Terran Knights: Chapter 24

“You come to this place often?”

“Not really no”

“Then places like this.”

Seth smirked and nodded. “Bar hopping is a past time.”

The bar wasn’t too large, the bar itself straight in front of the door. A few short tables and chairs in the middle and a couple of booths against the far wall. The pair of them were sitting at one of those. It smelled of beer and jalapenos from the kitchen. Their drinks stood apart from another, single cubes of ice floating in dark liquor for Kathryn and strong smelling gin for Seth.

He took a sip and made a face but sighed, “Crazy to think it’s been a week.”

“Yeah. Have you been over there?”

“51st? No.”

“Me either. Part of me feels guilty,” she picked up her drink putting it to her lips and stopped. Sighing she took a sip and set it back down. “Didn’t save enough people. Didn’t protect their homes.”

“Don’t go down that path,” he told her. “It doesn’t end well.”

“Yeah I know.”

The door opened clinking the bell and both looked up toward it but neither recognized the person coming in. They shared a laugh looking at each other and then back to their drinks. “She hasn’t been showing up to the meetings.”

“I wouldn’t expect her to honestly,” Kathryn shook his head. “If I lost my boyfriend like that, I wouldn’t even come back.”

“As much as I get that, we need her. No offense but me, you, and Cal aren’t going to be stopping an invasion just the three of us. Hell don’t know if with Sarah we’d be able to do it.”

“Well that’s a cheery thought,” she sipped on her drink and shook her head. “But I get it. When the next one shows up they’re not going to be just regular. They might be as strong as the last one. Or stronger.”

He shuddered at the thought and Kathryn pointed at him, “Hey don’t go down that path.”

He smirked looking at her and then sipping from his drink again. Tilting his head back he drank it all and set it down sliding it to the edge of the table and glanced her way. “Another?”

She swirled her drink around and finished it off tilting her head back. “Yeah another. Got a suggestion?”

“I might. Just don’t regret asking for it.”

Sliding out of the booth he took both their glasses back to the bar. Kathryn watched him go leaning her hand into her hand and sighed. Not what she expected herself to be doing this evening but she couldn’t say that she disliked it. She heard an angry buzzing and checked the pocket of her folder. Fishing through it she got her phone answer it in one go.

“Hey Cal what’s going on?”

“Recovering. Ben has barely let me leave the house.”

“He been cool knowing about your ‘job’?” she asked.

“Hard to read. I don’t know exactly what he’s thinking about it but he’s being supportive and I appreciate that. I don’t deserve him.”

“Yeah you do,” she smiled lightly. “But speaking of your job, will we see you again soon?”

“The next time the Taq-Law appear I’ll be there,” she could hear the commitment in his voice and smiled. “Have you talked to Sarah?”

“No. I haven’t really tried either though.”

“Me either but it’s been bothering me.”

“Is it even our place to try?”

“I think so. I know she has her other boyfriend, Marco, but I feel like we should at least be there for her.”

“If you think so,” she shrugged. “We could try and visit her. I think I remember where they lived. I’ll ask Seth if he wants to come along when he gets back.”

“When he gets back. You and Seth huh?”

“What?”

“Nothing. Just noticing you’ve been spending a lot of time with him and.”

She was starting to get annoyed because she could hear where he was going with this, “First we’re the only ones who can be in the field. And what were you about to add?”

“I didn’t realize he was your type.”

“Shut up. You love playing match maker too damn much. And he’s not. We’re just having a drink.”

“Uh huh. Just having a drink huh?”

“I think I’m going to hang up on you now.”

Despite the initial topic of conversation he couldn’t help but laugh at her. “When you finish your drinks let me know and we’ll go talk to our teammate.”

Seth came back with two drinks, they were bright red with ice clinking around the tops of them. He glanced at her phone the her but she waved her hand back and forth. “Sure thing Cal. I’ll talk to Seth and we’ll meet you at the train. Later.”

“Bartender’s an asshole.” Seth said sliding into the booth.

“What they do?” she asked picking up the drink.

“They don’t like black people that don’t look like black people,” he shrugged.

“Dick,” she agreed taking a sip. “Cal wants to see Sarah. Make sure she’s okay. If she tells us off fine, but if she needs some support we can do that much. Not saying you have to come but I think it would be best if we all showed up.”

Seth’s face was blank in thought picking up one of the drinks. He started to take a sip and shook his head lazily pointing at her drink and then her, “If we can finish the drinks I’ll go. And I’ll do my best to try and be a good friend even though as you can tell I have no idea what to do.”

“I think you’re doing pretty okay at it so far. And if you think I’d leave before finishing my drink you’re crazy.”

Picking up her drink she held it out to him as a toast. He clinked the glass against her own and then they both drank.