Sidekick Showcase [50] - One of a Kind

Sidekick Showcase, previously known as Sidekick Saturday, is a weekly bookish meme, hosted here by Jaclyn at JC's Book Haven. There are many secondary characters that are as great as the primaries. In some cases, the sidekicks actually steal the show and you like them better than the heroine or hero. Maybe they didn't have enough page time for how great they were. Anyone can play along! I will post my Sidekicks on Saturday, then whichever day during the week that you would like to post yours, you can put your link in on my page. Just do the following:

• Choose a sidekick *or someone other than the hero or heroine* that you would like to put in the spotlight that fits in the week's topic
• Share a picture (if you can) and information about the character
• Give the title and author of a book the character can be found in
• Please don't include too many spoilers when describing why the character is such a great sidekick
• The day of your post, put your link in below and grab the code for your post so you can see the others that post their's throughout the week as well

Next week is Creepy

This week is One of a Kind

My choice is Jesse Hauptman
Mercy Thompson Series by Patricia Briggs

Jesse Hauptman Picture Created by Jaclyn Canada

While Jesse doesn't play a large role in the series, I sure enjoy when she's around. She is much loved by her father Adam Hauptman who is the Alpha of the Columbia Basin Pack. In the beginning of the series, she spends time back and forth with her mother and her father. When she's with her mom, she's not featured in the book. Mercy met Jesse when she was 9 years old. They often bake together and discuss the 'Wild Things'. Speaking of, that's definitely something that makes Jesse one of a kind in this series. She's one of the few regular humans that we meet. On top of that, thanks to her not so great mother, she's very mature for her age since she has to be more of the parent in that relationship. She's eccentric, often changing her hair color (sometimes more than once in a book), and she lives in a house that werewolves frequently run in and out of in both forms. I love this bright spot of sunshine added to the series. Even when times are tough, there's not much that can keep Jesse down. Having the teenager added in the mix with all of the adults, sure adds a lot and also brings out Mercy's maternal side.

Quotes:

“Drink it,” I told her. “It’s good for what ails you. Caffeine and sugar. I don’t drink it, so I ran over to your house and stole the expensive stuff in your freezer. It shouldn’t be that bad. Samuel told me to make it strong and pour sugar into it. It should taste sort of like bitter syrup.”

She gave me a smile smile, then a bigger one, and plugged her nose before she drank it down in one gulp. “Next time," she said in a hoarse voice, “I make the coffee.”

---

Jesse was Adam's daughter, fifteen going on forty. She spent most of the year with her mother in Eugene - she must be in town to spend Thanksgiving with Adam. It seemed a little early to me for that, since Thanksgiving wasn't until Thursday, but she went to some private school for brilliant and eccentric kids, so maybe her vacations were longer than the public school's.

---

"Did you dye your hair specially for your father?" I asked, finding a spoon and handing it to her with a healthy glob of dough.
"Of course," she said, taking a bite then continuing to talk as if her mouth wasn't half-full. "It makes him feel all fatherly if he can complain about something. Besides," she said with an air of righteousness, "everyone in Eugene is doing it. It'll wash out in a week or two. When I was tired of the lecture, I just told him he was lucky I didn't use superglue to put spikes in like my friend Jared. Maybe I'll do that next vacation. This is good stuff."

---

"He said, 'Got a hit. Don't fret. He was a hired gun.'" She waved her empty spoon at me. "Now explain it to me."

I suppose I should have respected Adam's need to protect his daughter, but he was the one who sent her to me. "I killed a man tonight. Your father found out who he was."

"Really? And he was a hit man? Cool." She dropped the spoon in the sink next to the first one, then boosted herself up to sit on my counter and conducted a rapid question and answer session all by herself. "Was that what you called him about earlier? He was fit to be tied. How come you called Dad? No wait. The man you killed was a werewolf, too, wasn't he? That's why Dad took off so fast. Who is the wolf he came back with?" She paused. "You killed a werewolf? Did you have a gun?"

Several. But I hadn't brought one with me to the garage.

She had paused, so I answered her last two questions. "Yep and nope."

"It wasn't on purpose," I told her repressively. I might as well have tried holding back a tidal wave with my bare hands, it would have had as  much effect.

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