I had to make contact with Jack. She didn't tell me she'd be gone."

"She did not know. Lately, things have been rather hectic." After a few moments, Oskana glanced to the side to find Lena staring at her. "What is it now, child?"

"What happened to call Kalia away?"

"Work. Our work, it is unpredictable. The buck it stops with Kalia and Ahmed. Perhaps one day you will be in charge of some big organization, and you will be in charge of stopping the buck."

"God, I hope not," Lena said slumping back in her chair. "I just want to create something good in this world, leave it better for my daughter, and be answerable to myself. That sounds like a nice life, doesn't it?"

"But you are Lena Luthor."

Squinting at the blonde, Lena said, "Yes, and you are Oskana Verchenko. What does that have to do with the price of tea in China?"

"Tea?"

"All right, idiomatic speech is right out. Oskana, what does my name have to do with anything? I'm just an average college student. I'm not even sure how I got caught up in all of this espionage bunk."

With a chuckle, Oskana replied, "Child, were you average you would not have to lie in a bed of espionage. You have an extraordinary mind, and you come from a family with great resources. The queen was furious when the black king tried to force your recruitment, but others of us not so much."

"No?"

"No. You were already top of our list, and this forced her hand. Now we have you. Lena, you will do great things. You will not be a pawn for long, child. Trust me on this."

Lena grumbled. "I'd rather just open a little green energy company. Does Checkmate have an engineering department? I've been working on a prototype for a transparent solar cell that uses a transparent luminescent solar concentrator."

"Hmmm?"

"We could make windows that are solar photovoltaic generators. I mean, it's only conceptual right now but—"

"Child." Oskana shook her head. "You have a job with Checkmate. If you wish to work on an invention, you will do it with Mr. Spheer. That is exciting, yes?"

"Well, yes," Lena admitted. "His proposal is exhilarating. It's in the blossoming stages of its development, but that's exciting too."

"Good, then you will stick with that. You make his invention blossom, and Checkmate will be there to make sure there are no weeds in the flower garden. This project is concerning, and weeds could be cataclysmic. You understand?"

"Something about possible meta-humans from what Jack is doing. I'm not sure that I understand it, but it sounds dangerous, troublesome and…" Slumping back in her chair, Lena sighed.

"You are worrying."

"I am worrying."

Squeezing the girl's arm, Oskana said, "In Russian, we have a saying. Nastupit vremya, kogda semya budet prorastat'"

With narrowed eyes, Lena turned toward the blonde. "You do realize I don't speak Russian, don't you?"

"Ah, it means 'There will come a time when the seed will sprout.'"

"That…is not at all helpful, unless you think farming is going to help me somehow. Are you suggesting I take up farming? We were just talking about blossoms and weeds."

"Could be therapeutic." Oskana grinned. "No, I am saying that you should not worry about that which has not come to pass. Wait and see if there is a problem. Do not sow worry along with your problems. All you will grow is pain in your belly." She poked the teen in the gut.

Lena squirmed and smiled. "All right. All right. I understand, and you're right. Thank you, Oskana. How did you become so wise?"

"I am Russian. We are born very wise, and there is more wisdom at the bottom of a bottle of Vodka. Where do Americans keep their wisdom?"

"Um…box of Cracker Jacks?"

Oskana nodded slowly. "This would explain so much. I have seen some of your Kardashians television show. Even alcohol did not explain it. It is Cracker Jacks?"

"It is Cracker Jacks," Lena agreed. "So, we go file our report, and then you'll teach me some of your Russian wisdom."

"Da, and we will get blah-faced."

"I'll drink to that," Lena replied."