A Collection of Odds & Ends

Heat Wave (Jack McClane - A Good Day to Die Hard)

The sun was high, hot, and the air thick almost to the point it made it hard to breathe. Unlocking his front door, Jack McClane grunted and picked up his travel bag. He had been through worse.

Four months in the deserts of Morocco almost made this seem like an arctic adventure. Trudging through the front door, Jack made sure to lock it behind him. A locked door meant no surprise visitors. No surprise visitors meant a happy, ever so slightly exhausted Jack.

The phone stood, blinking and no doubt full of messages. People, friends, family, bill collectors all wanting something from him. Too bad, they would just have to wait. Wait until he had a moment to breathe, back in his own surroundings, and until he came up with a bullshit lie to feed each and every one of them.

Nobody had to know why Jack had been MIA for four months. As much as he enjoyed his job, the constant lies of a CIA man grew tiring after a while.

Crossing into the kitchen, Jack paused, his gaze falling on the crisp, clear pool that lay outside the big sliding doors. His body screamed at him to ignore the temptation, go upstairs, and find his bed. The heat that he had suffered and was currently trapped in demanded his body be submerged in the cool waters.

"Fuck it." Jack gave in. He had been awake this long, sleeping in his own bed could wait. Besides, he'd sleep better, if he was cooled down and the water did relax him.

When he had began the ground work for the pool, his older sister, Lucy, had asked why he wanted such a thing? She claimed he was never home and it would never get the proper use or cleaning.

In her own way, it was her asking permission to use the damn thing whenever she wanted. Granting permission, Jack had agreed with a few rules. No parties. No leaving messes, and nobody went into his house beyond the kitchen and living room.

Yanking his tshirt over his head, Jack discarded it on the patio table, kicking off his shoes and dropping his cell phone and keys on the table.

He growled, approaching the pool, and seeing a pile of unfamiliar clothing scattered around one of his two deck chairs. Lucy had to learn to pick up her shit, when she was...a body in the water, moving below the surface caught Jack's attention.

Standing on the edge of the pool, his hands on his hips, he got ready to chew his sister out about leaving her stuff in such a mess, when he noticed the body in the pool had no clothing on.

Great! Four months away, risking his fucking life, and he comes home to find his sister naked.

At the other end of the pool, a dark head of hair surfaced and gasped for air, in the way one did when resurfacing. The woman's deeply tanned skin shone in the sun, the water drops reflecting the light. Waiting, quietly, Jack narrowed his eyes and furrowed his brow.

This wasn't Lucy.

The CIA agent in him wanted to sneak away, grab his gun and come back. Return to question the woman, find out who she was. Why she was there, and who had sent her.

The logical human in him, knew better than take such action. Pulling a pistol on the poor thing would only end up with Jack having charges pressed and god forbid he go to jail. Going to jail or being put under investigation would only lead to his father showing up.

Jack did not need to hand John McClane another reason to lecture him about how to do things right.

"Excuse me." His deep voice rumbled to the other end of the pool. A loud gasp emerged from the naked woman, swimming in his pool. "Do you mind telling me what is going on?"