Thanks for the great reviews all, I really appreciate them! I had a little trouble getting started with this...but I think it works...We'll see!


Chapter 10: Preparations

Five days later, the group of four returned to Haven City, but with a promise to visit Spargus again soon; since they now had a newfound connection to the place, anyways. They had to admit though, it was good to be home, surrounded by familiarity.

It was late when they finally arrived at the Palace, and everyone made a bee-line for their bedrooms.

Jak wanted to 'celebrate' their being home, but he was having a little trouble convincing Keira.

"Honestly Jak! Is that all you think about?" Keira scoffed, putting Trajan in his crib.

"Baby..." he tried to sweet-talk, "We haven't done it for more than a week..."

"I want to wait until our wedding night, Jak" she said, ignoring his shock and began unpacking their things.

"Sorry, I just had a momentary loss of hearing...What did you say?!"

"Jak..." Keira rolled her eyes.

"Since when did you take a vow of celibacy?" Jak spoke in mock anger.

"I just want it to be extra special on our wedding night, alright?" she gave him a pleading look and Jak knew he had been shot down.

"So what date are we thinking about?" Jak asked hopefully, helping her put away their things.

"Well, I wanted it to be close to your birthday, but its too late to arrange that now, so-" she sighed, but Jak smiled.

"We can do that."

"But-" Keira tried

"Keira, I'm King of this City; it has its advantages. We could do it tomorrow if we wanted! How about the 15th?"

Keira looked up at him with a smile, "Really? You would want to do it so soon?"

He kissed her on the cheek, "I wanna marry you as soon as I can; and not just to have sex with you," he assured with a grin and she laughed, pushing his shoulder.


The next day, to Keira's delight and Jak's dismay, was full of planning and shopping. They picked out, correction, Keira picked out everything from the tux Jak would wear to the flowers that would be used as decoration. Not that Jak was offended by Keira making all the decisions or anything; he actually preferred to just leave the details to her like she wanted. It didn't end there for Jak, though, as Keira insisted that today he needed the haircut.

When Jak heard the buzzing of their hair clipper stop, he opened his eyes and looked at the mirror in front of him. Grimacing, he reached up to feel his now very short hair. (Jak X style fyi)

"My head feels lighter..." Jak laughed, turning around in the swivel barber's chair to look at Keira who giggled at his comment.

Then, with their small, inescapable entourage, the happy pair decided to walk from the barber shop in the Bazaar to the Naughty Ottsel to visit Tess and Daxter. While they had been in Spargus, those two had decided to move out of the Palace and into their own small apartment above their bar.

Together they walked, Keira pushing Trajan in the stroller (She hardly let him out of her sight, anymore), and Jak looking around at the steadily improving Industrial sector.

It was a Sunday afternoon and the bar was closed until the evening, but Daxter welcomed his friends in eagerly.

"Finally, Jak! I haven't seen you in like, two weeks! I actually had to read about your adventures for once, in the newspaper! Hey! What happened to your hair?!" Daxter exclaimed all at once.

Jak pointed a finger at his girlfriend who gave an innocent Who me? look and laughed.

Eventually, Tess came out from the backroom and Jak filled them in on what they hadn't already heard or read about.

"Jeez, Jak...What a twisted life you have!" Daxter blabbed on about how being related to Torn had to be a nightmare. Jak just rolled his eyes at his furry friend. He had missed him, though, and his quirky comments; Jak was sad that his best friend would no longer be living right down the hall from him now.

Conversation soon turned to the inevitable topic of the upcoming wedding and the arrangements.

Daxter of course, would be Jak's best 'man', so to speak, and Keira decided that she wanted Tess to be her Maid of Honor. Ashelin will just have to settle with bridesmaid, she thought to herself.


Later that night, while everyone was asleep, Jak awoke with a start, breathing hard and in a cold sweat. He rolled from his bed to the ground, grabbing his gun from underneath the bed in one swift movement. He aimed it at some unseen foe to the left of Trajan's crib. He had heard someone talking; voices. He cocked his gun, his eyes scanning the room nervously for any movement in the darkness.

Keira shifted on the bed, causing Jak to fire at the wall in surprise. At the sound of the shot, Keira sat up with a yell and Trajan followed, beginning to wail. She scrambled for the light switch and flicked it on, revealing a very paranoid-looking Jak in boxers and holding his mod-gun with a death grip.

"Jak!" she shouted at him, "What are you doing?!"

"I...I thought I heard someone, something..." he dropped the gun and stared at Keira, his cerulean eyes wide and his pupils dilated.

A bang came from the door as three guards knocked it down in a hurry, rushing in. They looked around, seeing their youth King kneeling on the floor and a rather large hole in the wall opposite him.

"We heard gun fire. Are you alright Your Highness?" One guard asked, pointing his gun downwards, seeing no imminent threat.

Jak didn't register what the guard said and looked to the floor. His head ached with a throbbing pain and the earsplitting cries of his son sounded muffled.

Keira waved the guards in dismissal, and went to her son's crib, picking him up and comforting the distressed baby. Holding him in one arm, Keira then made her way to Jak, sitting on the floor next to him.

Jak gripped his head with his hands, trying to make the pain stop. He could see Keira's lips moving in speech, but could only hear the loud beating of his heart, throbbing in tune with his headache.

Then, all at once, just as abruptly as it had come, the pain dissipated.

Keira now looked angry, thinking he had been ignoring her. She pointed to the hole in the wall. Then to Trajan's crib not a foot away.

"What were you thinking!?" Keira scolded him, "You could have hit Trajan for Precursor's sake!"

"I'm...sorry," was all Jak could say, now able to hear her.

Keira shot Jak an irritated glare and, taking their son, got up and walked out of the room, leaving Jak sitting on the floor alone.

The voices, they had seemed so real, so close, like someone had been speaking into his ear. Though, that wasn't what triggered Jak to scramble for his gun. No, what scared he was what the voices had said.


Ooh, spooky. Hah.

Feedback? Pretty please ;)!