24. Ascension
TWENTY-FOUR
ASCENSION
Flynn
I’ve fucked up. Big time.
I thought about going back to Jackie’s place, but what the hell would I say? What does a guy say who’s basically let his girl get shoved around by another guy because he was too fucked up over his past to man-up and say he was wrong?
Fuck, it’s so much worse when I say it out loud in my head.
Instead, I begged Rose for help, and when begging wasn’t enough I promised her a real sit-down family dinner with her and Holt if she’d give me Brian Hampson’s downtown address.
Which she somehow had, and was willing to share since it didn’t directly relate to Jackie or ‘breaking girl code.’ Whatever that means.
Then I floored it into Houston and used my last name to grease the palm of the condo’s building manager to get access to the damn garage. Sometimes it’s nice to be a West in Houston.
Thankfully, I don’t have to wait long for Hampson to drive in.
The asshole steps out of his Audi dressed head to toe in designer workout gear, wearing sunglasses in an underground garage, one finger trussed up in a splint.
The guy has a freaking man-bun for fuck’s sake.
He needs to be set straight for that alone.
But the man-bun isn’t why I’m here.
“Yo,” I call out, getting the guy’s attention.
He smiles when he sees me pushing off the side of my car to walk toward him. He actually pulls a Sharpie out from his pocket. “Always have time for my fans,” he says.
I hate him on so many levels right now.
I stop about a foot away, letting all the rage I have boil to the surface. “I’m not a fan.”
“What—”
My fist connects with his face, snapping his head back before he crumples to the ground. The man-bun cushions his fall.
Honestly, for a shortstop, his reaction time is for shit.
When he just lays there in a puddle, I nudge him with my boot, which gets a low moan out of him.
What a pussy.
I crouch down to make sure this douche bag hears every word. “You ever lay a hand on Jackie again, you even speak her mother-fucking name, and I will end you. Physically. Financially. Socially. End you.”
I rise and step over the groaning ballplayer and slide into my Mustang Boss. I flex my slightly swollen fist, then grip the steering wheel hard.
First, I need to hit the shop. I have some work to do.
But then? Then it’s time to get drunk.
“Turn on the TV!” Rose flies through the side door and runs over to the TV.
I wince at her booming voice, lifting my head from the couch. “Rose?” Six p.m. and I’m still nursing my hangover from the night before, after I finally finished my project at the shop. It has taken a full week of nonstop work, but it was worth it.
“Where is it?” She turns one way, then the other before she starts ripping cushions off the couch. Cushions I’m currently lying on. “Where’s the fucking remote?”
“Damn it, Rose. Hold up.” I get off the couch, squinting as my head pounds. “Calm down, it’s right here.” I pick up the controller from the side table and hand it to her.
Rose whirls to the TV, clicks it on and starts channel surfing like a champ. “Fox News! What channel is Fox News?”
“Rose, you’re going to break the?—”
“Ah ha!” Rose triumphantly gestures toward the TV. “There she is.”
Sitting on a red chair in a newsroom studio is Jackie.
Well, it looks like Jackie, but not. This Jackie is infinitely more polished.
Her hair is up in some sort of twist thing I usually see on older women driving Mercedes four-door sedans.
Instead of her usual uniform of jeans and Converse she’s wearing an actual pantsuit with heels.
She looks about as comfortable as a 1978 Corvette off-roading across the desert.
At least she’s still wearing her glasses.
Those sexy fucking glasses.
The screen splits, showing her friend Jules and another guy floating around in the International Space Station. Holt walks around the couch and sits down. Rose takes the chair.
“Dr. Lee, astronauts Julie Starr and Vance Bodaway, thank you for being with us today,” the newscaster says, then chuckles. “Well maybe not here , in your case, Miss Starr and Mr. Bodaway, but thank you for taking time to call down to us from the station.”
“No problem, Vanessa. I can call you Vanessa, can’t I? And I sure hope you’ll call me Jules. Miss Starr sounds like a beauty pageant contestant.”
“Just Bodie for me, ma’am,” Vance says.
“And I’m pretty sure Jackie is cool dropping all her titles, aren’t you, Jackie? Dr. Lee is her father.” Jules winks into the camera. Jackie starts rolling her eyes but stops halfway, glancing at the camera and blushing.
“Of course.” Vanessa adjusts the tilt of her head away from Jules to address Jackie.
“Let’s get down to it, shall we?” At Jackie’s blank stare, she continues.
“As a NASA Flight Operator, you have many different tasks associated with keeping the astronauts safe and the station up and running. But out of all that you do, what gave you the idea to essentially hotwire the International Space Station?”
“A mechanic.” Another blush.
“A mechanic?” The reporter’s eyebrows rise, hinting at her to elaborate. Jules smirks from the monitor and motions Jackie to continue.
“Yes. He is, ah, was a friend.” Jackie clears her throat and shifts in her seat, rubbing the palms of her hands on her pants. “He showed me how to hotwire a car recently.”
“Hotwiring a car? You wouldn’t happen to be a car thief on the side, now, would you?” Vanessa leans forward like she’s having a private moment with Jackie. Like they’re just two women having a conversation and not being filmed on a national news show. Jackie turns a deeper shade of red.
“I was told it wasn’t illegal if it was your own car.”
The reporter laughs along with Jules and Bodie, which seems to surprise Jackie. She relaxes a bit in her chair.
“So, how did you end up hotwiring a car?” Vanessa asks.
“My friend was going to give me a ride home from work. But I accidentally knocked his keys down a storm drain.” Jackie pushes her glasses up her nose. “He had to hotwire his car to start it.”
“That’s some friend.”
“Yes. He was.”
I cringe at the past tense, the pounding in my head escalating. Rose glares at me. The phrase ‘if looks could kill’ takes on new meaning.
“Anyway,” Jackie says, “as he was hotwiring his car, he took me through the procedural sequence. And later, when we were in the emergency briefing about the computer failures on the ISS, it suddenly hit me that we were thinking too complex. All the station really needed was a work-around from the damage sustained by the debris. Bypass the corroded wires and we could jump-start the EXT-1 externally.”
“I see,” the reporter says, but her facial expression says otherwise.
“That would give us the ability to then power-cycle EXT-2, which was behaving erratically due to a software update. Two birds, one stone, so to speak. It was simple, really. Anyone would’ve thought of it, I’m sure.”
“Jackie’s being modest,” Jules jumps in, bringing everyone’s attention to the monitor on set. “Truth is, she’s the smartest flight operator we have at NASA. Did you know she holds not one, but two masters and a PhD? And she’s only 29 years old.”
“She can talk circles around any of us floating around up here,” Bodie adds.
Jackie turns red again.
“Especially those who are no more than glorified streetlights, right, Bodie?” Jules smirks.
Bodie simply laughs and pushes her off frame. She climbs back up in front of the camera using the hand rails along the wall of the station, laughing back. They both seem relaxed, happy even. Not in imminent danger. And I wanted Jackie to give that up? I’m such a dick.
“Yes, you do have quite an impressive background, Jackie.” The newscaster glances down at the notepad on her lap.
“Jules mentioned your father earlier. Dr. Gerald Howard Lee is a renowned scientist with several patents in the chemical field. I guess the apple didn’t fall too far from the tree then? ”
“My father and I have different interests, but he’s always encouraged me in mine.” Jackie’s answer seems rehearsed. She reaches up, as if to run her hand through her hair, then stops when she encounters the twist thing. She jerks her hand back down, and a few strands fall to the side of her face.
“You might not have any patents that I’m aware of, but as a child prodigy you were given a full academic scholarship to Stanford after winning the Siemens Math, Science and Technology Award at just sixteen years of age.
You have two masters, one in physics with a focus in astronomy, and the other in aeronautics and astronautics, which you later followed up with a PhD. ”
Jackie nods then adjusts her glasses when they slide down.
“But most impressive, besides saving the International Space Station”—Vanessa pauses to smile at the camera—”is that you were also the recipient of the MacArthur Fellowship.”
“I was very fortunate.” She rubs her palms on her pants again.
“That’s why they call her NASA’s Darling,” Jules says with a smirk.
Jackie cringes, mumbling, “At least I’m not NASA’s Starr,” making everyone laugh.
“I’m feeling a little left out here. I think I need a nickname too,” Bodie says.
“Bodie, any nickname that would suit you wouldn’t be suitable for a public audience,” Jules quips.
Jules and Bodie continue their back-and-forth camaraderie for the camera, while Jackie looks relieved to have the focus off of her.
They talk a bit more before promising a special announcement after the commercial break.
“Holy. Fucking. Shit,” Rose says, her fingers flying over her phone.
“What?” I ask, my eyes barely leaving the TV.
“That Siemens thing?” she asks while reading her phone screen. She chuckles. “Sounds like semen.”
I put my hands on either side of my head, trying to ease the pounding. “Rose. Focus.”
She looks up at me, thumbs hovering over the screen.
“What about her award?” I prompt.
“Oh, yeah. Jackie won, like, a hundred grand,” Rose says.
“What?”
“Yeah.” Rose’s head dips back to her phone. “And the MacArthur Fellowship? That’s over a half million.”
“ What ?”
Rose gives me an odd look when she sees the expression on my face. “Why are you so surprised? Didn’t you know?”
I think back to all those times Jackie and I could’ve talked about money, instances that it would’ve been such a natural segue to explain my family’s background, and in turn she could’ve shared this with me.
But every time money came up, I’d shied away or just plain shut down the conversation.
‘Cause I was afraid money would change her view of me. Like Beth. Like Mom with Dad.
Nausea that has nothing to do with the remaining alcohol in my system rises in my throat.
“You didn’t know?” Rose asks when I don’t reply. She looks down for a moment. “Wait. You did tell her about us though, right? I mean, you two got pretty serious before you fucked it up. You had to have told her about the oil and the ranch.”
“I—”
“Flynn?”
“Um, no. I didn’t.”
Rose shakes her head. “No wonder she jammed all that cash in my purse on the sly after I bought those clothes for her.” She laughs.
“Although knowing Jackie, she would’ve done that anyway.
” She gives me a pointed look. “You know, you and Holt made me go to a therapist after Mom and Dad died. But I’m starting to think it was you two who needed the help.
You guys are both trying so hard to not repeat their mistakes, you keep making other, more idiotic ones. ”
“What do you mean?”
“Um, Holt sleeping with your ex and spending all his time on the ranch. Determined to keep the West Ranch legacy alive. You, worried every woman is a gold digger like Mom and pushing Jackie away when her dream job doesn’t include some safe little cubicle behind security access doors.”
Huh.
Commercials over, Rose turns back to the TV.
The news comes back with a close-up of Vanessa.
“Hello and welcome back. I’m Vanessa Hughes.
Today’s segment touched on the recent emergency spacewalk at NASA and the men and women being called the saviors of the International Space Station.
” She turns to look at a different camera.
“The first United States astronauts were elected in 1959. Men from military service, mostly pilots. Over the years, NASA’s group of highly selective individuals chosen for space flight has evolved.
Now both men and women from all different backgrounds have proudly flown into space under the American flag.
” The camera moves out, panning to the side, where seven men and women are lined up in blue NASA jumpsuits.
Jackie’s in the middle.
“Today that selection process continues. Here stand the seven men and women chosen for the next class of astronauts.” She turns to the group, applauding softly. “Congratulations.”
“Holy shit,” Rose breathes. “She did it.”
The newscaster goes down the line, introducing the new astronauts. A man from the Air Force Academy with a masters degree from MIT. A woman from the Naval Academy who’s a Gates Cambridge Scholar. A Colorado native who earned his doctorate in geology from UCLA.
When all the credentials have been established and the formal announcements made, Vanessa asks about family and personal hobbies. Down the line each astronaut talks about their husband, wife, fiancé, kids. When she gets to Jackie, Jackie simply says ‘single’ and moves on to her love of the stars.
That one word is a punch to my gut and it takes me a moment to breathe normally again.
“You’re my brother. And I love you,” Rose says, still looking at the screen. “But sometimes you can be such a fucking dick.”
I say nothing. What can I say? I’m such a fucking dick.