Forge of War (Jack of Harts) (44 page)

The passenger side door opened and a figure stepped out that Jack recognized easily, even under the trenchcoat.  The rain plastered red hair to her face and she brushed it to the side.  She stepped between the arms of the gate, walking up to stop before him.

He smiled at her.  “Good morning, Sam.”

Samantha made a show of examining the storm plastering them.  “You have a strange definition of a good morning, Jack.”

Jack gave her his best charming smile and spread his arms out wide.  “
Any
morning that has you in it is a good morning.”

She raised her eyebrows at him and took another step closer.  “You never give up, do you?”

“
You’re
the one
standing
here,” he returned with a beaming smile.

“So are you,” she said, cocking her head to the side with a wry smile.

He sucked in a deep breath and uttered the single word that he could never take back once he said it.  “Always.”

Samantha blinked, her mouth hung open, and she wiped the rain of her face with one hand.  “God!” she finally shouted in exasperation.  “I don’t know why I
bother
!  You
always
have one of your
quips
ready!”

Jack sighed and kept his eyes on her until she met it.  Then, making certain she could see the truth of his words in them, he finally answered her.  “And I mean
every
word.”

Her eyes widened and she chewed her lower lip for a moment before shaking her head.  “Fine!  You want to be Mister ‘I Cannot Tell a Lie,’ I’ll take you up on that! 
Why
did you destroy that mugger the way you did?” she finished with a shout.

“He was a threat,” Jack answered with a shrug.  “He
had
to be broken or he would have threatened more people in the future if I’d let him get away with it
this
time.”

“Great!” Samantha shouted, stepped in and jabbed him in the chest with a finger.  “You thought
he
was a threat so you
broke
him!  But you thought that
floozy
last night was a threat and you
didn’t
!  Did she promise you a good
toss
when you two had your little
chitchat
!  Is
that
why you didn’t say
whatever
it was you were
prepared
to say?” she shrieked, her emerald eyes blazing hotter than the lightning above them.

At the question, Jack just smiled and shook his head.  She really was good.  She’d read him like a book on that stage.  He only hoped that no one else had.  He brought both hands up and placed them on her shoulders.

She bristled under his touch and glared at him, demanding he answer her question.

“I
asked
her if she
meant
that last question,” Jack said in a soothing tone.  “Or if she was just trying to find ammunition to use against me for the people who
got
her the interview.”

Samantha continued to glare at him.

“Look, I’m pretty sure it was her job to ask me something that would make me and all the rest of us look bad,” Jack explained.  “She didn’t
ask
it.  So I didn’t need to pull my little ace in the hole.”

Samantha shook her head and chewed her lip some more, quivering under his touch, though he didn’t think it was anger now.  “So is
this
how it’s going to be then?  You looking for threats everywhere and trying to
stop
them?”

Jack sighed, considered her question, and shrugged.  “I don’t
know
.”

“What did you do before the Marines got you?”

“Honestly, I ran
away
from most of the fights.”

She smiled, and he considered a quip about who he ran away from.  Then he stuffed the quip down hard and just smiled at her.  Now was not the time for making fun.

She shook her head again and gave him a worried look.  “So where does…this…leave
us
?”

Jack swallowed and gazed at her drenched face.  In that moment, he realized that he would be happy with whatever she decided.  It might hurt, but he wanted what
she
wanted, and that was just it.  “Wherever
you
want it left.

“God!” she shouted with an angry shake of her head.  “
Damn
you!” she shouted and punched him.  It wasn’t any little girl punch he’d ever had before.  She’d grown up in ten percent higher gravity than he had, and when
her
punch landed, it
hurt
.  “You really
mean
that!” she continued, her eyes blazing again.

“Yes, Ma’am,” he said through gritted teeth.

She grabbed him, pulled him down by his coats lapels, and kissed him hard with electric lips.  The shock ran through his body from head to toe, standing every hair on end.  He responded to her kiss and the urgency of it morphed into fire that burned through them both so hot that the rain itself must have evaporated.  The moment stretched out into an eternity until she pulled away to take a breath.  Jack opened his eyes to see they were still drenched to the bone with the salty ocean spray.  His mouth hung open as he tried to catch his brain back up to the moment.

“That’s…for
luck
” she shouted and punched him again.  “
Bastard
!”

Pain snapped through his body and Jack felt himself driven back a step.  He snapped his mouth shut and felt thankful for the rain flowing over them.  It masked the tears of pain.  She was
much
stronger than he’d given her credit for.  He hadn’t realized she’d been holding back so much.  He licked his lips, examined her panting face for a long moment, and knew he had to walk back into the minefield if he didn’t want that to be their last kiss.

He forced a smile, pushed the pain from his mind, and stepped in.  “I don’t know, Ma’am,” he said in a calm voice, barely loud enough to carry over the sound of the storm around them.  “Where
I’m
going, I think I might need an
awful
lot more luck than
that
.”

Samantha panted, her anger fading as she looked into his eyes.  “You…you…
never
give up,
do
you?” she asked in a wondering tone.

“I never have,” Jack answered with a wry smile.  “You know, I’m on liberty until the storm ends.  As long as you’re not walking away, I got a while to not give up.”

Samantha shook her head for a long time, her mind racing behind her eyes.  “Really?” she asked in a tone that gave him no leeway at all for his normal bravado.  “You think you do?”

Jack swallowed, considered his feelings for any hesitation on the matter, and smiled.  “I do.”

She met his gaze for several seconds, studying him before coming to her decision.  She turned towards the car, waved it away, and wrapped an arm around his.  “OK.”  She let out a long breath and smiled at him.  “You’re on the clock, so make it count.”

“Yes, Ma’am,” he answered and began to walk down the street as she hugged his arm tight enough he was afraid he was going to have to worry about blood circulation.  They made their way across the base, huddled together against the wind and rain, passing deserted parking lots and darkened buildings.  They stopped at the edge of the base and watched the trees swaying back and forth in the wind.  Leaves fluttered by them, branches snapped, and once Jack pulled her back around a corner seconds before an entire tree limb flew by.

They leaned against the side of the building, sheltered from the wind, for several seconds, Jack enjoying the feel of her body against him.  “Maybe we should find some shelter,” he said into her ear.

She looked up at him with an impish smile.  “I thought you’d never ask.”

“What can I say?  I like storms,” he returned and guided her away from the edge of the base.  They dodged more branches, and once even a car tumbling down the street, before reaching his quarters.

He shut the door against the wind and rain, and looked around at the small room.  The opposite wall was drenched by the brief storm, and water puddled on the floor.  His personal stuff was gone, packed up for return to the
Guardian Light
, but the bare furniture remained, a small table, a chair, and a bed, all of which folded into the wall when not in use.

“Not exactly the Taj Mahal,” Samantha whispered as he slipped the trenchcoat off her shoulders to reveal her white shirt and black shirt.  Despite the protection, her clothing was drenched, and Jack forced himself to breath as he hung her coat up next to the door.  He stripped his own all-weather coat and hung it over hers.

“Home sweet home,” he finally answered and looked up at the clock on the wall.  “For a couple more hours,” he added and pulled the chair out of the wall.  It clicked into place and he waved for her to take it.  She sat down with a smile and he pulled the bed out of the wall, feeling it thunk into place.  Then he sat down, his feet touching her in the tight confines of the room, and leaned forward to examine her.

Her red hair was tangled by the wind and dripping all over the floor.  Any trace of makeup she might have been wearing was gone, pealed off by the storm, leaving behind only the base woman.  Wet and bedraggled by the storm, she was the most beautiful creature he could imagine.

“I love you,” he whispered.

Her bright green eyes sparkled and she placed a hand on his cheek.  “I love you too,” she whispered and leaned forward to kiss him.

An eternity later, Jack groaned in pain and limped towards the small shower.  Samantha was
seriously
strong.  He was pretty certain he had at least one cracked rib, maybe more, and he didn’t want to think how many of his muscles were pulled or torn.  He knew for a fact that his shoulder had popped out once.  That had been fun putting back in place.  He probed his mouth with his tongue, tasting blood and, yes, noting a loose tooth.  He turned the water on, hot, and felt the steady thrum loosening his muscles.  He breathed in the steam and lifted his face to let the water wash the salt away.

Samantha joined him a few minutes later, and began to run her electric hands over the bruises beginning to form on his body.  He winced as she touched one her elbow had caused, and winced again when she touched where her knee and nearly broken a rib.

“Not bad for a puny Earthling,” Samantha whispered with a sly smile.

“Heh,” Jack returned, trying really hard not to laugh.  It hurt to laugh.

They finished washing, pulled on the clothes that by some miracle had not been torn apart, and walked out to see the sun glinting off the storm-cleansed buildings.  Tree branches and leaves littered the street in front of them, and a car lay on its side against a building across the street.  He looked back towards Samantha as she tried in vain to straighten her wrinkled and rumpled shirt.  She looked up at his gaze and he smiled.  It had been a truly amazing storm, in more ways than one.

Betty flickered into being next to them and nodded to Samantha with a sad smile.  “Liberty’s up, Jack,” she announced in a matching tone.  “Five minutes to assemble.”

“Thank you,” Samantha whispered to the cyber.  As Betty flickered away again, Samantha turned Jack towards the administration building with a firm hand.  “Let me walk you back.  Wouldn’t want you to fall down and hurt yourself,” she added with a wink.

“Heh,” Jack repeated, still trying very hard not to laugh.  “Very funny.  I think I might be
safer
falling down.”

She raised an eyebrow at him.  “Well, if you’d rather,” she said and started to step away.

“No!” he retorted without hesitation, holding her fast.  “No.”

She gave him a knowing smile, stepping in closer to hold her body tight against him.  Then she began walking towards the administration building, stepping through puddles in the street that glinted in the new sun, while avoiding the tree branches.  They walked in silence until the finality of the administration building rose above them and Jack swallowed.

Samantha stopped, looking up to the building with a sad shake of her head.  “Will I see you again?”

Jack smiled.  “As long as I have anything to say about it.”

“And if you don’t?” she asked, a worried look on her face.

Jack laughed and sucked in a deep breath.  “Then me an’ God are gonna have some words on where my heaven is.”

She gave him a soft smile.  “I thought you didn’t believe.”

“If He can get me back here, I’ll give Him the benefit of the doubt,” Jack returned with a shrug and a wink.

Samantha shook her head, sighed, and reached up to pull him down by his coat lapels again.  She stopped him, centimeters from her lips, with one of her patented mischievous smiles.  “You really are never going to give up, are you?” she asked, her warm breath playing across his face.