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jedibuttercupPG-13, BtVS/Eureka; 2700 words. (7th of "No Place Like Eureka.") SPOILERS THROUGH 3.15.
Following protocol was one thing; putting their daughter under the microscope of people who'd see what she represented before who she was, was something else altogether. 2700 words.
Title: Signs and Wonders
Author: Jedi Buttercup
Disclaimer: The words are mine; the worlds are not.
Rating: PG-13
Summary: Following protocol was one thing; putting their daughter under the microscope of people who'd see what she represented before who she was, was something else altogether. 2700 words.
Spoilers: B:tVS post-5.05 "No Place Like Home"; Eureka mid-3.15 "Shower the People"
Notes: 7th in series. I know, the 'thon's over; but there's still a bit of the story left to go. I'm having trouble deciding on a good stopping place for this plotline.
Allison sighed as the meeting in her office began to break up, Jo and Fargo splitting off to pursue their separate aspects of the investigation into Dr. Monroe's bizarre death. Was it too much to ask for a single week off? Even a single night? If she hadn't cancelled the baby shower-- if Dr. Monroe had been at the Carters' bunker with all of the rest of Allison's coworkers and friends, rather than working late up at G.D.-- would she have made it home safely, rather than drowning in her own car? All Allison had wanted was some time to reconnect, alone, with Nathan; and in doing so, she may have opened a window of opportunity for the death of a woman she'd only begun to get to know.
That was life in Eureka, though. One day might bring the realization of your wildest dreams; the next might bring about the death of all your hopes. Allison rested a hand on the swell of her stomach, thinking of Nathan returned to her and Kevin safe after the trials of the previous year, and wished Dr. Monroe had had a little of her luck.
Or Jack's, Allison thought, bemused, as the sheriff lingered in front of her desk. "Before I go..." he said, cautiously. "When I was talking with Zoe about Dawn the other night, she had a question I thought you guys might be able to shed some light on."
"Sure," Allison said. The questions of where Dawn had come from, and why, had been bothering her as much as anyone since Nathan's memory glitches and some rather unbelievable DNA test results had revealed her stepdaughter's unusual origins. "What's on her mind?"
It still baffled Allison that Nathan's daughter-- the little girl she remembered having had a hand in raising since she'd been a preschooler-- had actually been sent back from a future where Jack, not Allison, had been her other parent. The whole concept had thrown her a little; if she'd ever thought of the future and a Carter baby in the same context, back in the days before she'd reunited with Nathan, it had been with the vague thought that that child might also be hers. She'd never have imagined that her two men would have a child together without her; it made her wonder where she'd been in that future, and worry about what had happened to the child she was carrying now.
"If Stark and I were going to leave a message for ourselves," Jack replied, oblivious to her distracted thoughts, "one we'd only look for if we'd figured out something was up, but that wouldn't be accidentally discovered if we didn't... where would we hide it?"
"That's a good question," Allison said, intrigued by the thought. It was pure speculation, as much as the fanciful construct of reasoning Henry had concocted to explain Dawn's parentage in the first place; but like that explanation, seemed more likely than any alternative she could imagine. Knowing her sometime husband, if he had been involved in sending someone else back through time, he would have wanted to leave himself a signpost, just in case.
She glanced over at Tess, who still stood at Jack's side. "Tess? You're the communications expert."
"Probably in Dawn", Tess said, furrowing her brow thoughtfully. "You said you think she was eight when future-you and future-Stark sent her back, right?" She waited for a nod from Jack, then continued. "That's a little young to expect anything too forethoughtful of a kid, even a Stark, who'd just lost her parents and her entire world. I could see someone trusting her to press the button on whatever memory device was sent along to make everyone remember her always being around, but arranging a message, too? One she wouldn't even remember after the device was activated?" Tess shook her head. "I'd expect a subcutaneous transmitter of some kind, shielded from casual detection, or a message inserted into her genetic code, or something else that wouldn't have required her active participation."
Jack nodded, his expression set in serious lines. "That's pretty much what I thought," he said, "but I wasn't sure exactly what the possibilities were. Allison, do you think you and Stark could arrange to test her for something like that without alarming her too much? I know there's a lot else going on, and it's not exactly urgent after all this time, but...."
"We all want to know what happened," Allison said, in perfect agreement with his motives. "Especially Dawn; I don't think she'll have any objections. I'll call Nathan and see if she'll agree to stop by after school and run a few minimally invasive tests; it won't take long to rule out the most obvious options."
"Thanks," he said. "I'll be back at some point before Kim's test-- if you could let Henry know?-- but feel free to call me sooner if you find anything before then."
"Will do," Allison promised.
He made as if to turn to go, then-- but Tess spoke up again before he could head for the door. "Oh, by the way," she said, her tone incongruously light, "there's an asteroid event tomorrow night. Feel like stargazing again?"
"Again?" Allison blurted, eyebrows climbing her forehead as she glanced back and forth between the sheriff and her friend. She'd been so wrapped up in Nathan, Dawn, and her pregnancy, she hadn't been paying as much attention to others' interactions as usual; the hint of playfulness in Tess' behavior seemed to come right out of left field. When had they gone stargazing in the first place? Surely not-- that meteor shower Tess had waxed eloquent about the night the Columbus had landed?
What else had she missed? Allison wondered, finally putting a few clues together as she took in the flirtatious smile Tess was aiming at Jack and the awkwardness coming off him in waves. She hadn't thought a thing of it when Tess had slipped that morning and called Bruce 'Dr. Manly' instead of 'Manlius' the way she'd occasionally done as an appreciative joke back in grad school, or when Bruce had talked about scheduling a victory dinner with Tess for 'just the two of them', but thinking back on the conversation now, she definitely remembered a frown forming on Jack's face.
Had there perhaps been more behind Jack's inclusion of Tess in the conversation about Dawn than just the fact that Tess would probably end up involved anyway as the head of Section Five and one of Allison's close friends? Allison considered that for a moment, and was unsurprised to find that her first, instinctive reaction to the idea was dismay; as much as she loved Nathan, a small part of her was probably always going to be possessive of the Sheriff, too. If Tess could make Jack happy, though, Allison knew she had no right to object. She didn't need to have his romantic attention to have his friendship and support, after all, and that was the really important thing. He'd promised to always be there for her; she'd just have to trust that he'd uphold that even if his heart followed another path.
Jack glanced at Allison, clearly hesitating, then nodded slowly to Tess. "I-- suppose I can," he said.
"You suppose?" her friend replied, flirtatiousness fading into surprise and a little hurt.
Jack hesitated again, then winced and explained. "I was just thinking that Allison and I had our first birthing class tomorrow," he said, "but then I remembered that that's not on my schedule anymore." He shrugged. "Still getting used to having Stark around again."
"Aren't we all," Allison replied, then smiled at him, touched that he'd remembered the date even though it was no longer relevant. "I didn't know you were that into it," she added, apologetically.
She actually hadn't discussed the classes with Nathan yet-- they'd had too much else on their minds-- but she certainly wasn't going to let Jack continue with them; from how badly he was failing at this conversation, she gathered that he was having as hard a time letting go as she was despite new interests, and she wasn't going to let him take refuge in the past anymore now that she was aware of what was going on.
"It's-- never mind. I'm just glad he can be there for you after all," Jack told her, then glanced at Tess again. "So, uh. Can we talk about the-- the asteroid thing later? I have to go figure out how a woman could drown in the middle of a highway."
"Of course--" Tess started to say, then stared after him as he turned and walked out of Allison's office without further adieu. "Uh, bye?"
Oh, Jack, Allison thought with an inward shake of her head. She didn't know how she'd missed it before-- or how he and Tess were ever going to get anywhere with each other without help, as clumsy as they both were about romance in general. How long had Jack spent dancing awkwardly around her? And forget Tess having the finesse for anything more than what she'd already displayed that morning. An intervention was clearly in order.
That would have to wait, though; Tess was needed in Dr. Manlius' lab to help set up the initial test of the organic computer's download process, and Allison had to find a way to break Jack's suggestion to Nathan and Dawn. Nathan had confided in her about his daughter's fears that she might not be real, the night they'd shared the news with everyone; they'd have to be careful not to give Dawn the wrong impression about the reason for the new tests.
Still. She couldn't resist sounding Tess out a little on the subject before they got back to work. "So," she said. "What was that all about?"
Tess sank into the chair across from her, looking lost. "I wish I knew," she said, plaintively.
Allison smiled to herself and imagined Nathan's likely reaction to this conversation. Yes, life in Eureka had definite ups and downs-- and this had a great deal of potential as an 'up.'
Regrettably, that moment in her office was the last pleasant conversation Allison had all morning. The strange drowning case soon claimed two more women-- and it was only by the sheerest luck that someone saw Dr. Bell go down in time to prevent a third scientist from joining that tally. They'd put her on life support, but her prognosis wasn't good. And neither was the second Kim's; Manlius' effort to simultaneously preserve her and her data had hit an unfortunate snag. The news that she was actually decaying had hit all of them hard, especially Henry.
The brief window of time Allison had scheduled into her day for her family came as a welcome relief when it finally arrived. One of the first things she'd done that day had been to reinstate Nathan's clearance as Director of Research at G.D.; the position had gone unfilled since his disappearance, its duties defaulting to the head of Section Five, but she hadn't thought Tess would mind that extra layer of responsibility being lifted from her shoulders. Nathan wouldn't have an official workweek for awhile yet-- Allison had preemptively marked him down for paternal leave-- but the credentials gave him full run of the building again, and allowed him to escort Dawn straight to the labs without being stopped by security.
They would have been able to bring her down there without that authority, of course-- but they would have had to mention the tests they were conducting in Global Dynamics' official reports, and Nathan was hoping to keep Dawn's unique origins from the attention of the Department of Defense for at least a little while longer. Following protocol was one thing; putting their daughter under the microscope of people who'd see what she represented before who she was, was something else altogether. All the reasons Nathan had destroyed his artificial intelligence lab rather than let the DoD know about Callister's existence applied even more strongly in Dawn's case, especially after the previous year's debacle with Kevin and the shadowy Consortium that had taken an interest in his connection to the Akashic field, and Jack and Allison were in complete agreement with him on the matter.
Unfortunately, none of the scans they ran showed any trace of a message from Dawn's original parents. She was retaining a little water due to the current phase of her hormonal cycle, and her system showed signs of recent mild sleep deprivation, but aside from that, her physiology was completely normal for a teenage girl. No concealed microchips. No immediately obvious codes written into the telomeres of her DNA. Nothing two of the supposed best of G.D.'s minds could point to-- though they'd double-check the results against Jack's unique intuition later just to be certain.
The only thing at all unusual they'd discovered was an unexpected energy reading detected in Dawn's blood. They almost hadn't caught it; if they'd chosen a different lab to conduct the tests in, or if that particular set of radiation sensors had not been accidentally left on while Allison was drawing a vial of Dawn's blood, it would never have been noticed. As it was, they still had no concrete answers; the reading the machines had taken was closer to the emanations the Artifact had put out than anything else they could compare it to, but not identical, and it was only evident when blood was actively flowing. As soon as they'd staunched the tiny wound with a Band-Aid, the sensors had cleared again, leaving Allison and Nathan with only a brief, baffling segment of data to illuminate Dawn's mysterious past.
Even that much, however, was enough to strengthen their worries and concerns regarding whatever she might have been sent back to escape, or avert. No one had thought to run any such test on Kevin's blood when he had been the Artifact's host; and they had no idea where the Artifact's energy had gone when they'd used the teleporter to separate him from it. Even the slightest possibility of a connection between the Akashic field and Dawn would complicate matters enormously if it ever became public.
"Maybe... maybe you thought that would be message enough," Allison murmured to Nathan as they crossed the rotunda back toward her office. "I mean, the implications are obvious."
"And what if we'd discovered it before the Artifact had been destroyed? Before Kevin played host to the field for awhile, and we realized it could connect with human beings?" he muttered in return. "There has to be something else."
"I don't know," Allison sighed, pressing a hand to the small of her twingeing back. "If there is, it's not with Dawn herself, and frankly-- I'm not so sure now that we should keep looking."
"Allison..." Nathan began, that same exasperated and pleading note in his voice he always used when he thought she was being unreasonable.
It was times like these that reminded her why she'd divorced him. "You always have to know things, Nathan," she said, "but this knowledge could be dangerous not only for you, but also for Dawn. We're lucky there weren't worse consequences from what happened last year. Maybe this is one mystery we should just let rest."
He sighed, hanging back as Dawn entered the office ahead of them, and turned to face her. "I can't promise to stop investigating altogether," he said, "but I will be careful. I just want to make sure my family's safe."
It was also times like these that reminded her why she'd agreed to remarry him. "Just don't do anything rash," she said, "and for God's sake, keep me-- and Jack-- informed."
"Will do," he promised her, solemnly, as her pager finally went off with more news from Jack regarding his investigation of Dr. Rivers' synthetic water. "Go, be the Director-- I'll take Dawn home, set her and Kevin up with pizza and a movie, then come back in time for Manlius' next test."
"Thank you," Allison said, smiling gratefully at him.
"My pleasure," he said, smiling warmly back, then bid her farewell with a reassuring kiss.
-~-
(x-posted to![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-community.gif)
twistedshorts)
Following protocol was one thing; putting their daughter under the microscope of people who'd see what she represented before who she was, was something else altogether. 2700 words.
Title: Signs and Wonders
Author: Jedi Buttercup
Disclaimer: The words are mine; the worlds are not.
Rating: PG-13
Summary: Following protocol was one thing; putting their daughter under the microscope of people who'd see what she represented before who she was, was something else altogether. 2700 words.
Spoilers: B:tVS post-5.05 "No Place Like Home"; Eureka mid-3.15 "Shower the People"
Notes: 7th in series. I know, the 'thon's over; but there's still a bit of the story left to go. I'm having trouble deciding on a good stopping place for this plotline.
Allison sighed as the meeting in her office began to break up, Jo and Fargo splitting off to pursue their separate aspects of the investigation into Dr. Monroe's bizarre death. Was it too much to ask for a single week off? Even a single night? If she hadn't cancelled the baby shower-- if Dr. Monroe had been at the Carters' bunker with all of the rest of Allison's coworkers and friends, rather than working late up at G.D.-- would she have made it home safely, rather than drowning in her own car? All Allison had wanted was some time to reconnect, alone, with Nathan; and in doing so, she may have opened a window of opportunity for the death of a woman she'd only begun to get to know.
That was life in Eureka, though. One day might bring the realization of your wildest dreams; the next might bring about the death of all your hopes. Allison rested a hand on the swell of her stomach, thinking of Nathan returned to her and Kevin safe after the trials of the previous year, and wished Dr. Monroe had had a little of her luck.
Or Jack's, Allison thought, bemused, as the sheriff lingered in front of her desk. "Before I go..." he said, cautiously. "When I was talking with Zoe about Dawn the other night, she had a question I thought you guys might be able to shed some light on."
"Sure," Allison said. The questions of where Dawn had come from, and why, had been bothering her as much as anyone since Nathan's memory glitches and some rather unbelievable DNA test results had revealed her stepdaughter's unusual origins. "What's on her mind?"
It still baffled Allison that Nathan's daughter-- the little girl she remembered having had a hand in raising since she'd been a preschooler-- had actually been sent back from a future where Jack, not Allison, had been her other parent. The whole concept had thrown her a little; if she'd ever thought of the future and a Carter baby in the same context, back in the days before she'd reunited with Nathan, it had been with the vague thought that that child might also be hers. She'd never have imagined that her two men would have a child together without her; it made her wonder where she'd been in that future, and worry about what had happened to the child she was carrying now.
"If Stark and I were going to leave a message for ourselves," Jack replied, oblivious to her distracted thoughts, "one we'd only look for if we'd figured out something was up, but that wouldn't be accidentally discovered if we didn't... where would we hide it?"
"That's a good question," Allison said, intrigued by the thought. It was pure speculation, as much as the fanciful construct of reasoning Henry had concocted to explain Dawn's parentage in the first place; but like that explanation, seemed more likely than any alternative she could imagine. Knowing her sometime husband, if he had been involved in sending someone else back through time, he would have wanted to leave himself a signpost, just in case.
She glanced over at Tess, who still stood at Jack's side. "Tess? You're the communications expert."
"Probably in Dawn", Tess said, furrowing her brow thoughtfully. "You said you think she was eight when future-you and future-Stark sent her back, right?" She waited for a nod from Jack, then continued. "That's a little young to expect anything too forethoughtful of a kid, even a Stark, who'd just lost her parents and her entire world. I could see someone trusting her to press the button on whatever memory device was sent along to make everyone remember her always being around, but arranging a message, too? One she wouldn't even remember after the device was activated?" Tess shook her head. "I'd expect a subcutaneous transmitter of some kind, shielded from casual detection, or a message inserted into her genetic code, or something else that wouldn't have required her active participation."
Jack nodded, his expression set in serious lines. "That's pretty much what I thought," he said, "but I wasn't sure exactly what the possibilities were. Allison, do you think you and Stark could arrange to test her for something like that without alarming her too much? I know there's a lot else going on, and it's not exactly urgent after all this time, but...."
"We all want to know what happened," Allison said, in perfect agreement with his motives. "Especially Dawn; I don't think she'll have any objections. I'll call Nathan and see if she'll agree to stop by after school and run a few minimally invasive tests; it won't take long to rule out the most obvious options."
"Thanks," he said. "I'll be back at some point before Kim's test-- if you could let Henry know?-- but feel free to call me sooner if you find anything before then."
"Will do," Allison promised.
He made as if to turn to go, then-- but Tess spoke up again before he could head for the door. "Oh, by the way," she said, her tone incongruously light, "there's an asteroid event tomorrow night. Feel like stargazing again?"
"Again?" Allison blurted, eyebrows climbing her forehead as she glanced back and forth between the sheriff and her friend. She'd been so wrapped up in Nathan, Dawn, and her pregnancy, she hadn't been paying as much attention to others' interactions as usual; the hint of playfulness in Tess' behavior seemed to come right out of left field. When had they gone stargazing in the first place? Surely not-- that meteor shower Tess had waxed eloquent about the night the Columbus had landed?
What else had she missed? Allison wondered, finally putting a few clues together as she took in the flirtatious smile Tess was aiming at Jack and the awkwardness coming off him in waves. She hadn't thought a thing of it when Tess had slipped that morning and called Bruce 'Dr. Manly' instead of 'Manlius' the way she'd occasionally done as an appreciative joke back in grad school, or when Bruce had talked about scheduling a victory dinner with Tess for 'just the two of them', but thinking back on the conversation now, she definitely remembered a frown forming on Jack's face.
Had there perhaps been more behind Jack's inclusion of Tess in the conversation about Dawn than just the fact that Tess would probably end up involved anyway as the head of Section Five and one of Allison's close friends? Allison considered that for a moment, and was unsurprised to find that her first, instinctive reaction to the idea was dismay; as much as she loved Nathan, a small part of her was probably always going to be possessive of the Sheriff, too. If Tess could make Jack happy, though, Allison knew she had no right to object. She didn't need to have his romantic attention to have his friendship and support, after all, and that was the really important thing. He'd promised to always be there for her; she'd just have to trust that he'd uphold that even if his heart followed another path.
Jack glanced at Allison, clearly hesitating, then nodded slowly to Tess. "I-- suppose I can," he said.
"You suppose?" her friend replied, flirtatiousness fading into surprise and a little hurt.
Jack hesitated again, then winced and explained. "I was just thinking that Allison and I had our first birthing class tomorrow," he said, "but then I remembered that that's not on my schedule anymore." He shrugged. "Still getting used to having Stark around again."
"Aren't we all," Allison replied, then smiled at him, touched that he'd remembered the date even though it was no longer relevant. "I didn't know you were that into it," she added, apologetically.
She actually hadn't discussed the classes with Nathan yet-- they'd had too much else on their minds-- but she certainly wasn't going to let Jack continue with them; from how badly he was failing at this conversation, she gathered that he was having as hard a time letting go as she was despite new interests, and she wasn't going to let him take refuge in the past anymore now that she was aware of what was going on.
"It's-- never mind. I'm just glad he can be there for you after all," Jack told her, then glanced at Tess again. "So, uh. Can we talk about the-- the asteroid thing later? I have to go figure out how a woman could drown in the middle of a highway."
"Of course--" Tess started to say, then stared after him as he turned and walked out of Allison's office without further adieu. "Uh, bye?"
Oh, Jack, Allison thought with an inward shake of her head. She didn't know how she'd missed it before-- or how he and Tess were ever going to get anywhere with each other without help, as clumsy as they both were about romance in general. How long had Jack spent dancing awkwardly around her? And forget Tess having the finesse for anything more than what she'd already displayed that morning. An intervention was clearly in order.
That would have to wait, though; Tess was needed in Dr. Manlius' lab to help set up the initial test of the organic computer's download process, and Allison had to find a way to break Jack's suggestion to Nathan and Dawn. Nathan had confided in her about his daughter's fears that she might not be real, the night they'd shared the news with everyone; they'd have to be careful not to give Dawn the wrong impression about the reason for the new tests.
Still. She couldn't resist sounding Tess out a little on the subject before they got back to work. "So," she said. "What was that all about?"
Tess sank into the chair across from her, looking lost. "I wish I knew," she said, plaintively.
Allison smiled to herself and imagined Nathan's likely reaction to this conversation. Yes, life in Eureka had definite ups and downs-- and this had a great deal of potential as an 'up.'
Regrettably, that moment in her office was the last pleasant conversation Allison had all morning. The strange drowning case soon claimed two more women-- and it was only by the sheerest luck that someone saw Dr. Bell go down in time to prevent a third scientist from joining that tally. They'd put her on life support, but her prognosis wasn't good. And neither was the second Kim's; Manlius' effort to simultaneously preserve her and her data had hit an unfortunate snag. The news that she was actually decaying had hit all of them hard, especially Henry.
The brief window of time Allison had scheduled into her day for her family came as a welcome relief when it finally arrived. One of the first things she'd done that day had been to reinstate Nathan's clearance as Director of Research at G.D.; the position had gone unfilled since his disappearance, its duties defaulting to the head of Section Five, but she hadn't thought Tess would mind that extra layer of responsibility being lifted from her shoulders. Nathan wouldn't have an official workweek for awhile yet-- Allison had preemptively marked him down for paternal leave-- but the credentials gave him full run of the building again, and allowed him to escort Dawn straight to the labs without being stopped by security.
They would have been able to bring her down there without that authority, of course-- but they would have had to mention the tests they were conducting in Global Dynamics' official reports, and Nathan was hoping to keep Dawn's unique origins from the attention of the Department of Defense for at least a little while longer. Following protocol was one thing; putting their daughter under the microscope of people who'd see what she represented before who she was, was something else altogether. All the reasons Nathan had destroyed his artificial intelligence lab rather than let the DoD know about Callister's existence applied even more strongly in Dawn's case, especially after the previous year's debacle with Kevin and the shadowy Consortium that had taken an interest in his connection to the Akashic field, and Jack and Allison were in complete agreement with him on the matter.
Unfortunately, none of the scans they ran showed any trace of a message from Dawn's original parents. She was retaining a little water due to the current phase of her hormonal cycle, and her system showed signs of recent mild sleep deprivation, but aside from that, her physiology was completely normal for a teenage girl. No concealed microchips. No immediately obvious codes written into the telomeres of her DNA. Nothing two of the supposed best of G.D.'s minds could point to-- though they'd double-check the results against Jack's unique intuition later just to be certain.
The only thing at all unusual they'd discovered was an unexpected energy reading detected in Dawn's blood. They almost hadn't caught it; if they'd chosen a different lab to conduct the tests in, or if that particular set of radiation sensors had not been accidentally left on while Allison was drawing a vial of Dawn's blood, it would never have been noticed. As it was, they still had no concrete answers; the reading the machines had taken was closer to the emanations the Artifact had put out than anything else they could compare it to, but not identical, and it was only evident when blood was actively flowing. As soon as they'd staunched the tiny wound with a Band-Aid, the sensors had cleared again, leaving Allison and Nathan with only a brief, baffling segment of data to illuminate Dawn's mysterious past.
Even that much, however, was enough to strengthen their worries and concerns regarding whatever she might have been sent back to escape, or avert. No one had thought to run any such test on Kevin's blood when he had been the Artifact's host; and they had no idea where the Artifact's energy had gone when they'd used the teleporter to separate him from it. Even the slightest possibility of a connection between the Akashic field and Dawn would complicate matters enormously if it ever became public.
"Maybe... maybe you thought that would be message enough," Allison murmured to Nathan as they crossed the rotunda back toward her office. "I mean, the implications are obvious."
"And what if we'd discovered it before the Artifact had been destroyed? Before Kevin played host to the field for awhile, and we realized it could connect with human beings?" he muttered in return. "There has to be something else."
"I don't know," Allison sighed, pressing a hand to the small of her twingeing back. "If there is, it's not with Dawn herself, and frankly-- I'm not so sure now that we should keep looking."
"Allison..." Nathan began, that same exasperated and pleading note in his voice he always used when he thought she was being unreasonable.
It was times like these that reminded her why she'd divorced him. "You always have to know things, Nathan," she said, "but this knowledge could be dangerous not only for you, but also for Dawn. We're lucky there weren't worse consequences from what happened last year. Maybe this is one mystery we should just let rest."
He sighed, hanging back as Dawn entered the office ahead of them, and turned to face her. "I can't promise to stop investigating altogether," he said, "but I will be careful. I just want to make sure my family's safe."
It was also times like these that reminded her why she'd agreed to remarry him. "Just don't do anything rash," she said, "and for God's sake, keep me-- and Jack-- informed."
"Will do," he promised her, solemnly, as her pager finally went off with more news from Jack regarding his investigation of Dr. Rivers' synthetic water. "Go, be the Director-- I'll take Dawn home, set her and Kevin up with pizza and a movie, then come back in time for Manlius' next test."
"Thank you," Allison said, smiling gratefully at him.
"My pleasure," he said, smiling warmly back, then bid her farewell with a reassuring kiss.
-~-
(x-posted to
twistedshorts)
