Chapter 17

Chicago, Illinois

April 2, 2010

The helicopter that carried Jack Harkness, Rose Tyler, and Grace Holloway came to a gentle landing on the airstrip at Chicago's UNIT headquarters. The moment it touched ground, a skilled team of UNIT medical officers rushed to the air vehicle and retrieved the sedated patient aboard, taking him to the medical wing per Grace's orders. The doctor continued to ignore Jack's insistent words about obtaining a plane flight to New Mexico, her concern for her patient taking precedence over the Captain's irritation.

Instructing a soldier to guide Jack to the doctor's lounge of the medical wing, Grace went to ensure that the man she saw as Sam Beckett was comfortably situated in a room before running several tests to determine what exactly caused his unusual behavior at the airport. Finding no physical flaws, she determined that a psychiatric evaluation was in order and requested the resident UNIT psychologist be brought in to question the patient once he regained consciousness. In the meantime, however, she knew that she had an angry ex-Time Agent waiting for her. Walking into the lounge, she immediately headed for the coffee maker and mugs. "Coffee, Jack?" she offered bluntly, once again ignoring the look in her former leader's eyes.

"We don't have time for coffee. I need to get back to New Mexico!"

"Feel free to request a flight from the Colonel, then. I'm sure that he'd be willing to accommodate you." Seeing him start for the door, she added, "You'll be going alone, though."

With a crisp military turn at her words, Jack stated, "She has to go with me. This is important, Grace. There could been grave consequences if we don't get back to New Mexico."

"She?" Grace questioned. Not getting an answer other than what she pegged as a realization of a slip, she sighed and took a sip of coffee, enjoying the flavor of it for a moment before shaking her head. "You aren't my boss anymore, Jack. And since I'm chief medical officer of this division, only I can sign off on any patients leaving here. Given that I have no idea why Sam Beckett was so volatile in the airport and I can't find any medical explanation for it, I deemed it necessary to bring in some help." She paused. "You do want me to help him, don't you? Or was that just your way of saying hi?"

"Of course, I want to help him. What kind of man do you take me for?" He paused. "Okay, I know. It would fit with a lot of our history for me not to give a damn, but..." He paused. "...things have changed. Some."

She laughed slightly. "Some? I seriously doubt it. You didn't care too much about Ricard getting killed. And your obsession with finding the Doctor... I doubt that has changed. You certainly haven't changed physically. You haven't got a gray hair on your head."

"I know that when you were at Torchwood I was still..." He searched for words, "...not that into life/work balance. Since then, though, I've found that it's best for my team. Most of the time."

"So you're saying that heartless Jack actually found a heart?" Seeing the hurt look in his eyes, she slowly put her coffee down not looking at him. "That wasn't fair of me. I'm sorry. But you can't expect me to be all... reminiscent after our break-up. Torchwood was the worst time of my life." She raised her eyes to meet his. "And the best. If you hadn't found me in that crummy clinic..." She sighed, taking the chair next to her coffee. "It really is good to see you, even if part of me wants to kill you."

"You could do that if it makes you feel better."

Grace couldn't help but chuckle at his words. "You always did know how to make me laugh. I suppose shooting you really wouldn't do either of us any good and there would definitely be questions about you posting my bail." She looked up at him and sighed. "Oh, sit down, will you? You aren't going anywhere until I have answers."

Jack sighed. "Fine. I'll sit down, but I'm not kidding. Both Dr. Beckett and I are in something right now that could very well seal the fate of Earth." He went over and poured a cup of coffee before sitting across from her.

She leaned forward and supported her head on her hand. "You can start by telling me who that person in the bed really is."

Blinking, the eternal man said nothing at first. Then, pulling together a brilliant smile, he answered, "I don't know what you're talking about. You said yourself you recognize Dr. Beckett."

"Temporal aura," she told him bluntly. "Fooled me for a moment until I got a good look at him. I used to be a Torchwood agent and I'm current chief medical officer for UNIT HQ Chitown, remember? I'm not easily fooled by temporal auras. Not for long, anyway. Besides, I can hear it in your voice every time you call that person Dr. Beckett. I know you too well, Jack. I can tell when you're lying. Besides, you called her she."

Jack looked around the room, noting they were the only ones in it. He went over to the door and locked it. Then pulling out a small piece of equipment, he placed it on the table and activated it. "Okay. You're right. It's not Dr. Beckett. Well, not exactly."

Watching Jack put a strange object on the table, she smiled slightly. "I see you've got a new toy. Isolates the room?"

"Yes. I was thrilled when it came through the rift. Who'd have thought a Wilical Damping Cube would drop into my lap. I've wanted one of these since my ex-time agent partner got one. He said it made interrogations much more... um... flexible."

"Is that what this is? Me interrogating you? You're a very cooperative interrogatee. Speaking of which... who's the woman behind the temporal aura?"

"That's not what I said, Grace. I said that's what he used it for. Me? I just don't want anyone overhearing what I'm going to tell you. I know you have a high security rating in UNIT but some of what I'm going to tell you get into the realm of a US Ultra Secret project. I don't want to have to wait until we get you cleared for that."

"You're not going to convince me to let you two go and then Retcon me to forget I ever did it after you've left," she told him. "And you aren't answering my question. Who is my patient?"

"The aura is hiding a twenty year old woman from London. Rose Tyler. She's one of the Doctor's companions."

Grace was silent for a moment, thinking about his words, before continuing. "So why does she look like Sam Beckett?"

"Because, Dr. Beckett is the first human being to travel in time..." When he could see her starting to argue, he held up his hand, "...through his own experiment. The problem is he doesn't use the vortex. Instead, he leaps from point to point, and aura to aura."

"So Dr. Beckett replaced the Doctor's companion in time." She huffed slightly. "Bet the Doctor isn't happy about that. And where's the Doctor?"

"Peru," Jack stated confidently. "And, no. He isn't happy and I can fully understand why."

"Well, when some 20th century scientist replaces your friend... Why would Beckett displace her in time anyway? And what does any of this have to do with you getting back to New Mexico in such a hurry? You know I don't like fishing for answers, Jack. Just... tell me already."

"Dr. Beckett doesn't 'choose' where he goes or, if he does, it's a totally unconscious act. What I'm going to tell you is going to fly in the face of everything the Doctor has told you. I didn't believe it at first myself."

"He didn't tell me much," she admitted. "And given all that I've seen, I'm pretty sure that I'll believe it, especially since you do."

"Dr. Beckett changes things in the past. Things that have gone... wrong. Something, someone, or maybe it's some unconscious personal mission... I don't know… places him where he's needed. All I do know is that it happens and it's been happening for fifteen years without any negative impact on the timeline. I'm not sure how he does it... but... it works."

"So, since Dr. Beckett puts things right in time, then he must have replaced Miss Tyler to correct something that went wrong in the Doctor's life. And taking Miss Tyler to New Mexico..." She leaned back in her chair as she collated the information given her into a reasonable conclusion. "Dr. Beckett disappeared from New Mexico. His project is there and you are returning her. Did she escape or something? Pretty long way from New Mexico."

"Not escape." He bit his lip. "Respite. Most of Sam's leaps are relatively short. A few hours, a few days, a week at most." He sighed. "This one has been over two months. I took Rose Tyler to a tropical destination for her best interest."

"Two months?" she questioned. "No wonder the Doctor's upset." She gazed on him for a long moment, reading his expression. "You really care about her, don't you? More than that. You know her, and I don't mean you've gotten to know her in the last two months. You know her almost as well as you know me." She paused thoughtfully. "You didn't sleep with her, did you?"

Jack's eyebrows rose quickly. "No!" he said with intensity. He then shook his head back and forth a bit. "Not that I find either Rose Tyler or Dr. Beckett uninspiring. But the Doctor is in love with her, Grace. And Dr. Beckett? Let's just say he and I are on opposite sides of how to deal with sexual issues."

"The Doctor is in love with a twenty year old girl from London?" she questioned with surprise in her voice. She shook the thought away abruptly, knowing that it was getting off the main issue. "I still don't see what your hurry is, Jack. From what I've seen, that girl is severely traumatized. Did you see anything, do anything that might have brought on her behavior?"

"No... nothing but that's really not important at the moment." Seeing Grace starting to argue back, he put up his hand, continuing. "If I don't get back to New Mexico and prevent certain actions, Harold Saxon is going to take over the Earth and you really, really, really don't want that to happen."

She looked at him as if he had lost his mind. "Harold Saxon? The head of the Prometheus Institute?" She laughed slightly. "You're kidding, right?"

"No. I'm not. And this is no laughing matter. What you and the rest of this planet don't know is..." He paused only a moment, knowing that of all the people on Earth, Dr. Grace Holloway was one of the few that would understand his next words. "...is that Harold Saxon is the alias for the Master."

Grace stiffened abruptly at his words, fear threading through her body quickly. "That's not funny, Jack."

"Do you see me laughing? I don't think it's funny either."

"The Master is dead. The Doctor told me he fell into the Eye of Harmony," she emphasized. "And I don't think the Doctor is prone to making that big of a mistake."

"Oh, he's been known to make a few decisions that have been... well, boneheaded isn't too harsh a word." He looked at her expression. "Trust me on this one. But that's not important at the moment."

"Oh, the Master taking over the world isn't important and the fact that the pseudo Dr. Beckett is a basket case isn't important." She huffed. "What exactly is important then, Jack?"

Jack narrowed his eyes at her and the interruption. "You didn't let me finish, Grace. You always do that. Five years apart and you still don't let me finish."

"Well, if you would just get to the point instead of rattling off nonsensical dire predictions of dead aliens coming to take over humanity..."

"Grace! Stop. This is too critical to be another fight that ends in great sex." He shrugged when her eyes told him he was stepping on unstable ground. "Worth a shot. Anyway, what is important is I know what's going to happen and if I don't prevent Sam's partner from making a serious mistake, Sam Beckett is going to die, the world is going to give their undying allegiance to the Master, and the concept of going to hell in a hand basket is going to take on a whole new literal meaning."

"Dr. Beckett has a partner? Then why don't you just call him or her and tell them not to do whatever it is that he or she shouldn't do? You have a cell phone. Use it."

"I could but he isn't going to believe me. I've got to be there."

"Terrific," she said sarcastically. "Well, it's too bad for you, then, that you aren't going anywhere. At least not with Dr. Beckett or Rose Tyler or whoever is lying in that bed."

"You'd allow the world to be taken over by the Master?"

"If he were alive, I'd say absolutely not. But if I were to choose between the Doctor's word and your word, I'd take the Doctor's any time of the century. I think you're under a great deal of stress and you really need to relax for a bit."

"Grace..." he tried once more, knowing that she'd made up her mind and it would damn near impossible to move her from her stance. Back when she worked for Torchwood, he could order her to obey him. Now, he had no clout and he knew it.

"Listen," Grace told him before he could even try to go into his Harkness charm. "I'm quite willing to let both of you leave but only after I've determined what affected your friend and whether or not she's okay for travel. It wouldn't be the first time something seemingly innocuous turned out to be a dangerous contagion."

"You know, you have to be one of the most stubborn women I've ever known... and I've known a lot, biblically and otherwise. Just promise me one thing."

She sighed slightly. "What is it?"

"When people around here start getting a little too chummy about Harold Saxon, will you believe me and we can get the hell out of Dodge?"

She stared at him for a long moment before shaking her head slightly. "Fine. Whatever you say, Jack. At least you aren't trying to make me promise to wear a bikini in the middle of the winter... again."

"Well, it's not winter right now." He grinned. "But I'd love to see you in a bikini... or not. Mostly not."

She glared at him. "You bastard," she growled.

"What?" he asked, genuinely confused.

"Is there ever a moment when you aren't thinking about sex?"

"Honestly?" He thought for a moment. "No."

"Liar," she replied bluntly, standing to refill her coffee. She was silent as she procured the caffeinated beverage and then returned to the table. "I'm having Dr. Merkelson brought in to look at Miss Tyler. Don't worry. I won't tell him that Sam Beckett is actually a young woman in a temporal aura. But I do want him to question her to find out what it was that caused her to be in the state she was. Aaron's better with psychiatry than I am."

"If it gets us out of here quicker, I'm all for it," he answered without responding to her critique of his ability to think with something other than his libido, although he knew she was right.

"Well, I don't know about quicker," she replied. "She might need psychiatric help. From what I saw when I first arrived, she was reacting as if she were in some sort of panic attack or post-traumatic stress disorder."

"She might simply be magnafluxing, which brings up entirely different concerns."

"Okay, you've lost me there," Grace admitted.

"Well, the gist is, something may be happening to Dr. Beckett where he is. She may be reacting to what he's experiencing. In other words, displaced trauma."

"You're telling me that she can feel something that is happening to Dr. Beckett in the past?"

"Yeah. They're connected at some quantum level. I don't pretend to actually understand it that well. I just know it happens."

"And I thought Torchwood was strange," she commented before sipping at her coffee. A long silence filled the air between them as they both stayed within their own thoughts for several minutes. Grace could tell that Jack's was on getting back to New Mexico as quickly as possible. He always was goal-driven. She, however, couldn't help but think about the way things had been between them five years before.

She hadn't asked to be found by him. She'd just been minding her own business - a private medical office, that is - when he showed up and started asking questions about her encounter with the Doctor. She had been stunned that he actually believed her story when everyone else she had told thought she was out of her mind. And when he had offered her the position of medical officer for a secret organization in the UK, she'd agreed because she was told that it would be the adventure of a lifetime, something that she had been sorely lacking since she'd rejected the Doctor's invitation. She hadn't counted on falling in love with her boss. For the five years she had worked for Torchwood, she and Jack had an on again/ off again relationship that had more up and downs than riding the Tower of Terror at Disneyland Paris. And many times it was just as nauseating. Of course, there were those other times... She shook the thought out of her head and hid the sly smile that crept on her lips.

"What?" Jack asked seeing the sudden change of expression.

Grace raised her eyes at his question, knowing that she had been caught in her reminiscing but unwilling to admit it just yet. "What what?" she queried back.

"What was this..." He tried to recreate the look he'd just seen and ended up looking like a goofy school boy.

She guffawed at the expression on his face. "Oh, Jack."

Jack was about to answer when he heard his phone ringing. "Hold that thought," he told Grace, pulling his phone from his pocket. Answering it, he read the ID and groaned slightly. "I told you. Total communication blackout. Doesn't anyone listen to me?" he berated.

Ianto cringed slightly at his words but pressed on despite his boss' tone of voice. "We've come across a bit of a situation."

"What situation?" Jack asked.

"Bloody Owen, that's the situation," Gwen complained, telling Jack that the communication was on speakerphone.

"Why am I not surprised? What happened?"

"Apparently, he believed that it was in his best interests to imbibe in a few pints at the local pub," Ianto replied. "We didn't realize he was gone until Tosh ran a system's diagnosis and noted that his transponder was outside of the Hub."

Jack was quiet for a moment. He wasn't sure the exact time the Pi network would be activated but if Owen was at the pub when it happened, that could be bad. Very bad.

"He's been acting strangely, Jack," Gwen put in. "We had to restrain him in the medbay."

"What happens if someone mentions Harold Saxon to him?"

As if to answer his question, Owen's voice bellowed through the air. "Saxon is going to save us all, I'm telling you! You've got to let me drop the communication's block!"

Jack's face fell overhearing his latest medical officer. "Retcon him. Now," he ordered, his voice stilleto.

"What?!" Gwen exclaimed. "Jack..."

"Retcon?" Grace questioned. "What's going on?"

"No!" Owen yelled. "You're just doing this because you're against Harold Saxon. All of you are!"

"You heard me. Retcon him. Immediately," Jack ordered. "But gag him first."

"Gag him?!" Gwen exclaimed.

"No!" Owen continued screaming. "Don't listen to him, mates. Jack Harkness is dangerous. He's going to lead you all into..."

The man silenced as Ianto followed Jack's second order.

"Ianto!" the second in command of Torchwood berated.

"How large a dose, Jack?" Ianto asked bluntly, now that Owen was silenced.

"How long since you knew he was still under the communication block?"

"Seven hours, fifteen minutes," Tosh replied to the question.

"Then twelve hours should be sufficient."

"Doing it now, sir," Ianto replied, preparing a syringe of the drug in liquid form.

"Jack, you can't just wipe his memory!" Gwen protested. "Just what the hell is going on?"

"You wouldn't believe me if I told you but understand, this has to be done. And keep that communication block up."

"Yes, sir," Tosh replied, immediately closing the link just as Gwen started to scream at him.

Jack put the phone back into his pocket. His face told nothing but his body language was tense. He could feel Grace's stunned expression as she stared at him for a long moment.

"I've all the information I need now to make my decision," she finally said, her voice cold. "You, Jack Harkness, are completely and totally insane."

"I wish that were true. It would make facing what I know is going to happen a lot easier." He paused. "The problem is the world's about to go insane and a lot of very good people are going to suffer because of it." He knew he wasn't going to be able to convince her of that. He grabbed his alien cube and, tucking it into his coat, walked out of the room trying to figure out how this situation had gone so wrong again when he knew what needed to be done.

Grace quickly stood and followed him out, anger on her face. "You gagged and Retconned one of your own people because he heard someone mention Saxon!"

Jack turned suddenly. "Yes, Grace. He would have sold them all out. Torchwood wouldn't be safe. That's why I have them holed up in the Hub and totally separated from what's about to happen. I don't want to have to face the loss of yet another team because the Master is hell bent on taking over Earth." He stopped. "No, that's not quite right. He's hell bent on taking over the whole universe."

"I keep telling you, the Master's dead," she stated bluntly, meeting his eyes.

"And how many times have you seen me die? Just because someone dies doesn't mean it's permanent."

"You're different. You've got bits of the time vortex running through you."

"And he's been regenerated by the Eye of Harmony. You said it yourself. He was trapped there by the Doctor. Don't you get it, Grace? He's back and if he's allowed to complete the path he's started, nothing that we know will continue."

She shook her head. "I knew you were paranoid, Jack. But this is ridiculous." Before he could reply, she started walking away. "I have a patient to attend to."

Jack watched her back as she headed towards a crossing corridor and turned to the left. He leaned back against the wall. "I'm sorry, Doctor. It's going to happen all over again and I can't stop it. He's going to win."

Grace marched through the corridors to Rose Tyler's room, smiling at the guard standing there before entering. Going over to the still sedated woman with a man's aura, she checked her vitals, nodding in approval when they turned out to be steady and normal.

The television had been turned on, apparently to give the patient something to listen to, and the smiling face of the newscaster was providing the latest update. "...in London, Lima, Melbourne, Mumbai. All around the world. Thank you, Harold Saxon, for bringing us to a new level of human interaction."

Grace turned to look up at the television upon hearing the name, frowning slightly at the image of the man in question. She couldn't help but get a cold chill down her spine when she looked at that face, at those eyes...

The nurse who had walked in behind Grace looked up at the television. "Harold Saxon is a good man, isn't he, Dr. Holloway? And so good looking."

"Sorry?" she questioned, turning her head towards the nurse.

"Harold Saxon. The man who created the Pi Network. We're all connected now. We'll never have to fear because the Pi Network is there to solve all of our problems. He's a great man."

Grace blinked for a moment, quickly realizing the situation. If Jack had to Retcon his own man simply because of the name of Harold Saxon, this nurse was the prime example as to his reasoning. She didn't want to think what the results might be if she dared to disagree with her.

"Yes, he is," she said, false conviction in her voice. "I won't need you anymore tonight for this patient, nurse. Thank you."

The nurse nodded and smiled. "Very well, Doctor." She walked out of the room, closing the door behind her.

UNIT's chief medical officer stood in the middle of the room, her mind running at a hundred miles an hour as she tried to come up with a plan. It was plainly clear now that Jack was right; she still couldn't get that cold chill she'd felt out of her mind. Deciding that cutting the transmission in the room was the first step, she quickly went to the television and shut it off. Glancing at the door, she knew she had to get the guard away for long enough to get Rose Tyler from the room and immediately knew exactly what to do. Crawling onto the visitor's chair, she yanked on the television's power plug, separating the plug from the wires before plugging the now loose plug back into the power socket. "Guard! Guard!" she cried out, jumping from the chair.

The guard rushed into the room. "What is it, Dr. Holloway?" he asked, concerned, looking around for whatever was the matter.

"The television! They were talking about Harold Saxon and there was this spark and now it's dead!"

"We can't have that, now, can we?" the guard stated as if there was no other answer to the dilemma.

"Get an electrician," she ordered. "Now! Hurry!"

"Right on it." The guard left quickly, ready to address the problem.

"Putz," she murmured under her breath once the guard was gone. If she'd had any doubts concerning Saxon, they'd been completely eliminated by the guard's reaction to her feigned hysteria. Hurrying out the door, and insuring that there was no one around to see her actions, she rushed down the corridor and turned the corner to see Jack leaning against the wall, looking resigned. "We've got to get out of here," she told him bluntly.

Jack's eyes snapped to her, hope rekindled. "What changed your mind?"

"The cheerful zombies in the hospital. That and the fact that the television just broadcasted a picture of Harold Saxon on the news and I got serious heebie jeebies like you wouldn't believe."

"The Doctor was right. You are brilliant!" Jack stated. "Okay. Now we have to get Rose and get the hell out of Dodge. Somehow, I don't think that's going to be easy now that the mind capture has begun."

"Forget Dodge. I vote getting out of Chicago," she stated, grabbing his arm and pulling him towards the room where Rose lay. "She's still unconscious so my suggestion is that you carry her and follow me."

"Lead on," he stated, following her into the room. Throwing Rose over his shoulder, the aura of Sam Beckett akin to a rag doll, he stated, "We need a plane, preferably with an unaffected pilot although I can probably fake it."

"Like you fake flying a Chula warship," she grumbled. "You told me all about you meeting the Doctor for the first time, remember?" She guided him into the hallway, motioning him to stay with her as she went towards a fire exit.

"Yeah. I'm pretty adaptable," he said. "Still, having a pilot would be optimal... as long as he isn't on Saxon's side."

"I would prefer if you called him who he really is. The Master. Recognized his eyes instantly. They still give me the creeps."

"Okay, as long as the pilot isn't on the Master's side. Know anyone that shuns TV, radio, cellphones, etc.?"

She opened the fire exit door and looked around to make sure that the area was clear as she replied, "The whole base has probably been compromised given that every one of the guards has a radio on them that's hooked up to a satellite relay station which, of course, was provided by none other than the Prometheus Institute. Don't you love government contracts?" she asked sarcastically as she led him down the stairs to the ground level.

"I was afraid you'd say that." He sighed. "Where's the airfield, then? We need to steal a plane."

"About three miles from here. Getting there isn't going to be as much of a problem as obtaining an aircraft." Almost as if to prove her point, she stepped out of the hospital. A row of vehicles adorned the area they exited into.

"You think?" Jack answered. He noticed one of the vehicles was an empty Jeep. He went over to it and placed Rose into the back seat. "Get in." As the doctor got into the back with her patient, he pulled a strange piece of equipment out of his pocket and turned a dial.

"No hotwiring this time?" she quirked an eyebrow at him.

"Well, in a manner of speaking. This is a Waaaaltian energy resonator. Should turn the engine over as soon as I find the right frequency."

"Or make it blow up," she grumbled teasingly.

"There is that," he teased back. However, a moment later, the vehicle started. "Okay. Hold on," he said, throwing the Jeep into reverse and moving quickly whether she was holding on or not. Fifteen minutes later, they had arrived at the airfield, a small caravan of armed soldiers following them in the distance with intent to catch them. "We need a plane that's fueled already. I don't think they'd be very impressed with the idea of my filing a flight plan.

"Don't think you'd have the time to file one anyway if they catch up to us. They can't be more than five minutes behind."

"That one," he pointed to one of the planes. He pulled the vehicle to a stop beside the plane in question before jumping out. Grabbing the leapee and throwing the limp form over his shoulder again, he dashed to the plane.

"Why this one?" Grace questioned as she followed him quickly. "Isn't it a little small?"

"Best choice. Look at the fuel truck beside it. If we're lucky, it's just been fueled. If not, we're screwed."

"Well, then, we'd better pray that the plane is fueled."

Jack pulled open the door of the Hawker 400. When they got into it, he found that, for once, luck was with them. "Okay, we're in business. Secure your patient. I'm getting us in the air pronto."

"I think this is Colonel Stanford's personal plane," she said as she buckled Rose into one of the seats.

"I don't care if it's a mini-version of Air Force One. We're stealing it."

She laughed slightly. "I'm not complaining. Just think it's rather ironic, actually. Here we are running from the Colonel and we're stealing his plane." Glancing out the window, she noticed the Jeeps coming onto the airfield. "And he's mighty pissed about it. Jack, I can see the veins in his neck. Get this bird in the air!"

Jack had gotten into the pilot's seat and was quickly figuring out the controls. "I'm working on it." He pulled out the Waaaaltian energy resonator again. "I hope you're wrong about blowing things up," he said as he activated the dial again. Once more, the engine turned over and the sound of jet engines sucking air was heard. Within moments, they were taxiing onto the runway, the sound of bullets hitting the fuselage pinging away. "I really hope we don't blow up before we get airborne." A few minutes later, though, they pulled away from their pursuers as Jack expertly pulled the jet into a climb. A moment later, he noted they were approaching a cloud front that he figured would provide cover. "It's going to be a bumpy ride, Grace."

"Terrific. As if things couldn't get more harrowing."

"Hey, you were the one that wouldn't let us leave."

"You can sue me later," she retaliated. "I mean, seriously! Would you believe you if you were me?"

"Probably not," Jack conceded, "but that's only because I know how we rub each other the wrong way." He paused. "Usually right before we rub each other the right way."

"Is that a promise?" she shouted back to him.

"God, I hope so," he answered as he took them deeper into the storm.