Disclaimer: I don't own Human Target and intend no copyright infringement.
"I'm more of a show, don't tell kind of guy", Chance replied, now openly displaying his little boy grin.
Boy, was she immune to that. Her dead fish showed more reaction to his attempts at nonverbal flirtation.
Chance felt challenged.
"Think of it as an adventure. First we dump some bodies and then we'll hang out a little, around some really special characters of the underworld." He added light winking to his repertoire.
Her eyes still just stared at him without the slightest hint of softness, amusement, interest. Not a single one of the reactions he usually produced so easily. There was just darkness.
Maybe he should just sort through his collection of telephone numbers and make one of the respective ladies happy with an unexpected call. With a bit of thinking he'd surely find one looking "normal" enough by Winston's and Guerrero's standards.
"I'm sorry, I don't…"
She turned to leave and he could just let her go, let Jamie Prince walk out of his life as unspectacularly and unobtrusively as she had walked in. He was pretty sure he'd never see her again if he remained silent now.
But there was something about her slumped shoulders, the frown on her face, the thin lines at the corners of her mouth… Could it be that she wasn't this gruff on purpose? That she just didn't know what to make of his playfulness?
"What about a visit to the Aquarium of the Bay?", he asked her retreating back.
She stopped. She turned around. Looked at him.
"I've heard of it…", she muttered, very reluctantly.
"It's a great place. Come on, trust me."
He waved down a taxi before she had the chance to make up her mind. Of course he could have offered her a ride with his own vehicle, but he was a stranger to her and she apparently very cautious by nature. A taxi was surely safer from her point of view – less chances he could mug her. Bag with dead fish still firmly clutched in her hand she clambered into the car with him and they made the short trip to the aquarium.
Chance silently debated telling her Jamie should just dump the fish in a garbage can before entering the building, but judging from the way she was holding on to the bag he had the feeling it was not a good idea, asking her so flippantly to let go of them. For some reason they seemed to be important to her.
He wondered if she had some sort of mental problem, but according to the personal file he had pulled from her employer's database everything was fine in that regard, not record of institutionalization or psychological treatment at all. Jamie Prince, 35, was a structural engineer with a degree from the University of Wisconsin-Madison and very good employment references. She had only just moved to California a few weeks ago – maybe that's why she behaved so oddly. From America's Dairyland to the Golden State, it was quite a culture shock after all.
The aquarium offered lockers and he made sure the dead fish were safely tucked away before they entered the Discover the Bay exhibition. At first Jamie didn't say anything – which was apparently pretty much par for the course with her, as far as Chance could tell by now. They looked at newly hatched Skates, juvenile perch, a swirling school of anchovies…
"Close your eyes", Chance suddenly said.
Jamie hesitated.
"Just for a moment", he insisted, tilting his head, eyes twinkling.
And lo and behold, for the first time ever since they had met his demeanor had an effect on her. Figuring that there really wasn't that much that could happen in a room full of people she shrugged, sighed and closed her eyes.
Cautiously, very cautiously, so as not to spook her, he took her by the shoulders and steered her towards a large fish tank by the exit of the room.
"Open them again."
Her eyes widened in sheer wonder as she caught sight of an extremely bright orange fish. It was oval shaped, displayed rather large, shimmering scales, a deeply notched caudal fin and softly rounded lobes. Its mouth was rather small but the lips, in comparison, were huge. The animal was swimming right by the tank's glass.
Jamie stepped as close to the pane as possible and for a minute or two just wordlessly stared at the creature's golden body that seemed to glow on its own in the dim light. Every graceful move it made seemed to accentuate the enormous brightness of its color even more, sending ripples of gleaming sunshine along its whole body.
"That's not a goldfish, is it?", she asked.
"It's a Garibaldi, California's official marine state fish", Chance explained.
"Quite fitting…", she mumbled as she walked off, deep in thought.
As they continued their tour of the aquarium through the facility's huge glass tunnels Chance noticed that tears were gleaming in the corners of her eyes.
The second tunnel they entered brought them face-to-fin with a Sevengill shark as it soared right over their head. "That's what you meant, isn't it? Characters of the underworld – you were talking about the ocean, about deep water predators… you were trying to make me laugh by sounding like some sort of cliché criminal."
At the look on Chance's face she actually did start laughing. "Yeah, I know, I'm not really good at understanding jokes…"
Chance took her by the hand and led her to the last part of the aquarium, the Touch the Bay exhibition. "When I say hang out with, I really mean hang out with", he chuckled and a moment later Jamie found herself looking at a touch pool, offering her the opportunity to literally lay hands on bat rays, big skates and…
"Are these SHARKS?"
"Come on, don't tell me you never wondered what they feel like…" He took her by the hand again and while the first time around she hadn't paid much attention to the physical contact, it had just been a way to lead her in a certain direction, she was now becoming acutely aware of it.
Chance, too.
Her fingers were trembling slightly, he could sense her nervousness, her uncertainty… He needed to be gentle. If he somehow forced her now…
"Actually no, I never did…"
"Trust me", he said softly and just waited.
Jamie stared at the sharks… they were not that big, but their teeth… For now her hand was resting safely cupped in the hand of that strange man, Chance, who for whatever reason kept popping up in her life… had dragged her here… maybe she would have visited this place without his insistence, some time in the future… it was on the list she had made. But would she have paid attention to the Garibaldi, the shark, the touch pool without his company… or would she have blindly stumbled through everything, another item on her list to tick off before she moved on to the next task?
Chance felt her relax. Slowly he pulled her hand into the water and kept it cupped in his own. A young leopard shark approached, circled the new object and finally brushed past it so close, they could feel its raw skin moving against their own.
Jamie gasped. A shiver ran down her spine and involuntarily she retrieved her hand and leaned into Chance.
Just as involuntarily he wrapped an arm around her and held her.
"Are you going to tell me why you cried after seeing the Garibaldi?", he asked softly.
"Now I'm sad that my goldfish died", she replied, barely audible, and new tears threatened to run down her face.
"I'm sorry." Chance truly was. "I didn't want to make you cry."
"It's okay." She wiped the tears away. "It is sad when something dies. Just brushing the sadness away, pretending as if death was nothing… that's wrong…"
Now Chance was sad, too, because damn, was she right.
They buried her fish together at a remote place by the Bay.