by: iluvaqt@hotmail.com
QT's notes: Buffy, my apologies over the extremely long wait. I hope you haven't given up on me.
Chapter 6: Friend's Plea
Alec stretched lazily and reached for the shrilling phone. Pulling it out of the jacket pocket, he quickly answered. He was presently surprised to hear the voice on the other end.
"Hey, stranger."
"Hey, yourself. And isn't supposed to be the other way around? You're the one who's disappeared on me." Smiling to himself, he resettled on the bed and stuffed a pillow behind his neck.
"I didn't call you to get the third degree, I've got enough over here to last me forever," she said groaning.
"You know I'm just dumpin' on you." Alec drummed his fingertip on his knee. He was getting impatient. He knew this wasn't a social or 'I miss you' type call, was she going to spill already?
"I can hear that you know," Tash said laughing. "You'd think that after three weeks of looking for new work that it would have taught you at least a little patience."
"How'd you know?" he asked in surprise.
"I have my sources. Listen, you're right, it's not a social call…well sort of, I'll let you decide," she stumbled. She wasn't good at asking people for things, just because he was her best friend didn't make it any easier. Why did asking someone for a date have to be so difficult? She wasn't romantically interested in him, far from it. Maybe it was the fact that the possibility of rejection made her feel so vulnerable…
"Tash, you know I could never say no to you…"
How could he possibly know what she'd been thinking? "Alec, I…" she started.
"You need me to…what?" he added for her.
"Come and work for me." Why did that sound so bad? It would have been better if she had have just come out and asked if he would be her date to the company's charity benefit. Instead of starting in with the job she'd lined up for him. What if he didn't even want it? Worse, what if after she told him that she'd practically accepted her position for him, he refused?
"What exactly is my job description?" Alec asked, stifling a snicker. From her silence, he was taking wild guesses as to what was floating through her mind at that moment and the possibilities were pretty wild.
"Jones needs someone to head up his security staff. He wanted someone with expert training in surveillance, unarmed combat and weapons. He had a long list, and since he asked for my advice…well, I suggested you."
"But I don't have official training, I don't even have legit documents. Tash are you…"
She cut him off, "He knows, Alec. He helped us remember. He's one of the few people who know who I really am. I trust him."
"For you, I'll take the job. But if I pick up on anything, you know I'm gone. And it'd be best if you did too."
Tash sighed, would the running ever end? "So you'll come?"
"Yeah, I'll be there. When?" he asked, getting up and walking toward his tiny kitchen.
"A chopper will be there in a couple of hours."
He was about to protest but she'd already cut the line. She hadn't given him much of an opportunity to change his mind. Maybe that had been her plan, she knew him too well.
~*~*~*~
Alec jumped down from the cabin, his hair and jacket rustling in the chopper's whirlwind. He could see Tash waiting for him at the edge of the landing pad. She'd gone back to red again, he notice with a grin. With a solid black suit in a strict business cut, she look anything but the average professional.
"You fit in well," he mused, trying hard to hide a smirk. If she noticed, he'd be sure to get a bruised right arm.
"Don't start, please. I get enough from my father. Natasha, you really should fix your hair, it's not good for a corporate image. Screw them. They'll like me for who I am, not what the want to make me." She glared at him when he rolled his eyes.
"Hey, good to see you haven't changed."
She smiled brightly at him and suddenly he felt uneasy. "Didn't plan on it. That's why I asked you here."
"Ah, I'm not getting tangled in the family feud. I'm here to work in a strictly professional capacity. No complications."
Tash linked her arm in his, and mused, "Alec, Alec. When will you learn that life is full of complications. You can't avoid them. Just relax and let your guard down just a little. You might even enjoy the challenge."
Alec groaned. "Tasha, no advice. Every time I've been stupid enough to let my guard down, I've been burned. I'm perfectly happy right now, let's not mess with perfection, okay?"
Tash didn't answer, only smiled sweetly and tugged him along in the direction of a waiting car. "My brother's anxious to meet you."
"Great, I'll have these impossible expectations to live up to."
Tash gave him a mock pout. "I did no such thing. If he has any crazy ideas about you, he made those conclusions all on his own."
"With a little prodding from a little birdie." Alec settled into the plush leather seat, knowing she was willfully ignoring his weighted comments. He wondered how her family dealt with the truth about her origins. She never did tell him much about why she left them those years ago. He hadn't really thought to ask. Most of the rogue X5s that escaped in '09 had similar pasts; orphanages, string of foster homes, forced adulthood. First meeting her last summer, he had no reason to think she'd had it any different.
She was sitting across from him in the limousine, staring out the window. Her hands folded loosely in her lap and a solemn expression on her face. He started to wonder if she really was happy being back in Chicago with her family.
~*~*~*~
"Alec, this is Jones, he's the Director of Worsely Airlines." Tash made the introduction and Jones extended his hand.
Tash's brother was a very striking figure. He was well built, with broad shoulders and a firm handshake. His physic was more suited to a linebacker than a high profile young entrepreneur. He had jet-black hair and, Tash's same dark blue eyes. Anyone who wasn't privy to the information he had, could honestly mistake them for blood siblings - they had same eyes, and imposing self-confidence, identical olive coloring - Alec couldn't help taking a second glance at both of them.
"Alec, nice to meet you. Have a seat." After they all sat down, Jones made his offer. "Tash, has told me a lot about you. Quite an impressive history of experience for a man in his youth."
"I could say the same for you," Alec responded. He didn't miss the bemused gleam in the other man's eyes. He was starting out on the right note; he could come to enjoy working for this guy.
"Before I go over your role, I want to know a little about your connections to my sister."
Alec didn't let the warning in his gut show on his face. He side-glanced at Tash trying to gauge his position. How should he answer? "Where do you want to start?"
"Well a couple months ago, I get a call in the middle of the night telling me that my sister just helped a convict make a jail break. The man seems insistent that she'll contact me and that if I don't tell him the minute she does, I'll be aiding a fugitive," he paused, reading them both. "I don't. Instead I willingly help her and you, I'm assuming, get this guy safely over the border."
"Not over the boarder, exactly…just out of the state. Might I add that the guy we helped has been cleared of all charges?"
"Jones…" Tash interrupted.
"Jen-Tasha." He still couldn't get used to calling his sister by her preferred name. Jenny had been her birth name for the past ten years he'd known her. Natasha was going to take a little time. "I didn't ask any questions then, but I have to know. I checked that guy out, the one that was after you. He didn't work for any government agency my investigator could dig up."
"The guy you were contact by worked for the NSA. A secret government agency, assigned with destroying any evidence attached to a Project Manticore. We were problems he had to deal with. He took the assignment to far, he's since been booted from his job and charged with attempted murder, pending trial."
"I thought it wouldn't be the end of it," Jones said with a frustrated edge.
"Alec, Jones needs a personal security team because he's received several threats. I didn't think about the possibility of White until now," Tash added sadly.
"He's not a threat when he's a guilty man."
"Maybe not, but we can't rule him out. He's gotta have a lot of anger directed at us. What better way to hurt us? Target family, people close to us…"
"I don't know. Look, I'm not a team kind of guy. But if it's what you'd prefer, I'll work with it." When Jones stood, Alec and Tash followed suit.
"I'll introduce you. Sorry you're going to have to fast track, but we've got a public function on Friday. So you'll need your system up and running by then."
"No problem." When Jones was out of earshot, Alec whispered in Tash's ear. "Was that the job you were referring to? I'm your unofficial date?"
Tash tried to hide her blush but didn't succeed. "Right, but it's not that I didn't have offers. Just…I…"
"No need to explain. And just so you know how this works, I will be picking you up."