Aberrant: Dead Rising - Reminiscing

[Jasmine Gentian]

May 12th, 2007 - 6:15 p.m.

Jasmine lay stretched out on her stomach in the private area of the tent. Hana and Pumpkin were off playing and enjoying the freedom of getting to roam around the refuge while it was still available to them. While they knew there would be advantages to being on the road, they were wise enough to realize that there would be some trade-offs too, and limited access to areas free and clear of zombies or other dangers was one of the disadvantages they knew they'd be facing soon enough.

Bond had been out and about the refuge as well, and Jasmine had taken the opportunity to pull out one of the few items she had bothered saving from her home in Dallas - a photo album. She was paging thoughtfully through the pictures when Bond stepped into the tent. She glanced up at him and smiled slightly, her attention pulled towards the the handsome profile highlighted by the square of light from the sun as it was setting. She studied him for a moment, then a wry smile tugged at the corner of her lips and she pulled herself up into a sitting position.

"So.. I didn't have a chance to tell you yesterday but.. I'm sorry for hitting you with a whammy like that."

[Fox]

"Don't be." He shook his head as he stepped through the 'living' area of the tent and joined Jasmine in the private area, peeling off his brown leather jacket and dropping it onto a camp chair as he passed. Sitting down beside her, Bond leaned in for a soft kiss before smiling, a trace of embarassment in his pale eyes. "It was really my own fault. I could have asked... should have asked on a number of occasions. But it kept slipping my mind." His smile turned into a wicked grin. "Mainly because my mind was on other things."

His chuckle joined her giggle as he slipped an arm around her waist and drew her close, kissing her again before turning his attention to the album in Jasmine's hands. His eyes returned to her face, studying it gently. "Visiting some old memories?"

[Jasmine Gentian]

She giggled softly even as he pressed his lips to hers, then glanced down at the album and smiled faintly.

"Yeah, a bit. Cause of that, actually. I got to thinking about it, and.. well, I've never had that happen before. Someone thinking I was older than I really am."

She picked up the album and flipped through a couple pages. It was Christmas in these pictures, typical American family scenes. Women cooked and men played football out in the dry, snow-free Texas backyard. Children open presents and caused mischief, and all in all everyone seemed to be having a wonderful time. The date written in the margins was December 25th, 2004 - two years prior to the most recent Christmas, the one that probably no one alive had bothered to celebrate. The only thing out of place was Jasmine's appearance. She had obviously been sick when this picture was taken - her hair was fairly short, it didn't quite hang to her chin in these pictures and she wore it clipped back to keep it from looking too unflattering in the wildness that seemed to result from the length. She was thin in these images too, so thin that her cheekbones stood out sharply in her cheeks and her eyes seemed too large for her face. Her figure seemed fairly shapeless under her clothes, and he could even make out the cords in her neck, though she'd obviously tried to hide them with a turtleneck sweater. The girl in the picture didn't look any older than twelve or thirteen, though from his calculations she would have been fifteen when they were taken. It was a far cry from the beautiful young woman in his arms, full of life and vigor and strength.

She watched his expression quietly, and though it remained inscrutable her lips curved slightly at the corners of her mouth for she knew how drastic the difference was.

"You can see why. I guess I'm not use to looking so.. healthy."

[Fox]

Bond studied the pictures intently, noting the painful thinness and the large dark eyes in one particular photograph. The younger Jasmine was staring out of the photo with a smile on her face, caught in mid-laugh at something someone had said or done. He looked from the picture to the girl next to him and smiled.

"I suppose not." he said with a wry quirk of his lips. "It's not really the way you look that led me to not question your age, though. It's your self-possession, your maturity from the first time I saw you under pressure." His smile turned teasing. "Even if you were such a terrible judge of character that you believed I'd gun down a mob of brainwashed sheep." He looked down at the pictures again, his smile fading a little.

"So what was it that you had?" he asked her quietly.

[Jasmine Gentian]

She smiled a bit wryly at his comment as she glanced up at him, and shrugged lightly.

"I suppose character evaluation has never been one of my stronger suits.. maybe you can teach me a bit there, too - I could probably use it, our line of work."

She glanced back down at the pictures and reached over, her fingertips brushing lightly over the picture he was gazing at. It was of her and her older brother, Takota - she remembered the moment, Takota had brought home a friend from college for the holidays. He had been attractive - Jasmine remembered wishing she had been just a little older, and a lot healthier. As it was he didn't give her a second glance, and she remembered not blaming him, no matter how much it had bothered her. After all, none of the boys at her school had ever paid any attention to her in her condition either. But he'd had plenty of hilarious stories to tell, so Jasmine had done her best to enjoy his company and have a good time anyway, even if it was only as the little sister of his best college buddy.

"Leukemia. I was diagnosed when I was twelve. It went into remission for awhile, but then it came back and I had to go through another round of chemotherapy. I had just started it when Z-Day happened... I was at the hospital, in fact. I suppose in a sick kind of way.. Z-Day saved my life. I might not have made it that through that time."

[Fox]

"I'm glad you did." he said mildly as he kissed her forehead, then glanced down at the photo album, turning over a few more pages and studying each photograph as though committing it to memory. "I don't carry many reminders of who I used to be." he said out of the blue, and Jasmine was sure she detected a note of wistfulness there. Bond glanced at her and shrugged.

"Oh, I carry my old driver's license and passport so people will believe that a guy can actually be called James Bond. But I don't carry any emotional reminders." He looked back at the page, his pale gaze pensive. "I think that's because the Jim Bond on the passport photo was ready to die when he got the Z virus. He had killed someone he loved very much, and was at a stage where he had no will to live. In an emotional sense, that Bond did die." He really sounded as though he were speaking of a different person, which in a sense Jasmine supposed he was.

"And when I woke up, I had this clear, chilly precise mind that was able to shut off grief and regret. Strange, really. I wasn't just altered to survive outside threats, but also altered so that I would not be a threat to myself." He grinned a little crookedly.

[Jasmine Gentian]

"...I kind of think that's how it worked. I mean.. I haven't had the chance to talk to everyone. But.. from the stories I've heard.. it's almost like we became what we had to become.. or maybe what it seemed to our subconscious minds, in whatever those last few moments were, that we needed to become.. it's like.. the virus took our weaknesses and somehow turned them into our strengths."

She closed the photo album and set it aside gently. Then she turned back to him, reaching up and brushing her fingertips gently across his cheek as she gazed into those unfathomable, ice-blue eyes.

"What about the rest of it? You're.. so hard to read, Jim. When I said I was eighteen, it was the first big reaction I've really gotten out of you." Her lips twitched wryly, the corners of her lips turning into a brief smile. "Save lust, I suppose. That one's pretty obvious. And I guess I didn't see your face the moment Myfwany delivered the news, since you were eavesdropping outside the door and all."

She reached up and, ever so softly, she ran her fingertips through his hair, and drew in a deep breath, looking a bit nervous.

"You seemed happy, when she told us. But.. I just want to make sure you're not.. I mean.. I'm not asking you to tell me you love me or anything, you barely know me. I just want to know.. is this just.. business, or.. an obligation to you now, or.. more? We.. we talked about what's safest, and the risks, and the challenges. The only thing we haven't talked about is.. how we feel. A partner and a fling is.. a lot different than an instant family. This is hardly what you originally offered."

She gazed up at him, trying hard not to look vulnerable. But she hadn't been around him long enough to have learned to hide it very well yet, and she certainly didn't have his preternatural ability to shut it off. He could see it in her wide brown eyes, in the way she flicked her tongue nervously over her lips to moisten them and the way she held her breath - whether she needed it or not it, was still a habit she kept up most of the time.

[Fox]

"You're right." Bond replied after a long moment during which his pale eyes were distant and thoughtful. "This is more than I originally had in mind." He focused on her soft brown gaze and smiled, that same roguish smile he'd been wearing when he'd first spoken to her, deftly holding Gabrielle's struggling father and threatening to tie him up with his own unmentionables and introducing himself as though they were in some swanky bar rather than in a crowd of hysterical zealots wailing over their dead leader.

"But no plan survives exposure to the real world. I was attracted to you for a number of reasons, and though I didn't plan on our 'fling' leading anywhere serious, I'm not complaining. And my face when I overheard Myfwany..." The faint smile became a grin. "Well, my first impulse was to laugh out loud. But I didn't want to give it away to the others that were waiting out there." He cupped her face in his palms, still smiling.

"Though it's not what I bargained for originally, I'm enjoying this sense of family. You, Pumpkin, Hana. It fulfills a part of me that I've been mostly living without. And it feels good." He shrugged, then kissed her gently. "I'm happy with this."

[Jasmine Gentian]

She smiled, and kissed him gently in return. She seemed comforted by his response, in a way that only someone in the naive blush of first love could be, without question or argument. It was one of the few times she seemed almost as young to him as he now knew she really was, if only for the lack of cynicism that always seemed to accompany prior heartbreak.

She laid her head against his chest then - she was so physically tough that it was easy to forget how small she really was, short enough for him to be able to rest his chin on her head. For a few moments there was comfortable silence between them. But eventually other thoughts intruded and she began to speak, her voice quiet but serious.

"I won't lie, Jim. I want to go looking.. at least one last time. I know it's probably a stupid goose chase. I know the chances are.. slim. Almost non-existent. I'd like to go anyway, to my Aunt Ruby's farm. Just to see. We could gather on the way, see what the southwest has to offer. But.. if we can't.. if we need to head somewhere else, to check your stores, or whatever else needs to be done.. I understand. This isn't just about me anymore. We have a full group to think about."