Title: Waiting for the Light
Author: Voirrey
POV: 3rd
Person
Timeframe: Following Episode 13
“Rumble in the Jungle”
‘Jack?’
‘Cass!’
‘Are you at your place? Can I come over?’
‘Yes, and yes, but wouldn’t it be
better if I come to you? Where are you?’
‘No, no, I’m in my car anyway. I’ve just come from a very dark place, and I
think I need a hug. Before you ask, I’m
fine, not in any more danger than usual, and I’m sure it’ll be fine for me to
drive over. Sam and Grace are at my flat,
and I don’t want to have to talk to them just now – I think a hug would be much
better!’
‘How soon will you be? I’ll go down to the door. Would a large whisky help?’
‘Five minutes and
probably!’
‘I’ll be waiting.’
~~~~~~
Five minutes later, Miss Jocasta
McStay, Watcher, parked her car outside a hotel near
‘D’you want to tell me about it?’ asked Jack. ‘I’ve got some whisky upstairs.’ ‘Yes’, said Jocasta, ‘I think I could do with talking about it, and I
think you are definitely the best person.’
As they went up the staircase, Jack didn’t answer, just raised his
eyebrows questioningly.
Jocasta had not been in Jack’s hotel
room before. It was a very nice hotel,
just outside town, converted from the summer residence of a Victorian shipping
magnate, but on entering the bedroom it was Jocasta’s turn to raise questioning
eyebrows. It was a beautiful room – but
somehow she hadn’t quite expected the four-poster bed!
Jack followed her surprised gaze, and
laughed. ‘Me Mam
and Dad had a one like it, but nowhere near as posh,’ he said, ‘but mainly I
like it because it’s very practical – if I close the curtains on it, it doesn’t
matter if a maid accidentally opens the window blinds!’ ‘I must remember’, thought Jocasta, ‘When we
get around to re-writing the Watchers’ training syllabus, “Be suspicious of
single men who sleep in four poster beds – they might be vampires”!’
Jocasta’s glance dropped to the ring
on Jack’s hand. ‘It’ll take me a while
to wake up in sunshine and not panic,’ he admitted. He produced a bottle of whisky and poured
some into two glasses, before pulling Jocasta down beside him on a settee. ‘A very dark place?’ asked Jack.
‘Well, actually, I’ve been to
Sally’s, to give her her ring, but it’s more than
that,’ said Jocasta. ‘She was pretty
reluctant to let me go around; she really didn’t want anything to do with
it.’ ‘Why am I not surprised?’ asked
Jack, bitterly. Jocasta continued ‘She
basically said for me to come in, give her whatever as
fast as possible, don’t expect her to be impressed, because she wasn’t going to
be, and then go away!’
‘That’s the Sally she is these
days.’ Jack said, ‘She didn’t used to be
like that. It used to be a game to
her. When I first saw her she acted like
a glorious hero, went around slaying Evil without a care. I’ve seen lots of Slayers, Cass, but Sally,
she was something else. Then when things went wrong she just picked up her ball
and went home, she doesn’t play anything any more. She just clarts on drilling holes in people’s teeth. I’m surprised she even agreed to put the ring
on.’
‘I know why she’s like that now –
I’ve seen into the place that Sally went, Jack, and it was a REALLY dark
place. I’ve always been told that the
Slayer line is a true line, that the “Slayer” passes on to the best Potential,
but when it passed to Sally it didn’t really get it right. I mean, she must have been far and away the
strongest, fastest, bravest Potential of her generation, but the Slayer line is
without thought for the consequences, and wow did Sally get consequences.
‘She agreed to put the ring on
because she’s not as totally indifferent to the Good/Evil thing as she
says. I told her that so far everyone
had got something positive from their rings, and it would probably increase her
Slayer powers. She laughed; she said she
had no use for that. But I told her that
we were sure that for the real power to be available, all the rings had to be
worn – by the right people, and one ring was clearly hers. She put the ring on, and she stood and
“felt”, like the rest of us did. Then
suddenly she looked different. No, not
bad different – she looked more relaxed, less tense, maybe a bit less intense,
not quite so wound up, or unhappy – Jack have you ever seen Sally look happy?’
‘Not that I can remember – at least
not since I saw her last dust a vampire.
We had a sort of truce, her and us, you know, Rosa, Teresa, Gabriella
and me. We didn’t kill on her turf, and
she let us get on with life – or whatever!’
‘I asked her what she felt, and she cried.
She said she felt as if something had promised her that she would be in
control - in some control now, and always in control if all the rings were
being worn. I asked her what she would
be in control of, and instead of freezing me out, she told me. I don’t think she’ll mind you knowing – she also told me that
you’d asked her for help when you were stabbed by the Harbingers, and that
she’d said “No”, and she was surprised that you hadn’t told me.’
‘I didn’t want to worry you, pet, I
didn’t want you to know that I’d felt so bad that I’d thought I’d need her
help. I didn’t want you to know that I’d almost not been able to look after the
kids, when I’d promised. And I suppose I
didn’t want you to know that she’d refused.’ Jack said. Jocasta squeezed his hand, which she realised
she’d been gripping as she told her story – at least she wasn’t likely to cut
off his circulation, she thought, somewhat ruefully.
‘You do know what Sally is, don’t
you Jack?’ Jocasta asked suddenly, as it had just occurred to her that he might
not. ‘A dentist.’ Jack answered, flatly. ‘No, I mean the “not exactly human” bit,’ she
said.
‘Yes, yes I do’, said Jack,
‘although I only found out for sure from
‘He was hung twice during the
English Civil War - once by the Royalists and once by the Parliamentarians -
and I still fought alongside him afterwards!
I knew what he was, and I realised it must be the same
family. Generation
after generation - “Grandma what big teeth you’ve got!” Must be hard to look after them when they’re
little – “No dear, don’t put the hamster in your mouth,” takes on a different
meaning doesn’t it, eh? But, as far as I
know, if you’re born with it, you learn how to control it as a child – none of
this phases of the moon thing – so why is Sally frightened of being out of
control?’
‘The Slayer line.’
Jocasta answered him.
Jack said nothing; he waited for her
to continue. ‘When a Potential Slayer
becomes a Slayer she becomes faster, stronger, more agile, she becomes
super-human. She has stamina,
self-healing abilities, and so on to match her “prey”,’ she glanced at him, and
smiled a little, ‘sorry, quoting lecture notes, but you know what I mean.’ He nodded, but didn’t interrupt. ‘Well when that happened to Sally, the jump
from human to super-human, it happened to her other side as well. From Lynx to Super-Lynx. A bit like from cat
to sabre toothed tiger, and if she’s not fully conscious, fully in control of
her emotions – she can’t control it!’
‘Not good.’ said Jack.
‘Very not good!’
said Jocasta.
‘So not good
that she is petrified of it! When
she was so badly shot – well basically dead, the were-lynx side is how she
healed – her self-healing from being a Slayer, added to the healing ability of
this incredibly souped up were-lynx seems to have
revived her after she was technically dead for at least hours, maybe
longer. But she knows nothing about
it. Her first memory is of about three
months later – when she found herself eating what was left of a sheep that she
had brought down. It took her a few more
days to get herself together enough to go down from the moors, and then she
realised that there was a massive hunt on – for a mystery beast that had ripped
apart and eaten not just sheep –but at least three humans.’
‘Bad’, said Jack. ‘Well at least bad for a Slayer, I mean, for
a vampire – just an average week’s meals.
Even me - not good, but it happens.
When I got my soul back at that eclipse, I’d been killing anyone who
took my fancy for a few years – but killing people is what I did for a living,
so although I was a bit upset about some of them, mostly it didn’t bother
me. I was just a bit pickier from then
on.’
He looked straight into Jocasta’s eyes. ‘I don’t want you to think that I’m some sort
of plaster saint, Cass, cos I’m not – but I’ve become comfortable with what I
am, over the years – Jack and the Demon co-habit fairly well. You know, mostly animal blood, the odd human
that the world is probably better without, and I don’t worry meself about it. But
for Sally – yep, I can see how she must have felt. A Slayer killing people, random people, the
people she’s supposed to be the Great Protector to, doing it out of control –
bad, very bad!’
‘It almost sent her mad I
think. She just tries to do nothing that
might make her feel any emotion, in case she gets out of control.’ Jocasta gulped down the rest of her whisky,
and continued. ‘She only dates boring
men in case she gets interested, and starts growing claws, or slashes them to
pieces by mistake at an interesting time!’
‘Maybe she should look for a
vampire, they probably wouldn’t worry about changes to teeth and claws, and we
do heal well!’ Jack quipped. ‘But I’m not volunteering!’ he added quickly. Jocasta looked at him straight faced –‘Good!’
she said. She didn’t mention that she’d
thought almost the same thing when Sally had told her, bitterly, about the lack
of male company. It was not a very Watchery thought!
‘You can see why I said it was a
very dark place’, she went on aloud.
‘Sally’s whole life is a very dark place, and she’s just tried to lock
herself into it, and lock it into herself.’
Jocasta looked down at the empty glass in her hand. Without saying anything, Jack refilled it,
and waited. She took another gulp, and
said ‘And I didn’t know what to say. I
didn’t know how to reach into it and hold her hand. The “Well think of all the people you saved
from being eaten/destroyed/turned, whatever”, line is stupid – just because
somebody else didn’t die doesn’t really make up for the ones that she
killed! I mean I said it, but we both
knew it wasn’t any help.
‘She couldn’t help protect Louise, because if the Bringers were powerful
enough to really harm YOU, they might harm her enough to drive her over the
edge! As she said, eating Louise in a
moment of mindlessness would not have helped.
But I felt helpless, Jack. What
should I have said? I really wanted to
reach out and hug her, but she is usually SO prickly, that I thought it might
just be too much. And, before you ask,
no, I didn’t decide not to hug her in case she turned into super lynx and
ripped my throat out, it was just that I couldn’t do it.’
‘I don’t know what you could have
said either,’ Jack admitted. ‘I don’t
really know her well enough. But if the
Ring helps….’ ‘She did look better when
I left,’ Jocasta answered, after a pause.
‘She said that the Ring ‘promised’ her that when they are all on the
right people, as long as one of us remains conscious, she will remain in
control, but that’s only really useful when we’ve got all the rings to the
right people. Mind you, she did say that
she already felt that she might be able to manage a date with someone other
than an estate agent or an accountant – if she could find one!’
‘Well THAT’S got to be a good sign!’
said Jack. He hugged her close to him,
and added ‘You must have said some of the right things for her to open
up that much to you, Cass, and it must have helped her to get some of that off
her chest. Maybe she could talk to
Teresa – although she’s got her own demons, if you see what I mean! Teresa just got rid of THE demon, and lots of
personal ones start to haunt her. They
could get drunk together! If Sally does
drunk!
‘Talking about drunk - that’s two
fairly large tumblers of whisky you’ve downed.
Are you fit to drive home?’ he added.
Jocasta gazed in some surprise at the glass in her hand – yes –
definitely empty again. ‘Probably not,’
she answered. ‘Shall I drive you home,
or…?’ he paused, and glanced meaningfully at the bed.
Jocasta looked at him, and appeared
to be considering carefully for what felt like a very long time, then she
grinned. ‘I’ve never spent a night in a
four poster bed before! How could I
resist? Probably what I want most
just at this moment is to roll around every inch of it with you, and forget
about Sally, and Teresa, and everything!
‘You looked worried there for a
minute,’ she added, ‘Did you really think I would go home? If life was easier, if I didn’t have to think
about the everything so much of the time, I would have spent every night
since that one in my flat rolling around in a bed with you – if you
wanted. Um, and not just because the sex
was fantastic, but because I like being with you. Apart from anything else, you’re the
only one I can say “I’m worried”, or “I think I got it wrong” to!
‘I guess Sam and Grace will be OK –
I’ll ring them to say I’ll be home tomorrow.
If they have any problem they can ring,’ she continued, and then glanced
at his face. He had a very big grin on
it, but he was also shaking his head at her.
‘OK, you’re right, I am still trying to think of the everything,
but I promise that as soon as I’ve rung, just so’s
they won’t worry about me, I will try to put every ounce of me into doing the
best I can to wear out your beautiful bed – honestly!’
‘I’ll hold you to that,’ Jack
answered. ‘Actually I’ll hold you to all
sorts of things, and with all sorts of things as well. If I wanted you to
spend every night with me? If I wanted? I only
have to look at you and I want it!
I’m surprised I didn’t have a hard on when you were lying on top of me
in
‘Mm, wouldn’t it?’ Jocasta said,
laughing, as his hands started creeping up her torso towards her breasts. ‘Now just wait one minute for me to phone, so
that I don’t suddenly remember I haven’t at a vital moment, then throw me onto
that bed and ravage me all you want.
Well, within reason,’ she added, remembering the vampire stamina, the
recovery thing and all that. ‘And
tomorrow morning we will stand there together, open the window blinds, and
admire the view. Although,
as this is spring time in
~~~~~~
Next Fic (Walk through the Fire)