Title: Catching Rainbows
Author: Vesper (Regina)
Rating: T, brief violence
Disclaimer: "The X-Files" and "The Lone Gunmen" are property of 20th Century Fox.
Category: Story, Romance, Angst
Keywords: Jimmy Bond, Yves Adele Harlow
Spoilers: Jump the Shark, All About Yves
Summary: Gotta stand still to catch rainbows. Sequel to "Chasing Shadows."
Archival: If you wish to archive, please link to my website.
A/N: Started November 23, 2002, finished March 24, 2003. I hope it was worth the wait :) Although this is mainly a sequel to "Chasing Shadows" it will help greatly if you've also read "Johnny Bravo and the Nagel Woman."
Song credit: "Black and White" by Sarah McLachlan
Blue-eyed boy meets a brown-eyed girl,
oh, oh, oh, the sweetest thing,
you can sew it up but you still see the tear.
Oh, oh, oh, the sweetest thing...
--"The Sweetest Thing" by U2
Prologue
She heard a voice ask, "Has this woman checked in here?" She felt her heartbeat start to thud faster and stopped her quick passage across the stone floor of the small hotel. She knew that voice, had heard it whisper in her dreams for as long she'd been gone. She slowly turned toward the front desk and saw the broad back and dark blond hair of a man she never thought she would see again.
Jimmy.
She didn't wait for the clerk's answer, just turned and walked at a sedate pace to her room, resisting the impulse to hurry, even though she only had a few minutes to gather what she needed, before the knock would come at the door, before he convinced someone to open it. The last thing she needed was to draw attention.
Once in her room she tumbled everything into a large bag she threw onto the bed. She muttered to herself as she stuffed her meager belongings down in the bag, "God, Jimmy, why you, why now, why me?"
Yves thought she'd left that life behind, yet here he was, intruding on the life she couldn't escape, looking for her. Well, he wouldn't find her. He'd find an empty hotel room and an open window. That was all she'd leave him.
Yet an impulse drove her back to the front of the hotel. She couldn't leave just yet, not without at least seeing his face. She sat in the tiny caf┌ across the street and waited to see him leave. She didn't have to wait long.
He came out of the hotel and for twenty seconds she had a clear view of his face. He hesitated in front, before walking away.
He looked fatigued, worn around the edges. She didn't have the time she wanted to absorb the possible meaning of that. She heard a voice, behind her, say, "I should tell your father you're here."
She said, "Go ahead and tattle, Stagle. I'll be gone before you or he can track me."
The man appeared in front of her line of vision and sat down opposite her. He was a tall man with dark hair and a thin, facile mouth that could and was displaying a sardonic twist of a smile.
He said, "I'm just warning you, Lois."
"For what reason? You'd think you would have learned your lesson. Must not have been pretty, when my father found out you let me go."
"The mistake was getting caught. I don't intend to, this time."
"You always were his lapdog." The scorn in her voice didn't seem to affect him.
"And your..." he paused and leaned forward, "what was I to you?"
"A mistake I don't care to repeat, so if you'll excuse me." She stood to go, but hesitated when he said, "I assume you know Abner's latest plans."
"And I assume you know I'll do everything I can to stop him."
He stood up, saying, "Good luck." He walked past her, sweeping a hand along her cheek. "Don't worry, my dear, I won't tell your father you were here."
She cringed back from his touch and set her jaw tightly. She refused to look back at him, even though she heard his soft chuckle as he left.
After that, it was simply a matter of finding information, tracking, and planning. Yet she never expected her plans to bring her back into contact with the four men she'd alternately foiled and helped. When she heard Jimmy shout after her on the campus, she realized she'd sorely underestimated his tenacity.
She didn't want to look at his face, because she knew what she'd find there, so she ran. When the Lone Gunmen found her she knew Jimmy wouldn't be far behind.
He'd changed. The Jimmy she knew before--before--didn't wear this look of having seen too much. The innocence was stripped from his eyes.
She'd done that. She'd done it and though she wished it were possible to take the last year back, to erase the grief in his eyes, she couldn't. Too much had passed since she kissed him goodbye.
She had never understood his eternal optimism, his instinctual trust of people. She didn't understand why he had expended a year of his life, when he could have just let her go. She didn't want to face the truth of what she'd always suspected. So she'd pushed, he'd broken, and she knew she would never be able to mend the damage.
She had no right to lay claim to what he offered, not with her mess of a life, not when she knew he was too good for her. He represented everything her life had never been.
She said all the words that would push him away, deliberate honesty, cruel in its bluntness. Even after all that, he kissed her and she remembered a dark night and knew it was, however unconscious on his part, retribution. The caress of his hand was a burning reproach.
She'd made her choices long ago, planned her life, but watching him leave, dejection visible in his shuffling step and his bent head, her heart still ached for the loss of something she couldn't have.
By the time she reached the street he was nowhere to be seen.
She'd made her choices. This one was irretrievable.