Justin

The definition of relief? Getting a phone call from Jhondie saying she was going to be leaving and would I mind picking her up. Yeah, yeah, we had talked several times and she had said everything was fine, better than she could have ever hoped, but I wouldn't really feel like she was safe until she was back in LA. She had promised me, but I knew her too well. She had done something that I was going to have a heart attack when I heard about it.

"You're mom's worried about you," I said when she called to tell me she was about to run her checklist and leave. "Kayla told her you were gone and I told her Zack had asked for you to meet him."

I was waiting for her to get pissed. Instead she sounded okay with it. "Good," she said. Okay, was that an 'I'm going to kill you' good or a 'good' good? It's hard to tell with women. "Why don't you have her meet us at our apartment? That way I can tell all the details once and not a bunch of times."

I hesitated, a horrible thought entering my head. Was this the real Jhondie? I know people say that in jest all the time, but she had been playing with Manticore lately. I wouldn't put anything past those people to have a clone or something. Someone close, but not close enough to know little details like how mad she was at her mother. "You sure?" I asked hesitantly.

"I'm sure," she replied. "I know, it sounds weird, but I've had time to think the last couple of days, and I need to deal with it instead of pretending it doesn't exist, you know?"

That's what I had been trying to tell her for months. Knowing her, Zack told her to ignore it, so of course she was going to do the opposite and take care of the problem. "I'll let her know," I promised. We said our good-byes and then hung up. I did as I said and called her mom and let her know. Ashley was confused as well at the sudden change of heart, but there wasn't anything I could add. Jhondie was just being, well, Jhondie. She was, without a doubt, one of the most stubborn people that I had ever met in my life.

Luckily, she had given me time to make my meeting with Eyes Only. We had some things to go over that Nikki had submitted. Good stuff about police taking bribes to ignore major drug trafficking. She was still annoyed that I was going over everything, but hey, that was part of the deal. I wasn't going to give the boss anything that wasn't complete. I had my reputation with him on the line. She was good, no doubt, but there had been a few little detail things that she had missed and I needed to fill in before a hack could be done.

I turned on the computer and checked the time. I didn't think I was going to have to cut it short to be able to pick up Jhondie on time, but if I had to, I had to. A few minutes later, Eyes Only came on. I opened up my notes on what I wanted to go over. No time for chitchat today.

"Hey," I greeted quickly. "Okay, I found those source files that you needed to fill in that gap from Nikki's report. It's in the upload, so that shouldn't be a problem. She wanted to know if you had an ETA for a hack though. I think she wants to make sure she can tape them."

He was just watching me for a moment, like he was expecting something. "Problem?" I asked, more sharply than I intended to. I really didn't have time if he was pissed about something we had done. Not that he should have a reason to be pissed anyways. He had gotten some damn good stuff lately.

"Should there be?" he replied.

I bit back a sharp retort. "I'm low on time today," I said quickly. "I have to pick someone up soon, personal business." I would have sworn that the man was trying to hold back a laugh. Granted, all I could see were his eyes, but it was like there was this big joke that I wasn't being let in on.

"The next hack there is going to be in about two days," he finally said, still sounding amused about something. "But I need some clean up on the immigrant smuggling story."

I blew out a breath. This was more like it. "Okay," I said, getting out my notes. "I received your questions on that, and the border area is about sixteen miles west of the checkpoint." I would have sworn the man smirked at me, but he got back down to business and we were able to get everything taken care of rather quickly. Most of it was detail work. Nitpicky stuff, but essential to him. Everything had to be documented and proven before he would do a hack on it. That was the essence of Eyes Only. I had thought many times in the last couple of years what I would be like if I could have my own publication that wasn't government censored, and these were the kinds of standards that would be upheld. No speculation would be allowed. Everything would be documented and proven before it went to print so that when the story came out, nobody would be able to decry it and say there was no proof. Justice would be served because nobody could wiggle out and hide behind powerful friends.

As soon as we were done, I called Ashley to let her know that Jhondie was coming home and told her we were going to meet her over at her house. Jhondie wanted to talk and tell us all what had happened. She was as confused as I was over the sudden change of heart, but she wasn't about to complain. Though I was really wondering if Jhondie had accepted things or not. She hadn't wanted to hear about it, but Dad and I talked more than once. He and Ashley were still together and still keeping it quiet. They were both happy with the arrangement. I couldn't see how you could care about someone and want to keep it a secret, but Dad had just laughed and said that he wasn't about to attempt to explain it. I couldn't complain though. I did not want to see them together like that. I could deal with knowing things were going on, but to see it would just be weird.

I got to the airport and within a few minutes caught sight of our plane coming downwind for a final approach. She made the last turn and floated the plane right down the centerline. Ten minutes later, the plane was pulling onto the tarmac in front of the hanger. Jhondie shut down the engines and the practically leapt out of the plane and into my arms.

I didn't realize until then that I was able to start breathing easily again when she was with me. I stopped kissing her for a minute, made sure she wasn't bruised, scarred or broken anywhere and then pulled her back into another kiss. I didn't care that the cast was keeping me off-balance either. I'm sure half of what we were doing right there was against some FAA regulation, but I had been worried as hell about her for the last several days, and I wasn't going to let her go with just a peck on the cheek.

Not that she was protesting either, I might add, but finally we pulled away from each other long enough for me to get a really good look at her. She was beaming. You can't fake that kind of happy. She grinned, wiggled against me, and whispered, "I'm going with you are happy to see me."

I laughed, and swung her around. Tricky to do on one leg, but I managed. "I just hope you enjoyed the last time you're going anywhere without me."

She gave me another kiss. "As soon as you're out of that thing, we've got a little trip to take."

My eyebrows rose in question. She just laughed. "Let me put it to you like this. Bryn was the smallest surprise the last few days." I was ready to grill her, but she got free and finished putting the plane to order, refusing to answer another question. I had gone from not wanting to ever let her be a breath away from me to wanting to strangle her in less than five minutes. But damn, I was glad to have her home.

On the way over to her mother's house, Jhondie insisted I tell her what I had been up to for the last couple of days. I wanted to talk to her about what she had been doing, but she kept swearing she just didn't want to repeat the story again, and it was too long to tell during the ride. Yeah right. She was so thrilled with something, she could hardly contain herself. It was that 'I know something you don't know' thing that little kids do. If we hadn't been in the car, I would have tickled it out of her.

We got to her mother's and went in. Jhondie's playfulness shut off like a spigot the minute she walked in and saw her mother and sister. Ashley stood and her and Jhondie just stared at each other for a minute. And then Jhondie walked to her mother and gave her a big hug.

I think all of us took a deep breath then. No bloodshed to be committed. This was a good thing. I had come up closer, and heard Jhondie whisper, "I'm still creeped. That's not going away. But I can try to deal."

Ashley sniffed, trying not to burst into tears in front of Kayla. Kay was looking rather thoughtful, and I had a feeling that maybe Kat had figured a few things out on her own and let Kay in on it. Kat had the life experience to understand tensions like these. Ashley and Jhondie hugged for a long time and then Jhondie's stomach let out a loud growl.

Jhondie stepped back, blushing. "I wanted to get home sooner, so all I had was coffee for breakfast today," she said.

I mock gasped. "You poor thing. You must be on the verge of collapse. But you're still going to tell us what the hell happened."

She laughed and looked at us. "Okay, quick version and then details over food. Went to Seattle, met up with Zack, met up with my sister Max, got the details, ran to Manticore, got Bryn, back to Seattle, got Zack back together with his wife, hung out with Eyes Only for a day, came home. So, how does Chinese sound to you guys for lunch?"

That look of absolute glee said she knew exactly what kind of a bomb she had just dropped on all of us. And as much as we knew she had planned it, all three of us stood there, stupefied.

"Went to Manticore?" her mother gasped.

"Hung out with whom?" I demanded.

"Got Zack back with his wife?" Kayla cried.

Jhondie grinned. "Manticore's medical, not training facility. Limited defenses. Pretty easy stuff. Eyes Only. Guy we've done a lot of stuff for in the past. Max knew who he was and introduced us. Great guy. Good cook too. And I'm really sorry Kay, but I had to. She's having his baby."

Ashley looked down, her fingertips pressed against her temples. "I don't care where we go for lunch," she said, "but it better have a bar."

"Second that," I muttered.

"I think I deserve one too," Kayla sniffed.

Jhondie laughed and grabbed the car keys. "Come on. I can't wait to tell you all about what might be the beginning of the end of Manticore."

I blinked. "Are you serious?"

She looked at me directly. "Alicia, the one hauling around Zack's kid is an X-6. She went rogue. Just another '09." The playfulness was gone and there was dead serious triumph glittering in her eyes. Another '09. I knew that expression. It was the one those guys in Boston used. Oh my God, I thought. They found a way. There were a lot of details that Jhondie wouldn't go into around her mother and sister, but later, she would tell me. The cute and funny stories would be out in the open. No wonder she wanted to wait to explain. Somehow, someway, they had found a chink in the armor, and figured out how to use it.

"You're kidding about the Eyes Only thing aren't you?" I asked.

Again there was that glitter that said she was putting on a show for the family. "I had you going for a minute though!"

I shook my head. "Ashley, I'll buy the first round." They all laughed and we started to leave.

Jhondie was standing behind me and leaned up, whispering in my ear, "Logan is actually Max's boyfriend. And he really can cook." I paused and turned to look into her grinning face. "I invited them to the wedding," she said. "Hope you don't mind."

I could only let out a little laugh. It was the only way to express everything I was feeling right then. "We've got a lot of talking to do tonight, don't we?"

Her smiled faded a little, but it still hovered about her lips. "We won, Justin," she said very softly. "I didn't think it was ever going to be possible to really win. There was only one way but it happened. And we did." She looked a little shocked, like it hadn't really sunk in yet. "We really won, Justin. Not all the way yet, but in a few more years, it's going to really be over."

I hugged her. I couldn't imagine what it felt like for her to have a light at the end of the tunnel finally. To know that all of her dreams that she had thought were impossible might actually not be fantasy after all. We were embarking into a whole new world, new territory to cover, but we could do it.

No matter how bad the nightmare, eventually, the sleeper must awake.