Opti ;)
Sara walked through the front door, pleased enough that the house was still standing. She knew Carlos wasn't a fan of strangers, and leaving him in charge of Jack was a fairly dangerous idea at best. He was as protective of her as she was of him, and that wasn't ending anytime soon. But, he was a good judge of people, even as young as he was, and she was sure they were both fine. Really, she was confident.
Hearing voices, she walked into the kitchen. Jack was seated at the table opposite Carlos, playing a card game. Carlos was laughing at Jack, and Jack was smiling sheepishly as he pushed a pile of tortilla chips to Carlos' side of the table. Sara smiled as she entered the room.
"I thought I told you to be nice to Jack, he's our guest. Go easy on him" Carlos laughed again, as he got a hug from his mother. An empty bag of tortilla chips was on the counter, and the entirety of the contents appeared to be held by Carlos.
"I did. It was only blackjack." Sara laughed this time, and Jack gave a small grin.
"I was going easy, letting him get some confidence. That's all."
Carlos smirked, "Right, and I'm going on 40." Jack rolled his eyes. Sara was slightly more then thrilled. Carlos seemed to have accepted Jack, and they were getting along great. They were already joking around and being sarcastic, 'I mean, in a guy's book that's gotta be, basically, best friends.'
She was also surprised at Jack. She didn't know how well he would be able to interact with a kid, but he seemed to be handling it fine. He was relaxed and at ease with Carlos, well, relaxed for Jack anyway.
Soon, she had dinner cooked and they ate. Jack listened while Carlos told stories from school, and what he'd done that day. As it turned out, he was quite bright, and already ahead a year. Jack noted mentally that he only talked about classes, and not recesses or friends, but decided against mentioning it. Then they got on the subject of sports, and he could barely keep up. Carlos seemed to be an avid sports fan and Jack listened attentively as he chattered excitedly about his favourite teams. He'd also learned that Carlos was quite the card shark, and he'd been lucky to only lose tortilla chips.
They got up to clear the table, and Jack stiffened. He'd almost forgotten about his neck and ribs, a painful mistake. Slowly sinking back into his chair, he closed his eyes, dealing with, and releasing the pain. When he opened his eyes again, Sara was sitting in front of him and Carlos was nowhere to be seen.
"Jack?" He ducked his head as she tried to catch his eye, and mumbled under his breath that he was fine.
"Right," she muttered sarcastically, "I think you need to go back to bed now."
"No, I'm fine, really. It's just when I get up, or move to quick. I just forgot for a second, that's all."
"Jack, stop acting like this is nothing. You could have a head injury... or broken ribs! This is serious!"
"NO!" To late, he realized how harsh he'd been and lowered his voice. He knew he could deal with the injuries just fine, he'd dealt with much worse. The only problem was convincing other people he could do it. And seeing how he was slightly more than tired, he was getting a little irritated.
"Look, I'm sorry, I just... I'm kinda used to being more... independant... than this. Okay. I'm sorry." She looked at him warily before nodding.
"Fine you wanta be independant, you get yourself to bed all by yourself. That independant enough for ya?" She was joking now, and he smiled slightly. He got up and walked slowly through the door way. The first time he had been through here he hadn't looked around, he was too busy tring to convince Carlos he was fine. Now he glanced around what appeared to be a small living room. It had a small tv, a chair, and a small couch. It took Jack a minute to process the blankets strewn across the couch. She had obviously slept there the night before, at least for a little while. He turned around to find her watching him.
"I should go back to my place. I can take care of myself, I don't-" She went from looking curious to panicked. Holding up her hands she moved betwen him and he exit.
"Okay, there's independant, the there's crazy. That's crazy."
"No, I'll be fine-"
"Jack, what's your problem, you were fine with staying here a few minutes ago. What's wrong?" She dollowed his uneasy gaze into the living room, and noticed the blankets.
"I didn't realize I was putting you out, I don't want to be a problem or anything."
She shook her head slightly "Jack, she said with as much fear as she could muster, YOU ARE STAYING HERE! Get over it."
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Sara woke up in the middle of the night and loked around in the darkness. Rolling over she tried to go back to sleep. Just as she moved, a low moan surprised her. She waited, thinking she might have been dreaming, then she heard it again. She got off the couch, moving slowly through the house, going to see what was wrong. A few seconds later she realized the sound was coming from her room, and she opened the door slightly.
Jack was writhing slowly in the middle of the bed, and she noted the sweat glistening off his forehead. He twisted to the side and gritted his teeth. Sara moved closer to the bed, not sure what to do. He was obviously having a nightmare, but she was curious. Something that could scare that man, she felt was something scary indeed.
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When Jack woke the following morning, he immediately began to appreciate how tender his ribs really were. He could sit up on his own now, but the five extra minutes it took to change his shirt gave him the indication that maybe he wasn't quite up to his usual fitness level yet. He grabbed his bag and got up slowly. He found he could move okay, as long as he didn't twist or look around much. It took him a while but he'd gotten both shoes on without bending over and started for the front door. He passed silently through the house, with barely the squeak of a floorboard. As he got to the door way of the living room, he paused noticing Sara was still asleep on the couch. She was curled in an old blanket and looked so peaceful that Jack could barely remember a time he had felt like that. Shaking his head quickly, he moved towards the door, careful to make sure it didn't squeak as it shut behind him.
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Jack moved a short distance from the house, sitting down slowly at a nearby bench. He swung his bag off his shoulder, and began to dig through it. He got to the bottom before he found what he was looking for. The small brown case matched fairly well with the bag, and was about the size of his hand. He brought it out, dropping the shoulder bag to the ground. The container appeared to be made of three sections, and made of metal. He twisted top of the container clockwise, then counter-clockwise, then twisted the middle piece and pulled the container open. A smalll cellphone fell out, and Jack turned it on immediately. As it charged up, he scanned the area getting his first good look at it. The houses were a little ramshackled and worn, but there was a small playset in the front yard of a neighbour, and Jack gave a small grin. No one was up yet and the street was deserted, but he had heard children playing in the few hours he had been awake during the day, and now he knew where they were from.
The cellphone beeped it's alertness, and Jack refocused quickly. He dialed the only number the phone had ever been used for and waited. After three rings Jack was about to hang up before the phone clicked in his ear.
"It's me." Jack wasted no time with formalities, as the call never lasted more than a minute and a half.
"You're late, are you okay?" The receiving voice was worried, and Jack could hear the concern hundreds of miles away.
"I'm fine, had a small accident, got off track. Couldn't call yesterday." The ritualistic, every month phone call, had been established as a way to alert Jack should the fact ever arise that he was alive. He hadn't missed a scheudueled time until now, which he knew only increased the stress the receiver felt, but that couldn't be helped.
"Jack we found a problem. I don't think anyone thinks you're alive, but there was someone that hacked my system the other day. They definitely got into the area that had your fake autopsy report. I don't know if you're still safe. I don't think they looked at it, but I thought you'd want to know." Jack brain cleared as the life he was trained for reasserted itself.
"Okay, from now on the phone wil be on constantly. If anything, and I mean anything, develops you call me immediately!"
"Well, no kidding, I'm not just going to leave you out there while a bunch of bad guys tries to come and kill you am I." The voice showed the indignation of being told something that was just sooo obvious.
"Chloe! Just call me, okay."
"Fine, Jack. Anything else?" Jack sughed as the conversation came to its normal conclusion.
"How are they?" Chloe sighed again, before reporting what she did everytime he called.
"They're fine Jack. Audrey's in D.C. right now, and Kim's still got that new job. They're fine." Relief passed through the phone signal as two months of worry was slightly relieved. Jack allowed himself a moment of joy at the resilience of the two people he cared about most. He looked at his watch as time got close to dangerous.
"Alright, I'll call you in two months from today. And...thanks." He hung up the phone silently, as he began worrying again. If the Chinese had hacked her computer, he could be found at any minute. Or at least tracked. He worried everytime he called, but this time he realized, his worries might be justified.