"May I ask you a question?" Buckaroo said after a moment.
Knuckles chuckled. "You just spent the last two hours picking my brain over the Uilc Dochas Clan. what's one more question?"
"Off subject." Buckaroo warned.
The girl glanced at him, her eyebrows arched. Then she shrugged.
"You are an exceptionally smart girl. Young, bright, determined... Why are you so willing to sacrafice all that for revenge?"
Jessica James stared at those piercing blue eyes for a long, silent moment. She wondered if they really could see everything, through everything, like they appeared to be able to. "I am a bounty hunter."
"You're also a zoologist, a vetenary, a languist, and a few other this and thats." Buckaroo pointed out. "I'm not sure, but I think you also have a photographic memory. By the way, we can check that out for you."
Knuckles wasn't liking this conversation. "Get to the point, doc."
"The point is, I believe you can be so very much more than you have limited yourself to." Buckaroo Banzai answered. "And I would like to give you the opportunity to be so."
Ah, now she got it. "You inviting me into that house of geniouses?" She chuckled."And what do you expect me to do with this?"
Buckaroo shrugged. "No one says something has to end for something to began." He left his stool and smiled. "You love animals, Jessica. Their response to you is proof enought. They'd follow you into hell and trust you'd bring them back" He reached down and scratched Oddity's head. "Wouldn't you like to do something else with them than take them on weekly trips to hell?" He handed her a small devise.
"What's this?"
"A go-phone." he answered.
"I didn't say yes."
"You didn't say no." Buckaroo smiled. "And even if you did, I'd like it if you'd keep in touch. You see any of the Clan, call us in. Don't try to do it alone. And we'll do likewise." He turned and headed for the door, calling over his shoulder "Besides, you seem to be the only one Perfect Tommy actually takes an order from."
Knuckles smiled shaking her head. "Is he alrgiht?" she wanted to know.
Buckaroo grinned. Peggy had been right about the two. "Funny, he asked about you too."
Outside Rawhide shook Gage's hand and watched as he passed Buckaroo and returned to the club.
"What do you think?" Buckaroo asked as he walked toward the humvee.
Rawhide tipped his stetson back on his head. "Rather independent, isn't she?"
"And single minded." Buckaroo climbed into the passenger seat and, glancing to his wife, who patiently waited in the back seat, waited for Rawhide to climb in the driver's side. "We tend to pick them that way, don't we?!"
"And suffer for our efforts." Rawhide groaned. Riening in the loose canons they already had kept his day busy. Adding another to the list...
Peggy leaned over his shoulder. "Oh, admit it! You love running all those kids through thier hoops!"
Buckaroo looked at his friend. "She's smart, Rawhide. Before her father was killed she was well on her way to attracting our attention. Mrs Johnson even found a letter sent to us from one of her instructers way back before this Clan stuff happened to her. Zoololgy, veternary sciences, enviroment sciences, topped with a varity of languages, astorlogy, philosophy, this and that." Buckaroo waved his hand in the air. "And you saw what she can do in the field. I'd hate to see her waste all that potential on revenge."
Rawhide frowned. "Revenge is a pretty hard thing to get weened from, Boss." he warned.
"What she did, saving Perfect Tommy, then coming in after us..." Buckaroo shook his head. "If that girl's going to be out there, I want her out there for us!"
Rawhide sighed knowing that when his friend made up his mind there was no changing it.
Sensing the win, Buckaroo grinned.
"Besides," Peggy spoke up, leaning back in her seat, "I just hate to break up a set."
Both men looked back at her.
She sighed and shook her head. "Men!" she complained. "Didn't you see it? Perfect Tommy and Knuckles!"
Rawhide huffed. "The boy is fallin' in love every other day."
"This is different." she assured. "Perfect Tommy and Knuckles... they balance each other, like two sides of the same coine: different yet the same. You just watch! They're perfectly matched!"
Rawhide and Buckaroo glanced at each other.
Buckaroo held up a finger. "On second thought..."
