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English
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Peja's Wonderful World of Makebelieve Import
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Published:
2020-11-04
Completed:
2006-07-12
Words:
10,523
Chapters:
11/11
Kudos:
14
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4,654

The Hunter

Summary:

A man with a grudge against the Patterson's books passage on the Vast Explorer

Chapter 1: Page 1

Notes:

Disclaimer: I don't own them, just barrowing them for a short spin. Off the bat I'm not sure who owns them.
Author's Notes: This is my very first Adventure Inc. fan fic, so I'm sorry for anything I get wrong. I am new to the show, but I love it.
This is a PG to PG-13 story for language and some violence.
This not my first ff, just the first for this show.
Also I'm unsure of the title; I'm thinking of changing it later.

Chapter Text

The Hunter
by Little Wing

"We're taking on a passenger," Judson Cross said as he began to help the youngest member of his crew to load a new load of supplies onto the Vast Explorer.

"Who is it?" A female voice asked from aboard the ship.

Looking up from his work, Judson smiled to see Mackenzie Previn standing at the rail in a bikini top and a pair of shorts. "Callum Addison."

"Something wrong, Gabe?" Mac and Judson asked when Gabriel dropped the box he'd been holding at the sound of Addison's name.

"Huh?" He looked at them blankly for a couple of heart beats. "Sorry," he muttered turning his attention back to the creates of supplies.

"Gabe, are you okay?" Cross asked running a hand through his buzz cut blond hair.

"Fine." A smile eased across his face.

"Don't drop anymore creates." He gave the kid a small tap in his shoulder.

*****

This was almost too easy, Callum Addison smirked at he neared the slip the Vast Explorer was docked at. His smirk grew as a figure appeared near the pale yellow ship. The figure was tall and thin with a mass of dark locks swirling about his head. Addison knew before he could see his face that the figure was Gabriel Patterson. Callum remembered the first time he'd met the boy, though Patterson had been quite a bit shorter at the time. With any luck he'll remember me, Addison thought as he changed his smirk into as pleasant a smile he could.

"Hello." He winced inside as he noticed Gabriel flinching as the sound of his voice. "I'm sorry." Better, he thought as Gabriel's body relax some.

"Can I help you?" Gabriel stared hard at the new comer. There was something vaguely familiar about the tall, muscular man standing before him. There was something in the man's pale green eyes that Gabe knew, but he just couldn't quite place it yet. Gabe watched in horror as he knew where he knew the man. Callum Addison. The man standing before him was Callum Addison.

"Are you all right?" Callum asked noticing that Gabe had gone very rigid, his brown eyes wide in horrified recognition. Inwardly Callum smiled at the effect he was having in the youth before him. The kid did remember him, he was impressed. "Hey, kid." He tried to pretend that he didn't know why Gabriel was acting the way he was.

"Hey, Gabe, what's going on?" a dark haired woman asked coming up next to the speechless young man. "Can I help you?" Her voice was steady and steely, almost as if she were accusing the stranger standing before her and Gabe of doing something to her young friend. Her pictures definitely did not do her justice, Callum thought as Mackenzie Previn left him momentarily speechless himself. Callum couldn't wait to get his plan put into action. Comforting her after Gabe was gone would be more than he ever could've wished for.

"Can I help?" He hard edged voice cut through his reverie, jarring him back to the beautiful Mackenzie and the terrified Gabriel standing before him.

"Yes, I'm Callum Addison." He offered his hand to Mackenzie, who just stared at it and him as though she were calculating on how to separate it from his arm.

"Mackenzie Previn." She took his hand in a crushing grasp. Her strength surprised him at first. She would be a wild card, but Gabe was his ace in the hole. "This is Gabriel Patterson." She pointed her thumb at the still silent young man.

"I am terribly sorry if I frightened Mr. Patterson," Callum apologized, hoping that he sounded as sincere as possible.

"It's almost impossible to scare him, he's playing shy." Her green eyes bore through him as though she were looking for something inside him. Something's not right here. Gabe hasn't said a word in more than three minutes and he seems transfixed on something. There's something about Callum Addison that I don't quite trust, she thought as she continued to stare holes into Addison.

"Is Mr. Cross on board?" He changed the subject, sensing that she knew that something was wrong. After all young Mr. Patterson had gone stone silent since his approach and he knew that Gabriel and Mackenzie were probably close enough to know when something was wrong with the other. He needed to put her on his side before he made Gabriel disappear.

"No. He had some business to take care of. He should be with us shortly." There was just something about that didn't sit right with her where Callum Addison was concerned. "Until then I'll show you to your cabin." Moving past the slack jawed Gabriel, Mac let Addison onto the ship and to his cabin.

****

A still smiling Judson Cross walked down to the slip the Vast Explorer was docked. His chipper mood drowned by a very still Gabriel a very horrified look still in his eyes. Carefully he neared the young man. "Gabe?"

The pause was longer than any he'd ever had, even when the other person was lying to him. What happened to him? Cross wondered as he reached a hand out to touch Gabe's shoulder. "Gabe?" A gentle shake ought to bring him around. "What's the matter, Kid?"

"Nothing," Gabe choked out in a soft voice, shaking his head.

"May be you should go lay down for a while. Mac and I can handle shoving off."

Nodding Gabriel walked numbly toward his cabin. He agreed with Judson, he needed to get some rest. He'd just do his job and stay the hell away from Addison while he did. That man had given him the creeps when he was younger and he still did. There was something in Addison's eyes that Gabe had never liked. It was as if the devil lived just behind the pale green surface of Callum's eyes. The cool grey walls poured over Gabe and calmed him in a way that he never thought they would. This was his safe place from Addison.

"If it isn't Gabriel Patterson," Addison said leaning in the doorway. "I see that you're still afraid of me."

"The devil has that affect on people," he spat at the taller man.

"I see you found your tongue." Callum stepped into the room closing the door behind him "You have no idea how much like your mother you look." He smiled as horror moved in waves across Gabe's face."Tell me, Gabe, how well does Ms. Previn take grief?"

"Leave her alone." His jaw was nearly locked from the pressure he was putting through it.

"I intend to, Gabe. It's a long trip. I wouldn't worry about her." Addison turned to face to door.

"Why are you here?"

"To see the son of an old friend." He opened the door and left.

A sigh of relief swept through Gabe as his legs lowered him to his bed. The numbness already living in his body took over more as his encounter with Addison sank in. He'd never liked or trusted Addison. There was just always something distant about the man, almost as if he thought, no believed, that he were superior to everyone. Addison was up to something and somehow Mac, Judson and himself played into Callum's plan, now if only Gabe knew what that plan was.

Closing his eyes Gabe leaned his head against the cool metal of the grey wall and let the calm of the room take him over.

*****

"Mr. Cross, we meet at last." Callum Addison said as he made his way to the bridge.

"Mr. Addison." Judson's were locked on the path he was guiding the ship. Pleasantries would just have to wait until they were out to sea.

"I'll leave you until your not so busy." Callum smiled as he pulled a notebook from his pocket and began to jot something down. It was a mere single word, but that word was very important to Callum. It described more than an entire sentence would. Judson Cross was a very focused man. And it was that focus that Addison intended to use against him. "Ms. Previn."

"Mr. Addison," her voice was as level as it had been earlier and nearly as cold.

"Does young Mr. Patterson ever get used to strangers aboard?"

"Normally there isn't a problem. Why do you ask?"

"I just past the young man as he went into his room and he seemed to be afraid of me again."

"If Gabe doesn't like someone he usually has a reason. Is there any reason he may have to dislike you?"

"I've never really met Mr. Patterson before." He knew that something was wrong, Mac could sense that there was bad blood between him and Gabriel. It'd been a while since he'd met someone who'd been able to sense a hidden agenda. Callum could tell that Mac thought he was lying to her. While his statement wasn't a lie, it just didn't apply to Gabe. "You don't like me very much, do you, Ms. Previn?" He moved closer to her. The soft black of his cotton pants brushing against her exposed skin just below her shorts.

"No I don't. What gave me away?" She carefully took a step away from Addison.

"Body language." He gabbed her arm pulling her back to him. "It says a lot about people. I know how you feel about me, for example. But how do you feel about Mr. Cross and the boy." Shock slid across her face in waves of anger.

"If you . . ."

"What? Don't worry, Ms. Previn, I won't harm one little hair on Mr. Cross' head."

****

What in the hell is going on down there? Judson thought when he heard hushed voices and saw Mac having some sort of conversation with Addison. If it weren't for Addison's death grip on Mac's arm, Judson would've let the hushed conversation alone. But there was a look of cold anger in her eyes and on her face, he needed to do something to save Callum from being thrown overboard. Quickly he went to the rail. "Mac."

"Be right there." Glancing at Addison's hand locked onto her upper arm and then back at Addison.

"His cabin is next to mine, isn't it?" He smiled at the look of pure burning hatred in her hazel eyes.

"Touch either of them and I'll kill you." Addison's grip was gone from her arm instantaneously.

"Care to tell me what that was all about?" Crossed asked his blue eyes scanning the water for other vesicles.

"I'm not sure." She looked at him with a thank you look in her eyes for a second, just a second, but Judson knew that look.
"I don't trust Mr. Addison." Her voice changed back to her serious my way or the highway tone. "What do you know about him?" She had to keep the threat he's made about Gabe to her self for the time being.



TBC....

Hope that you enjoy this. I'm looking forward to finishing this.