CH 10
"I'm being called to Congress?" the President asked in disbelief. "For what?"
"Impeachment proceedings Sir," the Secret Service man said, "The NSA had filed charges of mishandling of nuclear weapons, mass murder in the town of Driftwood Texas, and subverting the constitution on you. They have presented their proof of charges to The House and the Senate. After hearing the evidence the vote to impeach was unanimous."
"They can't do that!"
"They have, Mr. President. All your Presidential powers have been suspended and turned over to the vice President until this matter is decided. If you will come with me, Sir."
The president sat stunned. "John Connor is behind this!" he spat.
A couple more Secret Service men came up on either side of him. "Please rise by yourself, Mr. President." one said.
"Aren't you suppose to guard me?" he asked.
"And we shall, until you are president no longer. Then I'm sure the NSA will take care of you."
.
Making Lincoln, Nebraska, Joan and Company had a column ten miles long. Bus loads of troops, trucks filled with supplies, flatbeds carrying artillery pieces and tanks, and more with the ground attack planes Weaver had designed.
Generally, the mass was considered as National Guard, but each state had their own commander with Joan as the overall commander. At the end of the travel day, which was shorter now due to the amount of men and vehicles involved, the commanders met together to make sure everyone was fed and had lodging, and all the vehicles were gassed up to the next travel day. Joan like to travel fast, putting in 7 or 800 miles a day. With this long line, 600 miles was a good travel day. It was a little frustrating for her but Joan understood if they didn't stay organized, trying to move the mass of men, material and vehicles would be a big mess.
Connor was a good organizer. A more and more states added to their column, he decided who was where in the line. using multiple roads would be better, but where they were passing into California, there was only one highway through the mountains. There were more roads into California far to the south, but too far away to get to where they were going together if they split up. Also, in the south was where PSR was expecting resistance now.
Making Lincoln, they also had another mile and a half of troops and supplies to add to the line. These were troops from Nebraska and Iowa that came to join them. When they left Lincoln to move on, Joan had 36,000 troops plus tanks artillery and planes. She just had to get them all into California intact.
.
Unlike Bruce, Sonya wanted to be on the front with her bandage covered body, JJ knew Sonya had eaten a lot of lead. She was aching to join a forward patrol or scout group, but until she healed up more, JJ didn't want her out at the fore front. Sonya herself didn't care if she was stripped down to bare metal, JJ knew. He saw it in her eyes, her husband and child were gone, the only thing she cared about was getting rid of the PSR.
After another day of travel and catching a group of PSR to surround them, kill the officers and sort through the men, JJ made it a point to visit Sonya. He found her near the medics truck, sitting and sharpening her sword. The blank looks she gave people made they take a couple extra steps around her.
JJ sat on a crate facing her. "Hey Sonya, how are you doing?" he offered.
"I am 100 percent combat capable," she said in a monotone.
"How about your flesh? How's that coming?" he asked.
"82 percent. I am ready to go out on the line." she stated.
"When you're completely 100 percent, you'll get your chance," JJ told her.
"Why bother making sure my flesh is healed?" she asked.
Her flat tone told him she wasn't dealing with Mark and their child Dennis' death very well. "We're all hurting inside," He offered. "Most of the people we knew and loved were ripped away from us. I know that hurts bad, and there's nothing we can do about that. They are gone, that's it. You do know we still have each other. I really don't want you to destroy part of yourself just to fight a little more."
Sonya inspected the edge of her blade. "For you, I'll make sure I'm 100 percent completely. I know you care about me."
"I do, Sonya. I'd like you to care about yourself too," he told her.
Sonya sported a tiny smile. "You know, John, it has been a lot of fun being with your family. I got to do, see and experience things I had never thought possible. I had my own husband and a child." she sniffled. "During all that, I felt like I could be much more that I ever thought possible." Looking up at him she said, "I would to anything for any of you. While I was playing human with you, I did forget one important thing. I'm not a cyborg, John. I. Am. A. Terminator. Greatly enhanced by Cameron and Delilah's kindness, but still when it comes down to it, I'm a killing machine. And right now, that's all I have. That's all I can be until this is over."
JJ sighed. "You're more that just a terminator, Sonya. You're my big sister, and I want to do whatever I can for you. And you weren't playing at being a human. You were being you, Sonya. The real you. Please, don't give that up."
That earned him another quick smile. "Maybe right now, I need to be the terminator."
JJ shrugged weakly. "OK, but just remember you're a terminator with a family who cares about you. You're not alone."
"Thank you," she said softly. "So, tell me about Kaede."
"Kaede? We decided to fight this PSR together."
"I see, and now much fighting to you do in bed?" She asked with a crooked grin.
"I... we... Kaede was having nightmares. I found that if I lay down with her, it keeps the nightmares away."
Sonya nodded. "You need each other."
"Yeah, we kinda do. To tell the truth, I think I'd be a total wreck if it wasn't for Kaede. I'm sure the same is true for her."
"You're handling you loss the best way you can, by helping Kaede with her loss." Sonya concluded. "John, we each have to deal with all we lost in our own ways. I'm happy you have Kaede with you. I have to deal with my loss my way."
"That's fine, but I want you to keep yourself healthy as possible also." he told her.
Sonya put her sword away and motioned him closer. They hugged. "You are doing very well, little brother," she told him.
"As are you, my big sister."
.
JJ's force was making way up though California, meeting some, but not large amounts of PSR resistance. It was like attacking eggs. A hard line that once terminators broke through, the line folded. Bakersfield looked tough with barricades, ditches and walls, but after the line was punched through by terminators and a tank, PSR soldiers surrendered or fled. Working inland, Delilah was finding the same thing. Many of the PSR soldiers who surrendered switched sides and became California Guardsmen. JJ has over a thousand guardsmen in his troops now, Delilah had 2500.
The solid counter attack JJ and Delilah was expected wasn't happening. In some cases, seeing them coming, PSR packed up and fled. JJ was making sure PSR was gone and local governments were back in charge, then they moved on.
JJ was surprised PSR didn't even fight for San Jose. Sonya, now healed up, led a forward troop of terminators into the city to find only people cheering their arrival. The city Hall also had the original California state flag with the bear on it flying. Sonya stood on the steps of city hall and was talking to the Mayor when her name was wailed out.
"SONYA!"
Sonya looked and a middle aged shorter man came running up to her. He was graying now, but she still knew who this was. "Hey George," she said just before he plowed into her to hug her tight.
Weeping in joy, George pulled away to tell the Mayor, "See, I told you Red Sonya would come! I had faith my Goddess would save us!"
"I'm part of the combined guard, Texas and California guardsmen that are coming," Sonya told the Mayor who didn't look the happiest George had come to hang all over Sonya.
"You know him?" the Mayor asked her.
"From a while back. We played in a band together," Sonya said with a grin. "I kind of watched out for him."
"Oh! I got news!" George announced. "Those PSR rats are in San Francisco, really fortifying the crap out of it! We're talking bunkers and walls and all kinds of fencing all long as far as you can see. They are digging deep ditches, even across the roads! It looks like an army fort!" George then looked up at Sonya. "Don't get close to that, they will shoot the crap out of you!"
Sonya smirked. "Won't be the first time," she told him.
George looked at her cloak. "Sonya, that thing is all moth eaten, don't you have a good one?" George asked.
"Those are bullet holes, George. This is my good one."
George's face crimped up. "They were shooting my Sonya?" he whimpered.
"For all the good it did them," Sonya replied. To the Mayor, she said, "John will be coming in soon with the rest of the troops. I'm sure we will be moving on to San Francisco soon."
"No!" George cried and grabbed her hand in both his. "You can't! You'll get shot again!"
"George," Sonya said firmly. "That's my job now. I'm a terminator. I kill the enemy. Getting shot doesn't bother me, it just doesn't look very good. How about if you see if you can find us a few bottles of beer."
"Yeah! OK, I can do that," he said and hurried off.
"Who's this John leading you?" the Mayor asked.
"John Connor the second. Don't worry, we'll get rid of the PSR."
.
JJ sent out scouts. the PSR was indeed fortifying San Francisco with everything they could think of. pill boxes, barbed wire fences, ditches, and it was heavily manned along the peninsula San Francisco was on. Their defenses only went a couple hundred yards along the beaches though. In the city, they had no defense structures made. They were assuming and attack straight up the peninsula. On the east side of the bay, there was nothing. Coming to the Naval base at Alameda, Guards there welcomed the scouts in and they talked to the Commander of the base. He gave them a high resolution satellite photo of the city for JJ to use. Since the Navy was 'staying neutral' they couldn't directly assist JJ's army.
There was no reason to take those heavy fortifications on directly. Terminators could get there underwater. Delilah sent another 200 terminators to help JJ break into San Francisco. She suggested a night attack. JJ thought about it then decided a daytime attack was needed, he wanted all the PSR up and awake, and see what they were facing on land.
On the land of the peninsula, JJ put all his tanks and a few hundred Guardsman up close enough to the PSR defense line to make sure they had to defend their line and keep the PSR soldiers out of the city. While the tanks and Guardsmen got the PSR's attention, 240 terminators swam under water up the sides of the peninsula past the PSR defenses. Their goal was to sink every boat in the city they could find and take the Bay bridge to prevent any PSR from escaping first, then move into the city to target every PSR officer they could find while the 'front line' troops fired into PSR defenses, holding the mass of PSR soldiers in place.
Looking at the map with JJ, Kaede asked, "Why box themselves in like this? They trapped themselves."
"They are still holding out hope China will sent help," JJ told her. "They need to control access to the sea for China to send in ships. They lose San Francisco, they lose their last seaport in California."
Once all the terminators were on their way, JJ had his front line troops open fire. Tanks destroyed the bunkers and pill boxes, a constant rain of rifle fire kept PSR soldiers close to their line, anticipating an attack. Barbed wire was shredded and melted. The PR officers did just what JJ wanted them to do. They kept soldiers in the line to watch for the attack that was sure to come, and had others building a second defense line to fall back to when the first one fell.
While the PSR firmly defended their line, terminators came up out of the water in the city. Walking up on land, they destroyed boats and cleared away the defenses at the Golden Gate Bridge that were set up to stop an attack from the other end. Moving into the city, they fought like terminators, only one or two on each street, they killed PSR and if a shot came from a window, they blew a hole in the side of the building.
By the time the front line soldiers of the PSR had mostly completed their second defense line, Terminators had arrived to take it up and kill every officer they could find and anyone who shot back at them. By the time the sun was low in the sky, JJ's forces were collecting prisoners and clearing the way into the city to scower the area for any PSR that were left.
.
"The rebels have taken San Francisco," the lead General in Sacramento grumbled. "It's like they are coming out of the forest! There must be thousands of them!"
Another General said, "They are focusing on the coast. I am sure that is due to China possibly sending us help."
The lead General eyed him. "China is involved with a war with Russia, they won't be sending us anything!"
A radioman came up and said, "Sirs? The spy in Reno called in. A long column of he thinks is military, is coming up Route 80 and headed this way. I mean a LONG Column, he's watched it pass by for the last hour, and there's no end to it yet. Buses, flatbeds with artillery and tanks, we're talking a whole army."
The lead General sighed. He'd sent half his forces to defend to the south, and they were gone. "He see any markings?"
"National Guard units from several states."
"That's it then, we just lost California. We put up blocks to slow that army down and get ready to evacuate."
.
John was pleased with developments. Not only were his forces on the west coast and coming together, but the President had been impeached, and the Vice President was sworn in and immediately lifted Martial Law. He also asked Congress to declare the PSR an anti American terrorist organization. He also asked for China and Russia to stop fighting, and urged the UN to send peacekeepers and get the two countries into talks.
Another good thing was the radiation monitoring teams from Austin and Dallas were finding no harmful residual radiation from that bomb. Background was higher, but nothing dangerous over the long term. Up at the large lake where Delilah took the mers, the mers were doing well. The biggest problem now in Driftwood was real estate.
An advisor came from Austin to help out. His idea was to sell all the empty buildings and let others come in to populate the homes, businesses and farms. John cringed at the idea of selling dead people's things. John rejected his proposal.
"First of all, most of the residents who are still alive are off fighting the PSR," he told the man. "Secondly, we need to track down relatives of those who died. I know there's plenty of kids out there who moved away. If anyone, they should inherit their parent's homes. The sheriff and our Mayor knows who's who. Once he returns from the west coast, I'll talk to him about it. We aren't selling off the town to just anyone. Any squatters who come in to claim anything will be jailed. If you noticed we do have guards."
"Real Estate companies are not going to get rich off of selling Driftwood," Cameron stated.
Seeing her glare, the man said, "I was just suggesting."
An Alantian representative was the next one to come. He had a family who wanted to take over the Littleton farm. John shook his head. "My son, John Junior is the only survivor, he married into that family. He owns the place now. When he gets back from fighting the PSR, you can talk to him."
.
JJ the farm owner was sending scout groups from the coast up RT 80 to Sacramento. he has another group go up and block Rt 5 north out of the city in case they tried to flee. Sonya led this group of ten terminators and three tanks. Unlike what she'd seen before, on the road out of Sacramento going north, her group met plenty of trucks and carriers headed at them. They made a big pileup blasting trucks into a flaming mass. Some soldiers came at them and got incinerated. More ran far to the sides to escape. With Delilah to the south of the city, Sonya and her band to the north and JJ's other troops coming from the west and Joan's big army coming from the east. PSR as a force had no place to go.
The top Generals did manage to escape through the woods before the ring was completed. They left Junior officers in charge of defense of the city. In a few days, these officers saw they were hopelessly outnumbered. Their own soldiers were also slipping out and surrendering. They decided to surrender to save their lives.
Now with an airport firmly in their hands, Joan got recon flights out. Delilah also transferred her planes here also. While they were settling into decide their next move, all the Driftwood residents got rooms in the same hotel and had a reunion.
Joan sat across the table from JJ and Kaede. Grinning broadly, she said, "Wow, I never saw this coming."
"We didn't either," JJ admitted. He looked over at Jackie and Duncan, "There's another surprise."
"What?" Jackie asked, frowning at him. "We're just working together."
"Of course. That's all Johnny and I are doing," Kaede said with a grin. "Right, sweetie?" she asked JJ.
"Right, hon," he agreed.
The whole table laughed. Allison pointed at them and said, "If you're not already riding the hobby horse, I bet it you will be soon!"
"What's wrong with that?" Sonya asked.
"Nothing." Joan stated. "They sleep together?" she asked.
"Every night," Sonya supplied.
"We do ..." JJ started to say they do not. He then realized they did.
"Yeah, we do," Kaede said in a blush. "We take care of each other. We do both need comfort and companionship."
"We all do!" Malinara added, "Even Jackie over there."
"I'm just working with Duncan," Jackie quickly said. "He's old enough to be my father!"
"You mean great, great, great grandfather," Bob said in a chuckle.
"It's fine of you got a daddy complex," Joan told Jackie.
"I DO NOT!" Jackie cried as she blushed, which caused another round of laughter.
"Aw, don't tease Jackie," Connor offered, "I'm sure Duncan will take care of her."
Jackie crossed her arms and frowned.
"Everyone's here!" Delilah said happily as she came over. "OK we're having an official meeting in the morning about shifting forces and who's doing what. Connor, John needs you back in Driftwood. Some real estate people want to sell buildings in and around town. He needs you to find living relatives of our townsfolk and let them know what happened so they can claim their inheritance and some real estate dealer can't sell it out from under them. JJ you have to get a hold of your father too about the farm. Some Atlantian rep want to put another family there. By rights, that farm is yours now, he needs to know what you want to do. Sonya, same thing with your house and the furniture factory. Bob, the same thing with your mother's house and Kaede with hers."
Kaede hooked her arm under JJ's. "I can't go back in that house," she said weakly.
"You don't have to," he assured her. "Ever think about living on a grape farm?"
"I will if you will," she said.
"I'm keeping my house, the store and the factory," Sonya said firmly.
"The store?" Delilah asked.
"The gun store, when Bennet was having a tough time, Mark and I bought half of the gun store so he could straighten out his debts," Sonya told her.
"I have that paperwork, "Connor said. "Looks like I have to go back. Delilah, can Cameron possibly find the PSR accounts? We could use their money to buy up everything relatives don't want."
Delilah grinned. "I like your thinking. I'm sure Cameron will too."
"I'll take back any information you want me to," Connor said. "JJ, Bob, Sonya, I take it you want to keep what's yours. Kaede, what do you want done with your house? Same question for you Allison, with your parent's house."
Kaede shrugged. "Nothing for now. When we get back, I'll see what's there that I want to keep."
"JJ, if you want to go back to tend to the farm, I understand," Delilah told him.
"No, we have to see this though to the end," JJ said. Kaede nodded.
"I'm keeping it," Allison stated.
"I'll have a plane take you home tomorrow," Joan told Connor.
"Ah, no more riding in that little Jeep!" Connor said with a grin.
While they were talking about things other than combat plans and troops movements, JJ asked, "Mom? Is there a way we can get nanites into Kaede so she can heal faster?"
Joan clapped her hands over her mouth wearing a silly grin.
"Sharing nanites is for family, JJ," Delilah told him.
Wearing her silly grin, Joan said, "You can do it, just give her injections of nanites."
"Like with a syringe or something?' JJ asked.
"More like hot beef injections," Joan said. She and Allison burst out in giggles.
JJ was confused at first, then turned red at what Joan suggested. That made them all laugh.
Delilah grinned at them. "What she means is any exchange of bodily fluids you can get into Kaede, you can put nanites in to strengthen her."
Jackie giggled, "So if you do JJ, I guess that means Kaede will be family."
"Pump'er up!" Malinara cried.
Bob put a hand over his face. "That was rather crude, Mal." he told her.
Now Kaede was blushing deeply.
.
With aircraft patrolling roads, the Generals fleeing California had to keep to the woods in their flight. The pack of 15, the generals and their escorts only made a plodding walking speed in their flight. They were shocked to find some terminators cresting a hill, walking towards them.
Surprised and nervous, their guards opened fire. The terminators returned fire. the last two rear guard dropped their weapons, hands in the air. They were the only survivors. There was enough of the Generals bodies left to confirm who they had been.
In Oregon and Washington State, PSR managed to collect 3000 more volunteers to add to the 6000 troops they had. Pickings were slim, either people had left or were killed when the rebellion in Oregon there failed. The PSR had lost many members too. A few survivors from California told of an unstoppable rebel force headed their way. They didn't know numbers, but did know they had tanks and shot energy weapons. Worse yet, they did get information that the PSR was now considered a terrorist group.
The PSR had no large weapons. Besides the Chinese made AK47's all they had were a few machine guns. They decided new tactics were needed. Sending everything they had down to Oregon, the PSR leaders knew they had one chance to stop these rebels. Setting up traps and ambushes, they set up in southern Oregon to meet and destroy the oncoming rebel forces.
.
Delilah redistributed her forces. With the mass of help Joan had brought, she set up new divisions. JJ near the coast now had 10,000 men 10 tanks and 150 terminators. Kaede stayed with him as did Sonya. The next division inland was Joan's. with the same strength. The Jackie and Duncan division were the next. Delilah took the most eastern division.
With aircraft scouting far ahead and terminator scouts out in front to their troops, The National guards army got to the state line and moved into Oregon and found groups of PSR and many of the traps they laid. Before they were effective, groups of PSR were burned from the air and their traps destroyed or merely avoided. The total damage PSR caused the first few days was two terminators had bad skin damage and were sent back to heal. The PSR lost 1500 soldiers dead and another 500 surrendered.
On the coastal areas, JJ moved faster, as did Delilah on their eastern end of the line. Joan and Jackie's groups worked to keep the middle of the line engaging PSR, but didn't push them. On the coast, JJ broke through the line and curved in to the east, leaving only a picket behind him. Delilah did the same thing, moving west. Too late the PSR forces realized they were being encompassed. The roads out were being watched and any vehicle from the PSR side of the line that tried to go north was destroyed. Closing the circle, 1200 more PSR were found dead, and in one place it looked like they'd been fighting each other. Pushing PSR away from the roads and forcing the smaller and smaller army up onto hilltops, the PSR forces was broken up into five groups, each one completely encircled.
The middle group up on their high hilltop suffered a massive plasma attack, igniting the forest they were hiding in. Screams were heard for miles as men up there burned. Another group seeing this surrendered. 750 men came down, hands in the air. Somehow all their officers had been killed. Another group then surrender. Then another.
It took a few days, but all the PSR forces were either dead or surrendered.
That was the biggest and last battle they had with the PSR. Continuing north, very little PSR as found.
With Oregon clear of PSR, men came from Washington state to say the PSR left had fled, either by boat or up into Canada. Delilah went to each capital to ensure a proper Government was instituted. Many guardsmen stayed to police until the Police Forces could be reinstated and manned.
For some reason, the new laws in these states were conservative in nature. If any, there were very few protests, and even these were peaceful. The PSR was officially removed from the country.
.
At a restaurant/bar in Secouver, Duncan and Jackie sat at a table and listened to the jazz as they relaxed, sipping their drinks and snacking off the shrimp plate they shared. Not meaning to, they were shoulder to shoulder, leaning into each other.
"You used to live here?" Jackie asked.
"I did, right up the street. I still own the Dojo. Haven't been there in a while."
Jackie eyed him. "Why not?"
Duncan shrugged. "Nothing much here for me any more. A friend of mine Joe, used to own this place. Charlie, who ran the Dojo for me retired, I guess his nephew runs the place now. I get statements from him. I understand he's doing all right, and even making a profit."
"Let's go see it," Jackie prodded.
Duncan winced "Peyton, the nephew updated it to a more ... modern theme."
"If you own it, they you should probably at least visit," Jackie prodded. "We can go see it before we get hotel rooms."
"I got a loft above the Dojo," Duncan admitted.
Jackie sat up, eyeing him. "Then why screw around with hotel rooms?" she asked, staring at him.
Duncan explained, "I thought you'd want your own bed."
"You got a big bed? Will we both fit?" Jackie asked, raising an eyebrow.
"There's enough room." he agreed.
"So you got like a kitchen and everything?" she prodded.
"You want to stay the night there," Duncan concluded.
"Sure, save a bit of money and see what you got," Jackie agreed.
"We need to go to the grocery store then," Duncan told her.
"OK, finish up, let's go!"
.
Duncan remembered his Dojo as a fairly quiet place, the sounds being grunts of men lifting weights, fists hitting punching bags, jump ropes and feet slapping at the floor. Even walking up the stairs outside, he could hear the booming music. He cast Jackie a forlorn look.
"Come on, it can't be that bad," Jackie prodded.
They went in to see a dozen men and women doing aerobic exercises to dance music. Duncan noted the punching bag was gone, as were the lifting weights. In the office, which was now had no windows, just a shelf where the windows used to be, and a half door entry. exercise machines lined the far wall that looked computerized.
At the head of the dance group a young black man was leading them in their moves. Above him a TV monitor also had a line of people dancing. Duncan and Jackie watched from the back where they'd come n.
"THIS is a Dojo? Jackie asked.
"More like a dance club," Duncan muttered.
The music stopped. everyone sagged a bit. The man in front asked, "In the back there! Welcome! You want to join?"
Duncan smirked and walked up to the front. "Just come to see how you're making out. I'm Duncan McLeod. This is Jackie Connor."
"The Fencer!" a young woman cried, pointing at Jackie. To the group she said, "I saw her fencing once! She was against this bigger guy, for most of the match she fenced left handed, but then she jumped back, tossed her sword in the air, caught it in her right and proclaimed, "I'm not left handed! The then beat him bad! I never saw anyone that fast before. Her blade was just a blur of motion. It whistled!"
One of the guys who'd been dancing, grinned at Jackie. "Bad-ass huh?" he asked.
Jackie raised an eyebrow. "Care to try me?"
"You know Karate?" he asked.
"I got my own style. It's called Kick-ass."
The man laughed, "OK I gotta see this!"
Jackie grinned. "OK, let me put a few things down."
"Don't hurt him," Duncan stated.
Jackie frowned at him. "I won't. This isn't battle, it's play." She put the grocery bag she had on the bench and took her long coat off. When she did her sword showed.
"You carry a sword with you?" another woman asked wide eyed.
"The swords made today aren't real battle weapons," Peyton said.
Jackie corrected him. "It's a cavalry saber from the 1800's. It's real, it belonged to the guy that challenge me to a duel in Canada. I cut his head off clean, one stoke and kept the sword." Seeing everyone stare at her, she asked, "What? He had no more use for it any more."
"You killed someone?" Peyton asked weakly.
"It's been war against the PSR, I've killed a lot of someones," Jackie told him.
"Ahh, this is just sparing, right?" the man who knew karate asked nervously.
"Yeah, fun," Jackie agreed. She sat down and took her shoes and socks off.
People moved off the mat, leaving the karate guy standing there. Jackie bounced onto the mat. "K, big guy, show me what you got," she announced.
Seeing her beaming smile he didn't take her seriously, He thrust a punch out to her shoulder. She grabbed his wrist and twisted away to throw him onto the mat.
"Come on, try harder than that!" she chided.
He got up and stared at her. She was fast! This time he came in and tried a leg sweep, expecting her to jump over it. Jackie bent low, catching his ankle and stopping it. She then threw him to bounce along the mat to a stop.
He got up and asked, "How did you do that?"
Jackie giggled and sang:
Ba d da da da dat
The day I was born, nurses all gather round
they gazed in wide wonder
at the joy they had found
the head nurse spoke up
Said leave this one alone
she could tell right away
That I was bad to the bone!
Duncan laughed.
Mr. Karate man stayed back. "But, you threw me. No momentum, you just threw me!"
"Yup!. I've thrown much heavier things than you." Jackie said and winked.
"Damn, how strong are you?" he asked, not wanting to engage her again.
Jackie looked around. "Hmmm," she noticed three guys sitting on a bench. The middle one was a bit chubby "Just stay put, don't move," she told them. She walked around behind the bench and squatted down. She lifted the bench up with them on it and stood up to stretch to the full extension of her arms, then pumped them up and down a couple times before she lowered them back to the floor.
Jaws dropped, then applause filled the room.
"HOLY GOD!" Mr. Karate said in a gasp. "You don't look big enough to lift even one person, let alone three over your head!"
Jackie smiled at him. "And that deception leads people to think I'm just a helpless girl," She said sweetly. "They got no idea they're about to have their ass kicked hard."
"Jackie? we got stuff here that needs to go up in the refrigerator," Duncan reminded her.
"OH yeah. Sorry guys, we got stuff to do," she said and waved, then ran over and got dressed. She picked up her bag, her and Duncan went for the elevator.
"Ah, where you going?" Peyton asked. "That's the owners' private quarters up there."
Duncan opened the gate. "That's right, I told you, I'm Duncan McLeod, the owner."
Peyton blanched. He thought Duncan McLeod was much older. "So is like Jackie your daughter?" he wondered aloud.
Jackie stopped in the elevator to frown at him. "I don't have a daddy complex!" she stated and shut the grating.
Jaws dropped again, for a different reason.
On the way up, Duncan said, "I don't think you really needed to say that."
.
While down in the Dojo, Jackie was the topic if conversation, up in the loft, she walked around looking at the stuff Duncan had. "You got some really nice stuff here." She petted the tall ornate cabinet against the inside wall. "This is real pretty."
"17th century French," he told her. "I got it in Paris."
"You got good taste," she said and continued walking around. "I like the open look of your loft." Stopping by an open bookshelf, she eyed a book and pulled it out. "The blade of the McLeods?" she asked and eyed him with a smirk.
Duncan rolled his eyes and said, "Amanda left that here. The author was mad at her immortal boyfriend, so she wrote that to make him the villain, and me the hero. He wasn't happy."
Jackie giggled. "I bet not. is any of it true?"
"No." he said firmly.
"Why did Amanda buy it?"
"Because she thought it was cute. It was nothing but trouble." he told her.
Seeing he was moving into the kitchen area, Jackie put the book back and went over to join him. "Anything I can help with?" she asked.
"Not right now. You can help with dinner when I get it started."