Code Name: EVE

A/N: Good lord, I struggled with this chapter. I hope I have all the details I want worked out, and I hope it's believable. Uh... One thing. Ari does have an accent, but my last attempt at writing an accent failed miserably, so you'll just have to use your imagination. Two things. Jack is not into Heather, so don't be too ruffled. Three things. If you know where I yoinked the names from, you get a digital cookie like this one (,',). Yeah, those are supposed to be chocolate chips...

A Note On Plaga Juveniles

When plaga infants first hatch, they’re quite vulnerable. The only way they can feed in their natural state is by absorbing the nutrients from the environment in which they live. For example, I have discovered that the liquid in which the plagas spend most of their hostless lives contains highly concentrated amounts of calcium, which strengthens the youths’ exoskeletons as they grow. While adult plagas can live outside of the liquid for up to thirty-six hours before they starve to death, the toughest juveniles may only last a quarter of that. Only in the event that a host is immediately available will a plaga born outside of its natural environment be able to survive.

One lonely van squatted outside of the sorry structure. The building didn’t look like it was about to fall down or anything, but it was apparent that it had seen better days. There was a dark-haired woman on the roof wrestling with some shingles, but she paused when she spied the bedraggled pair emerging from the trailhead. She’d seen backpackers coming back in before, but there was something off about these two. For one, their packs looked like they had been tossed together from ratty black fabric. For another, there were strange stains on the front of the female’s shirt. Ari was still out, so she’d have to take care of them herself. “Hello?” She called down, hoping they spoke English. Despite how long she’d been seeing Ari, she still only knew just enough Spanish to get people checked in. They hadn’t expected anyone new to come in this late in the day, and because Ari was all thumbs when it came to tools, they’d decided that she should stay and work on the roof.

Krauser looked up. “Do you have a place we can stay?”

His face… “Uh… Yeah.” She recovered quickly and worked her way back toward the ladder. “Yeah, I’ll be right with you…” She met up with them on the steps of the front porch, leading the way through the front door so as to more easily avoid gawking at the left side of the man’s face. “So…” She went around behind the desk. “How long were you thinking of staying?”

“Actually, I wanted to see if we could work out some kind of deal. We were lost in the woods… Hell, I don’t know where, but several weeks’ walk back along the river. This group of crazies attacked us and stole just about everything we had...” The soldier spoke for both of them, and Ashley stayed quiet by his side just as he’d told her.

Their hostess tilted her head at them. She didn’t doubt that they’d been attacked. Up close, she could see that the stains on the blonde girl’s shirt were blood. And even though the man was large enough, they both looked like they hadn’t had proper food in… Well, several weeks… “So you… Want to stay here on an I owe you basis?”

“If you can get us into a city tomorrow, we’ll be able to get plenty to pay off our stay. The thing is, we really want to stay here long term, and we’re willing to trade any services we can.”

They were short-handed. This place had already been failing when Ari inherited it, but he couldn’t seem to find it in his heart to sell the damn thing. She’d begged her parents for the money, but their relationship had been strained since she’d dropped out of college to come live with Ari. Then her dad had fallen ill… “Either of you know anything about roofing?” She smiled riley, brushing aside this sad train of thought.

“I’m great with my hands and I’m a fast learner,” Jack offered.

Ari would want her to at least give them a chance… “All right.” She bent over the computer. “Just answer a couple of questions for me and I’ll show you where you can stay.”

Ashley was amazed by how deftly Jack could spin a web of bullshit. He was Frank Mason and she was Cassie Sunderland. He threw out some other things about where they were visiting from and she listened discretely but intently to every word. All the same, she hoped they would have enough time alone to go back over it again.

“Okay, follow me.” As she led them upstairs, she babbled on in an attempt to divert her attention away from Frank’s distracting features. He might be just as insulted by her not staring as he would be if she was staring, but... “I hope you’re not too touchy about your privacy. Not that many people come around, especially with the cold weather on its way in, but… It’s more of a hostel than an inn now-a-days. At least that’s what we’re hoping. Ari and I love backpacking. It’s what brought us together…”

“Us too,” Jack smirked at Ashley. She answered with a shy smile as their hostess opened a door in the upstairs hall.

“Yeah? Well, this is the room. We only have one other group in right now, and they’re in the room down the hall, so you can pick any of the beds you want. There are lockers underneath them if you want to lock anything up. The bathrooms are down the hall on the right, and if you want a temporary change of clothes, we keep anything that people left behind in a box behind the front desk. Um… There’s a laundry room is in the basement area… Any questions?”

“What’s your name?” The soldier asked.

“Oh, right, Heather,” she reached out to shake hands.

“Heather,” Jack repeated. “What’s today’s date?” Best to gather as much information about their current situation as possible.

“September twenty-first.”

Ashley’s eyes widened at that information. She’d been too distracted by her plaga’s needs and the strange sleep schedule to count the days but… Her eyes drifted down to her stomach, but she resisted putting a hand over it. At least for now. No reason to do anything weird in front of Heather. The President’s daughter had tuned out the parting words of the other two individuals, though, suddenly doing frantic calculations in her head.

“Hey…”

She looked up and realized her and Jack were alone again. And he was eyeing her strangely. “What?”

“You okay?”

“I… I guess…” There hadn’t been any morning sickness, at least not notable, but her period was very late, in spite of the exaggeration Jack had made about how long they were out there. “Why?”

“I asked for your pack. We should lock up the stuff until we get a chance to pawn it.”

“Oh.” Her fingers scrambled at the knots. Untying the aging rope was a greater task each time, especially when she was flustered. And boy was she flustered… “Here.” He took it, plunked it down on a bottom bunk, and knelt to peer under the bed. Ashley stood behind him, shifting her weight from foot to foot. “I’m… going to go see about a shower, okay?”

He paused and grinned at her over one shoulder. “Really…”

“Oh, just… Keep it in your pants for once, huh?”

“Fine,” he chuckled, “but try not to have too much fun without me.”

Shaking her head, she left the room. To be clean again… to be clean again would be heaven. The bathroom was, again, communal, but at least it wasn’t co-ed. Not only would she be far too uncomfortable sharing with other men, but the thought of half-naked Jack in a room full of half-naked women… That would never happen if she could help it, but those concerns were only a byproduct of a much greater concern. She peeled off her shirt and stood on tiptoe by the small mirror to get a look at her profile. If anything, she actually looked like she’d lost some weight, which wasn’t surprising after running around for weeks eating just enough to stay alive. Fuck, but what was she going to do if she was pregnant? It would have to be Jack’s, if she was, from the… incident in the shack… Shit, what would he say? What would he do? Even though she liked to pretend otherwise, she had a sneaking suspicion his attraction to her was vastly physical. Or so much sickeningly worse than that, who knew what the hell Saddler had done to her while she’d been under the control of her plaga. When faced with that prospect, she almost wanted to pray that it belonged to Jack… Speak of the devil, the door opened and she almost jumped out of her skin. “You can’t be in here,” she protested when she saw who it was.

“Says who?” Jack grinned as he crossed to her.

“The sign on the door…”

“Hm.” He wrapped his arms around her and put his forehead against hers. “You gonna tell on me?”

By now, his intentions were obvious, but then again, they never really changed. “I’m… I’m not really in the mood right now…”

“Heh…” As he spoke, he backed her up against the wall. “You’ll be in the mood before I’m done with you…”

Would she regret that she’d wound up giving him a blank check after all? “I really don’t feel well…”

“No?”

He still had her firmly trapped against the wall, and she didn’t like it. “Can’t we please just skip it today? Please?”

It seemed she still didn’t understand that begging was generally anything but a deterrent to him. And if she wasn’t going to tell him what was wrong, he didn’t want to dig. Instead, he grabbed her ass with both hands and jerked her pelvis closer. “The more you beg, the more I want it, princess.”

There were the beginnings of bad flashbacks. “Stop…” Her voice cracked, but girl tried not to yell and possibly alert Heather to what was going on. She did shove very suddenly and very firmly on the expanse of the man’s chest. It was like pushing a heavy rock, and it slammed her back against the wall more than it moved him, but his hands released their hold and moved to her shoulders instead.

“Give me a good reason.”

When she looked into his eyes, it looked like he meant it. Why should she be hesitant to tell him at all? If she really was pregnant, it wasn’t like it was something she could hide. “I’m… late…” He raised an eyebrow at her, and she gave him a pointed look. Realization slowly dawned in his eyes, and his hands dropped back to his sides.

“Oh…” His eyes dropped to her stomach and then flicked back to her face. “By how long?”

“Two… maybe three…” she swallowed hard, “weeks…”

There was a pause and then he asked, “So, that leads to you saying no because…”

She just stared at him. “How the hell could you still be thinking about sex at a time like this?”

He crossed his arms and actually looked kind of insulted. “Fuck, Ashley, it’s not like you can go out and get a test until tomorrow, and the way I see it, you’re going to be in the same boat whether we fool around or not.”

“The bottom line is I feel like shit, and that insensitive bastard routine of yours isn’t helping.” Her voice rose toward the end of this, and the corners of her eyes watered as she glared at him.

As he took her head in his hands, his eyes locked intensely on hers. It wouldn’t do to have her get hysterical. “Hey. Relax. For all we know, it’s just your plaga fucking with your anatomy.”

“That’s supposed to make me feel better?”

“No, it’s supposed to make me feel better,” he half-smiled. The girl gave him a pained look. Sighing, he decided to let it go. “I’m going to check out that box she was talking about. I guess you want me to look for something for you too, huh?”

What she really wanted was for him to hug her and tell her he would be there for her, but she wasn’t going to get that. Not from him. Instead, she hugged herself and nodded. Then he left, without a single word or gesture of encouragement. At least he wasn’t mad and demanding that she get rid of it, but his apathy was almost as bad. She managed to finish undressing and get into the shower before the first low sob escaped.

Heather had decided to say screw the roof for tonight. Ari would be home in about an hour, anyway, and she wanted to discuss the proposition Frank had made. She doubted he’d mind, though, Ari was pretty open-minded. Their relationship was a testament to that. Instead, she was sitting behind the front desk, poking through an old issue of Tactile Knives magazine. She wasn’t even aware that Frank was in the room until she sensed the presence on the other side of the counter and looked up. It actually made her jump a little.

“Can I see that lost and found box?”

“Oh, yeah.” She was glad to have the excuse to turn around and look at something else.

Jack’s eyes wandered to the pages that lay open on the desk. “Knives, huh?”

“Yeah,” Heather answered as she straightened up. Her eyes stayed on the box. “I like to look at them, but I’m shit when it comes to actually using one.” There was a dull thunk as she plopped the box down next to the magazine. “If I had a choice, I’d pick a gun any day.”

The man smirked. “You think I’m not used to being stared at?”

Her eyes darted up to his face and then back down. “I’m sorry, I’ve just never seen something like that… You know, in real life… Sorry.” He just shrugged and started poking through the box of clothes. There was a long silence while she watched him and then she asked, “How’d it happen?”

“Bar fight,” he responded shortly.

“Really?” Heather’s eyes widened.

Sure, why not? Wouldn’t be the first time he’d lied about it. “Yep. Some of my buddies and I were on leave, right? And there’s this chick at the bar that keeps making eyes at me. After we get a couple drinks down, they start pushing me to go talk to her. She’s pretty loose already, and it’s looking like a sure thing. Turns out she was there with her gang banger boyfriend. This big guy whips me around and smashes a bottle on the bar. She tries to break it up, so he whacks her across the face. I got on him for hitting her, things escalated, and I wound up almost losing my eye to a broken beer bottle. Still managed to punch the bastard out, though.”

The woman didn’t quite know what to say to that. “Damn…”

“If I hadn’t spent the night in the hospital, I probably would have spent the night in jail. They gave me hell back at the training camp, but I had self-defense on my side, so nothing too awful happened. And on the bright side, this,” he pointed at his face, “is a chick magnet.” Jack winked at her.

Heather laughed and plopped back into her chair. “Yeah, whatever, stud. My boyfriend will probably have dinner out in a couple hours if you and Cassie are interested, but the kitchen is open whenever.”

“Ouch,” he laughed as he pulled the best things he could find out of the box. “Cassie’s not feelin great, but I’ll let her know.”

She snorted as she watched him walk away, and then reclaimed the magazine to pick up where she left off.

The shower was running when Jack snuck back into the woman’s bathroom. Just under the pitter patter of water, he thought he could hear sniffles and sobs. He stared at the curtain, thinking. Then he swapped her dirty clothes for the borrowed clothes and slipped back out.

XXX

Once the blonde girl was finally able to get herself under control, she got out of the shower. Her clothes were gone… She picked up the yellow tank top and glanced around. Jack must’ve dropped by again. Had he heard her crying? He must have, so why didn’t he stop? The girl couldn’t wait until tomorrow, she had to have closure on this issue tonight. Drying hurriedly, she pulled on the shirt and the gray pajama pants. A bit self-conscious because she wasn’t wearing underwear, she left the bathroom and checked their room. Jack wasn’t in there. The only sign that he’d been there were the battered, knotted robes on the mattress. Everything else had been locked up under the bed. With nothing better to do, she decided to go on a search. When she found the dining room, she heard voices through the double doors that lead to the kitchen. Jack wasn’t there. It was Heather and a long haired Spaniard in a loose white shirt. When he turned around, the first thing Ashley noticed was that he possessed a very gentle and open face. The second thing was the crystal dangling in the V of his collar. “Oh. Sorry, I was looking for…”

Ari was cooking dinner while Heather emptied the dish washer. She’d already filled him in on what she knew about their new guests, and he’d even met the man briefly. “Frank?” The Spaniard asked. “He was on his way down to the laundry room last I heard.” The girl was surrounded with high stress energy, and he was concerned, but it wasn’t his place to pry yet. Maybe she was just tired from being lost for so long…

Ashley nodded. “Thanks… um…”

He couldn’t put the spoon down now, so he only smiled and nodded a greeting. “Aristides.” The girl Heather had told him was named Cassie looked puzzled. “Call me Ari.”

“Ari,” she repeated, smiling back. Then she gestured vaguely behind her. “I don’t want to be rude, but I’ve got to go find Frank, so…”

“No problem. Feel free to come up if you’re hungry.”

The president’s daughter was sure she should be starving, but she had to reach some kind of resolution with Jack first. Waving, she hurried off to the basement. Indeed, she found him sitting on a table across from the washing machines with a magazine. It was hard to tell if he heard her come in or not, but she steeled herself for disappointment and hopped onto the table next to him. For what felt like an eternity, the only sound was the hum of the washer. Meanwhile, she sat there kicking her feet and twisting her hands in her lap. “What are you reading?” The soldier held it up so she could see the cover. Some kind of knife magazine. Then again, what else could she expect? “Where’d you get it?”

“Heather let me borrow it.”

“Oh.” More silence. “Are you mad at me?”

“No,” he snorted and switched his focus to her.

“Then why are you ignoring me?”

“Why do you need me to pay attention to you every second?”

Ashley hunched her shoulders and clasped her hands together. “Do you even like me?” All she got was an eye roll and he turned his head away. Always with the walls. It was one thing to be a guy and not like to talk about feelings, but his shit was actually frustrating. “Don’t fuck with me right now, I’m serious.”

“I don’t not like you,” he offered, grinning. She scowled and the grin faded. “Would I have dragged you this far if I didn’t?”

“I mean do you like me?”

“This is about what happened upstairs, isn’t it?”

The girl slammed her palms on the table to either side of her. “I told you I might be pregnant and you barely flinched!” Okay, so maybe she hadn’t gotten herself as under control as she thought, but she was determined to get some kind of answer from him.

“Because I try not to worry until I know there’s a problem.”

“But I do know there’s a problem! And it’s not something I can just brush off like some… some…”

Setting the magazine aside, he took one of her hands in both of his. “Okay.” There was a pause, and then he began, “While you were running around with Kennedy, how many people did you see that might’ve been under, say, twenty?”

“None, I guess…”

“Right. No children at all since the infection. Maybe it has nothing to do with anything, but you have to admit it’s weird.”

He had a point, and it was something to hope for, but it wasn’t what she needed to sleep tonight. “Why can’t you just tell me you’ll be supportive if it’s not a side affect?”

If it would get her to stop harping on him for the rest of the evening… “Fine, I’ll be supportive.”

“Thank you.” She hugged his arm and put her head on his shoulder. Apparently he was wearing an undershirt, and his arms and chest looked good. If it wasn’t for the non-plaga related life that was potentially growing in her abdomen, she would have been on him. “So they’re going to take us out tomorrow?”

“Ari has to go out again anyway. Something about getting the wrong part for something.”

“You didn’t tell them anything, did you? About…”

“Didn’t come up.”

“Good. That’s not the kind of first impression I want to make.” He didn’t respond to that, and she let silence settle back over the room. The washing machine stopped shortly after, anyway, and he got up to move their stuff to a drier. It was then that she took full notice of the shorts he was wearing. A giggle threatened. No wonder he was washing everything. Then she saw the opportunity here. The comments he’d made about her ears, or any time he’d teased her in general. She’d never dared to breathe a word about the scars, in jest or otherwise. That would just be cruel. But now… “Nice shorts,” she giggled.

It may have been mostly muscle, but he was still a big guy. The shorts had been the only thing he could find. But he was more amused than insulted. Glancing back at her as he closed the drier and straightened up, he smirked, “Nice shirt.”

Ashley looked down, and then crossed her arms over her chest. She really hoped she’d have time to get a bra tomorrow. And a razor…

Jack chuckled. “Yeah, you don’t want to get into it with me, princess.”

XXX

The girl was quiet as they got ready for bed. The other group had been in the dining hall when they went to eat, but she’d been too emotionally drained to be very social. Jack had started out withdrawn as well, but at some coaxing from Heather had begun to recount some story about a bar fight. That was when the blonde girl had felt weariness grow into annoyance. If he was just going to tell a group of strangers how he got the scar, why had he essentially told her to quit being so nosey when she’d asked? While she didn’t want to go to bed mad at him, she didn’t know if she possessed the energy to wrench anything else out of him tonight.

He’d noticed her sulking, all right, and had only one basic thought on the subject. “Do I really want to know?”

She popped out of her brooding thoughts. “Huh?”

“You’re in a mood again.”

“’Cause you’re a jerk,” she mumbled as she flopped onto the bed.

She’d seemed okay when they went upstairs. “What the hell’d I do this time?” God, don’t let this be about that baby thing again… Honestly, he’d said everything he could possibly say to her about it. Or so he believed.

Ashley sat up and whipped around. “Why did you brush me off and then go tell a bunch of strangers that story?”

It took a second for that to sink in, and then he had to keep himself from laughing. No need to piss her off any more. “Princess, that story was complete and utter crap.”

Her expression softened into something more like confusion. “You lied?”

“I make up stories about it all the time. It’s more fun than coming up with a hundred ways to tell people to buzz off. Besides, sometimes it takes a wild story to make them respect me enough to stay away.” There was a pause, followed by, “Damn it, you’d better not tell anyone about this.”

So he did have an excuse. In a way, his admitting this was almost as good as opening up and telling her the real story. “I won’t,” she promised with a small smile.