"'Bye, Jack! See you later!"
"Yeah, yeah, go away," he grumped, shooing the kids off. Janet laughed as she got behind the wheel, Mary watching carefully from the passenger side. "Be careful! Don't hit me when I'm crossing the street!"
"I drive just fine!" she yelled back, grinning.
"Yeah, whatever." Jack shoved his hands in his pockets and slouched as he kicked at the ground, then chewed at the corners of his mouth as he watched the trio drive somewhat shakily off.
"Heard you've been hanging out at the Mills' place the past few days. Mary's looking a lot better."
"Yeah, well, I told her I'd kill her if she didn't clean up."
Tom laughed. "Missing the pitter-patter of little feet around you already?"
"No," he snapped, "I'm not. I'm glad I don't have to babysit any more. Those brats were getting annoying."
"Yeah, Rachel was getting annoying too, wasn't she, when she didn't call you because she was at dinner with that lawyer idol of hers? I remember you said you didn't want to talk to her, anyway."
"I didn't. She calls me too much."
"Not because you begged her to, or anything."
Jack turned to the other man and glared at him. "You looking for a fight, pig?"
Tom raised his fists. "Let's go, convict. I'll kick your whiny emo ass."
"Only if we get to use live rounds," Jack returned, throwing some light punches that Tom easily blocked.
"Sure; the good guys always win in Cops and Robbers, anyway, didn't you know?" He ducked a punch and then caught Jack in the stomach, but Jack grabbed Tom's wrist and twisted his arm up and behind him.
"Only if I play by the rules. Which I don't."
Then Helna came rushing out of the beauty salon and thrust the baby at the two men. "Argh! Darn it! Here, take Mitzi, I've got something in my eye. Owowowowowow!" Tom slid out of the way, which forced Jack to take the girl-thing or drop it, and he made a face as it giggled at him.
"Ugh, this thing's ugly. Why are you so ugly?" he asked it. He didn't get an answer, just another toothless smile and gurgling laugh. He'd learned the previous day not to let the small hands close to his hair, because the girl-thing didn't let go once something was in its grip. "Ugly, ugly, ugly, and you don't even have the benefit of being a swan."
Helna turned around. "You know the story of the ugly duckling?"
Jack was concentrating on making severe faces at her progeny. "Yeah. Looked it up. Stupid story. Ugly, ugly, ugly," he chanted, bouncing the squirming life in his arms. "Such an ugly girl-thing."
"Did you just call my daughter a girl-thing?" Helna asked in disbelief.
Jack looked up. "Uh . . . yeah. It's a thing and it's female."
"And when do children become actual people to you, and not objects?"
He licked his lips and thought about it. "Uh . . . at chest level."
"Chest level?"
"Yeah. As soon as the tops of their heads hit my chest, they're people. Why?"
She turned away in disgust. "I can't believe we're encouraging this man to breed," she muttered to her husband.
Tom laughed as he took Mitzi from Jack. "He's a good guy, Helna. Just needs time to adjust."
"I don't need to adjust!" the good guy protested. "I don't want kids!"
"Then why haven't you filled Rachel's pills yet?" he was asked as they walked across to the deli.
"Crap, I forgot again! Rachel's gonna kill me. She can do it Monday. Hey, candy-cane, gimme the usual," he said to the girl at the counter. Tom grinned as Helna ordered for them, then Mitzi started fussing. Jack took her back. "Look, creature, you'll be swimming with the fishes if you don't shut it, all right?" She calmed down, tiny mouth puckering open in a yawn. "That's right, you go to sleep. Gotta get a lot of beauty sleep to make you pretty, you ugly thing. Now, back to what I was telling you before. You can't trust the mob," he whispered, ignoring the police officer seated next to him, "but you can buy off key players in it, and they don't need to be the big-shots. Middle-men will work, too, as long as you do it right."
Tom sighed. "Will you please stop telling my child how to be a mobster, Jack?"
"This city deserves a better class of criminal," Jack replied as he gestured with Mitzi, "and I'm gonna give it to them!" He got pursed lips and raised eyebrows, then went back to talking at the sleepy girl-thing. "All right, first thing we do is knock off your old man. I don't trust him. Then we buy off a few officers. How's that sound? Gather up two or three local thugs, then take out the bank. Is Wednesday at two good for you? It's good for me. Okay?"
"I don't know if I should arrest him or laugh," Tom murmured as Helna sat down with their food.
"If he shows up at two on Wednesday, I'm hitting him with a frying pan, then inviting him to lunch," she replied. Jack had moved on to plans for taking over a small country; he'd clearly put a lot of thought into it, too. "Okay, small countries I'm fine with. They can take over a country. Just not this city."
"We'll call it Jackestan, and the capitol city will be Mitziville, think that's fair? It was going to be Rachelville, but she thinks some famous lawyer's more important than me, so she's not my main lady any more. We'll have purple M&M's for every dessert, and mandatory Karaoke Wednesdays, with prizes."
"Scratch that, just call the loony bin." Tom grinned at his wife. Jack was still obviously upset that Rachel had gone to dinner instead of calling him, and he'd rambled on earlier about the 'fat, balding lump of a lawyer' that Rachel 'looked at like he was Adonis or something.' Never mind that that fat, balding lump of a lawyer was one of the most successful prosecuting attorneys in the United States; Jack was jealous and sulking.
"You got the new window glass, right?" Jack asked after they were done eating. They'd dropped him off last night to find that someone had broken a few windows. Rory was still hiding under the house and growling whenever someone came near. The police had been over the place, but there were no fingerprints or anything, and Jack had just bitched about the money he now had to spend to fix the windows.
"It's in the truck; I'll cook dinner while you boys fix the windows."
"You're my second best lady, Helna," Jack said with a winning smile.
"Rachel's been booted to third, now?"
He shrugged. "She's off with her lawyer buddies, and besides, I have an acknowledged weakness for Jewesses." He wiggled his eyebrows at her and she laughed as she threw a balled-up napkin at him.
"Sorry, I'm taken."
"Well, I'll stick with Mitzi, then. I only have to wait, what, seventeen years and eight months?" The Fines rolled their eyes as Jack laughed at them.
***
Tom and Jack had just finished the second to last window when a black car crested the small hill. Glancing over his shoulder, Jack growled a little.
"What do they want now?" he muttered, wiping his hands off on a towel and grabbing a cold root beer. He leaned against the awning pillar and wiped the sweat from his forehead as he took a gulp. "Can't talk to you," he called when Detectives Grady and Daniels got out of the car, "wife's not here."
"We heard," Grady replied as he glanced at Tom. "Where is she?"
"California. She'll be back late tomorrow. Oh, Tom, this is Detective Grady and Detective Daniels from the Fair Oaks po-po. This is Lieutenant Fine, from the Loleta po-po."
"Are you always this disrespectful?" Daniels asked.
"I dunno; have I ever been respectful? Think hard, you might find a pattern."
Tom rolled his eyes as he shook hands with the men. "Detectives."
"Lieutenant. We just need a moment of Mr. Dawes' time."
"Ask away," Jack replied as he set the root beer down and turned to the last window.
"What happened?"
"Someone broke my windows. Wow, you're not on top of things today, are you?"
"Where were you last night, Mr. Dawes?"
Jack paused and sighed, rolling his eyes at Tom as they lifted the glass into place. "Visited the Mills, then had dinner with Lieutenant Fine and his wife and their Mitzi-thing, then they dropped me off here at about nine-thirty, when we promptly noticed the windows and called his po-po buddies down to investigate. Talked with my wife for a bit when she finally remembered to call me, looked up some porn on-line, ate a bag of chips, and watched a movie. Then Rachel called again at one to say goodnight, and after a most satisfying hour of phone sex, I went to sleep around two. Got up a couple of times, and finally rolled out of bed at noon, then headed to class. And now I'm here." He pursed his lips. "But I might by lying about looking up porn. So. Who went missing and where did you find them?"
"Three girls disappeared between Sunday night and Monday morning," Daniels said as he leaned against the railing on the stairs and looked up at Jack. "All three of them were found last night, not too far from here. The FBI's probably going to take over the case soon. They were slashed, like the others, but this time there was a Bible torn up around and inside of them."
Jack grunted a little as he and Tom sealed the glass in. He turned a frown on the two men. "A Bible?"
"A Bible."
"Huh. Inside of them?"
Grady's lips pursed. "In every orifice a page could fit in. Are you a religious man, Mr. Dawes?"
"Oh, hell no. There's no way a kind and loving god of any sort would allow all the shit that happens in this world --- including me --- to happen, and I don't care about that free will theory. If there is some sort of supernatural entity floating about the cosmos, it sure as hell left us in the dirt a long time ago." He downed the last of his root beer and reached for a new one. "So, raped to death by the Bible. Kinda funny. This a new thing?"
"Yes." Grady sighed and ran his hands through his hair before pulling out a packet of photos and handing them to Jack. "Are you sure you can't tell us anything about this guy's motives?"
Jack sat on the porch and flipped through the pictures of the bodies and the crime scene. His brown eyes lost their warmth and hardened as he pored over the tiniest of details. His tongue slid heavily across his lips and he was breathing through his mouth. He'd entertained brief suspicions that he'd killed the first girls, but how he would get to Fair Oaks and back, and keep it from Rachel, was a mystery to him. So he'd dropped those thoughts, especially as time had progressed. He didn't like to discriminate in who he killed, anyway.
The smiles were the same, the method of death was the same. The Bible part confused him, but he knew that insanity worked in many ways. Still . . .
"Like I said, this guy's doing them way out in the middle of nowhere. Other than that, I can't help."
The detectives left soon after, and Tom sat down by Jack as they stared out at the ocean. "You know who's doing this, don't you?"
"Would that matter? The police would make a mess of it if I knew and told them, anyway. These women are just a way of getting me riled up. I don't know what he wants for sure, but I've got it handled."
"Handled?" Tom asked sharply. "What are you going to do, kill everyone you think might be doing this? More women are going to die if you don't tell them what you know, Jack."
Jack had grabbed the flash light out of his tool kit and the bottle of nail polish he'd hidden from Rachel that she'd never found, and he'd forgotten about. He started painting on the glass while he spoke. "I don't know anything for sure. I have people looking into it legally, but I'm not going to start a manhunt that might not go anywhere, when the Fair Oaks police and the FBI need to concentrate on searching locally. If I wanted to do things illegally, I'd have to start from scratch; no one from my old life would talk to me at this point."
"So what are you going to do?"
"It's simple." Jack looked up and grinned, pointing the flash light at the wall and turning it on. "Call in the cavalry."
Tom turned to look at the wall and the stylised bat shadow that adorned it.
***
He looked around, then reached his hands out. "C'mere . . ."
The Mitzi-thing raised its arms obligingly, giggling as he lifted it out of its car seat. Its parents were using the restroom, leaving Jack with time to hold the pudgy thing without feeling like he was being judged in a competition. He was sitting in the airport's waiting area, half an hour early, and laid the girl-creature down on his legs, the tiny feet tucked against his stomach and fuzzy head resting on his knees as he leaned over it. Its little fists were wrapped around his pinkies and he waved its arms around, having discovered earlier that a trilling coo, not unlike the sound a dove produced, made the Mitzi-thing giggle. His loose hair --- past his shoulders, now --- tickled its puffy cheeks and caused more giggles, some of them even squeals of delight as he bounced his legs a bit.
"You're such an ugly, loud, obnoxious thing," he said between coos. "I bet they only keep you because you're so horrid-looking that they know no one else will want you. Isn't that right? Ah, I see you admit nothing. But you also deny nothing. I have hunches, see, and I have a hunch . . ." He trailed off as high heels clicked on the ground, accompanied by the rolling of luggage, and stopped in front of him. Jack looked up with wide eyes to find Rachel standing over him, her lower lip trembling as she smiled, unshed tears in her own eyes.
"Uh . . . hi," he said.
"Hi," she replied. He was trying to come up with a good excuse as to why he was holding the Mitzi-thing, not only talking to it but cooing at it, like he enjoyed holding it or something. Rachel just set her bags down and then sat next to him, laying her head on his shoulders as she reached out to gently stroke the Mitzi-thing's cheek. "I missed you."
"Missed you, too." He pressed a kiss to the top of her head and then rested his cheek on it with a sigh. "You're early."
"Half an hour late, actually. I managed to get on an earlier flight that was supposed to get me here an hour sooner, but it got delayed in Philadelphia for half an hour."
They were both watching the Mitzi-thing and not each other. "Oh. Good thing I was early."
"Yeah, good thing."
The clock was chiming eleven-thirty when Jack cleared his throat. "Look, Rachel, about kids ---"
"Jack, please." She shook her head and looked up at him, looking like she might start crying. "I did a lot of thinking this week, Jack. No, just listen to me." She cupped his cheek and smiled at him. "I sprung this whole thing about kids on you with no warning, and expected you just to accept it. I didn't really give you a choice about it; it was pretty much we have a baby or you sleep on the porch for the rest of your life. That was . . . wrong of me to do, Jack, and I'm so sorry." She was holding back tears bravely as Jack stared at her. "I didn't really stop to think that you might have some good reasons for not wanting a baby, like your past and these murders, and . . . and I just want you to know that you don't need to give me an answer right now." Now she looked away, hiding her face in his shoulder once again.
A week ago --- three days ago --- this would have made Jack whoop with joy. Now all he could think to say was, "Oh." And, "Thank you." Oh, there was also, "Someone threw rocks through a couple of windows. Me and Tom fixed them." Then he lifted the Mitzi-thing up and set it back in the car seat before turning to Rachel to give her a proper welcome. Her lips and mouth were exquisite, her touch was even more satisfying than he remembered. Jack held on to Rachel tightly. He pulled her into his lap and squeezed until her back popped and she whined a bit into their kiss, but she didn't pull away when he loosened his grip.
When Rachel did pull back, she pressed her forehead against his and ran her fingers through his hair. "Let's go home, sweety."
Tom and Helna had waited a polite distance away until Rachel and Jack stood up, then walked over to welcome her home.
"How was your trip? You must be tired from the flight."
Rachel smiled as she hugged Helna, then shook Tom's hand. "It's eight-thirty in California and I napped on the plane. I'm still wide awake."
"Yes! I'm getting laid when I get home!"
She laughed and turned to roll her eyes at Jack as he hugged her tightly from behind. "Yes, you are."
"Lots," he said firmly. "Lots and lots and lots."
She sighed and gave the other couple an apologetic look. They nodded and rolled their eyes in understanding. "I took tomorrow off, too, so I could start to get back to the right time zone. So yes, you can keep me up all night if you want to." He giggled and pinched her stomach gently, face buried in her hair. "Oh, Jack, did you fill my birth control?"
He faltered a little, a guilty look on his face. "Uh . . . no, I'm sorry. I completely forgot."
Rachel sighed as Tom gave Jack a significant glare and shook his head sharply. "It's all right; I don't need to take any this next week. I'll do it tomorrow."
"Okay. Sorry." Tom was still glaring at him so Jack slowed down, letting Rachel talk with Helna about how Mitzi was doing as they walked out to the car. "What?" he hissed.
"Tell her no," Tom hissed back.
"No what? No birth control? She said we don't have to have kids right now. I'm off the hook, man." He got a smack upside his head. "Ow! What the hell?"
"She said that because she was feeling guilty about how she's been treating you! It doesn't mean she doesn't want kids!"
"Yeah, so?" Jack rubbed the back of his head and probed at his scars with his tongue. "We can wait, now, and I'll tell her if I want 'em or not when that killer's been caught."
Tom smacked him again. "You do want them, Jack, and the search could go on for years. Just tell Rachel you don't want her to be on birth control any more; you don't have to try to get pregnant, you can just let it happen if it happens."
"Uh, yeah, Tom? She'd be knocked up in a week if I did that. Besides, I don't know where you get the impression that I want kids."
"Oh, for the love of --- you're a damned expert in fairy-tales these days, Jack! You grab a hold of Mitzi every chance you get, and you've been sulking ever since Mary started taking better care of her girls, so they haven't been spending as much time with you! Not to mention riding to their rescue every chance you get and showing off about it! You're in serious denial about wanting kids, pal."
"Oh, fuck you," Jack responded. He didn't really have a better response, and didn't let himself ponder what that implied. He slid into the car and crossed his arms over his chest as he scowled. "Let's go so I can have sex."
"Just wait until you're home," Helna said as she put the Mitzi-thing's carrier in and secured it.
He lay his head back against the seat and closed his eyes. "Right. I don't want to put the Mitzi-thing to sleep again."
"The Mitzi-thing?"
The other woman sighed as Tom pulled out of the parking spot. "Jack's theory is that people are things until they're at chest level to him."
"What?" Jack asked as Rachel turned raised eyebrows to him. She just laughed and smiled, taking his hand across Mitzi's car seat.
***
For once, it was Jack who was losing the quiet game. He was also the one tied down to the bed, too, and was loving every minute of it. His little Rachel could be quite aggressive when she wanted to be, and he arched his back in pleasure as she raked her nails down his chest, leaning down to bite his nipple. That made him groan and buck his hips up; Rachel responded with a sharp pinch to his other nipple, then her teeth were sinking into his neck and he cried out again, whispering dirty things to her that earned him a slap across the face and a yank on his hair.
"Hold still, damn it," Rachel hissed as she sat up again and slapped his hip. Jack laughed at her and obeyed, his whole body shaking with the effort it took to keep from thrusting up into her. She lowered her head and rested her hands --- still in the cuffs he'd managed to get on her before her surprise attack had overwhelmed him --- on his chest as her hips moved over his. Her nails dug in and broke skin and Jack whined, his arms straining against the ropes that held them to either side of the bed.
While normally given to many delicious, varied vocal expressions of pleasure, this time Rachel only whined a little each time she sank back down onto him. She kept rocking against him, those fast-paced whimpers picking up speed and volume, and Jack loved them. He forgot all about keeping quiet and holding still and almost threw Rachel off of him, but she grabbed his face and kissed him roughly, tongue demanding entrance into his mouth and he willingly gave in. The chain of the handcuffs on her wrists was cutting off his air supply just enough to produce a wonderful sensation, and as Jack lost control so did Rachel, tossing her head back with a throaty yell that he echoed, and then she collapsed on top of him as her whole body trembled and twitched once in a while.
"Oh, shit," he whispered hoarsely before coughing. "We need to fuck like this more often." Rachel laughed into his neck and rested for a minute or so before rolling off of him and snuggling close. "Hey, hey, let me go already," Jack murmured.
"Mm-mm," she mumbled with a shake of her head, sitting up enough to pull the covers over them.
"What? What do you mean, 'mm-mm'? C'mon, Rachel, untie me."
She laughed softly and closed her eyes as she settled back down against him. "No. You leave me tied up overnight all the time."
She really wasn't going to untie him. Jack cursed a bit, but all that earned him was two fingers against his mouth and a quiet command to shut up.
"You are so going to pay for this," he told her as she yawned.
Rachel just leaned up to kiss him. "Go to sleep, Jack. I love you."
He nipped at her lip, then mumbled something in return and watched Rachel fall into dreams.