Jack awoke, turned his head to smile at his sleeping beloved, and then gently got out

  of bed. He dressed in some sweats and headed upstairs. He wanted to exercise a bit

  before checking in at the hospital.

  When he got back, he would get a breakfast going for the lot of them before having

  the Enterprise beam them up and then beam them down at their designated starting

  point.

  That was how long Budd and Case had to get to the Hole in the Wall and join them.

  After that, they would be on their own in the city.

  Jack went through his laps and lifted some weights before sending a message to Mister

  Warner that the Hangar would be closed, but he should still be able to use the gate to

  get to the hospital, or the Hole in the Wall from the Village.

  The older champion should still be able to open the gate to the Hangar with his watch

  if he was inclined, but he should know assistance would be out of reach without an

  effort.

  Jack cleaned up and donned some clean clothes. He had to get on with his check so

  he could get the rest of his day moving along.

  “Jack?,” asked Elaine. She stood at the door of the bathroom, hands clasped in front

  of her. “Are you going already?”

  “Would you like to come with me?,” said Jack. “I am just going to talk to Duncan about

  his back, and then coming back to fix breakfast.”

  “I’ll get breakfast started, and the others ready to go,” said Elaine. She smiled. “I don’t

  think I have really walked through the woods.”

  “We’ll have to set our tent up to be soundproofed so the girls can’t hear me at night,”

  said Jack.

  “I doubt there is enough of that in the world,” said Elaine. She smiled. “I’m surprised

  they can’t hear you through the elevator.”

  “The doors stop that,” said Jack. He grinned at her. “I’m lucky to have met you.”

  “I know,” said Elaine. “Go about your business. I have a covey of cats to herd before

  you get back.”

  “I can build us a separate place if you want,” said Jack.

  “Is that how things are done in your world?,” asked Elaine.

  “It depends,” said Jack. “Some families stay together in one neighborhood for

  generations.”

  “What do you want?,” asked Elaine. “Don’t say whatever I want. Just tell me.”

  “I don’t have any ambitions,” said Jack. “This job that I do is to protect the world and

  nearby spaces if you count the elves. What good is that if I didn’t have someone like

  you to keep me on the straight and narrow? I don’t mind having a bunch of adoptees

  around if you don’t. If you want to set up a farm of your own, I would do that in a

  minute. Mostly I want to spend the rest of my life with you and watch burning unicorns

  fall from the skies. And when we have kids, we can trust Matilda and Aviras to watch

  over them when we’re busy.”

  “I think Aviras would love to show our children how to set things on fire,” said Elaine.

  “I know,” said Jack. He smiled. “Would you like to grow old with a poor harmless

  burner of unicorns?”

  “I don’t think I have ever heard anything so outlandish before,” said Elaine. “Would you

  like to grow old with someone like me?”

  “Someone who is practically perfect in every way?,” said Jack. “Yes.”

  “I wouldn’t say that about me,” said Elaine. She smiled.

  “Do you know how many women I have courted?,” asked Jack. He put on his serious

  face. “There have been lots. Do you know how many Josie and June approved of after

  one meeting? None. You are the first woman I have ever talked to that they both liked

  on sight. They are the pickiest women ever, especially Josie, and they both said this

  woman is good enough to date my friend-slash-brother. That has almost never

  happened. Finding you was like finding a stack of gold and gems with an Easter bunny

  on top. It just doesn’t happen. Now give me a hug, don’t curse me for leaving you alone

  with the monsters, and I will be back as soon as I get done with this check.”

  “Easter bunny?,” asked Elaine. She hugged Jack, burying her face in his shoulder.

  “It’s a rabbit that lays eggs,” said Jack. He wrapped his arms around her. He kissed the

  top of her head. When she looked up, he kissed her long enough to wish he didn’t have

  an old man waiting to die in a building across the city from where he lived.

  “I have to go,” said Jack, pulling back. “Otherwise, we will be trying to make our kids

  right now instead of doing what we have to do.”

  “I find that acceptable,” said Elaine. She smiled. “I will face a hundred witches for

  one more kiss like that.”

  So Jack kissed her again.

  The klaxon of the gate went off. They both looked up.

  “Emily and Caroline?,” asked Elaine.

  “I better go see,” said Jack. “They might be letting the boyfriends in before I have had

  my morning coffee.”

  “Before Josie has had her morning coffee,” said Elaine.

  “It’s not my problem if one of them is skinned alive,” said Jack. He gave her a kiss on

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  the cheek. He separated and went to the door, to cross the foyer, to go upstairs.

  “I will be up as soon as I dress,” said Elaine.

  “If only you didn’t have to,” said Jack. “Let me see what’s going on.”

  He left the room and headed upstairs. He stepped out of the elevator on the top floor.

  The gate was open. He didn’t see anyone on his side of it.

  “Hello?,” he asked.

  “It’s me, Jack,” said Boim Russ from her side of the gate. “I was wondering if I could

  visit.”

  “Sure,” said Jack. “I have to conduct some business in the city, but Elaine is getting

  ready for the day. Come ahead.”

  Boim Russ stepped through. A bruise covered her cheek. The eye on that side of her

  face was swollen closed. She had a new sword hanging from her hip. She had twisted

  her hair into a braid and tied it off into a bun at the back of her head.

  “What happened?,” asked Jack.

  “I had a run-in with the local toughs,” said Boim. She shrugged. “They want June and

  me to move out of the house we took.”

  “Really?,” asked Jack. “Do me a favor and go downstairs to the general room. Elaine

  should be getting the kids ready for our excursion. Josie didn’t send you a letter, did

  she?”

  “No,” said Russ.

  “We are going out on a walkabout,” said Jack. “I have to see to someone in the hospital

  before we go. You’re welcome to go with us. Have Josie or Bea look at your face. They

  can work on that until I get back. What do you want to do about this?”

  “I don’t know,” said Russ. “I hurt some of them enough that they fled.”

  “Think about it,” said Jack. “Talk it over with Josie and Elaine. I will be glad to go over

  and do something to these guys.”

  “I should stand on my own two feet,” said Russ.

  “We don’t know when June is coming back,” said Jack. “I think she won’t mind if I

  loose the Ear Ripper on people who deserve her. You’re almost a Duckling now. How

  would it look that we let one of our own get bullied. Go talk to Elaine, figure out what

  you want to do, and then we will see about getting it done.”

  “Loose the Ear Ripper?,” said Russ. She smiled at that.

  “I have been known to make people miserable,” said Jack. “Josie makes them scared.

  Go ahead. Tell Josie I am thinking about swinging by with the Enterprise and showing

  people how I like to do things.”

  “I don’t think she will find that acceptable,” said Russ.

  “She’s not my mother, Seven,” said Jack. He grinned. He waved at her to go ahead. “If

  she was, I would be a lot more afraid of her.”

  He put his hand on the trigger plate, and then tapped in the number for the hospital. He

  stepped through the gate to the hospital. He waved at some of the nurses he knew by

  sight if not by name as he walked to the elevator. A button push and a short ride took

  him to Duncan’s floor. He walked down to the room and found Gwyneth sitting in a

  chair by the window while Duncan laid in bed.

  “Morning,” said Jack. “Breakfast yet?”

  “No,” said Gwyneth. “The lady in charge of the floor said they would bring something

  by when they fed everyone.”

  “Go ahead to the cafeteria,” said Jack. “We’re heading out of town again, and I want to

  make sure Duncan will be all right until we get back. He should be okay, but I would

  rather check before we’re away than come back and see that there are problems.”

  “He will be all right?,” asked Gwyneth.

  “If he isn’t, Josie will be mad,” said Jack. “And I am not letting her get mad at me. Go

  ahead, get something to eat, walk around the building. By the time you come back, I

  will have done my check and be on my way.”

  “I don’t understand why either of you would help us,” said Gwyneth. “We don’t have

  much now that we can’t work as well as we once did.”

  “With great power comes great responsibility,” said Jack. “Just words but I like them.

  Go take care of yourself for a bit. I’ll try to get Duncan where he can go home tomorrow

  instead of sleeping the rest of the week off.”

  “All right,” said the older woman. “Thank you. Thank your Josie for me.”

  He waited for her to leave before changing into Doctor Strange and activating the

  screens he needed. He hummed to himself in satisfaction. He poked Duncan with a

  needle of elixir before letting the persona go.

  He picked up the scanner and used that on his patient. He smiled at the readout. His

  newer medicine was clearing the damage faster than he had thought. Duncan might

  be ready to go home before the sun went down.

  He waited for Gwyneth to come back before he left. He assured her that everything

  looked good, and her husband was on the mend. They should eat what they could,

  and if there was a problem, have Jane call him back to fix it.

  “If you need help getting home,” said Jack. “Tell Eric that I authorized a cart for you

  and Duncan. He will just charge it to us as part of the defense of the hospital.”

  “I will tell Duncan that you helped him when he wakes up,” said Gwyneth. She smiled.

  “He will be so grumpy that Josie was right.”

  “Tell him I had to call the Enterprise to get some lightning for it,” said Jack. “Maybe

  that will cheer him up.”

  “I am sure he will love the idea of it,” said Gwyneth. “But for an actual story, he will

  probably be even grumpier.”

  “He can talk to Josie about that,” said Jack. He grinned at her. “I have to go. I will

  check in with you in a couple of days. I might even make something to eat as a welcome

  home thing.”

  “That would be so nice,” said Gwyneth. “Thank you.”

  “No problem,” said Jack.

  He headed downstairs to the gate. He whistled as he walked through the hospital. He

  had done something good, and that made his heart want to burst open. It wasn’t often

  that he did an unalloyed good deed. Mostly he helped to push people down stairs.

  He put his hand on the plate and dialed for the Hangar. He hoped to still take the

  vacation but he could see Josie wanting to fix Seven’s gang with her head popping

  ways. He wasn’t sure he wanted to stop her either.

  On the other hand, it might be another chance for the Enterprise to practice her

  marksmanship.

  He would love to see another rag doll from someone who deserved it.

  He might even break out into a Disney song at the sight. A Friend Like Me, or Friends

  on The Other Side, tugged for his attention.

  He had no idea what Josie would do. He leaned toward exacting some kind of revenge,

  maybe issuing a stern warning. Whatever happened would be a mess for June to try

  to fix when she got back and started her new job for real.

  He decided to wait and see. If Seven wanted them to step in and lay some torpedoes

  down, he wasn’t exactly going to say no.

  He arrived at the Hangar and took the elevator down to the general quarters floor.

  Elaine probably had the Ducklings ready to go. All he needed was breakfast, and

  he would be ready to shepherd this expedition to the middle of nowhere.

  He found the Ducklings talking bloody vengeance with Seven. He paused, and decided

  to go around the dining table to talk to Elaine if she was on the job in the kitchen. He

  found his beloved, and his friend talking to each other in the kitchen.

  “Emily and Caroline?,” asked Jack.

  “Not here yet,” said Josie. “We were talking about going up and talking to the people

  trying to run Seven and June out of their house. Elaine thinks a firebombing would be

  perfect for this situation. I am slowly agreeing with her.”

  “The Enterprise might need to work on its aim,” said Jack. “The perfect rag doll doesn’t

  flip itself.”

  “Maybe an explosion from orbit is what we need,” said Josie.

  “We’re going to take it easy,” said Jack. “Let’s have breakfast and get Emily and

  Caroline together. And then we are headed to start our walk. When we get back to the

  city, I will go up and look around.”

  “That’s your plan?,” asked Josie.

  “No,” said Jack. “That is my notion before we burn that city down because we want

  Seven and June to succeed. And we can fix anything they do to the house after we’re

  done walking in the wilderness.”

  “I would like to look at the problem first,” said Josie.