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, Taylor,
and David are my own.  If I don't kill 'em off, (still not sure about that,)
you're welcome to them.

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

Categories: Angst, mature language, violence.  Someone whack me over the
head if I've missed anything out on this.

Summary:  We left the kids following I-1 agents to the Quest compound....
************************************************************************
The agents burst into the compound, handguns raised.  Jessie was a step
behind them, wishing she had one handy.  Jonny ignored her presence.  He
frantically searched the compound, shouting for his father.

He found Hadji, face down in the hallway.  Jonny carefully turned his
brother over.  He breathed a sigh of relief when he found the tranquiliser
dart.  Pulling the dart out, and cradling Hadji between his arms, he carried
him into the lounge and sat him on an easy chair.  A female I-1 agent
suddenly appeared beside him.  It was the woman from before.

Jonny was on the verge of panic; too much was happening and he'd had no time
to organise his thoughts.  "How's Race?"

The woman smile when she recognised Race's agency nickname.

"He's fine.  He's unconscious, of course, but  I get the impression that he
wasn't the target; your father was."

Jonny's heart stopped for a moment.  He made for the door.

"Hey, this place isn't safe."  She placed a hand on his chest.  "Somehow the
security was disabled."

Jonny shook his head at the woman; stating the obvious must be in the I-1
handbook.  He pushed past her.

She caught his arm and span him, pushing him face first into the door.  His
arm was locked behind him.

"Which is a polite way of saying that you're not going anywhere."

Something inside Jonny snapped.  He was angry at the agent for stopping him
like this, he was angry at himself for leaving Race, and most of all he was
angry at Jessie.

With one foot he heaved away from the door.  The female agent may have been
more experienced than Jonny, but she certainly wasn't stronger.  She pushed
him back, before she realized Jonny was actually moving with her.  Jonny
used the door as a springboard; kicking off from it and flipping backwards
over the agent.  She span; preparing herself for Jonny's inevitable blow.
And came face to face with her own gun.

"Jesus..."  She breathed the word under her breath.  Jonny's face was fixed;
his brow low over his eyes and mouth a grim line.  She could almost feel the
hatred coming off him in waves.

"Get against the wall."  His words were cold; unemotional.

"Hey, what the heck's happening, kid?"  She could feel panic rising with
her.  The kid had lost it.

"I seriously suggest you listen.  Get against the wall."

The door behind him opened.  Jonny ignored it.

Several gun muzzles were placed against the back of his head.

"Drop the gun, Mr. Quest."

"Where's my father?"

"Drop the gun, Mr. Quest."

Jessie came into the room.  She immediately took in the situation.

"Jonny?"  Jonny threw the gun angrily at the floor.

Jessie walked over to him; the I-1 agents forgotten.  She ran her hand along
his arm.

"Touch me again and I'll break your fingers."  His statement hadn't
changed.  He looked up at the agents.

"Where's my father?"

Jessie hurriedly left the room, tears in her eyes.  Jonny appeared not to
notice.

One of the agents cleared their throats.  "He's gone.  They took hi..."

"What happened to security?"  His voice was clipped, and he maintained his
unfeeling demeanour.

"We haven't had time to..."

"Then why aren't you going after my father?"

The woman behind him had had enough.
***********************************************************************
Jonny awoke several hours later.  He felt like he'd been run over.  Twice.
As he didn't want to open his eyes, he mused on this for a few minutes.  He
remembered a movement behind him...

"Good morning, my friend."

Jonny grunted and opened his eyes.  Hadji slowly swam into view.

Jonny groaned as his memory caught up with him.  Hadji leaned forward.

"Jonny, what has happened to you?"

"Get the Hell outta here."  He was fully awake now.

Hadji remained seated.

"This is not you speaking, Jonny.  Nor was it you that hurt Jessie so badly.
  I only know what I heard from a "friend" of yours, a Ms. Taylor.  Please,
tell me everything."  Hadji's voice was calm but held an odd forcefulness
behind it.

*Ms. Taylor?*

Jonny turned over in the bed.  He realised it wasn't his own.

*Jessie's.*

He closed his eyes.

"Hadj, get out."

Hadji stood.  For a moment, he considered leaving Jonny to it.  Jonny always
preferred to deal with things on his own, and he had gotten over everything
life had thrown at him.

Hadji remembered Jonny's outburst.  That was a lie and he knew it.

He gripped Jonny's shoulder.  Jonny turned back to face him.

"You *will* tell me everything, Jonny."

Jonny opened his eyes.  "Oh for God's sake!."  He sneered.  "All I want is
to be left alone-"

"Jonny!"  Jonny recoiled in shock.  Hadji had never let his emotions slip
like that.

Hadji didn't apologise.  "This is tearing you and Jessie apart.  Let me help
you."  He paused.  His voice dropped to the usual soothing tone.  "I will
not let you down again."

Jonny sat up, leaning his forehead on his palms.  He knew that once his
anger abated, his conscience was going to have a field day.  He shook his
head resignedly.  "Where d'you want me to start?"  He almost whispered the
words.

"Why did you leave Race like that?"

"I..."  Jonny had to pause to collect himself.  He started the sentence
again.  "I saw Race go down like that, and the beach was full of 'em.  I
just...panicked."

"Immpossible odds never stopped you before.  I have seen you risk your life
for people you barely know, and you have never ran from danger when Jessie
or Race are in peril.  This time was no different."  He paused, searching
Jonny's face.  "Do not lie to me, Jonny."

Jonny looked up.  He tried to smile, but found he couldn't.  He shook his
head.  "Race shouted "Get her outta here."  I saw Jess, I saw the men, and I
knew that if we tried to carry Race, that we'd both get caught.  I couldn't
let anything happen to her...I couldn't."

Hadji nodded.  This was Jonny.

"Hey, how is Race by the way?  A psychotic I-1 agent said he was fine before
knocking me out."  Jonny was trying a lame attempt at humour, and Hadji
didn't bother pretending to find it funny.

"Race is awake now and not in the best of moods.  Especially with *you.*"
Hadji thought for a moment.  "That "psychotic I-1 agent" is the friend I
mentioned before, Ms. Taylor.  She probably saved your life.  Do you truly
believe you could have made it to the compound, with Jessie resisting you,
without at least one dart finding its mark?"

Jonny shrugged.

Hadji had got past one barrier.  He knew the next one was going to be a
problem.

"What happened between you and Jessie?"

"What the Hell is that supposed to mean?"  Jonny got up angrily.

Hadji put both of his hands on Jonny's shoulders, and gently forced him back
to sitting on the bed.

"Jonny, I meant the...problem...you now have with her."  If he had expected
to calm Jonny down, he was to be very sadly mistaken.

"I already told you.  Everything that happens between Jessie and I is our
own business.  Keep out of it."    He was speaking in the same threatening
tone as he had when he had a gun pointed at Taylor's head.

Hadji ignored the warning signs his brain was screaming at him.  He *had* to
help Jonny.

"Jonny, this is getting tiresome.  You know I'll find out eventually."  He
was trying to goad Jonny, a tactic he hated himself for, but it always
seemed to work.

Jonny shot him an evil lok and mumbled something under his breath.  "Ah,
Hell.  Fine!"

He stood up and paced the room.  "She hit me!"

Hadji blinked.  Something so petty...even Jonny was above this.  "Jonny,
what do you mean?  Please clarify."

Jonny stopped pacing.  Her room was just...her.  He couldn't concentrate.
He had to close his eyes to block it out.

"She hit me, Hadj.  It wasn't an accident, it wasn't even out of reflex.
She knew exactely what she was doing.  She hated me enough...she hated me."
He finished lamely.  He felt like screaming at the world for constantly
hitting him with stuff like this.

"Ms. Taylor told me that you threatened to break Jessie's fingers."  Hadji
didn't believe Jonny ever would, but he also wouldn't have believed Jonny
could have brought Jessie to tears.

"I could never hit her...no matter what happened.  I came close, but I
stopped myself."  He hung his head in shame.  "The idea that she could
deliberately set out to hurt me in that way..."

Hadji couldn't believe what he was hearing.  "Jonny, doesn't this sound a
little ridiculous to you?"

Jonny looked over at him.  "What if the roles were reversed?  What if I had
hit Jessie?  I very much doubt that even you would hold your temper."

Hadji opened his mouth to protest, but realised Jonny was right.  He would
lay into Jonny if he ever hurt Jess.  He looked at Jonny's face and noticed
the large ugly bruise as if for the first time.

"It's not so much that she hit me...it's the deliberate way she did it...and
it wasn't a sudden rush of anger, neither.  She hated me and made a
conscious decision to attack me.  I can't hate her.  It's just...I would
never hurt her...but that doesn't stop her from hurting me."   His chest
still burned when he breathed, and he occasionally grimaced.  Hadji had
noticed, but only now did he realize that Jessie had done it.

Hadji knew he was talking in the psychological sense.  This was eating him
up inside, and he didn't know how to handle it.    "Jonny, she's still
crying over this.  You may not have intended to, but you have hurt her just
as badly as she hurt you."  He knew the only way to get Jonny to face his
own emotions was when it would support someone else.

Jonny paused.  "Oh, and what happened with dad?  Some I-1 moron said he'd
been kidnapped."  He considered this.  "Or at least tried to."

Hadji had been dreading this moment.  "Err...he's still missing."

"WHAT?"  Jonny exploded.  "Then why the Hell are we waiting around here
for...?"

Hadji stood.  "Jonny, we have no idea where he is.  The people who did
this...Barone...obviously wanted Dr. Quest alive.  That is why they were
using tranquiliser guns."  He let Jonny take this in.  "If this is for one
of your father's..."

"...OUR father's..."

"Fine, *our* father's pieces of technology, they will first try to get the
details out of him first.  Dr. Quest will not give up any technology if it
will endanger lives."

Jonny started to panic.  "Whoa, you don't think they'd kill..."

"No, no..."  Jonny breathed a sigh of relief.  "If you had let me finish, I
would have said they'd send us a ransom note for the technology first.  That
is the way Barone operates."

Jonny was struggling to take this all in.  He could feel it overwhelming
him.

"Right, okay.  So how do you know all this?"

Hadji smiled.  "Your friend, Ms. Taylor, and Race discussed it with Race,
Jessie and I before you awoke."

Jonny winced at Jessie's name.  "Gah, everything gets done while I'm
unconscious."

"That's the only time things can get done, Jonny."  He grinned.

Jonny tried a weak smile.  He needed to sort out everything with Jess,
quickly.
***********************************************************************
Comments?  Suggestions?  Flames?  Praise?  Send 'em all to
SchmittVanDean@hotmail.com

Listening to heavy rock music isn't particularly conducive to writing
emotional fics.  Trust me on this.

-Schmitt

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How much more grievous are the
consequences of anger than the
causes of it.
-Marcus Aurelius
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