To Fight For The One You Love

by afteriwake

Summary:

Something is peculiar about his flatmate, Molly Hooper. In a new world where nearly everyone has a superhuman ability of some sort, Molly seems...different. And she arrives home early in the morning all beat up to Hell. What is she doing?

Khan is determined to find out.

Notes:

• For theconsultingstrangevidder.

So this is a fic that sprung forth from a surprise prompt claimed by theconsultingstrangevidder (“87 - Khanolly - 'I’m your roommate and you keep coming home at the ass-crack of dawn exhausted and covered in bruises, are you okay?'”) that for some reason made me immediately think of a series Jayne Castle writes where these people left Earth to go to a new planet and developed interesting powers once they couldn't go back to Earth. So this will be multiple chapters exploring the relationship developing between Khan and Molly going from roommates to friends to more, and there will be other characters from their fandoms involved, but I haven't decided who yet or how they will come into play.

And now this fic has art from Dreamin!

 

Chapter 1

He knew what superhuman strength felt like. He had it. He was almost 100% sure that his flatmate did not.

And yet she came back at the oddest hours, covered in bruises and cuts and scrapes, taking great pains to hide it from him. And then she would act as though everything was fine, even as there were traces of lingering bruises on her fair skin.

In a world where anyone could have any kind of powers one could imagine, it was...interesting.

One of the many things that made Molly Hooper so interesting to him.

And, he supposed it made him worry. He wasn’t particularly heroically inclined; in fact, many would say, in a different time and place, he would have been the villain. Earth, perhaps, with their history of comics showing super-powered villains such as Bane or the occasionally drug-induced super-powering of Lex Luthor. That had been a man he could relate to, in some ways. But he usually was only violent in self-defense, or in defense of those he cared for, the diverse group of people he considered his family.

Perhaps that included Molly, too, if she would let him do so.

This new planet, where the vestiges of humanity had traveled to when Earth had been basically destroyed, where only the most insane stayed as the environment decided it had had enough of humanity and became a danger to those staying, had granted all its inhabitants unique advantages they had not had on Earth. Here in New London, there seemed to be an exorbitant amount of people with super strength, such as himself.

And though he was loathe to use it, not wanting to delve into baser instincts as he felt it best left behind on Earth, he would use it if Molly needed it.

He was still not entirely sure how they had been thrown together. Molly had been a pathologist in another part of Harmony, but here in New London she put her basic medical skills to use and ran a clinic for those who had come with very little. Various members of his family had been in and out of her clinic and he appreciated it and the work she did at keeping them alive. When he heard she was sleeping in her office because her home had been ransacked, he invited her to stay with him. He was one of those who had come with some wealth and stature, and so his home was big enough to house both of them as well as various members of his family if needed.

He had made sure she got as many of her belongings back as possible, but she seemed content to stay with him. Why, he wasn’t sure...but he was very much wanting to find out.

Chapter 2

She was rotating her head to stretch her neck the morning after he’d stayed up late into the night, thinking of her. In more ways than just concern, he had come to realize, and it had left him with restless sleep and an air of irritability this morning that he knew his assistant would catch. But for Molly, no irritability, especially as there were bruises on her arms in the shape of fingers, the palm prints and finger marks large enough to be a man’s.

“What do you do each night?” he asked, his voice almost like a purr, startling her as he came up behind her.

“I do what I need to do to survive,” she said, speaking in almost a huff as if she was offended he even ask. “I go to the tombs and trigger the traps for the Hunters if you must know. Nothing can kill me, it just hurts for a moment.”

His eyes widened at that. The planet that they had all escaped to had been inhabited by a race that had seemingly abandoned it, leaving behind elaborate structures that always glowed a soft green, though brighter at night than during the day. He had no idea she was involved in the sordid and sometimes shady business of the hunters, and that explained why her home had been ransacked.

“There’s no need to do that, you know. I can support your clinic if you wish,” he said, his fingers lightly ghosting over the bruises on her arm. “The Hunters aren’t…?”

She flushed. “The bruises are from them pulling me from the traps to safety. I keep telling my crew that I’m effectively immortal, but they don’t want to take the chance, not when I’m the one with the most medical knowledge if things go south.” She flushed as she said it because his implication had indeed been that they were not taking advantage of her sexually. He didn’t like the idea of her being taken by force, even by him, and he was the type to act first and ask later when those impulses took over, though usually no more than heady kissing. He knew the difference between consensual and non-consensual acts.

“So super healing was your gift from this world,” he asked, moving his finger off her skin.

“Yes. There was an accident. I took a scalpel to the femoral artery and even though I bled I could still function. Out of curiosity, I pulled the scalpel out and the wound healed on its own. I think short of decapitation I can live through...well, anything.”

That was curious. She was like he was on Earth, it seemed, though he wondered if her blood had similar curative properties as he had. Perhaps he would tell her more later, but for now, he wanted her to be safe. His family, the ones not as well off, who insisted they could survive on this planet by themselves, needed her services and he…

Well, perhaps he simply needed her.

“Do you need an extra hand?” he asked and she looked up at him in surprise. “I got most of your items back, but knowing what you do means someone was looking for something. I can only keep you safe so far here and at the clinic; if you go into the tombs I can’t.”

“I can take care of myself, you know,” she replied.

“Then why do you stay with me?” he asked, tilting his head as he looked at her.

“Because it’s...because I...” She shook her head and went back to the task of kneading bread. He had noticed she started every day by making something baked and he had to admit, it made this place seem more homelike. He had never really had a home before, not even on Earth, and this made it feel as though there was a reason to stay.

Though it was not as if they could return to Earth. Only three-quarters of the ships had made it through the portal to this world when the portals unexpectedly closed, stranding the original settlers here on the planet known as Harmony. While most of the enclaves had settled to new rules regarding marriages and relationships, meant to keep the obedience of those in the land, those who settled in New London had rebelled. They were the British contingent; it was to be expected. Marriage was still the norm, but children born as bastards did not mean the couple must form or stay in a union.

He himself had been one of those types of children on Earth, and so through his own effective immortality, he had outlived most of the original settlers, made himself an important man. The Augments such as himself had integrated themselves in New London society, and they had made things better for those children left behind. He went by John Harrison here, a businessman and philanthropist who was a mystery to most. But not, it seemed, to Molly. He looked at her and then nodded. It was home here for the both of them, not just him.

“When did you stop aging?” he asked.

She chuckled a bit, glad for the change in topic. “Twenty years ago. I hit my mid-thirties and then just seemed to not age a day. I’m in my fifties now, but am as spry and sharp as a twenty-year-old.”

“I’m quite similar,” he said. “Though admittedly, much older.”

She tilted her head and gave him a quizzical look. “How old, exactly?”

“I was among the first settlers on Harmony,” he said simply. Her eyes widened at that and her jaw dropped. Not many people knew the truth, but since he had gotten an answer from her that she was, indeed, more like him than he had initially realized, and he trusted her, he felt she should know the truth. “I worked the tombs in Old Cadence, made my fortunes as a Hunter, then came here when New London was established by those who wanted more freedom.”

“I...see,” she said. “Christ, that means you’re...old.”

“I am different than many of the other settlers from Earth. I am known in Old Earth history as an Augment. There was much going on but when the Earth was destroyed myself and those like me joined among the exploration, leading others to space. We were among the few non-humans to get through the portal before it closed.”

“There are others?” she asked.

“Some of the very founders of New London,” he replied. “We had been persecuted and banished, but we were, and still are, quite fair. The original purpose for which we were augmented has passed and we’ve settled. We keep those that use their planet gifted powers for wickedness at bay, for the most part. We work with the guilds in other cities and in some cases hold positions in the background at the highest offices, if we don’t hold those high positions outright. I was a leader once, but I’m content to protect those who have no protection now.”

“Your philanthropic work, helping me keep the clinic open,” she said.

“I saw the cruelty of man. I was cruel, for a time. I have learned the error of my ways, and as we have no way back to Earth, if it’s even hospitable, we’ve made ourselves a place here. You may have heard tales of the immortals? That’s essentially what we are. We have eternal youth, super healing. We can be killed but it’s very hard.” He nodded towards her. “You may be the child of an augment yourself. It was theorized our genetic compatibility with regular humans would allow us to pass our genetic line forward, though most refuse to have children with non-augments.”

“So my healing ability...it’s not from the planet?” Molly asked.

“Perhaps not. But that means you could still have an ability, or have one you don’t realize yet.” He watched as her dust bunny Toby jumped up on her shoulder, chittering the way all dust bunnies did. Her ball of fluff was a bright orange, almost like the ginger cats of Old Earth. She reached over and gave it a cookie, and it hopped off her shoulder and then over to him. “Molly gave you a cookie, Toby. Finish that one and I’ll give you another.”

Molly smiled, the first one she had given him since the conversation started. “You’re going to spoil him.”

“I’d spoil you if you’d let me,” he said simply.

“Maybe,” she said. “But...if you’re serious about finding out why my home was vandalized, we have another tomb to get into tonight. I leave at midnight.”

He nodded. “I’ll come with you, then.”

“Alright. Now I need to finish this bread and let it start to rise for the day, and then off to work I go. I suppose if you want to spoil me you can start by updating my examination suites?”

He came over and took her flour-covered hand, kissing the back of it. “Your wish is my command.” With that, he let go of her hand and made his way to his office. There was work to do and more research to put into who would go after a full-time doctor/part-time tomb trap diffuser and why, and he only had until midnight today to start on it.

Chapter 3

He changed into the gear that most Hunters wore: tight T-shirt, khaki trousers with cargo pockets, sturdy boots...many Hunters had stones on them to help focus on the ghosts that were there, though not the typical kind of Old Earth lore. The ghosts of this world were made of some sort of energy. If Molly was springing traps then that meant she was interacting with the ghosts and taking whatever each particular one could dish out, and it varied from ghost to ghost.

She was a fool, but at least she had her priorities straight. Keep the clinic running at all costs, no matter what it did to her.

Most people had no idea how any of the technology in the tombs worked, what little had been brought to the surface. It had been theorized that the tunnels of a tomb in, say Old Cadence could run through to the ones in Old Manchester if someone was willing to get lost in the mazes to see. But the tombs were vast and the area by the “old” parts of London had hidey-holes and whatnot in them. It was not a safe place for anyone, especially someone as soft as Molly.

Perhaps she had a spine of steel he had not seen yet.

He put on a hat, a fitted baseball cap from the Old Earth sport. He had never been a fan, but replicas of the pop culture of Ancient Earth, farther back than even he had been living, was much like it was when they’d had to leave Earth for Harmony. The logos had changed of course, but certain symbols were still popular even all this time later, such as the trees on his hat. He hadn’t seen a pine tree since he was a child and it took time to recollect what one even smelled like.

These were days he felt ancient, as if the weight of all the years on Harmony and the years on Earth had rolled into a solid weight settled on his shoulders. He had given up this life long ago in the renegade times, turned his life around and stopped letting violence beget violence. If those who had created the Augments were alive to see them now he thought they would be utterly shocked at how well they had integrated into a peaceful culture and kept it at peace.

Some of his kind had special powers beyond what Augments and this planet had given them, and they were especially dangerous. He hoped he wasn’t dealing with any of them. He had never received any certain powers from the planet except an increase in his strength, but he was still a fearsome fighter, even in what felt like his old age.

He hoped he did not have cause to make that known.

As John Harrison, he made to be seen in public events in well-tailored suits so he had no doubt in the Hunter gear no one would notice him. He didn’t care if Molly knew he had been a Hunter hundreds of years in the past, but among Hunters themselves he wanted to stay as low profile as possible, especially if talk of Guilds crept up. He had helped build the Guild in New London, and then retreated and let Joaquin take the lead. He ran it well, and Joaquin was aware that Molly worked for a Guild authorized team derezzing the ghosts that the others could not, but he possibly was not aware that he himself was on the team tonight.

Joaquin would not be happy but he could deal with it.

“Name?” the man guarding the entrance to the tomb said.

“Last name Singh. First name Khan,” he said. He had not been referred to by that name for so long he wasn’t sure anyone other than his fellow augments would recognize it, and if that was how Joaquin found out he was dropping in on a dig, so be it.”

“You don’t look...”

“Adoption,” he replied, and the man nodded in understanding. The loosened rules regarding children and marriages in New London meant that bastards abounded, but there were surprisingly many philanthropists of many national origins residing in New London who would adopt an orphan. He himself had never been tempted, mostly because any orphans he would have chosen refused to leave the streets. He housed them as best he could, fed them, got them an education...tried to get them as lives as close to normal as possible.

Tried to help them survive and perhaps even thrive.

He went into the encampment outside the tomb and looked for Molly. He had no idea whether her crew would be going into the tunnels tonight, as this tomb had multiple entrances where none of them seemed to connect. From what she had told him when she had returned home and they had had a light supper, her team only went into the tunnels with the ghosts that couldn’t be derezzed. She did part-time work, only six hours a night, four nights a week, but she went in to clear out any rough spots.

It could kill her even if she was immortal, but she had decided the clinic was worth her life. As he had thought before, she was a fool, but she had her priorities straight.

He saw Molly and tipped the bill of his hat towards her, getting a nod of recognition in return before she turned back to her conversation, and then he opened up his specialized Augment senses. When he was on a hunt, so to speak, he took everything in. And with the new knowledge that Molly was most likely in danger because of this job as opposed to the clinic, what he was on the hunt for was information.

And he would be damned if he didn’t find it.

Chapter 4

He saw Molly was wearing the tuned amber that many in the guilds wore, but not even nearly as much as the rest of her team. He managed to get assigned to her team, but they were a close-knit group and weren’t exactly the warmest towards him. Not that he cared; he just wanted to see just what Molly went through in a typical night before they started the task of finding who had ransacked her home.

After enough time to get briefed on what they were trying to do the group went into the eerie green structure through what looked like an open door. He could feel himself tense as he walked in with his Augment senses opened wide; something about the structures put his Augment senses on edge when he went into them. It was tolerable in most of New London when he went to find the family members of his that would not stay in respectability near the ruins, but being surrounded by them was another matter.

Molly walked up in front, guiding the team. Even if a section of the tombs had been cleared of ghosts, there could always be a new one in its place, or some other specter to deal with. He almost wished the ghosts were like those from Old Earth, where he could have used the new technology at hand to build a proton pack like the Ghostbusters and suck them up, meaning no one had to trigger the traps as Molly did.

Christ, he really was old to remember Ghostbusters…

His attention was brought up abruptly by a tingling at the back of his neck. There was a ghost nearby, and it was a large one. Molly saw it first and the rest held back. She reached into her cargo pants and pulled out a pair of gloves that he saw was specially studded with amber. From what he could see, she could easily replace each piece if it got burnt out and still have a powerful totem. Any hunter would kill to have something like that, and he wondered how she had gotten it.

But what she did next made his heart nearly stop.

Once the gloves were on, she walked forward to the ghost and pushed her hands into the center of it. He knew his eyes widened as the energy flared for a moment, and then winked out. He’d seen other hunters taken down by far smaller ghosts, and with not much more than a touch, she had canceled it out.

He watched her perform the task over and over, only needing the assistance of her team once. He could see now why she had the bruises; her team grabbed her roughly to get out of danger, not caring that they were leaving lasting impressions on her skin and simply trying to make sure she got out of the situation alive. He knew that she did this to keep the clinic open but he would beg her to stop and finance anything she needed for the rest of eternity if she would just stop throwing herself into danger.

The ghost that had caused her teammates to interfere had blinked out, but not without causing some burns to her face. She sat in a corner as the scientists were ushered into the tomb room to catalog the contents and see what was of scientific use and what would end up in the hands of private collectors later.

“You’re going to push your luck too many times,” he murmured as he sat next to her, offering her water from his canteen. “And one day it will push back.”

“I know,” she said with a sigh, splashing some of it on her face. The burns were already rapidly healing; now they were just dull red marks on her face. “Perhaps I will take you up on funding the clinic.”

“I hope you do.” He took his canteen back and had a drink. “I never understood why the scientists insist on bringing out the artifacts that have the least energy. It’s almost as though they think it’s pretty and that’s enough.”

“You noticed that?” she asked.

“The private collectors want things with more energy, the more dangerous artifacts.”

“You don’t have any in your home.”

“I’m almost always on the edge of tolerance from being near the tombs,” he said. “And I prefer other things. Silks, scrolls, things from Old Earth that I managed to salvage. The pieces of my home that I had to leave behind for the most part.” He had some more of his water. “Put in your notice tonight and tomorrow we’ll look into what happens behind the scenes in the guild with my contacts.”

“Won’t that put me in more danger, though?” she asked.

“I’ll protect you. You can be assured of that.” He was surprised when she quickly reached over and grasped his hand before someone called out “Singh!” and he stood. He cast a glance back at her and then went back to work. No, he would protect her no matter what happened.

Chapter 5

They finished out the night at the tombs and then made it back to his home. They were both sore and even with their healing abilities, there was only so much it would do for soreness. He had a liniment that helped and he offered some to her when they got inside. “Do I need to take my top off?” she asked, giving him a grin.

“Yes, but that’s just when you need your back done. You can do the rest of it yourself,” he said. “I hope you’ll return the favour, though.”

“I’ll get your back if you get mine,” she said. “You know, that’s not a bad look on you. I mean, I like the suits and the casual wear around here, but...that’s a good look too.”

“You seem to have adopted the look as well,” he said, nodding to the now dirty white vest and camouflage cargo pants she wore. “It fits you, but I hope you never have to wear it again.”

“No, I said tonight was my last night and wouldn’t you know, I was replaced pretty quickly. I only worked part-time anyway, so there’s always people looking to do what I do and get in with the guilds. Too much danger doing it freelance.”

“Yes. There’s always the chance you can get lost in the tombs and not come back out,” he replied.

“Exactly. I’d hate to have to go in by myself.” She shuddered as she said that. “Not again.”

He blinked. “You’ve been in the tombs alone before?”

“Once, before I got in with the guilds. I was working with a scientist, Dr. Trasker, and we got lost looking for...something. He wouldn’t tell me what. This was about twenty years ago, though.”

“Before or after you stopped aging?”

She pursed her lips in an O shape and thought for a moment. “Before. I’ve never thought about it, though.”

“Have you seen Dr. Trasker in the twenty years since?”

“No. He was lost in the tombs. I just barely managed to get myself out. I blacked out for a bit, and...” She tilted her head. “Do you think he survived?”

“We don’t know much about the tombs or what’s in there. He could have gotten out another way or been lost forever. But this is something we need to look into.” He moved closer to her and gently touched her face. The burn marks had faded almost entirely and she leaned into his palm and pressed her hand to his. “We’ll find out tomorrow,” he murmured.

“Thank you,” she said. She had shut her eyes when she leaned into his palm, but now she looked at him. There was something in her eyes that made him feel as though he could take things one more step forward. He had been lonely for these centuries he’d been on Harmony. He had his ragtag family and was friends with his fellow augments, but companionship? Love? That was something he had denied himself for a long time.

But perhaps not any longer.

He stepped forward and captured her lips with his, not at all surprised when she reciprocated the kiss with a ferocity of someone who had been alone for a long time. They were different yet similar, and tonight, they would come together with a passion held away for the weeks she’d been staying with him.

She moved her hands to the hem of his shirt and then lifted it, leaving him bare-chested and covered in dirt from the tomb floors. Soon he reached for her vest and pulled it up, revealing some sort of athletic bra underneath. She saved him the trouble of pulling it off and tossed it to the side, and once her breasts touched his chest he tightened his grip around her and lifted her up. She wrapped her legs around his waist and used the new position to control the kiss as he carried her to his room.

There may be need of a shower first before any more pleasurable activities took place, but at least tonight he wouldn’t need to relieve himself thinking of her naked and under him. Tonight she would be there with him in the shower, in his bed, and perhaps creeping her way into his heart as well.

Chapter 6

He woke up from a night of light sleep to the comfortable feeling of Molly sleeping next to him, naked aside from some of his sheets tangled around parts of her body. She seemed to have increased stamina as they had shagged in the shower and twice once they got to his bed. She seemed to be able to tease him with just a touch, get him nice and ready for her with just the sight of her naked and…

Well. Perhaps he could convince her to go into the clinic late.

She stirred and he felt her drop a kiss on his bare shoulder. “I see someone is eager for round four,” she said.

“I’m sure I’m not the only one,” he said with a smirk, letting his finger glide along her bare arm.

“Nope,” she said, popping the P in the word. She moved and let the sheet fall away as she kissed him languidly before moving away from his lips and concentrating on his neck.

He was enjoying her ministrations until they were interrupted by a ringing mobile. His, he realized after a moment, and he reached over to answer it as she pulled away. “Hello?”

“Why the bloody hell were you working a tomb last night?” Joachim said, sounding as though he was speaking through gritted teeth. “And why has one of our best ghost hunters left?”

“I’m not at liberty to say, but she’s under my protection if you catch my drift.” John was quiet as he waited for his colleague’s response.

“Shit,” Joachim said after a moment. “So there’s more to that break-in at her clinic than she thought?”

“She talked about it?” he said, turning to look at Molly.

“With me. She asked if this was retaliation for something she might have done and didn’t realize. Khan, I’ve had her looked after by men I personally vetted. She would be fine if she stayed with that team, at least when it came to working the tombs.”

He shut his eyes and remembered exactly how she destroyed the ghosts guarding the tombs, how one day it might just kill her even if she thought she was invincible. “Let me settle the problem of who ransacked the clinic. Should she want to go back to work at the tombs, I’ll remove my objection.”

Molly snorted at that and then put her hands over her mouth. There was another pause on the phone line. “Where are you?” Joachim asked.

“In bed.”

“With her?”

“Yes.”

“Good. You should have taken a partner long ago, Khan. You’ve been alone far too long, and Molly’s a good person. She’ll be a good fit for you.”

“Attempted matchmaking?” John said with an amused smile.

“I wouldn’t have mentioned you should check on her if I hadn’t thought you’d be a good fit,” Joachim said. “I’ll let you get back to whatever I’m sure I was interrupting.”

“Thank you.” He hung up his phone and looked at Molly. “Joachim sends his regards. And he wants you back in the tombs.”

“I gathered that much,” she said, relaxing next to him. “So you really wouldn’t mind if I went back to the tombs?”

“I’d still worry, but you are an independent woman. You’ve lived your life on your own for fifty years. I’m not your keeper. I’m just your lover.”

“You’re more than that,” she said, her expression softening as she reached over to cup the side of his face gently. “We’re partners if nothing else. And lovers to boot.”

“You look at me as a partner?” he murmured.

“I do now,” she replied. She leaned in and kissed him softly, but soon the kiss became more hungry and passionate, and he found he was still ready and willing to shag as he rolled them over so he was on top of her. Perhaps there were some benefits to this partnership that he would find out later, but right now, this perk was by far his favourite.

Chapter 7

He knew, eventually, that there was work to be done. She had patients to see and he needed to delve into the mystery of the break-in at her flat and the clinic. The two buildings were literally separated by a wood door and a set of stairs; it was easy enough for anyone to break into the clinic, and easier still to infiltrate her upstairs flat. The clinic had been put to rights but as far as he knew she hadn’t ventured back into her flat once her personal items had been taken out and transferred to his guest room.

Good. He could still look for clues.

They approached the clinic together and he already saw a small crowd of the ill and the injured waiting to be seen. He left her to do her work and went to the door, inspecting it. It had been fixed, but there were still signs of the damage done to it when it had been jimmied open. He fingered the damage lightly, wondering if it would give off any residue of tomb energy even now.

This Dr. Trasker was someone he wanted to look into; he had functional immortality, due to experiments done on him as a child. Though he appeared in his mid to late thirties, he was centuries older. He aged incrementally at an extremely slow pace. Whether this would happen to Molly or not was unclear. Once he could talk her into having some tests run by another Augment who had dedicated herself to studying their genetic lineage, he would have more answers. If she were the child of an Augment, that would be news among the loose collection of them in New London.

There could be more like her.

He shut his eyes for a moment as he heard a patient cry out, remembering the scientific experiments done on him, the pricking of needles and the cutting of scalpels, and then he cleared it from his mind. While much had been done to him in utero, much more had been done to make him a fighting machine after he was born. He had never met his mother and father, only knowing heartless caretakers and dismissive or outright hostile taskmasters as he grew older.

The rebellion had been one of the things to further the damage to Earth, but his kind was tired of being used as the perfect killing machine. He himself had been one of the leaders of the rebellion, a rebellion which had ended under a ceasefire and an uneasy truce as Earth collapsed around them. They made for space and even fewer made for Harmony. Sometimes, in the back of his mind, he idly wondered what happened to those left behind.

But now he had other things to think about.

He had contacts near the Dead City in the Old Quarter of Cadence, Gage & Burch Consulting. He’d see if Virginia or Sam had heard of Dr. Trasker, though it would help if he got the first name of this doctor from Molly. The Old Quarter of Cadence was near where she had lived before she moved to New London to open the clinic.

And finding out why she left Cadence would be something worth finding out as well, because trouble may have followed her to her new home.

Chapter 8

The phone was answered within three prompt rings. “Sam Gage.”

“Sam? It’s John Harrison,” he said, leaning back in the chair of his office. He’d gone there after a fruitless search of Molly’s old home and the part of the clinic that still hadn’t been fixed, and a delightful snogging session with his lover. But duty called her back to work sooner than he would have liked, so he decided to go home to his home office and call his old friend.

“Long time no call,” Sam said, humor lacing his voice. “It’s almost like you forgot I existed.”

“I was at your wedding,” he pointed out. “That was only two years ago.”

“And then radio silence. I swear you’re getting more reclusive in your old age.” Sam chuckled softly and to his relief, so did he. He didn’t want to alienate one of his friends who might be able to help him with this situation. “Anyway, I get the feeling you didn’t call to catch up. What can I help you with?”

“I need information,” he said. “My...girlfriend...runs a clinic that was vandalized a while ago. Her living quarters are above the clinic and when I found out what had happened I asked if she wanted to stay with me.”

“Were you dating her at the time?”

“No, that’s a more recent development,” he said. “But she works in the tombs to supplement the income she gets from donors to run the clinic. She was lost in the tombs at one point when she lived in Cadence, dumped there by a Dr. Trasker.”

“Name sounds familiar,” Sam said. “A fraud of some sort who had some theories about immortals among us.”

John stilled. Sam didn’t know he was effectively immortal, and he probably didn’t know that Molly was either. If Dr. Trasker had guessed about Molly and he was the fanatical sort, he could have been behind the break-in. “Find out what you can about him. Also, any information you can find on Molly Hooper’s time in Cadence. She used to live in the Old Quarter.”

“Your girlfriend know you’re looking into her?”

“She does, actually. I fully believe she can tell me a lot, but it never hurts to see what an outside perspective says about her.”

“Good point. I’ll look into this as a personal favor and get back to you.”

“Thank you. Tell Virginia I said hello.”

“Will do.” Sam hung up first, and then John set his phone down. He steepled his fingers together and went into the deep thinking he did when he had a problem to solve. He knew Dr. Trasker was a potential danger, but he needed to find him first before he could deal with him. His friends on the street might be of help with this if he put the word out that he was looking for the man. But really, until Sam got back to him, there wasn’t much else to do to settle the problem. He shook himself out of his thinking process and went into the kitchen. He’d given his assistant the day off, and he was alone in the house.

Or so he’d thought.

He sensed the intruder’s presence before he made a sound, and John deftly grabbed a knife from the rack and turned to face his attacker. Or attackers, it turned out. One had a mag gun and the other had a switchblade. “You should know better than to attack me,” he said, his voice almost a snarl.

“Two against one? You’re easy prey. We’ll get the woman when we’re done,” the taller of the masked men said.

How mistaken they are, John thought to himself as he initiated a fight with them. The mag gun was the first weapon to be lost by the intruders, and then the switchblade. John moved deftly, old skills just as vicious as they had been when he was Khan Noonien Singh and leading a group of Augments in World War III. One of the intruders was knocked unconscious and the other had a broken arm but stayed awake by the time the scuffle was done. John held the mag gun to the side of his head. “Tell me who hired you.”

“An old man! He said he was a doctor. He said you were a threat.”

“What was his name?”

“Dr. Trasker or something like that!”

John reached into his pocket for his mobile phone and called the police, pulling the mag gun back but keeping it trained on the two men. Well well well. It looked as though Dr. Trasker was alive and well and very much going to be a problem.

It was a good thing he was very good at dealing with problems like that.

Chapter 9

The police were still at their home when Molly burst in, looking for him. “Thank goodness you’re okay,” she said, wrapping her arms around his waist when she got to him.

“They were nothing,” he said, embracing her back. He would tell her about Dr. Trasker later; for right now, he had police to deal with and he didn’t want her asking a million questions or going into a rant. The detective he was dealing with wanted to post an officer outside and he agreed, and he also asked for one to be posted at the clinic. Molly gave him a questioning look but agreed in the end. Once the police and the intruders were gone, John got a bottle of wine from the wine cooler and opened it for them. “The intruders were here on behalf of your old friend Dr. Trasker,” he said, handing her a glass.

“The bastard,” she said, her eyes narrowing. “What does he want with me? Was he behind the break-in at my flat?”

“We can assume so,” he said, pouring some wine into her glass, then his own. He set the bottle down and took a sip from his glass, lifting it to his lips slowly. He wanted to rein in the irrational anger he still felt at the intruders, that they would go after her when they were finished with him. She could survive, but he would have lost her in the process, and he did not want that. Whatever it was he felt for her now it was a strong emotion, and he had to be careful not to let it gain control. He needed to be alert to keep her safe.

“He had the oddest theories. He wanted to explore deep in the tombs, and he hired me to deal with the ghosts. But I always gathered there was more to it than that.”

“How long have you been dealing with ghosts?”

“I did that when my parents died at sixteen to support myself, and then I continued to get through school to get my Phd.” She had some of her wine. “I haven’t heard from him in twenty years. Why does he want me now?”

“I don’t know, but I’m going to find out. I have a friend in Cadence looking into you and him.”

“I had to leave when I stopped aging,” she said. “Your friend is going to put two and two together if he’s smart enough.”

“I trust Sam to keep your secret safe,” he said. “And here in New London, strangeness is more accepted. No one will blink an eye at longevity. They’ll just brush it off as a quirk of the planet.”

“That’s good.” She reached out to him and he looped an arm around her shoulders, pulling her close. She wormed her arm around his waist and rested her head against his chest. “I was so worried when I heard what had happened here. I thought for sure you’d at least been injured.”

“It would take more than two intruders with a mag gun and a switchblade to take me down,” he said, setting his wine glass down and embracing her fully. She wrapped both arms around his waist and they stayed still like that for some time. Finally, reluctantly, he let her go and he picked up his wine glass again. “Please don’t go in the tombs without your crew.”

“I’m not going out there for a while, not until it’s safe. Joaquim will understand.”

And if he doesn’t, I’ll make him, John thought to himself as he nodded. “I’m sure he will.”

“You be safe, too. I mean, I know you can live through a lot but...I don’t want to lose you. Not now, not when I think I love you.”

He felt his heart soar at her word, and his wine glass was set down and he was cradling her face with both hands, running his thumbs in circles under her chin. “I think I love you as well, Molly.”

“Good,” she said with a smile before reaching up and pulling him into a searing kiss. It wasn’t long until he began leading them both to the bedroom, the wine forgotten. This was vastly more important.

Chapter 10

He woke up to an empty bed and the smell of brownies in the air. He should have known even the most passionate bout of lovemaking wouldn’t make all her worries go away. He got up, put his robe on, and then went into the kitchen, finding her stirring something in a mixing bowl while a tray of brownies was cooling on the island. “May I have one?” he asked, trying not to make her jump, though he wasn’t successful.

“They still need to cool some more,” she said, setting the mixing bowl down. He moved closer and saw it looked like chocolate frosting. “Let me frost them and then you can have one.”

“Stress baking?” he asked, sitting on one of the stools across from where she stood at the island.

She nodded. “I wanted to curl up next to you and just sleep blissfully but once I started thinking about the attack yesterday and how Dr. Trasker was behind it…” She sighed. “You’re going to get dragged into my troubles and I don’t like it.”

“Your troubles are our troubles now,” he said. “We’re partners. We share things now. And I will need you to tell me about Trasker, but that can wait until later. Right now, I can reassure you that I will keep you safe from him, no matter what.”

She gave him a small smile that didn’t quite reach her eyes, and that was all the motivation he needed to go to her side and pull her into an embrace. She wrapped her arms around his waist and they stood there for some time, in companionable silence. Finally, she pulled back. “I needed that so badly, I think.”

“That’s part of what I’m here for. Another part of why I’m here is to get very fat from your baking.”

That caused her to laugh. “I don’t think I can get you fat, not if you’re an Augment. I get the feeling your metabolism runs double. Remember, I’ve seen you polish off two servings of dinner plus dessert.”

“Well, you can try. You make very good baked goods.”

“Why, thank you.” She pulled the rest of the way away and picked up the bowl of frosting again. “I think the brownies are cool enough to frost. Then we can have some with some milk.”

“That sounds like an excellent plan,” he said. There may be more sleepless nights like this with Molly awake and stress baking, at least until they got the situation taken care of, but he didn’t mind. He loved her and would do anything for her. That was his solemn vow.

Series this work belongs to:

• Part 1 of Harmony
• Part 68 of WIP Big Bang Accomplishments