<[EMAIL PROTECTED] and [EMAIL PROTECTED]>

Derek:
"I think that would be a good idea," he said.  His gaze met Julia's again,
but he averted it quickly, starting to get up.  Julia was far too young and
he had no plans of entertaining the emotions he was feeling and had been
feeling for quite a while.  It wasn't fair to her.

Julia:
Julia stood and gently released his hand, only to stick hers in her jean
pockets and start them all toward the first check point, drawing Kat into a
game of I Spy by starting, "I spy with my eye something..... blue."

While Kat looked around and was thinking of the answer Julia walked next to
Derek and mentally sighed, having seen his gaze do that annoying 'close off'
he had had a habit of doing in the past when someone had either pegged a
subject that irked him or when he was closing himself off emotionally toward
the other person.  He would still feel and think about how he felt but it
would be closed off to whoever it was he was talking to... and right now
that someone was her.

She wasn't going to apologize.  Apologizing would mean she was sorry.  And
frankly, she wasn't.  If there was something that death had taught her it
was to more readily accept and experience the good that life gave you, no
matter what it might be.  It was something she had thought she knew before
Ireland but learned more about and first hand since in helping others and
her own experience.

Julia looked up at the sky, the slight breeze around them picking up stray
hairs she brushed from her face as she thought of the past few days, then
looked back at the direction the three were walking in.

She wished Derek had that kind of insight without having to go through it
himself.

Derek:
Derek walked silently beside her tot he check point, where he distracted
himself by looking things over carefully.  It seemed as though everything
was in order.  Now, if he could just get the things in his head back in the
nice stable order he liked to keep, his life would be much easier.  When
Julia let go of his hand, he'd been relieved, but also disappointed.  He'd
never been one to approve of conflicting emotions, so now he was fighting an
inner battle with himself, one he did not particularly want to fight, but
that he knew he must keep in check, like so many other things.  This
however, seemed harder somehow.  He wasn't certain why, as he'd been able to
control these feelings in the past.   What had changed now?  Julia was back,
but she was the same, well mostly the same.

Kat:
"The sky is the only blue thing I see around here," the little girl said
thoughtfully, "well and you eyes too, but YOU can't see those."  She
continued to search around skirting around Derek, he wasn't even wearing any
blue.

Derek:
Derek finished checking and started to head fo the next check point, but
stopped and looked around himself, just out of curiosity.  It also helped
him to keep his mind busy.  As he started towards the next point his line of
sight changed.  Before instead of a path on Angel Island, he saw the bay and
it was the other side, he was certain of that.  Steam rose from it and in
the middle of all the fog stood the slight figure of a young woman.  It was
gone just as quickly as it had come.  And he remembered what Julia had said
about Milo's daughter.  It had to be her, people with that ability were few
and far between the chances of two being in San Francisco at this moment
were slim to none.  He ran a hand through his hair shaking his head slightly
to clear it, before starting on his way again.  He glanced at Julia.  "So,
what is you have her looking for," he asked curiously.

Julia:
Julia had been frowning thoughtfully at the points, making mental notes of
things to add to the security features to upgrade them and then blinked and
smiled at Kat who was still guessing.  At Derek's question she looked up
and, so Kat wouldn't guess and her gaze turned the other way, she moved her
gaze to Kat's dark blue shoes and back to him, her lips quirking as she
stood.

"You know, we could add sensors," she spoke, half suspecting Kat was
listening to see if Julia would actually verbalize the answer, but also
pointing out what she had noticed during their checks of the grounds and
pointing to the high walls and trees surrounding "that can pick up more.  I
mean we have it to where it scans and dismisses animals with the proper DNA,
but not much on... other animal types.  That and I noticed that the system
had been able to be passed in the Control Room and the retinal scan wasn't
ran.  We can upgrade that to include DNA patterns and retinal with the
laser."

"And," she added in a lower tone, having caught the quick distracted and
refocusing expression on his face she had come to recognize as a vision
"What did you see?"

Derek:
Derek chuckled when he realized what Julia had Kat searching for.  He had a
feeling it would be a while before the girl discovered it.  He listened
closely to Julia's suggestions nodding thoughtfully.  "Yes, let's do that,"
he agreed.  He was never one to argue about security.  The the more the
better.  "What exactly will these new sensors show us out here," he asked in
a quizical tone.

As the subject moved to his vision, Derek shrugged slightly.  "Milo's
daughter," he replied in a casual tone. "boiling the bay, better than San
Francisco burning," he added.  "It would seem that is the way she deals with
it."

Julia:
"Well," Julia answered "It'll scan whatever crosses it and compare it to
readings I can put into the computer.  You'd be surprised how many forms
a.." she kept an eye out on Kat as continued to look, at the same time
giving Derek her attention with the subject at hand.  When she saw Kat
wasn't in hearing distance she answered "demon or spirit can come in.  I
think I've lost count of how many I've had to deal with.... and that's
saying something considering our line of work."

"I'll make sure all known living matter is entered into the system and
backup but anything altering that is going to come up as a security check
level one.  Good thing about lasers is that they're practically
instantaneous so we'll also get a reading of what it was that set the alarm
off and be able to cross check it against the records and go from there."

When Derek mentioned Reese Julia chuckled.  There were those times of being
assigned a guardian that called for popcorn and a good laugh "That's not the
only way she relieves it but yeah, she is responsible enough to turn it
where she knows it won't do harm."

"Give up?" she called out to Kat before winking at Derek, thinking Kat had
already looked at every item around them at least once -- except for the one
that had been picked "I think she deserves an ice-cream if she figures this
one out."

Derek:
Derek was impressed and he liked the sound of this.  "How soon can you get
this installed?  I'm sure Lani and Ria can help enter the information into
the system."  He smiled as she spoke about Reese, but then a worried look
crossed his face.  "She's never been trained to conrol it though has she?
It could get away from her at some point when she can't get near the water."
He would have to discuss this with Milo and figure out the best course of
action.

Kat:
"Lilacs don't count right," she called back.  Of course they didn't they
were purple, but that was sort of like blue.  "Derek, do we grow any of
those blue.....carn...carnations," she asked.  Like the ones in the
supermarket flower shops.

Derek:
Derek smiled, "no we don't."  He briefly considered telling her that blue
carnations were really white carnations left in water with blue food
coloring, but decided not ot spoil her illusions.

Kat;
Kat sighed, and looked down at the ground an idea coming to her, it was a
goofy idea, but she was pretty stuck anyway.  "My shoes are blue," she
suggested hopefully.

Julia:
"No, but that's part of why I was assigned to her." Julia admitted "I heard
he was going to go audit her Aunt's house and was going to ask if I could
tag along and help out.  Talk to her a little about it."

Kat asked about the carnations and Julia smiled as they continued to the
next point as Derek answered, then chuckled when Kat guessed the answer
"Your turn, Kit Kat. What do you spy?"

They made it to the next point and Julia knelt to check the hidden post
inside a tree trunk of all places and continued to explain to Derek "I was
going to start up the basic list after we get back in and get Kat some
ice-cream if that's all right with you.  From there the others can just put
in wildcards for the compounds and build from there."

Derek:
"Yes, that's fine," Derek said absently.  Somewhere in the back of his head,
he knew Rachel would not approve of ice cream before dinner, but Kat's sugar
in take was the least of his problems at the moment.  "I'm sure Milo
wouldn't mind you going along.  I'll talk to him this evening, perhaps he
can call and ask Marissa how she feels about that."

Kat:
Kat took the opportunity to describe something large and white.  It was a
sail boat she had seen near the horizon line.  She skipped along ahead of
them as they continued to travel around the property.

Derek:
"It could take awhile to get everything programmed in for the new system,
but I think we should start immediately."  They needed it now.



Reply via email to