by Chris Hechtl
“What's wrong? Jayne asked. Her eyes went wide as they adjusted to the light. She sucked in a breath. “Crap,” she said coming over fast. People were starting to look.
“I think she just fainted. I'm not sure.”
“Don't give me that crap. The doctors told her she was in remission but the cancer could come back at any time. Her system is weak man, she's got... oh shit,” she said running her hands through her hair.
“She'll be okay, just calm down. Check for Jerry, or whoever is on duty,” he said. He turned to see Buck and Calib, the orderlies come at a run. Doctor Niederman was right on their heels. He sighed. So much for discretion. Jen was going to have his hide when she woke. If she woke. Damn it, now he was getting upset.
“Or not,” he waved them over. “Doc, she fainted. Just sort of slumped and shut down. She was shaking and swooning earlier so I made her take a break.”
Jerry checked her, lifting an eyelid then checking her breathing and her pulse. He felt around her throat. “Hmmmm.”
“I don't like that hmm doc,” Jayne said she was bending over but waving others back.
“Let's get her inside. It might be exhaustion.”
“Her color,” Jayne said.
“She's pale. Yellow though. A bit of jaundice but that might be lack of sun. Its been a problem lately. Gout?” Jerry asked.
“Cancer survivor doc,” Jayne said. “Leukemia.”
“Crap,” Jerry said sucking in a breath. He shot Shane a worried look. “Damn, damn. Okay, let's get her comfortable.” He waved to the others but Shane stood. “Just point the way doc, I'll carry her,” he said firmly.
“This way,” Jerry said. He grabbed one of her dangling arms and checked her pulse again.
They made their way through the mall to the makeshift hospital. It would have been quicker to go across the parking lot, but all the upper doors were bolted shut and covered over.
People stopped what they were doing to watch. Jayne brought up the rear, telling them to get back to work softly. Shane grimaced, ignoring what was in his wake. He passed the day care and Trina was unfortunate enough to be near the window. She saw him with her mother and came out and followed.
...*...*...*...*...
Doc ran some blood tests, they had thought that the cancer had been beaten back into remission, but the blood told a different story.
Jen had woken up and had gone to the bathroom to freshen up. She was a bit wan, but she couldn't bite his head off with the kids around and everyone concerned. The concern was irritating her though, he could tell.
Doc came over and it only took one look for Shane to get the news. He closed his eyes tightly. Jerry patted him on the arm. “I'm sorry. I'm so sorry,” he murmured.
“I'll tell her doc,” Shane said quietly.
He met her in the hall outside the bathroom. Fortunately the area was clear for once. It wouldn't be for very long, perhaps a minute. One bleak look was all he needed. When he got close and took her into his arms he felt the anger radiate out of her. She pounded his chest and shoulder, then grabbed at his flak jacket, tugging on it as the sobs tore at her throat and broke free. He felt her bury her face in his chest and sighed, rubbing her back and head gently.
“I know babe, I know,” he said, feeling like life had jipped them. Jen had been doing so well, doing so well. Damn it. She was doing more for this community than anyone. She was his life.
“I... I wanted to see the kids grow up, to see them graduate...” He felt his own tears meld with hers, ignoring the people braking as they walked around their own little island of misery.
“I wanted to hold our grandchild, see...” Her voice tapered off as she wiped her face. She blew her nose into his jacket and he chuckled a little.
“Shut up,” she said pounding him again.
“Yes ma'am,” he said stroking her.
“Snot rag,” she said after a moment, rubbing at her nose and eyes on him. He chuckled again, feeling most of her weight in his arms.
“Among other things,” he said, rubbing her back still.
“Thanks,” she said.
“Anytime babe, I'm yours when you need me. You know that.” His kissed her hair.
“I know,” she said softly. She felt his grip shift as he pulled her into his arms. “What do you think you're doing?” she asked.
“Carrying my wife. Got a problem with that?” he asked as her arms went around his neck.
“And if I do?” she asked. She snuck a glance and then looked down, relishing his arms around her. He did know what she needed. To be held, to be...
“I'd listen gravely, and then put you down, when I damn well felt like it,” he said as he walked.
“Oh really,” she said, smiling a little.
“Yes really,” he paused and came to a stop at the sight of Jayne and the kids near the food court.
Jen looked and then squirmed. “Put me down,” she said firmly. He sighed, knowing the tone and let her down before she fell.
One look from Jen to Jayne was all it took. Jayne's face turned from curiosity to bleak hopelessness. Sheila looked at her boss and blinked at her, not sure what had just happened.
Jen sighed as the kids looked from one group of adults to the other, not sure what was going on, but sensing the mood and knowing it wasn't good.
“Back huh?” Jayne asked, coming over and putting her hands on her hips.
“Yes,” Jen whispered softly, head down.
“Hey, hey,” Jayne said, catching Jen's chin. “We'll beat it this time around too. You hear me?” she said gruffly, looking into her eyes.
“I...I'm not so sure,” Jen said, trying to keep it together. Jayne pulled her into her arms.
The twins were looking at their mom. Dawning comprehension and horror flickered over Nick's face. He took a look at his dad. He mouthed cancer. His father looked grim, tried to look away but ended up looking at his son. Slowly he nodded a choppy nod.
Nick's face crumpled a little, he felt a sob, but took a deep breath and let it out slowly as he looked at his sisters. He took them by the shoulders and hugged them.
Tori blinked and so did Trina. They watched Jen and Jayne go forehead to forehead talking quietly. Sheila rested her hands on the girls' shoulders. They looked up as Nick hugged their mom.
“What's going on?” Tori asked, voicing her concern.
“Mommy got some bad news,” Jen said, voice catching a little.
“The cancer's back,” Nick said, looking at her, and then Jayne. Both women looked down at him.
“Trust Nick to blab,” Jayne laughed softly.
“It was written all over your faces, kind of hard to ignore it,” Nick retorted.
“Yeah, true,” Jen said, playing with his hair softly and gently. She stroked it back, finger combing it into some sense of order. He snorted. He felt the twins move in and hug their mom fiercely, brushing him aside. He felt a hand on his shoulder and looked up to see his dad looking down at him. He smiled a wan smile.
Shane tried to say something, tried to tell the kids it would be okay, that everything would be all right, but he wasn't sure. Not this time around. There was too much, too many things going on. Resources were limited. They all knew that the leukemia was aggressive, and how hard it was to kill. He sighed softly, watching Jayne hug a surprised Sheila.
“We'll get through it, one day a at a time like last time,” he said. “At least this time we've had a dress rehearsal so we know what to expect.”
“Not funny dad,” Nick growled. He looked around to the community around them. “Damn, we don't have... I mean,” he looked up to his dad.
“We'll do what we can son, that's all we can do,” he said gruffly. “Your mom knows that.”
“I do,” Jen said as the girls relaxed their embrace. She caught his hand and held it. He brought it to his lips and kissed it gently. She looked around and dashed her tears with her free hand, suddenly aware of all the attention they were getting. “Oh lord,” she muttered looking aroun
d.
He smiled, looking around himself. “Always got to be the center of attention,” he said, shaking his head. She snorted softly, giving him a reproving look.
“Not this time. I'd gladly give up the spotlight for this.”
“True,” he said nodding. “If I could I would...”
She gave him a look of love. “I know babe, I know,” she said, squeezing his hand once more.
“Come on, let's go get cleaned up and get something to eat. Come on kids,” she said. “Supper's getting cold,” she said pushing them off. Sighing, the family followed.
...*...*...*...*...
Shane came in behind Jen as she went to the laundry. She took the basket from him and began to unload the dryer.
“I can do this you know,” she said as she stood and began folding clothes. A few people there looked on.
“I'm helping,” he said folding, or at least trying to fold a shirt. “I'm the man, I'm supposed to be doing the grunt work remember?”
“No, you're hovering,” she said. “You know I hate that. And you can't fold clothes worth a damn,” she said sounding disgusted as she retrieved the shirt he had just folded and twitched it open and then into the proper folds.
A woman across the row of appliances snorted softly. She glanced at a few of the others. Shane bumped Jen and she glared at him. “Don't you have anything better to do?” she demanded.
“Um... no, not really,” he said. He'd taken the day off to be with her. Most of the crew had needed the break anyway. They'd had a bad day with a Hellhound pack. Casualties had been high.
“Go. Go, go, go. Go shoot something,” she said waving a dismissive hand. “Go blow something up. I don't care,” she said firmly.
“But,” he said, looking a little torn. He spread his hands apart in appeal. She turned, hands on her hips.
“But nothing. I'll be fine,” she said firmly. She indicated the women around her with an open hand. “I've got plenty of people around to keep an eye on me without you hovering. Go.” She made an airy gesture of departure. “Git. You've got more important things to do than this,” she said indicating the laundry.
“Um...” he took in her glare and sighed. “Okay,” he said in a small voice, hunching his shoulders and making a show of leaving.
“Hey!” she called.
“Yes?”
“Get back here!” she said. He came back.
He stared at her in surprise. “What?” he demanded. “First I hover, now...”
“Shut up and kiss me you dope!” she said. He smiled suddenly and took her in his arms and kissed her long and lovingly.
“Better?” he asked when the kiss broke.
“Better,” she said looking up into his eyes as they relaxed. Her gaze turned to the laundry. “But its like kissing a porcupine. You need to shave,” she said, looking into his eyes as she squeezed.
“I knew I was forgetting something,” he said. “Kissed many porcupines dear?” he teased.
“Only one, and he's been a royal pain in the ass since day one,” she mock growled, and then yipped as he pinched her rear. She swatted his arm a few times as he chuckled and rocked her. Finally she ran out of steam and stroked his chin. He leaned forward, pinning her against the appliance and over her objections kissed her again.
Her eyes twinkled at him. He kissed her again. “You... oh, Boys,” she said as he grinned a little at her. “Boys will be boys huh?” she demanded, arching an eyebrow at him in inquiry. He grinned. She shook her head. “Boyish charms only get you so far you know,” she teased wickedly.
“They've gotten me this far,” he said softly smiling a little. She chuckled softly.
“That they did. But shave.”
“I've been busy you know,” he said defensively.
“Excuses, excuses. No more. Shave. Tonight. I'm not cuddling up to a porcupine again.”
“Yes dear,” he sighed rolling his eyes. She poked him. He snorted.
She snorted in reply and then she pushed him away gently. “Now get. Go shave and play. Go blow something up. Go bug Walt or Bob,” she said slapping his rear and making a shooing motion with her hands. He chuckled, shaking his head and walked out. A few of the ladies were smiling a little.
“Men,” Jen breathed, hands on the dryer. “Can't live with em, can't shoot em, and there's never one around when you need something heavy lifted,” she said looking cross. The ladies erupted into giggles.
...*...*...*...*...
He entered the room and nodded to Gabe. “What's this about a full up field test?” he asked. Since Jen had nixed him staying with her, he figured he might as well get something done. It was too late in the day to go out hunting, and he didn't really care about watching the road crews. He could join one of the other teams, but he didn't want to jog their elbows. So, if not that, he might as well find some other mischief to get into. Or at least watch someone else trying to get something constructive done.
“Going on now boss,” the big guy said, sitting back with a small bag of chips in his lap. Shane was intrigued about where the guy had gotten it. Pongie food like that, junk food was just gone now. Totally gone. Black market most likely.
“We rigged a couple of different remotes to try. Two are surveillance things. We've got one in an air duct, but it keeps getting stuck,” Gabe admitted.
Shane winced. “In the air ducts?”
“Yeah,” Gabe said glancing at one screen, then the other. “I... we ah, got some reports of critters in ducts a while back. Torres had me make them but well...”
“Not working out.”
“Its a work in progress,” Gabe admitted.
“I bet,” Shane said dryly. “I take it you also wanted them to be able to go to a vent and check an area without being seen?”
“That was the plan but, well...” he shrugged. “Navigation is a problem, its easy to get lost. Also it... well it got stuck,” he said.
“Ah,” he said nodding. “Tight quarters, I can imagine,” he replied. Gabe nodded.
“What are you testing now?” he asked.
“Gabriel's battle drone one point oh,” Gabe said smiling.
“A what?” Torres said over the intercom.
“Hey I made it work, right?” Gabe said.
“Whatever,” came the response a moment later. “Can we get this moving? We're burning daylight you know. Sitting around, scratching our ass,” she grumped. Shane snorted.
“Moving now,” Gabe said. “Our plan had been to have the operator in a van on site or nearby. But well, this works even better.”
“Completely out of harm's way you mean?”
“Yeah,” Gabe said taking the joystick. “This works we can make a bunch of these and people, anyone can just run them like a video game.”
“Right,” Shane drawled. He was pretty sure what was about to happen. Still, Gabe's optimism couldn't be popped. He needed to let the man keep his hopes. For some it was all they had right now.
“Deploying door knocker,” the big man said, pulling the trigger. A shotgun mounted on an armature moved and then fired. The lock disintegrated and then he pushed the vehicle in. The wheels dug into the door and then it pushed it aside.
“Lights,” Gabe said, flicking a switch. Bright lights came on. The interior of the home was dark. He turned a small control knob, panning the view in a full 360.
“Initial recon complete,” he said. “How does it look?” he asked.
“Five by five. Check the kitchen first,” Torres said watching her own feed. “To your right. Its right I mean,” she said.
“Gotcha,” Gabe said, delicately moving the joy stick. The thing jerked into motion and then made the turn. “Still a work in progress,” he admitted. The bot was stuttering and jerking all over as it made the turn.
“A big work in progress,” Torres said dryly. They made the turn down the hall into the kitchen and then spun. The cabinets were torn open, the fridge was flipped over, and there were shredded curtains. They could see smears of stu
ff on the walls, windows, and cabinets.
“Not going that way,” Torres said.
“Agreed,” Gabe said. He turned the joystick until they were heading back the way they came. The robot went down the hall and then made the turn into the living room. There was a bookcase filled with DVDs and a shredded blue couch. He panned the camera around and then stopped when he saw something moving at the edge of the screen.
“What was that?” Torres said. “Back it up. I think something's behind the bot.”
“Something?” Gabe began, turning the camera control. The camera turned and suddenly they had a vision of teeth as something smashed the bot to the ground. The bot slammed one way, then the other. Gabe tried to trigger the robot's gun but it was facing the wrong way. A second swat sent the bot onto one side. They saw a clawed foot and then jaws that bent and bit into the electronics.
Gabe slammed his fists into the arm rests in impotent rage, cursing in Spanish. Shane patted his arm.
“Hellcat. Came from above and behind,” Torres said over the link.
“I didn't think they could do that! The light should have scared it off! That's not fair! It cheated!”
“It stayed out of the light,” Shane said trying hard not to laugh at the indignant guy. “You didn't outfit the bot with lights all around did you?”
Gabriel sighed and shook his head. “No. I couldn't. I'm limited on power and well...”
“Its okay Gabriel. Nice try,” Torres said over the link. “At least now we know what's in there. From the size I'd say its a juvenile. Could be more,” she said.
“You are not going in are you?” Gabriel asked, suddenly concerned.
“Name of the game Gabe. This time I want you to watch me,” she said. She popped a video camera on and held it at arm’s length so they could see her. “See?” she said and then put the helmet on.
“Helmet cam,” Shane said with a nod.
“Right,” she said. “Now we do it the hard way.” She turned to her team. “Shana knock the windows out with rocks. Bret, cover her. Lex I want you and your squad to find and take the back door. Watch high and your six. You know the drill,” she said heading to the front door, weapon up.