Hawk slips in the door early the next morning to wake them up. He
really doesn't want to after he observes the peaceful expression on
Cadence's face- something none of them had ever seen before. He
realized with a start that her eyes were open and she was awake.
Never before had he seen her with the look of utter contentment that she had on her face now. Even when she slept, she still never looked content or happy. She always looked as if she were in some kind of pain. He made a mental note to take Grand Slam off to the side and let him know just what he had done. He'd brought to life something that everyone else had given up for dead.
"Hey," he pronounced. "Time to get up, sleepyheads! Time for Cadie to die and be reborn." He reached over and shook both of them.
James rolled over and mumbled, whining, "I don't wanna go to school mom." Cadie looked over at Hawk and narrowed her eyes. She then leaned over to Grand Slam. "James Jonathan Barney, If you're not out of my bed in five minutes, you will regret it, because I'm gonna kick you out and across the room."
Hawk can barely suppress a chuckle as he watches James launch himself from the bed, a panicked look on his face. Cadie doesn't even bother trying to hide it; she bursts into a gale of laughter. "Sometimes it's good to have feet that never warm up and are always ice cold."
"Okay you two, it's time to pack up and go over to the church where we'll be having your funeral, Spitfyre. James, Chuckles has the tuxes and everything, and also the dress and whatever else you need, Cadence. Have you decided what you'll be wearing in your coffin?"
"Yes, Sir, my BDU's. I figure that they're a symbol of the times I was happiest and most content with myself."
"Good choice. Sharon said that she would help you with the dress and everything, after the funeral."
"That's fine. As long as somebody doesn't get any ideas about peeking..." Cadie threatens James, shooting down his thought of spying before it was fully formed.
She rapidly gets dressed, and looks in the mirror, trying to make up her mind, "Let's see, should I wear it up or leave it down? Hmm."
"Wear what up or leave what down?" Hawk asked.
"My hair," Cadie answers.
"Come here," James requested, "And bring your brush and a few rubber bands. You can wear it the way that most of us consider our favorite. Allison and Courtney taught me how to do it one night when you were off base for some reason or other." He sat on the corner of the bed and patted the space between his long, muscular legs, indicating that he wanted her to sit there. When she does, he takes her brush and lovingly begins to brush her hair, separating it and braiding a swatch on either side of her head and pulling them back with the rest of her hair into a ponytail, letting it flow in soft waves down her back. He then pulls her back against him and nuzzles her neck, letting her know how excited and ready he was for this day.
He then forces himself to get up and goes to get a quick shower and made sure that the door was partially open enough so that she could watch him shaving.
Cadie looked over at Hawk and shrugged, "Cocky little bugger ain't he?"
"That he is, Lieutenant Tolliver. But you just can't help but love him, right?"
"Unfortunately," she replied, winking.
James stops shaving long enough to stick his tongue out at the pair, not knowing that that was what Cadie was waiting for. She scoops up a towel and throws it at him, hitting him full in the face. She was unrepentant until she saw the blood.
She gets up from where she is sitting on the corner of the bed and grabs the towel, wetting the tip and tenderly wiping the blood off of the nick on his cheek. She then stretches up and kisses it lovingly. "I'm sorry," she whispers.
Hawk looks at his watch and discovers that it's almost time for them to leave. James rummages through his closet and grabs his dress blues, deciding not to use the traditional black suit for the funeral or the tux for the wedding.
He grabs Cadie by the back of her pants, picks her up, giving her a wedgie, and softly tosses her onto the bed, racing back into the bathroom and locking the door behind him, preferring to keep at least one surprise for their wedding night.
Lifeline knocks on the door and is admitted by Hawk. He immediately starts to work, bandaging Cadie's arm. "This will break away if you have to use it, but it will give you good support, either way. If you need the rest of us to jump in, all you have to do is yell, and we'll attack. Especially me."
"Thanks," Cadie replies swinging a hooded cloak over her shoulders and latching it around her neck.
They leave before most of the Joes are awake and can see them. Even if they had seen them, they would never recognize Cadie as she had the hood thrown over her head, hiding her identity.
They make it to the church with no problem. Cadie, Sharon and Chuckles take the dress and everything into one of the rooms opening off of the vestibule, while Hawk, James, Mainframe, Short Fuze, Ronnie and Lifeline take their burdens into another one.
Cadie walks into the sanctuary. "Wow! Where's Recondo when you need him? It's a blooming jungle in here," she laughs. James and the rest of the guys agree with her.
The group walks up to an empty coffin with pale green satin lining. Nobody says a word as James and Eric silently pick Cadence up and put her body into it. Mainframe attaches the image inducer, and it looks like she actually is dead. Short Fuze sneaks out to run to the florist and pick up the bouquet that James had asked him to pick up. He figured that it was for lying on Cadie's "body" when she was in the coffin. When he gets back, he sticks the box containing the bouquet in the room with the dress and everything following James's orders.
James leans over and hands her a single red rose, knowing that she will use it for distraction if nothing else. She lays the rose on her chest, her right fist clenched on top of it, and her left hand hiding the fist on top of it. He kisses her deeply, passionately.
"You realize that I'm a lousy actor, right?" he asks her.
"Just make a mental roll call of all the Joes that have been lost so far in battle. You won't have to act," she whispers back to him, hearing some of the Joes beginning to arrive. Pretty soon, the church is overflowing with all of the people. Cadence is astonished by the amount of people, and then she noticed the little group coming in the door; Taffy is talking with the rest of their family. Easily reading her lips, Cadie puts Plan B into action. They were actually smiling and joking about her!
"Chuckles, Grand Slam, Plan B! The witch just gave away our original plan. She's next on the hit parade," she growls softly into the hidden mike on the pillow next to her throat.
"Easy, Little one. We've got you covered," Lifeline stated, coming online with Mainframe.
Hawk steps forward to the podium, watching as each Joe tries to comfort James and Taffy, as well as the rest of the bunch. After all of them are seated, he begins to speak.
"Ladies and Gentlemen, Friends and Family, we're here this morning to say goodbye to one of our own. One who was taken from us too early by persons unknown," he says, his voice catching. "First Lieutenant Cadence Felicity Tolliver was one of the best demolitions and weaponry experts that I have ever had the privilege of knowing. She could just look at a structure and tell how much and which kind of explosive would be right for the job. She also devised and made her own explosives. She was the only female that I have ever known who could handle the tow rig, when it was needed. The only two others who were qualified on it were men. On the personal side, she was one of the most innocent people that I've ever known. She was the sweetest, kindest, and one of the most beautiful people on the base. If anybody needed something done, or advice, they would invariably go to her, because she knew what she was talking about and she knew the limits of her abilities. She never turned down a chance to help anyone. She was always coming up with ways and devices to help make life easier on us. She had a lot of pain to deal with, and joining us was one of the best ways to help deal with it, or so she said." His voice breaks and a single tear rolls down his cheek. "She was taken from this world way too soon. She told me a couple of weeks ago that her life was just beginning to get on track and that she was finally getting to where she could be happy again. When she first joined, she made CPO Willoughby look like a very outgoing person." Everybody started laughing, knowing that Deep Six was known for his reclusiveness, but realizing that what Hawk had said was true.
"I soon realized that while she may be slow to make friends, once she became your friend, she was a friend for life. That's why, when she was accused of being a double agent, she felt the betrayal of the real traitor so deeply. May the Lord have mercy on the killers' souls, because Cadence sure won't have any." He takes a deep breath, willing away the pain and heartache.
"When she first became a member of the unit, the rest of the Heavy Artillery guys took her under their wings. They managed to draw her out of her shell, and for that I'm totally grateful. Just hours before she was killed, she and Captain James Barney made it official that they were a couple. I never thought that I would ever see that happen. Towards the end of her life, she was as happy as anyone had ever seen her. I saw her truly smile for the first time, and I saw her content for the first time ever. Of course, it was over a webcam, but who is counting? I can only hope she felt that happiness as her final memory when she finally gave up on her life."
He steps down and finds his seat as Grand Slam gets up, swallowing hard. "That sweet little girl was the most beautiful woman that I had ever met, even with the scar that she thought made her especially ugly. Hideous was the word that she used. She thought that she was hideous. I was always taught that true beauty comes from the inside, and she proved the truth of that statement. Cadie was the kindest, most gentle person on the base. Always ready to do a favor for you. She was also the heavy artillery's version of James Bond's Q. She could come up with things that made life easier for a lot of us, and she was glad to do it. I never once saw her as anything other than sweet and kind. Until, that is, she was pushed past a certain point. After that, it was sheer terror to watch her go ballistic. I saw it only twice; once by a person, and once by a letter that she had received. I once watched her punch through the concrete block wall of the machine shop barehanded. She broke her hands in many places, but she was so upset that she didn't feel the pain. I helped her to the infirmary after that incident and I was the one that was shaken up, not her. When she finally told me the reason, I could have sat there and cried along with her because no child should ever have to deal with the feelings that she did that night." He pauses and takes a deep breath, tears filling his eyes.
"That night, I held her for the first time. She seemed so much like a fragile little child that needed the support of their parent instead of a fully-grown woman who could take in and dish out serious pain when the occasion called for it. Somewhere along the line, while I was working with her, testing weapons that she had built in her spare time, for she was a master weaponsmith in her spare time, I fell deeply in love with her. I put my chain around her neck and claimed her for my exclusive girlfriend the night before she was shot and killed." His voice breaks and he swallows hard, tears beginning to spill down his cheeks.
"I'd never prayed so hard in my life as I did while she was in surgery just after she was shot, but I guess God needed some demolition done in heaven and took the best of the best for the job. I'll always miss her, her laughing eyes, her little telltale mischievous smile, and it will be hard around the machine shop, always listening to hear her listening to the radio or maybe singing while she's working, and always missing that rowdy banter that we always had, not to mention the practical jokes she used to pull."
Each Joe gets up and says a few things about Cadie and why they liked her so much. Taffy is one of the last.
As she sits back down, she surreptitiously reaches into her pocket and readies a grenade to throw at the coffin. She thinks nobody noticed, but there were a few that had been watching for this sort of thing.
She stands up and yells, "You lucky little bitch! You should have died years ago. I should have been the one with all the glory, not you! I should have gotten that promotion, not you. You were so obsessed with devising those little doodads for the wildasses, when you should have been doing things for me. You should have been doing my job for me, but no, you couldn't be bothered. I really didn't realize until now how much I really hate you." She cocks her arm back to throw the grenade and it's suddenly taken from her.
Chuckles reaches forward and slips it furtively out of her hand, handing it to Mainframe and getting ready for the whole situation to bust loose. Short Fuze is manning the door, and when he sees Mainframe's signal, he slings the doors wide open and flattens his body on the floor as Mainframe pitches the grenade through them as hard as he can.
The grenade detonates uselessly outside, and knowing that she is caught, Taffy tries to get up and run, but she is hemmed in on all sides. Steeler stands up, blocking her way. She turns, and Flash is there, stopping her. She tries to jump to the row ahead of them and Beach Head blocks her; she tries to go over the back of her chair, and Chuckles is there to arrest her.
"I knew that Cadie could never be the traitor, because of her personality, and besides, only one person could have framed her so well and so often, and only one person had access to more of the stolen information than she did," Chuckles told her.
After the furor dies down, each person goes to say his or her final goodbyes. James makes sure that he is the last of the Joes, and bends down, kissing her on the lips as a signal that the next up was her family. She opened her eyes a slit, not enough for someone to tell that they were open, but enough to where she could see.
"You lousy, lazy bitch," the woman hissed at her, bent over like she was crying over the body or something. "You just couldn't die, could you? That cut and then the stabbing should have killed you, but no, you had to be lucky and survive. I knew that you were going to be more beautiful than I was and I didn't want the competition for men's affections, so I tried to put an end to the problem before it became a problem. You wouldn't do a damn thing for those people you should have been doing it for, your family. You were supposed to be Gina's slave, but you wouldn't do a damn thing that she told you to. You went ahead and did just as you wanted too. No wonder you didn't have any friends, you're too fat, ugly, lazy, selfish and stupid. You don't deserve to look this good, even now. I know you're faking. My truthful little scout told me," she said, straightening up and raising a knife.
"Now!" Cadie yells to Mainframe. He shuts off the image inducer. Her eyes pop fully open and she sits up, grabbing the woman just below the wrist with the knife. "I have more friends than you'll ever have a chance to meet. And for your information, they don't think I'm anything other than a human."
Most of the females scream as she jumps out of the coffin, banging her knees really hard, falling and rolling on her good shoulder, gasping with pain and wrestles the knife away, throwing it and burying it in an unused chair in the back of the church, narrowly whizzing it between Leatherneck and Wetsuit, effectively stopping their argument. The woman slaps her, and Cadie backhands her, knocking her a good six foot back. The woman's husband jumps in, swinging a knife in one hand and a gun in the other, and her sons also get into the act.
"Um, guys, Could I have a little assistance here?" Cadie asks, grinning evilly, backpedaling to gain some maneuvering room.
The youngest son tries to go after her, and Lifeline sticks his foot out, tripping the man. He gets up and starts trying to hit him. Lifeline yawns and waits for an opening, and when he sees it, roundhouse kicks the man in the chin, knocking him out and breaking his jaw. The kick is so forceful that it flips the guy three rows back into a group of Joes who all reach to hold him down, away from the fight.
Hawk takes on the oldest son. They keep exchanging punches until, "Aw the heck with this," Hawk growls, and quits pulling his punches, knocking the other guy out with a powerful right hook.
Grand Slam steps between the remaining man and his fiancée, Short Fuze comes up and steps up to his side, and Flash takes his other side. They hear a ripping sound and realize that it is the bandages that Lifeline had put on Cadie's shoulder. She reaches up and taps James on the shoulder. "Go for the ribs. He'll go down quickly." He nods.
The woman comes from an angle and attacks. Cadie blocks the swing with her forearm, gritting her teeth in pain at the contact, feints back and sweeps her leg around, low, knocking the woman to the floor and causing her to hit her head. Mainframe comes up and grabs the woman in a bear hug, holding her until Law can get to them.
James squares off against his opponent. He feints a right hook, and slams the guy in the ribs with his left foot. The fight is suddenly over as the man sags, injured once again in his broken ribs.
James looks behind him where Cadie is bent over catching her breath. She looks up at him and grins, "That's the most fun I've had in a long time." He pulls her to him and kisses her temple. Even with her left eye turning purple and a few other places beginning to show signs of bruising, she was still the most beautiful woman in the world, to him, at least.
"Go get dressed baby. I want to marry you as soon as we can get ready. Mainframe, can you please explain to the rest of the group what we're doing and why?"
Never before had he seen her with the look of utter contentment that she had on her face now. Even when she slept, she still never looked content or happy. She always looked as if she were in some kind of pain. He made a mental note to take Grand Slam off to the side and let him know just what he had done. He'd brought to life something that everyone else had given up for dead.
"Hey," he pronounced. "Time to get up, sleepyheads! Time for Cadie to die and be reborn." He reached over and shook both of them.
James rolled over and mumbled, whining, "I don't wanna go to school mom." Cadie looked over at Hawk and narrowed her eyes. She then leaned over to Grand Slam. "James Jonathan Barney, If you're not out of my bed in five minutes, you will regret it, because I'm gonna kick you out and across the room."
Hawk can barely suppress a chuckle as he watches James launch himself from the bed, a panicked look on his face. Cadie doesn't even bother trying to hide it; she bursts into a gale of laughter. "Sometimes it's good to have feet that never warm up and are always ice cold."
"Okay you two, it's time to pack up and go over to the church where we'll be having your funeral, Spitfyre. James, Chuckles has the tuxes and everything, and also the dress and whatever else you need, Cadence. Have you decided what you'll be wearing in your coffin?"
"Yes, Sir, my BDU's. I figure that they're a symbol of the times I was happiest and most content with myself."
"Good choice. Sharon said that she would help you with the dress and everything, after the funeral."
"That's fine. As long as somebody doesn't get any ideas about peeking..." Cadie threatens James, shooting down his thought of spying before it was fully formed.
She rapidly gets dressed, and looks in the mirror, trying to make up her mind, "Let's see, should I wear it up or leave it down? Hmm."
"Wear what up or leave what down?" Hawk asked.
"My hair," Cadie answers.
"Come here," James requested, "And bring your brush and a few rubber bands. You can wear it the way that most of us consider our favorite. Allison and Courtney taught me how to do it one night when you were off base for some reason or other." He sat on the corner of the bed and patted the space between his long, muscular legs, indicating that he wanted her to sit there. When she does, he takes her brush and lovingly begins to brush her hair, separating it and braiding a swatch on either side of her head and pulling them back with the rest of her hair into a ponytail, letting it flow in soft waves down her back. He then pulls her back against him and nuzzles her neck, letting her know how excited and ready he was for this day.
He then forces himself to get up and goes to get a quick shower and made sure that the door was partially open enough so that she could watch him shaving.
Cadie looked over at Hawk and shrugged, "Cocky little bugger ain't he?"
"That he is, Lieutenant Tolliver. But you just can't help but love him, right?"
"Unfortunately," she replied, winking.
James stops shaving long enough to stick his tongue out at the pair, not knowing that that was what Cadie was waiting for. She scoops up a towel and throws it at him, hitting him full in the face. She was unrepentant until she saw the blood.
She gets up from where she is sitting on the corner of the bed and grabs the towel, wetting the tip and tenderly wiping the blood off of the nick on his cheek. She then stretches up and kisses it lovingly. "I'm sorry," she whispers.
Hawk looks at his watch and discovers that it's almost time for them to leave. James rummages through his closet and grabs his dress blues, deciding not to use the traditional black suit for the funeral or the tux for the wedding.
He grabs Cadie by the back of her pants, picks her up, giving her a wedgie, and softly tosses her onto the bed, racing back into the bathroom and locking the door behind him, preferring to keep at least one surprise for their wedding night.
Lifeline knocks on the door and is admitted by Hawk. He immediately starts to work, bandaging Cadie's arm. "This will break away if you have to use it, but it will give you good support, either way. If you need the rest of us to jump in, all you have to do is yell, and we'll attack. Especially me."
"Thanks," Cadie replies swinging a hooded cloak over her shoulders and latching it around her neck.
They leave before most of the Joes are awake and can see them. Even if they had seen them, they would never recognize Cadie as she had the hood thrown over her head, hiding her identity.
They make it to the church with no problem. Cadie, Sharon and Chuckles take the dress and everything into one of the rooms opening off of the vestibule, while Hawk, James, Mainframe, Short Fuze, Ronnie and Lifeline take their burdens into another one.
Cadie walks into the sanctuary. "Wow! Where's Recondo when you need him? It's a blooming jungle in here," she laughs. James and the rest of the guys agree with her.
The group walks up to an empty coffin with pale green satin lining. Nobody says a word as James and Eric silently pick Cadence up and put her body into it. Mainframe attaches the image inducer, and it looks like she actually is dead. Short Fuze sneaks out to run to the florist and pick up the bouquet that James had asked him to pick up. He figured that it was for lying on Cadie's "body" when she was in the coffin. When he gets back, he sticks the box containing the bouquet in the room with the dress and everything following James's orders.
James leans over and hands her a single red rose, knowing that she will use it for distraction if nothing else. She lays the rose on her chest, her right fist clenched on top of it, and her left hand hiding the fist on top of it. He kisses her deeply, passionately.
"You realize that I'm a lousy actor, right?" he asks her.
"Just make a mental roll call of all the Joes that have been lost so far in battle. You won't have to act," she whispers back to him, hearing some of the Joes beginning to arrive. Pretty soon, the church is overflowing with all of the people. Cadence is astonished by the amount of people, and then she noticed the little group coming in the door; Taffy is talking with the rest of their family. Easily reading her lips, Cadie puts Plan B into action. They were actually smiling and joking about her!
"Chuckles, Grand Slam, Plan B! The witch just gave away our original plan. She's next on the hit parade," she growls softly into the hidden mike on the pillow next to her throat.
"Easy, Little one. We've got you covered," Lifeline stated, coming online with Mainframe.
Hawk steps forward to the podium, watching as each Joe tries to comfort James and Taffy, as well as the rest of the bunch. After all of them are seated, he begins to speak.
"Ladies and Gentlemen, Friends and Family, we're here this morning to say goodbye to one of our own. One who was taken from us too early by persons unknown," he says, his voice catching. "First Lieutenant Cadence Felicity Tolliver was one of the best demolitions and weaponry experts that I have ever had the privilege of knowing. She could just look at a structure and tell how much and which kind of explosive would be right for the job. She also devised and made her own explosives. She was the only female that I have ever known who could handle the tow rig, when it was needed. The only two others who were qualified on it were men. On the personal side, she was one of the most innocent people that I've ever known. She was the sweetest, kindest, and one of the most beautiful people on the base. If anybody needed something done, or advice, they would invariably go to her, because she knew what she was talking about and she knew the limits of her abilities. She never turned down a chance to help anyone. She was always coming up with ways and devices to help make life easier on us. She had a lot of pain to deal with, and joining us was one of the best ways to help deal with it, or so she said." His voice breaks and a single tear rolls down his cheek. "She was taken from this world way too soon. She told me a couple of weeks ago that her life was just beginning to get on track and that she was finally getting to where she could be happy again. When she first joined, she made CPO Willoughby look like a very outgoing person." Everybody started laughing, knowing that Deep Six was known for his reclusiveness, but realizing that what Hawk had said was true.
"I soon realized that while she may be slow to make friends, once she became your friend, she was a friend for life. That's why, when she was accused of being a double agent, she felt the betrayal of the real traitor so deeply. May the Lord have mercy on the killers' souls, because Cadence sure won't have any." He takes a deep breath, willing away the pain and heartache.
"When she first became a member of the unit, the rest of the Heavy Artillery guys took her under their wings. They managed to draw her out of her shell, and for that I'm totally grateful. Just hours before she was killed, she and Captain James Barney made it official that they were a couple. I never thought that I would ever see that happen. Towards the end of her life, she was as happy as anyone had ever seen her. I saw her truly smile for the first time, and I saw her content for the first time ever. Of course, it was over a webcam, but who is counting? I can only hope she felt that happiness as her final memory when she finally gave up on her life."
He steps down and finds his seat as Grand Slam gets up, swallowing hard. "That sweet little girl was the most beautiful woman that I had ever met, even with the scar that she thought made her especially ugly. Hideous was the word that she used. She thought that she was hideous. I was always taught that true beauty comes from the inside, and she proved the truth of that statement. Cadie was the kindest, most gentle person on the base. Always ready to do a favor for you. She was also the heavy artillery's version of James Bond's Q. She could come up with things that made life easier for a lot of us, and she was glad to do it. I never once saw her as anything other than sweet and kind. Until, that is, she was pushed past a certain point. After that, it was sheer terror to watch her go ballistic. I saw it only twice; once by a person, and once by a letter that she had received. I once watched her punch through the concrete block wall of the machine shop barehanded. She broke her hands in many places, but she was so upset that she didn't feel the pain. I helped her to the infirmary after that incident and I was the one that was shaken up, not her. When she finally told me the reason, I could have sat there and cried along with her because no child should ever have to deal with the feelings that she did that night." He pauses and takes a deep breath, tears filling his eyes.
"That night, I held her for the first time. She seemed so much like a fragile little child that needed the support of their parent instead of a fully-grown woman who could take in and dish out serious pain when the occasion called for it. Somewhere along the line, while I was working with her, testing weapons that she had built in her spare time, for she was a master weaponsmith in her spare time, I fell deeply in love with her. I put my chain around her neck and claimed her for my exclusive girlfriend the night before she was shot and killed." His voice breaks and he swallows hard, tears beginning to spill down his cheeks.
"I'd never prayed so hard in my life as I did while she was in surgery just after she was shot, but I guess God needed some demolition done in heaven and took the best of the best for the job. I'll always miss her, her laughing eyes, her little telltale mischievous smile, and it will be hard around the machine shop, always listening to hear her listening to the radio or maybe singing while she's working, and always missing that rowdy banter that we always had, not to mention the practical jokes she used to pull."
Each Joe gets up and says a few things about Cadie and why they liked her so much. Taffy is one of the last.
As she sits back down, she surreptitiously reaches into her pocket and readies a grenade to throw at the coffin. She thinks nobody noticed, but there were a few that had been watching for this sort of thing.
She stands up and yells, "You lucky little bitch! You should have died years ago. I should have been the one with all the glory, not you! I should have gotten that promotion, not you. You were so obsessed with devising those little doodads for the wildasses, when you should have been doing things for me. You should have been doing my job for me, but no, you couldn't be bothered. I really didn't realize until now how much I really hate you." She cocks her arm back to throw the grenade and it's suddenly taken from her.
Chuckles reaches forward and slips it furtively out of her hand, handing it to Mainframe and getting ready for the whole situation to bust loose. Short Fuze is manning the door, and when he sees Mainframe's signal, he slings the doors wide open and flattens his body on the floor as Mainframe pitches the grenade through them as hard as he can.
The grenade detonates uselessly outside, and knowing that she is caught, Taffy tries to get up and run, but she is hemmed in on all sides. Steeler stands up, blocking her way. She turns, and Flash is there, stopping her. She tries to jump to the row ahead of them and Beach Head blocks her; she tries to go over the back of her chair, and Chuckles is there to arrest her.
"I knew that Cadie could never be the traitor, because of her personality, and besides, only one person could have framed her so well and so often, and only one person had access to more of the stolen information than she did," Chuckles told her.
After the furor dies down, each person goes to say his or her final goodbyes. James makes sure that he is the last of the Joes, and bends down, kissing her on the lips as a signal that the next up was her family. She opened her eyes a slit, not enough for someone to tell that they were open, but enough to where she could see.
"You lousy, lazy bitch," the woman hissed at her, bent over like she was crying over the body or something. "You just couldn't die, could you? That cut and then the stabbing should have killed you, but no, you had to be lucky and survive. I knew that you were going to be more beautiful than I was and I didn't want the competition for men's affections, so I tried to put an end to the problem before it became a problem. You wouldn't do a damn thing for those people you should have been doing it for, your family. You were supposed to be Gina's slave, but you wouldn't do a damn thing that she told you to. You went ahead and did just as you wanted too. No wonder you didn't have any friends, you're too fat, ugly, lazy, selfish and stupid. You don't deserve to look this good, even now. I know you're faking. My truthful little scout told me," she said, straightening up and raising a knife.
"Now!" Cadie yells to Mainframe. He shuts off the image inducer. Her eyes pop fully open and she sits up, grabbing the woman just below the wrist with the knife. "I have more friends than you'll ever have a chance to meet. And for your information, they don't think I'm anything other than a human."
Most of the females scream as she jumps out of the coffin, banging her knees really hard, falling and rolling on her good shoulder, gasping with pain and wrestles the knife away, throwing it and burying it in an unused chair in the back of the church, narrowly whizzing it between Leatherneck and Wetsuit, effectively stopping their argument. The woman slaps her, and Cadie backhands her, knocking her a good six foot back. The woman's husband jumps in, swinging a knife in one hand and a gun in the other, and her sons also get into the act.
"Um, guys, Could I have a little assistance here?" Cadie asks, grinning evilly, backpedaling to gain some maneuvering room.
The youngest son tries to go after her, and Lifeline sticks his foot out, tripping the man. He gets up and starts trying to hit him. Lifeline yawns and waits for an opening, and when he sees it, roundhouse kicks the man in the chin, knocking him out and breaking his jaw. The kick is so forceful that it flips the guy three rows back into a group of Joes who all reach to hold him down, away from the fight.
Hawk takes on the oldest son. They keep exchanging punches until, "Aw the heck with this," Hawk growls, and quits pulling his punches, knocking the other guy out with a powerful right hook.
Grand Slam steps between the remaining man and his fiancée, Short Fuze comes up and steps up to his side, and Flash takes his other side. They hear a ripping sound and realize that it is the bandages that Lifeline had put on Cadie's shoulder. She reaches up and taps James on the shoulder. "Go for the ribs. He'll go down quickly." He nods.
The woman comes from an angle and attacks. Cadie blocks the swing with her forearm, gritting her teeth in pain at the contact, feints back and sweeps her leg around, low, knocking the woman to the floor and causing her to hit her head. Mainframe comes up and grabs the woman in a bear hug, holding her until Law can get to them.
James squares off against his opponent. He feints a right hook, and slams the guy in the ribs with his left foot. The fight is suddenly over as the man sags, injured once again in his broken ribs.
James looks behind him where Cadie is bent over catching her breath. She looks up at him and grins, "That's the most fun I've had in a long time." He pulls her to him and kisses her temple. Even with her left eye turning purple and a few other places beginning to show signs of bruising, she was still the most beautiful woman in the world, to him, at least.
"Go get dressed baby. I want to marry you as soon as we can get ready. Mainframe, can you please explain to the rest of the group what we're doing and why?"