Nate Carterr, Legion Ranger and replacement in Sabattann for Starr - though as we know, no one can 'replace' Starr - waited on a streetcorner for an informant. When the man came, he gave Nate information in exchange for cartons of cigarettes about the explosion in the warehouse. Nate now knew that there was likely no detonator, that he wouldn't find one or parts of one because the explosion was done via magical means. He didn't like that at all.
Sabattann Mennth joined Nate in the well kept '49 Imikk - the fastest car ever built in Sabattann. Took Nate by surprise. "You're as bad as Gideonn," he told Mennth.
This Mennth was nondescript, genderless. Nate wondered but could not tell anything about any of the Mennth's. It didn't matter. The Mennths were good at what they did. Range. Get info. Together they decided upon a course of action. They would get into NRMH without alerting the Unioners and they would find out if victims of the explosion were in fact alive and hidden within the hospital walls. Mennth and Nate together headed that way in the Imikk.
Inside NRMH, Doc Hollidayy talked to Erin Daria about his sessions with the Hospital's latest promotion to "head Shrink" Dr. Castlemann. He insisted the man couldn't be a shrink because Castlemann smiled too much. Doc looked uncomfortable. "He asks me what it was like growing up here..." Doc gave a shudder. "'Sif he wants to get to know me." Mostly he was joking with Erin. Castlemann had a strange but compelling way about him.
"He's got to get to know you some for this all to work, you think?" She honestly didn't know, aside from what her nursing training had told her. There had been times when she'd been told she should get a shrink herself.
"That must be it. But he said the weirdest thing... "
"What?" Her desire to get out of the hospital was momentarily forgotten.
"He said if he couldn't help me in twelve weeks that he couldn't help me and he'd stop having me come to his office. Never heard a head doc say anything like that before."
Erin sounded surprised. "No kidding. Like a guarantee? How long have you been going so far?"
Doc was thinking, counting on his fingers even, then he stood because he had to start rounds. "Three weeks." Doc smiled. "It's rather like waiting for spring... "
"Got nine weeks left." For spring. Erin nodded. "I do hope it works, though Doc. I really do."
"Yer too good ta me Erin." And she was, for all the trouble he'd caused her. He gathered up his clipboard and saluted her with it. "Now get on outta here an' have some fun why don't ya?" He was on night rounds because when he was put back on, he had to take the low man on the pole spot. It would do.
Erin saluted back with smile. "Yes sir!" And she gathered up her jacket and put it on. "Behave now, Doc."
He snorted. "Where's the fun in that?"
When she did head outside, Erin breathed in lungfuls of night air and jammed her hands into her pockets. Which way to go? She just ended up...walking. Still had her scrubs on underneath her jacket, but who cared.
==
Mennth was busy telling Nate, "I dun envy you."
"What?" Nate shot a look at Mennth. The words sunk in belatedly. "Oh. Who would? Helluvan act to follow."
A casual shrug Mennth offered. "Why you, I gotta ask?"
Nate snorted as the car rolled past the second street on it's way to the back entrance of the hospital... the bays... "Who then if not me? You?"
That strangled sound may have been laughter. "Dun know me well enough yet. Ain't liked no where."
"It's cause ya don't talk to nobody, Mennth." His eyes narrowed. He was about to turn down a side street, go around the back of the building when he saw Erin. After last weekend he'd know her anywhere.
"Don't need to talk to nobody." Mennth followed Nate's gaze to looking at the girl. Union chikka, no doubt.
He muttered. "Th' hells she doing out?" She was walking aimlessly. Though the car got her attention. She paused, looked around, a bit of worry on her face. Except that even in the dark, there was something familiar about it.
"Joo know her?" Way Erin walked, gotta be a her.
"Yeah." He grinned. "Like Starr knows Chenn." It was a saying in the Rangers. Maybe 4 years old now. "Don't know that it'll be anything." He shot a look at
Mennth though. "Makes me more and more a choice to follow Starr though, don't
you think?" Was that approval he was after?
Inside and out. A low whistle eminated from behind the shield. Instant closure. "She ain't no Chenn." Very few were.
"Didn't say she was." He couldn't have handled a Chenn. He didn't need a Chenn.
But right now there was a job to do. So of course, Nate stopped the car. He slipped out through the window. "Take it to the bays. Get inside. They know me there anyway. Find out what you can, awigh'?" Union was antsy about the Legion now. After several soldiers had nearly taken a man, a patient, apart for getting his grimy hands all over the Boss' daughter. Poor kid... too damn good looking to be creeping around in the Union psych wards.
His voice carried, and at the same time the sound if not the look of the car became more familiar. Erin's worry shifted to relief. Erin frowned. Someone else with him. Business, prolly. She shuffled her foot, looked off and down the street.
Mentth did the same, but sat with legs dangling inside, arms folded on the Immik's top. "Ain't yer lackey." Technically, Mentth was. Damn.
Nate scowled but couldn't tell what was going with Mentth's face. His voice dropped real low. "Listen up. Not one job we do rates anything lower than the best to handle it. It ain't a lackey job or I'da asked a lackey to do it." There were no lackies in the Rangers.
"Dun need the pep talk. I read the brochure." Mentth slapped the roof top. Add one more to Mennth's fan club.
Nate tilted his head, then he smiled real pretty. Which was surprising considering his face. Mennth's eyes narrowed, suspecting trickery. Then he turned and walked across the street to where the wind blew Erin's hair.
He'd said what he needed to. Mennth knew the drills 'read the brochure'... Nate had his own way of finding out who was or wasn't inside.
Mennth slid out all the way and kicked one of the tires. "Ow."
Nate turned back then and pointed. "You break it you bought it." He didn't mean Mennth would get the car either.
Business was fine and all. She just didn't want to interrupt it. And thus, she missed Nate's approach until he was very near her. A smile spread over her face. Nate took her arm as she smiled at him. Electricity seemed to rush through him but he ignored it. He heard the approaching sounds of feet in the street... could have been gangers then... culties.. anything.
Mennth figured that was so and grumbled. Still, Mennth got into the driver's seat, drove the Imikk away to where Mennth parked in the bays and ducked some irrated blonde chick by the ambulances.
Erin's eyes sparkled with mischief. "Out looking for a date?" Then she too heard the footsteps.
Nate tugged her hard against the wall. "Help me with something. Why are you out here? On a night like this?" Voices were joking and carrying on carried on the wind as they approached.
Erin looked a little surprised. "I...needed to get out. I was restless."
Nate pushed them further back into the alley, away from the less dark street. Away from the encroaching noise of the people who were prowling. He fished in his pocket and pressed something into her hand. "From now on, when you need to get out, you contact me."
It was a small device. It had a single button. "It will work within the city limits. Past that, I can't swear. It will let me know you want me, but only that. It's crude, I know..."
For a moment, she was too caught up in the feeling of being near him and the electricity there between them both to respond. She swallowed hard and then looked down at the device. "It...signals you?" She fingered it, turned it over and over in her hand.
"I know I shouldn't go out," she said then. "I just have this feeling inside like I *need* to sometimes."
The button on the small flat device was inset, so it could not be accidentally depressed. It would have to be pushed deliberately. "It signals me and only me. It's set to my ... wavelength."
Like my body is set to your wavelength, she thought. Deep breath, then she looked up at him and smiled. "And you'd come, then?" Just like that.
"If I couldn't come," she knew what he did for a living, "I'd send a Shadow. You'd get a message, but you wouldn't see anyone. Once you got the message, you'd know you'd be protected."
But he didn't want the Shadows doing what he wanted to do.
By the gods he was just giving away all the Legion secrets, wasn't he?
"Thank you," she said softly. Inside, her mind was processing and filing away what he'd told her, along with the new details she was learning about the Legion. She'd never tell anyone else though. "I will call. I promise." Then..."You think I'm foolish for being out here like this?"
He smiled in the dark of the alley, his hands finding things to do on her form. One rested at the small of her back the other drew a pattern across her collar bone. "No. Out here is where life happens."
There were no doors that opened out onto this alley between buildings. It was merely a walkway. There was no garbage, though with the breezes that whirled around the buildings with faint whistles, bits of paper tumbled or floated past.
See? He understood. Gods, what a relief. She smiled as her eyes, unbidden by her, closed to half-mast at his touch. "I need to see it all. Be out in it. Feel the wind...I can't be cooped up, even now..." More and more, her voice was sinking to a whisper. Slowly, her hands moved over his chest, feeling the heat beneath, and the beat of his heart.
With no hesitation he captured her lips and kissed her deeply, his hand sliding down her body. He stepped forward. The movement pressed her back into the cinderblock wall of the old building. His kiss became more than deep. It was hungry, urgent. When the kiss was broken, he didn't know how long he held her there... just breathing, unable to speak.. how could she speak? He heard her say something, through a haze of pounding beats in his ears... how could he do anything this way? This much in lust of her? ...in love...? Gods... could that be?
When he could move, he still didn't say anything.. didn't know what to say... he slid out of his coat and carefully wrapped her in it against the chill wind. The voices of the people in the street were gone, wisely seeking shelter as the wind kicked up and promised a storm.
"I ... " he admitted finally... "..have to go." He kissed her again, with an almost desperate quality to it. "I want... you'll go back inside for me, right?" She answered affirmatively and he walked her back, not another word between them as he left her there. He would circle around and find Mennth inside, but he didn't want Erin to know he was there himself. It wouldn't be safe.
