Codename: Kryptonite

Chapter Eighteen

Agent Mission Log Entry:

I'm surprised how close this version of POTUS resembles my version, and I don't mean in appearance. My POTUS told me he had mellowed with age, and I can see where in some ways that is true, but he never lost that icy glare and that steely tone of voice that tells someone that he really means business. Even the tightening of his jaw is the same. He adds all of those together with a carefully controlled mask, but he's never fooled me; I can see right through the facade.

In fact, this version of POTUS is so much like my own that I find myself jumping to do his bidding - as if he were already my boss.

That's going to have to stop!

The soft click of the door closing behind her snapped Gabriella's mind back in gear. She turned around to stare at the hard oak door she'd closed behind her.

She shook her head. How had that happened? With his quietly commanding words, she had simply turned and left the room, just as she would have done in her time. How many times had he said those words to her? Too many to count. Although, most of them had happened when David was the other occupant of the room in question.

Curiosity had always been her downfall, and today was no different. It was killing her to be left out of the conversation going on behind that dark wood door. Her fingers traced along one of the lines of the deep beveled rectangle cut into the wood all the while wishing she'd had time to bug the room before the two men were left alone in there. She shook her head with a smile; she knew she'd never invade POTUS' privacy like that.

Inside the room, the two men were blissfully unaware of the inner workings of Gabby's mind. As soon as the door closed behind her, Jon stood up, not to pace the room as Richie had expected, but to walk around the corner of the desk and sink into the chair there as if the weight of the world were on his shoulders. Richie knew from silently watching Jon that whatever his friend was about to tell him was big, but unlike Gabby, curiosity wasn't killing him.

Finally, Jon crossed his arms on the desk and leaned forward slightly. "Rich," he paused, looking for the right words, then started again, "I don't know how to convince you that I'm telling you the truth. This is not some elaborate joke. Gabby is really from the future, and I sent her here."

Richie opened his mouth to argue, but Jon shook his head at him and went on speaking. "Really. C'mon Rich. Don't I look serious?"

The guitarist took a long hard look at Jon. His mouth didn't even hint at a grin or even that devious little smirk that would've told him that the front man was up to something and there was a sadness around his eyes, not even a twinkle in those blue orbs to indicate an upcoming punch line.

Jon didn't wait for Richie to answer his question. "Look, I'd never laid eyes on that woman before last night. But, she knew something that I've never told anyone, not even you, and she swore I told it to her in the future, before I sent her here. And she gave me this," he paused, opening the top drawer of his desk to pull out the necklace Gabriella had brought back from the future with her. He held up Richie's necklace, it turned this way and that, the light glinting off it.

"Is that what I think it is?" Richie asked.

"It's a Slippery pendant," Jon answered. "To be more precise, it's YOUR Slippery pendant."

Richie reached up to finger the pendant around his neck. "No. I have mine on."

"The redhead in Denver's teeth marks are in this one, and your number is on the back. This is your pendant," Jon countered quickly.