Disclaimer: Depending on when you're reading this, all characters are either property of PP or ABC/D; or possibly someone else. But not me.
A/N: So this picks up where PP's OLTL Season 1 left off, and this is my take on what's going to happen next, what Allison's plans are for Natalie, and what John's been up to all this time and how they're connected. Because let's be real, no one was thrilled with how he left GH, and now he has a better reason. A few things I need to apologize for: this is the first time I have ever attempted to use chapters, so the chapters aren't very even- some are really short and some are long. I tried to make it scene by scene, but that didn't seem to work either. Secondly, as you read the story, Todd and Victor are mentioned and then disappear into a plot hole for awhile. Just assume they're getting appropriate medical attention. Once I started getting into the bigger Jolie parts of the story, I focused mostly on them, so Victor and Todd don't really get much attention. On a separate note, I've been working on this for a long time, and I thoroughly hope you enjoy it. Please comment to feed the Muse; she's fickle lately.
Happy reading!
"Hello, Natalie" Allison told her calmly as she continued to scream.
"What are you doing here? What are you doing to my dad?"
"None of your concern. Yet" she said, "You see, in the original plan, we were going to kill dear Daddy Clint so that you and Viki would be hurt and then we would go in for the kill" she said, "Being you and Viki"
"Why do you need to hurt us?"
"That's very complicated, Natalie. Don't push me"
"So now that I've thrown a wrench in your plan, and you've told me, you can't go through with it. I'm on the police force. I could find the evidence you were here, they wouldn't even need my eyewitness account" she said, hoping that for once, Allison would adhere to the basic rules of logic.
"Don't worry, we've got a backup plan" she said, grinning ear to ear and coming closer to her with the needle, moments ago was next to her father's IV.
Before Natalie knew what hit her, Allison had resumed her father to his unconscious state and was had injected whatever was in that needle to her arm. She immediately felt as though she had drank five times as much and the next thing she knew she was on the floor, and shortly after that, everything was black.
"Nothing like being back home, right John?"
"I guess" John said, as he sullenly pulled on his beer.
"You might as well pull out of this funk, man, we're leaving tomorrow. You can't be this distracted on the job" Jake told him.
"The job will distract me plenty. Don't worry about it" he said.
"Well, let's have some fun" Josh said, "How bout a game of pool?"
"I don't play much anymore" John confessed.
"C'mon man, for old time's sake" Aaron badgered.
"Alright, but I'm probably not as good as I used to be"
"What made you stop playing anyway?" Aaron continued.
"That's how he and Natalie met" Jake told Aaron.
"John, I'm sorry, I didn't mean-"
"It doesn't matter, Aaron" he told his friend, "I see her everywhere anyway"
"You still love her?" Josh asked, "Even after-"
"You gonna break, or are you gonna talk?" John asked.
"What do ya say, McBain. You wanna shoot some pool while we wait?"
"I think you should shut up and break"
John took another swig of beer. He couldn't escape her. As he took his turn, he sent some balls into the pockets, and his friends mocked him about how he 'wasn't good anymore'. But when he played against Natalie, what were his odds anyway? And he honestly hadn't picked up a cue in the year since he'd left her.
As the game ended and the gang broke up for the night, earlier than normal since they had to catch their flight in the morning, John walked alone back to the motel room he'd been living out of. He opened the door and turned on the light, and was immediately encompassed by the feeling of emptiness. No matter how many times he did it, after living with Natalie for so long, he couldn't stand to come home to an empty room. Instead of immediately getting into bed, he picked up the case file he'd read a hundred times over and reviewed it once more.
Thus far the team had shipped to Denver, Lincoln, Reno, Houston, New York, and seven remote towns he couldn't remember the names of. They were supposed to be finding the headquarters of a national underground cult, one that held many murders, rapes, and drug dealings to be accounted for. The cult had been operating for decades, but it was suspected that it was currently under new leadership, since the chatter had stopped significantly, and was just now picking up again. That was how John had been recruited in the first place. Once word got out that he was working freelance at a PD in obscure no man's land, the FBI decided his talents would be better used to bring down this cult. He welcomed the distraction, he really did; but he wished he were at a point in his life where getting pulled to do undercover work was behind him. Like if he had a wife and family, which, in his mind, he should, but he couldn't spend his time dwelling on that.
He closed the case file when the words stopped making sense and without even bothering to change, he turned off the light and went to bed.