Zoltan had assumed he would have time to rest, to catch up on sleep and gather his thoughts before the political bickering began. At one in the morning he should have hadr a long hot shower, a shot of his favourite bourbon and  be relaxing in his king sized bed which once held two but now just one soul.

 That would have been his plan if the White House hadn’t decided to call for him the moment he was driven out of Rockford. Call being used loosely here because it turns out his military driver had taken a detour and sent him straight to Miami International Airport on a 747 bound for the capital.

 He had wished they allowed him to pack some luggage but as he was being driven to the White House, he spotted a small group of protesters camping outside the grounds; which he could see as a cause for concern by all the politicians. He spotted some crudely made banners, a large ‘J’ sloppily painted on to it but other than that, he didn’t know what petty cause they had taken up.

“ Unlikely they want to thank us for making Jessica,” Zoltan commented rhetorically on the group of probably fifteen protesters out there.

After being dropped off and walked through the long hallways, he wound up inside the brightly lit Oval Office, face to face with the incumbent president Cyril Richards and...no one else. Strange because Zoltan would have expected to be facing Cyril and all of his lackeys, not just the boss himself.

  In his sixties and a quarter of the way through his second term, he had aged visibly from the man Zoltan saw five years ago. His sleek pulled back mane of hair, once as dark as coal now looked had a more salt and pepper look.

 Wrinkles wove their way across his face and his eyes sported two eyebags. Having to deal with the fallout from Jessica wasn’t going to help any of that.

 “Sit down,” Cyril ordered.

 “ I was expecting more of your people,” Zoltan coughed, using his fist to cover his mouth.

 “ What I’m going to tell you is best kept between the two us. Anymore and it would complicate things,” He didn’t make  eye contact too much, eyes darting about as if he were hiding something  from Zoltan.

 “ I’m sure you saw the protesters outside.”

Zoltan nodded, his fingers gripping his pants as a sense of unease swept over him. One did not simply meet the president in the middle of the night all alone and come out the same.

 “Not too many, it should blow over.”

Cyril scoffed at that, “ It won’t. Now its fifteen, tomorrow it will grow ten fold and beyond that, I shudder to think of the numbers. I did not ask for that monstrosity to be made but here she is, out and about.”

 “Neither did I, one of the scientists took matters into his own hands and tested military grade serum on his daughter,” Zoltan added on, offering his most reassuring smile. It didn’t assure Cyril one bit, the most powerful man of the free world wearing a scowl on his grim mug.

 “ Doesn’t matter who used what on who, the world is going into a frenzy over her. Ally and enemy alike are now viewing us with suspicion, the Europeans are calling it a violation of human rights while the Russians and Chinese are using her as an excuse to increase military exercises, increase spending claiming it's all in the name of protecting themselves.”

Zoltan assumed he was done but then Cyril pulled out his HTC phone, unlocking it with a forceful swipe and using its Chrome browser to access a webpage he had bookmarked.

 “ Look at this, the reaction on the ground to her is simply madness! There’s talk of a cult formed around her, calling her the avatar of Gaia and how she has come to lead us to a new era. That is on top of the usual government conspiracy crap, calls to put her down. It is bloody chaotic!”

He slammed his fist on the table before pointing straight at Zoltan.

 “And I blame you for all this. I’d blame that blonde CEO too but she’s being charged with selling to the North Koreans so its all on you to fix this.Bring her back in so she can be our greatest weapon. ”

A hard lump formed in Zoltan’s throat, the full weight of the scandal suddenly pressing down on his shoulders.

“ I kept her safe for ten years, kept her on that island. It is because of me a two hundred foot woman remained a secret. You want to pin it on someone, pin it on Lauren because she took everything apart in her selfish scheme!”

 Zoltan’s cerulean eyes narrowed in anger, he could tell this was a game of pin the blame on the scapegoat.

 “ Oh really? Because the world will not know what Lauren did. We don’t need another scandal to break out. So that just leaves you to pick up the pieces.”

 “What do you want me to do?” Zoltan asked with trepidation.

 “Bring her back and do it more persuasively; but don’t do it too obviously, I would hate to see what’s left of our goodwill sullied because the public thinks the big bad government is bullying the sweet ‘little’ girl.”

Zoltan gritted his teeth, this was a surefire way to hide Cyril’s involvement, keep his hands clean. Then if anything went wrong, all Cyril had to do was hang him out to dry and he’d stay safe.

 “ What if I say no? Walk out of here,” He threatened.

 Cyril laid back, chuckling to himself.

 “Doesn’t matter , I’ll hire someone else to do the job. Someone less likely to question me and with no connections to the she-beast at all,” He twiddled his thumbs nonchalantly while Zoltan’s plan collapsed on itself.

 “ Fine. I’ll do it, bring her back in.”

***********

 “ You sure you can pay for all of this?” Jessica asked Jack , sitting in the palm of her hand which was propped against her chest, Jack unknowingly using her bosom as support for his back.

 Down below, Jessica lifted her foot off the road and revealed the flattened remains of the station wagon she had trod on, its metal hull crushed flat while oil leaked from it. Peeling it off, she set it on the roadside while looking around uneasily at Palm Creek.

 It was smaller than Miami in scale which was not the issue but rather it was how short all the buildings were. Nothing in this tiny place reached her knee, the local church spire did its best but fell short of the expectations Jessica had.

 Which only served to make her feel even less welcome, the disparity in scale made her feel too damn big to even live here. There were a few two storey shophouses, some department stores which only had two floors like the shophouses, Jessica spotted a supermarket and a several residential areas likely inhabited by only the fabulously rich and that was it.

 It could have doubled up as a toy town for her if she wished.

   “ I could probably pay for the entire town if you chose to step on their cars,” Jack said , looking straight up into Jessica’s moon sized face.

 Why was it so easy now? Before this they squabbled over everything but during  the walk here he and Jessica had been pretty amiable over everything so far as he sat in her palm and talked about everything they could think off.

 “ Sorry for that, you’ll definitely be writing a lot of checks,” Jessica sighed.

 “ For the woman who saved my life thrice,I don’t mind,” Jack replied.

 She curled up her fingers in an almost protective move, Jack feeling the tips of fingers press against her feet.

 “ Thank you, I’ll find a way to pay you back for this.” Jessica stepped over a shophouse as Jack signalled for a shift in direction.

 “More like I should be paying you after you saved me from the ocean,  wild dogs and an evil CEO,” Jack used his fingers to count off each time Jessica saved him.

 Jessica’s chest shook gently as she chuckled loudly, her laughter rolling across the town.

 “I hope you don’t get into anymore trouble or you’ll have to marry me for it,” She beamed down at him.

 “ Oh in that case next time just leave me to die,” Jack joked.

 Jessica giggled, these jokes were a lot better than his prissy attitude days before. This would definitely be more liveable than what she had imagined before.

 It didn’t take long after that for them to clear the town itself, Jack directing Jessica down a very empty poorly lit road for about five miles or so, Jessica’s long toned legs easily covering the distance in the time it takes to boil an egg before reaching his house. The boundaries of the property were marked by an eight foot hedge and metal spiked gate which she easily stepped over.

 “You stay at Wayne Manor?” Jessica  asked,  rather impressed by what she saw below. It was small, Jessica guessed about 3 storeys from the ground up, its stone walls painted in a faint saffron hue. Its roof was flat but raised at a slight incline to allow rainwater to flow off, the entire house feeling like a set out used for  Downton Abbey.

 “No but I sometimes I wish I did,” Jack smirked as a light from within the house switched on.

 “Ah, guess you woke someone. Better set me down so I can explain…” Jessica  set Jack down, just in time for a twenty something tall blue eyed brunette to burst out the front door, screaming at the sight of Jessica.

 “ Jack get over here before she eats you!” Caitlin called out to Jack who was by Jessica’s foot.

 “ Calm down Caitlin,” Jack said in a hushed voice, this was not the reaction he was anticipating.

“Hey I don’t eat people, I eat what the rest of you people eat. Just more,” Jessica leaned forward onto her haunches, gently letting her arms touch the ground.

 For Caitlin, it was reliving Miami all over again as the oriental giantess leaned in , keen to get a better look at her. It seemed she had forgotten all about the incident as two dark pools focused on Caitlin’s minute body.

 “Hang on,” Jessica’s pupils widened, Caitlin backing away while Jack followed her but not to protect as he grabbed her and offered an explanation she wasn’t listening to.

 “You’re the girl I met in Miami. The one who got her blouse snagged on carton of potatoes,” Jessica pulled her back, blushing as she remembered.

 “Yeah you nearly killed me you monster! Cost me my favourite blouse too,” Caitlin huffed.

 “ Caitlin, let me introduce you to Jessica,” Jack stepped between the two, trying to mediate but he could feel the anger burning inside Caitlin; this meeting was already on shaky ground.

“ Jessica, this is my girlfriend Caitlin. Caitlin, this is my rescuer Jessica who is some sort of homeless super soldier. She’ll be living with us!”

“What!” Caitlin’s shrill voice seemed to split the air, crackling in the humid night air.

 She pointed her middle finger at her accusingly, “ We’re not going to let her stay here! She’ll eat you into bankruptcy, there is no way your parents would even let you keep her?”

 “Excuse me,” Jessica called out from above, miffed at Caitlin’s comments.

 “I’m not someone who is to be kept,” She added but Caitlin just outright ignored her and moved back to Jack, the cause of her anxiety.

“ She is trouble. If she stays with you there will be a lot of problems coming our way, problems bigger than us. She should not exist for a good reason alright?” Caitlin pleaded.

 Jack, for better or for worse, replied without a pause in between.

“ Doesn’t matter. This woman saved my life Caitlin and I intend to repay each and every time she did.”

 He turned back to Jessica who had been watching the little exchange, anxious to know if there was any change in the plans Jack had made.

 “ Sorry but you’ll have to sleep under the stars tonight. We’ll work out something tomorrow along with food and water,” Jack said.

 “It’s fine, I did spend the last two days doing just that. As for food, I promise I won’t go after those poor defenseless supermarkets anymore, heard they’re endangered,” Jessica smiled down to them in the hopes of defusing a tense situation. What were the odds the woman she allegedly came close to eating would be the girlfriend of the man she met on the island a few days back? Small word, she thought to herself.

 “ Okay great. I’m going to hit the sack, it's been too long since I had a proper bed,” Jack yawned as he waved goodnight to Jessica before passing through the door; Jessica trying to peek inside but failing as Caitlin blocked her view of it, mighty pissed at her.

 “I don’t care who Jack says you are, whether you’re his rescuer or his childhood friend; I’ve got my eye on you,” She wagged her finger like a mother telling off her errant child.

 “ Because to me, you’re just a freak who in an ideal world would be getting vivisected to find out what makes you so monstrous. Consider yourself lucky you aren’t,” She hissed, her words puncturing Jessica’s thin skin easily.

 Caitlin didn’t even bother to wait for a reply, turning her back to Jessica and going back in, presumably to check on Jack.

 “Wow…” Jessica managed to find some words, choking on them as she held back tears.

 “ This girl has issues.”