Aftermath Suspicion

Everyone gathered in the garage. Borden and Drake leaned against the wall closest to KITT. Kitson was sitting on the hood of the Trans-Am, nonchalant, as he had seen Michael do numerous times. Beside KITT was KARR, and Carson was mimicking his brother's pose. Banachek guided Bonnie into the garage, followed by Heather, Jess, and Raven. The medic – and old, wiry man named Gail – followed them with his first-aid kit in his hand. Kitson turned to watch as Gail sat the girls down in a circle in between KITT and KARR. Carson glanced over and glared at the medic. Before Banachek could say anything, he spoke up.

"You still working here, dirty old pervert?" he spat. Gail glared right back.

"Like you have room to talk." he bit out. "You want me to fix your girlfriend or not?" He turned his focus back to Raven's arm and began stitching up the wound. Heather kept her eyes focused solely on him.

"You do realize if you do anything, and Raven doesn't gut you, I will." she pointed out.

"Like you're in any condition to do anything." Gail snipped.

"I'm not. He is." She pointed at Carson. "And him." Kitson. "Him." Borden. "And him." Drake. She smiled sweetly. "What I'll do is sound the alarm, sit back, and enjoy watching them tear you to pieces."

"Are all of you this violent?" Bonnie demanded. Her face was slightly pale, her eyes wide in shock. This wasn't what she was used to. The only time she had ever seen Michael even half as mad was when Stevie was killed. She hadn't approved, but she understood. This she didn't even understand.

"We have a code." Kitson said. "Mess with one of us, mess with all of us."

Raven chuckled dryly. "In other words, that which does not kill us had better run pretty damn fast." She hissed in pain as Gail began stitching up the wound. It only took a minute, and then he moved on to Jess. This time Raven stopped him. "Stitch Heather up. We'll take care of Jess." Gail glared at her but did as he was told.

"You really don't like him, do you?" Banachek wondered.

"We've been telling you this for how long now?" Borden muttered sourly. "So who's the chick? Jess told us she picked up a passenger, but she wouldn't say who."

Kitson glanced up at the new woman and froze. Even before Banachek said it, he knew.

"This is Bonnie Barstow. I'm running her prints now, but for the moment we'll call her Bonnie." He motioned to each member of the team in turn as he introduced them to Bonnie. "That's Borden and Drake, our mechanics and computer specialists; Heather, Jess, and Raven Knight, our agents, and Kitson and Carson." He stopped there. How exactly was he supposed to explain what those two were to New Foundation?

Kitson smiled at Bonnie. "We're what you might call benefactors." he said simply. Once again, Carson got a smirk on his face like he knew something that his brother wasn't saying. Bonnie ignored it. Her focus was on the black Trans-Am.

"Who drives that?" she asked, pointing at it.

Banachek shrugged. "Whoever he wants to." he replied simply.

Kitson overrode him. "I own the Trans-Am." he said, glaring at Banachek. "If the girls need to borrow it, I let them." It felt odd, talking about himself as an it, but he had learned that referring to the car the same way he referred to himself only got unwanted questions. Until they got the confirmation from the print lab, there was no way he was letting this woman know about him. Banachek nodded and turned to Bonnie.

"What we would like to know is what FLAG wants with you." he said gently.

Bonnie hesitated. "Can we talk about that tomorrow?" she asked. "I'm extremely tired."

"Of course. I'll show you your room." With that the two of them left. Chris stepped out of the shadows where he had watched the entire exchange. Gail stood up and left, ignoring Jess who still had a makeshift bandage wrapped around her side. Heather moved over to her and began stitching up her side. It wasn't as good as it would have been if Gail had done it, but none of them were taking chances with that man.

Chris crouched down beside Heather. "Is it bad?"

"She's fine." Heather assured him. "We just didn't want that perv touching her." Chris grimaced and sat down behind Jess, wrapping his arms around her shoulders. Kitson and Carson exchanged looks and vanished. KARR spoke up.

"We would appreciate it if the girls stayed with us tonight." he said.

KITT agreed. "Actually, we would appreciate it if all of you stayed in the garage tonight." he added. "After what happened last time, I don't want to take any chances until the print lab confirms her identity." His electronic voice was dark, and Borden walked over to lean against the passenger side door. The young man didn't say a word, but his presence was all the comfort KITT needed. KITT still had a habit of turning on himself for not seeing through the fake Michael soon enough. In the end, though, it hadn't mattered. Raven, Jess, and KARR had made sure of that.

"You do realize that Paul is back, right?" Borden pointed out suddenly. Heather didn't even flinch as she tied off the ends of Jess's stitches.

"Oh yea. He made his presence known with a grenade a bit too far to my left." she said dryly. Borden rolled his eyes.

"You idiot. Do you realize – "

"Yes, I realize." Heather snapped, turning to glare at her brother. "I realize he's a dangerous psychopath that's probably just itching for a reason to kill us all, but primarily me. When are you going to realize that I am perfectly capable of defending myself and have no need of your concern?"

"Self-preservation is a touchy issue for Heather." Jess explained to Chris, who was still holding her with a dumbfounded look on his face. At that moment, Heather got up and retreated to a small room that was connected to the garage, where they kept a small supply of food and a toilet. Jess almost laughed. She and Raven got into bickering fights when they disagreed. Heather and Borden avoided each other.

It was almost cute.

"Okay." Raven said suddenly. "If that's all said and done, I'm going to brave Heather's so-called wrath, get into some clean clothes, and go to sleep." She glanced at KARR, and the Cuda opened the driver's door. She smiled. "See you guys in the morning – anyone wants to wake me up, remember that I am running out of places to hide the bodies."

As soon as she was out of the room, Drake laughed. "She's just so sweet."

"Don't let her hear you say that." KARR muttered.

/----/

An: Once again, I'm cutting this a bit short and abruptly. It has a life of its own, and it won't stop!