Part Four

Avillion was awakened the next morning to the sound of the birds chirping and the horses neighing...and Curlly and Brenna yelling in her ear. After several minutes of attempting to ignore them, she decided that it was best to just get up and get it over with.

"So?"

"So what?"

"So...who is he?"

"Who is who?" questioned Avillion.

"The guy who dropped you off last night!"

"Oh, him. His name is Jack, he works here and we went for a ride together."

"And?"

Before Avillion could reply they all heard North calling them to breakfast. As they left the room Avillion was given two very distinct "we’ll talk about this later" glances.

******

The girls spent the next two weeks working on the ranch, learning to ride, going into town occasionally, and just generally having fun. Avillion spent a good portion of her time with Jack, who she introduced to the whole group. She endured some merciless teasing, but knew that it was all in good fun.

Just over two weeks after they had arrived and only 2 days before they were to leave Avillion and Jack went out on their usual evening ride. They were having so much fun that they completely lost track of time, and before they knew it darkness had fallen. Laughing at their mistake, they decided to stay and look at the stars for a while.

"I can’t believe you know all of the constellations," said Avillion as they lay side by side staring up into the night sky. "I can pick out Orion, Cassiopeia and the dippers, and that’s about it."

"I spent a lot of time sleeping outdoors when I was a kid," he answered. "My parents died when I was pretty young and I grew up with my grandparents. They were great, but they didn’t really want to be raising another child at that point in their lives, so they let me do pretty much whatever I wanted as long as it didn’t hurt anyone. I used to ride out into the middle of nowhere and fall asleep under the stars in the summer time. So, one day, I just decided I may as well know what they were called."

"That sounds wonderful," said Avillion. "I grew up in the city, so I never slept outside. I always thought maybe that was a mistake, ya know? That I should have been raised in the country instead. I hated living in the city, even when I was little. I was just thankful that my parents at least lived in a smaller city--I don’t think I could have lived in LA or New York, I think it would have killed me."

"Ah, a woman after my own heart! I tried living in town once, survived it for about a year. I should have known how much I would hate it. It didn’t take me long to figure out that this is where I belong, so I moved onto the Pearson’s ranch. That was about 6 months ago. I’ve been pretty happy here, playing the role of the Old West cowboy can be fun, and the Pearson's are wonderful people. Still, it was kind of lonely." He paused for a moment, waiting for her to stop gazing at the stars and look into his eyes before saying, "It’s not lonely anymore."

Avillion felt like all of the air had been sucked out of her lungs when he looked at her like that. She couldn’t think of anything to say, couldn’t think at all. How was she supposed to tell him that she had to leave and they could never see each other again? How could she explain that she was a trained anti-terrorist operative? A killer? And more importantly, how was she to explain to herself that none of that seemed to matter when he was around?

"Jack, I..." her words were interrupted as they both heard the sounds of galloping horses and hushed words. Knowing that no one from the ranch would go for a ride this late, they instinctively moved to hide in a small grove of nearby trees. After what seemed like an eternity a group of 7 men rode past and they were able to stand up.

"I can’t believe it! Those were our horses! They must have had at least fifteen of them--damned horse thieves!" Jack practically shouted, clearly upset.

Avillion was upset as well, but for a different reason. Jack had recognized most of the men for what they were, horse thieves. He had not, however, recognized the Red Cell agents as the terrorists that they were.

Once they were absolutely sure that the men were gone they galloped back to the ranch, Jack wanting to inform the Pearson's of their problem and Avillion intent on warning her CLHQ sisters.

*******

"You can’t be serious!" exclaimed Trace, "Can’t we EVER get a real vacation?"

"No kidding!" added Nabiki. "What are we going to do?"

"Well, they’re obviously after us, there’s nothing else in this town. We need to find them and take them out," said Sly.

"It apparently wouldn’t even draw too much attention. This is an old west themed town, they would think that it was part of a show--you know, the OK Corral, boot hill, that kind of thing. They often have "shootouts" to entertain the guests," Sherry pointed out.

"Ok, I’ve contacted Section. It seems that Red Cell was given information on our location by some peripheral source...that’s been taken care of. All we have to do is take care of the Red Cell agents. They comprise only 5 of the 7 men, so we’ll have to watch for the others--fortunately the agents have been around, we should all recognize them. You all have your guns don’t you?" queried North.

The girls all presented the weapons, which they had learned never to travel without, even when going on "vacation."

Nikita Fire walked into a room carrying a piece of paper, "Birkoff just sent this over. Man! Those boys have enough ammo on ‘em to shoot up the whole town, and that’s just what he got after a quick sweep!"

"Oh well," said Sly, "At least we know where they are now. Are you ladies ready to go?"

"We will be as soon as Curlly gets here. You’d think she would be excited to get out of that outfit!" said Brenna.

"No kidding!" replied Avillion. "Madeline sure knows how to pull a number on people," she said as she pictured Curlly’s most recent fashion catastrophe. Bright orange leather chaps over her jeans--no one could imagine where Maddy had EVER gotten her hands on those. Her shirt was plain white cotton with the ever-present diamond pattern in red checks, but placed randomly over the entire shirt were flat plastic cows, and they were BIG, each one well over 3 inches long and 2 inches high. In short, it was the tackiest shirt that had ever existed--the girls were convinced that Madeline had had it specially made.

They all heard Curlly descending the stairs before they saw her. They had discovered that it could be quite difficult to walk quietly with boots on, and since they were riding Curlly had no choice but to wear the bright red monstrosities. The rest of her outfit, however, was appropriately low key--almost. Avillion could detect a hint of chartreuse under the black jacket, and large belt buckle and rhinestone cuff linings were difficult to miss.

"So, are we going to get these scum or what?" said Curlly, eager to get the mission under way.

*****

Part Five/End

As they were saddling the horses Avillion felt a hand on her shoulder. Looking up she found herself staring into warm green eyes that she knew she was going to miss--but she couldn’t allow herself to think about that and be distracted from the mission. They all knew that the mission should prove easy, but without comm equipment things would be harder, and a good operative knew never to be too confident.

"Jack," she said calmly, "What are you doing here?"

"I could ask you the same thing!" Jack replied, clearly agitated. "Where are you going? What are you planning on doing?"

"It’s none of your business Jack. Please, just go back to the house and leave us to do what needs to be done," she said as she bridled Thunder.

"Look Avillion, I know there’s something going on here and I think that I have a pretty good idea of what it is. Please don’t, those men are dangerous and I don’t want you to get hurt," he said, lightly tracing his fingers over the side of her face.

She almost succumbed, she wanted so badly to stay with him. But like it or not she had a duty, and as much as she may have tried to forget it people’s lives depended on her, innocent people. She turned away from him quickly, mounting her horse as she said "I promise I’ll be careful. I’ll see you when I get back."

She knew that it was a lie. She knew that after the confrontation tonight they would have to return or risk compromising the entire town. She knew on a painful level that she would never see him again. She leaned down to give him a final farewell kiss, whispering "You have to trust me on this Jack."

"What about your hat?" he asked.

"What?"

"What about your hat? I know how much you hate to ride without it."

"I must have forgotten it, it’ll be ok," she said.

"Here," he said, reaching up to pull off his own hat. "Just make sure that you return to give it back to me." He pulled her down towards him, placing his hat on her head and kissing her soundly before releasing her. Unable to say anything else for fear that her voice would give away her emotional state, Avillion kicked her horse and was gone.

Taking pity on him, Brenna stopped briefly to say "You really don’t have to worry, we’ve done this before. I promise, we’ll be fine. She’ll be fine. We’re actually quite good," and then rode away herself.

"I know," Jack said softly. "That’s what I was afraid of."

**********

They had expected the men to be playing poker in the saloon, hoping that they would be at least a little drunk and knowing that they wouldn’t be expecting an attack in the middle of their poker game. Thus the girls were more than a little shocked when they saw all 5 of the men waiting for them in the middle of the town.

The girls reacted quickly, jumping from their horses and seeking cover while dodging bullets. After a few moments all sounds stopped, and both sides realized that the other was looking for an advantage of any kind. That advantage came in the form of Jack.

Stalking up from behind so quietly that no one realized he was there, he quickly snapped the neck of one of the Red Cell agents. The sickening crack alerted everyone to his presence, and it was then that the true battle began.

Avillion couldn’t help but be amused by how much the fight looked like a shoot-out from a western movie. The setting was right, there were people diving behind water troughs and beer barrels, smoke filled the air and the scent of gunpowder filled their nostrils. By the time it was over the smoke and the dust was so thick in the air that no one could see--no one knew who was left alive and who had fallen into death’s cold hands.

With a sigh of relief Avillion noted that her friends had all survived and were seemingly none the worse for wear. Scanning for Jack, she was surprised that he wasn’t coming to speak to her, or at least attending his horse. It never occurred to her that perhaps he had not been as fortunate as the rest of them. It was only when she saw the unmoving form sprawled in the middle of the street that a cry escaped her lips and tears sprang to her eyes. She ran to him, collapsing next to his blood-covered body as she gasped for air between her choking sobs.

"Please Jack, please be all right," she whispered over and over again. He opened his eyes briefly, smiling slightly and tracing his fingers lightly down the side of her face before his arm fell again to his side and his eyes closed.

Numb from the shock of it now, she didn’t even notice her friends pulling her away, forcing her to mount her horse and ride to the contact point. Logically she knew that they needed to rendezvous with the Section helicopter, she knew that there was nothing that she could do for Jack now. But her heart still screamed in protest as she rode away, knowing that she would never see him again, and that he would never see anyone.

******

It had been well over a two weeks since the girls had returned to CLHQ, but Avillion had yet to break out of her depression. While no one expected her to fully recover so quickly, there were rumors of cancellation if she didn’t "snap out of it," and her friends were worried. They often dropped by her room, telling her that they were there if she needed to talk, but she couldn’t. She couldn’t speak of him, couldn’t even mention his name. Although they had spent only a brief time together, Avillion felt sure that they were meant to be together. She couldn’t believe that she would ever find someone else to replace him.

She sat on her bed with his hat in her hands, contemplating it as if she could bring him back by staring at it. She heard a soft knocking at her door, but chose to ignore it, hoping that whoever it was would understand. A few minutes later she heard the sound of the door opening, but still did not speak. She knew that it would be one of the girls coming to tell her how sorry they were, and she preferred the silence at the moment. She didn’t even look up, instead she kept staring at the hat, remembering the life she had never known, would never know, but should have known, with him.

"I believe that belongs to me," said a deep, rich voice that was music to Avillion’s ears. Her head snapped up and without stopping to question how or why he was there she sprang from the bed and into his waiting arms.

He held her tightly, softly telling her not to cry even as the tears fell from her eyes. She cried harder than she ever had in her life, and couldn’t quite understand why. The moment she had seen him it was as though a dam had broken and all of her emotions came rushing out in a flood of tears. Already tired from lack of food or sleep over the last two weeks, exhaustion quickly set in.

Avillion begged Jack to explain to her what was going on as he placed her on her bed, but before he could begin she had fallen asleep. More than a little tired himself, Jack couldn’t resist the temptation and lay down beside her, spooning his body along side hers. As he draped his arm over her waist, her whispered in her ear "Don' worry my love, we have all the time in the world for explanations."

This story ©copyright Avillion, 2000