I've Noticed...((Rookie and Zarek))...

[light]

Jamie took a seat on the cool metal chair and set her coffee down on the glass. She absentmindedly traced her father’s claw marks with her own, less deadly claws. Her mood was one of brooding, her brow in an obvious scowl, and she was hunched over her steaming coffee. Jamie wasn’t blind, nor stupid, and she had taken notice. Notice to the way her father was behaving, how Zarek had been acting around her father, and the whispering in rooms that had stopped when she entered the room, her father’s name on their lips. Her scowl nearly became a snarl. She would not have it! Why did people treat her as a little child still? After all, she was nearly a Fledgling, yet why was she so quickly patted on the head and told to mind her own business? Jamie didn’t usually take interest in her father’s affairs, having enough on her hands with work and all, but she was afraid. Not to mention that solving mysteries was what she lived for. Well she had figured it out. She merely needed to interrogate one of the suspects to get a solid confession. Jamie wanted the facts, and nothing was going to stop her.

Tired eyes blinked and she automatically began to sip her coffee, only to burn her tongue. Chocking sounds filled the room as Jamie decided whether or not to swallow and burn her throat, or spit it back into her mug. Eventually the clamor settled down as she swallowed her mouthful and lowered the temperature on her coffee. Finally getting her daily intake of caffeine for the day, Jamie made her way to her father’s room. She knocked politely and waited for her father to open the door…

[texas]

Hearing the knock on the door Zarek nearly launched himself into orbit as he pushed himself off the bed and more importantly off of Rook. Fumbling to button up his shirt he gawked at the rips in the white fabric that let his orange fur show through like a fluorescent safety jacket. What was he going to do? No one could see him like this.

Taking a step towards the bathroom he paused to see how his partner was doing. Legs spread apart and arms stretched out either way he looked like he was about to start dancing. He was ready to go which ever direction Rook pointed to.

"What should I do?" Zarek hissed over to Rook. Of course this hadn't happened before so the two where slightly unprepared for this situation. Now that is was upon them though the tiger had no idea where he should hid he just knew he needed to hid.

[Rook]

Rook took a few seconds to life his mind from the cloud that had settled over it, a mild protestation escaping his lips when Zarek nearly flew off of him, he cursed under his breathe, blinking as he pulled himself to a sitting position, then finally, his head cleared as he heard too, the sharp rapping noise.

He knew, even now who was doing the knocking, his claws remembered the sound, and it was easy enough to tell.

Panic.

He stumbled off the bed, looking quickly in the mirror and examine the large red marks of irritated skin along his thick neck and upper chest , he grabbed the comb on the dresser and ran it fiercely through his long mussed up hair, before tying it up, so quickly he was sure it wouldn't be long before it fell apart.

He couldn't find his shirt (it was somewhere, kicked into the corner earlier) so he grabbed one hanging off a nearby chair, thankfully it was a slim black turtle neck.

He moved like someone who was missing a 6000 dollar flight, and when Zarek hissed at him for direction his brain sparked and he responded by shoving the Tiger into a nearby closet, making sure to force it shut very right before whirling around like a mad man and answering the door, a calmness settling over his features at the last minute.

Okay, so he wasn't the most coordinated but at least he could hide his dire sense of DOOM from his rather intense daughter. Or he could the last time he checked. Jamie was always improving at an unsettling breakneck rate.

Usually he looked happy to see her, but he was so stressed he forgot to smile...perhaps he could mask it as being tired. He was an ArcAngel, it was dirty work!

Why couldn't she have come at another time. Any other time? Even now he could smell traces of deep agitation in his little girl's sweet scent.

Uh oh.

[light]

Jamie tapped her foot with slight impatience as she waited for her father to respond to her knocking. She turned her Keyxi on to record the confession she knew was coming. Her body felt the vibrations through the floor, and her ears nearly caught the sound of cloth, so she knew that someone was in the room. If it was not her father, she was sure that his secure room would have initiated lock-down. Yet another bit of technology that Zarek had helped install. Jamie glowered, over the last few weeks, with the secrets being held, she had slowly come near the point of explosion. Someone was going to pay.

Now antsy and suspicious as to why her father was taking so long, for even when he was sleeping he had lightening fast timing whenever he answered the door when she came calling, Jamie tensed as the door opened. Calmed at the fact it was her dad who had answered the door and not some intruder, Jamie began to access the scene. First her eyes roamed suspect number one. He seemed incredibly disheveled, even considering she might have woken him up. Also, the scent she was receiving…Her eyes widened a margin. It couldn’t be! Careful not to make assumptions, Jamie made her way into the room without a word and sniffed again. There it was, not hard to distinguish if you knew what to look for. Jamie’s eyes surveyed the room, crime scene number three. If anything, it was more of a mess than her father. Paws on hips, Jamie turned to face her father, a cold look in her eye.

“Good morning daddy, you seem rather tired. I hope that nothing has been troubling you.” With all seriousness, and a rather cute expression on her muzzle, Jamie made her way to the closet. With her Keyxi, she had no trouble seeing the heat-footprints that lead to the closet, which was unusually closed. Not that she needed to, that strong scent of lust and desire was rather strong, as was fear. She was quite familiar with the scents at that time, so there was no mistaking it. Jamie shook her head; she had caught the suspect red-handed. All she needed now was to tie up some loose ends. “Daddy, why is Zarek in the closet?” She turned, and began analyzing her father’s body language to gauge his reaction…

[texas]

Zarek held very still as he listened to Jamie sniff around the room. Shit! He and Rook and not thought about that. They had just hidden him as quickly as possible. Holding very still he tried to relax and seem rather normal. As Rook's daughter moved into the bedroom he stopped breathing all together, maybe, just maybe, she might miss him. When she asked what he was doing in the closet he bit his lower lip.

"I just finished fixing the safe in here Jamie." Pulling of his shirt he let it drop to the floor before opening the door. "It is better to work in the dark with stuff like this. I know the closet is a safe zone. No matter how many times we go through your father's room and not find a bug there may be one the day we do something important." So the tiger knew that the safe hadn't been on the fritz; however, Jamie didn't know anything of the sort and that might help them.

[Rook]

Rook had to admit, Zarek could produce damn good lies out of thin air, he was both impressed and suspicious, what if one day Zarek used that against him?

Perhaps if it had been anyone but his daughter it would have worked.

Unfortunately (well no, that was going too far. ) the teenager, not quite glaring at both of them was James Elizabeth Rook and she was pretty pissed off, and not going through any great lengths to hide it. Rook was not intimidated per-se, having taught the same person how to ride a bike, chew food properly and keep their DAMN elbows off the table, but he was certainly unnerved, even at first.

After he realized exactly what Jamie was smelling panic set in. His daughter was smelling the sex of two grown men, and there were only two in the vicinity one being her daddy...


...Bad. Bad. Zarek. Should've known not to make out on weeknights.

Hit you with a rolled up newspaper.

His gut wrenched with shame and some kind of fierce rampant protection, but hard trained as he was none of it showed on the features or body language Jamie was examining, Rook had simply learned to erase all that and withdraw into his own mind.


He supposed he should just give it up right then, but Hell if Zarek could actually convince Jamie of that he wasn't going to screw it up, Jamie perhaps had a right to be angry, but Rook would avoid discussing this with his little girl as long as he was able.

But even before he knew it , he was contradicting himself, closing the distance between himself and his daughter and feeling the cool surface of the tiny computer, the whirring noise it made was even more silent than the hum of his claws, which were helping to pick up the sound waves, the thrum of the Kex was as soft as a mouse's sigh, he leaned forward, looking into his daughter's cold gray eyes, much like his own, except young, and tinged with a darker shade, closer to blue or purple.

He blew in her face.


As the soft sighing was silenced and he looked at Zarek for a moment, his eyes narrowing, his lips pursing slightly, as he thought of what to say before looking back at Jamie.

"Recording domestic affairs is not polite."

He paused. "I mean 'affairs' as in 'events' or 'circumstances' of course".

Shit.

[light]

Jamie suddenly felt cold. They were trying to lie to her, again. Her shoulders stiffened and the fiery anger in her turned to an icy rage, now she was mad. She didn’t even snarl when her father blew on her face, causing her to blink four times in quick succession, which in turn turned her Keyxi off. Breath flowing its gentle course was hastened as her fight-or-flight came into play. Was she ready to deal with this new turn in her father’s life? Struggling with indecision, Jamie nearly missed her father’s words. Once she realized the implications, however, her gaze hardened and her breathing became the soft whisper it was but a moment ago. Jamie was going to fight, and in the end, exact her revenge for their lies. Like a good little detective, she pounced on the opportunity that opened. “Daddy, did you know that some people would call that a Freudian Slip?” She crossed her arms and looked at both Zarek and her father. “Would you care to elaborate?”…

[texas]

"No, not really." Was the first words that left Zarek's mouth. "In fact I would like to keep it at I was fixing your father's safe when you barged in. I'd like you to say goodbye to daddy, run along and find some kids to play with."

The tiger knew he was being an ass, but she had started it. This really didn't concern Jamie in the least bit. Sure Rook was her father, but just because the wolverine had found another person to share his affections with didn't mean that he would love the girl any less.

"You can go now Jamie."

[Rook]

Rook felt the words he had prepared for his daughter die in his throat. He would have explained, been forced to explain ...it had seemed like a situation that allotted room for little argument. The Truth could set you free right? How bad could it be? Family was family, as a popular comedian was fond of saying "everyone has at least a gay cousin"!

He felt Jamie's rage was justified, afterall he was her Gruff Old Dad, he had drilled the idea that deception was wrong into her head at a young age ...and yet now, it had seemed like an attractive idea so it was suddenly fine and dandy? And why?

The truth was ugly, and even Rook cringed from it....the truth...

If it had been a woman, nearly any woman it would have been easy. Jamie, I don't know if you would have been happy...but I could have spoken to you, I could have looked in your eyes (that somehow look like my eyes, and her eyes at the same time), and told you how it was going to be..or at least how we wanted it to be.

but...

But it wasn't a widow from one of those awful martini-slaying meetings, a lonely housewife or a fierce she-Angel who had finally snared him in this painfully intense affection and possession and lust, so different from he and Cleo's relationship, where they'd not been day and night but two sides of the same coin.

It was a man, his best friend in fact, an extremely intelligent, foolish and charming man. He had not been the first to pity Rook, or to show an interest in him, but he had been the first Rook had looked back and felt his own heart tighten in that unusual way, like some deep ache that wouldn't ebb ....and actually love back.

It hadn't been in the hospital he had first realized it either, he suspected he'd always cared for the tiger immensely, but it had been that day in Kenn park when he'd seen Zarek's blood everywhere, soaking his bright orange fur, when he'd actually began to recognize the feeling, somewhere in the back of his mind where he could shove things in an unorganized pile.

The truth however...the truth was that he was ashamed. He was committing sodomy with another Furre, he was becoming a fag, like the ones his father had raved about, switched channels on the TV, the ones that peppered every pubescent Apprentice insult, fags that he heard crude jokes in the rec room about ...The Killer kipping with someone else? Ridiculous. The Killer kipping with a guy?

Hilarious. A fucking laugh riot, the biggest scandal of the Seraphim, and maybe even something for the Council to gnaw on.

The thought of it ever getting out chilled him, perhaps even worse than the word fag. That awful word, there were several like it. Slut too perhaps, he had gone too far in calling Zarek that. Way too far.


Zarek himself? Rook wasn't ashamed of him. He was attractive, witty, a genius and a damn good friend...and a damn good kisser at that.

...but he was ashamed of what they were doing, hell he was ashamed of their relationship. Even when they kissed in the back of his mind he heard that word in several voices, taunting him. fag Was that just as bad? Did it make him a Low Down Dirty Monster?

and what about looking away from his scared, enraged desperate daughter, smelling their sexes even as they grew fainter, masked by the fear an anger, and not responding when she needed him the most?

For that was surely was he was doing, and as he did, his blood ran cold.

[light]

Jamie’s eyelids lowered so that she seemed bored. Her heart beat no faster than before. Inside, the cold shock made her numb, precise and deadly. Zarek, the man she used to call “Uncle Zak” when she had been young and hanging out with her father more, the one who gave her the sloppy grins whenever she accomplished something; the man who had just told her that she was unwanted, a naïve child, and that her father had no say in the matter. Turning to her father, she looked at him expectantly. She was his little girl, the one he raised by himself, the one who loved her most of all. Surely he would tell her that she was loved, needed, a “big girl” who did more than run around with the wool over her eyes, tell her that he would not have someone else talk for him. After it was obvious that he would not speak in her defense, Jamie nearly choked out a sob of betrayal. However, she was still numb, and she had been fighting her battles for nearly all her life. Even if it had always been with the certainty that her daddy would be there for her 100%, there was no better time to start than the present.

Jamie turned, still with the look of boredom on her face, and faced Zarek. Her icy glare looked him straight in the eyes as she held up her hand and began speaking with an unenthusiastic tone, “One: I did not barge in, I politely knocked on my father’s door and waited for him to answer it. Two: I understand that you have my father wrapped around your finger, but I am not about to follow his example. Therefore, don’t go presuming you can boss me around, it’s rather rude. Three: I don’t play, let alone with other kids my age. I work hard all day and all night. I study, all day and all night. I execute my missions whenever it is required of me, be it day or night. Not that I’m sure you could understand, but that means I do not have free time to be fooling around like some people. Capiche?”…

[texas]

The tiger laughed a little. "Maybe it is because you spend your time working your ass off is the reason you really only have your father to talk too." It really did hurt Zarek to be this mean to Jamie, but he was irritated quite a bit. Here he and Rook had been about to take a very important step forwards in their relationship when she comes knocking. If it had been anyone else he would have thrown them out of the room, and had his lover back on the bed.

As it was, this was Jamie and he could do no such thing. Looking to Rook with a snarl he said, "Your daughter needs a little alone time with daddy. I'll let you two at it."

Stalking out of the bedroom he let himself bump against Rook's shoulder and gave him a look that told the wolverine that he was all Zarek after this was over. Letting his hand quickly caress Rook's tight he left the room and shut the door.

Not wanting to leave Rook, Zarek jumped onto the couch. Grabbing a book that Rook left on the ground when Zarek had come over, he began to read from the start his ears perked up and ready to listen to whatever was said in the other room.

[Rook]

Rook felt rage burn inside his chest, traces of lust still lingered in his breathes, in his expressions but it was overshadowed by the raw anger he felt at that moment. He was being vaulted around like an emotional puppet, by his daughter, by his lover.

His calm manner was contained only by the barest surface he looked at Jamie once. The smell of the sex was masked in one of deep rage.

He tugged briefly on her coat, obviously suggesting that she follow him. If she did not? He'd drag her back here by her hair.

If there had ever been a time not to cross the wolverine, this was it, the pulsating anger inside his foggy gray eyes was like a stormcloud over a bleak horizon.

Exiting the bedroom, he walked slowly towards the couch, observing Zarek, pretending to read paws clenched on his book like an errant child. It was disappointing of him, Rook was havign trouble not looking away from the sight of it.

His voice was low, and had no growl in it, no bravado, it was clear that this wasn't one of his neverending games, plays at a "gruff" attitude. Rook was for a lack of a better word:

Pissed.

"What do you two take me for"?

He raised his voice "We're going to talk about this, right now. Anyone who leaves can stay the fuck out for good. Sit down"!

His refusal to react to Jamie would have left him only with guilt and a wish that he had acted better, but Zarek's taunts to his daughter's face and a seemingly careless dismissal of their problem had him livid. They were both nuts if they'd think that he would take it all sitting down.

He had almost pussied out while the two people he most loved, the only two people he had, wounded and humiliated eachother right in front of him.

But now he wouldn't have it, if he had to be the Killer, he would, if he had to be Scary Father, he would, and if he had to be, Mr. Low Down Dirty Guy, he would.

[light]

Jamie felt sick, down in her belly, her mouth, her heart. Why had it come to hurting each other? Hadn’t she come to understand; it certainly wasn’t to be lied to by two important men in her life. Her claws dug into the pads of her paws, to cause pain and distract her eyes from forming the tears that had been building up ever since she got the call that her father had been part of an incident that nearly cost him his life.

It wasn’t as if he had never gotten hurt before, but it struck close to home this time. Though she acted the tough kid who never thought about her mother, it was only the love that was given to her and the work she did daily that kept her from breaking down. Life was tough, and it would have hurt a whole lot more if her father had been taken away that day. She never talked about her mom, she didn’t remember her, but something inside Jamie made her sensitive to pain besides her own. It was almost as if she could feel the same sorrow that Rook went through when he thought of his late wife. She always knew when he was, she had known him her whole life, and she had quickly learned to identify the pain of her mother’s death in her father’s eyes when he looked out the window.

Was he thinking of her, right now? Did he feel guilty, like a traitor to her memory? Jamie didn’t want him to feel like that. Even if she did not approve of the whole mess, she would not show it if her father was happy.

Jamie did not cry, and the feeling of vertigo was lessening as she took deep breaths. She despised herself. Had the years of crying behind books and closed doors done nothing? Was she always going to break down when she needed to be strong? No, Jamie needed to be strong, she practically an Angel, and that left no room for weakness, not even in front of the ones she loved most dearly.

The dead-tired teenager stood in the empty room, misty eyed, for a brief moment, mostly to compose her expression, and also to turn her Keyxi on. She did not intend to record what was to happen next, but she was going to send out a “Do Not Disturb” pulse, as well as order some food to the room within the hour. God knew they were all going to need it, whatever happened next. After this, she swiftly followed her riled up father into the room.

All in all, his agitation was refreshing compared to his lack of will earlier, but Jamie herself hated to be yelled at. It usually left her with a headache and a dislike at the person until she either forgot about it or took a bit of revenge. For now she would make an exception, she did feel that whatever it took to clear things up, would be worth it…even if it meant taking the taunts from Zarek and yelling from her father. Stiffly, for she had been working non-stop for three days on a case with no sleep, she took a seat next to Zarek. Truly she would have preferred her own seat, but what could be expected of a bachelor’s room, even one such as Rook. Sitting back with a sigh at the cushions that alleviated some of the ache from her back, Jamie spoke in her precise and deadly soft manner, “The only way I am going to leave this room, is if you make me…father.” Obviously she was glad that he had regained some of the respect he had lost, but she was still angry, and was not going to go back to calling him “daddy”. Though it was petty, even to her, it was a certain way, the only one she knew, on how to tell her father that he had to watch out for a while before she really blew a fuse. It was usually used when she had PMS or very little sleep. This time it applied to little sleep, and a loss of respect for him.

The whole situation saddened her, and made her a little sick. She had not gone around spreading rumors or insulted them; she had not asked more than what was her right to know. It wasn’t as if she had lied to her father lately, so what right did he have to do…Oh. Jamie had lied, kept secrets, done disputable things, all in the last week. What right did she have?

None, nor the right to feel as sick as she did right now. In fact, she didn’t know when the last time she had felt this bad. Her stomach began to lurch as the room seemed to spin and close around her, her blood roaring in her ears. Then like a wave, it passed. She was shaking, mostly on the inside, or so it felt, but in her paws as well. Why? Always the same glaring question stared her in the face her whole life. Why did her mother choose her, when even she knew that her dad loved her mom more than her? Why did those kids pick on her, she wasn’t a bad person, so why her? Why was her father gone all the time, could it be because he didn’t want to remember Cleo whenever he looked at his daughter? Why did she have to dig around like a detective on a case with her dad’s life? Why did Zarek have to show her how pathetic her life was? Why?

The one question that hurt her the most was the one she had made. Why did she not give up, why was she still grasping at life when it had already given up on her? This question had an answer she had known for long awhile. Jamie was selfish, greedy, and took what was not always hers. She lived with this every day, the terrible knowing of one’s self. The worst part was that even after knowing, she did nothing to change, just kept on clinging to the life that was not rightfully hers. There was no pride in what she did with that stolen life, she was a mess, through and through, but still she kept on.

Jamie looked up; a sad and cold look in her eyes that always seemed to be in residence. “Daddy…I love you…and I am fond of Uncle Zak. I want whatever makes you happy. I know it hurts to talk of things you wish were never talked about, only read and acted upon. But I need you to talk to me, I need both of you to tell me. No more lies, they are too painful to chew on in the dark slumbers of the mind. Before they may not have been lies, because we never talked about it, and you may have wanted it to go away, but the time is now. If you are ever going to be truthful to me in a matter I already know about, then now is the time. Not after we go home and tear out our hair because of the things not said, or after we cry because we imagine hurtful things about shadows not named. Now. And we best make it snappy, ‘cause I ordered some food that should be her in forty-five minutes.” Jamie tried to grin, but the moment had slipped away, and it was met with a cold-weight silence that had descended on their shoulders for that moment…

[texas]

((What the heck! I wait for a post from Light I get this monster thing. School swamps me with work. Light emails me telling me she is going to stalk me. Oh the world has gone mad! lol J/K ^^ This isn't going to be a long post though.))

Sitting up to make room for Jamie he looked at the girl. He had reacted badly when she had come in, that was not questionable. He was sure if she got a boyfriend and he walked in on them when they were about to 'get it on' then she would have been a little upset too, yet he had gone a little far with his anger.

When he heard Jamie say she ordered food the tiger laughed. "Well, that is one way to make sure this gets done quickly. Good job kid." Patting her on the head with a large paw he smiled. "Now Rook can't go into any long winded tirades."

Not really knowing what to do about the way he acted to Jamie the Angel brushed it off. Looking at her he tried to tell her he was sorry. He'd apologize to her when he wasn't around Rook. He felt that he needed a one on one conversation with the girl. The wolverine didn't need to be there then. The two had a lot to talk about and most of it had to deal with the other man.

Looking back to Rook he sighed, "Since you are the one being pissy why don't you start. And don't get that you can leave and not come back attitude with us because everyone in this room knows after a while you'd come to us. It might take some time but you'd do it. There would be too much to loose if you didn't."

[Rook]

Rook usually gave in and wavered when Zarek rationalized him like this, his usually aimless anger melting into an oddly complacent sense of confusion and frusteration. But this was after all, concerning his daughter and though he was mad at her too for showing a complete lack of respect for their privacy and, being an instigator Rook was still pissed at Zarek for the way he had acted, and now, he was trying to brush him off, as he always did.

Couldn't he understand the dilemma he was in right now? His daughter walking in on him and another guy? It wasn't something to joke about for christ's sakes. But of course Zarek thought everything was a damn joke.

Then there was the deeper matter, the real cause for all this pain, all Rook's pain at least, he couldn't imagine how Jamie felt, but it must have been the same, perhaps even worse.

Behind all the pain, of the father and daughter was Cleo, hanging over their memories like a black curtain.

and what was Zarek to him? Someone, the first someone, besides his little girl, who had been able to inspire love in him since his wife had died, and you know what? This someone was also a constant source of irritation.

Rook was somehow deeply in love with the man, but like so many other things, he refused to acknowledge it. What would be better, for Jamie to think he was in a real relationship...and...not a with her mother? Replacing her mother?

No, that wasn't it! It was different damn it! But diddn't it seem like it? Wasn't that what everyone would think and say?

Or would it be easier to pretend to be just fucking around ?

Besides, he had no idea if Zarek felt the same way, Rook knew Zarek cared for him? but loved him? He had yet to give any indication.

Both situations, true and fake were painful for his daughter, who had been haunted for a good part of her life, by a phantom she had never known, would never know.

He made himself calm down however, they were moving on, that was what counted, but he had a feeling that for tonight at least, any intimidate activities would have to be put off untill until he could look at Zarek's eyes without wanting to slap him around a little.

He was stunned by the quick progression in which it all changed on him at once, Wow. that was easy.

Look almost limp for a moment, not knowing what to do with himself as his anger cleared, for a moment he looked a little embarassed and then accepting he sat down, but with a final word:

"I don't want to hear you two talking to eachother that way again."

It sounded almost weak, but he diddn't care. It was true, and if he did then they could expect another 'tirade' from him, perhaps even fifty more if that's what it took.

He hesitated and then leaned forward, kissing his daughter on the cheek, and simultaneously squeezing the tiger's hand. "I for care you both too much, it would drive me batshit insane".