But I Won't Do That by patricia51

(Epilogue to "A Well Respected Man". Irisa has something to tell Nolan. Nolan/Kenya, Nolan/Irisa)

Irisa was waiting for Nolan. Again. Earlier she had waited outside while the town council was meeting. She didn't care for buildings much. Besides there was nothing special about seeing how Datak had slipped through their fingers again and as usual ended up in an even more powerful position. Nolan should have let her take care of him when he had basically robbed them of much of their winnings after the prize fight.

Rather to her surprise when he had come out he had not been mumbling and cursing under his breath. Rather he had had a very serious and thoughtful look on his face. She had raised an eyebrow in question when he looked at her.

"I just figured it out. Datak is not the dangerous one. Stahma is the one we need to keep an eye on."

She was surprised at first but as she mulled over the idea it made more and more sense.

People often didn't notice her, especially when she didn't want to be noticed. Part of that was her small size and slender build but most of it was her ability to blend in, to be invisible when she was in plain sight, to become part of the scenery. And people talked and they didn't know she was listening. That's how she knew about Stahma's deal with Mayor Amanda for the Council seat. A lot of things made sense now.

She nodded but didn't say anything. Not that she needed to for he had already been on the move. She fell in at his side and they walked together to the NeedWant. That was no surprise at all.

Nolan checked with the barkeep to see if Kenya had a customer. The answer was no. In fact she had cancelled all her appointments for the entire day after returning from a meeting with Amanda. Irisa found that interesting. She wished she knew what had taken place between the sisters. Nolan simply bounded up the stairs to Kenya's room. Irisa would have sighed had sighing been an Irathient custom. Since it wasn't she simply took a seat at an unoccupied table.

Contrary to the name of the place there really was nothing here that the teen either needed or wanted. However to keep herself at least slightly busy she ordered something to eat and something to drink that contained no alcohol or any other intoxicant favored by any of the races presently living on Earth. While she rather mechanically ate and drank she thought.

Her father's involvement with women tended to go off the deep end on a regular basis. In fact they were here in Defiance because they had had to hastily skip out of the last place because of his involvement with a female. Who happened to be married. And wasn't human, although obviously she wasn't in any position to protest his interest in Votan females even though her case was completely different. Generally Irisa didn't waste time thinking about the women in Nolan s life. They came and they went.

This was different. Never before had she seen him get so firmly attached to a woman as quickly as he had to Kenya. What she did as a profession was irrelevant to Irisa; to Irathients sex was a perfectly normal occurrence although the concept of money changing hands as a part of it was rather baffling. So at first she hadn't seen the significance of Kenya telling Nolan payment would no longer be a factor in the time they spent together. Now she did. It put their relationship, regardless of her saying it was because they both enjoyed having fun together, on an entirely new level.

She had to admit her opinion of Kenya had gone up considerably. She had been smart enough to figure out what was happening wasn't real and she had been tough enough to pull the probes out of her body. And she had been hard core enough to take out Nico. That she couldn't handle the Bioman was no reflection on her. Nolan handled him that just fine.

Speaking of handling, when her father had discovered Kenya was gone and a certain Castithan's hulking lackey was responsible he had handled Datak every which way but loose. Of course messing with Datak fell under the category of having a good time for them both but he was really carried away with anger and Irisa didn't think he bounced Datak off a wall or two just to impress Amanda.

Nolan also tended to stick to the old LawKeeper "You're under arrest. Come quietly and you won't get hurt" procedure. He hadn't said a thing to Ulysses before blowing a rather large hole in the Bioman. Granted he had just about reached Kenya and granted they really didn't have the facilities to hold him but her father's "shoot first and don't bother to ask questions later" action wasn't his norm. Not here in Defiance anyway.

The clincher in her evaluation of what was happening between Nolan and Kenya appeared as her father appeared at the top of the stairs. Normally he would still be adjusting his clothing but not today. And the satiated expression usually on his face was absent as well. Now he simply looked tired and worried. He stopped again at the barkeep and told him that under no circumstances was anyone to bother Kenya for any reason. Anything and everything could wait until tomorrow. Anyone who had a problem with that could come see him.

He looked over at her. "You ready to go?"

Irisa refrained from pointing out that it hadn't been her idea to come here anyway. She simply nodded, rose and accompanied him to the door.

They walked down the street side by side. Automatically they both scanned their surroundings but her attention was on him and his was elsewhere. Back at the WantNeed she had no doubt.

She needed to say something. She touched his arm and he turned towards her.

"What is it kiddo?"

"Nolan you know that I would do pretty much anything in the world for you."

"Yes I do."

"Well there's something I need to tell you I won't do and it has to do with you and Kenya."

"Me and Kenya? Irisa I think you're jumping to conclusions. We're just casual friends, nothing more than that."

She gave him a look of patience mixed with exasperation. "You don't understand. I like Kenya. I like the two of you together. You are already more than casual friends and I hope things continue to grow between you. I think you'll make quite a couple."

"What is it then?" her surprised and now deeply confused father asked.

"I am NOT going to call her 'Mother'." With that she walked on, leaving her father with his mouth open in shock. And she knew he couldn't see the grin that flitted across her face.

(The End)

(Note: The title is from the second half of the song lyric "I'll do anything for love, but I won't do that")