Entanglement

by R S Penney

  Four brick walls surrounded this little Irish pub, three of which were lined with booths. On her left, the bar counter was operated by a tall man with graying hair and a thick goatee.

  The dartboard was in the corner, right next to the fire exit, leaving them with plenty of room to play. As hangouts went, this place was pretty nice. It had taken a few months, but she was finally getting used to life here on Earth.

  Anna stood with her hands at her sides, smiling down at the floor. “Well then,” she said with a shrug. “I guess I win again. Which means my next drink is coming out of your pocket, Tanaben Loranai.”

  Ben stood next to her with arms folded, scowling at the dartboard. “That's not even remotely fair,” he said, shaking his head. “You've got those enhanced Keeper senses that give you perfect aim.”

  “Not perfect,” she said. “But good.”

  Anna spun on her heel and made her way over to a booth, dressed in a pair of dark blue jeans and a light green t-shirt. As usual, she kept her short strawberry-blonde hair up in a ponytail.

  She found Jack sitting with his hands folded on the table, grinning as he trembled with silent laughter. “Are you done humiliating him?” he asked. “Because you know he'll be itching for a rematch.”

  She sat down across from him.

  Jack looked up at her with lips pursed, blinking slowly. “The guy has a very fragile ego,” he explained. “If you don't let him win a couple games, he's going to be whining at me for weeks.”

  “Not…my…problem.”

  Anna leaned back with hands folded behind her head, closing her eyes tight. “Let me ask you something,” she began. “Have you ever considered asking Gabrina to join us one night?”

  Jack made a face that belonged on a man with a bellyache. “No, I haven't,” he answered. “Besides, she's almost ten years older than us, and she probably won't want to hang out with the pups.”

  “Oh come on!”

  “What?”

  Crossing her arms, Anna hunched over and shook her head. “Don't get me wrong; you guys are great,” she said. “But we need a little more estrogen to balance the group's dynamics.”

  “So you ask her.”

  “She knows you best.”

  His reluctance set off alarm bells in the back of her mind. The urge to ask him for clarification was barely a coherent thought before the answer leaped out at her. “You like her!” Anna shouted. “Bleakness take me, you've got a thing for her.”

  Clamping a hand over his mouth, Jack squeezed his eyes shut. The fit of wheezing laughter that followed told her she was way off. “Nice try, Veronica,” he said. “But your Detective skills need a little honing.”

  The mix of emotions that flew through her left her feeling very off balance. There had been a time when it looked like she and Jack would become close, but an assignment off-world had put an end to those plans. They had never really defined what they wanted from one another in the months since she'd been back.

  Part of that was because she wasn't entirely sure just what she wanted. Much of the spark that she had once felt had faded into a comfortable friendship. She wasn't entirely sure she wanted to close the door, but…

  Anna smiled down at the table, shaking her head as she forced out a little awkward laughter. “So what is it then?” she asked. “Because I can't think of any other reason why you wouldn't want to make friends with a colleague.”

  “She asked me not to.”

  “Huh?”

  Jack leaned against the seat cushion with his eyes closed, breathing deeply to calm himself. “I tried to make her feel welcome,” he explained. “She took it as an attempt at flirting and made it clear that she wasn't interested.”

  “Well, what did you do?”

  He spread his hands in an emphatic gesture that made it clear this conversation was over. “Look, I'm not gonna do this,” he said. “Women are always saying that they should be allowed to be friendly without it being interpreted as a romantic overture. Well, that vice needs a little versa, if you ask me.”

  Anna frowned, her cheeks burning with intense heat. She lowered her eyes to stare into her lap. “You're right,” she said. “I'm sorry. We don't have to invite Gabi if you don't want to.”

  “For the record,” Jack added, “I asked her to have lunch with me, and she accepted. But after the speech she made about not wanting to give me the wrong impression, I kind of figured it'd be a bad idea to ask again.”

  “That's probably wise.”

  A part of her was strangely pleased with the idea of Jack finding someone else. For one thing, that would take the pressure off her. After her rather miserable experience with Daython, she didn't really want to think about dating. Jack, however, seemed quite eager to discuss the matter.

  He looked up at her with those big blue eyes, and she suddenly realized she would hate to be interrogated by this man. “What about you?” he asked, raising an eyebrow. “Is there anyone on your mind?”

  “Not even a little bit.”

  “No?”

  “No,” she mumbled. “To be perfectly honest, I think I'm going to avoid dating for the next little while. It's caused me nothing but frustration lately.” At the moment, the very last thing she wanted was to focus on the mess that was her love life.

  Ben pulled up a chair and sat down with his elbows on the edge of the table. “So,” he said, glancing at each of them in turn. “What do you say, Lenai? Are you up for a quick game of pool to close off the night?”

  Anna forced a small smile, shaking her head. “No thanks,” she answered. “I think I'll spare Jack the pain of your inevitable defeat. Besides, it's getting late and we all have things to do tomorrow.”

  “Yeah,” Ben muttered. “Don't want to miss the show.”

  “The show?”

  Jack chuckled as he leaned over the table. “You know the one where Harry and Jena come in at least five minutes apart so that we won't find out they're sleeping together?”

  “Oh that show.”

  “What's the betting pool at now?”

  Snapping his fingers, Jack pointed at the other man. “You had under ten minutes,” he said, waggling that finger. “So when Harry comes in exactly fourteen minutes and twenty-three seconds behind her, I don't want to hear any whining.”

  “Fine, fine,” Ben said. “No whining.”

  One thing that Harry had never noticed in all his years living in this house was just how much stucco decorated the ceiling of his bedroom. Cold, gray light came in through the window on his left, glinting off the mirror across from the foot of the bed. As it was, he really didn't want to get up.

  Harry was stretched out on the mattress with his hands folded behind his head, his skin still glistening with sweat. “Well,” he said, eyebrows rising. “That's one way to start the day off right.”

  Jena stood up, pulling a red t-shirt over herself. Her head popped through the neck hole, and she blinked. “Best morning workout ever…” she said, turning away from him. “Much better than that lousy treadmill.”

  She made her way over to the window where tiny flurries of snow swirled about behind the glass. The sight of this woman in a pair of black shorts and an old t-shirt was hotter than any underwear ad he'd ever seen.

  Harry bit his lip, shutting his eyes tight. He turned his head so that his cheek was pressed to the pillow. “You know, things have been pretty slow lately,” he mumbled. “I wonder if I should just take the day off.”

  Jena snorted.

  He sat up.

  Hunching over, Harry covered his face with one hand. The sweat on his brow left a prickling sensation. “I don't see why that's so funny,” he said. “There are a few things I need to take care of.”

  When he looked up, she was standing by the window with arms folded, silhouetted by the daylight behind her. “And this has nothing to do with the fact that Anna and Jack might find out we spent the night together?”

  Embarrassment made it hard to lie with a straight face. Harry had always been
a very private person. Part of that might have been the result of years spent keeping Della away from his colleagues. His ex-wife had a tendency to make a scene at the very worst possible time.

  Leaning against the wall, Jena glanced over to the alarm clock on his nightstand and frowned. “I need to get ready,” she said. “I'm meeting with the Senior Directors in less than three hours.”

  “Doesn't sound like you have to rush.”

  Jena moseyed over to the bed with her hands in her pockets, shaking her head ever so slowly. “Well…” she said with a shrug. “I wouldn't have to take a cab to the SlipGate terminal if you just went into work with me.”

  “No, no; we can't do that,” he insisted. “We have to come in at least five minutes apart so the others don't find out we're sleeping together.”

  Once again, she snorted.

  As she made her way around the foot of the bed, Jena paused and stood so that he saw her in profile. “You know,” she said with playful exasperation in her voice. “You're lucky I'm the kind of woman who doesn't mind having a boyfriend with a bewildering need to cover up their new relationship.”

  She left the room.

  Harry felt his lips curl, his cheeks burning with chagrin. “I am lucky,” he said to himself. “And I know that you will never let me forget it no matter how many reminders I may need.”

  A moment later, he heard the sound of the shower running in his bathroom. Now, that was a wonderful idea. “Want me to join you?” he shouted.

  “No thanks!” she replied. “Intimate showers are for boyfriends who don't freak out about the possibility of someone finding out they had sex!”

  That only intensified his embarrassment, but then what could he do? Harry liked Jack and Anna and all the others, but he wasn't about to start discussing the details of his personal life with a kid that he had mentored in the ways of law enforcement. And never mind Lenai! Just the thought of her watching him with a playful smirk while he admitted that Jena had spent the night…

  “Oh Harry!” Jena's voice came through the wall. “I forgot to mention. Since you're now an official member of the team, I thought it was time to upgrade your accouterments. Check the nightstand drawer.”

  He pulled it open to find a gauntlet with a long rectangular touchscreen and a small metal disk attached. The sight of it left him feeling a little off balance. He had never been one of those people who swooned over Leyrian technology.

  Harry frowned as he studied the device. “A multi-tool?” he asked. “I don't know, Jen…I've had the same smart phone for years. Can't I just keep on using that?”

  “Harry, I can put up with exactly one phobia in a lover,” she said. “So which is it? Technology or gossip?”

  Mopping a hand over his face, Harry brushed sweaty hair back from his forehead. “Okay,” he said, blinking. “I'll accept the multi-tool. But I reserve the right to grumble about you whippersnappers and your gadgets.”

  For a long moment, there was silence.

  Then Jena replied with more than a touch of irritation in her voice. “Wow,” she said. “You know, I've never wanted you more than I do right now.”

  He sank back down into the covers, pulling them up over his chest. It occurred to him that his original assessment was correct; there was just no good reason to get out of bed today. None at all.

  He wanted to be a better partner – the kind that proclaimed his love from the rooftops – but there were factors that made that difficult. This was the first relationship he'd had since divorcing Della. Melissa and Claire had been his primary focus over the last four years. That and protecting his city from aliens.

  He still wasn't entirely sure how his girls would react to the idea of a new woman in his life. Melissa seemed to be happy for him, but they seldom discussed it. And Claire? She was too wrapped up in the latest episode of Southampton to care all that much about her father's girlfriend. That alone left him feeling uncomfortable. His daughter was too young to be interested in teen soaps.

  Much too young.

  He'd been musing on the idea of asking Jena to join the three of them for dinner one night, but he wasn't sure how she would respond to that. From what little he knew about her, she had spent most of her life gallivanting from planet to planet, never settling down. Serious relationships were not her thing. Maybe it was better to keep this casual? Della had the girls for the next few days; that left him with plenty of free time.

  Harry grabbed a pillow.

  He pressed it to his face and let out a groan, pretending to smother himself. “Yeah, it's official,” he muttered. “I am not getting out of bed today.”

  Chapter 2

  Double doors parted to reveal a room where black tiles stretched from wall to wall and two desks faced each other in front of a window that looked out on the stars. Each had a polished surface of Smartglass with keyboards sitting on pull-out trays.

  Anna strode into her office in gray pants and a white long-sleeved top, keeping her head down. “So I was thinking we could review the open case files,” she said. “With any luck, we'll find something we can attack. Being proactive always looks good.”

  In her mind's eye, she saw the silhouette of Jack standing out in the hallway with a cup of tea in hand. “Yeah, no problem,” he said, following her in. “But you don't have anything to worry about; Jena likes you.”

  That may very well have been the case, but Anna wasn't quite sure what to make of this Jena Morane; the woman had a reputation for throwing the rulebook out the window whenever it suited her. True, Keepers were supposed to bend the rules in the service of the greater good – she herself had defied orders when she pursued Denario to Earth – but that didn't mean one should do so casually. She just didn't share the same comfortable relationship that Jack had cultivated with their new supervisor.

  That, in and of itself, was a major source of frustration. Jack had latched on to Jena Morane because she represented a bastion of integrity in a world tainted by underhanded politics. For the hundredth time since her arrival on this station, Anna wished that she had been here to complete his training. What exactly had gone on over the last three years to make him so ready to distrust other Keepers? She knew of Breslan's betrayal, of course, and Slade was now under investigation. But she would like to believe those were isolated incidents.

  As she approached her desk, she saw something that left a very queasy feeling in her belly. A single long-stem rose with dark red petals was resting on the metal keyboard, and there was no sign of a note.

  Baring her teeth in a snarl, Anna felt her cheeks heat up. “No! No! No! When is that asshole going to learn that I am just not interested in him?”

  Jack stood at his desk, setting the cup of tea down on its surface. “Daython?” he asked, keeping his back turned. “You mean to tell me the guy made yet another romantic overture?”

  Anna winced so hard it hurt, then tossed her head about in disgust. “No! No! No!” she spat, grabbing the rose. “This is unacceptable! This time I'm going straight to his supervisor!”

  Jack turned around.

  He leaned against his desk with arms folded, scowling down at himself. “That, I'd like to see,” he murmured. “Seriously, An, three times is outright harassment. Something has to be done.”

  “Something will be.”

  The doors slid open to admit a frustrated Jena who strode into the room in beige pants and a loose blue top. “Morning, children,” she said. “Anna, I just got a call from Larani Tal. She wants to speak with you later this afternoon.”

  Anna looked up to blink at her. “About what?” she asked, ashamed by the hostility in her voice. “I filed my report about the shuttle chase; no one got hurt, and we managed to capture the perpetrators.”

  The other woman spun around to face her with arms folded, shaking her head. “I'm not sure…” Jena paused when she saw the rose, a look of confusion passing over her face. “If you're trying to sweet talk me, Lenai, I already have a partner.”

  Anna thrust a hand ou
t, pointing with the rose.

  The petals nearly hit Jena's nose, and she jumped back on instinct. “This…” Anna hissed. “This is the latest attempt by a persistent young man who simply doesn't know when to quit.”

  Jena turned to Jack.

  “No, not him!”

  Slapping a palm against his forehead, Jack groaned. “Really?” he shouted, in disbelief. “You think I would do something like that? No, no, no. If I were going to ask her out, it would require a Bloody Mary and three Xanax.”

  Jena backed away with hands raised defensively. “Okay,” she said, nodding once. “Just speak to Larani; I'm sure it's nothing, and if you need help dealing with…whoever sent that…let me know.”

  She left the room.

  Chewing on his lip, Jack watched her with deep blue eyes. “Extraordinary boss,” he said, shaking his head. “Really good at handling the subtle nuances of all those delicate interpersonal conflicts.”

  Anna lifted the rose up in front of her face, hissing with seething rage. “Enough is enough!” She spun around and flung the rose away. “I'll go to his supervisors. I'll file a harassment complaint.”

  The rage died to be replaced with dismay when she realized that the only evidence she had in support of her claim was a single crumpled rose. True, Daython had asked her out twice, but that in and of itself was not harassment in light of their history on Alios. He could claim he had nothing to do with this latest gesture.

  Anna sat on the edge of her desk.

  Crossing her arms, she huddled in on herself and shook her head. “So what am I gonna do?” she asked in a breathy whisper. “I have absolutely no proof that Daython was the one who put that rose on my desk.”

  Jack stood there with his hands in his pockets, staring off into space. “Maybe you do.” He turned back to the desk, running his fingers along the Smartglass. “This room is monitored.”

  A hologram shimmered into existence, depicting their office with the lights off. The doors slid open to leave a square of light on the tiled floor before a small mail-delivery bot rolled in on two wheels.