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| Series: Hunter's Path Pairing: James/Claudia Word Count: 552 ![[info]](http://p-stat.livejournal.com/img/community.gif) 24hour_themes prompt: Comprehension of universal truth
'I don't even know why I'm doing this. Gypsy said it'd help clear my head, and I guess she'd be the expert. God knows I'm not. This psychology-emotional crap is miles beyond me. But I'm doing what she said and writing this down before it becomes more of an issue. 'We got my file. A copy of it anyway. Apparently, the original will be a bit harder to come by. The way Sean described it is as being under lock and key in the Cardinal's office in Rome. All active and defected hunters' files will probably be in there. 'James seems to think we're just going to go get the original. For all that he likes to call me "hero", he has a pretty big hero complex himself, always stepping in to save the day. How are we supposed to stroll into the Cardinal's office and take them, just like that? It'd be a neat trick, especially being on the other side of an ocean, but it's not happening. I'm not risking anyone, especially not him, to the Cardinal's wrath over this. Not my Jamey. 'Yeah, he's mine, and I guess I'm his. I don't know why I never thought of that before. It seems like such an obvious thing now, like I should have known it from the beginning, from the first moment I met him. Even when we didn't strictly get along and I know I wanted to punch him as soon as look at him, I think we always belonged to each other. I mean, I'm more comfortable with Jamey's casual touching of me than anyone else I can think of, even Sean. 'He's mine, and I'll kill anyone who tries to take him from me. 'It's been such a crazy few nights lately. I almost miss being back at the hotel, just the two of us. No, I do miss it. I never thought I'd miss work, but I'd rather being laying in that small, too-firm bed, wrapped around my own personal James-shaped furnace. '(From what I can tell, my body temperature has dropped since the change. Gypsy remarked on it, though Jamey's yet to say anything about it. Sean got that kicked puppy look he gets when he feels guilty about something when he hugged me earlier. I'm not that eager to test it, to find out yet, though.) 'For my first night day alone, I'm not doing so well. I miss James.' With a frustrated growl, she closed the cover, set her pen down on the bedside table, and tucked the notebook under the mattress before flopping down hard to lay on her bed. This just wasn't working the way it was supposed to. Creature of the night, and yet she couldn't go to sleep during the day alone. And with a meeting with the du Prebeau Council scheduled for just after nine the coming night, she'd need the sleep to be at the top of her game to deal with them. Well, there was nothing to it. She could stay here and do nothing -- including not sleep -- or she could go knock on the door two rooms away from her own and deal with the problem. Like there was ever any doubt, she thought in amusement as she pushed herself to her feet. | |
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| Co-authored: ![[info]](http://p-stat.livejournal.com/img/userinfo.gif) katsuko @ dragons_moonSeries: Doctor Who/Torchwood Pairing: Tenth Doctor/Rose Tyler/Captain Jack Harkness Word Count: 956 24hour_themes prompt: 23:00- Coping with drastic change in a positive manner.
Admittedly, she was still somewhat shaken from everything that had happened on that hell planet. It was such a close call - nearly losing the TARDIS, almost positive that she would never see the Doctor again - that for the first time in near about six months, Rose Tyler had to ask again: "Can we go pick up Jack now, Doctor?" She noticed that the Doctor tensed at the console but he did not answer her, instead focusing on the TARDIS' screens (and damn it all that she still had no clue what those symbols meant). Rose glanced briefly at her mobile - it was still set on London time and proclaimed the hour to be 11:15 at night - to see how long it took him to reply. When the five minute mark passed in silence she spoke once more. "It's been a while, yeah? The earth of 200,100 should be set to rights by now. Jack's probably started thinking that we forgot all about him and--" "Rose." It wasn't the fact that he'd interrupted that stopped her flow of words, but the way he'd said her name - quietly, with the slightest break before he'd finished speaking. It sent a chill down her spine; and when she looked at him again, she saw heart wrenching pain in his eyes. "We can't. I'm sorry," the Doctor said, as if four little words were explanation enough. Rose was many things, but stupid was not one of them. She had a sinking feeling why they couldn't go back, couldn't bring Jack home, but she needed to hear it. If she didn't then she would always hold onto the hope that-- "Why?" she demanded, her own tone soft, coaxing. "Doctor, why can't we go back for him?" Don't you care about him? I thought you felt the same towards Jack as you do about me, she thought, nearly said, managed to bite back. The Doctor looked away, expression closing off completely. The total lack of any emotion on his face almost made her take back her question. Before she could tell him to forget it, or possibly repeat the question again, or do anything other than take a breath, he finally spoke up. "I'm so sorry, Rose. I shouldn't have kept the truth from you." He finally looked her way again; although his face and voice remained expressionless, his eyes were once again filled with pain. "After I sent you home from the Games Station, everything accelerated. The Daleks... basically plowed through everything and everyone in their path. Jack had his comm link open, keeping me posted on how much longer until the Daleks reached Floor 500." He stopped speaking again, and for a fraction of a second she could see sorrow etched on his usually boyish face. In that instant she could honestly believe with every fiber of her being that the Doctor was well over nine hundred years old. "The Daleks chased him right to the control room doors," the Doctor continued, voice flat and devoid of emotion. "Jack kept shooting until the last round. They killed him, Rose. Exterminated him no more than a hundred meters from where I stood. The last words I heard him say were, I kinda figured that." Silence now, save for the TARDIS' humming. Rose found herself torn between anger that he had kept this from her, had outright lied to her for do long... and sorrow for how long her had to have been mourning in silence. She took a deep breath to study herself before closing the gap between then and slapping the Doctor soundly. He was obviously startled by the action if his gob smacked expression was any indication. "You just hit me," he said after a moment, his tone indignant. "And I should give you another smack for not telling me sooner," Rose retorted before wrapping her arms around his waist, resting her head against his shoulder. "For an intelligent bloke, you can be right stupid sometimes." For a brief second he tensed, almost as if he expected her to hit him again, before relaxing and leaning into her. His arms wrapped themselves around her, one and her shoulders, and rested his head against hers. Rose could almost swear that she heard him let out a muffled sob, but she would never call him on it. After all, the Doctor have born the burden of the horrible truth alone for so long; she could look the other way for a few moments more. And if her own tears fell, it was okay. Neither of them had to bear it alone. ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~Something was wrong, that much she knew. Her Doctor and her Rose were hurting; she could feel it through her connection with both, but she wasn't sure of the why. As unobtrusively as she could, she skimmed their thoughts to find the cause. ...oh. Well. Bipedal lifeforms were certainly stupid at times. It was forgivable in this case, though. Her Doctor and her Rose thought her Captain was dead. And by all rights he should be. Except that when she was linked with her Rose, she felt Rose's desire to keep her Doctor and her Captain safe. So she had found her Captain's spark and fanned it back into life... and, okay, maybe she infused a bit of herself into it as well. She wanted them safe, too, after all. But her Rose did not remember and her Doctor did not know. So it was up to her to make the family whole again - her Doctor, her Rose, and her Captain. Thus decided, the TARDIS locked onto her target and hurled herself through the vortex. It was past time to bring Captain Jack Harkness home. | |
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| Series: Hunter's Path Pairing: James/Claudia Word Count: 534 24hour_themes prompt: Improving personal convictions and resolutions Note: Book spoilers like WOAH
Claudia's file was apparently a source of fascination for her. He could understand that. She wanted to know who had killed her family, and the file might contain that. Personally he was more than a bit curious about the folder's contents also and he was quite willing to comp to that. After all, his girlfriend had been slowly flipping through it a page at the time, the expression on her face growing steadily darker. Much more of this, and he might have to start wondering if Sean and Jean had left some sort of nasty note on every page in it or something, something that might explain why they'd been so quick to go with a hotel room and leave Claudia to look at that damn file. No, correction. Much more of this, and he was going to track them down and beat an answer out of them, of what was in there, word for ever last god-forsaken word. "Damn it," she finally muttered. It was almost shocking, she'd been so quiet since she started reading an hour ago, just after they'd gotten out of the Council room at ten a.m. It had made for a long morning so far. "What is it?" he asked quietly. "What's wrong?" "Plenty," she quickly returned. "If this thing is even half right, then there's a lot the Order never bothered to tell me." "Like what?" The expression on her face very clearly stated she was certain he didn't want to have to hear this, but he waited a moment and, after a nervous look at the half-open training room door, she finally began to speak. "The... I... My father is still alive, for one thing. His name is blacked out, but he apparently killed whoever killed my mother. And that's just for starters." "There's more?" No wonder she'd looked so livid. "I have -- had -- it's not really specific if she's alive or not, but apparently I wasn't an only child. My mother wasn't hiding my sister and me from my father when she put us in separate foster families; she was hiding us from the Church, from what I'm getting. All the names and a lot of the details are blacked out. See?" She pushed a handful pages over at him, and sure enough, a good deal of each sheet was covered in black. "It's like trying to read a declassified government document." "Everything I'm getting is totally up for grabs -- and a bit useless without any names." She sighed and dropped her head on his shoulder. In response, he wrapped his arm around her waist, pulling her a bit closer. "I guess there's not a lot of sense worrying about it when there's nothing I can do about it, is there?" "Sara might be able to coax some information if you ask her," he opinioned. "Maybe." Another sigh. "I need to know... but..." "Would the original file have all this blacked out?" "Probably not. I don't know." She eyed him a bit suspiciously. "What did you have in mind, Jamey?" "You need to know, then damn it, we're going to find it out for you. One way or another, we'll find it out." | |
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| Series: Hunter's Path Pairing: James/Claudia Word Count: 457 24hour_themes prompt: Harmony of elements, sticking to schedules
Less than four hours to go... The clock was slowly ticking its way through the four o'clock hour, and it felt like every second took four to go by. Looking around, though, he was far from the only one bored, distracted, and nervous, on what was coming up in a few hours. Sara had her iBook out, trying to turn up building plans for Harry's with no luck thus far. John had a deck of cards out was engaged in what seemed to be a solitary game of Blackjack 21. Romeo was with Gypsy, at least till Christian deigned to make an appearance. (It wasn't that he actively disliked the man. He just disliked the situation Gyps was in, no thanks to him. Maybe if it hadn't been just her protesting an arranged marriage, they could have avoided it, instead of four people suffering needlessly. But Christian had consigned himself to his fate, barely even putting up a token protest. That was why he had... issues with him.) And while the other Enforcers were thus engaged and he was clock-watching, Claudia was jotting things down on a small notepad that she must have swiped from the hotel. He leaned over to see if he could decipher her notes, usually not the easiest task: sometimes her handwriting was something only she could read. "Do we have a plan or something here, hero?" he finally had to ask. She glanced up, a brief second of startlement in her eyes before she relaxed again. She was hiding it well from everyone else, but what happened two weeks ago still had her shaken up, not surprisingly. "Mostly 'or something'. We need to be there at least an hour and a half early to give us time to be the first ones there and pick the best location in the restaurant. Sean will probably be there an hour early, so we should be prepared for that." She glanced around, obviously a bit surprised to have garnered everyone's attention. He almost expected Sara to voice a thought next, but it wasn't exactly a shock to hear John's question of "You are going in armed, aren't you, boss?" "Of course," he answered before she could even open her mouth. "Hell, if we had the equipment or the time to get it, we'd be recording this meeting." "I'll add recording devices to the shopping list," Sara murmured. "That's definitely something we need." "If you two are going to be there on time, you'd better start getting ready now," John cut back in. "Be careful, and good luck, both of you." He glanced up at the clock once again, somewhat surprised to see the four o'clock hour was almost up. It wouldn't be much longer now. | |
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| Series: Hunter's Path Pairing: James/Claudia Word Count: 532 24hour_themes prompt: Balancing matters of the body, mind, and spirit
A little over four hours to go... To be more precise, it was 3:22, leaving her just over four and a half hours to figure out what to do and say during this meeting. She was hoping for the best to happen, she could admit that, since James was doing all the paranoia for her for once. And she could definitely see his point: if the situations were reversed, there would be nothing he'd be able to do or say to keep her from protesting him going. If the situation was exactly like what they had in front of them, she might be tempted to handcuff him to something to keep him from leaving, all the reassurances about codewords or not. She glanced over and had to hold back a grin. She might be sitting over here fretting over whether or not she was making a horrible mistake that might cost them both their lives, but James was double- and triple-checking their equipment before they went out there. That was a good thing, because she wasn't sure she'd trust herself on it, as nervous as she felt. There was no way she knew to show it, but she did feel a bit uneasy on this. She was hoping it ended up going well; she missed her brother around; but if anything happened... "Jamey..." she began then hesitated, not sure how to say what she wanted to. At her silence, he looked up from cleaning his H & K to meet her gaze. "What is it?" She bit down on her lip, something she always used to do when she was nervous, and winced as her newly sharpened incisors punctured and the salty taste of blood filled her mouth. There wasn't a lot, but the taste tended to be a bit overwhelming on her senses. She took a deep shuddering breath and slowly released it before continuing. "Do you think this is a bad idea?" His thumb skimmed the side of her mouth, wiping the blood away. "Maybe. But we're ready if something decides to go wrong, so there's no use worrying about it." "He called me Didi." At the look of confusion on his face, she continued, "That's the codeword for 'it's safe'. Meeting at eight means 'it's urgent'." "You didn't have to tell me the codewords, you know. I wasn't holding that against our agreement." She shook her head. "We might need it." "God, I hope not." The vehemence in his voice startled her, and her eyes shot up to meet his. "I mean it. I've had to see you die once. It may be selfish, but that's something I never want to have to see again. That first week, I kept waking up in the middle of the day thinking you were gone; I had to check your pulse to reassure myself every time. I don't want to ever lose you, Claudia." She smiled faintly and leaned over to press a quick kiss to his lips; he held her closer to extend it. As it broke and she moved back, a hand still tangled in the back of his hair, she murmured, "I don't want to lose you either, James." | |
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| Series: Hunter's Path Pairing: James/Claudia Word Count: 527 24hour_themes prompt: Hope, improved insight and perspective
This was building up to be their biggest fight to date, and really, he'd like to lay the blame for it squarely at Romeo's feet. He'd just had to mention the phone call. So after shooing the other Enforcers from the room, Claudia had checked her voicemail, listened to the message with a somber face, then declared that it mostly likely was not a trap, something about a codeword or something in the message. "I just don't think we should go in there blindly assuming the best," he argued, doing his best to keep his voice down to reasonable levels. Yelling wasn't going to win this argument. Still, he admitted to himself as he rubbed his forehead, this was all very frustrating to him. She shook her head, stubbornness set on her features. "Sean's like my brother. If he used that codeword... He wouldn't use it to trap me." "But we can't be sure," he clung to his point desperately. As she paced by, he grabbed her hand to hold her still; talking to her back was disconcerting at best. "Claudi, I want this to be for real as much as you do, but I'm not going to take that chance." She sighed. "Jamey..." She sank down to sit on the arm of his chair. He echoed her sigh with an equally tired one of his own. "Why are you so sure this isn't a trap?" "A few years or so before I first came here, Sean and I worked an assignment out in Missouri where we were after a homicidal ghost. We almost had our asses handed to us, especially after we ended up against a couple independent hunters. We couldn't exactly tell the Order that we ended up working with independents, so we had to work out codewords and such. We barely came out of it alive, so we agreed to save the codewords for dire circumstances only to let each other know if things were okay or to get the hell out of Dodge. There's no way he'd use one of the safe words as a trap. Sean's just not like that." "Does anyone else know about them?" Again she shook her head. "No one that I know of. Maybe Jean, but that's it." "There's no chance someone could be making him use them to put you off your guard?" "Not a chance in hell. No one else knows them." And he'd note that she hadn't even told him the exact words or phrase or whatever. "Besides, the meet-up's at Harry's. If anything happens, he'll hex our asses onto the street. We're safe there till the night shift is over, if something goes wrong." He did some mental figuring. "The day shift comes on at seven in the morning, right?" Claudia nodded once, and he felt himself relax a bit. There would be plenty of people on the street by then: they'd be stupid to try anything on the street as well, in broad daylight. "All right. I hope to God you're right." "I am." And when she spoke with such utter certainty, even he had a hard time holding onto his doubts. | |
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| Series: Hunter's Path Pairing: James/Claudia Word Count: 962 24hour_themes prompt: Matters of safety, protection and completion
Trust had never come easily for her. That was what she liked to tell herself anyway. Apparently she'd been mistaken. She'd thought it was all right to trust the people she'd worked for and with for ten years. She'd even let herself get close to some of them, calling some of them family. And that had obviously been a mistake. Neither Sean nor Jean had been present for what happened to her, but they'd come along on this mission obviously to hunt her as a rogue, so she had to believe they'd known something, if not the entire plan from the beginning. For a few minutes, she'd been dead. That seemed like that should mean something, like she should have seen something beyond Simon's fist, blackness, then James' worried face: choirs of angels or devils and demons, at the very least. She'd almost declare the whole thing a bust, if it weren't for the fact she was very aware that if James hadn't show up and known CPR, she wouldn't be here. She wouldn't have woken up, that much was certain to her now. Halfbreeds didn't come back without assistance. They'd been at this hotel room a week. She could move on her own all the time now, but neither of them had taken down the line of chairs that doubled as a rope of sorts between the bed and the bathroom. Just in case and all that. After all, as Jamey had pointed out, she still looked and felt like hell. Actually, she'd seen herself in the mirror: until the bruises faded a bit more, they'd need to stay here; otherwise people were going to wonder if (a) she was on death's doorstep, (b) she was the star of some Lifetime movie about abused women, or (c) they should maybe call 9-1-1 and have James arrested. None of the options sounded appealing, so she'd sent him back to the Camp for the things they'd need to stay here another week, as well as to check on the new Enforcers and Gypsy. In the meanwhile, though, she had the door locked and bolted, and a chair shoved against it. That had been James' concession to go to run these quick errands; he hadn't left till he heard the locks click and the chair move into place. Most of her weight leaning against the wall, she had a book laid open on that chair while she carefully copied each sigil with chalk onto the walls next to the door. The ones on the left of the door were for witches. It took two and they were fairly complicated, so she did them first, but then she had to sit and regain her breath before moving to the right side of the door. The first one there was for golems, and even though he was only half like she had been, she figured it should keep Simon at bay. The final sigil was one she'd never thought she'd need to use. Technically, it only kept the Wolf away, but Sean and the Wolf were tied up in one another like few Lupercans she'd ever seen, so the ward should keep him on the other side of the door. She should have done this a week ago, she thought in disgust, and not made Julian keep the protection up on this room. The downside of these wards in particular was that, while they were the most effective, they had to be renewed daily; they "expired" at just after six every afternoon, the second the sun moved out of view. She also should have someone start putting them up at the Camp. Not at the gate, since a year-old Lupercan could easily hop that fence like it was a stick on the ground, but at all the doors and windows on the first and second floors, as well as the basement. Someone knocked on the door twice, and she started, nearly dropping her chalk. The door didn't have a peephole, but that hadn't been a big deal for her most of the time she'd been here. Julian had a key, and James had been here with her. She was loathe to admit she was nervous alone, but then she'd been alone when Simon found her; a little phobia was understandable, she thought. The tapping on the door repeated itself, this time three times, and she was able to breathe a sigh of relief. That was the code she and James had worked out so she'd known it was him returning and would move the chair and remove the bolt. Even so, she opened the door slowly and breathe another quiet sigh of relief when it was him and he was alone. "Get everything all right?" she asked, leaning against the wall as he came in, locking and bolting the door behind himself. He tossed a full-looking duffel bag on the bed. "Enough clothes for both of us for another week, more Vicodin for you, another pack of chalk, and," here he reached behind his oversized shirt and produced one of her guns and her waist holster from the small of his back, "your Glock." Suddenly she could breathe easier with her remaining main weapon in the room. Yeah, James had his H & K's, but these were her ever-faithful Glocks. "Gypsy sends her best and would like you to call her when you feel up to it. Romeo's stick to her like glue, so she'll be fine till we get back. John and Sara are taking our patrol routes. We're fine to hide out another week." "Almost." She turned and sketched the final symbol on the last ward, and they activated with a bright blue flash of light for a second before vanishing. "Now we're fine." | |
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