Well, this is it, Part 5 of the ongoing saga that is "Where Do You 
Start."  Thought I'd given up on it, didn't you?

This one is dedicated to  fanfic archivers everywhere, but especially 
to Susan Howe for her help, suggestions and encouragement (and 
patience --  I didn't trash it after all, Suze! <G>)  Yes, of course 
you may archive it.

So without further ado,


The Future (Real?) Adventures of Jonny Quest

Where Do You Start 5: 
Intermission
by Winnie Lim


I'm going to die.  

A crushing, inky blackness drowned him, filling his nostrils and
choking him.  He couldn't move his arms or legs.  The raw, metallic
taste of blood was thick in his mouth. 

"Is anybody in here?"  a voice called in Russian.

Yes!  he wanted to shout, I'm here!  I'm in here!  But his throat was
full of dust, his mouth too dry.

"No one is here.  Let's move on," the voice said, moving away.  

No!  Come back!  

Again his body betrayed him, refusing to give voice to his mind's
frantic cries.  Come back!

"Jon?"

A hand was shaking his shoulder, a voice calling his name.  He grabbed
the hand and held on for dear life.

"Jon!  JONNY!!"

His eyes snapped open at that, and came to focus on a pair of anxious
blue-green eyes.  He blinked hard, disoriented.  Where was he?  What
was he doing here?  More importantly, what was Jessie doing here?

He felt Jessica's cool hand on his brow, and heard her voice saying,
"Jon?  Are you okay?"  

Jon nodded, his throat still dry with dream-remembered dust. Jessica
ruffled his hair and knelt silently by him as he took a deep,
shuddering breath and let it out, swallowing hard. 

"I'm fine," he managed to get out at last.  "I'm fine."  He realized
he was still clutching her hand in a bone-crushing grip, and loosed
his hold.  "Sorry."

"It's okay," she said, still sounding worried.  "I owe you for
Colombia."

Jon smiled wryly, remembering those tense days leading up to Estella's
wedding.  He looked around, and found that he was sitting up, his back
against the sofa.  A rumpled blanket lay on the cushions.  

"Bad dream?"  he heard Jessie say.

Jon nodded again.  "Yeah.  Did I wake you up?"  He remembered laying
her on the sofa after she had fallen asleep while they were watching
the storm, and then sitting by her -- just to watch her sleep, he now
recalled sheepishly.  You'd make a terrible watchdog, Jonny Quest.

Jessica shook her head.  "The storm woke me.  I thought it was worse,
so I went to check the weathernets.  There's a tropical storm off the
coast; the Coast Guard is recommending that everybody move further
inland."

"Okay," Jon said, getting to his feet.  "I'll meet you outside."

Jessica gathered her things and went into the front hall.  Jon was
standing on the porch, looking out into the rain.

"There's no way you're getting that U-Haul out in this kind of
weather!" Jessica shouted over the storm from behind him.

"I know!" Jon replied, walking back to her.  "I'll get somebody to
pick it up later.  But I'll still have to unhitch it from the car." 
He placed his hands on her shoulders.  "You go ahead.  I'll meet you
at the airport."

"But -"

"I want you out of here before the hurricane hits," Jon told her. 
"Please, Jess, just go.  I'll see you in an hour, I promise."

He was being overprotective again, but his logic was (she admitted
reluctantly) sound.  She nodded.

"Okay," she said, and kissed him fiercely.

He held the umbrella over her as she went out to the car.

"Half an hour.  Then I come looking for you," she told him.

"You got it," he yelled back, shutting the door.  He stood back and
watched as she backed carefully out of the driveway and vanished into
the driving rain.

Then he set to work unhitching the trailer.


Jessica searched the crowd anxiously.  Miami International Airport was
crowded, almost to capacity; incoming and outgoing flights were
delayed indefinitely because of the weather.  Every available seat was
filled.  The airport staff had tried to improve the situation by
providing folding chairs, but those had quickly run out.  Small knots
of people and luggage were scattered all over the floor of the waiting
lounge.  

Jessica was leaning against a wall across from the front entrance. 
She checked her watch, and sighed.  Twenty minutes had gone by.  She
was tempted to rush back out into the rain, but no - she had promised
Jon she would wait.  "Ten minutes more, Quest," she said to herself. 

Across the lounge was a group of young people chattering animatedly;
college students, by the look of them.  Probably on spring break,
Jessica thought.  Someone in the group had a guitar, and the group
would occasionally break into song.  At the moment they were singing
"Raindrops Keep Falling On My Head."  Jessica smiled absently, still
scanning the incoming crowd.

At last she saw him.  His clothes were dripping and his hair was
plastered to his head, but he was there.

She ran up to him just as he saw her.  He enveloped her in a squishy
hug.

"Umbrella blew away," she half-heard him say.  "Do you have any idea
how hard it is to unhitch a trailer in the rain?"

"I think I can imagine," she said, releasing him long enough to pull a
towel out of her duffel and hand it to him.  "Have you got a change of
clothes?"

"I did," he replied, dropping his soaked duffel on the floor.  He
poked it with his toe and made a face as water squelched from its
seams.

"Ugh," Jessica agreed.  She looked around.  "Well, maybe we can get
you something from one of the gift shops."

"Oh no," he said quickly.  "No way.  Jessie..."  But she was already
leading him to one of the small duty-free stores that lined the
waiting area.

Fifteen minutes later he emerged from the dressing room dressed in a
Miami Dolphins T-shirt and a pair of black Bermuda shorts with "GO
DOLPHINS!" emblazoned down the legs.

"I look like a tourist," he complained as Jessica surveyed him.

"You look perfectly fine," she assured him, trying very hard not to
laugh.  "But if it makes you feel better..."  She reached over to a
nearby rack and picked up a baseball cap shaped like a dolphin's head,
with blue fabric "waves" cascading down the sides.  Jamming it over
her auburn hair, she said, "There.  Now we match."  Jon had to smile
as he handed the sales clerk his credit card.

They wandered over to the flight status board to check on their
respective flights.  

Jon read down the board.  "Your flight... delayed.  Flights to
Virginia... delayed.  Any flight out of here... delayed."

"I see a pattern forming here," Jessica commented wryly.

"Well, I'll go ahead and buy a ticket anyway," Jon shrugged.  "The
storm can't last forever."

The transaction was quickly completed at one of the automatic ticket
machines.  The planes weren't going anywhere soon, but that didn't
stop the airlines from selling seats.  

"Any idea when flights will resume?" Jessica asked a lone attendant on
duty at one of the airline counters.

"Could be three hours, could be three days," the attendant said.  "It
depends on the weather."

Jon turned to Jessica and shrugged.  "Maybe we should try to get a
room somewhere close by.  There's no way we're going anywhere in this
storm."
 . . .

"Hi, I need two rooms for the night."  Jon listened intently at his
cell phone.  "Okay, one room.  Half a suite?  A broom closet?
...hello?"  He punched the disconnect key in frustration.  "That's the
last of the hotels in this area.  Any luck?"

Jessica shook her head, her expression matching Jon's.  "Looks like
everyone's got the same idea," she said.

Jon forced a cheerful grin.  "Well, we've been stranded in airports
before."

"And train stations," Jessica added. 

"And deserts," Jon said, picking up his duffel and taking her hand.

"And underwater caverns," Jessica went on, walking beside him.

"And underwater laboratories," he teased her.  

"I seem to recall	that your voice was pitched an octave higher than
usual," she twitted him back.

"I seem to remember you looked pretty hot in that wetsuit," he
retorted, grinning as a blush crept into her cheeks.  They settled for
the first empty space they saw, on the floor by the window, sandwiched
between an elderly couple and a family with two young children. 

"Oh, was that why your voice was pitched so high?" she said, waiting
for him to dust off the space.

"Maybe," he replied evasively, sitting down and pulling her down
beside him.

"Well, we're not underwater now, but we may as well be," Jessica
sighed.  They could hear the wind and rain lashing the building.  

An uprooted tree went sailing by a nearby window.  "Tree," Jessica
commented.

"Car," Jon replied as a '98 Toyota was overturned in the parking lot
below and carried a few feet.

Jessica's eyes grew wide.  "Incoming!!!" she yelled as a large object
came flying at the window.  Jon instantly pushed her to the floor and
shielded her body with his own as the object hit the window with a
tremendous WHUMP.  A few people screamed, but the window held.

"Glasteel," Jon said, looking back up.  It was one of his father's
patented inventions.

"Whew," was Jessica's only reply.  Then she laughed.

"And the punchline is...?" Jon prompted.

"You sure know how to show a girl a good time," Jessica said.

"That might explain why I haven't had a date in six months," Jon
replied.

"You always take girls out to hurricanes?"

"Only the ones I really like," Jon said, his eyes twinkling as he put
an arm around her.

She kissed him lightly and leaned against his side.  They sat in
silence for a while, and then she turned.  "Do you want to talk about
it?"

"What?"

"Your nightmare," she said.  He started to shake his head, but she
caught his chin and looked into his eyes. "Jon, I've seen you having
bad dreams, but I've never seen you so freaked out before.  It scared
me."

Jon sighed, and shut his eyes.  "Kazakstan."

"Something else you didn't tell me about," Jessica said lightly.  "Go
on."

"Two years ago, the government called us in to help catch a bomber. 
He'd -- _she'd_ blown up a few buildings in downtown Soltustik.  I
went down to the latest bomb site to check out the damage.  What we
didn't know was that there was another bomb in there."

Jessica's hand flew up to her mouth.  

"It brought the rest of the building down on top of us.  I was trapped
in an air pocket under a concrete block.  Took fifteen hours to dig us
out."  Jon paused.  "I was lucky, I just broke an arm.  But four
police officers were killed.  One of them was standing less than two
feet from me."  

A chill went up Jessica's spine. Aside from that one disastrous and
ill-timed breakdown at the Verne laboratory those many years before,
she had always managed to keep her mild claustrophobia well under
control.  Under control or just hidden?  she wondered. The thought of
Jon trapped in a tiny dark space with no way to escape and the air
rapidly running out...

"Why what?"  Jon asked her.  She hadn't realized that she had said it
out loud.  She took a deep breath.

"Why do you do it, Jon?" she said softly.  "Why do you keep going back
into danger again and again?"

"Because somebody has to," Jon replied without hesitation.

"I know, but --"  She stopped, searching for the right words.  Taking
a deep breath, she asked, "Why does that somebody always have to be
you?"   

Jon opened his mouth to retort "It's my job," but stopped.  Truth be
told, he wasn't sure why he always went for the most dangerous
missions.  The others often reminded him that he really ought to
delegate more often; Ray Larson had pointed out that Admiral Bennett
could easily whistle up a troop of Special Forces any time they were
needed.

"Because I don't trust anyone else to do it right," he said at last. 

"But you like it," Jessica pointed out.

Jon nodded reluctantly.  He couldn't deny that he loved the rush of
adrenaline that accompanied the more hazardous parts of his work.  He
looked fearfully at Jessica, afraid that he would see disapproval in
her eyes.  

Instead, he saw understanding.  And, not far behind, a certain
wistfulness.

"I miss those days," she said quietly.  A small smile formed on her
lips.  "Some mornings I wake up expecting - hoping - to see some
unfamiliar tropical landscape outside my window.  Then I see the
Houston skyline, and I'm almost disappointed."

"I didn't know that," Jon said.  "I thought you were happy in
Houston."

"I was!  I am," Jessica said.  "It's just - "  She looked at him, and
smiled ruefully.  "I can't explain it."

"You, my dear, need a vacation," Jon told her.  "You haven't taken a
day off since you started Bannon Tech."

"Is that an invitation?"  Jessica asked, lifting an eyebrow.

"How does a weekend in New England sound?"

"Perfect," Jessica smiled.

"Now all we need to do is coordinate our schedules," Jon sighed.

"Oh. Yes. That."  Jessica's face fell.  She dug her electronic
organizer out of her backpack.  "How about..."  She scrolled down her
calendar.  "The 15th?"

Jon pulled out a tattered daybook from his backpack, flipped through
it, and shook his head.  "No good.  I'll be in - Europe.  How about
Memorial Day?"

"Big meeting with our Philippines office," Jessica said.  "The weekend
after that?"

"Annual briefing in D.C."  Jon riffed quickly through the page.  "Are
you free in June?"

Jessica snapped her organizer shut.  "This is ridiculous."  She
plucked the daybook out of Jon's fingers, shut it, and shoved a
business card between a random pair of pages.  "Whenever this is,
we'll agree to make time to spend together."

Jon nodded.  "Okay."  Jessica opened the daybook, and they both looked
at the date.  Jessica blinked, and Jon swallowed.  

"I suppose I could get Ray to fill in for me at the Quantico lecture
series," Jon said slowly.  

"And I'm sure no one would mind if I postponed that teleconference
meeting,"  Jessica said.  "It'll take some rescheduling, but I think I
could pull it off."  She smiled.  "After all, I am the boss."

Jon smiled back.  "So it's settled then.  I'll see you in four weeks."

"Agreed."  Jessica held out a hand.  "Let's shake on it."  They shook
hands firmly.

"It'll be nice to see Rockport again,"  Jon mused, putting his arm
around Jessica as she leaned on his shoulder.

"We had some good times there," Jessica replied.  Although the Quest
team had relocated back to Palm Key after the destruction of the Maine
mansion, Benton Quest had decided to build a summer retreat on the
Rockport property.  That, after all, had been its original function.  

"We could take a sail up to Nova Scotia," Jon said, a mischievous look
on his face.

"And hopefully crash into a foggy island?"  Jessica's eyes twinkled as
she slid her arms around his neck.

"You drive," Jon smiled.

"I'll remember you said that," Jessica replied.

The crackle of the PA system drew their attention.  "Ladies and
gentlemen, may I have your attention," a tired-sounding voice said. 
"We have just received word from the National Weather Station that
Tropical Storm Larry has bypassed Miami and is now dissipating in the
Gulf of Mexico.  Folks, we've seen the worst of it."  A muted cheer
went up from the crowd.  "Flights will resume as soon as the rain
allows.  Please refer to the schedules for further flight
information."

The students struck up a rousing chorus of "Fly Me To The Moon" as
several people got to their feet and surged to the flight schedules.  

"Well," Jon said.

"Well."  Jessica lowered her eyes, and raised them again, with a shaky
smile.  "Looks like someone approves."

"Yeah,"  Jon replied.  He helped her to her feet and they joined the
crowd.

Jessica's flight was departing in an hour.  Jon's was due to leave two
hours later.  The time flew by quickly, and all too soon they were
standing at the gate. 

"Just four weeks," Jon tried to smile.

"I miss you already," Jessica said.

"Me too," Jon replied.  

"Last call for Flight 701," the PA system announced blandly.

"Watch yourself," Jessica said.

"I will," Jon promised.  She reached up and kissed him.  He held her
tightly, and released her reluctantly.

The airplane taxied down the runway and lifted off.  Jon watched until
it vanished into the distance.  Then he turned to begin the long trek
to his flight's boarding gate.


To Be Continued...

...but don't hold your breath.;)
Winnie


© 1997 Winnie Lim