Cable

[more_flexible]

Jack had decided to do it in one go and had borrowed what was a cross between a cart and a wheelbarrow. He'd loaded in his crate of rifles, John's guns, and had taken Logan's Colt and headed to the compound. He made it to the main doors and then stopped, puzzlin gout how he was going to get everything in to IPD custody. He didn't want the guns in their home. They'd talked about lockup before the baby came and had agreed on the workshop, but now...now with Logan so down, Jack didn't want any guns in the house. He knew Logan and there were times the younger man was prone to doing risky, stupid things. It was just a precaution and they could always get them back out for hunting or whatever.

The problem was he couldn't carry the whole crate. He couldn't get the cart into the compound. That left the options of getting help or taking the guns in a few at a time and he didn't like the idea of just leaving them out here. He knew how well it had gone over when they'd been moving and the gelignite had been left out. But that seemed to be the only option. He opened the crate and pulled out one of the Carbines and then saw someone else.

"Hey," he said warmly. "Can I get a little help?"

Comments

[mutant-gi-jesus.livejournal.com]

"When you can't rely on organizations," Cable had once said, "and you can't rely on people, you can always trust ordnance."

And it was as true now as it had been true then. Guns were one of the few things that he was always comfortable with.

"Of course," he told the stranger, with a long look at the crate in question. "That's quite a collection."

It made the two guns he was carrying, seem relatively unimpressive in comparison.

[captainjack.livejournal.com]

"It showed up a few Christmases back," Jack explained. "Rifles and ammo, direct from the second world war. You know guns?"

It was a light question, asking more if he appreciated them than knew that the end with the hole gets pointed toward the target.

[mutant-gi-jesus.livejournal.com]

"My own true passion," Cable replied with a little quirk of the lips to make it clear it was said half in jest. "I know few things better."

"These going to the Compound?" he added, and it sounded more statement than question.

[captainjack.livejournal.com]

"Yeah, into the lock-up. These might as well just be community property," he said, gesturing to the crate. Impulsively, Jack opened it and pulled out a brand new rifle. Classic, gorgeous. It had clearly never been used, but had been cleaned religiously.

"It's a really good hunting rifle here," he said, handing it off. "Made for the battlefield- which we don't have, thankfully."

[mutant-gi-jesus.livejournal.com]

Cable took the weapon gratefully with his left arm, studying it with a flash of light from his artificial left eye.

"Kind of you. Guess I must have a more trustworthy face than I thought," he replied with a slight smile as he offered his, human, right hand for Jack to shake. "Nathan, though most people call me Cable."

[captainjack.livejournal.com]

"Cable," he repeated. "I'm Jack. And it's easy to trust a man with an unloaded weapon," he added with a chuckle.

Oh, but that look. That look of real appreciation. These guns were meant to be used and cared for and loved, not left in a crate.

"Do you want it?" he asked. "We can spare that one lock up. And there's boxes of carbine ammo here in the bottom of the crate..."

[mutant-gi-jesus.livejournal.com]

"I make my own ammo," he replied, because he was nothing if not proud and it would be an interesting challenge to work with yet another type of gun.

"But, I'd be more than grateful for the gun. They did good work in the 1940s," he added conversationally as he turned the gun over in his hands. "I grew up long after that, in the 40th century, but one of the finest weapons I've ever wielded was made then. All that time hadn't dulled its edges."

[captainjack.livejournal.com]

"Really?" Jack asked, a bit surprised but happy. Happy to finally meet someone from a time closer to his own.

"I grew up in the 51st, but I was a time traveler so I've been all over. I loved the 40's. I wasn't surprised when the guns showed up. This was years ago, though. Back when this place was still fairly wild.

[mutant-gi-jesus.livejournal.com]

Cable slipped the gun into a spare holster as Jack talked and then took his position on one side of the crate, ready to move it.

"Wild?" he prompted, encouraging Jack to continue. He was, despite his increasing irritation with his current life, still intrigued by the island of Tabula Rasa and was happy to hear more about the early days that he hadn't seen. "Back when the population was smaller?"

[captainjack.livejournal.com]

"Yeah," he said, taking hold of the other end. "When I first got here there was nothing. Fewer people. Shelters instead of huts. Finding the compound was a godsend. My first hut was put together with wooden dowels and vines to tie it together. It was...rustic."

He chuckled a bit at the memory of the place he'd torn down and used for the November fifth bonfire.

"And now we've got so much. A nice little society with water and power. This place has grown up like you wouldn't believe."

[mutant-gi-jesus.livejournal.com]

"Yes," Cable replied slowly as they started moving the crate. It could have meant anything.

"You were a soldier, in your trips to the 40s, or just a tourist?"

[captainjack.livejournal.com]

"I've been a soldier on and off since I was seventeen," Jack replied. It was no secret. Maybe when he'd first arrived he had been in the habit of dodging the truth but he had come to realize that no one here, other than The Doctor, knew or cared about the Time Agency. Honesty wasn't damning.

"I started at the war at home. A few years of that and I was recruited by an agency that sent me around time to collect things or set things right. A lot of the time I wound up in a war zone, a soldier again. I've seen a lot of wars on a lot of worlds and they're all pretty much the same."