It's Not Over: Chapter 7 Revised
Rating: PG (Pretty tame chapter. Just a bit of bad language).
Disclaimer: The name "Jericho" and all character names and trademarks associated with the television program are the intellectual property of Junction Entertainment, Fixed Mark Productions, CBS Paramount Television and/or CBS Studios, Inc. The following story is intended solely as an intellectual exercise without profit motive. No infringement of copyright is intended or should be implied.
Notes: After doing some soul searching and communicating with a few people, I have reworked Chapters 7 through 12. Some changes are minor and others are significant. Overall, the plot is the same, just certain characters and their actions have been changed/corrected. Thanks to JT, mainemom22, and jordanmr. As always, feedback is appreciated.
This chapter picks up about five days after we left our intrepid characters.
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Jake entered the conference room and found the air to be as hot and sticky as the rest of the building. Jericho and most of the Midwest was suffering (or enjoying depending on one's point of view) an Indian summer with temperatures rising to the mid-eighties. Jake could feel every piece of clothing on his body sticking to him. The town hall had no air conditioning anymore and so there was absolutely no air moving. Eric had told him that this was nothing compared to late August when the temperatures had reached the above 100 degrees and the entire Jericho Sheriff's department switched from uniforms to shorts and t-shirts to deal with the heat. It was only at Heather's insistence that they had kept the shirts on as she pointed out that scientifically a shirt actually kept them cooler. Jake smiled at the image of Heather arguing with the men about their attire.
"What are you smiling at?" Eric asked as he noticed his brother walk through the door. Eric had given in and was wearing Khaki shorts and a polo shirt as he dealt with the heat.
"Nothing, just thinking," Jake answered. Trying to shift the focus from himself, he asked, "So, how does it feel to only have two more days of freedom?"
"It feels good," Eric replied with a big smile. Eric finally felt like maybe his life was getting back on track. He was excited about making a life with Mary. He'd married April because he thought she was the type of woman that his father would want to him to marry, but he was marrying Mary because she was the woman he wanted to marry.
"Earth to Eric," Jake joked as he noticed his brother was somewhere else.
"Oh, sorry," Eric apologized. "So, Major Beck and those Texas people will be here any minute?"
"Yeah, they just came through the check point."
"Why exactly are we allowing these guys to come in?" Bill asked with skepticism from a seat in the corner.
"I see the harbinger of doom is back. Don't you have other things you could be doing?" Jake asked in irritation.
"Jimmy's busy and asked me to be part of your welcoming party."
"Be quiet. That's all I ask. I really don't need to start a war with Texas at the moment," Jake remarked his eye brow arched.
"Jake, be nice," Eric interjected before Bill could reply. Jake had been in a foul mood for the past few days. Eric suspected it was because of Heather's pregnancy. Eric was surprised when his brother had related the information. He knew that Heather had feelings for Jake, but Eric hadn't realized that Jake had reciprocated. Then poor Bill got stuck in the middle or out in the cold depending how he looked at it. Eric tried not to think about it any more and looked out the door, "Anyone seen Heather?"
"Yeah, she'll be right in," Jake replied. When Jake had left Heather, she had gone to the bathroom to wash up.
"You guys missed me?" Heather said overhearing Eric's question. Heather, like everyone else, was dressed for the warm weather. She was dressed in short-sleeve shirt and a pair of jogging shorts. She couldn't fit into her jeans or any of her nicer shorts. Gayle was working on finding some maternity clothes, but at the moment, Heather was stuck with what she had.
"Eric was just wondering where you were," Jake explained unnecessarily.
"Bill, what are you doing here? You should be home resting," Heather admonished as she noticed that he was sitting in the room.
"Got tired of sitting around at home sweating and figured I could at least do some paperwork or something and help Jimmy out," Bill explained.
"So, what did I miss?" Heather asked.
"Nothing, we're just waiting," Eric answered.
"So, where's Gray?" Jake asked realizing that they were missing the mayor.
"He's downstairs. He wants to be the first one to greet the group," Eric explained.
"Always putting on the dog and pony show isn't he?" Jake asked in disgust. For a man who only a few days before was upset that they were coming, he was now going to welcome them with open arms for some reason.
"Wouldn't be Gray otherwise," Eric answered. "Hawkins decided not to come?"
"Yeah, said something about wanting to keep a low profile. We didn't exactly get warm and fuzzy feelings in Texas," Jake responded.
"You'd think you'd be a state hero or something," Eric answered.
"Yeah, you'd think," Jake replied. Jake hadn't gone to the trouble of starting a war to get recognition, but he was frustrated they'd been treated almost like criminals in Texas. Hawkins said that sometimes people, even governments, would rather avoid the truth than deal with it. In this case, Jake and Hawkins' evidence made the argument for war, a war that no one was really ready for nor wanted.
The group remained silent as they awaited Major Beck and the Texas communications people to come in. Heather shuffled through the papers listing what equipment had been left by J & R after their abrupt departure. Jake stood with his arms crossed staring out the window watching for the humvees. Bill sat there trying to keep his mouth shut hoping that Jake would get out of whatever funk he was in soon. Eric just wanted to get this over with so he could go to Bailey's and hang out with his soon to be wife.
"They're here," Jake announced as he saw three humvees drive up Main Street.
"So, who's amongst the group?" Eric asked.
"No one's gotten out yet," Jake said going from his position near the window to a seat next to Heather.
Before long, Gray Anderson's voice along that of Major Beck could be heard echoing through the hallways along with the footsteps of several people. "Well, in this way gentlemen," Heather could hear Gray explain as he entered the door way. He was followed by Major Beck, four members of the Texas National Guard and a gentleman dressed in a polo shirt and kakis.
"Hello, everyone," Major Beck said as he came in. He went into introducing the four guardsmen, and then introduced the civilian, "This is Peter West who's in charge of getting the equipment set up."
"Are these all the people you brought?" Jake asked incredulously feeling like six people was not nearly enough to run a military communications center.
"No, I've got one more, but she's still downstairs," Beck explained. "This group is merely here to set up the center. We've got more people coming in a few days once everything is set up."
"Major, we have some concerns over the placement of this 'center' in Jericho," Eric commented as the group all found seats.
Heather gave Eric an incredulous look.
Catching Heather's look Jake explained, "I think what my brother means is that he's concerned, as are most of us, that by allowing you guys to come here we're making ourselves a target."
"I understand that this town has been through a lot in the past year and you have done your share and then some. If there was anywhere else we could locate we would, but Jericho has the best location for what we need," Major Beck explained.
"Major, why not Goodland or some other town?" Gray asked.
"Goodland is too close to I-70 and every other town is either too small or too remote," Beck answered. "I understand your concerns, but this communication center is not going to make you much more of a target than you were before. Right now you are harboring two of the ASA's most wanted. I'd be more worried about that," Beck said looking at Jake.
Jake swallowed back the guilt at knowing that he'd put the town in danger by his return, but when Jake and Hawkins had weighed their options, coming home seemed best.
Heather shook her head. "Guys, this isn't about Jericho anymore. It's about more than that. Can't you see?" Heather asked in frustration. She'd expected Gray to question the whole thing, but Eric and Jake were a surprise. She figured that of all the people they would know what was at stake.
No one said anything.
"Texas understands that this may put a strain on your resources and so they will be providing you fuel and other resources as compensation," Major Beck added hoping that would win them over.
Eric, Jake, and Gray nodded in agreement as soon as they heard the word fuel. They were able to trade for a lot of things using Dale, but fuel was impossible to come by. They had windmills for power, but they still need fuel for vehicles and few generators that were needed to run different things from time to time.
"Well, where do we begin?" Heather asked trying to get the discussion back on track.
"We need to figure out location," Major Beck answered. "The group is in agreement that they do not want it located here at town hall. It would put everyone too at risk."
"How much room do you need?"
"Space for computers, equipment, a place for satellite dishes, and about a dozen people."
"Why not the high school?" Eric suggested. "School's permanently out for the foreseeable future and it has plenty of room."
"Sounds like a good place," Major replied and he turned to Peter, "You mind going out there and checking it out to see if it will work?"
"No problem Major," Peter answered with a southern drawl.
Jake turned to Bill, "Why don't you walk him over to the high school? You've got the keys, right?"
"Yeah, I've got them," Bill replied as he got up from his seat and left the room with a wave to Peter, the IT guru, to follow him.
"What about accommodations?" Heather asked. "Where are you going to house these guys and the rest of them? It's going to be winter soon. Where can we put them?"
"They could just stay at the high school," Jake suggested. "It has water, showers. Only problem is electricity."
"That won't be a problem," Beck answered. "We have a generator and fuel. High school sounds good, especially if that is where we are going to put the equipment."
"Well, it sounds like you have yourselves a plan," Gray replied happy to know that they would not be occupying the town hall again. He could deal with them at the High School or anywhere else in town, but having them underfoot would undermine his authority and that was a pain in the neck the last time.
"Heather, do you mind working with them on rounding up the equipment that was left by J & R?" Beck asked. He had hoped that Heather, who now wasn't leading the Rangers, would take a role in the communications center.
"No problem," Heather said as she always did.
Jake shook his head. Heather didn't know how to say no. "No heavy lifting," Jake interjected. "She can point out the stuff, but you're not moving it."
"Jake!" Heather exclaimed upset by his presumption.
"What's this all about?" Major Beck asked in confusion.
Eric and Gray took that as their cue to leave. The four guardsmen followed suit.
"I'm pregnant," Heather answered giving Jake a nasty look for making her reveal the information to the Major.
"And you didn't say anything!" Major Beck yelled expressing a temper that he normally kept in check. He'd already been upset with himself over putting Heather in danger. This changed everything. "How long have you known?"
Heather was quiet. Beck had a strong amount of guilt over his missing wife which Heather knew was still haunting him. He had felt like he'd let his wife down and his family. She was afraid that this news would be another layer of guilt that Beck would have to deal with. She wasn't sure what to say to make him feel better. "A few months," Heather confessed.
"Heather had I known…" Beck trailed off. He wasn't sure what to say. Beyond Heather being a colleague, he considered her a friend and knew that she'd been through a lot over the past year. He thought she trusted him enough to share something as important as this with him.
"Major, what's done is done," Jake replied calmly in Heather's defense. "I'm not too happy about all of the danger she's been putting herself into either, but that's water over the bridge. She's going to be more careful now aren't you?" Jake asked Heather.
"I'm not eight years old," Heather complained. "But I will be careful."
"You will be and that's an order," Major Beck sternly replied. He already had felt a tremendous amount of guilt over putting Heather in danger, but knowing that she was pregnant the whole while made his heart ache. He shook off the feelings over it. "And I'm going to be around to make sure you keep it."
"What!?" Jake asked.
"I've been reassigned."
"Why?" Heather asked not understanding why they'd pull him away from his troops.
"It's Texas's show now, not mine. They want they're commanders in charge," Beck explained in a much calmer demeanor than when he'd first been told of his orders. Once he had met the people he was going to work with, the whole thing had become more palatable. "It's good though. I'm going to be in charge of the communication center."
"You know, just to warn you, you don't have a lot of fans around here," Jake warned. Jake had images of a mob with pitch forks and torches chasing Beck down.
"I understand. I plan on keeping a very low profile. I'm not here to run your town or deal with your security issues. My being here is solely to deal with the center," Beck assured Jake knowing that his presence in town would not be looked on favorably.
"You said there is another team member. Who is she?" Heather asked recalling what Beck had said earlier trying to get to a less distressing topic.
"Oh, that would be our meteorologist, Doctor Taylor. She got stuck on the phone with someone in Key West. They've got a hurricane headed in their direction without a means of evacuation. It's a dire situation."
"Natalie Taylor?" Heather asked with hopefulness in her voice.
"Yes, she said she was from Jericho. You know her? The doctor said she'd been trying to get home for months. Finally, some friends in high places helped her get assigned here," Beck explained.
Heather smiled as she realized how happy Jimmy and Bill would be once they found out. Then guilt flooded her as she realized that Natalie would find out that the man she'd been trying to come home to had started up a relationship with Heather. Not that it had been much of a relationship, but Heather knew that if she'd been dating a man who had been on the verge of proposing and he'd gone off with some other girl while she was missing, she'd be pretty pissed off. Heather wasn't sure if she should laugh or cry realizing that in the span of a little over four months she'd been the other woman twice. She smiled bigger trying not to cry. Damn those pregnancy hormones! Heather thought to herself.
"What are you smiling at?" Jake asked in confusion.
"Natalie Taylor is Jimmy's sister," Heather explained, but didn't mention Bill. He was a sore subject between Heather and Jake as Jake still hadn't gotten over her letting Bill stay with her for a couple of days while his mother tended to his sick brother and his family.
"Oh, that Natalie Taylor," Jake said in understanding. Jake hadn't seen Natalie in years. She'd been gone away at school in the years before Jake had left. He remembered her name on the list of the missing or away from town when the bombs happened.
"I'm glad that she was able to get back here to her family," Beck replied. "From my interactions with her, she seems like a very sweet woman. She's well liked by the team members."
Heather felt even guiltier. Natalie was a "sweet woman." Heather was on the verge of an all out panic attack when she heard footsteps come toward the door. She took a deep breath and tried to push back her feelings.
"Major?" a female voice came from the doorway. The woman who appeared was a different creature than the one that Heather had seen in the picture that Bill kept by his bed. Her hair was still brown and her eyes were still blue, but she was much thinner and had a weary, tired look of someone who'd seen too much. Heather supposed Natalie wasn't any different than anyone else who had live through the past year. No place was immune from the effects.
"There you are," Major Beck replied. "Doctor, is all okay?"
"Not really, but there's nothing I can do about it," the young woman answered removing her brown tortoise framed glasses as she wiped away sweat and tears from her face with a handkerchief she was carrying. Her long dark brown hair was thrown up in a careless ponytail. "I lost contact with them."
"God have mercy," Beck solemnly replied knowing the desperate situation.
"In the old days, we would've evacuated them, but with most of southeast Florida is a radioactive wasteland, there's no escape route by land," the woman explained as she slumped down in a chair across from the group. She folded her glasses and put them in her collar. "Those people are stuck down there with a category five hurricane barreling down on them."
"Doctor, this is Heather Lisinski and Jake…"
"…Green. Hi Jake," Natalie finished for him with a small smile of recognition. "Heather and I have also met before."
"Hey Natalie," Jake said giving her a quick smile. "Seen your brother yet?"
"No, I just got off the phone and I came up here, but I see I missed the meeting."
"Not much of a meeting," Heather assured her as she regained her composure.
"Bill Koehler was escorting Peter to the high school. I think that is where we are going to put the equipment," Major Beck explained.
Natalie gave a sad smile at the mention of Bill's name and nodded in acknowledgment.
"Well, I think I am going to find out where those guardsmen went off to," Beck declared not wanting to get involved any more than he had to in these people's personal affairs. "I'm sure you are going to want to do some catching up and find your brother and family."
"Yeah," Natalie replied.
"If Peter thinks the high school is going to work, we'll start set up tomorrow. It's too late to start this evening."
"Sounds good, Major," Heather answered.
"Congratulations," Major Beck hollowly offered to Jake and Heather as he got up.
"Thanks," Jake replied matching Beck's tone.
"Doctor, I'll see you later."
Major Beck exited the room leaving Heather, Jake, and Natalie looking around at each other not sure what to say. Natalie was curious as to what the major was congratulating the two of them on, but she really didn't feel comfortable broaching the subject. Heather wasn't sure what she should say to Natalie, the almost fiancé of her ex-boyfriend (if you could call him that).
Jake finally broke the silence, "So, you're back? Major said you've been trying to get back here for the past year. Where were you?"
"Long story, but I'll give you the brief synopsis. I was in Corpus Christi to meet with a friend on the day of the bombs. Anyway, I got stuck in Texas. They closed the borders pretty quickly after the attacks and wouldn't let anyone in or out of the state. I tried for months to get out, but it was just a mess. Finally, they were looking for volunteers to go to the front lines to aid with the fight, so I volunteered. At the time I wasn't sure I was even going to get to Kansas, let alone Jericho, but here I am."
"You joined the Army?" Heather asked. Natalie was dressed in a sort of military uniform. She was wearing an olive green t-shirt, cami-pants, and black combat boots. An ID badge of some sort was hanging around her neck.
"Oh, the outfit," Natalie remarked realizing her appearance might give the wrong impression. "No, I don't like guns," Natalie answered furling her brow and shaking her head.
"Yet, you come to the war zone with a bunch of guys carrying them," Jake quipped suspicious of Natalie and her arrival in Jericho. Jake was suspicious of anyone and anything attached to Texas. After the reception he got there, he still wasn't sure where Texas's involvement in this war would lead.
"Yeah, kind of ironic isn't it," Natalie responded with a chuckle. She quickly changed subjects, "My brother, he's okay isn't he? His family? I mean Major Beck updated me as much as he could. He said my brother was Sheriff?"
"Yeah, the original Sheriff and most of the deputies save your brother and Bill were killed in the first days after the attack. Jimmy was the most senior member of the Sheriff's department, so he got the job," Jake explained.
"My brother is Sheriff," Natalie said in disbelief. Her brother was not the kind of guy who sought out leadership roles. He was the least ambitious man she knew. She immediately scratched that; the least ambitious man she knew was Bill. "Well, I suppose it's a lot more likely than Bill."
"Oh, I think we would've revolted if Bill was Sheriff," Jake joked.
"Yeah, you're probably right. He can be a difficult to deal with," Natalie remarked.
"He's not that bad," Heather interjected trying to defend Bill.
"Oh, don't get me wrong. I love the man, dearly," Natalie assured Heather. "You won't find a more loyal man when it comes to protecting his family or doing his job, but even I have to admit he's got issues."
Jake smiled at the Natalie's statement.
"Not that you're any better Jake Green," Natalie admonished Jake. "When Beck told me what you'd done and that you were in charge of the security force here in Jericho I nearly died laughing. I mean you spent your entire life avoiding responsibility and now you're actively seeking it?"
"People change," Jake defended.
"Oh, I agree with you. Look at me, I chose a career where I get to spend most of my time behind a computer never talking to anybody. Now, all I seem to do if field calls from the President's office."
"Which one?" Heather asked as she and Jake gave each other shared looks of concern.
"Depends on the day," Natalie replied not wanting to get into the particulars of her job at the moment or to explain how everyone above her in the National Weather Service was dead or missing.
"Wow, must be pretty exciting" Heather said in mock awe.
"It's not nearly as glamorous as it sounds," Natalie sarcastically returned. "It's not like I'm going to get a statue or something. When the war is over, no one is every going to list Natalie Taylor in any history book."
"Well, I doubt I am going to get a mention either," Heather laughed.
"Jake might have a shot at 'Paul Revere' kind of notoriety," Natalie replied. From her experience in Texas, people's views of Jake went from the range of folk hero to the Anti-Christ.
"Oh, God I hope not," Jake replied with a groan.
Natalie looked down at her watch, "I should go find my brother. Got any ideas where he might be?"
"He should be around here somewhere. I'll get on the radio and track him down," Jake replied getting up and heading out to help Natalie find her brother.
Natalie grabbed Heather's arm, "Can we talk for a moment, alone?"
