Jacklyn Baker (called_jack) wrote in the_colony, @ 2010-06-10 18:15:00 |
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Entry tags: | ^ week 09, jacklyn baker, thomas galloway, | jack and tom |
Week Nine - Tuesday
Characters: Jack Baker and Tom Galloway
Location: On the grounds
Summary: Jack and Tom (and Rollo) get to know each other
Rating: G
Jack didn't have anything to do and was spending her time not doing anything. Or rather, she was doing the things she liked to do and didn't have enough time for when she was spending her days in the storeroom. After a long, lazy morning she was outside on her skateboard, taken it easy for the most part. The concrete in the courtyard had enough room for her. She'd ollie occasionally or jump so that she could push her deck off the edge of one the benches. Nothing too major but when a dog cut across her path, she had to jump from the board, taking a few stumbling steps as the deck rolled away. "Whoah! Where'd you come from?"
Rollo just barked at her, tail wagging happily as he sniffed the girl. So far he'd had all kinds of people to play with since they'd come to the new place, which was much more fun than just him and his pack leader. Maybe she'd want to play too.
"Sorry about that," Tom called out as he came after to collect his dog. "He sees someone new and he has to come see if they want to play. So much for being a guard dog."
"That's okay. I like dogs and I don't need guarding." Jack held out a hand for the dog to sniff, then reached out and stroked his head. "I know you. You're new," she told his owner.
"That I am," Tom told the teenager with a smile. "Tom Galloway, and that's Rollo," he pointed to the dog, who proceeded to lick Jack's hand.
"Jack Baker." She smiled at the dog kisses. "Hi, Rollo. You're lucky I didn't run you over."
"He's faster than you'd think." Tom shook his head at his dog. "I think he was aiming to knock you over and lick your face until you cried uncle."
Jack shrugged. "Rocky's just about as big as I am so I'm used to it." She stepped away from the dog to go and pick up her skateboard. "We don't have any girl dogs. No puppies."
"Rollo's not fixed," Tom's tone was wry as he watched the teenager go and get (his? hers? he should know, he'd been a parent, but he wasn't sure.) skateboard. "I'm sure if there's a nice girl dog running around somewhere he'll find out about her in due time."
"Better Rollo than Rocky," Jack offered. "Jed doesn't want puppies."
"I don't mind," the veteran shrugged. "We're going to need dogs for all sorts of things again over the next couple years. Hopefully he finds a nice shepherd breed to have pups with, they'd be more useful if they already have the instincts bred into them." Why he was having this conversation with a kid who was barely into their teens he had no idea.
"So Jack, what do you do around here?"
"Skateboard," she grinned. Jack had enough sense not to start talking to someone new about not doing inventory anymore. That wasn't something that had to be told to people she didn't know. "What do you do?"
"I'm helping Jed upgrade the security around here for now, after that we'll see." Tom told the teen.
Jack nodded like she had any idea what that meant. "How's it upgraded? We've been okay so far."
"You've been lucky," Tom told the kid bluntly. "At the moment anyone could stroll in here from a dozen different directions and you'd never know until they were right on top of you. The first thing we'll do is make sure that can't happen anymore."
Jack's eyes widened and she couldn't help but look around a little. "Oh."
"Don't worry, a few days from now we'll have that taken care of and odds are no bad guys are going to come around between now and then," Tom assured Jack, catching the apprehension in the teen's eyes.
"I'm not worried." She raised her chin the way she did when she wanted to look tough.
"That's the spirit, kid," Tom nodded in approval. He whistled at Rollo, who dutifully returned to his master's side.
Jack set her skateboard back on the ground and stepped up on to it, not going anywhere, just balancing. "You know stuff about security?" she asked.
"I do," Tom replied. "I worked at it for the last few years, nothing like this though."
Of course not like this. Nothing had ever been like this before. "Well, yeah."
"I mean, I've set up secured perimeters before and everything," Tom waved a hand around to indicate the suites, "but that was different." Again, why was he talking about this to a kid barely into their teens? He pondered that for a moment and decided that whatever Jack was, an ordinary child wasn't it, none of the kids were. "But I've got plenty of material to work with, so we're good to go."
She nodded. "I know my way around here pretty good, if you need help." Not like she had much else going on now.
"Probably take you up on that," He nodded. "More folks we got working on it the faster things will go up."
"Yeah." Jack wondered if Searle was done working and stepped off her skateboard, kicking it up into her hands. "I'm gonna go look for Searle. But it was nice to meet you. And Rollo," she added, reaching out to rub the dog's ears.
"Nice meeting you too, Jack." Tom responded as Rollo's tail thumped on the ground from Jack's scratching. "See you around." He started back toward the suites, Rollo trotting beside him.