The Other Side

Close Encounters

There wasn't enough time to get a good rest because the next thing she had become aware of, shortly after closing her eyes, was the alarm in her room going off. It wasn't a base wide alarm but it was to indicate to her that something was wrong and it was probably her fault. She groaned and sat up only to see her door open and Jamie shoved in there followed by her mother. Kind of a funny scene considering her mother was as tall as she was and Jamie was huge compared to him. Then again, her mother was absolutely terrifying when she wanted to be so there was little doubt she had intimidated Jamie into listening to her without much force. She rubbed her eyes and looked at them.

"He contacted his friend." Beth said, "Because someone left him with a phone that was also connected to the wifi. Who was that?"

"Shit." She muttered, "Jamie-"

"I've been missing for a lot of time, he was going to...he had a right to know that I was okay. Kind of." Jamie said, trying to defend himself. It didn't take a genius to figure out that the friend he had more than likely contacted was Joseph.

"You have to go recover him." Beth said.

"Why the hell for?"

"We can't have him telling people about any of this."

"I didn't tell him what I was doing or where I was, you know, I'm not a complete moron." Jamie said. She groaned because this wasn't good. Even if she believed Jamie hadn't given a location because there was no way he knew his location, it probably didn't matter. He'd contacted someone on the outside, probably someone who was already looking for him, and this could lead to a lot of problems if they didn't take care of it quickly.

"Is he anywhere near here or?"

"Close enough."

"What about Vecna?"

"Well the interesting thing about that is whatever you two did, the opening of the portal has actually reduced in size. It hasn't closed, though. He must want something but without either of you telling me what happened we aren't going to know what. The good news is that the portal isn't expanding anymore so for right now that bought us some time. We're going to get you out to get his friend." Beth said.

"Why can't I do it?" Jamie asked.

"You're a flight risk." She told him, "And don't say you're not because you are."

"Have you considered that I wouldn't run off and leave Eddie here? Nor do I like the idea of your organization hunting me down to kill me, or worse, if I do run away? Where would I even hide?" He asked. It was a good point but that still didn't mean he wouldn't try. She still didn't really know why it had to be her though. Probably to minimize anyone finding out that Jamie had done it in the first place so she wouldn't get written up by her commanding officer, or worse than that. If it was widely known Jamie had done this, someone would have moved on it already so it probably wasn't too much of a threat. For now.

"You're staying here. Don't worry, no one's going to hurt him, he's just going to be brought back here." Beth said.

"Not hurt as in how? Because this whole thing is a big mind fuck so you're going to do that to him at least." Jamie pointed out.

"You already did that by contacting him so blame yourself." Beth told him. He turned and glared at her with all of the intensity a Vecna stare would have but she didn't even seem slightly intimidated by it. "Cordelia, get ready you leave in twenty minutes."

"Thanks." She sighed, getting out of bed to walk over to her dresser and grab her brush. Her mother left and she started to work on her hair first. She probably didn't need to change since she was in civilian clothes anyway. At her small stature she would go pretty unnoticed by the general public as long as she didn't do anything to draw attention to herself. Which she never did.