“…Andmay I introduce the newest member of our staff starting thissemester, the new head of our music department, Doctor ErinTownsend.”
Later,Doctor Henry Jones the Fifth, to those that didn’t know the truth,and Doctor J. Thomas Magnus, both of the History department werewalking down one of the many paths that crisscrossed over EmpireState University.
“Somethingwrong, Jack?” Jones finally broke the silence that had been overthe two collegues and friends since the faculty meeting.
“Indy,you were what? Forty-two when Casablanca came out?” The man who,in another world, would have been a Major in the United StatesMilitary answered.
“Yeah,it was only about… four years after the whole thing with the HolyGrail, why?”
“…Ofall the universities in the whole country, she had to come teach atthis one!” Jack paraphrased Rick from Casablanca before suddenlyspinning and punching a tree hard enough to visibly shake it.
“Itake it you know Dr. Townsend?” Indy asked with a half-grin. Hehad gotten used to his much younger friend’s habit of overdoingthings.
“Knowher?” Jack scoffed, “No. It’s worse than that, I used todate her.”
“Holdon, Jack, when was this?”
Jackturned to lean back against the tree, crossed one arm over his chestand put the other to his head in thought, “Almost five… sixyears ago now, I was still a Frontliner when she left me.”
“So,”Indy leaned against a second tree, “What are you planning to doabout it?”
“‘Do’?Indy, you’ve known me for four years now, I plan to do what I’vealways done, have a stiff one and beat some bad guys to pulps, thenthank Heaven that my students are as accepting of my excuses as I amof their’s.”
Yeah,Indy thought, that’s what you do alwa ays do, “And when that failslike it always does?
“You’regonna be a friend and drag me along with you next time you go off onone of your adventures if I don’t get sent off on one of mine first,”Jack answered.
“Youwon’t be able to avoid her forever, you do realize.”
“No,”Jack shook his head, “But I can have our next encounter happenat a time and place of my own choosing, Henry.”
Jackchuckled at the look of annoyance on Indy’s face at the use of hisfirst name.
“Youknow I like Indiana.”
“Ialso know the DOG’s name was Indiana.”
Afew minutes passed as the two professors enjoyed the silence thatsurrounded them during a ‘planning’ period.
“Jack,was here and now the place and time you were thinking of?”
“Why?”Jack asked, half asleep.
“Becauseshe’s headed this way,” Indy nodded down the path at the subjectof their conversation.
Jack’seyes popped open and locked on the form of one of the few people inhis life that he truely wished never to see again. Combat-honedinstincts, undulled, if not enhanced by teaching willing studentsabout the past, ran through several possible scenarios and decided onthe best course of action in a matter of seconds, leading him tostraighten up and start walking into the small woods beside the path.
“Seeyou, Jack,” Indy shot over his shoulder.
“Onlyif you’ve suddenly developed thermal vision,” Jack answered,running his hands through a quick pattern before disappearing.
Indyshook his head, “I’ve got to get him to teach me thatinvisiblity trick…”
—-
Itcould have been so long later that there’s not a name for that lengthof time, or so much sooner that there still wasn’t, but we reappearedin another reality…
Righton top of me.
“Youknow,” came my voice from the empty air under me and Athena,”All this does is prove that when I say people can drop inanytime, they take the drop part more literally than the anytime,”the speaker faded into view, revealing my counterpart in a whitet-shirt and blue jeans.
“Ifwe ever make it home,” I shook my head, “Not even Skywarp’sgonna believe this…”
“Aslovely as the lady is, and as fast as I heal, my spine would like tocordially request for the two of you to get off of it.”
Irolled off my counterpart and came up to my feet, extending a hand tohelp Athena up.
“Don’tmind me, I’m used to being a doormat,” he commented when Athenaaccidently stepped on him.
“Johnnie,I think he’s a worse smart-ass than you are.”
“Blameit on four years of teaching college students.”
“You’retaking this pretty well,” I told him.
“Comparedto a lot of the other stuff I encounter on a regular basis, alternatereality versions of me are nothing new,” he muttered as herolled over onto his back, “Though usually they arrive in themorning, not the afternoon.”
Let’ssee, an alternate version of himself shows up with his wife and landson him and all he does is make a comment about showing up at thewrong time of day, if I ever needed any proof that he was me, thatwas it.
Inthe short time we had available, we exchanged stories. Unlike me, heactually preferred being called Jack. For him, Frontline had neverbeen instated into the full Joe team, so the non-regular JoeFrontliners found themselves suddenly civilians again. In any case,Jack had taken Nick Fury up on an offer to be a full-time SHIELDSpecial Agent, which wound up with him as Johnny Freedom, SteveRogers as Captain America, and John Walker as the USAgent workingtogether as a team. The cover Jack wound up with was as a historyprofessor at ESU, teaching alongside the famous, or is that infamous?legendary? Doctor Henry “Indiana” Jones, Jr… or rather,his own cover of being his great-grandson… being nearly immortaldoes have downsides, it seems…
Afterthat, we wound up sitting in on one of his history classes, and I’llsay this, if half of my high school classes were as interesting asthis one college class, I might not have just taken the GED andgotten it over with.
Afterthe class filed in and he introduced us as observers, he began hislesson, “Today, class, we will be studying Eighth Century Japan,specifically, the clans of ninja, or Shinobi in Japanese, thatreached their peak during this period. Many of you have already heardof the two largest clans, the Koga and the Iga, but at the same timethere were a number of smaller clans, often more powerful but lesswell-known. Among these were the Hokage, who if you believed thelegends possessed the ability to manipulate time itself and create a’Flame’, the Arishikage, who believed in adapting oneself to theirsurroundings for stealth, and the Naitotsurukusa, who believed theopposite of the Arishikage, believing in adapting one’s surroundingsto hide themselves…”
Oneof the male students did the mocking half-yawn that I remembered frommy own school days, “C’mon, teach, this is boring…”
“He’sright… These guys are long dead, what can they have to do withanything?”
Jackgave a smiling scoff, the kind I always give when I know more thanI’m letting people know, “You’d be surprised, Miss Barnes. Anyof you watch the news? Have you heard of Johnny Freedom?”
Icould see smiles and relaxation go around the room, now the class wasgetting interested.
“Whohasn’t, Professor? He’s one of America’s greatest heroes,” Thefirst guy answered.
“Didyou know that he once went by the name ‘Captain America’?” Itwas true of course, the first time I had worn anything like that ithad been Cap’s own outfit, the Red Skull had Frontline hostage, Capwas nowhere to be found, and if Captain America didn’t show up, mymen would be killed, so ‘Captain America’ showed up… just, not theoriginal Captain America…
“CaptainAmerica? Wasn’t he that guy from World War Two that you told usabout?”
“Exactly,Mr. Jones. He had that name at first to honor the original ‘Red,White, and Blue Avenger.’ Johnny Freedom fights for freedom today thesame way his predecessor did almost sixty years ago… longer thanyou’ve been alive, longer than some of your parents have been alive.”
“Sixtyyears? Professor, haven’t we changed any in that time? We had theCivil Rights Movement, the fall of the Berlin Wall, the collapse ofthe Soviet Union, isn’t that changing things?” The young woman,Miss Barnes, asked.
“Unfortunately,no. We’re fighting religious extremists and terrorists instead ofNazis and racism is directed towards Arab-Americans instead ofAfrican-Americans, but the battles are the same… Intolerance…Hatred… Fear… We call Johnny Freedom a superhero because of howand who he fights, but we sometimes forget that he’s a hero in thefirst place because of why he fights. I’m going to tell you all astory and while I do I want you to think about this: The sameArab-Americans that get discriminated against, if the extremists andterrorists won, would most likely be killed as ‘traitors’ for sidingwith ‘the Great White Satan.’ While you are all thinking about that,let me recount a story I heard about one of Johnny Freedom’s firstmissions, not long after 9-11…”
“Isit true?”
“Didit happen? I don’t know, could it have happened? It could have, I’msure… I personally like to think it did…” Jack leaned backin his chair, changing modes from teacher to storyteller, “There’ssomeone for everyone, but Johnny’s only love was his country.Fighting for her, he didn’t have to prove he was a man. One day whilehe was away, the Al Queda decided to attack. They hit importantsymbols of his country with planes, three of them.
Johnnycame back as fast as he could, to a country that was crying, theruined buildings and shattered hearts were more than he could stand.He took out a picture of his idol, Captain America, and as his tearsfell on the Captain’s face, he heard these words in his soul:
‘Walkaway from trouble if you can. It won’t mean you’re weak if you turnthe other cheek. I hope you’re old enough to understand: You don’thave to fight to make a stand.’
Thefirst troop plane to Afganistan, Johnny was on it, and members of AlQueda just laughed at him as he walked into one of their strongholdsalone. One of them got up and met him halfway ‘cross the floor. WhenJohnny turned around they said, ‘Hey look! Ol’ red, white, andyellow’s leavin’.’ But you coulda heard a pin drop when Johnny took atable and blocked the door.
Twohundred years of freedom was bottled up inside him. And he wasn’tholdin’ nothin’ back; he let ’em have it all. When Johnny leftAfganistan, not an Al Queda was standin’. He said, ‘This one’s forNine-Eleven,’ as he watched the last one fall. And I’ve heardsoldiers say he said,
‘Ipromised you, Cap, and I walk away from trouble when I can. Nowplease don’t think I’m weak, I didn’t turn the other cheek, andCaptain, I sure hope you understand: Sometimes you gotta fight forwhat you stand.'”
Inthe space of what seemed like only a few minutes, an hour and a halfhad passed, no one, not even me, had even realized it until the bellrang signalling a change of classes.
“Okay,since we didn’t get to it today, Tomorrow; Eighth CenturyJapan,”After they had filed out moaning, he added to Athena andme, “That was my last class, guess now would be the best time tohead over to SHIELD Headquarters and talk to Logan.”
“Woah,woah, woah, woah, woah, I missed something here, why would we need totalk to Wolverine, and at SHIELD HQ no less?”
Helooked slightly abashed, “I forgot, didn’t I?”
“Forgotwhat?”
“Nick…died two years ago. Strucker sent an LMD of himself after Nick andeven though it didn’t succeed in killing him, he lost control of hishovercar… he sacrificed himself by manuvering into the East Riverinstead of crashing into Battery Park. Logan had made his way up tothe SHIELD command staff, and with Dum-Dum retiring when Nick died,Nick’s Final Orders placed Logan as Director of SHIELD.”
“Damn…”I whispered, Nick and I had always gotten along pretty well; both ofus being jackasses and all, plus there was the Infinity Formula, sothe thought of him dieing was unsettling.
“Nosense in that,” Athena disagreed, “We’ll be leaving as soonas the Dimensional Tuner is recharged.”
Therecame a knock on the door and a voice that I hated hearing, I hadgrown up, but the person that voice belonged to never had, they werestill in the ‘If you want to be MY friend and use MY playhouse, youhave to PAY me all of YOUR savings’ stage after five years.
“J.T.,are you in there?”
Jacktapped both Athena and me on the shoulder and pointed, “Out thewindow.”
—-
Wedidn’t go to SHIELD Headquarters, but to another place with memoriesof Nick Fury. In my world, the apartment had belonged to Nick, buthere Nick was dead and he’d left it to my counterpart. It’s still THEunwritten rule that ‘Once a Joe, Always a Joe’ and that if a Joe orformer Joe is in trouble, they can turn to any other Joe or formerJoe and expect help, all that matters being the membership in one ofthe most exclusive clubs in the world…
Whichwas why my, or rather Jack’s brother and a team of other heroes werepiled in the apartment when we got there.
“Everyonethis is myself and… what was your codename again, Sergeant?”
“‘Athena,’Jessica Magnus. Yes, we’re married, two years, I can stand himbecause he may be an idiot and a jerk at times but he’s MY idiot andjerk, no, there’s no chance of ignoring that and going on a date,Drake, any other questions?”
“Nope,”the living block of ice that was sitting on the steps answered, “Thatabout covers it.”
Ishook my head, “Don’t worry, Jack, I know most of them…”
Ibegan to point at each of them in turn, starting with the one inblack with the red scarf draped over his shoulders, “John HenryMagnus, formerly known as Havoc, now called The Shadow after histeacher Lamont Cranston.”
Thenthe woman in the yellow jumpsuit standing next to him, “AngelicaJones, ‘Firestar’, formerly of the X-Men.”
Nextthe ice cube, “Robert ‘Bobby’ Drake, ‘Iceman’, also once of theX-Men.”
Theman in gold and red armor, “Anthony Stark, owner and CEO ofStark Industries, also his own bodyguard ‘Iron Man'”
Thenthe one in jet black armor, “Terrance McGinnis, assistant toBruce Wayne of Wayne Enterprises, instead of wearing tights andcalling yourself ‘Batman’ like your boss in the 40’s you wear abat-stylized armor based on Iron Man’s and go by Nightwing.”
Imoved on to the injured man in red and blue, “Peter Parker, theamazing Spider-Man.”
Thelast one was a bit of a surprise to me, even though I knew thiswasn’t my world, the woman tending Spidey’s wounds was not IndiraDimonji like I still expected it to be, “And Silver Sabalovia,the Silver Sable, assassin and mercenary known for only taking jobsagainst criminals and other scum.”
Jackgave an impressed clapping, “Not bad, only missed two thingswith a slight mistake on a third, I’m impressed.”
Isnapped my fingers, “What’d I miss?”
NowI know why everyone always mutters that I’m insane when I startlaughing, Jack gave me the twitches and I’M HIM.
“Thirdmistake, Sable was …exonerated of her ‘crimes.'”
Inodded, I’d seen, in fact, I’d been a part of that kind of procedure,”SHIELD Special Agent, now?”
Icemanchuckled, “Isn’t everybody?”
Ireturned the chuckle, “Sometimes it seems like it. So, if that’smy third mistake, what were my first two?”
“There’snot a single woman in this room.”
Athenareached a hand out to Firestar, “Their taste in women isprobably the thing the Magnus boys have most in common here, too,isn’t it?”
Firestarsmiled and shook hands, “Redheaded…”
“Opinionated.”
“Forceful.”
“Takeno crap.”
Thenthe two of them finished what was, in mine and Athena’s world, arunning joke between Athena, our Firestar, and Talon, “And sexyas hell.”
Smilingand shaking my head as the two in-a-way sisters-in-law hugged, Icommented, “All the parallel universes in existance, and somethings never change,” I paused, then looked at Sable nursingSpidey’s wounds, “Of course, for everything that doesn’t,there’s a LOT that does…”
Spideyshook his head and winced, “It’s a long story…”
“Alwaysare,” I joked…
—-
Here,as I WAS familar with, Peter and Mary Jane Watson never worked out…
Here,Wilson Fisk, the Kingpin of Crime, had arranged a break-in to theHelicarrier to capture John Hardeski, who was a willing prisoner ofSHIELD instead of a SHIELD Special Agent like I knew.
FeliciaHardy, Hardeski’s daughter, was turned into a female super-soldiercalled the Black Cat here, as well.
However,that’s where things change.
Hardydidn’t join SHIELD, she became a superhero, one of the few whoseidentities were public… A rare breed, others who tried that… itdidn’t work out. It didn’t here, either. She started a relationshipwith Spidey as the Black Cat, but couldn’t have one with Peter asFelicia because of the danger to people close to him, even though thetwo were married in secret – if the Black Cat hung around Spider-Manand Felicia Hardy was married to Peter Parker, it doesn’t take morethan a two-bit street hood to figure out that Spider-Man and PeterParker are one in the same.
Poorchoice of words. That’s how it happened. Hardy went insane, insanelyjealous, one day she and Indy, Indira Dimonji, ‘had words’… in analley and a two-bit street hood overheard and relayed the informationto Adrian Toomes, The Vulture, who almost killed Peter’s aunt MayParker. Spidey nearly killed him, but was stopped by his teammates,including Silver Sable, hours later he wound up talking to Sable toclear his head
Hardy,however, decided to kill the Vulture in his prison cell, thinkingthat would help her keep Peter.
Whilethat was happening, Peter was trying to talk to Indy for advice, buthe couldn’t do it and left her apartment in time to be caught by theNew Invaders who thought he had killed the Vulture
Longstory short, Indy nearly died, Nightwing showed up late and ended upkilling the Black Cat…
Spider-Mantook time to mourn, and almost never worked alone again. It seemed attimes that he didn’t care what happened to him as long as he was lostin combat. There were quiet moments, as well…
…tenderones…
…inwhich he and the hard-shelled Symkarian exchanged more and more oftheir thoughts…
…theirfeelings…
…theiraffections…
Twotroubled adventurers finding solace and comfort in each other.
—-
Ishook my head, trying to adjust to the differences from what I know,and unconsciously walked over to Jack’s computer desk, opened adrawer, and pulled out the canned drink I knew without thinking aboutwas in there and popped the top.
“Well,Jack, that proves he’s you; no one else knows where you keep yourbeer, if he wasn’t, he’d have gone to the fridge.”
Shadowwas right, of course, when I was younger it was soft drinks, but I’veALWAYS kept at least one drink stuck in the drawer of my computerdesk, it’s habit.
“Anythingelse I should know, like is Steve dating Sharon Carter for example?”
Jackwas about to answer when there was a knock on the door and a voice,”Professor?”
Iexpected him to act like he wasn’t home or tell us to hide, but whathe did surprised me, “Come on in, Rikki.”
Thedoor opened and one of Jack’s students walked in, I recognized herfrom earlier as Miss Barnes. She glanced around the room and shookher head before asking the New Invaders, “What did you all getinto this time?”
Spideygroaned, “Rhino zigged, I zagged, and zoomed into the wall.”
“Youshould be glad Doc Connors knows about Spider-Man, Peter, and thathe, Doc Indy and Jack helped me cover for you, but the otherProfessors are starting to wonder.”
Jacklooked at me and chuckled, “Rikki Barnes’ grandmother’sbrother’s name was James Buchanan Barnes.”
Thatmade it click, “Bucky.”
“Yeah,and so am I,” Rikki said.
“Rikkiis one of my teammates, as well as one of my students,” Jackexplained, “Along with Captain America, USAgent and Battlestar,the five of us form a government special missions unit called theAvengers… Rikki, this
isme from another time stream and his wife.”
Shenodded, “Hey.”
“So,what’s the sit?”
“Youknow that new teacher in the music department, Dr. Townsend? ..Erin,I think, or something like that?”
Chucklesrippled throughout the room as both Jack and myself whirled aroundand slammed our fists into the wall, without even meaning to do itsimoultaniously.
“Ok,I take it that means yes. She learned that I’m in your classes andasked about you, asked Doc Indy too.”
Jacksnarled and hit the wall with his other fist before fuming, “Whothe hell does she think she is? If she thinks that she can cheat onme, betray me, and then I’ll take her back, she don’t know JackMagnus! I don’t care if it has been years, she can go hifreann leat!”
Ismirked at him dropping into Celtic when he said she could go tohell, “Freedom…” I stepped over and put a hand on hisshoulder, “I think this is an opportunity, say to make Sharonand Susan proud?” I grinned.
Helooked up and matched mine with his own, “A ‘Trap’?”
“Doublethe Turbo, double the trouble, if you get my meaning.”
“‘Itwould be naughty to…'”
“‘Itwould be wrong…'”
Wefinished together, “‘Let’s do it!'”
Wetapped fists, and Athena added her own, “I’m in. I still owethat bitch for her attitude when we met in our world.”
“Howdoes she…?”
“We’remarried, think about it.”
Firestarlooked at Athena and I before commenting, “Jack, if you evermeet a girl like that, the rest of us are taking a nice vacation;like a fishing trip to the Sahara desert…”
AsI would find out at a much later date, those words would prove to beprophetic for them.
—-
Inmilitary terms, it could be called a Double-Feint, making theopposition think that you’re trying to make them think one thing whenyou’ve done something different when in fact you actually did do whatyou were supposed to do in the first place. As far as I wasconcerned, however, it was going to be the best lesson myprofessorial counterpart had ever taught; ‘How do you like me now?’
Whichwas why Athena and I were already in position, a table at the back ofLamont’s, a resturant owned and Head-Chefed by former Sergeant LamontMorris, known to some as ‘Heavy Duty’, waiting for the target to beescorted in. Athena had to borrow something from Firestar’s closet,leaving her in a pale yellow dress, while Jack and I had both gonefor simpler black slacks and white polo shirts – the two of us had tomatch almost exactly for this to work…
Iheard Athena laugh lightly, “The only way he could look any moredisgusted would be if someone was disrespectful to the flag.”
Hadto be Jack and Townsend, but I couldn’t resist responding to Athena’scomment; I drummed out ‘Danny Deever’ on the table with my fingers.’Danny Deever’, for those who don’t know, is what’s played atexecutions, the bum-bum ba-da-ba-da-ba bum that the drummers do.
“Okay,but whose execution is it?” She asked.
“Withany luck, hers. Now let’s enjoy our meals, we’ve got about thirtyuntil the switch-out.” I commented, picking my fork back up.
—-
Thirtyminutes later, I stepped into the bathroom and locked the door asJack turned visible again.
“You’vegot to teach me that trick.”
“You’lllearn it yourself anyway… ugh…” he shuddered, “She’sbecome even worse…”
—-
(Earlier…)
“Itold you that you should have done this from the beginning instead ofyour foolish time wasting in the military.”
Itwas all Jack Magnus, Major, patriot, and American could do not to goballistic – and as someone who had flown the X-22 Storm Eagle, heknew ballistics well – with that remark.
“DoctorTownsend,” he said, refusing to call her by name, “Therewas nothing foolish about or wasted serving my country. I would thankyou NOT to insult it or the service around me.”
“Ican say whatever I damn well please about the USA. Just because Ilive here doesn’t mean I have to think it’s the greatest damn countryin the entire world. Yeah, America has some things right. But it alsohas some things wrong. It’s not perfect, and it’s not ‘unpatriotic’to point out and critizise its flaws.”
—-
“…Ifit wasn’t for the fact that the switch was so close, I wouldn’t havegone into ‘Silent and Glaring mode’, I would have given her adressing down that any Sergeant would be proud of – in public.”
“Iprobably would have let you, too. You ready?”
Jacksighed, “Give me a moment to steady myself. Let’s review. I slipout invisible, you take my place, at the signal, Jessica comes overto ruin Townsend’s day… What is the signal anyway?”
“Theclassic; one she’ll know.”
“Okay…Anyway, the signal is made, Jessica ruins Townsend’s day, and,”he made a gesture with his hands, “She’s off my back, right?”
“That’sa roge, Major.”
Hepatted me on the shoulder twice, “Just remember one thing,Turbo: Yo, Joe.”
—-
Itwas all I could do to keep under control. I’ve NEVER been good withpeople running down the country that generations of my family havefought for, and I’ve gotten even worse about it since I joined thoseranks myself…
Iwas learning that Jack had more restraint than me, because I didn’tjust want to put her in her place verbally, I wanted to physicallystuff Townsend in a box and airmail her to Siberia or some place.Wordlessly, if a bit forcefully, I set my fork down and picked up oneof Lamont’s trademark William-Peter Shis-q-bobs, which any Joe knowsis a fancy way of saying that Heavy Duty still cooks them with WhitePhosphorous grenades, and spun it around while taking bites off ofthe meat and vegetables.
Everythingreturned to balance when Jessica stepped up behind me and rested ahand on my shoulder, “Ready to go, Johnnie?”
“Excuseme? May I ask what you are doing with my date?”
“Date,that’s funny,” Athena slipped into the booth beside me, “Lasttime I checked, my husband DIDN’T date tramps on the side.”
“Husband?”
Igrinned and lifted my left hand so the braided ring of white lustriumcould be clearly seen, “Guilty,” I smirked.
Athenascooted over closer to me, holding up her own matching ring, “I’msure you wanted for a long, long time to find a man like mine… But,you’re too late. So before you go and make your move, maybe me andyou should get a few things straight; there’s two ways we can dothis, and I’ll let you decide, you can take it somewhere else or wecan take it outside.”
“Idon’t believe this.”
“Oh,believe it,” Athena smirked, “I was lucky, I got to liveevery woman’s dream of her knight in shining armor riding in to savethe day, you came close, but unlike you, I was smart enough to enjoythe feeling instead of complaining that my knight prefered fatiguesto armor and a motorcycle to a horse. You think you’re gonna ruinwhat I got, but you’re not,” she leaned forward and lookedTownsend in the eyes, “Now, I’m a Christian, but if you keep itup… I’m gonna go to kickin’ your pretty little butt. Is that clearenough?”
“Nowjust a minute! I don’t know who you think you are, threatening me,but-“
Istood up and let all my lives stand with me… and when you’ve got asoldier, a hero, a husband, a father, a brother, and a friendstanding together, that creates an impression…
“No,I don’t know who you think YOU are, but I know I’m not stupid,DOCTOR. It’s not a hidden fact that I teach at ESU, and the musicprogram here isn’t exactly one of the best in the country, so it’sfairly obvious WHY you came here, so don’t act so holier-than-thoubecause you committed a major clusterfuck: You’re here because you’vedeluded yourself into thinking I’ll take you back, well, fairy tale’sover, WELCOME TO REAL LIFE. I’m a happily married man, I served mycountry proudly and was honorably discharged upon completion of myduties, I’m teaching young men and women that history is important tothe future, and I’m not unhappy with any of it… It’s 2007,Townsend, not 2002, and if I could change anything about the past…I never would have dated you in the first place.”
IfI could have, I would have gotten a picture of her expression when Ifinished my statement… It was indiscribable, and I enjoyed it. Ienjoyed that I was getting to put her in her place again… orrather, I was enjoying her finding out that when she had pushed meaway someone else had stepped up to stand by my side again. In it’sown way, this time doing it for Jack was actually better than when ithad happened for myself… Certainly Townsend was taking it a lotworse, which made it that much better for me.
Lamont’shad gone silent, everyone looking our way, even the waiters hadstopped what they were doing to watch.
Iextended my hand to Jessica and she took it and stood up.
“Youknow, mo leannan,” I said to her, said, not whispered. I didn’tcare if anyone heard at the moment, “For the first time in along time, I’ve lost my appeitite… Let’s get the hell out of here.”
Weslipped out of the booth and the whole restaruant – lacking one -burst into applause.
—-
Twoweeks later, Jack sat in another staff meeting, but he had asuspicion why this one was called…
“Ladiesand gentlemen, as you know, Doctor Townsend’s last day here istomorrow, so I’d like everyone to give her a big farewell when sheleaves…”