Author's Note: I own nothing.

8 Admittance

Rook managed to shut off the blackout field rather quickly and called to the nearest Plumber base for assistance. As he ended the call, with promises that two teams would be dispatched to them within the hour, he frowned. One of the alarms was going off, the ship in the hanger he had left Jen in had been activated and was leaving. He shook his head. There was no reason for Jen to have left, he turned to Hobble.

"Call Magister Tennyson, I need to check on something." Hobble frowned but nodded stepping up to the console as Rook quickstepped back to the room they had come from. Silence rang through the halls, interrupted only by the fall of Rook's footsteps. It was eerie to say the least. He quickened his pace and soon stepped into the hanger. The ship was gone, Vilgax was gone, as were Attea and her assassins. Across from where the ship had been lay a small figure on the floor. Her sage green hoodie was smoking. Rook ran to her.

Jen was laid out on the floor her hoodie singed back and front, the burns were the lightning shape indicative of the stun setting on a laser. She was breathing and he let out a breath he didn't realize he'd been holding. Carefully as he could he scooped her up off the floor and raced to the deserted medical wing. He laid her down on one of the beds and pulled his badge out of his pocket.

"Morty come in." It took a moment for the Plumber to answer.

"Yeah Rook?" He rumbled over the coms in their badges.

"I need you to look at the surveillance videos from the hanger."

"I can do that sure, what's wrong?" There came the sounds of typing over the coms.

"Vilgax is gone, as are Attea and her assassins. I found Jen stunned in the hanger, alone." Morty swore in his native guttural language at that news and Rook thought he could hear Hobble chittering in fear. He set down his still active badge and pulled a scanner out of one of the cabinets. He ran it over Jen and sighed in relief. She was just stunned, the blast had been at quite close range which had caused the burned hoodie. She did have a cut in her forehead, just at the hairline, some kind of blunt force. Rook pulled a patch kit out of another drawer setting aside the scanner.

"I'm sending you the footage." Morty rumbled over the coms. "This is really something you should see yourself." Rook nodded as he brushed Jen's hair out of the way and applied the patch to the sluggishly bleeding wound. Once that was done he turned to his badge and flicked it over to a different setting. It cut off the call with Morty but that was probably a good thing or Rook might have lost his reputation as the calm collected one.

He watched as Jen scanned EightEight like she had the Kraaho. The audio was crystal clear as she shook her head commenting to no one in particular that she hadn't expected it to end that way. Her back was turned on her old enemy, she didn't see him rise and snatch up one of the fallen blasters Attea had dropped when Rook and the other Plumbers had arrived to back Jen up. He shot her in the back without warning. Rook swore in anger glancing over at Jen who was still out cold. He turned back to the recording in time to see Vilgax tower over Jen, firing at her again, striking her in the chest this time since she had managed land on her back. She went limp and Vilgax reached out as though to pick her up. Rook's throat tightened. But a blast to his hand stopped the tyrant. He stumbled back in surprise.

Attea and her assassins were back on their feet, EightEight limping as SevenSeven pulled her out from under the vent cover. Vilgax seemed to consider his odds for a moment and found them less than favorable for with one last hateful glare at the downed hero he leapt aboard the waiting ship and quickly made his exit. Attea glanced over at Jen as EightEight leveled her blaster at the human. Rook felt himself tense.

"We aren't here for her. Maybe next time." But as the assassins fled the hanger Attea looked back over at Jen. "See you soon Hero." Rook cut off the images as his badge beeped, signaling a new call.

"This is Agent Rook."

"Rook." It was Morty. "The teams of Plumbers are here. They say two ships just exited the sector at hyper-speeds. We lost them." Rook swore under his breath and nodded.

"I expected as much from the surveillance feed. When will Magister Tennyson arrive?"

"Soon as we've got the teleporter up and running again. The teams they sent from the closest base are working on them now. Shouldn't be too much longer now. How's Jen?" Rook glanced back over at his partner, still out cold.

"Luckily she is only stunned. She should regain consciousness in a few hours." As it turned out that ended up being how long it took for the team, which had been a fighter team not a tech team, to get the teleporters up and running again. As soon as they were good to go Max arrived and rushed to the med bay. Rook was sitting next to Jen's bed and Max shook his head.

"She's always getting herself into trouble." Both of them turned as Jen groaned. She sat up rubbing her head. It didn't take long to explain to her what had happened, though admittedly having the video on hand was quite helpful. The three of them headed back to the Bellwood base after that, ordered to take it easy for a while. Rook retired to his room after making Sure Jen wasn't driving home with a headwound. He flopped onto his couch and sighed trying to get the feelings out of his head. But no matter what he tried he couldn't get it out of his head, the worry for her, the relief at finding her alive. He frowned. He needed someone to talk to.

He couldn't call Shar, she wouldn't understand, Young One was far too young for this sort of thing. His father would never approve. His mother might but he wasn't sure she would have any advice when it came to having feelings for a teammate. Then it hit him, the perfect person he could call. He stepped over to the still quite new communications set up in his living room. He had a few com link numbers in the system, including the one for his family on Revonnah. But that wasn't the one he pulled up now. Instead he pulled up one for a Plumber base across the country. It rang for a moment and the dark hair of Kevin Levin resolved into view.

"This is Agent Levin." He looked up and smiled. "Oh hey Rook! Heard you and Jen ran into some trouble in space." Rook nodded.

"Indeed we did. Is Gwen busy? I was hoping to speak to her." Kevin nodded.

"Yeah she's here hang on let me go get her." Kevin stood and vanished from the camera view. A few minutes later Gwen appeared on the screen.

"Hey Rook, Kev is heading up to work on his car, he said you wanted to talk. What's up?" Rook nodded.

"I find myself in need of advice." He paused, conflicted. Gwen though smiled.

"You're in love with Jen." Rook's eyes went wide at the simple statement. He stuttered, unable to form a reply. Gwen nodded slightly. "Rook it's all over your aura when you look at her. It's sweet." Rook buried his head in his hands for a moment before running both over his face and turning to the console.

"I have feelings for your cousin, yes." The fur on his face puffed slightly as he blushed.

"Yeah I know. What are you going to do about it?" Gwen asked folding her hands in front of her. Rook sighed.

"I do not know, that is why I called you." Rook said looking at her hopefully.

"Well, I think you should be honest with her." Gwen stated matter of factly. Rook frowned. Gwen continued. "My cousin is a great fighter, a good leader and a fantastic hero but when it comes to emotions, especially her own she doesn't tend to be the brightest. If you don't tell her you're interested chances are she won't ever know."

"But I am her partner, will this not have some sort of effect on our working relationship." Gwen shrugged.

"It's never really hurt me and Kevin, and it worked well for her with Ethan. But there's always a risk, Ethan sort of proves that. So you have to decide, are your feelings for her strong enough that the reward outweighs the risk?" Rook took a deep breath. He was pretty sure he knew the answer to that but he wasn't certain that he wanted to face it. If he took this risk and something did go wrong was he willing to lose her altogether? He put his head in his hands and let out a long sigh.