Chapter 25

Bethesda Maryland, Outside the Home of Dallas Grey

They were the detail in charge of keeping track of Grey, it was a direct order from the Secretary of Defense that this man be kept track of in case his dealing where with people that weren't too fond of the United States. The mission leaders name was Barry Lindstrom, and this was by far the strangest thing that he had ever seen Dallas Grey do. And he wasn't sure if he should even intervene at first, and when he did, he expected the woman that was from the looks of it holding his target hostage to die, but she didn't and that was a sign that he should take full measures of making sure that whoever this woman worked for didn't get his expertise in weapons.

As he heard the impact of the return fire hit the tree trunk that he was standing behind, he nodded to his three counterparts. In the blink of an eye they brought up their Assault Rifles and blindly hailed gunfire down on their vantage point of the house. Lindstrom's orders were simple, extract Dallas Grey if possible if he came into any perceived danger, but he also had orders to kill Grey to make sure that he couldn't be used by any foreign or domestic enemies. "Commander, we are still reading two heat signatures"

He sighed irritably; this was going to get complicated. "Suggestions?"

"Storm the house with a detail of six men" One of his Lieutenants offered.

That was his other option, or he could just have his whole detail of a dozen men fire their weapons into the house. Barry didn't know what to do, so he would make a compromise, one that could possible pay massive dividends or make him lose everything, including Grey. "Continue firing until I say…"

Bethesda Maryland, Inside the Home of Dallas Grey

For Jackie Hutchinson, this was the most exhilarating thing she had experienced in about twenty years. She missed this excitement, and though it would scare most people, it made her charged and it presented her with a challenge that she would want to overcome. Behind the couch, she contemplated what she was going to do, she knew that the couch could be seen from the window and a part of the back could be seen. So if she was going to do this correctly than she needed to make no mistakes whatsoever.

"I think I might know who these people are!" Dallas said rather shocked.

She glared at him. "Who? It'll help our chances of escaping a lot"

"I-It's just a guess," Dallas responded. "But a few months ago, I began to get the suspicion that I was being followed everywhere I went I was being followed, so I hired a team to follow me and scope it out, and I was indeed"

Jackie didn't want the story, if she was going to hear any of this story than she wanted the summary. "Just cut the crap and tell me who it was"

"The Government, specifically a team made up of combined elements of the NSA, FBI and CIA," Dallas answered. "Its overkill I think"

That indeed did help her in her thinking about what to do, she knew the pattern of these Government Agencies. She had been informed of them when she was a Senior Huntress, and she was told them if she ever attracted their attention in a high profile assignment. Jackie knew how to counter them and escape, but the only hitch was, she didn't know if they had updated their way.

"Now listen and listen very closely," Jackie said. "On the count of three, I want you to crawl on your stomach towards that wall and keeping making your way until you reach your garage, I'll lay down some distraction fire, and then I'll join you, and so help me if you try to leave without me, I'll rip-"

Dallas rolled his eyes and nodded. "You'll rip my heart out and make me eat it, yes I will not leave you here, and I need you in case they follow me"

With a sigh she resigned herself into think that was her one insurance policy with the man. A few more seconds passed before she nodded and she quickly stood up and fired, she watched out of the corner of her eye as the man that she had kidnapped and was now rescuing was crawling to the side wall that she had instructed him to do. Maybe this would work out very well in the end.

Los Angeles California, Los Angeles International Airport

It had been the shock of his life when his mother had told him the family secret, and the shock was still evident four years later. As a son, he loved his mother because his mother had never done anything to him to make him hate her that way. But as a person, as a person with his own feelings, he disliked his mother for not telling him or his father. The thought of her lie made him angry to no end whatsoever, but he had to start getting over it now if he wanted to live, on some level, something was telling him that. He had to be honest with himself, when his mother had transformed into whatever she was, he thought it was fascinating, in a good way. But the anger over her lying hadn't dissipated at all. Maybe he could get a chance to settle all of that with his mother now, he missed her motherly love, and even though it was hard for him to admit, he missed his mother entirely. And when she had mentioned that she was staying with his Uncle, he was very curious. When he was a kid, he had always wanted to meet his Uncle Jake, his mother had shown him pictures and home movies and that had just roused his curiosity even more.

It hadn't hit him yet as he sat in the LAX terminal that in just a few hours, he was going to meet that man that he had wanted to meet since he was seven years old. He probably had cousins too, on his father's side he had only one cousin, but he probably had more with the American portion of his family. In fact he was counting on that fact. Luong was actually excited to see how the other half of his family lived, and he was somewhat anxious to know if they would accept him into their family. He hoped so, so very much and if they thought of him as an outsider, and he was really worried of that, than it would crush him.

Manhattan New York, The Long Family Apartment

"And again when I was fifteen," Jake recited to his sister. "When Rose dumped me because she thought I was becoming a distraction to her with to her duties in that damn Clan, but she got back together with me not long after that, so it was all ok"

This had been going on for about an hour now and frankly it was getting very tiring, and besides that fact, she knew all of this, she was there and she saw him tear himself up after it all. And now that they were very much older, instead of drowning in depression, he was drowning in Vodka apparently. "Do you need me to call anyone?"

"Wha-Oh Yea, I need you to call Trixie and Spud," Jake slurred. "Can you do that?"

She hadn't seen those to in so long, she didn't even know how to contact them, and maybe Jake was just suffering a delusion. "Jake, Honey. Do you know where they are?"

"Uh no, I haven't seen Spud in like nineteen years, but I have Trixe's number, please Haley, will you please tell one of them to come over?" Jake said overdramatically.

Haley nodded. "I'll do that, but do you think I should do it now, I mean she's probably sleeping right now and it'll be rude to wake her up in the middle of the night"

"I don't care," Jake said. "Just leave her a message if you have to, I want to see her"

She sighed, alright, like she would have any other choice anyway, Jake was drunk and if she didn't call Trixie than he would and personally Haley would much prefer to talk to her than letting her overly drunk brother do it. "Alright, where's the number?"

Baltimore Maryland, Thirty Miles away from Bethesda Maryland.

Despite everything that was going on, the Dark Dragon, Dallas Grey and the fighting with her husband, the only thing that she could think about was her husband. She was able to look beyond the fighting and everything that had happened tonight, and see the person that she had fallen in love with so very long ago. She loved Jake so much, she loved him so much so much that it had brought a bright smile to her face. And the guilt was just eating her up about making him question if she loved him or not but she did, and she would die before she even contemplated leaving him. Besides her love for him, they had children that they needed to take care of, all of whom hadn't even reached the age where they had to go to school, and another one was on the way. Not to mention their first child, who would be surprised and shocked if her parents got a divorce, and Rose didn't want any of her children to feel that, she wanted to protect them. "Rose," Erin said. "It's my mother"

Her friend had a cell phone in her hand, and making an irritated noise at the back of her throat, she reached back and grabbed it. Holding it up to her ear, she scowled the moment she heard the unquestionable sound of gun fire. "Jackie? What's happening…"

"You neglected to inform me that Dallas was being watched by the United States Government," Jackie said. "They followed us out to his house and now I'm trying to get out of here with my life and his, so any suggestions? I'm sure we can't meet here now"

Rose shook her head in frustration, she had taken that gamble and she had lost miserably now she was going to have to cover her ass before she got screwed. And the first act would have to be getting Jackie and Dallas out of there before something bad happened to them, if Dallas was killed than she would lose all hope, and if Jackie was killed she would never forgive herself for sending the woman down to retrieve him in the first place. "Ok, I need to think her for a moment, alright, do you know what agency is shooting at you?"

"All of them, The CIA, FBI and NSA," Jackie responded.

The Huntsgirl sighed. "Oh boy, ok, stay as low as possible to the ground, and then you make your way to method of escape, if you can it to a car without being shot than congrats you've evaded them, when you get into a car you need to haul ass out of there and we'll meet somewhere in a populated urban area, sound like a plan?"

"Alright," Jackie said. "And by the way is there anything that I should know about? Do they have special methods of watching the house, infrared sensors? Things like that?"

Rose nodded her head. "Yea, they'll probably be monitoring the house with infrared binoculars, so you'll need to be prepared for that, call me when you get away from there, ok?"

"Alright" Jackie said and then she abruptly hung up.

Shaking her head she wondered what the hell she was going to do, the Government was watching Dallas and they were now shooting at Jackie. Now they were going to keep chasing them and it was a pain in the ass to evade the Government, but it was possible, Rose had even done it a few times in her life and now she was going to have re visit a few strategies. It took her a few minutes for her muscles to react, and then she handed the phone to her son in-law who was sitting in the passenger seat. "Dial Alyssa's number then hand it back to me"

It was a few moments later, and then Johnny handed the phone back to Rose, bringing it up to her ear she tapped the steering wheel a few times before her daughter picked up. "Hello?"

"Honey," Rose said. "You're going to have to follow my instructions, very, very closely"

AN:/ If you weren't expecting the Government to be the ones who were shooting at Jackie and Dallas, I'm rather surprised, Rose and Erin have suspected that he was being watched by them and now that's confirmed. Trixie will make her one and only appearance in the next chapter, I've always ignored her and Spud for two reasons, I didn't know how to write them and they weren't important in the big picture. And my main reason for ignoring the both of them is because they aren't my favorite characters anyway. Please, if you would, leave a review for your author. Oh and to those of you who are following 'Cherish' there will not be a new update until after this story is finished. And I'm hoping to wrap this up by the end of this month, early September at most. I just really want to get the next story started, I'm so excited and I really want all of you to see it. Enough of my rambling, leave a review.