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AUTHOR'S DISCLAIMER: All characters in this story are the rightful
property of Landmark Entertainment, except for Fox and Lark who are
my original creations. I have no intent to infringe upon copyright or
profit materially by my use of Captain Power characters. If Landmark
informs me that copyright has been violated, I will arrange to have
this story removed from the Web upon request. Please do not reproduce
this story without my permission. Thank you. Though she deserves it, my friend Jennifer refused to accept co-writer status on this one. But it’s safe to say it wouldn’t have been written without her, and I owe her a big thank you for this one. Rated PG-13 for mild violence and for profanity, used only when thought absolutely necessary by the author. THROUGH THE VALLEY“How could this have happened?” His sergeant’s words still echoed in Hawk’s ears. It had been a little over two hours since the explosion. It might as well have been two seconds – the shock was still fresh for him. Normally, they would have made the trip to The Passages in half the time. But they hadn’t dared make a beeline for the only safe haven left. They’d deliberately taken a zigzag course – praying they’d make it past any surveillance devices Dread had out there. At least they’d manage to secure everything they needed for the night – after a hasty conference with a few people on the night shift Hawk was sure they could trust not to spread rumors. The last thing they needed was for word of their base’s destruction to get out and start a panic in this place. Hawk had left Tank and Jon with the Jumpship. He’d gone to central communications with Scout – where they’d spent the last twenty minutes desperately trying to raise anyone in the Resistance. So far, nobody had answered. Hawk had to wonder if maybe the information Locke had given them had been right after all. And if Cypher had been captured, then God only knew who else Dread might have picked up. He leaned back against the wall and closed his eyes. Damn, he was exhausted. He hadn’t had to play leader in so long. Jon should have been the one taking care of all this. But his captain wasn’t prepared to give any kind of orders – that much was obvious. He hadn’t even spoken in the last two hours. He was . . . what was the word from that book about rabbits that his kids had liked so much? Tharn. That was it. Jon was like that. Not speaking. Barely even moving. Just staring straight ahead and looking as if he didn’t care if he lived or died. Hawk had never seen him like that before – and it scared the hell out of him. He knew Jon blamed himself – that much was obvious. And he had no idea what to do or say to convince him that he’d done nothing wrong. Or how to knock him back into taking charge. But he didn’t have time to dwell on that right now. He had something else to tend to, and if he put it off much longer . . . Hawk opened his eyes and straightened up. “Scout?” “Yeah?” “I need to go take care of something. Keep plugging away until I get back.” “What do you—“ “Just do it,” Hawk snapped, and stalked off. This was hard enough as it was – and Scout ought to know damned well what he had to do anyway. He knew no matter what they did, the rumors would be all over The Passages before sunrise. He hated to wake her for this – but it would be even worse for her to hear the news at the breakfast table from one of those grease monkeys in the hangar. She should hear it from him or Jon. They owed her that much. It took him some time, but he finally found that little closet she used for her quarters. He must have stood in front of the door for at least a minute – composing himself – before he knocked. No answer. She usually didn’t sleep this soundly. Hawk knocked again. He wasn’t sure just how long he’d been pounding on her door when the one next to it opened. “Are you looking for Lark?” A woman he didn’t recognize – maybe a new arrival. “Do you know where she is?” “Probably in the infirmary. There’s a little girl she’s been sitting up with the last two nights.” The infirmary. There were a dozen of them scattered all over The Passages. “Do you know which one?” The woman thought for a moment. “MedBay 4, I think.” Hawk dashed off without thanking her. He found MedBay 4 quickly enough. A nurse directed him to a room where he found Lark sitting by a child’s bedside. Hawk recognized the little blonde as an orphan they’d brought to The Passages just three days earlier. Lark was holding the girl’s hand, and quietly telling her a Christmas story. A lump rose in Hawk’s throat. He recognized the story. He and Tinker had recited it for their children every Christmas. He’d always meant to tell it to Jennifer, but he wasn’t a natural storyteller like Lark – and anyway, it wasn’t the same – telling a story like that to a grown woman. He waited until she was finished before he walked through the door. Lark’s eyes brightened when she looked up and saw him – but she quickly put a finger to her lips. Hawk stood still and said nothing as the nurse brushed past him. “How’s she doing?” she whispered to Lark. Lark smiled as she gently laid the girl’s hand back on the bed. “Much easier. She’s finally fallen asleep.” “Thank you, Lark. You’ve been a miracle worker for this one.” Lark shook her head. “I tell her stories. Stories distract from pain. I’d hardly call what I do miraculous.” She stood up and beamed at Hawk, but kept her voice low. “Well, now this is a wonderful Christmas surprise. When did you get here?” He managed to keep his tone light when he spoke. “Not long ago. Lark, is there somewhere we can go talk for a few minutes?” Lark looked back at the nurse, who smiled and whispered. “Go on. We’re all right here.” “The dispensary’s just down the hall. It should be empty.” Hawk silently prayed that it was – and gestured for Lark to lead the way. “You’re up late,” he observed. “I’ve been sitting up with Samantha the last two nights. She’s had a really rough time of it. But I think she’s gonna be okay.” Lark smiled – but Hawk could see the exhaustion in her eyes. “So, where are the others?” she asked cheerfully as they walked down the hall. Hawk forced a smile. “Taking care of a few things.” But a tightness crept into his words. Lark stopped short. “Hawk – is something wrong?” God, he couldn’t keep this up. “Let’s get to the dispensary first, okay?” She didn’t budge. “Come on, Matt. What is it?” He shook his head. Please, don’t let me have to tell her like this. A few tense seconds passed before Lark turned and walked on down the hallway. She stopped at a door, unlocked it, and gestured for him to step inside. Lark flicked on the light, and Hawk was relieved to see that someone had left a couple of chairs there. He walked in and dragged the chairs into the center of the room. “Have a seat.” Lark closed the door behind her – and he saw her hands were shaking. But she spoke sharply. “I don’t want to have a seat. I want you to tell me what the hell is going on.” He was tempted to slap her – shake her – scream at her, Do you have any idea what happened out there tonight? Do you have any idea how hard it is to say what I have to tell you? But that wouldn’t do either of them any good. “Kiara. Sit . . . please?” She did. Hawk took his own seat, facing her. Now that he was here, he didn’t know how he was going to say it. He ran his fingers through his hair, and let out a shuddering breath. “A couple hours ago . . . we lost the base. We got word that Cypher had been captured and we launched a rescue mission. It was a set-up. Dread discovered the base while we were gone. All of us but Jennifer. Jon sent her back to decode an information disc. She was there by herself when the troops moved in.” He forced himself to raise his head – to look Lark in the eye. “Jennifer . . . Jon told her to just set the auto-destruct and get out. But Dread’s troops . . . they trapped her . . . deep inside the base. She set off the self-destruct manually when they cornered her. She’s gone.” Lark just sat there for a moment. Finally, she spoke in a hushed voice. “Gone.” “I’m sorry. There was no easy way to tell you. The rest of the team is trying to make some repairs here, and then we’re moving on. I just thought . . . you should hear it from one of us.” Lark still hadn’t moved. For a moment, Hawk thought she’d gone tharn too. Like Jon. But then she began shaking her head. “No.” It was barely above a whisper. “No.” A little louder. He wasn’t prepared for what she did next. Lark suddenly stood up, grabbed her chair with both hands, and threw it at the opposite wall. All the while, she was screaming . . . “NOOO!!!” He couldn’t let her do this. Desperately, Hawk reached out and tried to put his arms around her. Lark fought him off. In her fury, she lashed out – grabbing suture trays, first aid kits – anything she could get her hands on and throw. Hurling objects in every direction, she continued to shout. “First you took Mama! Then you took my father and my brother—“ Hawk flinched as a suture tray flew past his ear. He tried again to restrain her – and got a fist in the mouth for his efforts. Damn, she could hit hard . . . He backed off, wiping the blood from his lip, as Lark raged on, almost incoherent. Then some of her words came through clear again. “You’ve taken almost everyone I’ve ever loved! DAMN YOU, WHY DID YOU HAVE TO TAKE HER TOO!” She ran out of things to throw, and sagged against the empty counter. Hawk watched helplessly as her whole body convulsed in long, pain-filled sobs. He’d never seen her in such agony. He didn’t care if she hit him again – he had to try to comfort her. He stepped up and gently wrapped his arms around her. This time, she didn’t fight him. She just let him hold her while she cried. “ . . . my friend. . . the best friend I had since. . .” God, he was about to cry too. “I know . . . I know. You two had . . . a real bond between you. That’s why . . . I thought I should be the one to tell you.” “Oh, God . . . Matt, why? WHY? She was just—“ Lark’s words were lost in a new fit of sobbing. Hawk had to swallow hard to keep a sob of his own from escaping. “I don’t . . . Too much happened, too fast. We got caught with our pants down.” Lark was hiccuping now. “Like . . . Sandhill . . .” Not exactly, kid. Lark raised her head. “You’re sure? You’re sure she couldn’t have . . . gotten out some other way? We made it . . . and you all thought we were . . .” He was going to have to tell her everything. Hawk gently turned Lark around to face him again. “Kiara . . . you have to understand . . . Jennifer . . . she stopped to clear out Mentor and the extra suits. The auto-destruct failed . . . she doubled back to . . .re-set it. That’s when they caught up to her. We could hear . . . she was already hurt pretty bad when she . . .” He stopped for a second to blink back tears. He had to get this out, no matter how much it hurt either of them. There couldn’t be any false hope. “She managed to get a final message through . . . to Jon. Then she overloaded the power core. No one could have survived in there.” Lark fell silent – taking this in. “Jon. Where is he?” He couldn’t tell her the truth. He wasn’t ready for anyone to see Jon in his present condition. “Down in central communications, I think. We’re trying to contact West Coast Resistance – make sure the info we got on Cypher’s capture was false. If it’s not . . .” We’re all screwed. Lark started for the door. “I need to see him. I —“ Just as Hawk grabbed her arm – she stopped in her tracks, putting her hand up to her mouth. He took a look at her face – and saw the color had completely drained from it. “What?” She shook her head. “No . . .I promised her I wouldn’t tell. I promised it would stay right here.” She knows . . . Just a few days ago he’d been hoping Lark could sit down with Pilot and have a good talk with her. Or that maybe he could find the nerve to sit down with Jennifer himself and tell her all the things he hadn’t had the chance to tell his own daughter. And now . . . It was too much for him. He couldn’t bear to talk about that. He leaned heavily against the wall and covered his face with his hands. But then Lark broke the silence. “Oh, God. Her last message to him . . .she told him . . .” Without looking, he knew fresh tears were starting down her face. Come on, Matt. Pull yourself together. One of us has to be strong. He straightened up – forced himself to look back at her -- and nodded. “I was going to warn you . . . Did everyone know?” Christ, was it the worst kept secret in The Passages too? Lark was wiping at her eyes with the back of her hand. “I don’t know . . . It was pretty obvious to me even before she told me . . . I think women pick up on these things better than men.” She let out a little laugh that was almost a sob at the same time. “Hey, the rest of us had it figured out. We were . . .” Hawk sighed. “I don’t know . . . waiting for the two of them to realize it.” Lark let out another laugh through tears. “Oh, she’d realized it, all right. She was just scared . . . didn’t know how to tell him . . . didn’t think she could . . .” Hawk let his head thud back against the wall. Why hadn’t he spoken to her sooner? Because he’d been a coward . . . telling himself that Jon would take care of it . . . let him handle it . . . He shoved those thoughts away. This was too much for either of them. He had to lighten things up – any way he could. “Please tell me you didn’t tell her a deathbed confession would work best.” Lark had never been one to shy away from gallows humor. After all she’d seen out there, she’d have gone insane without it. And her reaction to it now stunned the hell out of him. He’d expected her to laugh. Instead, her face crumpled – as if he’d kicked her in the stomach. And he knew he couldn’t have said anything calculated to hurt her more. She slumped to the floor -- shaking – and opened her mouth as if to sob – but now it was as if her vocal cords were paralyzed. Hawk stared in horror as she gasped silently. And then she choked out one word . . . “ . . . Joker . . .” Hawk closed his eyes. How could he have forgotten? That one word was all he needed to send him back to a visit to Sandhill . . . eight years before. The kids hadn’t seemed like themselves that day. Kiara had been strangely quiet and melancholy. And Mike . . . he’d never seen him with such a big chip on his shoulder. He’d finally asked their father what was going on. “You remember those last two pilots the UTO sent us? Fireball and Joker?” Hawk had remembered them. A couple of real characters. “We lost Joker a couple of weeks ago . . .” Tinker had gone on to tell him about how Lark and Joker had been “real sweet on each other.” For some reason he’d never shared with anyone, Joker had put the brakes on the relationship. But he must have still carried a torch in private. His last words had been to Lark. Telling her he loved her. Hawk remembered thinking at the time that it was enough to tear anyone apart. And now – without thinking – he’d just opened up an old wound and poured salt in it. He sat down next to her and wrapped his arms around her again. “Oh, God, Kiara . . . I’m sorry. I didn’t think.” She let him cradle her, and gradually the shaking subsided. She finally spoke again. “I told Jennifer . . .” Hawk was stunned. She’d refused to ever talk to him or Jon about Joker. Rebuffed them every time they’d tried asking. That was one story he’d thought she’d never share with anyone. “The other night . . . when she stayed here with me . . . she was asking me a lot of questions . . . about love.” Lark closed her eyes. “I thought I owed it to her to tell her about the other side of the coin . . . about the pain . . . about . . .” She stopped – and took a deep breath. “I told her in the end it was all worth it . . . if you were strong enough . . .and I told her she had to tell him . . .” She stood up and turned away from him again. “I never should have told her. I never thought –“ Hawk followed her. “Never thought what?” “Maybe some things are better left unsaid.” He could see where this was going, and he couldn’t have it. “Are you trying to tell me you think this is somehow your fault?’ Her silence gave him the answer. “No – Lark – listen to me--” She shook her head violently. “Kiara—“ She stubbornly refused to look at him. He grabbed her shoulders and yanked her around to face him. “Kiki.” Lark hadn’t answered to that nickname since she was twelve, but he used it now. It had the desired effect. Her head jerked up at the sharpness in his voice, and she stared at him in stunned silence. “Listen to me. You did not cause this. Don’t you dare start thinking that this happened because of anything you said to her.” “But—“ “Dammit, Lark – I’ve already got Jon out there thinking it’s all his fault she’s dead! Now you start taking on the blame. This whole night has been bad enough without watching the two of you beating the hell out of yourselves. It’s about the last damn thing I need right now!” “Next you’ll be telling me you know it’s also the last thing Jennifer would have wanted,” she spat back at him. “I don’t have to. You already know that.” “All I know is that she’s gone and I have to blame someone!” Lark’s voice cracked with new sobs. Hawk sighed. “I know. We all want someone to blame for this. But there’s no one and nothing to blame. Just this whole damned war. It’s ugly and it’s unfair and it’s without mercy and it reaches out and snatches our loved ones -- and all you can do is try to live through it—“ She twisted out of his grasp. “Don’t hand me that shit!” He stood there, stunned by the new fury in her voice. She was shaking. “Don’t you patronize me like that, goddammit! I’ve been living through this war since I was twelve years old. I know damned well how ugly and unfair it is. You don’t watch your brother get half his head blown away while he’s standing not a yard away from you and not learn that. You don’t watch a stream of refugees coming through here for two years with their pain and their needs without learning that. So don’t you talk to me like I don’t know what war is just because I wasn’t out there with you!” Hawk stepped back – half-expecting her to come after him with her fists. It took him a moment to realize she wasn’t following. She was just standing there – panting with anger. He closed his eyes, wishing she’d just go ahead and hit him again. What had made him think he was the one to do this? All he was doing was adding to her pain. And his own. He never should have come. He turned to go. “Oh, God . . .” He didn’t have to look back to see the change in her expression. He could hear it in her voice. “God, I’m sorry, Hawk. I’m so sorry. I’ve got no right to speak to you like that . . .” This was even more unbearable than the rage she had just vented. Because she had every right to say what she felt. And he couldn’t deal with it. Not there, not then. Hawk moved on toward the door, and caught his foot on one of the overturned chairs. He stumbled, and just managed to catch himself against the wall. He just stood there for a moment, with his breath caught in his throat. And then he felt Lark’s hand on his shoulder. His breath came out in a shuddering sob before he could stop it. He reached over and covered her hand with his own – trying to steady himself. And then he found himself holding her. Holding onto her as the tears spilled down his face and onto her shoulder. He couldn’t keep them back. Didn’t even want to any more. He hadn’t let himself cry like that in years . . . for anyone. And he didn’t stop to think that he’d never cried in front of this young woman who’d been like another daughter to him. Or to marvel at how little Lark could hold on and not collapse under his much larger frame as he sobbed. He just let the tears flow. He was never certain if Lark was crying too – because she didn’t make a sound. She just held onto him through the torrent of his grief. After what seemed like an eternity, his tears finally spent themselves – and he and Lark pulled apart. Hawk watched Lark dab at her eyes and tried to think of what to say next. From the look on her face – he guessed she didn’t know quite what to say either. He was relieved when he heard the knock at the door. “Lark? You in there?” The man’s voice was familiar, but Hawk couldn’t place it . . . Lark looked back at him as if she wanted to say something – then turned instead and opened the door just enough to stick her head outside. “Give us a minute, Neil,” Hawk heard her say softly. Neil. For a moment, it still refused to click. And then he remembered. Fox. Fox Lockhart – one of the Passages’ few resident pilots. Only Lark preferred to call him by his real name. Maybe because they were more than “just good friends.” Hawk stepped forward – and his guess was confirmed when he saw the face in the hallway. He moved into Fox’s view – forcing Lark to open the door wider. “Hi, Fox. It’s all right.” Fox looked at him and then back to Lark again. “I’m sorry, I didn’t mean to—“ Hawk waved off his apology. “I can let you two be alone.” Lark didn’t say anything – just looked from Fox back to him – obviously torn. Hawk put a hand on her shoulder. “It’s all right,” he repeated. “Really.” In a way, he was grateful. He hadn’t wanted to leave Lark alone – not after everything he’d unloaded on her. But first, he had to find out what Fox knew. Motioning him into the dispensary, he asked, “Has anyone told you why we’re here?” Fox shook his head. “First I even heard you were here was when I went to MedBay looking for Lark -- and Angela said you came by and took her off to have a talk.” So the rumors hadn’t started flying yet. Good. At the same time, Hawk didn’t think he could talk about it again. Not yet. And then Fox finally noticed the mess around him. The overturned chairs. The med supplies strewn all over the room. “What the hell happened in here?” Hawk didn’t know what to say to that – and from the look on her face, neither did Lark. Fox’s expression turned from bewilderment to alarm. “What’s going on?” Hawk sighed, and looked at Lark. “I’ll let Kiara tell you.” He squeezed her shoulder, gently. “But please, don’t either of you tell anyone else until the morning.” She nodded. “Thank you both. I need to get back to the others.” “Hawk, is there anything I can do?” It wasn’t the standard polite question. Hawk knew Fox meant it. Anything. “Just take care of Kiara for me.” Fox nodded. Hawk turned and hugged Lark, willing both her and himself to be strong. “I’ll see you in the morning,” he told her. She managed a weak smile back. “You’d better.” He smiled back at her and ducked out the door – which didn’t close completely behind him. He heard Fox ask, “What is it?” Lark’s trembling voice answered. “Pilot . . .” Gently, Hawk pulled the door closed. He squared his shoulders and walked back up the long hallway, leaving them alone with their grief. |