(Author's note: Here is chapter 12; a little later than expected but it was unavoidable. Rest assured, that I am still very much into this story and I refuse to let it die after working so hard on it!

. . . Anyway . . .

Thanks go to GoldAngel2 for both beta reading this chapter and reviewing the one before it. Seriously, this story would be a lot different if she hadn't been helping me. So thank you!

Thanks also go to Strata as well as Kris Ice (x2!) for taking the time to review my last chapter.

There's not anything that really needs to be talked about in this author's note so, without further delay, chapter 12!

Enjoy. )

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After finding the remote wedged between the seat cushions, Jet clicked on the TV and began to surf. Cartoons, kid's show, religious channel, soap opera, soap opera, Spanish channel, infomercial, infomercial, sitcom, MTV, news. He went through the cycle a few times before settling on the news.

He wasn't all that interested in what was happening in the world at large and he didn't care what President what's-his-name had to say about that thing over there, but, having watched a lot of TV over the last few weeks, he knew that it was the best choice.

Children's shows (when they were completely stupid) were jaw-droppingly bizarre - the day that he heard "A heart without Jesus is like a donut" (sung by a donut)(1), he'd been in shock for a good ten minutes. The religious channel was out because the whole thing annoyed him. How so many people could believe that there was some kind of just and loving god when the world was so messed up was completely beyond him(2). Soap Operas made no sense; the Spanish channel had some incomprehensible game show on; and infomercials were just stupid.

He didn't mind the music on MTV - he even liked some of it (although it was a lot different from the music he grew up with) - but the videos; the videos! Well, he'd been around, seen his share of things, and there were still things in those videos that would have made him blush had he been the blushing type.

So, mostly, he watched the news and baseball.

Unfortunately, news was slow this morning and not as diverting as he'd hoped it would be. As the anchor woman prattled on about plans for the construction of some sort of public art sculpture in Central Park, Jet found his mind wandering. He wondered how Cathy was getting on in his apartment. It wasn't that he cared about what she thought of the place - it was his apartment after all - it was just that he was a private person by nature and the idea of someone poking around through his things made him feel a little uncomfortable. What made him feel even more uncomfortable was that he couldn't remember where he'd put that . . . purchase of his; he really hoped that he hadn't left it just lying around.

And then there was that picture he'd left on top of the bureau of him and his friends. As a rule, Jet tended not to be overly sentimental but, when he'd left Doctor Kazumi's home, he'd taken that picture with him. Even now, he couldn't have said why he'd taken it but he did like looking at it from time to time. He wasn't quite sure how he felt about her finding it (which she definitely would - Cathy was many things but blind wasn't one of them) but he was sure that his image would take a beating.

He was also a little worried about her finding his blaster but not very. She seemed to have gotten over the fact that he was supposed to be a weapon and he was certain that Cathy wouldn't be stupid enough to mess around with it.

Jet tried to turn his attention back to what was on the screen but found no help there. Now an anchor man was interviewing somebody about some new Broadway musical - nothing Jet was even remotely interested in. Instead, his thoughts turned to his knee. He wondered how it looked - about the only time he'd seen it was back in the hotel and fire light was pretty dim.

He stared at the towel around his leg for awhile before deciding to give in to his morbid curiosity. Carefully as he could, he unwrapped the towel and pulled it away, wincing only a little as the towel stuck around the edges of his skin. He winced again as he finally got a good look at the wound: whatever it lacked in seriousness, it sure made up for in ugliness. He wondered how bad it had looked before Cathy had tried cleaning it . . .

Oh, now there was something that he'd rather not think about! That had not been one of his proudest moments. He still wasn't sure why he'd made such a fuss in the first place but it irked him to no end that he hadn't been able to apologize for snapping at her. To be fair, she hadn't acted like she was expecting one but that wasn't the point. It just wasn't right -

Jet shook his head. No point in worry about it, was there? Forcing it out of his mind, he concentrated on getting the towel back around his knee. Cathy had made it look a lot easier than it was and, after about five minutes of alternately cursing his clumsiness and wincing when he touched the wound, he managed to get the towel to look at least little like it had before he messed with it.

Once that was finished, he tried his luck surfing again. Cartoon, kid's show, religious channel, soap opera, soap opera, Spanish channel, infomercial, infomercial, sitcom, MTV, news. Oooh, a story about kittens. Wow. That was really news, all right. He was going to try clicking through the channels one more time before deciding that he might as well accept the inevitable; he was stuck with the news.

Well, better than nothing. He watched it mindlessly for awhile, not really paying attention to what was on the screen but not thinking too much about other things either for a time until -

"Hi, I'm back."

Jet turned to face her, trying to hide his surprise. He honestly had not noticed Cathy until she'd spoken and he found it a bit disconcerting. He was usually very observant; the fact that she'd snuck up on him was unsettling to say the least. The only explanation he could think of was that he was still a bit tired from last night and he knew that wasn't it.

But, now wasn't really the time to worry about what the real reason was because Cathy was giving him a concerned look which told him that he'd taken too long to respond already. Well, he could fix that. "So, did you find everything?"

She smiled as she took the bag (which he could see was actually a pillow case) off her shoulder and set it on the couch. "Yep. I think there's enough here for a few days anyway." She shrugged, "If it's not enough, I can always lend you some more."

He looked at her and come to the conclusion that none of her clothes would fit.

His confusion must have shown because she laughed and shook her head. "Oh, not mine! I meant my h - Daniel's." Her voice faltered and pain flickered across her features as she finished her sentence. Before he could even think of asking her what was wrong, she recovered and changed the subject.

"I meant to ask you before, did you get a phone call earlier?"

While he was tempted to ask about why she'd looked so upset, he knew better than to try and pry it out of her. "Yeah. Doctor Gilmore."

She sat down next to him. "What did he have to say?"

"They'll be coming for me in a couple days."

"Good to know." Then she frowned. "You're going to be okay for that long?"

It was only her obvious worry that stopped him from saying something sarcastic - while there was only so much concern he could take, he couldn't find it in himself to want to snap at her for caring. "I'll be fine."

"I'm glad."

Silence between them stretched and slowly drifted from being companionable to being awkward. Cathy seemed uncomfortable, uneasy, as if she was trying to think of a way to say something that she'd rather not say. It was a strange look for her and Jet didn't care much for it.

After a few minutes, he couldn't take the look or the silence anymore. "Is something wrong?"

She shook her head slowly. "Not exactly." Then she stood, determination replacing the uneasiness and, as she turned to face him, he couldn't shake the feeling that he was in for it now. "Look, I can't think of a good way to say this, so I'll just say it: you need a bath." Not giving him a chance to comment, she continued. "Now, we can do this the easy way or the hard way - but either way, you are going to be clean. If I have to drag you to the tub, I'll do it - don't think I won't!"

At first, Jet only stared at her, not quite certain that he'd heard her right. Then, after taking another look at her challenging expression, he knew that not only had he heard her right, she was very serious about it too. And, while he had his doubts about her ability to drag him anywhere he truly didn't want to go (even taking his current condition into account), he had no doubt at all that she'd be willing to give it a try.

He could tell by the way she was standing that she expected him to make a big deal out of this. And while he had to admit that it'd be a lie to say that he was completely comfortable with the prospect, he figured that, all things considered, there were worse fates than to have an attractive woman help him bathe.

Jet smiled, "Nah, you don't have to do that. I surrender."

"I mean, it's not even like I have to be in there with you once . . ." She trailed off and looked at him with confusion as she realized what he'd said. Then she blushed and mumbled something that sounded suspiciously like 'Thank you,' before smiling. "All right then."

She started walking towards the kitchen. "I'll just go get some plastic bags."

"Plastic bags?" Jet found himself parroting weakly.

He heard her sigh from the kitchen. "Of course - you don't want your knee to get wet, do you?"

"No," he answered even though he was sure that she wasn't actually listening for one. He was a little surprised that he hadn't thought of that himself - even someone who was completely human with a wound like his wouldn't want to get it wet. It was only common sense. 'Well, that explains why you didn't think of it, doesn't it?' commented a voice that sounded an awful lot like 004.

He ignored the voice and tried not to worry about it. He only hoped that whatever Cathy was going to do to waterproof his leg would work; he wasn't anxious to find out what would happen if he got water inside where all the delicate circuitry was. Jet could hear the lecture from Doctor Gilmore now: 'Honestly, 002, don't you have any sense?'

"Not so you'd notice," he said with a slight smile.

There was a loud bang of pots hitting each other from the kitchen and he could hear her cursing under her breath. "Where is that damn duck tape!(3)" A few more crashes later, he heard a triumphant shout. "Found it!"

Jet suddenly wondered if, maybe, he'd given in too quickly.

All in all, Jet decided as the tub filled , it could have been worse. Oh, it'd been pretty embarrassing and he didn't think it was anything that he wanted to repeat but . . . At least Cathy hadn't looked like she was having any easier time with the situation than he was. In a way, he'd found it a bit comforting - if she hadn't had any problems at all, it'd mean that she probably saw him as a child or, worse, a thing. No need to be embarrassed around a machine, after all.

So, he was actually a bit relieved. He didn't say any of that to Cathy because he doubted that she'd understand why he'd feel that way -

"Is everything all right in there?"

Jet nodded before remembering that she wouldn't be able to see it through the curtain. "Yeah."

He could hear her sit down and he saw her shadow. "You never did tell me."

"Huh?"

"About how you escaped from Black Ghost."

"Oh, that." He squirted some shampoo (unfortunately, the only kind that Cathy had smelled like strawberries) into his hand and started working it through his hair. "There's not a whole lot to tell, really."

"I'd still like to know." She seemed to think that this sounded too demanding and she tried to soften it. "If you still want to tell me."

He shrugged. "Why not?" Compared to what he'd already talked to her about, this was easy. "The short version is that Doctor Gilmore - "

"That's the guy who's picking you up, right?"

Jet fished around for the cup floating in the water. "That's the guy. Anyway, he realized one day that Black Ghost wasn't the sort of organization that he wanted to work for and he unfroze us originals, freed the new generation and shut off the security systems so we could escape.(4)" Finding the cup, he filled it with water and dumped it over his head. "That's basically it."

He could hear the frown in her voice when she spoke. "This is the same Doctor Gilmore that . . . made you, right? You mean it took him forty years to decide that he didn't want to stay there anymore?"

Man, he wished that Doctor Gilmore was here to answer this question. Truth was, he'd had that thought sometimes himself but, out of loyalty to Doctor Gilmore, he wouldn't tell her that. "I guess he thought some good might come out of his research - Black Ghost had access to technology that no one else in the world has."

Cathy snorted.

"What's so funny?"

"You mean the guy actually thought that some good could come out of a group called Black Ghost?"

She had a point. Still, Jet felt like he should stand up for the doctor since he wasn't here to defend himself. "Well, uh . . ." Sadly, he could not think of a good defense.

"Never mind, I'm sure he had his reasons." While she didn't sound all that convinced, Jet was grateful for the out anyway.

Cathy's shadow stood. "Well, unless you need anything else . . ."

"There was one thing."

"What?"

He hesitated for a moment, not sure that it was really his business. But then, fair was fair and it wasn't like she had to tell him if she didn't want to. "I was wondering, that guy you mentioned earlier, Daniel, who is he?" Jet was almost sure that he knew the answer to that question but -

"He's my - he's Jimmy's father."

Jet didn't miss how she'd said 'my' first. "That's right, Jimmy told me about that."

"What did he tell you?" She asked it in such a way that Jet knew he was heading into dangerous territory at top speed. At this point, there wasn't an easy way to shift the conversation in a new direction so he figured that he better just answer the question and get it over with.

"Not a whole lot," he said, trying to sound assuring. "Just that he'd left." When she didn't say anything right away, he realized that this had not been a good idea. "I was just curious; you don't have to talk about it if you don't want to."

He heard her sigh. "If you really must know, I can tell you about it - later. Not now." Her voice sounded a little shaky and Jet felt guilty. "I - I'll be in the living room if you need me. Just yell, I'll hear you."

After the door had shut behind her, Jet sighed despite himself. That hadn't gone so well - not that he'd thought ahead about what he'd asked enough for it to qualify as a 'that.' 'That' brought to mind having a plan of some sort. And he really should have known better than to bring up her ex.

'It seems like she's always angry these days - especially since my dad moved out and left us all alone.'(5) Well, Jimmy had certainly hit the nail on the head there. 'She must really love that guy to be so down about him.' Jet remembered thinking, after Jimmy had said that to him, that a guy would have to be a real creep to run out on a good kid like Jimmy.

He also remembered thinking that maybe, maybe, a guy could be forgiven because it couldn't be easy to put up with someone like Cathy for long. Now, having seen her in action (and doing something besides ranting), it was hard to imagine the sort of guy who'd want to leave her - especially considering how much she cared about him.

Daniel had to be nuts. Jimmy was a good kid and Cathy was a good woman - Jet couldn't understand what he'd want to throw his family away for. It just didn't make sense. Well, whatever the guy's reasons, he had to be a world class creep and, if Jet ever met the man, he'd be sure to give that bastard a piece of his mind.

And a sizable portion of his fist.

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1) I can't remember the name of the show I got this from, but it was an actual song that I actually saw . . . I think, even if I was religious, it'd still be freaky.

2) In the subs of the Japanese version of 'At the End of the Battle," (which was the only one I saw until I bought the uncut DVD) instead of saying "I never even trusted my parents.", Jet said, "I don't even trust in God." - this is why I think of him having this sort of belief.

3) Because duck tape is good for anything :)

4) This comes from my understanding of 'Black Ghosts'

5) This is what Jimmy says to Jet in 'The Hero'