Ill Wind

Look at that! He shows some sense, the voice continued, and damned if it wasn't starting to sound like Elena. He could imagine the tough little blond saying those exact words to him. Could imagine? It seemed that he already was. Reno supposed that it shouldn't come as a surprise; Lei Lei was the one who spent the most time lecturing him anyway. If Tseng was the brains of the Turks, and he and Rude were the muscle, then Elena, and now Kerri, was their heart.

Reno took two steps towards the bathroom, then stopped. He stood indecisively for a moment. Part of him, the majority, in fact, wanted to go to her, wrap his arms around her and assure her that he would take care of her—and the baby. But there was a part of himself, a part he wasn't proud of, that selfishly told him that it wasn't fair for her to expect him to tie himself down with a child. Wasn't it enough that he had been faithful to her all along? No other woman had ever gotten that from him. And a Turk raising a kid. The idea of it was absurd. “Fuck this,” he growled, and left the hotel room.



Kerri wasn't much surprised to find Reno gone when she opened the bathroom door. She should have known that he would have left sooner or later. Elena had tried to tell her that Reno didn't take women seriously. She'd heard rumors about his skirt-chasing even when she was still at the Academy. She'd still disregarded all of it, had chosen instead to believe that “you're my woman” line of his. Now she had to pay the price for her gullibility. Or did she? There were other options; she didn't have to have this baby. She knew of a couple of girls at the Academy had terminated their unwanted pregnancies. Abruptly, the picture of an infant with Reno's red hair and her blue eyes flashed before her. The feeling of protectiveness that gripped her left Kerri in shock. Well, that answers that question, she thought. There was no way she could have an abortion. For the first time she realized that she wanted her baby, whether the father of that baby wanted it or not.

She went back into the bathroom and turned the shower on, climbing into it once she had the temperature adjusted. And if her face was wet before the water touched it, what of it?



Rude stepped out of his hotel room just as Reno had passed it by. Seeing the familiar red ponytail of his partner, Rude called out a greeting. Reno stopped and waited, but did not turn around. “So you did show up,” Rude said. “Are you going to pick up breakfast for yourself and Kerri?”

“I don't know where I'm going, yo. Just wherever the car takes me,” Reno answered.

Rude sighed. “Don't tell me that the two of you already had an argument.” They reached the elevator and Reno pressed the down button. The doors opened at once, and the two Turks stepped inside. “What did you do?” Rude asked.

“I knocked her up,” Reno spat, “she's fucking pregnant.” Rude's jaw dropped, and he peered over the top of his glasses at Reno. “Stop looking at me that way. You look like a giant bug, yo,” he said to Rude.

Any other time Rude would have administered a short, hard jab to the back of Reno's head for a comment like that. This time, he was too surprised to even think of it. “Is she sure?” he asked.

Reno sighed. “She seems to be.”

The elevator stopped and the Turks stepped off. Reno started toward the hotel's front doors, but Rude gripped his shoulder and pulled him back. “What are you going to do, Reno?”

The redhead glared at him. “I already told you. I'm going to drive to wherever the car takes me. I can't handle this shit right now.”

It was Rude's turn to glare. “You mean you're running out on her? You're leaving her to face telling the boss by herself?”

“Hey, she's the one who got careless with the birth-control. Not me.”

“Of course it wasn't you. You can't get careless with something you didn't use,” Rude replied.

The mild contempt in Rude's words stung Reno with guilt. He pulled away from Rude's hand and headed toward the exit. “You're my friend, Rude,” he flung over his shoulder, “but you need to stay the fuck out of this.”

“Just like you are?” Rude called.

“Go to hell!” Reno yelled just before walking out.

Rude ignored the curious glances of the hotel staff and patrons. He looked toward the elevator, debating on whether to go back up and talk to Kerri, or go on to the reactor site and act as though nothing had happened. He decided to go and join Tseng at the site, guessing that Kerri would be uncomfortable talking to him about the situation. But she needed someone. Her first kill, finding out she was pregnant, and now Reno walking out on her. As he went to the doors, he pulled out his cell phone and called Elena.



After Reno had left, Kerri spent the rest of the day curled on the sofa staring at the television, deeply hurt and depressed. She couldn't bring herself to lie down on the bed where Reno had made love to her. She didn't eat and barely noticed what she was watching. Her hands lay folded across her stomach, as if hoping that the life inside her would sense that one parent, at least, wanted it.

The sudden knock on the door that evening startled her. She knew it wasn't Reno; she knew the sound of his knock. “Who is it?” she called without getting up.

“It's Elena. Let me in, Kerri.”

“Elena?” Kerri got up and opened the door. “What are you doing here?” she asked.

The blond Turk gently pushed her aside and entered the room, swinging the door shut behind her. She took one look at Kerri, the frumpy sweat suit, her pallid skin, the dark circles under her red-rimmed eyes, and pointed to the bed. “You. Go lie down and rest.”

“I don't want to,” Kerri protested, but Elena was already propelling her to the bed. “You know, don't you?” Kerri asked.

“I know that you're pregnant,” Elena answered, “and I can tell just by looking at you that you've had a rough day. So you are going to get some rest, then you're going to eat something.”

Kerri allowed Elena to push her down on the mattress. As she lay down, she asked, “Did Reno tell you?”

“No. Rude told me.”

“Rude!” Kerri sat back up and was pushed down again by the other woman. “Rude knows, too? What about Tseng and the boss?”

Elena shook her head. “Not yet. Rude knows because he saw Reno on his way out. I know because Rude was worried about you, so he called me.” She was pulling the covers over the exhausted brunette as she spoke. “Now, shut up and go to sleep. If I know Reno, you didn't get much sleep last night.”

Kerri's heart ached at the reminder of how happy she had been the night before that Reno was there with her. All she said, however, was, “You're right, but I don't know if I can sleep. I can't stop thinking about the baby, about Reno, about the man I killed. Not to mention the fact that I have to tell Rufus that one of his Turks is pregnant.”

Elena sat down on the bed beside her. “Are you going to keep this baby?” she asked.

In a small voice, Kerri said, “It sounds insane, but I want it, Elena. More than anything.”

“Then you have to take care of yourself, Kerri, because you're not just taking care of yourself now.” She patted Kerri's stomach for emphasis. “Go to sleep. I'll be right here.” She smiled at Kerri and added, “I know I'm not Reno, but I care about you, too.”

The brunette snorted. “Does he care? It doesn't feel like it right now.”

Taking one of Kerri's hands, Elena said, “Stop pouting. Of course he cares. He'll come around. And if he doesn't, I'll shoot him...yo,” she finished, surprising a laugh out of her friend.