Part One

Raymond Karn scowled as he caught sight of the late model Tarsus with Ohio plates parked in front of his house. Pulling into his driveway he watched in the side mirror as Matthew Giles got out of the car and stepped around the pile of snow dusted leaves at the end of the drive. "They have a lot of nerve." He grumbled, then as he realized Matt was alone, a worried thought passed through his mind. "Karen? Where's Karen?" Ray gritted his teeth, grabbed for his briefcase and got out of his Explorer.

"Hey Ray." Matt mumbled with a nod.

In a controlled tone Karn voiced his concern. "Has something happened to Karen?"

Matt shook his head. "Naa, she's okay."

The older man's mood shot immediately to foul. "Then why aren't you in Kansas City?"

"Can we go in? It's cold out here." Mat asked, his breath visible in the late October air.

"You're not welcome in my home." Ray's eyes narrowed. "What are you doing here? I sent you to join up with team six..."

"I'm not going, something's come up." Matt said bluntly. He looked away from Karen's father for a moment then returned the older man's gaze. "I proposed to Karen yesterday and she said 'yes'."

Ray's grip tightened on his briefcase. "Proposed.. well, since obviously you're not here for my permission, don't even think about asking for my blessing because it would be a cold day in..."

"Karen's four weeks pregnant." Matt blurted out then took a half step back as Ray's face flashed red with anger. "And I'm here to ask you a favor."

The thought of breaking Giles' neck flashed through Ray's mind. This little prick had the balls to drive up here from Ohio to ask a favor. A favor! In the same breath that he also had announced that he had gotten his daughter pregnant? "A FAVOR?" Ray roared shaking in rage. His voice went to a low growl as he took a menacing step toward Matt. "The only 'favor' I'm giving you is that I'm not going to kill you where you stand." He jabbed his finger toward the street. "Get off my property! GET OFF MY PROPERTY!"

Matt stood his ground. "I just drove thirteen hours and I ain't leavin' until you hear me out, Old Man." He raised a hand with all five digits spread. "Give me five minutes and then I'm outta here."

"Giles... you already are 'out of here'." Karn rumbled, then raised an index finger and hissed. "One, you have one minute, so make it fast."

Matt took a deep breath. "I want you to forgive Karen. Don't care if you ever give a rat's ass about me, but I want you to take her back." Giles waited a moment for a response, but Ray's face was like stone. "I know the two of you had one hell of a fight when she left to be with me. I know you disowned her... but damnit Ray, she didn't drop out of school like you thought she would. She just transferred to Ohio State and I'm picking up the tuition so she can keep goin'.. and now we're gonna have a baby... you're gonna be a Grandfather. Make the first move to bury the hatchet. Please Ray, just in case."

"Just in case what?" Ray snapped.

"Just in case she would ever... need some help, need to come back home." Matt looked toward the Karn house. "Just in case something would happen to me.... 'cause we know it could." He gave Ray a slight nod. "The two of you are just alike, stubborn as mules. If I would... you know... die, the way things are now she wouldn't come to you for nuttin. So make the first move Ray, accept the baby and pretend that it's okay we're married, for her sake and the kid's."

Ray stood there for a moment considering the request. Without changing his expression he laid his briefcase down on the stone wall which edged his driveway. He opened it in such a way that Matt could not see what he was doing, which caused the young man to shift uncomfortably on his feet. Matt said nothing as Ray pulled out a pen and began to write. Several tense moments passed before Karn suddenly ripped a check from its pad and handed it to Giles.

"What's this?" Matt asked without looking at it.

"Read it." Ray said in a low voice. "Pay to the order of Matthew R. Giles, one hundred and fifty thousand dollars and no cents."

Matt gritted his teeth, coming from Raymond Karn there was no way this was a good thing. "For what?"

Clicking his briefcase closed Karn nodded toward the check. "For you to leave Karen and never see her, contact her or touch her again."

"I got a better idea..." Matt growled as he tore the check in half. "You will keep the fuck away from my wife..." The check went into quarters. "...my baby..." The check went into eighths. "...my home.." The check shreds crumpled into a ball in Matt's fist. "...and my life." He tossed the pieces to the ground at Ray's feet. "And don't bother writing my name on the crew call roster any more, 'cause I quit the Alliance." Matt spit onto the check barely missing Ray's shoes. "Next time I see you I want it to be in hell."

Ray snorted in annoyance as Matt whirled around and went storming back to his car. "Get back here, you passed."

Matthew stopped dead in his tracks as the words hit him. "Passed?! You son of a bitch!"

"Believe me, I expected you to take it." Karn turned his back on Matt and went toward his house. "Get in here, we have to talk and I'm not going to freeze to death over the likes of you."

"So this was some kind of test?" Matt snarled as he came back up the driveway. "You thought I would dump Karen for a lousy hundred and fifty fuckin' grand?"

"So what is your price?" Karn asked while unlocking the door.

In answer Matt aimed a punch toward Ray's jaw which Karn blocked with his briefcase. In a sweeping motion Ray twisted and landed a hard return blow into Matt's belly causing the younger man to loose his balance for a moment as his foot slipped off the sidewalk. Matt came back up and around, fists raised, ready for round two but drew up short as he saw the crossbow bolt in Ray's hand.

"You passed.. again." Ray waved the bolt toward Matt a couple of times as the hunter glared daggers. "And I'm not accepting your resignation." He waited on Matt to lower his fists before he replaced the projectile into his inner pocket. Without another word he opened the door and went into the kitchen. Matt swore under his breath and followed.

Karn tossed his briefcase and coat onto a chair. "You surprised me Giles, I was sure that the only reason you were asking me to 'forgive and forget' was monetary. That is you were looking ahead to the inheritance."

"We've been together since April and I've never asked you for a damn red cent." Matt snapped. "I love her. I don't give a shit about your money."

"Love her." Ray sneered and grunted. "The two of you are in heat. That's the only reason you've parked your boots under her bed for the last six months. Tell me honestly, if she wasn't pregnant would you have proposed?"

"Eventually.... I was planning to ask her after a year or so."

"I don't believe you."

"That's your problem." Matt leaned across the kitchen island and exhaled with a hiss. "And I know you've been messing with us. I know you goosed that whip-dick ex-boyfriend of hers into trying to get between us while I was out on jobs." He slapped his hand down on the granite countertop. "Which I gotta say is damn near all the time. I mean everybody's noticed it. You've called me out on every frickin' job that's come up. I haven't been home more than five days straight since Salt Lake."

Ray crossed his arms. "It's obvious you were home long enough... I think we can pinpoint it at a month ago. And you should be in Kansas City right now."

"Guess you'll have to call someone else. Since you won't 'let' me quit let's just say as of yesterday I'm on vacation."

"No... as of yesterday you're on leave of absence."

Matt arched an eyebrow. "Let me get this straight. You're suspending me? Thought your Old Man was the only one who could suspend..."

"Sit down."

"... a Hunter. Yeah, I think the chapter and verse says: A group leader must submit a recommendation for suspension to the standing Alliance president.. yadda, yadda with the final decision being wholly..."

"Sit down, shut up! I'm not recommending the suspension of your narrow ass." Ray barked as he swung a stool out from under the counter and shoved it toward Matt. "I have a proposition for you."

"And I'm sure it's a sweet one." Matt snotted ignoring the stool.

"Just out of curiosity, does Karen know you're here?"

"No, she thinks I'm in K.C." Matt looked away an shrugged. "Andy's coverin' for me in case she calls."

Ray couldn't resist twisting the verbal knife. "Lying to her, huh? That's true... love." He shut Matt's response up with a jab of the finger. "But as much as I hate to admit it, I understand. She wouldn't like it if she knew you came to me."

"I don't like it much either, Old Man."

"Did you graduate high school?" Ray's voice had a condescending tone that told Matt he already knew the answer.

"I put in most of my time."

"Are you a drop out?" Ray rephrased.

"Yeah, was missin' some credits in English and Math so I didn't bother finishin' the Senior year. Anyway I was eighteen so what's the big..."

Ray's expression was pure disdain. "So along with being a drop out, you're also a 'flunk out'."

Matt's eyes narrowed. "What are you getting at?"

"I will take Karen back, I will forgive her and accept the grandchild she will give me if you..." Ray leaned over the island and went nose to nose with Matt. "...if you make something of yourself. You will go back to school and get your G.E.D., then you will go on to college. Karen deserves better than you, but she picked you anyway. So I guess the only thing to do is force you to become a better man."

,P>Matt backed away. "Ray... I'm not college material. I've got the street smarts down pat. I taught myself the computer just 'cause I like it. But the book smarts? I've never been worth a broke..."

"John is making noise to Dad about getting you on track to boss your own crew. Five, six years from now." Ray picked at a fingernail ignoring Matt's shocked expression over this disclosure. "He asked me what I thought. Want to hear what I said?"

With a grim laugh Matt nodded his head. "Sure! I'll try to act surprised when you get to the part about me being a sack of shit."

"You underestimate me Giles. I'm not going to let 'personal' interfere with Alliance business." For a second Karn's face flashed dark threat. "Which is the only reason you are still standing. Keep that in mind Giles... keep that in mind."

He paused for a moment to let the veiled warning sink in as he placed his briefcase on the island between them. "So, I told him the truth, that you had balls, that you could supervise the recon, the staging and the hit ends of it - no problem there. BUT!" Ray spit the word out and pointed at Matt. "You could never handle the administrative end of running a crew. So it's in your lap Giles, do you want to advance or not?"

Matt finally sat down. "So you want me to go, like full time back to school? Ray... we can't afford for me not to be working for the next four, five years... and with the baby coming."

"And a faint glimmer of responsibility finally rears its head. I'll keep you in work as need be, but you will spend most of your time hitting the books." Ray opened his briefcase and pulled out the Alliance assignment book. "You shouldn't be in too bad of shape financially for this year. Let's see... you were on the Sault St. Marie job; then that Sunnydale incident and the Salt Lake fiasco; then Cedar Rapids; then over to Providence; then the Atlanta job and then.."

"Denver, for a month and a half." Matt snapped. "Then was only home for three days and got called down to that wide spot in the road outside of Tulsa for another three and a half weeks. Got home at oh-two-hundred yesterday and found your damn e-mail call out waiting on me when we got up."

"And you are paid very well for your trouble." Ray interjected as he pulled up a stool across from Matthew. "Tell me, do you blow all your money on toys? Do you have anything put back for emergencies?"

"Got a little more than a year's pay put back." Matt caught the flash of surprise that crossed Ray's face. "Amazing' huh? Mike beat that into my head right off the bat, 'save at least a quarter of your pay just in case you get laid up or there's a dry spell in the work'." He pointed at Ray. "Let me tell you something Old Man, my head's not nearly as far up my ass as you think. I pay the bills, we got a decent place to live, I bust my butt on the job and when I'm done I come straight home."

Ray rubbed his chin, as Matt spouted off. This information did nothing to change his opinion of Giles, but it did ease his mind a bit concerning Karen. At least she wasn't living hand to mouth. He had worried about his only child over the past six months, but had never allowed himself to bend from his final angry words to her: "If you even think about throwing your life away to go off with that son of a bitch you're disowned! I'll never speak to you again!"

"So what is it?" Matt asked for a second time.

"What is what?" Ray asked, coming back from his thoughts.

Matt curled his lip. "Why do you have such a burr up your ass over me and Karen?"

Ray mirrored the expression. "Why? Because you are the uneducated, vulgar, lowlife piece of white trash who took her away from a man who could have given her so much more. Because Karen lied to me about the correspondence between the two of you. She claimed you were merely collaborating on the website design but instead it was over four months worth of page after page of X-rated exchanges."

"How did you.. you read our.." Matt sputtered.

"I couldn't understand it... why did she choose to leave with you, after merely two weeks in Salt Lake instead of going back to the University of Maryland? At first I blamed myself for allowing her to come with me on an assignment where she was exposed to your kind. But the pieces still didn't fit. So when I got back from Utah I took a guess as to what her Hotmail password was. Third time was a charm, 'Sherman'." He leaned forward. "And what I found made me sick."

With a hissing curse Matt stood and leaned over the island. "You had no right.."

"Neither did you Giles... neither did you." Ray snarled back. "You took her last November, in my office... MY OFFICE!" Karn began to shake with rage. "Then you led her on with those letters, telling her in explicit language what else you planned to do with her, while still running every whore that you could find."

Giles felt his face flush. "Yeah! So I screwed up a few tim..!"

Ray slammed his fist down and screamed the words back into Matt's face. "SCREWED UP?!" His voice hissed through gritted teeth as he added. "Is that what you call betrayal?"

,P>"Karen knows and now I'm tellin' you - I haven't paid for it since January!" Matt's face twisted into a snarl. "So deal with it Karn! Like it's any of your business anyway."

"I'm having a very hard time dealing with the fact that my daughter ran off with a whoremongering little bastard!"

Matt's temper hit a flashpoint as he slid came around the island and squared off to Ray. "Old Man... you ever call me that again you'll be picking your fuckin' teeth up off the floor!

With a voice dripping with sarcasm Ray took a step toward the challenge. "Oh, that's right, I forgot you found the man responsible for your... unplanned existence." His eyes darted toward Matt's clenched fists. "Back it off... I won't call you a bastard again."

Relaxing his stance slightly Matt took a half step backward then stiffened as Ray shot another barrage of questions at him.

"Did you take precautions? Did you think about what you could have given Karen and the baby? Have you been tested for AIDS and every other venereal disease, and if so when and what were the results?"

"Yes, yes and yes - last December with my physical." Matt spit out each answer then snapped his fingers toward Ray. "And guess what Karn? Surprise, surprise - I'm clean and I'm stayin' that way." His voice lowered. "I spent twenty-two years being a fuck up, guess that runs in my family, but I'm on the straight and narrow now and I ain't gonna do anything to hurt my wife and kid. Got that Karn?"

For almost a minute the only sound was the ticking of an antique clock displayed on a cupboard shelf. Ray knew he had reached an deadlock. He couldn't buy, deal or shame this man out of the picture. Like it or not, Matthew R. Giles was not going away. "Get tested again." Ray ordered as he picked up the Alliance assignment book.

"Let's see..." Matthew began counting off on his fingers. "One: get another test; two: get my G.E.D.; three: go to college. Anything else commandant?"

Karn pointed to November in the planner. "This year's general meeting is slated for November, eighteenth through the twenty-first. The wedding will be Saturday the twentieth. That's four weeks from today."

Matt shook his head. "No Ray... Karen and I are getting hitched next week as soon as we can. I told her that I was going to beg off the K.C. job to Hurricane and get back by Monday so we can get the license. Then when it was all over we were going to call up here and lay it on you and Charlie and Mary."

"You got it all wrong Giles." Ray said as he closed the Alliance book. "You're going to get back in your car, go get Karen and bring her back here to tell me the joyful news. I will expect the both of you 'here' on Monday."

"Ray.. I don't think that's.." Matt began but gave up as Ray kept talking.

"I won't be happy at first but will slowly warm to the idea." Ray leaned on the counter and pointed a finger at Giles. "That's the way we will do it. Any questions?"

Matt went to the window and stared out into the darkness. He had driven to Rutland fully expecting the fight. Well he called that one. Ray forgiving Karen, he had given that about a fifty-fifty chance - guess he lucked out on that one. But this 'you will go to school' and Ray picking out a wedding date? That had him floored.

"I said, any questions?"

"No... 'Sir'." Matt turned and crossed his arms. "But you don't need to practice your 'Hey! What's up?' act 'cause I'm gonna tell Karen why I came up here." He paused to watch for any emotion that might appear on Ray's face, but saw only a faint nod of agreement. "I'll keep my end of the bargain up, I'll go back to school." Uncrossing his arms Matt pointed at the assignment book. "But you ain't running our lives, get that straight, right now. You might as well erase that eleven-twenty note because we're getting married next week."

Ray tapped the countertop, his features softened a touch as he looked away from his future son-in-law. "I do miss her Giles. And if you keep your end of the bargain, I will keep mine. Regardless of what you think of me I am a man of my word."

"Yeah... I'll give you that." Matt said grudgingly. "But cancel that idea about us getting married up here."

"I said I'm a man of my word." Ray repeated. "And I promised Margaret a week before she died that our little girl would have a formal wedding." For the first time ever he smiled at Matt. "Giles... you need to find yourself a tuxedo."