VAQ: ACTIONS 8/?: Dreaming of Jamie by Bonnie Pardoe (Vaquero) Thursday, August 1st, ~6 am ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Torrey was exhausted. Wednesday had been wild and incredible. \\Just another day in Toronto for the average War Vet!\\ Things had finally settled down. They had gotten Vachon safely back to the church and out of the precious cow suit -- \\Well worth the effort,\\ Torrey thought to herself. Bonnie had done some very nice internet cattle-rustling and managed to whip out a nice little web page, 'A Loving Dedication to Cherri Moo-noz' \\Classic!\\ Torrey hadn't laughed so hard in a long time! But finally, the Vaquero den mother, after encouraging her troops to sleep, plopped gratefully into bed herself. Torrey fell into the deep, contented sleep of a valorous warrior general. But thoughts of the war were ever present, even in slumber. Torrey's unconscious replayed the events of two days before (Tuesday July 30th), not long after Vachon had brought Jamie, the illustrious WebGoddess into their happy little church. Jamie was sleeping soundly in a nice, warm bed in a private, little room. She had been acting a bit strange, happy, but strange, even for Jamie. But, the Vaqueros chalked that up to euphoria after her flight with Vachon -- who wouldn't be euphoric and a bit light-headed after a whirlwind tour of Toronto on Conquistador Aire? They had put her to bed where she, thankfully, fell right to sleep. The Vaqueros, well, most of them, were all sitting around the table in the kitchen eating eggs and hash browns, and drinking coffee and orange juice, celebrating their triumphs of kidnapping Jamie and safely grabbing the chocolate ransom the Mercs had left at the Raven. "Say, do you suppose Jamie would want us to wake her for this feast?" Terry said, always thinking of others. "She had a long night, but I really don't think she would want to miss this!" Jenn knew she was glad to be there and wouldn't personally have missed the spread for anything. "I'll go wake her! Hope she's not dreaming about Nick or LaCroix or Vachon," Katya giggled. Not five minutes later, Katya dashed back into the kitchen, sliding across the bare floor and stopping herself by running into the refrigerator against the far wall. "Jamie's gone," she blurted out as soon as she had caught her breath. "What?" came a collective cry from the herd. Chairs began to clatter to the floor as the Vaqueros leapt to their feet and began a frantic search of the church. The first place checked was Vachon's room -- where else would Jamie want to be? But only the usual occupants of the room were found there, and both were fast asleep. All the pews were checked, every room and closet, even the confessionals. They looked behind the alter, in the choir loft, in the old organ room. Jamie was no where to be found. "Where could she be?" "She can't have simply vanished. That's too weird even for a war." "Well, she was or is a mercenary, they are good at simply vanishing." Some of the Vaqueros pondered as they stood in the Jamie-less nave of the church. "Hey! Torrey, did you leave the door to the roof unlocked after Vachon brought Jamie in last night?" Stephanie asked her 'I scoff at death' leader. "No. I locked, bolted, and chained it!" was the Capitan's immediate response. "Hey, I've got surveillance pictures!" Charlyne was sitting in front of the computers. "Here's Jamie wandering down the hall--" "She looks so cute, like a little kid wanting a glass of water," Carla awed. "Then," Charlyne continued, "here she is at the base of the stairs. And... yep. She went up onto the roof. Guess we found her." "No, after I found that the door was unlocked, I checked the roof. She's not there," Stephanie assured her compadres. "She has to be. Look," Charlyne pointed to the rather flattering picture of the WebGoddess on the screen. "See, she's standing right up there." "Wait, but in that next picture, she's no longer there. Where'd she go?" Jay wondered aloud. "No one could have taken her off the roof -- no one knew she was even here," Storm insisted. "Hey, wait! Go back to that picture. What's that in the tree? That's Jamie! That's Jamie hidden among the branches!" Torrey shouted and pointed. "How the heck.... Well, at least we know no one else has her," Charlyne was dumbfounded but the surveillance cameras didn't lie. "Yeah, and no one knows, probably including Jamie given the state of her short term memory, that she was ever here." Torrey was visibly relieved. "Even if she does remember, she did come willingly -- we never held her against her will!" Jay reminded everyone. Thankful for their extensive surveillance equipment, and the fact the Jamie appeared safe, though her current whereabouts were still unknown, the Vaqueros returned to their scrumptious breakfast! Life in the church was good once again. Torrey opened her eyes for a moment and stretched before pulling the covers back up under her chin. A small smile of satisfaction lingered on her lips, \\The war is going well, the Vaqueros are pulling together, what more could an affiliation leader hope for?\\ ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~