Disclaimer: This doesn't belong to me.
Chapter 6—A Brief Moment
Mrs. Evans watched in amusement as Jonny and Jessie dragged their luggage through the front door of the compound. The two teens looked exhausted, and it was obvious they weren't speaking to each other. Mrs. Evans' attention however was quickly drawn to Hadji as he stepped through the doorway behind his two friends. She clapped her hands in delight and set about giving him several unnecessary hugs and kisses on his cheeks. She had helped raise all three of the teens, but Hadji with his penchant for being calm and collected under pressure, had won her heart. He never tried to give her a heart attack by trying to jump off the roof of the house in an attempt to learn how to fly.
"It is good to see you too, Mrs. Evans. I have missed your cooking most grievously," murmured Hadji with a genuinely warm smile. Mrs. Evans smiled back and moved aside to allow Race and Benton to enter the front doorway. Her smile faltered when she saw Jade following behind Race, but she quickly hid her discomfort to help Grace out as the older Asian woman stepped inside with several suitcases. It wasn't Mrs. Evans' place to dislike any of the houseguests her surrogate family brought home. She just had to grin and bear it, and thank god that she lived on the other side of town.
Meanwhile, Jonny was climbing up the stairs behind Jessie to deposit his bags in his room. He bit back a scathing remark as Jessie shut her bedroom door in his face. Apparently she was still mad at him. Jonny gritted his teeth and headed over to his room to drop his bags on the floor. He would have to make it up to her later.
The Next Day
"I still don't see why we have to go to school. The Principal wants us to attend lunch detention with him," said Jonny slumping in his seat at the breakfast table.
"It serves you right," replied Race matter-of-factly. "You shouldn't be torturing that poor man anymore. I think you and Jessie have been the cause of more break downs than were possible for that guy. This is his fourth broken marriage!"
Jessie made a face. "You can't blame us for that one. That was entirely his own fault for marrying a gold digger. The fact that she left him for a younger man shouldn't have come as a surprise. She used to be a stripper for crying out loud!"
"Regardless, behave your selves at school," remarked Benton rubbing his forehead wearily. "You two have become quite a handful since you returned to public school. I would rather not receive any more phone calls from your principal. I have a lot of work to do today, so please, please be good."
"I believe I have missed much excitement while I have been in Bangalore," chuckled Hadji with a hint of amusement in his eyes.
"You have no idea," agreed Race turning his attention back to his meal. Jessie glowered at him, and her gaze darkened as Jade descended the staircase and took a seat between both Race and Jonny.
Jessie got to her feet. "We better get going, Jonny. I'd hate to get any more detention than is absolutely necessary."
"But, Jess, school doesn't start 'til eight—it's not even seven thirty yet!" protested Jonny glancing down at his wristwatch.
"Fine, I'll leave without you."
Race shook his head. "You still aren't allowed to drive yet, Ponchita."
Making a face, Jessie walked over to the telephone on the wall and punched in a phone number. She turned to her dad and gave him a bright smile as she listened to the ringing. "Hey, it's Jessie. Do you think you could pick me up and give me a ride to school? Jonny's a bit…indisposed at the moment. Yeah. Thanks, Brad, I owe you one." Triumphantly Jessie hung up the phone as both Jonny and Race got to their feet protesting.
"Brad Hailey? Are you insane, Jess?" demanded Jonny angrily. "That guy's only after one thing!"
"I don't trust him! If you get in that car with him I'll ground you for life!" added Race harshly.
"Do that and I'll move to South America," stated Jessie simply. Race fell silent.
Jonny shook his head. "Man, what's with you lately? You don't even like Brad!"
"I'm getting a ride from him, not marrying him. For chrissakes, why can't you guys lay off me every once in a while, huh? I'm not a fragile little girl—I know how to take care of myself. Besides, Brad's not even my type."
"Try telling Brad that!"
"Oh, grow up, Quest." With that Jessie strode out of the kitchen and back upstairs to gather her things.
Race opened his mouth and then shut it again. Jonny frowned, but kept silent. The two men slumped back down into their seats, each contemplating the latest turn of events. Fifteen minutes later a horn sounded from outside the compound. Jessie bounced down the stairs and out the front door without so much as a glance at her father. Jonny gritted his teeth as the front door slammed shut. Seconds later he was out of his seat, searching for his backpack and car keys.
"I believe I have missed something very important here," started Hadji as Race got up to help Jonny in his search. "Who is this Brad Hailey character?"
"Trust me, Hadji," murmured Benton wisely, "you don't want to know."
Rockport High School
"So, uh, does this mean you've reconsidered and wanna go out sometime?" asked Brad as he pulled into the school parking lot.
Jessie rolled her eyes. "Not really. Thanks for the ride though. You're a real lifesaver."
Brad chuckled as he got out of his jeep and jogged around to the other side. With a wide grin he opened the passenger side door for Jessie. "Admit it, I'm growing on you."
"Brad, we've been over this a hundred times now. I'm just not interested in you."
"Why not? You're not still hung up on Jonny, is it?"
Jessie's eyes widened in horror. "What? You think I'm into Jonny?"
"Well aren't you? Why else would you turn down every guy who has ever asked you out on a date? The entire football team has been turned down! I should know, I'm the captain," replied Brad running a hand through his brown hair.
"Jonny has nothing to do with why I've been turning guys down. It's complicated. My dad isn't exactly very lenient when it comes to boys. If I were to bring a guy home to meet him, I'd rather it be because I really, really like him. Not because he's good looking—or even the captain of the football team."
"Are you saying I might have a chance?" asked Brad with sly smile. Before Jessie could respond Jonny pulled up into the parking lot, and hopped out of his car.
"Hey, Brad. Jessie." Jonny flashed the pair a grin as he joined them.
"Pendejo." Jessie turned on her heel and walked away without another word, leaving both Jonny and Brad speechless.
"Dude, what'd you do to her?" questioned Brad.
"I'm not entirely sure," murmured Jonny with a sigh. "But boy does she hold a grudge."
"Yeah, well whatever you did, keep it up. She's starting to pay more attention to me now." Brad clapped Jonny on the back before jogging to catch up with Jessie.
"Great, my greatest wish come true," muttered Jonny under his breath. Grumbling, the blonde teen grabbed his backpack out of his car and slung it over his shoulder. He walked into the school and made his way over to his locker, barely acknowledging the blonde girl who came up to him.
"Hey, Jonny. We've missed having you around the past couple of weeks," said the girl.
"Hey, Samantha." Jonny turned his attention to his locker as he rummaged around in search of a text book.
Samantha pouted. "Let me guess, you and Jessie had another fall out. Jonny, what do you see in her? You guys break up every other week. Obviously you aren't meant to be together."
"Break up? What are you talking about? Jessie and I have never been together," scoffed Jonny. "We're just friends."
"A likely story. Everyone knows you two have something going on…it's so obvious. Personally, I don't think you two go well together. But hey, that's just me." Samantha rolled her eyes before walking away, leaving Jonny even more confused than ever. His eyes wandered across the hallway to where Jessie was busy stuffing a couple of notebooks into her own backpack, clearly ignoring Brad who was talking away beside her.
For some reason, it was as though he was noticing her for the first time. Lucky for him, the school bell rang, clearing his mind of all thoughts.
Quest Compound
"Here's another indigenous culture that mentions the Immortal Stone," announced Grace looking up from the computer in front of her.
"That makes it the thirtieth one," said Benton rubbing his eyes before replacing his eyeglasses. He too was seated in front of a computer, staring at its screen.
"Actually, we are up to forty now," replied Hadji calmly. He was seated on the floor with several books sprawled out around him. The trio had been researching any and all mention of legends that resembled that of the Immortal Stone. So far it seemed every culture had some kind of tale about the mythological stone. This meant that immortality was high on everyone's list throughout time.
"It's amazing. The Immortal Stone seems to have been sought by the entire world at one time or another," murmured Grace. "I'm starting to wish I had never found it. The entire world is going to want to house that gem at least once. We're going to be globetrotting for the rest of our lives!"
"Think of it as an adventure," remarked Benton with a small smile. "You always wanted to travel the world and see the sights. Now you can without having to dig up another sight."
"That isn't remotely comforting," replied Grace dryly. Benton chuckled, causing Grace to smile, before both adults turned their attentions back to their respective computers. Hadji smiled to himself as well as he glanced down at his books. Love was in the air.
Meanwhile, on the other side of the compound, Race and Corbin were steadily turning the underground basement into a temporary C.I.A. office. Corbin was refusing to leave the Quests until the danger of the Immortal Stone had passed, and at this point it seemed highly unlikely.
The basement was now overrun with agents and high-tech equipment brought in to help locate and track any and all individuals who so much as thought about the Immortal Stone.
Currently, Race and Corbin were going over the last known whereabouts of Melana and Anaya Zin when a younger agent appeared at their table.
"Yes?" asked Corbin brusquely.
"Sir, the Dr. Zin, Surd, and Rage were spotted together in London about an hour ago."
"And?"
"Well, that's the thing…our agent vanished after reporting in to us. We haven't been able to locate him since then."
Race shook his head. "It's looking grimmer by the second, Corbin. They mean business this time."
"Yeah, but would it kill them not to get rid of all my field agents? They're the reason recruitment is down!" growled Corbin darkly. He sighed and turned back to the younger agent. "Keep trying and see if you can locate our man…the least we can do now is find a body."
"Yes sir!" The agent quickly headed back to his computer and headset.
"I'm starting to think we've got ourselves into something more than we can handle this time around," said Race silently.
"Just remember, you signed up for this fifteen years ago."
"Yeah, but I didn't think I'd ever have to go up against three of the most wanted men in the world at one time," agreed Race reluctantly.
Later That Day
"So are you riding home with me or what?" asked Jonny as he leaned up against the lockers beside Jessie's.
The red head shook her head. "I'd rather take my chances with Brad."
"C'mon, Jess, I've said I was sorry like a million times now. What's the big deal?"
"Jonny, do you even know what you're apologizing for?" demanded Jessie shutting her locker and turning to glare at her friend.
Jonny shrugged. "I figured it had something to do with the Jade thing back in London."
"You really are clueless. When will you ever open your eyes and see what's around you?"
"What are you talking about? Jess, if this is about trusting Jade; I think you're getting ahead of yourself this time around. She's on our side."
Jessie sighed. "I know what I feel…and my gut tells me that she's leading us into one helluva trap. One of us needs a clear head if she's gonna be around, and apparently that'll be me. I'll see you at home later."
Jonny frowned and watched as Jessie walked away, joining Brad who was waiting for her. Jonny didn't like seeing them together…he didn't trust Brad. He snorted at the thought. This was probably the way Jessie felt about Jade, but Jessie was wrong about Jade. She had to be.
Shaking his head, Jonny slowly made his way out into the parking lot. He could see Brad's jeep in the distance, with a familiar red head seated in the passenger seat. He clenched his hands into fists and turned towards his own car. Jonny blinked in surprise at seeing Jade seated in the passenger seat.
"What are you doing here?" he asked in confusion.
Jade shrugged. "I was bored. Race is playing C.I.A. agent again with Corbin…and I'm not much help when it comes to cultural mumbo-jumbo, so I didn't bother helping out your father or Dr. Lin. And Hadji doesn't seem to like me much either. He needs to lighten up if you ask me, he's too serious."
Jonny chuckled as he flung his backpack into the back seat of his car and got behind the wheel. "So you figured you'd come to school?"
"I would have asked Jessie to take me shopping, but that would be like asking her to kill me. She really doesn't like me. I don't think she ever will, besides, I thought you and I were friends?"
Jonny gulped as the dark haired woman pouted prettily. He never was good with the opposite sex. Multiple fights with Jessie were all proof of that. "We are. So, uh, what do you want to do?"
"Well, I was thinking that we could talk," answered Jade turning to face Jonny. She brought a finger up to trace the neckline of his shirt.
"T-talk?" wheezed Jonny as he felt beads of sweat developing on his forehead.
Jade nodded with a seductive smile. "Uh-huh." With that she brought Jonny's head down to hers, crashing her lips against his.
Quest Compound
"I'm home!" called out Jessie as she entered through the front door of the mansion. She frowned at the silence that greeted her. Go figure, no one was home. Jessie let out a small sigh as she trudged upstairs to her room. She flung her backpack onto her bed before heading downstairs to the kitchen. She was greeted by a bark.
Grinning Jessie crouched down onto the ground and patted her legs for Bandit to come to her. The older dog happily trotted over to her and greeted her hands with slobbery kisses. Jessie gave him a thorough petting before getting back onto her feet. The next ten minutes were spent giving Bandit fresh food and water.
"Apparently you've been neglected too, huh?" she murmured to the dog as she watched him much away at his food.
"Ponchita, is that you?" called out Race appearing in the kitchen.
Jessie raised an eyebrow. "Who else?"
"Where's Jonny?"
"Don't know, don't care."
"Alright, spill, what's going on with you two?" demanded Race suspiciously.
"Dad, you wound me. Why is it that you always think the worst? Why can't Jonny and I have separate lives?" replied Jessie, feigning mock hurt.
"Maybe because you two haven't been apart since the moment you met."
Jessie made a face just as Benton walked into the kitchen with Grace on his heels. "If the Immortal Stone really does have the powers that legends say it has, then those powers need to be manifested into some type of conductor so that no one can utilize their potential. There has to be a way to get that power out of the stone," said Benton running a hand through his hair.
Grace sighed. "I wish I knew of a way, because then it would solve all or our problems. The fact that no one has been able to utilize any of the hidden powers of the stone does not bode well for society today. We could be in even greater danger now with all of the technology around us."
"I take it you two haven't found anything useful yet, huh?" teased Race taking a seat at the table.
Benton took two bottles of water out of the refrigerator and handed one to Grace as they joined Race at the table. "It's frustrating to know that that stone could be more dangerous than a nuclear warhead."
"Hey," started Jessie, "where's Hadji?"
"Mrs. Evans roped him into taking a trip to the store with her to pick up groceries," answered Benton with a grin.
Grace giggled. "I thought it was sweet. It's quite apparent that she's missed having him around."
Jessie grumbled. "I knew she favored him over me and Jonny."
"Can you blame her?" questioned Race. "You and Jonny put quite a few gray hairs on her head—if not all of them. Remember when you tried to fly off the roof?"
"Ha. Ha. You should be a comedian." Jessie turned to glance out the kitchen window and frowned as Jonny pulled up with Jade in the passenger seat. "Speaking of Jonny, he just brought in the trash."
"That's funny, today's not Tuesday," murmured Race. The older man got out of his seat and went to glance out the window to see what Jessie was talking about. He frowned down at his daughter after spying Jade getting out of the car. "That isn't nice, Ponchita. You know I don't like it when you call Jade names."
"But you call mom names all the time."
"Cute. Now go to bed. Apparently you aren't up to being civilized for dinner tonight."
"It will be my pleasure. Be sure to say goodnight to the lady slut for me, would you?" Jessie patted her father on the cheek before heading up the stairs with Bandit on her heels.
Race turned to Benton with a pleading look on his face. "You wanna trade kids?"
"Not a chance."
"Is something wrong?" asked Jade, rushing to Race's side upon entering the kitchen.
"Just living up to my expectations as a parent," replied Race brushing his lips against Jade. "Where's Jonny?"
"He said something about having some homework to do." Jade smiled brightly as she wrapped her arms around Race's waist. "He'll be down later."
Upstairs, however, Jonny was far from doing homework. He was sprawled out across his bed, still thinking about Jade. Everything about her was intoxicating. Her face, her lips, her scent…if Jonny didn't know better he would say he was in love, but he knew that wasn't the case. It couldn't be the case, could it? But that kiss from earlier…
Jonny sat up in bed and ran a hand over his face. If Race ever found out about this Jonny would be dead. The man was protective of Jessie…Jonny could only guess how the man would react when it came to his part time lover.
"Man, I am so screwed," groaned Jonny to himself.
Later That Night
Jessie sighed as she made her way downstairs. She had been true to her word and not made a single peep from her room during dinner. But now, three hours later, she was starving. On padded feet, Jessie made her way into the kitchen and over to the fridge. She opened it up, indecision hitting her as she studied the contents of the fridge.
A soft sound from out on the back porch interrupted her train of thought though. Frowning, Jessie closed the fridge and concentrated on the sound. She couldn't quite place her finger on what it reminded her of. As silent as a mouse Jessie made her way over to the kitchen sink and glanced out onto the porch. What she saw sent a knife through her heart.
"Jessie?" Hadji called out softly as he entered the kitchen. When the red head didn't respond Hadji walked over to the sink. He glanced at her quizzically before following her gaze outside. He heaved a heavy sigh as he made out the figures of Jonny and Jade entwined in a passionate kiss.
"Jessie, are you alright?"
"Don't even say anything," hissed Jessie. Hadji watched in surprise as Jessie pushed away from the sink and disappeared up the stairs. He leaned back against the sink, his own mind awhirl. "Jonny, what have you gotten yourself into? Only a blind antelope would bring a tiger into its den."
Upstairs Jessie silently closed her door and locked it. There was a wild look in her green eyes as she strode over to her phone. She was angry. She was confused. She was pissed. She was hurt. With those conflicting emotions she picked up the phone from her nightstand and punched in a series of numbers. She sunk down on her bed and waited for the other line to pick up.
"Hello?"
"Brad? It's Jessie. I've been giving it a lot of thought…and I think I want to give it a chance. Us, I mean."
"Really?"
"Yeah. I've never been surer of anything in my life than this."
A/N—Confused? Horrified? Me too. Don't worry, this won't last for long—any of it. I'm already working on the next chapter, so don't hate me too much for all I've done so far.