Gen 13: Secrets

"Caitlin's dating a woman?" Roxy blurted out, looking at Sarah Rainmaker with pure surprise as they stood in the library together.

"Shh," the black haired native American woman hushed her. "I think so," Sarah said, "at least from some of the questions she was asking me."

"You didn't convert her, did you?" Roxy gave her a suspicious look, her short purple streaked hair flowing around her face.

"We don't convert, Roxy," Sarah rolled her eyes as she added wryly, "besides, Caitlin isn't really my type."

Roxy actually blushed a little at that. Early on in their friendship Roxy had put the moves on her, and Roxy had freaked out a bit. They got past it, thankfully, but Roxy had been left with the awareness that Sarah preferred a more feminine sort of girl... like her, for instance.

"I guess that explains where she went out to on New Years Eve, too," Roxy noted, frowning at the memory.

Caitlin had dressed up for New Years Eve and left, resisting every attempt by them to find out where she was going. All she would say to them was that she was going out on a date with an old friend, whatever that might mean. They attempted to follow her but Caitlin had disappeared just before what sounded like a covert mini-jet took off.

Sarah frowned, "You're worried?"

"Yes, I'm worried," Roxy said grimly, "Caitlin is not the best socialized of people, not to mention being way too innocent for her own good. My big sister is tough, but that won't save her from a broken heart."

"Maybe I should ask Rebecca," Sarah mused.

Rebecca Alvarez was a former International Operations agent, once part of the teams who were tasked with capturing Gen 13. It was because of a memorable encounter with Sarah and Gen 13 that Rebecca had eventually sought Sarah out after she left the agency, and after some nervous courting they were currently dating.

"You think it might be a plot by former IO agents?" Roxy asked worriedly. After IO had been disbanded many of the agents went freelance in the intelligence community, and at least some bore a grudge against the team.

"Actually, I thought we could use her help to follow Caitlin and find out what's going on," Sarah said with amusement.

"Oh," Roxy blinked, "okay."

"And I'll make her promise not to invite you into a threesome again," Sarah added with an impish little smile.

"God was that embarrassing," Roxy blushed. "You just had to tell her about that time out by the pool?" she sighed.

"We were discussing coming out," Sarah said with amusement, "and my fondling your butt just came up."

"Sure it did," Roxy rolled her eyes. "Is she in town?"

"Actually, yes," Sarah nodded, "why don't we see if she's in and try to track down Caitlin?"

Roxy nodded, "Sounds like a plan."

Both headed out of the library, rolling their eyes as they saw Bobby doing air guitar by the main stereo system, headphones cutting him off from the world. Bobby Lane, aka Burnout was a diehard rock fan and separating him from the system would be a waste of time.

"Should you tell Grunge where you're going?" Sarah asked.

"He was asleep by the pool last time I checked," Roxy shrugged. They went through the living room and saw Anna cleaning the front entrance way, "Anna, could you tell Grunge that Sarah and I went out?"

"As soon as he wakes up," Anna agreed, the blonde haired robot maid smiling cheerfully. "Do you want me to flip him over before he burns?"

"Flip him into the pool," Sarah suggested impishly.

"Do it," Roxy agreed, "he could use a cool off."

"Have fun," Anna chuckled as she headed out to the pool.

"So what did Grunge do this time?" Sarah asked as they climbed into the car out front.

"What makes you think he did anything?" Roxy asked a bit defensively.

Sarah shook her head, "Don't tell me if you don't want to."

Talking about other things they headed into LA, and out to the office that Rebecca ran her investigation agency out of. She was primarily an information broker rather than a detective, though she did that too, but what made her very effective were the contacts she had in various government and civilian agencies. If she didn't know something she could probably find someone who did, and in probably less than a day.

"Sarah," Rebecca Alvarez looked up with a smile, the blonde setting her paperwork aside, "what's the occasion?"

"Business, I'm sorry to say," Sarah moved to embrace Rebecca in a hug.

"Aww, too bad," Rebecca chuckled teasingly, "I was hoping you brought your old crush here for some fun."

"Old crush?" Roxy blinked, unaware that Sarah had been that interested in her.

"Anyway," Sarah hurried to get past that question, "here's the situation." She quickly related the information about Caitlin and their concern over who she might be dating.

"Are you sure you really want to poke into this?" Rebecca asked. "It is intruding on your friend's life..."

"She's my sister," Roxy said firmly, "and I'm nervous because she's keeping this a secret."

"Besides she's pretty innocent," Sarah added reasonably, "she could be hurt pretty badly. At least we can warn her girlfriend not to hurt her."

"I think your ability to threaten her is going to be pretty difficult," Rebecca said dryly.

"What?" both Roxy and Sarah blurted.

"You know who it is?" Roxy demanded, "How?"

Rebecca smiled wryly, "Because who she's dating is pretty well known in the intelligence community and we all keep a wary eye on her." A sigh, "I nearly did a double take when I saw Caitlin with her in an intel update."

"So who is it?" Sarah asked impatiently.

"Ivana Baul," Rebecca said flatly.

"Tell me you're joking," Roxy said after a stunned moment.

"Sorry, no," Rebecca said with faint regret, "I can even call up photos I was sent of the two of them together."

"It kind of makes sense," Sarah said after a moment.

"You have got to be kidding me," Roxy looked at Sarah, "Ivana hates our guts. She spent years wanting us converted or dissected!"

"Maybe, but one call from Caitlin sent her rushing to the old Genactive Compound to save our hides," Sarah pointed out. "And without her the Anna robots would have probably detonated the Gen-bomb... and killed us all."

"For which she gets my thanks," Rebecca murmured, "since we'd never have hooked up if you'd died there."

"So you seriously think she came rushing to our rescue because she's in love with Caitlin?" Roxy asked, clearly trying to take in the idea.

"Let's see the photos," Sarah suggested.

Opening up her laptop computer Rebecca accessed a image program and began to click on the photos. Ivana looked good in her suit, black hair stylish, and Caitlin clearly looked like she was having a good time at her side. They were dancing in one pic, eating dinner in another and in a third just walking, talking together. The most telling thing was how they looked at each other, almost lost gazing in one another's eyes.

"Looks pretty sincere to me," Rebecca said dryly.

"Yeah it does," Roxy admitted with some reluctance. "What do you think?" she looked over to ask Sarah quietly.

Sarah shrugged slightly, "For now I think we won't do anything... just keep an eye on them."

"Ivana is watched by quite a few intelligence services," Rebecca agreed, "if they're in public I can find out."

"But if Ivana hurts Caitlin, I won't let her get away with it," Roxy said firmly.

"Seconded," Sarah agreed.

To be continued...