Part V

Sherry walked out of Jace’s office and directly to Jillian’s desk.

Jillian paused in her work. "Yes?"

"It won’t work, I’m on to you." Sherry said, placing her hands on the desktop and leaning in for the effect.

"Why whatever do you mean?" Jillian asked, blinking innocently.

"You know exactly what I mean." Sherry replied before leaving.

Jillian frowned at her retreating figure. This wasn’t good. This plan was going to work, and no one was going to get in her way.

*********

Sherry quickly made her way to Comm, happy to see Birkoff was on duty. "Hey Birkoff."

"Hey Sherry, haven’t seen you in a while, how are things?" he asked.

"Oh pretty good. Listen, I need some help. Would you do a background check on Jillian, Dr. Jamison’s assistant?"

"You know that’s against the rules, Sherry."

"Oh, I don’t think so." She replied, tossing a huge bag of double-stuffed Oreo’s on his desk. He quickly grabbed them and hid them in a drawer.

"Alrighty, let’s see what we can get." he said, pulling up Jillian’s file. "Not much there. She was transferred in from a substation. Nothing black in her file, she looks like little miss perfect."

"Perfect my butt." Sherry replied. "Can you dig deeper, maybe find out what brought her into Section?"

"That’ll take a little time."

"Do it. Try my office first when you get it, if I’m not there, try my cell."

********

A couple hours later, Sherry was at her desk working when her phone rang. "Hello?"

"Hey Sherry. I got the information you required. I’m downloading it now to your personal PDA."

"Thanks a bunch Birkoff." Quickly pulled up the file, she scanned through the contents. Ah ha! Why the little darling, who knew she was an accomplished forger. Printing a copy, she wanted physical proof to show Jace and Nahla. Sherry then grabbed her set of skeleton keys. There were only two such sets of keys, in case something happened to one of them. Proceeding to Nahla’s apartment, she knocked first to make sure no one was home.

Taking only enough time to grab the invitation off the desktop, she quickly made her way back to Medlab. "Okay Jace, let’s get this thing settled once and for all." She said, closing his office door behind her. "Print out your copy of that invitation."

Jace sighed and did as she asked.

Grabbing the sheet of paper out of the printer, she took out the invitation she had taken from Nahla’s apartment and placed it next to Jace’s version.

"Well I’ll be damned," Jace said. "The handwriting’s identical, but the dates are different. But I still can’t believe Jillian would do this."

Sherry was ready to smack the man upside the head. Men could be so clueless sometimes. "Wake up and face the facts. Jillian has a thing for you and purposely ruined Nahla’s Valentine’s Day plans."

"Jillian does *not* have a thing for me Sherry, get that idea out of your head."

"Oh really? Let’s find out." She said, walking to the door and asking Jillian to join them. Once she did so, Sherry held out the two pieces of paper. "Care to explain this?"

"Explain what?"

"Jillian, I’m sorry, Sherry seems to think…" Jace began.

"Can it Jace. When I need your help, I’ll ask for it." Sherry cut in then turned back to Jillian. "I know about your background in forgery. And I know it was you who gave the wrong date for the dinner."

Jillian eyes blazed with anger. "You really shouldn’t have stuck your nose where it didn’t belong." Jillian ground out.

Before anyone could have guessed, Jillian grabbed Sherry’s arm and swung her around, placing a knife at her throat.

"JILLIAN! What the hell are you doing?" Jace hollered.

"I’m sorry Jace, it wasn’t supposed to happen this way."

"Whatever it is, I’m sure we can work it out, just let Sherry go."

"No, not yet. No one was supposed to figure out there were two invitations. You and Nahla were supposed to fight and break up, leaving you upset. That’s where I’d come in to pick up the pieces."

Jace was stunned at her admission. He was sure Sherry would’ve sent him a look of "I told you so" if she was standing there with a knife pressed against her jugular.

"Jillian, please. Put down the knife, it’s only going to serve to get you into more trouble."

"Oh no, I’m going to allow there to be a witness to this humiliation. She’s got to pay."

Sherry was fighting back the panic, knowing the slightest twitch could cause Jillian’s hand to slip. A split second later she felt herself released from the woman’s grasp and heard the knife clatter to the floor.

"I don’t think so." came a third voice that had effectively snuck up behind Jillian and disarmed her. Michael stood with Jillian’s hands firmly in his grasp, although Jillian was trying her best to get free.

"Let me go!" she screamed, enraged that her plan had gone so wrong.

"Jace, you got any duct tape around here?" Sherry asked.

"As a matter of fact…" Jace said, getting a roll out of his filing cabinet. Sherry grinned. "Thanks!" she said, tearing off a piece and slapping it across Jillian’s mouth. "Save it for the judge." A few minutes later a security had been called and arrived to escort Jillian to a holding cell. As soon as Michael’s arms were free, they were wrapping around Sherry in a snug embrace.

"You ok?" he whispered in her ear.

"Yes, thanks to you." She replied, burrowing herself against him. "What’s going to happen to Jillian?"

"She’ll undergo a psyche evaluation. Depending how that goes, she could either be cancelled or retrained."

Jace was confused, shocked, and stunned... all in one. "Michael, how did you know Sherry needed you? Are you psychic or something?"

Michael gave one his rarely seen smiles. "No. Birkoff told me where she was, I just happened to get here at the right moment."

"So you heard everything?

"Enough to know Jillian is unstable. Although I’ll need you two to write me a report on the incident."

Jace nodded. "Sure."

Sherry released Michael to turn and face Jace. "Well, now we know for sure Jillian was the one behind the mix-up. When are you going to tell Nahla?"

"I suppose the sooner the better."

"Want backup?"

"As a matter of fact…"

**************

Jace had no sooner walked into Munitions than he found himself slammed up against a wall. "Walter! Have you gone mad?!"

"Not quite boy, but you’re cruisin’ for a bruisin’ for hurting Nahla like that."

"Walter stop, it isn’t his fault. " Sherry called out.

Walter searched Sherry’s face for the truth and seeing it reluctantly released Jace. "So somebody explain to me what happened." He huffed. All three grabbed a seat around the workbench as Sherry and Jace told the tale of Jillian’s deceit.

"Where is Nahla?" Jace asked, when she didn’t appear within a few minutes.

"She’s laying down in the bunk I got stashed in a backroom. I don’t have the authority to give her the day off so I did the most I could."

"Great, I’m gonna go back and speak with her. See if I can’t get this whole mess cleared up."

"Jace, wait. I think I have a better idea." Sherry chimed in. "I think we both know that she’s probably not going to listen to anything you have to say right now. And I doubt she’ll listen to me either. She’s hurt ... and you know how stubborn she can be."

Jace rolled his eyes. "You’re telling me. So what’s the plan?"