Chasing Fate (Sentinel & Guide)

Chapter 58

[[Thanks for your patience. Here's a slightly longer updated, unedited]]

Jack and Kaylee Ann talked for a while, going over mundane things and gossip he'd been isolated from since everything started. He didn't mention the case at all, his brain desperate for some reprieve from the doom and gloom. 

Kaylee Ann left in the early evening, about when Elliot and Neha returned from their latest shift at the hospital. He waved from the balcony as she drove off, not pausing to chat with his second-in-command as he entered. Jack could clearly see the perturbed look on Elliot's face. He'd never been all that fond of Kaylee Ann. 

He'd met Elliot when his parents moved into town when he was in middle school. Elliot was starting to manifest as a strong sentinel, and they wanted to make sure that the young boy got the training he needed directly from Sig. Elliot had entered the same middle school and  had become fast friends with Jack. After all, he'd been the only kid able to keep up. 

But Jack had known Kaylee Ann since before he'd known his own name. Kaylee Ann's father was a sentinel, though weak, and it was assumed that Kaylee had some active genes. After all, she was one of the few children who didn't fall immediately in line behind Jack and his pushiness. 

Even after Kaylee Ann's parents divorced and she left the region for a while, she still stayed in touch with him. She returned just in time for high school, and lorded her seniority as Jack's friend over Elliot to get her way. 

As they'd grown and matured, the bickering between them had subsided, but there was still a clear divide between them, one that Jack wasn't interested in fixing.  His circles were big enough that they rarely interacted... until lately. 

Jack had known her for more than two decades, and this same pattern had cropped up only a few times. Once had been when she first met Elliot. The next had been when he got his first girlfriend after they decided not to date. She was hovering. 

Kaylee Ann was a magnificent manager. She was a type-A personality to the core, with perfect grades, perfect fashion, perfect everything. There was a place for everything, and everything should be in its place. And for her, that meant that her place was the closest one to Jack. 

Elliot had been the first threat. She'd basically latched on to him as his girlfriend that semester of highschool, controlling who he talked to and who he spent time with down to the minute. Obviously he chafed at the restrictions, that is,after the haze cleared from all of the new experiences. It had taken Jack a lot longer than he wanted to admit to see past his own teenage libido. 

They'd broken up in a flurry of highschool drama, and after a few months of the cold shoulder, they resolved to be friends. It was better that way. And friends they stayed, through college and a slew of girlfriends, through championships and groupies and all of the other unexpected things that came with stardom. 

But she still had the habit of trying to push away anyone who got too close. It was useful for keeping the gold-diggers at bay, but it had definitely contributed to his near-celibate lifestyle. Now she was pushing harder than ever before. He may not be the brightest bulb in the box, but he could clearly see that much.

After all, who suggested a sentinel go on vacation without his guide? 

Jack sighed and returned the commercial pamphlet to the pile. His hand prickled where she'd been stroking it. She'd always been pushy, and her words did have a grain of truth. It would be six months since he and Fate bonded soon, and they'd been running on almost all cylinders ever since that day. 

A vacation would be good, but when would they manage it? 

Jack had just picked his grip trainer back up when he heard Fate's familiar heartbeat in the doorway. He relaxed involuntarily for a moment before remembering that he was in the security monitor room in the basement, and he'd very kindly requested that she avoid stairs until they got a handle on her condition.