Disclaimer: HB owns the JQ lot, not me.   I'm making no money off this, so
don't sue me, unless you wanna waste a bit of time on lil' ol' me.  It's
created out of (a lot) of love and respect for the series.  Barone's my own
little feller.

Archivers: Suze and Aspen are welcome to it, of course.  Everyone else ask
and it's yours. :)

Categories: Angst, mature language, violence, J-J HR .  If it's not in the
series now, it will be eventually.

Summary:  Don't wanna ruin it for ya.

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She looked down.  Jonny's breathing had slowed; he was asleep.  Carefully
cradling his arm and head, Jessie laid him down on the twin seat of the RV.
She brushed a lock of golden hair away from his eyes and glanced out of the
windscreen to the familiar sight of the compound's garage.  She checked her
watch.  She had been holding Jonny for almost five hours.

*Worth every second...*

For a few minutes she watched him sleep, his chest rising and sinking gently
with each breath.  She shook her head and left.  This was way too big for
her to handle; she needed someone to talk to.
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"Barone."  Benton said the name with cold fury.  He sat bolt upright in a
large leather executive style chair, hands steepled infront of his face.
Race maintained his blank statement.

"How the Hell could you let this happen?"

Race shifted uneasily under Benton's furious stare.  The usually spacious
room suddenly seemed to shrink.

"There were two of them..."

"You were supposed to be protecting him!"

Race's eyes dropped to the floor.  Benton had every right to hate him.
After all, it was his job, and he had failed.  He imagined how he would feel
if Jessie had been the one to get badly injured.

"I'm sorry."

Benton stood.  His fists were clenched, the knuckles white.  For a wild
moment Race was certain that Benton would hit him.

Benton's breathing slowed, the wild look in his eyes disappeared.  His
complexion, which was usually younger than his age would suggest, was gaunt
and haggard.

"Aw, dammit."

Race felt for the man.  The pain of losing her...he remembered how he'd felt
when Estella had divorced him.

"Benton, if there's anyway I can help,  I'll do it."  Race was having
trouble articulating his words.  The sudden emergence of Estella in his
thoughts had caught him off guard.

"Kill Barone."

"WHAT?"

"Kill Barone."  His voice was measured, but Race could hear the underlying
hatred.

Race was stunned.  He knew Benton was capable of wanting revenge, that he'd
want to punish Barone, but to kill him?  He realised he had made a mistake
telling him.  He hadn't told Jonny out of fear of him going beserk.  Race
could deal with Jonny, his anger and emotions were easily readable; it was
the kind of anger Race was used to.  Benton's rage had been repressed for a
decade.

"Benton, you know I can't do that. Please, take some time to cool off.
Getting angry will not help our situation."

"I'm not bloody angry."  His words were an unconscious mimic of his son's.
He paused for a moment.

"Does Jonny know?"

"No.  I don't trust his self control where his family are concerned."  *And
I don't trust yours, either.*
"If you want me to tell him..." Benton shook his head.

"You're right.  He doen't need this right now."  Race looked at his friend
for a moment.

*Neither do you.*

Benton caught Race's worried  statement.  "I'll be alright.  Thank you."
Benton sat back in his chair and turned it on its wheels, turning his back
on Race.  Race left the room quietely.
************************************************************************
Hadji glanced up from his book.

"Hello, Jessie."  She walked up to his easy chair in quick, agitated steps.

"Hadji, I need to talk to you."

"This is about, Jonny, correct?"  Jessie frowned.  She hated it when Hadji
did that.

"I know why he's hurting...God, I'm not sure he'd want me to tell you
this..."

Hadji looked sadly at his friend.  "It's about his mother, isn't it?"

Jessie took an involuntary step back.

"You know?"  Something clicked in her mind.

"You knew before, when I asked...didn't you."  It was a statement, not a
question.

"I'm sorry, Jessie, but Jonny made me promise..."

"You..."  Jessie wanted to scream at him.  She closed her eyes and forced
herself to calm down.  Hadji was Jonny's *brother.*  If Jonny asked him to
keep it a secret, then nothing anybody else would do could get it out of
him.

"S'alright, Hadj.  I understand."

Hadji nodded.  "What has Jonny told you?  All I know his mother died, and
for many years it has kept him...unsettled."

"He told me everything...he told me how he watched his mother die."

"Huh?"  She took perverse glee in actually manage to unsettle Hadji.  "But,
he wouldn't open up to anyone...not Race...not his father...not even me."

Wait a second.

"*All I know is his mother died.*"

"You didn't know how his mom died?"  She suddenly started to panic.  Jonny
had bared his soul to her, had trusted her with this.

*He trusted me more than his own brother, and I let him down.*
************************************************************************
Jonny woke up to find himself in pitch black.

*Nothing unusual about that, I have been sleeping badly lately.*

For some reason, he didn't feel troubled anymore.  He rolled off the bed,
and landed on the floor.  He stood up and bounced his head off the RV's
ceiling.

"Ow, damn..."

He struggled for a moment before realizing where he was.  Then his memories
finally caught up with him.
************************************************************************
"Jesus, he is going to be so angry..."

"Jessie, he will not be angry."  That same "I know something you don't know"
smile appeared on his face.  "I very much doubt anthing you could do would
anger him."

"Aw, take that stupid grin off your face."  She was seriously starting to
panic, pacing the room, and Hadji's calm demeanour and unusual grin, which
had been popping up more and more lately, weren't helping much.

"Jessie, if it helps, I won't tell Jonny."

"Tell me what?"  Jonny was leaning on the doorway.  He seemed...amused at
something.

No one moved to tell Jonny anything.  He frowned.

"Has something happened?"

Jessie looked at Hadji.  She had little doubt that Hadji would keep this
secret.

Her conscience was really starting to get to her.

"Jon, I had to..."

"Jess, what's up?"

"I told Hadji."  She blurted it out.

He smiled.

"Heck, you saved me a bit of time."
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Comments?  Suggestions?  Flames?  Praise?  Send 'em all to
SchmittVanDean@hotmail.com

You may or may not have noticed that Bandit is missing.  Sufficive to say
that before the opening fic, Jonny felt that Bandit had a good life, but an
immortal dog would suffer torment when Jonny and everyone else died.  So he
tied a concrete block to Bandit's legs and chucked him in the Pacific Ocean.
  Yes, I really do hate that dog, and yes, this is a really lazy excuse.
That damn dog was always one soundbite away from being Scooby Doo.  ;)

-Schmitt

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Don't delegate.  They'll only
do it wrong.-Ronan Candappa
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