Mechwarrior: "Days of the Jackal"

[Festy_Dog]

[ooc: No problem about that Shurai, I’ll let you know if/when Douane shows back up.

I guess this series of bumps will contain more than three posts. I couldn’t really fit everything I wanted to happen into the last bump. With that in mind I’m estimating this little series to last anything up to six posts. I’ve figured that after these ones are done though I’ll leave it at that. You can only keep the life-support on for so long before it seems pointless (or way past pointless you might say, heh).

And on that note… *ahem* bump!]



Kevin blinked. It came to his attention that this woman was not Ellice, looked very similar, but it wasn’t her. Seemed more alcohol had gone to his head than he thought.

“Who?” she asked, slightly puzzled, “I’m Rebecca Hogan. Are you Dr. Mayne?”

A small boy stood behind Rebecca, his left arm was in a sling and he had a black eye.

“Yeah, that’s me, call me Kevin. Sorry about that, thought you were someone else. Please, come in,” he said, “What was it that Pierre couldn’t help you with?”

The mother and child walked into the apartment and Kevin shut and locked the door behind them.

“I left my bag at home, and it had my money in it…” she started.

“Oh I see, you don’t need a freebie, just some credit then? No problem, step into my office.”

Kevin’s apartment had three bedrooms, all accessed from a short hallway leading off from the lounge room/kitchen area. One bedroom was his own, the other he had as a guest room and the last he had converted into a doctor’s surgery. This was where he kept his medical equipment, case files for certain patients, etc. The door to the surgery was as heavily locked as the front door. He was taking a moment to open the door.

“Dr. Mayne, have you been drinking?” she asked.

Kevin’s shoulders slumped. He had moved the bottle of rum to the kitchen bench but had forgotten to put it away.

“Please, call me Kevin, and yes I have been drinking because I was under the impression I had no more patients today,” he had paused on the third lock and was looking at Rebecca.

“I understand,” Rebecca realized the situation she was in, and was duly hesitant to turn down medical treatment for her son.

Kevin smiled, glad to not have his professional integrity threatened, and opened the door.

“I guess Pierre stuck your boy’s arm in a sling then shoved you my way, right?” he asked, indicating for them to enter.

“Yes, can you help?” she asked in reply as she ushered her son in.

“Well, Pierre said his arm is probably fractured, but I don’t have the facilities to find out how badly. I can give him something to kill the pain until tomorrow when we can go pay a visit to Pierre and borrow his x-ray machine,” Kevin said, then knelt down next to the boy, “And what’s your name?”

“Alex. I’m seven,” he replied.

“Want me to see if I can fix your arm?” Kevin asked.

“Yes, please.”

Kevin did all he could to make sure Alex was comfortable and to find out about his injured arm.



“I’m gonna put a cast on it, I can tell you that, but exact details of damage done will have to wait till tomorrow,” Kevin summarized his analysis.

Kevin and Rebecca were having coffee while Alex flicked through channels on the telescan.

“‘Gonna’? Not particularly refined speech for a doctor,” she said jokingly.

Kevin shrugged.

“You got a relative’s or friend’s place to stay at?” he asked.

“Not quite, no relatives nearby and my husband knows where most of my friends live. I don’t want to drag them into this anyway,” she explained.

“Guest room is the second on the right, use that if you want,” Kevin offered, “Bathroom’s the first on the left.”

“Oh, err, thanks,” Rebecca felt a little unsure of sleeping in a stranger’s house, “But we’re practically strangers...”

“Strangers in a bit of a bind, and my guest room is for guests after all,” Kevin reasoned, “Plus, by aiding you it’s a shallow way of getting back at your husband for the times he’s beaten me in the arena.”

“You’re a pilot?” she asked.

“Yup.”

“That’s interesting.”

“More of a hobby than an actual profession it seems, but you get that,” Kevin said and shrugged again, his tone was one of vague displeasure, “Anyway, I’m off to sleep. Alex can sleep on the couch if he wants, but the bed in the guest room should fit you both comfortably. If you want to ask me anything just knock, I’m second on the left.”

“Thanks,” Rebecca said.

“It’s no trouble, sleep well,” he replied, and went to his room.

Once by himself, with a door between him and his two guests, he figured it was safe to continue cleaning his gun. His thoughts though were dominated by Rebecca’s similarity in appearance to another woman he knew, Ellice. That and Rebecca looked to be about his age, which suggested she had the child during her later teenage years.

Rebecca sat at the kitchen table nursing the remainder of her cup of coffee. She was curious and thankful at the same time in regards to the unconditional hospitality she had received. Did she have reason to be worried? She shrugged it off as paranoia. Kevin was a nice guy, with good intentions. Rebecca felt she’d be alright here for the time being, but how was she going to sort out the situation with her husband?

 

[Festy_Dog]

[ooc: The bumps have gotten further apart it would appear, a sign that given the length of time I’ve been doing these their pointlessness has finally struck home. Might make a good read though should anyone stumble across the thread and be curious about a Mechwarrior game, or they might find it annoying that some crazy player hijacked the thread and turned it into some kinda Story Hour. On that note though it’s starting to feel like I’ve bumped it too many times (creating an 8th page did it I think), so unless I’m screamed at to finish this little story or somethin’ I’d better just let this game die, making this bump my last. For continuity’s sake I’m including one final attempt at an entertaining bump which could probably be mistaken for the accidental text written by someone beating someone else to death with a keyboard (hehe, a terminal case of keyboard-face ).]

Kevin unlocked the apartment’s front door and let Alex and Rebecca through first. They had been to Dr Pierre Chardin's clinic earlier that day and Kevin had taken care of Alex's arm.

“So how’s the arm, Alex? You happy with the cast?” Kevin asked, shutting the door behind him.

“Yeah, it’s alright, but I woulda liked a different colour,” he replied.

“The cast is fine,” Rebecca chimed in correctively, “Thank you for all your help, we appreciate it.”

Kevin shrugged and smiled.

“Meh, glad to be of assistance,” he said and disappeared into his room, “So you guys want some lunch? I could have something delivered if you feel like it.”

“Cool! I want pizza!” Alex called out eagerly.

“What about you, Rebecca?” he asked.

“Don’t you have any patients today?” Rebecca asked.

“Not a fan of cannibalism myself, and I doubt the morgue does deliveries,” Kevin said, semi-seriously.

“That’s not what I meant.”

Alex laughed.

“It’s my day off today,” Kevin explained as he was walking out of his room.

His mobile phone rang, and he paused just outside the door to answer it.

“Yo?”

His expression became one of surprise.

“Oh f-” he spotted Alex nearby, and stayed his tongue, “Gotta go, emergency.”

He paced over to Rebecca and handed her some money.

“That should cover lunch if there’s nothing to eat here,” he said hastily, and was gone.



Rebecca and her son weren’t particularly hungry at that time, so they sat down and watched the telescan for about an hour, before she gave some thought to lunch.

“Hmph,” Rebecca looked at the money in her hand, “Pizza... anything you want in particular, Alex?”

“No pineapple, it’s yucky,” he exclaimed.

“Alrighty then,” she said and went into the kitchen to make the call.

She made the order and hung up the phone, hoping she got the address right. Rebecca went back to the couch to find that Alex wasn’t there.

“Alex dear, where are you?” she called.

“Hey, mom! Come check this out!” Alex called back.

His voice came from Kevin’s bedroom, and Rebecca remembered him leaving in such a hurry that he didn’t shut the door or anything like that. She groaned inwardly and formulated an apology she could use if Alex had broken something. Upon entering the room she saw that Alex had dragged a chair over in front of an open closet. One thing she noticed was a keypad lock on one of the open doors, the same door obstructed her view of the contents.

“Hey, you’re not messing around with medication are you?” she asked sternly.

“Nah, way better than that!” he said, and pulled out Kevin’s sub-machinegun, pointing it at a wall, “Daka daka daka!”

“Put that down!” Rebecca shrieked, horrified.

Alex jerked with surprise at his mother’s reaction and dropped the gun. It hit the floor with a thud.

“Get away from there, right now!” she said angrily.

Alex hopped down from the chair and backed away from the cupboard. He was notably frightened. Rebecca walked over to the gun and picked it up, she found it wasn’t loaded. She breathed a sigh of relief and went to put it back. She gasped in surprise to see a bigger gun in there, a gyrojet carbine, and locked safe down the bottom.

“Oh my…” she said, and hastily put the sub-machinegun back next to the carbine.

She returned the chair back to its place and ushered Alex out of the room, shutting the door behind her. Rebecca asked herself what she had just stumbled upon, and whether it would be best just to pretend she didn’t see it.

“What are you angry about, mom?” Alex asked, wanting to know why he was yelled at.

“Never play with guns, Alex, they’re not for children,” she said, “You could hurt yourself or someone else.”

“Umm, okay, mom,” he said.

“Go watch something and wait for the pizza to arrive,” she said, and slumped into one of the kitchen chairs.

Kevin came through the door not ten minutes later, he looked exhausted.

“Hope you guys haven’t had lunch already,” he said, “Cos was just given the run-around and I’m starved.”

He caught sight of Rebecca.

“Hey, you look like something’s bothering you. Can I help?” he asked.

“It’s nothing.”

“She’s angry cos I found your guns,” Alex said, his head was poking over the back of the couch.

“Oh, I see,” Kevin said, embarrassed, “I guess I forgot to shut it on my way out.”

“Why do you have guns here?” she asked, “That’s military hardware in there.”

Kevin sighed.

“Got time for an explanation?” he asked.

“You can explain it over lunch. Pizza will be here soon,” she replied glumly.

Kevin smiled his gentlemanly smile and took a seat at the table.