The Net: Still Running: Chapter 3

Dear Jacob,

I've been here two days, at Quantico that is. Skate and I are in the same shooting class together. It was interesting. Learning how to shoot, didn't think I'd ever have to do that. It was really boring too. Two hours of learning how to handle a gun and clean the thing. I guess next class we actually get to shoot targets or something, finally. As Skate said, this part's the easy part. It's the shooting that's hard. We'll see, I guess. All my other classes went ok too. Not much to talk about there, just learning the ways of the FBI: how to handle certain cases, and how to arrest someone, the many different laws and stuff like that. It's too bad I didn't go through all this before I met Trelawney. I could have had him cooking in jail a long time ago!

Trust is a hard thing. Especially after the Praetorians. But you know that already. It's going to take me a long time to earn that back. I think I could get to trust Skate more than I currently do. He's ok. One of the better guys here, that's for sure. Drakes is a bully, untrustable to the core. But Skate's ok. He's really the only person I talk to here besides Walter. Walter, well, he says he knew I was innocent from the start. Figures he would have to since he hired me and got me into training. But I still would never be able to tell him everything. I couldn't. He doesn't believe me anyway. About you. But you, you're at the top of my list. I know I could trust you with my life. Lord knows I've had to many times. I can tell you everything.

You know, I'm sorry. I have to apologize about that first night when you showed up. You turned out to be the best guy in my life. And I'm going to renew my search for you as soon as I get out of Quantico and back to the real world. I miss you Jacob.

-Angel


BANG!

The shooting instructor sighed, "missed again Tim."

Skate looked down at his gun and then up at the woods beyond his target where his bullet had gone, sighing a heavy sigh. Angela looked over at him from her own stance in front of the next target. After the instructor had moved onto another class member she said: "Hey, Skate, don't worry. I know you can do it. Just calm down and take it easy. Concentrate on that target."

Skate took a deep breath, "OK."

Slowly he leveled his weapon at the target and pulled the trigger. BANG! The bullet flew from the gun and just barely clipped the edge of the target. Once again his face fell.

"Hey, that's better than before!" Angela said. "At least it didn't go off into the woods that time."

"Yeah, I guess."

"Try it again and see what happens," she suggested.

Once again he leveled his gun and pulled the trigger. BANG! The bullet flew from the gun and landed in a tree several yards above the target. They both sighed and shook their heads. The instructor came back around and asked to see Angela demonstrate her own shooting abilities. She turned to her target, raised her gun, aimed it, and fired a bullet right to the center of the target. Skate looked away and said nothing.


Dear Jacob,
I've been here a week and already I can shoot perfectly. Skate still can't shoot, and this is the second time he's taken this class too. I tried to help, but it didn't do any good. I don't know. Maybe he just wasn't meant to fire a gun. Who knows. He'll get it someday. I know he will. I just don't know when. Though I wish there was something I could do.

Training has gotten harder too. They're working us to death now. They've got us doing pushups and all this exercising. It's so exhausting! And I don't see the point for me, cause when I get out of here I'm just gonna end up sitting behind a desk at a computer not chasing bad guys down the street. Well, I told that to Walter and he said the job would be a mix of exercise and desk sitting. Not sure if that's good or bad.

I hardly have any free time at all now, but Skate and I somehow find a little time just after dinner to hang out by the tree every night. We've just been sitting there, talking about random things, whatever comes to mind. I've been trying to keep the conversation off you cause I know he doesn't want to hear about you anymore. And there's also nothing I can do about finding you while I'm here so the conversation would be the same old stuff over and over again. I try. I bring you up sometimes and then neither of us says anything until I change the subject. I'm trying not to think about you at all, since there is nothing I can do, but that's harder than I thought. No matter what I'm doing, whether it be shooting, doing the dishes, or sitting with Skate, I end up imagining or wishing that you were there.

Something's gotta be wrong with my brain, Jacob. Or maybe it's just me. But you're not here to talk to, so I guess I won't find out for awhile. I think I'll head to bed. It's late and I'm tired. Besides, perhaps some sleep might help to clear my head. Miss you. -Angel


"Hey, Ang, you really do look wiped," Skate said as they sat down beneath their tree in the deserted field. "How were your classes today?"

"Oh they were torture alright. And yeah, I am wiped." He placed his hands on her shoulders and began to massage them. "Mmmmm, thanks. I guess classes weren't really that bad. No worse than usual. It's just all that exercise and everything, you know."

"Course."

"Skate, what would you do if something happened to me?" Angela asked totally out of the blue.

"What?!What on earth do you mean?"

His hands stopped massaging her shoulders in shock as she turned to face him.

She was serious, "what would you do if I got shot and the guy who did it was running away?"

"Well, I'd…I don't know. I'd run to you and make sure you were OK."

"No. I mean, you know that the guy's gonna get away, and he'll never be found and never pay the price in justice for shooting me."

"Well, I'd guess I'd go after him, but shouldn't that be Jacob's job?"

"Jacob's with me, so you know I should be OK, though I could be in a coma for a few weeks or something drastic. So, how would you react? How would you feel?"

"Well, I'd be really mad! I'd wanna pop the guy, if I could!"

"And you have a gun, and you're the only person who can catch this guy. It's up to you, and only you. You have the chance to shoot him…."

"Ang, what's this getting at? Why are you asking me all this?"

"Next time you face a target at practice, imagine me lying on the ground with a bullet hole in me. Jacob is with me, but there's still a chance I might not make it. The target is the guy who shot me and at the center of the target is his heart. You have the chance to bring him to justice, but only by shooting him in the heart, and only you can do this. If you fail, he gets away and I die."

"The target?"

"Yes, the target."


Skate turned from his target to look at Angela. A look of fear swept over his face before it was replaced with a look of rage. Turning back to his own target, he gritted his teeth and raised his gun, pulling the trigger.

BANG! BANG! BANG!

When he finally lowered the weapon, he'd emptied his whole clip into the center of the target, the heart of Angela's killer. He looked back at her, his eyes wide open. There was a smile on her face.

"I did what you told me," he said quietly. "And it worked!"

"What's going on here?" The instructor came over to inspect Skate's work. "Nice Job Tim! Can you do that again?"

"I think so," he said.

The instructor called back over his shoulder. "Yo! John! Get me another target and a new clip!"

"Yes Sir!"

A few minutes later, a new target had been set up and a new clip was inserted into Skate's gun. Without looking at Angela this time, Skate aimed his weapon and fired. Every bullet he shot, landed at the center of the target.

"Well now, it looks like you finally got it! Nice work!" He patted Skate on the back before checking everyone else's targets.

"Did you hear that?!" he said excitedly. "I did it! I finally did it!"


"Thanks Angela. You know I couldn't have done that without your help," Skate said later that night as the sun set slowly in the distance.

"Hey, no problem. Glad I could help."

She sighed.

"What's wrong?"

"Oh nothing. I was just expecting an 'Angel' after that thanks, that's all."

"What do you mean?"

"Well, Jacob always called me 'Angel' and you just remind me so much of him though you are a few years older than him."

"Oh."

"Look, I'm gonna head back to my room. I've got some stuff I want to get done before bed so I'll see you tomorrow," Angela said, standing up.

"Um, yeah, ok, I guess." Skate watched her walk away before slowly getting to his feet.

Dear Jacob,

Well, Skate finally learned how to shoot. I had to tell him to pretend I had been shot and he was the only one who could catch the shooter, and the only way to catch him was to shoot him in the heart, obviously killing him. It worked. Though he did mention that catching the guy should be your job and not his. I was surprised he said that. And, yeah, if I ever did get shot, I would want it to be you who catches the guy. But I told Skate that you were with me, making sure I was ok, even though I might not make it. And I think I'd want that even more. If I really was going to die, I'd definitely want you there by my side.

But it's not going to happen. I'm not going to die. I have to find you first! I just don't understand why you're not trying to find me. It used to be that you could find me anywhere. And now that the Praetorians are gone, you can't find me at all. I just don't get it. Well, when I do find you, I'm sure you'll have a good explanation for all of this. You'd better, Jacob! And, you know I still miss you. –Angel


"Hey, I haven't seen you to talk to in a long time." Walter exclaimed one afternoon as he sat down at Angela's table during lunch. Skate was still in line getting his food.

"Hey to you too."

"So, how's the training going?
"Not too bad actually. After a while it turned out to be a whole lot easier than you said it would be."

"Well, I guess that's a good thing. Law enforcement will come easy to you then. When this training session is over, I just have to pick out another agent to work with us because the two of us can't do it alone."

"I know just who you need."

"You do?"

"Yes. Walter, meet Skate," she said just as Skate set his tray down beside hers. "Skate, this is my boss, Walter."

"Hi," Skate stuck out his hand. "Actually, the name's Tim Esseray. Skate's just a nickname," he finished as they shook hands.

"Nice to meet you."


Dear Jacob,

Well, I finally got into the second level. The levels, I've discovered, don't really mean anything. Basically, it just means that you move on to different classes. Yeah, nothing interesting there. In other news, Walter and Skate seem to be getting along quite well. Since I've introduced them, Walter has been sitting with us at lunch everyday and we end up talking about CIC and computers and stuff like that. The chances are looking good that Walter just might hire Skate to work for him too. Which would be good cause right now Skate doesn't have a job lined up. Skate knows a whole lot more about being an FBI agent and computers than I realized. Well, it's not like we talk about that stuff anyway when we're together. Sometimes we do, be generally we try to keep the conversation off work. Ha! That can be hard sometimes, let me tell you, since that's what we're here for, training for the work force. I don't want to go into details. It's late and I'm tired. One last thing though: Jacob, I'm gonna find you, no matter what it takes! I'm coming! And I miss you, as always. Life could never be the same without you. –Angel


"And the end is finally here," Angela commented out loud to no one in particular.

She stepped off the mini stage with her brand new FBI badge in hand to meet Walter and her new best friend, Skate, who'd graduated the week before. After congratulating her, Walter went off to talk to some of the higher ups while Skate and Angela went out for a last walk around the premises. Angela had already packed her things earlier that day and was ready to leave.

"So, now that we're both graduated we're on our way up to Seattle, is that it?" Skate asked as they neared their favorite hang out spot under the lone tree.

"Yup, that's it."

"I hope it's nice! I've never been there before." He stopped under the tree, and sat down. "Ang, there's something I want to tell you."

"Ok," she said, sitting down next to him.

"You know, I don't have a single penny to my name right now. I'm not gonna have a place to live there. I can't even afford a motel for the night. It's….well, see, my parents both died just before I came here, in a really bad car accident. They were so deep in debt that the state got everything they owned. I came in here with only two bags of my things. The rest is history. Well, it's not like there was much more that I really wanted, cause there wasn't. I didn't have the best childhood ever. And I have no living relatives that I know of. So, it's just me, being thrown out into the wind now. I really don't have a place to go, a place to live. I guess that's why it's so easy for me to pick up and move all the way to Seattle. I've got nothing else do, but that." Skate stared out into the sun.

"Hey, don't you worry. I've got a pull out couch in my apartment you can have. It's not a big place, but I don't mind sharing."

"Really? You'd let me stay with you?"

"Of course! What are friends for after all?"

"Thanks Ang, I really appreciate it! And I'll only stay till I can get my own place. Or unless you find Jacob first…."

"Well, he wouldn't mind, really. Stay as long as you like."

"Thanks."

"And to answer your earlier question: yeah, it is nice."

Skate laughed, "That's good to hear!"

"You know, I just can't believe that it's over already. It seems like only yesterday I was meeting you for the first time. These weeks just flew right by! I just don't know where the time went at all! I still feel like the Praetorians should be chasing me too, but they're not. Now though, it's our turn to get the bad guys for all the wrongs they're doing to innocent people. We're now ready to take back the law!"

"You bet we are!"

A silence fell over them as they both stared wistfully at the tree one last time. "hmmmm, short walk, but we really should be getting back so Walter doesn't wonder what happened to us," Skate commented.

"Yeah, besides, I want to go home!"


Dear Jacob,

So the graduation ceremony was small. Skate graduated the week before me, so I sort of knew what to expect. They made a big deal about Skate and me. Seeing as we're going into the brand new department of the FBI known as CIC. Center for Intrusion Control. Don't know if I mentioned that before. Policing the internet. It should be interesting. But back to graduation, so they graduated both of us first before everyone else at both ceremonies. The cool thing was that instead of getting a diploma I got my first FBI badge. Kinda like how doctor's get their first lab coats at their graduation rather than wearing robes. Jacob, you have no idea how much I wish you had been there. It would have meant a lot to me. But you weren't. I just have to accept that. I guess.

In other news, Skate moved into my apartment with me when we got to Seattle earlier tonight. He had no other place to go, of course I said he could use my couch. I guess we'll be saving on gas too, driving together to work until he gets his own place.

Jacob, I feel kind of empty inside. I'm living with a good friend, I've got a job, a well paying good job, but I still feel empty. These things just don't seem to be filling the void like they should be. I don't understand. The Praetorians are gone. Trelawney's not chasing me any more. I should feel relieved, happy, should be glad to get back to a normal life. What's wrong Jacob?

Wish I knew where you were right now. Miss you. -Angel