~*~Part 2: Return to the Netherworld~*~

She wasn’t sure why she did what she did. Perhaps it was her urge to do what was right, over what was sane. She would probably never figure out exactly why, but early the next morning found herself standing outside the Rocket base trying to convince the guard to let her in. It wouldn’t have mattered if she had convinced them or not, really. They dragged her to Giovanni’s office anyway, which was where she had ultimately wanted to go in the first place. One of the older Rocket members rapped on the door roughly. Giovanni yelled clearance from inside.

"What do you want?" he snapped, when the Rocket had entered. He had apparently been in the process of writing something. "It had best be important."

"An officer of the law was found wandering the perimeter. She requested admission to see you immediately. What do you want us to do with her?"

"She just won’t give up, will she?" Giovanni muttered to himself.

"Pardon?"

"Nothing," Giovanni said aloud. "Just…show her in." The Rocket hesitated. "Are you attempting to show defiance? I said show her in. That is what I expect you to do. Now go do it!"

"Yes, sir," the Rocket said, backing out of the room quickly. A few minutes later Officer Jenny was shoved roughly in. Giovanni did not acknowledge her at all; he just went back to his writing. For a few seconds, the only sound in the room was his pen scratching the paper.

"Um…I wanted to see you," Jenny began. No response. "What are you writing?" she asked, trying a different approach. Still no answer. He just kept writing. "You know…you write awfully fast…" she said, desperate.

"You are mistaken," Giovanni said without glancing up. "Actually, I write rather slowly."

Finally, a response. "Faster than me, anyhow." She paused, trying to think of something to say that wouldn’t come out sounding idiotic. The silence went on for what seemed like forever. Giovanni solved this problem by finishing whatever he was writing and saying, "I told you last night. You have no business here." She started to say something, but he stopped her. "I told you, I would not hesitate to order you executed if ever you came on these perimeters again."
"Sir, you don’t understand," Jenny protested. "I came here with information for you." Giovanni looked at her, his expression hard yet curious. "You see," she continued, "apparently the other officers at the station…they want to start something. A raid. Here. In about…" she checked her watch "about two hours. They are calling in the ‘special units,’ and you know as well as I do what that means: Two hours from now, this base will be no more, and you won’t either unless you leave now."

"What is your collateral?"

"Hunh?" Jenny was fully aware that ‘hunh’ wasn’t the most respectful thing to say, especially to someone who could have you executed in three seconds, but the statement seemed completely random.

"I am to be sure you are telling me the truth, right now? You could have set something up. You could have thirty others like you outside this base right now, waiting."

"How can I prove it to you, then?" she asked, trying to ignore the ‘like you’ part of his statement.

"Come with me."

"Hunh?" There she went again. But she wasn’t following his reasoning at all.

"I want you to come with me. And remain until this ‘raid,’ as you say, goes down. Then you can do as you wish. But until then, you are to stay with me at all times."

"Why?"

Giovanni rolled his eyes. "I’ll go, considering the fact that by the looks of it you have been walking for the last five, ten miles to get here. You must have started at an ungodly hour of the morning." It was true; the motorcycle would have made entirely too much noise. Giovanni continued, "If you are not lying, it gets you out of the way of this raid, and you can state that I held you hostage or something similar when you go back to your comrades. If you are lying to me, and it is all a setup, it will look very, very good on your résumé. You will go down as the officer who led to the capture of the overlord of Team Rocket. You have nothing to lose, am I right, Officer?" She had to agree that he was. He stood up, and even from the other side of the desk she noticed how much taller he was than her. He brushed past her roughly. "Come on," he said.

And that was how she ended up in Giovanni’s personal helicopter two hours later, trying to figure out exactly where he had gotten a one-up on her.

Giovanni, in the meantime, was just waiting for the morning to be over. He had his Persian lying on the seat next to him. He reached over to stroke it for a while, speaking to it softly. Then he leaned back, crossing his legs as he did so, and looked at Jenny in the seat across from him.

Once again, there was an odd silence. Giovanni had barely been able to stand it back in the office. In confined quarters it was even worse.

"Jenny," he began, "your two hours are up. I don’t think…" He stopped abruptly when there was a loud noise from beneath them. "What the…"

Jenny couldn’t watch. For some reason, she just couldn’t. She knew what was going on beneath them. She had heard the plans the night before. She didn’t need to see them being made reality. Giovanni stiffened next to her.

"Not since that…thing…" was all he said to her, and she wasn’t even sure he was aware that he was saying it out loud. About fifteen minutes later, he said quietly, "I suppose I owe you now."

She looked up at him. He didn’t look back at her.
"You owe me nothing. You paid in advance last night. I could have been very, very dead then. You didn’t let them kill me. Consider this your repayment."

Giovanni appeared to think that over. "I suppose," he said. "Can I ask you why? All this, I mean. You could have ended your problems for a long time."

"Why did you do what you did last night? And don’t give me any of that ‘least of two evils’ stuff. I know better. Now tell me the real reason." She noticed he kept avoiding her gaze. He reached out to stroke the Persian a bit more. Without realizing what she was doing, Jenny shot her hand out and grabbed his. He looked up at her in surprise. "I’ve seen how you get when you’re pre-occupied; this morning in your office showed me that," she said, trying to pass it off as lighthearted, but her fear showed through a bit too much. Giovanni noticed this, but didn’t mention it. He just said, "It was quite possibly for the same reason that you came to me this morning."

"I wanted to repay you…you didn’t have to feel any obligation to me whatsoever."

"Why do I get this feeling you’re trying to get me to admit something?"

"Why do I get this feeling you’re trying to avoid admitting to something?"

They both stared at each other, then for a reason they couldn’t explain, they started laughing. "What is it with us?" Jenny asked. "First you hate me. Then you protect me. Then you hate me again. Then you distrust me. All through that, for some reason, I don’t want you to hate me. And now…we’re sitting here laughing like a couple of children. What is with that?"

"I don’t know, bella, I really don’t," Giovanni said. "Perhaps…"

"Perhaps what? Perhaps we’re both insane?"
"I think last night proved you were," Giovanni remarked. "I wasn’t aware of the fact that I was until you informed me just now. Thank you so much for the informative broadcast."

"Oh shut up…" It occurred to Jenny that Giovanni was being awfully lenient with the way he was allowing her to speak to him. It was also strange that she would even have the nerve to talk like this to anyone with more power than her. Well, if he thought she was acting strangely, he didn’t say anything about it.

Giovanni, on the other hand, was looking at Jenny by now, and trying to figure out what to do with her next. He had an idea as to what he would like, but he had to leave the option open. He had given his word, and no matter what the misconceptions may have been about him, he did not go back on his word.

"Well," he said, "you have certainly proven yourself trustworthy. I suppose you will want to return now?"

"I suppose it would be best, don’t you think…? After all, you said yourself that you can’t afford to have me turn up missing."

"Well, curb your enthusiasm about returning home."

"Sorry," she said, "I didn’t mean to seem ungrateful to you – lord knows I’m grateful – but I just don’t feel too great about my comrades right now. After what they did down there… " She gestured out the window, her voice trailing off.

"Don’t worry about it," Giovanni said quietly. "There are other bases out there, you know. That wasn’t the only one."

"That was the closest one to Viridian, wasn’t it?"

"Yes." The thought occurred to both of them at the same time that they might have to part now, and not see each other for quite some time. Neither of them was really very comfortable with that idea, even though they couldn’t say so out loud.

Jenny shifted uncomfortably. "Um…perhaps I can…perhaps I could stay with you for a few days…?" Giovanni looked at her oddly. "And why, dare I ask, why in the world you would want to do that?" he replied.

"As I’ve told you, I don’t feel comfortable returning to my comrades right now…I can’t believe that they would do something like that." Giovanni started to say something, but Jenny could practically read his mind. She added, "I know that your Team Rocket has done similar things, but it’s expected of you…" She clapped a hand over her mouth and blushed. He just smiled slightly and said, "I know." He fell silent and leaned against the window, apparently trying to decide whether or not to agree to letting her stay. His Persian started licking his hand, and he began to pet it absently. "What is your other reason? The actual reason?" he asked her. "You wouldn’t put yourself in such danger as to be associated with me, would you? Not without a decent reason. You’re far better off with your untrustworthy companions than to be seen and associated with me and thus have your reputation tarnished. Do you have enough courage to go through with that?"

"I am sure I do," Jenny responded. "I have been asking for true courage, and I think I have found it."

"Do you even know what true courage is?" Giovanni asked bluntly.

"Yes," she said, "this is."

And then she kissed him.