Date: Fri, 17 Mar 1995 03:35:38 -0500 Reply-To: JillMari@AOL.COM Sender: Highlander TV show stories From: Jill Spetoskey Subject: A Dirty Job (prelude) This is my first try at fanfic. Don't worry, all is not as it seems, and I promise a few interesting cameos along the road. ** ** ** ** A Dirty Job by Jill Spetoskey ** ** ** ** Trent toyed with the comb, running it through his mid-brown hair for about the fifty-ninth time. You're starting to act like a silly heroine in one of your books waiting for your long lost love to return, he chuckled to himself. All heart aflutter and breath rasping. But then you do love her, although in a mother-son sort of way, and you haven't seen her in nearly fifty years. Okay, admit it, you can't wait for Joanna to get here. Suddenly, he heard and felt the car pull into the driveway knowing his guest had arrived before his wife Lisa yelled upstairs to tell him of Joanna's arrival. He bounded down the stairs, and looked out of the peephole just in time to see Joanna climbing out of the driver's seat of a black Taurus SHO in the summer sunshine. She gracefuly floated up the path to the front door and rang the bell. Trent unlocked the door, and was greeted by a whirlwind. "Trent, its been too long since I've seen you, kid. It's good to see you well. But aren't you forgetting something?" "Hi there too." He mumbled as he was enveloped by a bear hug. "But forgetting what?" "Introductions for one. Men just never seem to remember the proper courtesies. If it weren't for us, the concept of table manners would still involve tossing bones to the dogs sitting behind the dinner table." She turned to Lisa, who had walked up behind Trent in the last few monents, and covered her in the same bear hug. "I am Joanna Kintoul Sanchez, and I'm sorry for stealing away so much of your husband's time lately with the book, and now with this whole promotional thing. The publishers were just being very insistent about this meet the USA thing." "Lisa Hendrix, and its good to meet you. Trent has told me so much about you." "All of it nasty rumors and untrue most likely. Despite his tendency to exagerate, he's a good kid though." Trent cleared his throat." Can I get you something to drink, Joanna? We've got iced tea, soda, juice, coffee." "Iced tea would be great, but first I need to freshen up a little. Could you show me to the ladies?" "Right around the corner there, and when you get out, come over to the kitchen, which is over on the left there for your tea." Trent and Lisa walked to the kitchen in the back of the house. He poured two glasses of tea, and a glass of grape juice for himself."Well hon, what do you think of her?" "She seems like a really nice person, and I like her, but I'm a little surprised. She just seems too young to be 900 years old in a couple of different ways." "Yeah she does tend to surprise people when they meet her." Trent replied. Joanna Kintoul, daughter of the Crusades never really talked about her early life. In the years he had known her, he had pieced together some fragments of her life. She had been married at an early age as was the custom of the time, and had been no more than seventeen when the castle that was her home had fallen, and she had died for the first time. There had been vague references to a first mentor who had been more slavemaster than guide, and a dozen other tragedies in her life, but in spite of it all, Joanna had developed a tremendous love for and joyful outlook on life he had never encountered in another immortal. He found himself about to drift off into the past when Joanna emerged into the kitchen. "I'm proud of you, Trent. It seems like you're doing pretty well these days. A wonderful wife with great kids or so you've written me. Speaking of which, where are your children?" "Trina's at swim practice, and Josh is at camp this week." Lisa answered. "You seem so much happier than the last time I saw you. The lines aren't cutting across your face like they used to. You also seem to be doing well moneywise. How about a tour of this mansion, Sir Gerald of Trent?" "Certainly my lady." He bowed. "Shall we be off?" The three took their glasses, and began to walk through the oversized, federal-style house. After they covered the main and second floors, Trent and Lisa led their guest down the stairs to the basement. "The game room, milady." Trent said. The room stretched almost the entire size of the deeply dug basement. A basketball hoop sat at one end of the room with half of a court painted on the wooden floor beneath it. To the sides of the court, mats were rolled tightly against three of the white painted walls. Against the fourth wall stood a wet bar with a dart board next to it, and a few chairs. "We weren't planning on moving anywhere, but we went to an open house here on a whim, and Trent decided that since I liked to play basketball, I should have a proper place to play it in. It quite a shock when I found out that he actually bought the house for me." Lisa smiled. "A nice place to work out too. I trust that you're keeping in shape Trent." Guiltily, Trent ducked his head. "I keep things up mostly to play with the kids. Trina and Josh are taking karate lessons, and I can't let them get the upper hand on their old man, can I? I haven't had a run-in with anyone for at least ten years, and I haven't even picked up a sword in about five. You did say that there would be long periods of time when the entire fight for the Prize passes you by." Joanna looked worried. Her green eyes were bright with concern, and she had started to chew on her thin lower lip. Her tall body, which often gave her the impression of being shorter than she was because her form flowed so seamlessly together, was telegraphing a sense of worry. Even her long curly dark hair seemed to form a halo around her face, giving her the look of a sort of angel. "Yes, almost all of us have our times of peace, but you still shouldn't let yourself get out of practice like that. It's dangerous. The next thing you're going to tell me is that you weren't even going to take a sword on this book signing thing." "Well as a matter of fact, I wasn't." "Well you are now." Trent looked to Lisa in a silent appeal. Her face had also taken on a look of concern. "I know you said you were walking away from the Game when you married me, but maybe taking it might not be a bad thing. You could accidentally run into someone from your past, and I want to get you back from this darn trip in one piece. "She paused."Besides, when you have women start to throw themselves at you, you can use it to try to keep them at bay." Trent managed a weak smile for her. "If you say so, Lisa. I will. I can't see anything going wrong on this trip though. It's only a book signing tour. What can go wrong?" The trio walked back up the stairs to the kitchen, and the conversation gradually returned to more cheerful things. About an hour later, Trina came back from practice, and the group spent the rest of the evening reviewing the trip. Trent looked at the three women, dark Joanna, blond Lisa, and Trina who drew her pale redness from Lisa's untalked about first husband, and wondered why it had taken him so long to feel at home anywhere. Trina and then Lisa headed upstairs, leaving Trent to reminice about times old and new. Joanna talked of her own recent marriage, describing her new husband Brad as a gentle giant of a man who felt the struggle between the need to protect his unusual wife, and the realization that he could not participate in her battles. Trent talked about meeting Lisa, and that glorious night where he had told Lisa of his differentness, and she had declared her love for him regardless. "You know, it was great hearing from you nearly out of the blue two years ago, and collaborating with you on the book by mail worked out well, but I wish we would have gotten together, us and both out families a lot sooner than we have. Your Brad sounds like someone I'd very much like to meet." "Yeah, you just want to visit because I have a house on the ocean, but I think that Brad would enjoy meeting you too. It's getting late here. Time to get some sleep, for tommorow we hit the road." ****************end prelude***************** Please direct all responses, flames, cool ascii art and so on to Jill Spetoskey jilkey@umich.edu jillmari@aol.com =========================================================================