thanks for the reviews!! Jaklin's very happy :)
Chapter 10 play time
Jak woke up the next morning not even realizing that he had fallen asleep. The first race and Jaklin's little adventure had taken a lot out of him. Jak sat up and looked around to see what Jaklin was up to but she was not in bed or the room. Rubbing his eyes he stood up and walked out into the main room. There was a note on the table stating that everyone had gone to do something for the day.
Jak had to smile they all stole his idea. Now all he had to do was find Jaklin so that they could do something for the day. He looked around the room but there was no one there. Jak frowned he had hoped that they didn't take Jaklin with them. A sound from the kitchen caught his ears. Quietly he walked to the kitchen hoping that it was Jaklin and not Daxter.
Jaklin had a big bowl of cereal on the floor, well most of the cereal was on the floor but there was a good amount in the bowl. She had just managed to get the milk out of the fridge and was starting to pore it into the bowl. Most of the milk pored onto the floor but some of it did get into the bowl.
Jak peeked around the corner and saw what Jaklin was doing and he smiled. Jak walked around the corner and Jaklin looked up at him with a smile and picked up the bowl and walked over to Jak and held it up to him with a big smile. Jak smiled and sat on the floor next to Jaklin and she put the bowl in front of him and sat in his lap.
Jak smiled and picked up the spoon and took a bite of the cereal. It was stale but that was ok, this was the first time in a wile that he had sat down with her and ate. The last few weeks had been hectic for Jak and he hadn't had the time to spend with Jaklin. Jak took another spoon but instead of eating it himself he gave it to Jaklin who was more than happy to eat it. They spent the better part of the morning just sitting around.
Jak finally got around to taking a shower and getting Jaklin around so they could go out. Jak had no idea where they were going to go but where ever it was it needed to be outside. Maybe they would go to the park so Jaklin could play outside. He had a few people after the race stop him and ask about Jaklin, he had found out that some how people around the world had seen when Jaklin fist learned to walk. He wasn't happy about that but he would ask some one if he could have a copy of it so he could keep the memory.
Jaklin was more then happy to let Jak carry her to the car and be placed in her car seat. Jak knew that Jaklin could walk but he wanted the time with her. Jak was having a hard time not thinking about what it would be like when she was older and wouldn't need him as much, but he stopped himself from thinking that. All he wanted to do was live in the here and now, not the future or the past.
Jak looked back at Jaklin in the rear view mirror and smiled, she was sitting there playing with a set of plastic keys. He then looked back at the road, and thought about something they could do together that would be fun for both of them. He had noticed that if he or she wasn't having fun the other wasn't either. Sure there were times when she would be playing with Dez but she looked like she was faking it some times.
"daddy!" Jaklin called to him in a sing song type voice. Making him look in the rear view mirror again. She was sitting there bobbing her head all over the place like she was singing a song. Gods how he wished he could hear what she was singing to him. He hoped that it wasn't her dirty diaper song that she sang to him every time she was dirty.
"I'm driving silly" he called back to her as they were sitting at a red light and she gave him this weird look. Jak rolled his eyes, he didn't have to have a mental connection to see what she had just said. Just up ahead he saw a sign for a park and decided that that would be a good place to take Jaklin.
Jak pulled into the parking lot and parked. After turning off the engine and putting the keys in his pocket he turned to look at Jaklin. Jaklin wasn't paying attention she was looking for something that she had dropped in her car seat. Jak rolled his eyes and hopped out of the car and opened the door to get Jaklin out surprising her.
Jaklin squealed happily as Jak pulled her out of her car seat. The sun was out and not a cloud could be seen in the sky. It was a good day to be outside, it was already October and it was going to start to get cold soon and then it would snow. Jaklin's birthday was in three months, there would be a long break for the races to share Christmas with their families.
Jak shook his head and started to walk to the playground so Jaklin could play. There wasn't a lot of people there. Most were leaving but he didn't pay them any mind if no one was around that would be better then they could play and do silly things with out him having to keep up his hero complex.
Jak got to the play ground and put Jaklin down and let her run around. The moment Jak put Jaklin down she made a dust trail to explore the playground she wouldn't go far she never did like being very far away from Jak.
"she's cute" came a female voice from behind making Jak jump.
"thanks" was all Jak could reply.
"I saw her on TV." came the woman again, Jak turned to look at her. She had a short pixi cut hair style, she was short, with pink hair.
"what do you mean?" Jak asked as he watched the woman's son play with Jaklin out of the corner of his eye.
"when she learned to walk, it was all over the race network for sometime." she said again with a broad smile. Jak ground his teeth that is something he didn't want others to see, the more time passed the more he was not liking the fact that he had brought Jaklin with him. Jak frowned for a bit but could still hear what was going on in the background.
"so who is the mother I'm sure she is really proud of her." said the woman.
"She died" Jak said to her with a slight sigh. The woman bit her lip.
"I'm sorry, so you're a single father then?" she asked wile apologizing.
"yes I am" he said simply.
"I see, how do you do it? I have seen other go threw it but never had to experience it I see it all the time because I work with the CPS." she said sadly.
"CPS?" Jak asked her slightly confused.
"Child Protective Services, we deal with child abuse and neglect, sometimes a parent is doing all they can for their kid and its still not enough and we have to take them away and put them in foster homes until the parent can improve the situation or the child goes up for adoption." the woman continued to frown. Jak looked at her for a while the back out to were he could see Jaklin and the little boy playing.
"I take it you don't have a lot of friends then, the boy yours?" Jak asked out of curiosity.
"No to both of those, my husband and I can not have children so we are adopting him, he is about four years old and it was said that his mother and father were both put into the old baron's prison." she said sadly. Jak lowered his head. The woman took notice of this and was slightly confused. Then it hit her and she frowned sadly.
"I see, your Jak the only person to survive that place, but what I heard is that you were a monster and so was your daughter." she said making Jak growl angrily making the woman look at him.
"yeah I am a monster, that doesn't make me any less worthy to be a father." he snarled at her.
"I saved this planet twice and all I get is shit from every one but now that I have Jaklin it doesn't bother me at all to hear those words, but I will be damned if some one calls my child that she may be able to change like I do but she will have more control over her power." Jak snarled looking at her with anger in his eyes, ironically she smiled at him.
"I know and that is what makes you a good father I can see that in you…" the woman looked over Jak's shoulder. Both of Jak's ears twitched, it was way to quiet and there was a familiar smell in the air, one that he hadn't smelled in a long time. He couldn't quite remember it at the moment but the look of dismay on the other parents face was enough to fell him that something bad has happened.
"Jaklin?" Jak called out as he turned around but he didn't see her, both of the kids were gone. Absolute cold fear grabbed Jak's heart as he started to scan the park for any trace of were the two babies had gone.
("where are we going?") asked Jaklin to the older kid.
(" I don't know I saw something shiny over this way,") said the little boy as he pushed threw some low brush. Jaklin fallowed the little boy for a while but then they stopped.
("I don't know where the shiny went,") the boy said pouting. Jaklin looked around and noticed that it was getting dark. There was a feeling in the back of her mind, daddy was scared.
("lets go back to the park, my daddy is scared") she said to him.
("ok I bet my mommy is scared too,") but when they turned to leave they couldn't remember what way they had come from. The boy began to cry a little but stopped when he heard something in the bushes. Out jumped what Jaklin thought was the ugliest crocodog ever to exist.
("why dose that ugly doggie have a shiny on his head?") asked the little boy.
("I don't know, it smells like dark eco though.") Jaklin said, some how she knew that this thing wasn't friendly and that the two of them were in some deep trouble. Out of fear Jaklin let off a pulse of eco that would help Jak find her.
'Metal heads. That's what that smell was, metal heads a lot of them. Maybe a small nest of them. Damn it, wait that feeling… shit Jaklin!' Jak thought as he looked threw the playground again.
"stay here there are metal heads in this park, I'm thinking that Jaklin and your boy may have walked into their nest I'm going to go get them I'll be right back." Jak said and ran off before he could get a reply form the distraught woman. Jak fallowed the feeling of eco that Jaklin was putting off.
It took about five minutes for Jak to start hearing the faint whimpers of a child, and three more minutes before he could hear the growls of the metal heads. For some reason they sounded frustrated like some one was dangling a piece of meat in front of them and they couldn't get to it. After a good ten minute run Jak came to a small clearing.
Jak stopped in his tracks amazed, he remembered the shield that Jaklin had made a few months ago when Keira had tried to take her away from him again, but this was far bigger. Though it seemed to be getting weaker the more the metal heads jumped and bashed against it.
On impulse Jak threw his right hand out and to his amazement a small orb of red eco shot out and killed two of the metal heads. Jak looked surprised at his hand. Jaklin giggled at him from a far. However it was turned into a cry of pure fear and pain when the largest metal head smashed threw her shield.
The metal head landed on top of poor little Jaklin and thrashed its tail sending the little boy flying at Jak. Jak easily caught the boy and made a small light eco shield and sat him on the ground and told him not to move. Jak turned around and stopped it took every ounce of control he had not to bust out laughing.
Jaklin was now sitting on top of the metal head beating it in the head with a stick calling it bad. No matter what way or how it turned it couldn't get a hold of her or knock her off its back. Jak noticed that one of the other smaller metal heads was going to jump onto Jaklin to get her off what he know could consider the hive leader.
Jak quickly blast him away almost hitting Jaklin who screeched at him. Red eco was not the best option right now he guessed. He watched as his own daughter showed him up by killing three metal head with three beams of yellow eco. Jak slapped himself in the head for not thinking about yellow eco.
Jak managed to kill the rest of the small fries, how was he going to kill the big one with Jaklin on it though? Jak took a moment to look at the little boy behind him to make sure he was ok. The poor kid had fallen asleep curled up in a tiny little ball. Jak's attention was bright back to his baby's first "epic" battle.
From what it looked like Jaklin had managed to get the stick she was hitting it with lodged in between the skull gem and its skull, she was pulling on the stick in an attempt to get it back but is she did it right she could pop the skull gem out of its head and kill it. How ever that's not quite what happened.
Jaklin was able to get the stick out of the spot and killed it by accidentally poking it strait threw the eye socket, Jak was trying so hard not to bust out laughing. Yes what he had seen was funny, but the laugh would have sounded manic as he was trying to cover up just how scared he was.
The body of the metal head disappeared into the usual puff of dark eco in which Jaklin absorbed faster than he ever could. Jaklin reached down and picked up the skull gem and ran over to Jak and presented it to him, much like a cat would.
"daddy!" she said happily to him and Jak smiled sadly. Both of his eco sides were freaking out giving him a headache. Jak reached down and picked her up, he knew better than to throw the skull gem that she had given him away. He put it in his pack and squeezed the hell out of Jaklin.
"please don't ever do that again, or at least until your much older" Jak said as he tried to fight the growl in his voice, he wasn't mad he was absolutely petrified of what could have happened. Jaklin knew this she was far to smart for her own good. Jak wiped his eyes and picked up the sleeping boy and started to head back but ran into the woman not more than three steps away. She simply smiled at Jak.
"she's going to be a good hero like you" she said as she took the boy from him and left with out saying any thing else. Jaklin let out a loud yawn and snuggled close to Jak. The sun had completely set now and it was really dark, thankfully one of his rather interesting abilities from the dark eco wasn't the fact that he could be invisible when ever he wanted to it was the fact that he could see in total darkness.
Jak made it back to his car with out any incidents. He changed Jaklin's diaper and put her in the car seat. Forever after that no matter how many time he would tell Jaklin when she was older, he could never remember driving back the garage. What he did remember was opening the door and walking in the living quarters.
"Jak what's wrong?" asked Keira, all Jak could do was shake his head.
"dude your whiter than a ghost!" Daxter pointed out and all Jak did was wave his hand dismissively. Tess just smiled at him knowingly Jak looked at her for a moment with a look that said 'how the hell do you always know' look and walked off to bed.
"eesh, what was that look for?" Daxter asked Tess.
"oh he just wants to know how I know so much," she said with a smile.
"what do you know?" Dax asked her.
"Jaklin had a little adventure today and it scared the hell out of Jak, that's why he was so pale, in other words what ever happened more than likely could have ended up with little Jaklin not being here any more." Tess said to Dax. All Daxter could do was nod his head it would be best to leave Jak alone until he was over it.
"now see here young lady," Jak said as he poked Jaklin in the nose lightly.
"your not going to do anything like that anytime soon, let daddy train you in some cool things before you do something like that again ok?" Jak asked trying not to let his emotions over run him again. Jaklin giggled at him, then crawled up to his arm and made a little whimper noise.
During all of the comotion Jak hadn't noticed that he had been hurt. Jaklin knew what to do though, she had seen daddy heal himself and her a million times she could do it. Jaklin reached out her hand and touched it. Jak waited he knew what she wanted to do.
Jak, some time ago, had noticed that Jaklin had a slightly harder time using light eco than she did dark eco. It made him worry a bit until he remembered what Tess had told him about that when he had talked to her one day. She had told him that the reason behind that was because he was good with light eco so he could teach her how to use it and she could teach him how to use dark eco, it was balance. Finally a small spark of light eco came from her and she healed the cut on his arm. Jak smiled and picked her up.
"Yay!" he cheered softly to her as she giggled then yawned. Jak took off his jacket, boots and shirt.
"you did really good baby I'm very proud of you" Jak said to her with pride that could have filled the greatest of holes.
"but I think its time for your diapered butt to go to bed and daddy's tired too," Jak said as he put Jaklin in some feetie pjs and laid in bed. Jaklin crawled up and laid on Jak's chest and passed out instantly. Jak gently ran his fingers threw her hair.
Jak smiled as he fell asleep with one thought on his mind.
One day the Daxter, Dez, Jaklin, and himself would save the world together. It would the worlds grand introduction to the new hero's of the world and it was going to be hell.