Date: Wed, 29 Mar 1995 01:06:50 -0500 Reply-To: JillMari@AOL.COM Sender: Highlander TV show stories From: Jill Spetoskey Subject: A Dirty Job (4 of 4 ) c. 1995 by Jill Spetoskey-some violence and gore, but not that much **************************** * * * A Dirty Job-part 4 * * * **************************** Seacouver- 7 days later Trina pulled her mother's Bronco into the garage. Grabbing her swim bag out of the passenger side, she climbed out of the truck, and headed into the house on an endorphin rush. She cut through the laundry room and, unable to contain her excitement, began to yell as she barreled toward the kitchen. "Hi Mom. Guess what. Coach told me today that he thinks I have a real shot as making Juniors cuts this year. We had time trials today and..." She ground to a halt as she saw the scene in the kitchen. Her mother and her brother Josh were seated at the table, Josh with fear in his eyes. Standing next to them was a man with a gun. A gun that was looking really big. In near shock she dropped her bag to the ground, feeling half of it fall on her foot. I hope that the shampoo bottle doesn't spill out over everything, a strange corner of her mind worried. The man, a short but powerful looking man with thinning brown hair, looked almost startled at her appearance. "Mom, what's happening here?" The man recovered from his surprise, and gave a dead smile. "My name is Doug Martin, and I need to discuss things with a man named Gerald Trent. He has been trying to avoid my attempts at contacting him lately, so I need to provide some incentive for his presence, namely you three. My quarrel is with him, not you. Now that we're all here, it's time to go out to the car, and take a trip." He waved the gun back in the direction of the garage. "Gee, great way to spend a Saturday." Josh muttered under his breath. Mom then shot him a look that would stop any doctor in their tracks as they headed to parts unknown. Tacoma-the same day Trent looked out over the card table to the forming line. The very last stop on the tour. In a few hours, I'll be back home, and hope that Doug Martin never finds out who's behind the penname Scott Trenton. I'll give everyone a hug, give the kids some money to go to the movies, and spend some nice time with Lisa, and worry about taking the car back late tommorow. Back to work, now. He thought as he settled into a signing rhythm. He'd never considered himself as being terribly good looking. He had too much of a nose. But since Joanna had flown back to Georgia, he'd been increasingly hit on by his readers. He had allowed himself a smile when the store manager tapped him on the shoulder. "Mr. Trenton? You have a phone call. They said it was an emergency." Trent rose from behind the table and slipped brhind the service desk. "Trent here." "It's Doug. If you want to see Lisa, Trina, and Josh, here's where you need to go.." Trent grabbed a piece of paper, and started to scrawl directions. He headed out the back door yelling to the manager. "Sorry, I've got to go. Family emergency." Seacouver Trina felt numb as she was herded into the warehouse. The man named Doug hadn't said anything else as they drove down near the docks, other than saying it was a matter between him and Dad. She just couldn't see him getting involved in something like this. They went through a cavernous vault of a room, and continued down a smaller, dim hallway. Doug paused in front of a small stroeroom door before waving them inside. Trina was barely able to locate a light switch before the door closed, leaving them in darkness. She heard footsteps as Doug moved on to pasts unknown. She felt along the far wall of the small room, and flipped the switch. "Mom, what's happening here?" "Someone from your father's past wants to see him, as the man said. I think the best person to explain it to you would be your father. Do you still have the gas card in your pocket?" "Yeah. Why?" "Can I see it?" Her mother took the card from her and eased it along the doorframe. "Damn, it's a deadbolt." Trina saw the laugh lines on her mother's now somber face, and found herself thinking that her mother seemed old for the first time. "What do we do now, Mom? Was Dad in the mafia or something?" "We wait, Josh, and no, he wasn't in the mafia. It's a little more complicated than that." "What was it then?" "He'll have to tell you when we see him. I do have something to tell you though, Katrina, you were going to find this out when you turned eighteen, but maybe you should know now." "What, Mom?" "You aren't my child by birth. You were abandoned at the hospital where I was working. Ken and I wanted a child, and at the time, it was looking like we couldn't have one in the normal way. We arranged to adopt you when your birth parents couldn't be found. I hope you aren't mad at me for keeping it from you, it just seemed like that the time to tell you was later. You were always so much my daughter that I never even told Trent of it when we got married. It just didn't seem like the right time" "Oh." Trina felt herself sliding into a mass of confusion. She started to chew on a strand of hair that had escaped from her long, thick braid, lost in her thoughts. "What about me, mom?" "Josh, you became part of the family in the normal way. Both of you are the children of my heart, no matter whether you were children of my birth." The three lapsed into silence, and the minutes started to tick by. ---------- Trent walked into the warehouse, feeling the other's presence. In the center of the cavernous room, his wife and children were seated in an empty area of the floor. Lisa saw him, and rushed onto her feet, and into his arms, with Trina and Josh following in the bear hug. He let himself feel a brief moment of relief at their safety, but knew that danger was nearby. "I'm letting you say your goodbyes, now. It's more than I had with Patrice, but I'm not that inhumane." A figure walked out from behind a large shipping carton with a drawn pistol. "Move away now. I want you, not them. They can leave when I have your head. It's just that you can't be alive when she is dead." Trent thought about it for about a milisecond before moving away from his wife. It had been good, he though sadly. He just wished he could have been with Lisa for longer, to see his children grow to adulthood. "I love you." He barely whispered as he slowly reached into his coat, and pulled his sword out, lying it on the cement floor. He knelt down, and Doug approached with his sword in hand, and raised it above Trent's head. "Dad, nooo!" He watched in horror as Trina charged toward Doug. The other man retrieved his pistol from inside his jacket, and fired two shots at the charging girl, hitting her in the chest. A father's rage took over then. He grabbed his sword off the floor, and drove it between Doug's ribs. He pushed the man backward until he was pressed up against the warehouse's wall. He pulled his sword out of Doug's body, and Doug slid to the ground. "I was ready to die, man, but you killed her." " No, I didn't. You see." Trent barely heard Doug as he swung his sword down on the other man's neck. He tried to walk back to where Trina was lying, but the Quickening drew him back to where Doug's body lay. He barely felt the light rain of broken glass as the lightbulbs overhead shattered. The quickening seemed to stretch on an infinity, blocking him from reaching his daughter. He crawled to where she was cradled in Lisa's arms. Blood had soaked through her t-shirt, and was pooling on the floor. She was dying, and no doctor could get there in time to save her. He had barely had time to tell her that he loved her when her breathing slowed to a stop. Frozen with grief, he felt the tears starting to roll down his face, and heard Lisa and Josh's own expressions of grief begin. He felt something then. At first, he thought that it was the quickening he had taken demanding his attention, but it grew outside of his mind. He wiped his hands across his face to remove the tears that were blurring his vision, and looked down at his daughter. Her chest was starting to move again, and the bullet hole was starting to close. His heart jumped. Suddenly, he understood Joanna and Doug's parting words, understood why he had felt almost paranoid when he had first met Lisa's children. He let out a yell of joy. Lisa's eyes moved from her husband to her daughter, seeing what he had seen. Her face took on a look of awe, and of understanding. She was still crying, but her tears were tears of joy. She softly spoke. "Trent, I promised Trina and Josh that you would explain this all. I just never thought it would be anything like this." Trent was speechless, wondering what strange things were yet to come. The ending comments/flames, etc. to Jill Spetoskey jillmari@aol.com jilkey@umich.edu =========================================================================