May 7th, 2006 - Steel Canyon
Kara walked to the center of Katherine's darkened studio a bit shaken, the soft hiss from her comm grew silent as she removed it to set it aside atop her gymn bag. The last of her team had long since gone to bed. She knew she wouldn't sleep tonight. Her 'problem' still tore at her, and she hated going home with this.
Tonight had been difficult as well, she sighed as she remembered the awarding of her 45th clearance level for her inversed fields, and the three badges she had earned. Swan had been there, the younger woman estatic for Kara. Kara smiled, she enjoyed an odd friendship with her younger 'mentor'. Pulling off the towel wrapped around her neck she shimmered her fields to replace her costume with a shoulderlesss, dark leotard and ballet slippers. The chalk made a dull thud as it hit the wooden dance floor and was quickly crushed by a snap of her right foot. Bit by bit she toed the dust as she tied back her long mane. With a sharp frustrated pull she secured it up and back off of her shoulders. She padded softly over to the stereo and slipped in her disk.
She moved silently to the dark center of the floor, lit only by the dim moonlight that streamed in from the bay windows of the studio and the twin soft lamps that framed the large mirrored wall opposite her on the floor. Softly she rose to position en pointe as the song began. A gentle melody swirled around her as Kara begin to flow into an adagio style of ballet. Soft precise turns, her hands moving with elegant control around her movements, gliding through the air around and across her body as she danced. She closed her eyes as she allowed herself to feel the gentle music as the lyrics began from one of her mother's favorite songs, Irene Cara's 'The Dream' . Kara drew a breath it was the one song that had helped her overcome the pain of her attack before she had come to N.P.I. , whenever she danced to it...
Ive been chasing dreams for so long
Just one step behind and then theyre gone
Illusions of love would come and go
I guess you have to hurt before you grow
And everybody knows
Never let go of the, never let go of the dream
With a graceful chaine, Kara revolved around the dance floor flowing into a sweeping run as she occasionally spun into a graceful series of pirouettes.
I always seem to lose what I thought was mine
And many times I tried to leave it behind
Deep inside, hope was still alive
Deep inside, dreams will never die
That is why were movin closer to the truth
She paused en pointe once more, sillouetted in the moon light by the bay windows Arching her back elegantly back her arms arched high above her head as she bowed around to spin back out into her dance.
Its really great for me to be here
Ive won over the pain and the fear
Its been so very hard through the years
Been looking through a rainbow of tears
And still I never really let go of the dream
Her moves rapid and fluid to match the beat perfectly as she pumped her legs twirling to the music she could feel flowing through her.
Sometimes I saw my life just falling apart
And all the rejection tearing at my heart
Deep inside, hope was still alive
Deep inside, dreams will never die
If you try therell be so much more for you
Spinning to her knees she clutched her hands over her chest and threw her head back before twirling up into a soft series of spins. Kara once more flew across the studio floor, rising to a perfect fouette, she spun quickly pumping fast pirouettes to the lyrics, pushing herself to a strenous yet effortlessly elegant dozen to the music.
Its really great for me to be here
Ive won over the pain and the fear
Its been so very hard through the years
Been looking through a rainbow of tears
And still I never really let go of the dream
Her eyes closed as she began to lose herself to the music.
We can all be free, we hold the key
If we can see what we wanna be
Lifes never easy, you get no guarantees
Why not give your all and see what you can find?
Dropping to her knees she began to weave delicate patterns across herself with her hands as she leaned way back her hair pony tail sweeping across the floor as she bowed back around herself. Reaching up high with her hand, Kara snapped back up into an energetic dance across the studio floor. Her style now simply a fluid graceful blend of her movements and the emotions the music touched within her.
Its really great for me to be here
Ive won over the pain and the fear
Its been so very hard through the years
Been looking through a rainbow of tears
And still I never really let go of the dream
Rising back into a sharp en pointe she once more executed an elegant fouette and turned a near perfect rond de jambe in time to the music as she turned swiftly.She danced widely around the room grand movements. The song's climax pushing her spirits as she soared into a difficult tour en l'air, arcing through the air to land en pointe and swirling madly into another dozen pirouettes
Its really great for me to be here
Ive won over the pain and the fear
Its been so very hard through the years
Been looking through a rainbow of tears
And still I never really let go of the dream
Her graceful pumping dance now carried her around the studio floor as she spun and swirled with her now more expressive allegro style taking over. Improvising her styles and movements Kara let the music guide her movements as she became one with it.
Its really great for me to be here
Ive won over the pain and the fear
Its been so very hard through the years
Been looking through a rainbow of tears
And still I never really let go of the dream
Kara turned out her dance as the beat slowed her final series of pirouettes spun softly down into a perfect almost lovingly graceful reverance to a non exsistant audience. Softly her head sunk down to rest fully atop her knee. Breathing heavily she stayed in position as she allowed herself to enjoy the moment she had just experienced. Her eyes closed tightly she allowed herself to smile. She could feel exhaustion begin to slip in, she had for the briefest moments allowed herself to forget and to become her dance.
Slowly she rose and walked over to shut off the radio as it played the next song, her slippers barely making a sound as she crossed the distance. Collecting her things she toweled herself off and sank to the floor near the radio and her bag. She brought her knees up to her chest and wrapped her arms around them. She sighed to herself, she would have to go home soon, back to reality.
"....But not yet" She smiled faintly as she mused aloud looking at her world of dance just a little while longer. Kara closed her eyes and breathed softly a whisper in filipino "Salamat Mommy" she sighed and opened them again "Mahal Kita"
Removing her Sprite bottle from her bag , Kara took a long sip and sighed, enjoying her moment....if only for a little longer.
Find us here at Templars of the Abbey Webpage
Arc # 57740 - 'A Star is Rising Part One'
Arc # 90575 - 'A Lesson Taught'
Arc # 139943 - 'And The Game Goes Tilt'
May 17th, 2006 - Steel Canyon
The stars burned brightly across the darkened velvet sky that hung gracefully over the skyline of Steel Canyon. Its image at once sharp and crystal clear and yet also peaceful in contrast the obsidian twinkling monoliths that stretched up as if to caress the lofty stars of light. A pair of soft green eyes peered through the glass of one such monolith's penthouse windows to take in the peaceful view.
Kara smiled a little as she stepped up to the bay window, her reflected image mirrored her attempt at a smile as she took in the skyline of the soon to be sleeping city zone. Behind her reflected image she could see her mirror also had a little charge laying across the thick rug of the almost ethereal alternate penthouse that lay beyond the glass in the image. The other child much like Phil behind her had spread herself out on the rug with a sketch pad and colored pencils and crayons.
She smiled as she watched her ward's reflection as the music from the girl's little radio played out the MP3's the girl had chosen softly around them. Kara found herself musing lightly if the silent mirror pair had sound around the reflected pair as well. She closed her eyes as a new song began, its soft twinkling bell like melody stirring up thoughts and images for her as she opened her eyes to look into the reflection before her...
..and beyond it.
Before her eyes her reflected image took on a much younger appearance of herself at an age almost long forgotten. Of a young girl with pigtails, coloring at a plastic desk in a half remembered room so long ago.
Dancing bears
Painted wings
Things I almost remember,
And a song someone sings
once upon a December
She smiled wistfully as her mind's eye carried her as if through a faded dream of a time long ago. A dream filled with pictures of bears dancing ballet along her walls and an image of a faerie mobile blowing in the wind by her open window, dancing gracefully as a spring breeze wafted along through the screen. Behind the child a silhouette moves about visible only from the hips down. As Kara looked deeper into the image of her past she could almost hear the lovely tunes of a long forgotten Filipino lullaby echo in her ears softly.
Someone holds me safe and warm,
horses prance through a silver storm,
Figures dancing gracefully,
across my memory,
Kara watched as the image swirled gently and the little girl is swept into the silhouettes arms in a loving maternal hug. She raised her own arms up around herself as the memory of such hugs flowed through her. She remembered being taught to dance , the patience, the love and the pride in the silhouettes face as they glided together. Her youthful reflected image gazed up with such longing and pride for the love she felt from the silhouette as they danced side by side and together as only a mother and daughter could.
A haunting melody and the singer's beautiful voice in the song's stirring chorus, caused a swirl of images to cascade before her. In the ghostly reflection that danced through her memories she could only watch as they played out before her.
Her visage changed to show her now only a bit older than Phil. Standing in a green tiled hallway as she watched a policeman and doctor speak with her father. She stood with her hands wrung together as whatever these men told her father, caused the strength and pillar of her young world to slump against the wall, the sound of weeping shattered the image as if a rock through a lovely stained glass window. The fragments danced before her eyes each holding a memory as she saw her image laughing and smiling with friends, cheering at football games, dancing her ballet. A whirlpool of memories danced fighting to stay together following her loss.
These fragmented moments of happiness faded quickly with a blur to her running in fear and explosions with Rikti destroying everything in sight. A white-silver flash of her energy washed away the Rikti only to seem to push away the fragments of smiling friends and family as well.
Her image danced in the blackness of empty lonliness and pain to be replaced with laughter once more and the faces from NPI. Images of freaks, Crey and Malta appeared around her new friends and family, only to be pushed away with her white silver flash.
She sighed a bit as her reflected image shifted before her once more, older now in her costume of white, a Diamond upon her chest.
Someone holds me safe and warm,
horses prance through a silver storm,
Figures dancing gracefully,
across my memory,
She watched as a new softer silhouette slightly taller than her, descended gently from behind her wrapping her arms around her. She watched as her image closed her eyes, safe and content resting her head upon the soft offered shoulder. She watched as the silhouette swept her up into a graceful air ballet high above the city. She reached up to almost touch the vision before her, as she remembered.
Far away, long ago
glowing dim as an ember
things my heart used to know
things it yearns to remember
The image swirled gently once more as memories danced before her upon the reflected surface. The soft touch of a rose across her cheek, dances across open floors of light and sound, friends surrounding the pair, happy laughter and warm smiles as she watched her image danced in the arms of this new silhouette, the crystal image of a waterfall cascading softly behind them. Before her eyes, a soft encroaching shadow grew around them as their dance separated and the silhouette grew more distant from her. They parted until her reflection had swirled to her knees before the distant shadow of her silhouette.
And a song someone sings
Once upon a December
Kara sighed as she watched her reflection listen to a far off lovely song. She reached out longingly to touch the memory. Before her, her reflection returned to show her as she is now. The pair of fingers pressed against the cool surface of the glass as each hand reached out for the other. Reaching yet not touching, she watched as a single tear fell from her image's eyes.
She closed her eyes as she felt her tear slip down across her cheek.
Find us here at Templars of the Abbey Webpage
Arc # 57740 - 'A Star is Rising Part One'
Arc # 90575 - 'A Lesson Taught'
Arc # 139943 - 'And The Game Goes Tilt'
Originally posted by former Templar Skilla, best friend to Diamond (i.e. Kara or "bubbles")
June 25, 2006 - Steel Canyon
Lissa pulled the last of the tape off the wall and stepped bad. Not bad, she thought to herself, surveying the new dark chocolate colored paint. Not a color I would have chosen, but it really is rather striking - and it at least covers the scorch marks. Softly, she started to giggle as she glanced at the brand new microwave sitting on the little tray table in front of the newly painted kitchen wall.
It had been a Friday night almost three weeks ago. Both Bubbles and she had been having rotten weeks and their nerves were frayed to the edge.
"What we need is popcorn and Johnny Depp movies," Lissa had declared over the phone to her friend.
"Def! I'll so bring "Pirates" and "Charlie and the Chocolate Factory," and the soda..."
"I've got "Edward Scissorhands," "Benny and Joon," and tons of microwave popcorn."
"Like, the good kind with the extra gooey fake movie butter?"
"You know it!" Lissa grinned.
"Awes! I'm so there!"
Lissa had gone about setting up the movie screen, a moment of bittersweet nostalgia creeping in as she brought out Doug's pride and joy, his elaborate, state-of-the-art projector and surround sound system. She touched the black case almost lovingly as tears filled her eyes. She was about to break down and indulge in a good cry, when the buzzer sounded.
Wiping her eyes quickly, she hurried to the door where Bubbles stood, balancing 3 2-liters and an armful of movies. "You were so crying!" Kara accused, frowning.
"Yeah," Lissa admitted, sniffing a bit. "It's the first time I've set up Doug's equipment."
"Aww, Bloss," Kara said, setting her bundles down instantly and embracing her friend. Lissa hugged her back tightly.
"I'm Ok," she said after a moment.
"I know." Kara smiled gently, as she bent down to pick up her discarded items. "Whew!" she exclaimed, her nose wrinkling as she entered the small apartment. "Still can't find out what's making that smell?"
"No," Lissa said ruefully, going quickly to light the fragrant cnadles and incense scattered around the room. "We've done everything! I've had the carpet steamed, checked in ever closet, had the plumbing looked at, even had Ernie up in the crawl space seeing if some poor animal had gotten stuck in there and died!"
"Gross," Kara said sympathetically. "At least it isn't as overwhelming as it was before."
"Not with all the air fresheners i've got around. I swear I should buy stock in Glade Plug-ins."
"Poor Lissa," Kara said with a kind little laugh. "You pick the first movie then."
""Charlie and the Chocolate Factory." I need a laugh." Lissa smiled as her friend slipped in the DVD.
"Okay, but I so need popcorn," Kara grinned.
"Deal. You make the drinks, and I'll make the popcorn," Lissa grinned back, already humming one of the Oompa-Loompa songs cheerfully. She bopped into the kitchen doing the first Oompa Loompa dance, Kara giggling as she danced along behind her.
"Augustus Gloop will not be harmed," she sang, grabbing a pack of popcorn and shimming to the microwave. " Augustus Gloop will not be ha...AHHHHH!"
Kara whirled as Lissa shrieked, pointing at the microwave. The source of the odd odor was suddenly apparant as the door swung open to reveal a slimy brown puddle of what might have at one time been a plate of chicken, covered in wriggly, white maggots. Kara's eyes went wide as out of one of the vent holes, a particularly fat specimen emerged , falling to the floor to wiggle and squirm.
"AHH!" screamed Kara.
"AHH!" screamed Lissa. "Blastitblastitblastit!"
Kara opened up, slamming her energy bolts into the little appliance, exploding it and sending bits of scorched plastic and cooked maggot into the air. A nice little fire was started on the wall, and as Lissa moved to grab the fire extinguisher, the fire alarm went off, and the sprinklers came on, dousing the entire kitchen in freezing water.
The girls stood there for a moment, drenched to the skin, looking at the smoldering wreck of Lissa's microwave, still filling the apartment with smoke, and the delightful smell of rotten chicken and flambed larvae. Slowly, Lissa turned, about to speak when a small wet glob of shrived brown worm slid off her head and onto the floor. "Oh...my...GOD!" she screamed. "I have dead maggot IN MY HAIR!!! AHHH!"
Kara screamed, looking at her own hair, and the two girls made a mad dash for the bathroom, where the shower was started instantly. Without regard for taking turns, or removing clothes, the girls piled into the shower, dumping shampoo on each others' heads, lathering, rinsing, and repeating. Clothes were tossed out, soaked and soapy as bits of charred insect were identified, as the two superheroes decontaminated themselves with the same intensity as if they had been exposed to a deadly Crey plague virus.
"Are there any more?" Lissa asked , nervously, running her hands through her hair.
"You look good? Me?" Kara asked, with the same shivering cringe.
"I don't see any..." Lissa looked up meeting Kara's eyes and started to giggle. "I think I'm gonna need a new microwave..."
Kara burst out laughing. "Oh Gosh, Ernie is SO gonna kill us!"
"Oh god," Lissa moaned, wincing. "There goes my security deposit..."
"We can always paint..." Kara offered, stepping out and grabbing a towel.
"True," Lissa responded, taking the towel she was offered. "Hey Kara," she said suddenly, giggling mischieviously. "We just took our first shower together," she wiggled her eyebrows suggestively, grinning.
"Yeah, we so did..." Kara said, trying to sound sexy, but only managing a series of giggles.
"And you know what?"
"What?"
"Maz missed it..."
They had just laughed.
Find us here at Templars of the Abbey Webpage
Arc # 57740 - 'A Star is Rising Part One'
Arc # 90575 - 'A Lesson Taught'
Arc # 139943 - 'And The Game Goes Tilt'
July 4th 2006 - Steel Canyon
Kara sat comfortably atop the old weathered blanket stretched out along the cool green grass of the park in Steel Canyon. She drew her arms around the excited young girl who sat in her lap as the sky lit up above them in multi colored explosions. Each brilliant burst of colors illicted a gasp and 'ooo' from Phil and the others around them and flinches and 'booms!' from each playful explosion that accented the artwork in the night sky over Paragon.
Kara turned to her left and smiled to her friend Katherine, who along with her husband and children had asked the pair to join them in celebrating the 4th of July with a picnic and a day at the park near Platinum Lake. It had been a day of softball and of hotdogs and soda, chasing and running every where with Phil. The children all of the same age had been getting along for some time. Phil even had a degree of a following here at the lake after a day of magic and illusion performances she put on going from table to table and blanket to blanket.
Kara smiled and hugged her ward as a mammoth blossum filled the sky. So a little show off, she thought.
Kara then turned and nudged Rachel who was sitting on her other side equally entraced if not softly detached from the wonderous display. Her hand firmly held by little Phil's. Kara winked to her and recieved a warm albiet slight smile.
A loud explosion drew all of their eyes skyward in time for yet another artful and gracious display of light and color. They all laughed as a rounding series of explosions timed perfectly with each smaller skyburst drew them to surprise and delight. The audience of the park exploded into applause until yet another rocket went up.
Kara sighed, losing herself in the moment.
Soon she would have to take Phil home and put the soon to be exhausted child to bed. She was happy Rachel had decided to spend the weekend with them, the two of them had a wonderful time together...any chance Kara could she was resolved to make sure Phil and Rachel spend moments like this together.
If only for them to share the moments they could together...that would enough. She sighed.
It is these moments...she began to think only to be interupted once more as the finale began in earnest.
These moments...
Find us here at Templars of the Abbey Webpage
Arc # 57740 - 'A Star is Rising Part One'
Arc # 90575 - 'A Lesson Taught'
Arc # 139943 - 'And The Game Goes Tilt'
August 5th, 2006 - Steel Canyon
The sun beat hotly down across the stone patio of the penthouse, reflecting brilliantly across the soft blue water of the sparkling pool water. Kara lay across her towel laying back across her lounge enjoying the sun and her music playing across the deck, losing herself in the moment of peace. For hours now She and her ward Phil had been playing and swimming int he pool to escape the summer's blistering heat. After admitting defeat to Phil's endurance Kara had made a lunch of hotdogs and Pringles and decided to rest while Phil refueled.
So much...so much had hit her over the past few months, but nothing like what hit her a few nights ago. She looked over the brim of her sunglasses as little Phil tore into her hotdog while doodled Phil scribblings on a sketch pad with intensity. She smiled, these last few days had been sorely needed. She could tell Phil knew something was bothering her. She could rarely hide things from her ward...Kara sighed. She was always afraid Phil was always prepared for Kara to up and leave her.
She chuckled as she wrestled with other thoughts as from the radio one of her the tune of one her favorite songs burst forth. She had lovedTop Secret She turned to face Phil and couldnt help but croon out the song's lyrics along with the voice of the faux star Nick Rivers....
"Skeet Surfin'... "
She rose up to her elbows singing to Phil...
"Skeet Surfin'... "
Phil raised her head at her mentor and blinked once more , as she often did at her guardian's moments of sillyness. It surprised her this time, because it had been so long..Kara then began to sing in the tune of the old beach boys as she sang along to the music
If everybody had a 12 gauge
With a sufboard too.
Phil Blinked not sure she had heard the lyrics correctly
You see em shootin and surfin'
From here to Malibu.
Kara flipped her still wet hair like a beach bunny from the sixties as she smiled and sang..
Because it's totally bitchin'
Ridin waves and blastin' pigeons.
And its a' neat shootin' skeet when youre ridin' on the heavies all day.
Phil smiled , certian this had to be a joke as Kara leaned forward and pointed animately at her ward..
First Wave (shoot shoot)
Don't get tired.
Second Wave (shoot shoot)
Aim higher.
Third Wave (shoot shoot)
Pull it and fire.
Skeet Surfin' (it's all right)
Kara got up and ran around to hug her from behind swaying to the lyrics as she sang. Phil giggled and fought to follow the lyrics so she could sing along.
Waxin' down our surfboards
And loadin' up our traps.
Tell the teacher we're shootin'
And never comin' back.
Phil laughed at Kara's apparent blasphemy of lying or defiance to a teacher and gasped smiling as she was hauled to her feet, watching as her guardian began to dance strangely. Kara smiled still singing as she began to gracefully dance as if a part of the cast of 'Beach Party Bingo'. Phil giggled and began to mimic gracefully the dance getting into the rythmn with a natural grace of her own.
I've got a gun rack in my Chevy
For when the surf and the flak get heavy.
And we'll have fun with our guns until the lifeguard takes our ammo away.
Phil booed at the lifeguard as the pair danced. Kara giggled as she sang, listening proudly at how easy Phil picked up the chorus, singing back up with her little 'shoot shoot' s and her crooning of 'it's all right'
First wave (shoot shoot)
Don't get tired.
Second Wave (shoot shoot)
Aim higher.
Third Wave (shoot shoot)
Pull it and fire.
Skeet Surfin' (it's all right)
Giggling Kara hopped up on the deck lounge and hauled Phil up in front of her, both slipped into a pandemine as if riding a surfboard, only with little Phil blasting everything in sight with her imaginary shotgun..
First Wave (shoot shoot)
Man what a 'natch.
Second Wave (shoot shoot)
Pullin' that trap.
Third Wave (shoot shoot)
How was that?
Skeet Surfin' (it's all right)
Kara hugged her from behind and sang goofily..
Sharing sunsets with my favorite girl,
When we shoot the curl we really shoot the curl.
Phil then giggled manically and with a playfully wickedly face began to act out letting the 'curl' really have it! Before slipping back into a chorus once more with Kara..
First wave (shoot shoot)
Don't get tired.
Second Wave (shoot shoot)
Aim higher.
Third Wave (shoot shoot)
Pull it and fire.
They both looked at each other singing..
Skeet Surfin' (it's all right)
First Wave (shoot shoot)
Man what a 'natch.
Second Wave (shoot shoot)
Pullin' that trap.
Third Wave Wave (shoot shoot)
How was that?
Kara smiled as she bopped side to side with Phil on the surfboard, before getting all serious crooning out with Nick..
I wish they all could be double-barrel,
Wish they all could be double barrel guns.
Both girls collapsed onto the chair, Phil enclosed in kara arms as the song droned on...
Skeet surfin' can't you see?
Do you wanna come along with me?
Phil smiled happily "Where do -you- find these things??"
Skeet surfin' can't you see?
Do you wanna come along with me?
Kara laughed and hugged her as she bopped side to side as the song faded out. "Sorry, the moment so called for a bit of sillyness"
"I'm glad" Phil kissed her cheek as she was shooed back to her food.
"Finish your lunch and remember...." Kara began
"....no swimming for like a half an hour" Phil finished with her as Kara's jaw dropped.
Phil froze realizing what she just had done and her eyes rose to meet Kara's..."Whooops"
"Yeah Whoops" Kara giggled and then launched herself at Phil who tried only at the last second to flee. Kara scooped her up and walked over to the side of the pool.
Phil shrieked through her giggl fit "No! No! No! its gonna be /cold/!"
"So should've -thought- about that before we so finished Kara's sentences....Muhahaha!" Kara tried an evil giggle that only made Phil giggle.
Kara smirked and dropped her ward into the pool with a cackling splash. Phil surfaced gasping and giggling splashing her guardian with the cold water. Kara gaped...
"why you little!" Kara sputtered, Phil smiled smugly......then froze ...
"Cannonball!" Kara giggled as she leapt up and wrapping her amrs around her knees plopped straight down into the water. Phil gaspsed and gurgled trying to escape the wash of the spalsh.
Kara smiled as the ensueing splash fight began.
She needed this afternoon..apparently so had Phil.
Kara giggled as she began to find herself ont he losing end of the splash fight....
Find us here at Templars of the Abbey Webpage
Arc # 57740 - 'A Star is Rising Part One'
Arc # 90575 - 'A Lesson Taught'
Arc # 139943 - 'And The Game Goes Tilt'
September 1st, 2006 - Steel Canyon
tinkle tinkle
Kara's uneasy sleep had caused her to toss and turn tonight. Images and laughter followed her deeper and deeper as she tried in vain to seek solace in her dreams.
tinkle tinkle
Her eyes fluttered then opened softly, her breathing rapid as she sensed the movement in the room before she saw anything. Her heart raced slightly, this room had always been a haven only recently intruded upon by the intense dream of that /animal/.
tinkle tinkle
Kara sat up quickly, drawing her covers up to her chest. Her knuckles whitened a bit as she glowed, her fields coming up instinctively. The room around her was soon bathed in her soft light, as a small movement at the foot of her bed caught her attention. Her eyes darted to lock on the location as a small painted face appeared, before vanishing once more beyond the foot of her bed. Kara shook her head as if unsure that she had seen anything at all. Slowly the face crept up along the foot of the bed only to disappear once more.
tinkle tinkle
Kara blinked once then once more as she stared at the white face of a painted smile, the small face of /her/ clown. Tiny fingers were clamped tightly to Kara's bed frame as the tiny clown peeked over the edge of the bed to stare at her. The smile painted across the young girls face was one of immense joy almost playful.
She breathed out a quiet "Phil?"
The soft bells jingled once more as the little jester nodded still peeking up at her guardian. The nod was slow, almost unsure her little fingers now digging into the footboard. Kara swallowed a bit, biting on her bottom lip.
It had been awhile since she had seen the clown, Kara thought. Gawd Phil, what...she began to think.
Kara looked into her little Harlequins eyes and saw the truth. Though the playful look of joy and happiness was clearly displayed for any to see, the little eyes were wide and unsure. Without another word Kara extended her arms out to her clown. In an instant the clown was across the mattress and in her guardian's arms, only the sound of the box springs and soft bells filled the room as Kara closed her arms around her.
"Nightmare little one?" Kara said softly as she reached up to stroke her cheek. She could feel the small body tremble gently in her arms beneath the young girl's protective illusion. The clown looked up and nodded mutely as she clung tightly to her guardian's offered embrace.
"Shhh...Little one I am here" Kara sighed guessing what the nightmare was. It had only been a few weeks since Rachel had left, and both of them were concerned. She had been expecting this. She looked down to Phil and asked in a gentle voice "Do you want to stay here tonight?"
A series of eager little nods followed as she clung tighter to Kara. "Okay then" She shifted a bit and moved her covers back to allow her clown to slip under them. With a roll to her side she faced her cuddling and still trembling ward. She reached over and brushed aside a lock of green hair across the child's white forehead.
"It will be okay" She smiled warmly to her "I promise, Im so not going anywhere" Phil turned her painted smile upwards as a small butterfly appeared on Kara's nose. The older woman chuckled and shooed away the butterfly smiling as it hovered over them. She looked down at her ward and scolded softly. "Now Now no illusions, we both have school tomorrow..." she drew a breath "Time to sleep"
A panicked Harlequin shook her head in refusal as Kara reached for her chin. "Sssh all right...I think I can help you here kiddo"
"Trust me, I promise when you wake up i will be right here, and you will be safe" She reached out with a finger to touch Phil's red nose. A soft 'honk' filled the room as the child's nose depressed, bringing a smile to Kara's lips. Kara decided to try something that had worked long ago for her mother, on the night her mother had to chase away the terrors that kept Kara awake. She snuggled the child against her and began to hum a soft melody. The smile under the smile grew a bit as Kara began to sing in a gentle voice the 'Tagalog' lyrics...
"Sana'y di magmaliw ang dati kong araw
Nang munti pang bata sa piling ni Nanay
Nais kong maulit ang awit ni Inang mahal
Awit ng pag-ibig habang ako'y nasa duyan"
Phil curled up closely to her guardian and sighed as she looked up frowning as she tried to understand the words, yet captivated by the soft melody of her guardian's voice. Kara smiled down at her, hoping to capture the smile that once was shown to her by her own mother. A smile to show her little frightened jester that no horrors, no fears could touch her as long as she was here. She would take all things first tonight, that her ward was not alone and was safe and home. Her voice continued softly through her smile.
"Sana'y di magmaliw ang dati kong araw
Nang munti pang bata sa piling ni Nanay
Nais kong maulit ang awit ni Inang mahal
Awit ng pag-ibig ako'y nasa duyan"
Phil's lids grew heavy as she gave up trying to understand the words and merely gave into the music. The look was one of wonder and yet one now more concerned with the music than the demons that had chased her from her restful sleep. Kara's hushed voice rose a bit as she accented the next part of the song as she had remembered her mother had. Her fingertips gently stroking the child's hair which flickered lightly between's its natural color and green as the illusion slipped from the little girl's form as she sang. Slowly the trembling ceased as the child relaxed in her arms, a small yawn escaped from the painted smile.
"Sa aking pagtulog na labis ang himbing
Ang bantay ko'y tala
Ang tanod ko'y bituin
Sa piling ni Nanay
Langit ang buhay
Puso kong may dusa
Sabik sa ugoy ng duyan mo Inay
Sana narito ka Inay"
Kara watched as the illusion flickered just once more before it vanished, leaving only Philomena in her arms. She continued to sing gently as above them the butterfly danced to the gentle lyrics of the Filipino lullaby. Little Phil sighed and snuggled as her guardian's voice floated away her fears. A series of little yawns followed as the butterfly began to flicker in and out of existence. Slowly Kara began to dim the warm glow of her fields, as she brought darkness back around them both ever so slowly.
"Sana'y di magmaliw ang dati kong araw
Nang munti pang bata sa piling ni Nanay"
Kara shifted to lie back down as she felt Phil slip into a restful sleep beside of her. Still facing the half sleeping child Kara sang sweetly the last of the song, while resting her chin atop the child's head.
"Nais kong maulit ang awit ni Inang mahal
Awit ng pag-ibig hang ako'y nasa duyan"
Holding her for a bit more after she finished, Kara leaned back for just a moment to make sure Phil was asleep. A look of peace had fallen over Phil's tiny features.
"Idlip panatag" She whispered to the sleeping child. "Mahal Kita little one"
Kara watched her sleep for awhile, watchful of any signs of nightmare that might disturb her sleep. Resolved and determined to chase them away for the girl.
She was still on guard when sleep itself over took her as well.
<<**SA UGOY NG DUYAN was the name of the lullaby. Its a very pretty piece of music. Here is the rough translation 
>>
LULLING CRADLE
Those good old days, I pray won't fade
When I was young and in Mother's care
Oh, to hear dear Mother's lullaby again
The song of love as she rocked my cradle.
In my deep and peaceful slumber
The stars watch over me in vigil
Life was like heaven in the arms of Mother
Now my heart longs for the lulling cradle.
Those good old days, I pray won't fade
When I was young and in Mother's care
Oh, to hear dear Mother's lullaby again
The song of love as she rocked my cradle.
Lull me, Mother, in my dear old cradle
Oh, Mother.
Find us here at Templars of the Abbey Webpage
Arc # 57740 - 'A Star is Rising Part One'
Arc # 90575 - 'A Lesson Taught'
Arc # 139943 - 'And The Game Goes Tilt'
September 15th 2006 - Steel Canyon
Well here you are....
He didnt have to turn, because he knew -that- voice, and he didnt want to see the disapproving face that went along with it. She had this way, she always did. He was a decent hero here in Paragon. The city knew him as "The Guardian Star", smart, dependable and he as he kept telling himself darn attractive in the eyes of all the ladies. Confident, secure and in control. Yeah, right...She knew somehow, ever since High School, she always could tell.
Yeah, he replied dully, taking a long gulp of his drink. I left. You expected me to, what? Stick around and do nothing for a few more hours?
Well
I like thought youd
she trailed off, and Bill found that a part of him wanted to turn around and smack the self-righteous tone right out of that voice, she was doing it again, he just gripped his glass a little tighter.
You thought Id what, exactly? -Jesus-, Kara, the guy had a stroke!...."
"He is your father Bill She slipped in softly as he continued.
"..... Its not like there was anything I could do to fix it. What the hell good would sitting in a waiting room all night do anyways?..." he paused refusing to look over to her a moment. Damn it! Again! He pressed on staring into his swirling drink ".... Its not like theyd let us in to see him or anything. he added trying to stay rigid and strong.
Kara pulled up the bar stool next to him and sat down, setting her purse on the bar, but he still didnt turn to face her. So you like what? Figured getting drunk would help things, she said mildly.
Yeah, Kara, thats exactly what I thought. I thought that me getting drunk would solve all of my problems, and all of my Dad's, and hell, all of yours while Im at it, if you ever truly -have- a problem. He shook his head completely missing a small flinch across her concerned features. A guy cant just get a drink these days without having some kind of ulterior motive? He paused as Kara ordered a Sprite, then continued. Anyway, you left.
I left to find you.
Oh. He didnt really have a better answer for that, so he just let it hang there for a few minutes while they drank in silence. Finally, a part of him made him ask, How was he when you left?
Kara sighed, Causing Bill to finally turned to look at her. There was now a gentle hint of dark circles under her eyes that hadnt been there when she had left her patrol to come to the hospital at his call. She looked aged somehow, as if years had passed instead of hours. The same, she replied, and there was an unfamiliar defeat in her voice.
She was worried, he knew what had happened to her family when she was 'outed' as a mutant. Still growing up together their father's had been close friends and golfing buddies. Thin as it was, his father was a tie to life she had long ago lost. No, he thought its more than that, she sees him as family too,...and I left...she stayed there and I -left-....god.
The silence returned, and lasted longer this time. Eventually, Bill felt like he had to say something, so he peered intently into his glass as he remarked, You know, Patti Goldmans not crazy.
I know, Kara blinked and then shook her head at this almost ancient routine from their high school days. She smiled as she replied. You were the only one who ever thought she was.
No, I mean
he finished contemplating his glass and emptied it instead, then signaled for a refill. I mean about Rutgers. She wasnt
she was -right-. the last word still held some amazement. Not only had the woman come out to the hospital with his sister to see their Dad tonight, but with her came the anxiety of her bold claims of a night he was certain -never- took place. He was convinced she was mentally deranged and a stalker maybe. Only he could -never- convince anyone else, they never believed him...
You slept with her and like didnt call her back. Kara chuckled remembering how this began only a few weeks after she and he broke up. "SO a cardinal rule William.."
Yeah..... Well, no, not her exactly. And it wasnt in Rutgers. At least I didnt think it was. Kara cast an amused sidelong glance at him, and sighing Bill realized hed probably have to explain. Well, first see, she um.. wasnt Patti then. She was Linda....
Kara nodded sipping her Sprite as she listened. "Yep Patricia is her middle name.."
Bill sighed, never sure how that never dawned him ......"Well she has changed, dyed her hair...lost all that weight...."
Kara shook her head "Of course she is the Channel Nine Weather..."
"....And the hotel, it was
I thought it was in Patterson.
Kara raised her eyebrows. Ugly Patterson Linda? That was Patti Goldman?
It was, he agreed dismally, then frowned. I told you that story?
You like tell me all your stories, Bill.
He thought a moment, then allowed a tiny smile to creep onto his face. Yeah. I guess I do. He paused, contemplating his drink some more, and then decided that it really wasnt all that interesting. You know, you havent told me all your stories, Kar." She grinned a bit at his old nickname for her. " Why is that?
She clicked her tongue once and sighed Welp, like its cause I so dont have stories. Not like - you- do. There was a rueful quality to Karas half smile as she waved her empty glass at the bartender.
Sure you do. Everybodys got stories" he shook his head "You have been in this city for more than two years now..You have to have them. The commercials, the honors and awards....that school you used to belong too...come on Kar" He chided gently. " Tell me a story It was then that he realized the drinks were starting to get to him, but that had been the whole point of coming here, hadnt it? So he gestured towards his empty bottle as the bartender set another glass of sprite down in front of her, he then looked at Kara expectantly.
Her smile got a little wider, a little less sad. Youre like seriously sitting there, what, waiting for story time?" she giggled a bit "Im telling you, Ive got nothing to tell...." she shook her head "What you know about me already, thats all there is to know.
Youre seriously telling me that what I know about you right now, right this instant... the stuff youve told me over the years, thats -all- there is? Thats it?
Thats it, Bill thats me.
"Your work as a Heroine of the city, Mother to this Phil person.."
"I am her guardian.." She tried to interrupt him. Undaunted on his soapbox he continued on mowing through her.
"Mother to this Phil person.." he repeated "School teacher...Kindergarten no less...never committed a crime....always there for people..and oh yes lover of -math-" he shuddered playfully "and little to no social life....well except for going to the movie premieres of your beautiful rich roommate/movie starlet/ supermodel who dates men and women who you share a glamorous penthouse with...." he shook his head and as a guy had to marvel once more at the last part of his rant before beginning once more "....These are Kara stories?"
She nodded looking over at him.
He contemplated her for a few minutes, then shook his head. You are a sad woman, Kara Reynolds....."
"Dengo....Kara Reynolds-Dengo" she added as he continued
"... A sad, sad woman.
Riiight Because Im the one sitting in a bar in the middle of the night waiting for some girl to like tell me stories. she said with an impish glint in her eyes.
Bill shook his head Yes. Wait
no. No, I mean
I forget what I mean. What did I mean, Kar?
Kara laughed, and Bill hadnt realized how much hed been waiting to hear it. Ill tell you, Bill, I havent the faintest idea. Her smile slowly dissolved, and Bill found himself missing it.
You should go home, get some sleep, She told him.
Not tired, He mumbled, but even as he said it he could feel his eyelids drooping. Whoa!
how do you do that? he asked her.
Kara glanced at him as she set some money on the counter for their tabs. Do what?
That
thing, he said, waving his hands for emphasis. I wasnt tired, and then you
he shrugged.
Ok, -home-. now., Kara decided, standing. Come on. She offered her arm and they made their way out to the street and stood there for a few moments in the cool air. Kara sighed a little, summer was indeed over. She turned to look up at him.
Like...you are ok getting home by yourself? She asked, and Bill smiled a little.
Yes Mom.
Im so just saying
Im fine. Im a surprisingly big boy, Kar. I can even hail a cab all by myself. Wanna see?
See, like now, I know youre mocking me. She smirked as her eyes traveled along the street looking for a cab.
I always knew you were a smart chick, Bill said, but then his smile faded a little and he changed tracks abruptly. I dont think Im going home anyways.
Kara turned to look at him. Wherere you going? She asked, worry creeping back into her voice.
I think
I think Im gonna go back.
Back
to the hospital? She shook her head. I dont really think thats the best idea right now, Bill. Its late. You have classes tomorrow and you have work, not to mention if you patrol..... You should go home and sleep.
He snorted, she is playing her game again. Playing devil's advocate. She was pushing him gently to go back. Sleep. Right.
Well like -rest- anyways, She gently amended.
Look, Kar, I left, ok? He turned away, feeling a sudden sting in his eyes. I just
I couldnt handle it and I left. I cant just
I cant leave it like that. I mean, how do I look him in the eyes when
if he comes back?" His voice seemed so much younger to her now "He was so strong to me growing up....always a -giant-... I was standing there, in that waiting room
that horrible clean pink waiting room, and I just couldnt
he shuddered, even just thinking of it.
I have to go back, Kara..I
I cant just go home and pretend that I
he paused as a tear rolled down his cheek, and he wiped it furiously away. Look, I just have to go back.
You want me to come with you? her tone was gentle...as always.
He blinked. It wasnt the response he had expected...and yet he did. Yeah I
no. He shook his head abruptly. No, you should go home. Sleep. I mean, at least one of us should be rested for school and hero [censored] and all....right? he then added "and you have little Phil.."
I didnt ask what I should do, William. I asked if you wanted me to come. She shrugged "I can get Katherine to watch Phil...she owes me from last Tuesday"
I
he paused, then nodded slowly. Yes. Yeah. I
do. Is that
? but Kara had already stepped away from him and was already raising her arm to call a cab....
She had this way, she always did...
He woke the next morning curled uncomfortably in a green plastic chair, his head slumped against Kara's shoulder. The sun was streaming into his eyes through blinds that clacked noisily in the morning breeze. His back felt like an army of small devils were assaulting it with pitchforks, but he knew that he had spent the night in the right place. His sister and Crazy Patti were still there, as was his little brother asleep in an adjacent chair. They were happy he came back, as if their older brother had some kind of ability to restore hope, just by coming back.
And when they heard the doctor say those words that were going to be with him for sometime
He will be fine..It is just going to take sometime, he didnt feel the need to hide his tears, because this time they were streaming down Kara's face and the faces of his family too.
Eventually their tears dried, and their cell phones started to ring, first Kara's, then the others, and as the day moved inexorably on, they found themselves returning to their own lives, in the knowledge that Jonathan Chamberlin was alive and happy to see his sons and daughter. A Family was wounded but would overcome and survive.
That night, Bill found himself high above the city, his white gloved hand resting on the cool stone head of a gargoyle. The pair of them staring out at the blinking lights of the city far below and the view of the hospital his new found perch offered.
He stood there alone on that roof in the dark, because though it had been a surprisingly good day he was still shaken. It had been very hard to see his father laid up by this. He had begun to ponder his own mortality when he heard her behind him, not because she made any noise, but because she was Kara, and he always knew when she was there.
Well here you are....
Yeah, Bill closed his eyes and replied. I was
he gestured out from himself You know me, I mean I have to have a really great view.
A tiny smirk appeared on Kara's face. Ive noticed. She slid down to sit on the roof's ledge next to him, her white costume seemingly brightly lit by the moon's light. She smiled a bit as she admired the view with him for a while. You know, she said after a few minutes, I lied last night.
About which part? He looked down at her.
The stories. I have them. Youre right
everyone does. I just
I didnt think they were interesting enough.
Bill smiled. Well of course, theyre not going to be as brilliant and witty as mine. But
he grew serious. Theyre you, Kara.
Yeah..... She trailed off a bit..
So
Bill prompted, settling down next to her on the roof's edge. Come on, then. Tell me a story.
And, in the solitary darkness of their rooftop refuge, she did.
Find us here at Templars of the Abbey Webpage
Arc # 57740 - 'A Star is Rising Part One'
Arc # 90575 - 'A Lesson Taught'
Arc # 139943 - 'And The Game Goes Tilt'
Novemeber 29th 2006
Im sitting here, and all I can think of is, how Ill never get to see you grow up. How Ill never stand at your wedding. How Ill never get to watch you bring my grand-children home. How Ill never see you save your adopted home, this new city of yours again and again. There are so many things I wish I could do. But never is such a long time.
Id fly across the hills and the valleys,
just to be by your side.
Id fight a thousand wars in an instant,
if only to dry your eyes.
if maybe we had one more moment.
another second to say goodbye.
you know, it aint never gonna happen,
but nevers such a long time.
I remember the very first moment when we met, my little one. That split second when you opened your little green eyes and stared right into mine. Ive always loved you, ever since you were a spark of life growing within me, safe and warm, but you captured my heart that day. I counted all your fingers and toes, just to make sure. Then I counted them all over again. Ill never forget how warm you felt in my arms. But Ill never hold you again.
when you feel the wind blowing,
by your house one afternoon,
thats only me saying,
I miss you.
Ill always have the memories. Not just the birthdays, the holidays, and those special events, but the little things. When you and your brother used to crawl into our bed and wed read the newspaper together. Those days when youd help me make dinner, and wed end up making a huge mess. And even those rare occasions when wed produce something edible. Poor thing, you never could learn to cook, but my how you learned to glide when you danced. My heart swelled to see you dance.
Ive seen you mature into something beautiful. You followed the path less followed, took the harder route, made the risky decisions. You waltzed into armies of bullies, and I've watched you sweep them away. Im in awe of your strength, your ability, and your compassion. Ill always wonder whether you would turn out differently if I was still alive. But youve done so well dispite your father. He will always love you little one, he just fears what he can not understand. He always has. But you baby, you made your mistakes and learned from them. If there was one thing I could say, Ive always wished I could tell you how proud you make me.
when you feel the wind blowing,
by your house one afternoon,
thats only me saying,
I miss you.
Ill see you in heaven, my littlest angel. For now, I want you to be happy with your life. I want a lot of things. I saw so many of them for you in my dreams, Most of all, I want my beautiful, intelligent, kind, gentle daughter to stand tall and follow her heart. Dont be afraid, you always held your head high as you rose to position. No matter the pain if you fall, my little one, You will build your wings on the way down, and one day, youll soar.
Ive got a thousand questions,
and another thousand replies
but youll never hear a single one,
cause nevers a long time.
Our time together on earth was short. Oh, my sweet Kara, Ill always be a part of you. One day, Ill see you again, and together we will dance side by side as we did once, but for now, Ill remain with you in spirit. When those times come when you need someone to guide you across the uneven land, Ill be there for you. You have always had those closest around you to guide you, to help you find your path....These people in your life now are no different baby...
when the rain comes pouring down,
thats me, crying tears.
Ill never get to see your blue eyes,
but nevers a long time.
I have felt your pain sweetheart, your lonliness after your horror, my heart broke because I could not be there to take away your pain. Each trial you have faced since then, each failure, and every success I have been beside you at your weakest moment baby. Each moment you dance, I am there sweetheart. A part of me is forever within you, as you have been told. I know I shouldnt be here, watching you. But once a year, I give myself this chance to give you strength in your weakest hour. We share our memories here. We dont need words, our thoughts are enough.
if maybe we had one more moment.
another second to say goodbye.
you know, it aint never gonna happen,
but nevers such a long time.
Somehow, you will be all right little one. You always had that ability, to dance, to smile. Ive always wanted whats best for you, even if I couldnt offer it to you. Its never easy to let go of your children. But one must. And I shall. But Ill always watch over you. I will always be there to dance beside of you my little one.
but nevers such a long time.
*******
The lone figure knelt in front of the grave, her reflection shimmering back at her from the smooth wet surface of the cement marker. Her soft tears mixing with the cold rain. She reached out to the cool slick surface just one more time, her reflection's hand reaching back for her own. Fingers never quite touching as the gray stone stood as a cold reminder. A soft warmth filled her as she gently whispered, her reflection responding mutely.
"...Mahal Kita Mommy"
*******
Mahal Kita My Little One...
Find us here at Templars of the Abbey Webpage
Arc # 57740 - 'A Star is Rising Part One'
Arc # 90575 - 'A Lesson Taught'
Arc # 139943 - 'And The Game Goes Tilt'
January 5th 2007 - Skyway
"It's been raining three days. Three consecutive days." Bill Chamberlin held up three fingers for emphasis as he passed Kara on the way into the office they were to use here in the Longbow Base. He had a hell of time on patrol tonight. Waiting out in the rain during a long stakeout, getting soaked just after the warehouse raid as the police vans pulled in, and then, just when he thought he was home free, he stepped in a puddle, just inches away from the main door of the base.
He'd swallowed the four-letter word hovering on the tip of his tongue and headed into the warm lobby, making a beeline for the elevator, where he ran into SureFire. She'd smiled at him, seductively -- as if there were any other way that girl could smile -- so he wedged himself in the corner of the elevator, answering her questions monosyllabically.
Finally, the elevator doors opened. SureFire went right, and he went left, meeting Kara -- who was armed with a clipboard and her laptop -- on the way. "That's 72 hours, my friend." he added to her as she used a towel to dry her long damp mane of hair.
"I know, Bill. I can do the math," She said, following him into the office.
"When was the last time it rained for three whole days?" Bill turned to face her.
"I can't tell you for sure," she clicked her tongue once as she dried her hair looking at him, " but I can say that this is not the first time it's rained three days in a row and it's certainly not the last." Kara shrugged setting the towel across a chair as she hopped up to sit on the edge of one of the desks. Leaning over, she turned on her computer.
"This is Paragon City Kara, not Seattle."
She smirked humoring this still as she leafed through her arrest reports and those from their most recent raid "I know it's Paragon City. Seattle is on the other side of the country."
"In Washington." Bill settled himself on the sofa, stretching his legs out and leaning his head back against the armrest.
"And is it raining in the great state of Washington?" Kara said not looking up.
"It always rains in Seattle," Bill said. He shifted his position slightly so he was on his side and looking directly towards Kara.
"The Supersonics played in Seattle today," He continued. Kara tapped a few keys on the keyboard frowning.
"They did eh?" She racked her brain. "hockey?"
Bill made a face in her direction. "Yes,...wait no Basketball...god woman you are terrible when it comes to sports"
Kara smiled but sighed pressing her keys a bit more firmly saying in a sing song like voice "We have a police report to /file/"
Bill stared gloomily out the window. "I can't write when it's raining."
"That's ridiculous." Kara looked up finally.
"Somewhere in America, it's not raining. I should be there." Silently, He amended, anywhere but here. Of course he'd never voice that thought to Kara. She could get funny about things like that, probably would take it personally. As if his own bad mood had something to do with her, when in reality it had nothing to do with her and everything to do with a woman they had both known for fifteen years now years.
"I'm sure you're right," She answered non-committally. Kara sat up a bit and crossed her legs as she fiddled and made some nots on her notepad.
Bill swung his legs over the edge of the couch and sat up to face her. "I bet it's not raining in Houston."
"It's not. It's 70 degrees, clear skies, a light wind out of the east." She mummered as she jotted down some of the arresting officer's notes.
"How do you know this?"
"The Internet." Kara pointed to her computer. "You may have heard of it."
"I have, but I don't make a habit of checking on the weather in Houston."
"You're an investigating superhero, William. We do things like this."
"Like checking the weather in Houston?" He asked.
"Yes."
"There are no major crimes in Houston today." Bill got to his feet and proceeded to stalk across the room to the window. He leaned against the window, palm against cool glass, and stared down. The amount of fog made it difficult to even see the lights in the building directly opposite theirs, let alone the traffic on the street below.
"A good hero knows what's going on, even if there isn't any crime." She smirked.
"How does this help me want to write?" Bill turned away from the window.
Kara arched an eyebrow. "You think you'd do better in Houston? Like you know, where it's not raining?"
"Clearly, you're not taking me seriously."
"I'm like taking you very seriously, but I'd take you more so if you'd sit down and write your part of our report."
"I've been trying, Kar." Bill started to pace in front of the sofa, before stopping short in front of her. "I can't remember what the starting line-up for the Sonics is."
"That is serious." An appropriately mock concerned expression crossed Kara's face. "Just work through it. Youre a professional. I have had trouble focusing, on remembering things...you remember after that Sky Raider bust in September"
"RJ threw water in your face." Bill despondently made his way back to the sofa.
"I SO don't talk about a failure to focus around RJ anymore."
"Good move, my friend, good move." Bill slumped in the sofa, covered his face in his hands. "What are the chances it'll stop raining?"
Kara sighed and quirked a grin. "It's not going to. The weather forecast calls for heavy downpours through tomrrow...maybe Sunday."
"Sunday?" Bill tried to keep the desperation out of his voice. He remembered that this past morning, while overcast, had been nice, and he'd spent the day with with his buddy from school, Charlie, shopping for some new games for their playstation 3. Then they'd gone to McDonalds -- fine dining for them! -- before dropping his friend back with Lisa, his friend's suddenly annoyed girlfriend. Bill sighed they had only been three hours late. Today had been a good day until the skies over Paragon had opened up.
Kara nodded. "Yes." He returned to the laptop sticking her pen sideways between her teeth as she resumed typing.
"That's a lot of rain, Kara."
Kara looked up from his keyboard and said, "The state of Rhode Island gets thirty-two to fifty-eight inches of precipitation a year."
"This looks like it's going to be a fifty-eight inch year." Bill droned gloomily, looking out of the window. "Which still doesn't help me."
"Like the rain isn't your problem, William. The rain is so your excuse."
"My socks are wet, Kar. The rain is most certainly my problem."
Kara frowned. "How long have you been walking around in wet socks?"
"Since I got in." It had occurred to Bill to get another pair of socks from the locker he kept here at the base, but the brief non-encounter with SureFire in the elevator had frazzled his brain to the point his only coherent thought was to get to the relative safety of this office.
"You got in before I did."
"Yes."
Kara looked at the small clock on her laptop. "And like that was forty minutes ago now."
"Yes."
"That's a long time to be walking around in wet socks." Kara shook her head.
"I know." Bill sighed dramatically. He flexed his fingers, unclenching and clenching them into a fist and then he did a little hop-skip action.
"I so don't know what you're doing over there, William. I'm writing our reports."
"I'm getting into the zone, I'm getting into the game. I'm a team player, Kar."
Kara looked up from her screen. "So sit down and write the /report/."
Bill shook his head. "Can't do it, Kar." He stared gloomily out of the window.
Kara sighed "You need to solve this thing with Patti"
"What?" Bill turned, startled.
"Like this thing with Patti. You need to do something about it."
"There is no 'thing' with Patti. Only a 'plan'." Bill didn't mean to sound defensive. The whole thing had begun shortly after his father's stroke. Patti had come with his sister and had stayed all through it with him as Kara had. He and she had been discussing this ever since, about what they were, what they weren't, and everyone he knew in the Corps and his family were all trying to help in their own pushy ways.
Patti had wanted a six month time between now and their next date in which Bill was to see others and be sure she was who he wanted after the Patterson fiasco. She had even taken a job with the city as a meteorologist for the corps. He needed to figure out a way to carve out some space for himself. Maybe not dating Patti would be the place to start, He thought, but hell, he wanted to date Patti, had wanted to data Patti for a while now, and maybe it'd be better if everyone in his life started to mind their own business. Like hell that would happen, he groaned.
Kara smirked from her perch on the edge of her desk. "Patti doesn't know what she wants or what she's doing. Hence, the 'plan'. If you care about this 'hero' thingie and our reports for the raids we have been on this month at all, you'll go talk to her her. Now." Kara leaned forward. "Bill, it's so time to take some action. You're going to have to try plan A."
"Which is talking to Patti?" Bill swallowed hard.
"You catch on quick, my friend." She nodded.
"And plan B is?" Bill said, stalling for time.
"Patti talking to you."
Bill considered this. "That's not going to happen," he said finally. "She's already got a plan."
"Exactly. So you have to do plan A since obviously plans B through Y aren't going to work."
"I have that many plans?"
"You have that many plans." Kara pointed to the door. "Now go. Talk to Patti."
"That's twenty-five plans." Bill reluctantly stood up. How the hell was he supposed to get Patti to stand still for the time it'd take to go through twenty-five plans? "That's a lot of plans, Kara."
"It so is."
"I don't know what any of them are." he asked slightly bewildered.
"It's okay. Plan A is like your best bet." she said. "Totally"
"Right. Plan A." Bill looked at her. "You stopped at Y."
"Yes. Yes, I did." Kara slipped off of the desk and gently put her hand on the small of Bill's back, nudging him towards the door.
"So why isn't there a plan Z?" Bill asked while being nudged.
"Like there is a plan Z. But it has an even less chance of working than the other twenty-five." she shook her head " Best not to mention it."
"Since you know what plan Z is, you should tell me. Especially if it's my plan. I have a whole alphabet of plans and I only know what plans A and B are. It's only fair you tell me about the others." he said as he reached the door.
Kara pushed Bill out the door. "Go talk to Patti. Now. We have a report to write."
"Will you tell me about plan Z later?" He asked asked, stopping just outside of the office. He didn't bother lowering his voice; the squad bay was loud anyway, and most of the agents, hero and police were staring at him and her anyway.
"Yes."
"I'm going to go talk to Patti." Bill backed away slowly. "I'm going. I'm really going." Kara closed the door and Bill stood for a moment, before resolutely walking towards another office. It was only the knowledge that Kara was watching him through the glass beside the door kept Bill from turning on his heel and heading in the opposite direction.
"You're going to go talk to Patti?" Nancy appeared at Bill's shoulder. The little hero had to double her stride to keep up with him.
Bill nodded. "Patti is a Weather Girl, with all of this rain she has to be up still."
Nancy eventually fell into step with him. "I agree."
"And in her office"
"I agree"
"Why are you using that tone of voice?" Bill narrowed his eyes as he looked at her. She was carrying a clipboard and several disks, obviously heading to the evidence room. The little Defender had fought bravely tonight.
"What tone of voice?" she quipped innocently.
"The tone of voice that says there is something odd about me going to talk to Patti."
"I'm not using any tone of voice." Nancy sounded indignant at the mere accusation.Bill sighed the age old quote of 'Shocked, Im shocked to discover gambling here' ran through his head.
"There! There it is again." The words came out louder than Bill intended. "You're doing it again."
"I'm not doing anything, Mr. Guardian Star. I'm just walking with you to Patti's office."
"Yes, but why are you walking with me?" He didn't mean to sound suspicious but what Nancy knew, Patti knew, and vice-versa.The two had gotten close since Patti had moved out here. Bill wouldn't put it past Patti to send Nancy to pump him for information. Hell she probably had recruited Kara as well. Great, Bill thought, just great. This 'thing' with Patti was making him even more crazy and paranoid than he already was. Why couldnt they just go /out/?
"Because I was going this way and so are you, so it makes sense that we go together." Nancy sounded forcefully peppy, the bounce in her step unmistakable.
"So you don't think it's odd I'm going to go talk to Patti?" Bill asked as a soft roll of thunder sounded through the building..
"No, not at all." Nancy flashed a smile at him. "In fact, I think it would be a good thing, because you guys can, you know, /talk/." Nancy flashed him a wide smile. Bill refrained from sighing; whatever he said to Patti, Nancy would know in a nanosecond. If Nancy knew, then the whole squadroom would know and which meant this day, which he hadn't thought could get much worse, would and could. Just then, Nancy punched his shoulder as they stopped in front of Patti's office. The door was closed. "Good luck!"
Bill stared at her. "Why did you say that?" It was a struggle to keep the paranoia out of his voice. What had Patti told her? What did Nancy think he would say to Patti? Had Kara and Nancy been talking during the stakeout? Whose side was anyone on anyway?
"Say what?" She smirked.
"Good luck. Why did you say that?"
Nancy shrugged. "Because it's the appropriate thing to say."
"Good luck?" Bill furrowed his brow. Yes, he did indeed know two other languages fluently, but at times like this, the semantic intricacies of Spanish seemed more understandable than English.
"Because you're going to talk to Patti," Nancy said patiently, as if talking to a small child. Come to think of it, she had recently used that tone of voice with Charlie, when his doofus of a friend hit on the young heroine.
"Which isn't odd at all," Bill said, putting heavy emphasis on the word 'odd'. "But you seem to think I need luck."
"Because you have something to say to her that she doesn't necessarily want to hear, but really, it was just something that slipped out." Nancy leaned over and punched him again in the arm. Bill rubbed the spot painfully; Nancy didn't hold back. He suspected he might have residual muscle soreness for a few hours, if not for the next day, thanks to her fist. She eyed him suspiciously. "Are you scared of Patti? Because you look it."
"No," he answered firmly.
"Good. Because you shouldn't be."
"Do you know how many times you say 'because'?"
"Approximately eight times in every one hundred words or eight percent of my conversational output." Nancy flashed him a bright smile.
Bill just /stared/ at her. "You calculated your conversational output?"
"No, Kevin did."
"That's scary." Bill wondered how he'd react if someone he was intimately involved with came up with a 'conversational output' measure. That was Nancy and Kevin's thing and Kevin was smart and Nancy found things like that cute. That was /their/ thing. Not his.
"It's really scary. Now, go!"
"I can't believe we're still standing here talking about this." He glanced over his shoulder at Patti's closed door. He wondered if Patti was actually inside, ear to the door, listening to this entire conversation. And then he realized he was being paranoid again.
"That makes two of us." Nancy looked down the hall and then back at Bill. "I'm to show these tapes to the Lead Agent and then file them as evidence. You, on the other hand, are going to go in there to talk to Patti about........... whatever the hell you need to talk about. I don't know if you need luck or not, it was just something I said." Nancy took a deep breath. "So I'm going, okay?" She fluttered her fingers at him and then left him standing in front of Patti's closed door.
Inhaling sharply, Bill knocked.
"Come in!"
[censored]. He opened the door slowly and stuck his head in.
Patti was lying on her sofa, legs up on the armrest. She was wearing a skirt. A black skirt. When she saw him, she sat up, but didn't fix her skirt, despite her left thigh being clearly exposed. Bill stared. He was pretty sure gawking at one's co worker constituted sexual harassment of some kind, but she made no move to cover up and so he didn't look away.
"Patti." He stood awkwardly in front of her.
"Bill."
"It's raining." He noticed Patti had done something different with hair, highlights maybe, or even a trim. She looked good. And he liked the blue blouse with the thin white stripes on it, the fact that it was open at the collar and when she leaned forward like that, he could see the swell of cleavage. He took a step backwards with a barely noticable gulp.
"I know. Im a meteorologist. It has been raining. For three days. It's going to rain until Sunday."
"This is what I hear," Bill said nodding.
"It is not, however, raining in Seattle." Patti shifted position on the sofa, adjusting her skirt in the process.
"It's not?" Bill frowned. "It always rains in Seattle." His mind raced as he wondered if Kara had told Patti he was coming.
"Not today."
"It wouldn't have mattered anyway. You know, if it was raining or not. The Supersonics play indoors."
"This is true." Patti eyed him pensively. "Something on your mind, Bill?"
"No."
"Did you need something?" Patti's expression was nothing short of inquisitive.
"No." He wanted to mentally kick his brain into gear. What was it about Patti that he completely lost all coherent thought and reason when he was in her presence? In any language, he failed to find the words he wanted to use on her. He wanted to say, "That was some kiss, Patti, some kiss, and I'm pretty sure you stopped my heart as you made it your own with but that one simple kiss." But of course, his mouth felt dry, his throat scratchy, and he stood in the middle of Linda 'Patti' Goldman's office feeling like a complete idiot.
"Ah." Patti got up. "So you just wanted to tell me it was raining?"
"Yes."
She was standing very close to him now. "When clearly I can see that that is the case by looking out of my window." she clicked her tongue "Or if I doubted this computer with sattelite feeds and my links to various weather centers"
"Right, but did you know it was going to rain until Sunday?" Bill took another step backwards.
"I did." Patti sat on the edge of her desk and folded her arms against her chest. "Because that's the beauty of five-day forecasts, Bill. I get to tell you what's going to happen with the weather during the next five days."
"I knew that."
"I know you knew that."
He turned around and then he looked back at Patti. "Kara sent me."
"You need Kara to send you to me?" She sounded more amused than hurt.
"She sent me because my plans B through Y aren't going to work."
"What are your plans B through Y?" Patti looked bewildered and Bill understood her confusion well.
"Plan B is you coming to talk to me. The rest, I don't know about. but its all right Kara explained it all to me"
"Why would I come talk to you?" Patti rounded her desk and pulled the chair out. In the background, rain pelted the window in constant rhythm.
"Because," Bill said, once again at a conversational loss. He hated, absolutely hated, that Patti could take all of the words out of him.
"You say 'because' a lot." She quipped.
The words now slipped out easily. "So does Nancy. It's eight percent of her conversational output."
"I did not know that. Intriguing." Patti tipped her head to the side. Soft blond hair skimmed the angular planes of her cheekbones. He wondered if she did that on purpose, that she knew he liked to look at her in specific detail, and she knew exactly how to draw attention to herself.
Bill wanted to answer that Patti ought to listen to Nancy more often, or at the very least, run her crazy ideas by her first, but instead he settled for the safe response. "Trust me. It's eight percent." He offered a smile. This was easy, he thought, talk about everyone and everything except for us.
"You calculated that?"
"No. Kevin did."
"Scary." Patti frowned.
"That's what I said." Bill resisted the temptation to add "Great minds think alike." He pondered using this as evidence, their thoughts were on the same wavelength, she should let him take her to dinner tonight, not in six months, tonight. But he knew she'd demure. He didn't like the way her doubt made him feel. Now that stung, harsh, bitter, cold -- any number of adjectives, but in the end it came down to the same thing; she made him crazy, in ways both good and bad, but she could wound him just as deeply as Kathrine, his last so called love had.
"So you want to tell me about these plans of yours?" Patti leaned forward on her desk, resting her weight forward on her palms.
"Not especially." He sighed. "Kara has told me they are very complicated"
"She did eh? " Patti grinned. "But you're here."
He nodded. "I concede the point." He tried to concentrate on a spot above her head, didn't want to look directly at her because her blouse was open and he could see the edge of white lace.
"Do you have a problem, Bill?" Patti straightened and crossed her arms against her chest once again. The tone of her voice took him off-guard. She sounded distant, almost hurt. He felt a guilty pleasure over that. After all, wasn't Patti the one who had started the whole mess in the first place? or was it him?
"I have no problems." An out and out lie and Bill knew Patti knew him well enough to hear the subterfuge underlying his voice. Another thing they had in common: the inability to tell a convincing falsehood.
"Kara must have sent you to me for a reason." Patti picked up a pen and begin making notes on a notepad in quick, almost illegible scrawls. The ink smeared across her hand and she dropped the pen and looked at Billy. He was tempted to ask her what she'd written, but decided against it. "Bill?"
Deciding to change the subject, He said, "I can't write. Our report. Can't write it."
Patti frowned. "So you came here. What did you expect to find? A cure for writer's block? Gotta tell you, Bill, I haven't found it yet." she clenched her fingers into a fist "...and I think, God, if only I could fix that, but I can't. So you've come to the wrong place, Bill. Writing is a part of your job, so just do it."
"What is this, 'Tough Love with Patti Goldman'?" He asked. He held up a hand. "I didnt come here because I wanted you to fix me, Patti." He put his hands down on the desk and stared intently at her. "You're one of the closest people to me here in the city, we grew up together practically, so you should know what's going on with me. But you're not just that Patti you are a weather girl, Patti...."
"Meteorologist..." she added.
"..., you're a good meteorologist. Best damn meteorologust I've ever worked with." He stared at her intently. "We do good work together, Patti."
"You and Kara do good work together." Her voice was threaded with uncertainty. "I predict the weather Bill...um...that is all"
"We're pretty damn good too." He lifted his chin defiantly to look her straight in the eye. Patti backed up so she was leaning against the far wall, arms still crossed against her chest. He wondered if the body language was an intentional hint to him.
"Are you talking about crime fighting or something else?" she asked softly.
"I think I've moved on to something else." Bill swallowed hard. Now or never, buddy, he thought. Now or never. he took a deep breath. "Kara thinks I have a 'thing' for you. No, let me amend that. Kara Reynolds-Dengo is right. But don't tell her that or it'll go to her head and you know Kara can be insufferable when she's on to something."
"What's the matter with you, Bill?" Patti asked, her brow furrowing in concern.
"This 'plan'. Your grand plan for us" Ha! Said it!
"It's brilliant, isn't it?" Her eyes lit up. Bill couldn't understand the enthusiasm she had embraced this idea. It was wacko, even for her, who had had some wacko ideas in the past. Of course, these were not things to say to a woman whom one was trying to take out to dinner. He took another deep breath.
"No, no, it's not. You've had good ideas in the past, Patti, brilliant ones even. This isn't one of them."
"Now, Bill--" Patti held up a hand, but he ignored her.
"Six months is a long time, Patti."
"Good things are really worth waiting for Bill."
"I've known you for fifteen years." He didn't mean to sound frustrated. Patti lowered her head, seemingly doing her best not to look at him at all. "And maybe Kara got a little bit of it wrong. I don't have a 'thing' for you, Patti, this is more than a 'thing'. Give me a chance to prove it to you."
"But are you absolutely sure?"
"Yes, yes, I am." Bill didn't smile, just looked directly at her, daring her to look back. She focused her attention the notepad in front of her. "One hundred percent."
"See, I don't think you are."
"I think I am." He lifted his chin defiantly. "I think this so called 'plan' is for you, not for me."
"Excuse me?" Now he had her attention.
"You say it's all about me and making sure that I know what I want. But maybe it's the other way around. Maybe you don't know what you want and you're pushing me away, making me think it's all about me when it's really all about you." he smiled now on a roll, he was on to something here! " Because you don't want me to know that I know it's really all about you and has nothing to do with me at all. So it's all an elaborate plan of yours to not date me because you have some kind of issues about dating me that you don't want me to know about so you're making this six months so you can figure it out."
"I have no idea what you just said." She blinked.
"I said that this plan is for you, not for me." He pointed in her direction. "Maybe you're not over Steven."
"I'm over Steven."
"Stevie boy has a post-graduate degree." Bill didn't know quite what he meant by that statement; it just came out. Another mental kick in the [censored].
"You always had a thing about post-graduate degrees." Patti sounded smug and for a moment, he hated her.
"I don't have a thing about post-graduate degrees, but I do have a thing about you making this about me when it's really about you," Bill said finally.
Patti sighed heavily and shifted her position. Outside, the rain continued to fall, but with less intensity than when he had first arrived in her office. "It's not about me, it's about you. This is what's best for you."
"See, you keep saying that. But here's the thing, the real thing," He said earnestly. "What's best for me right now is you letting me take you to dinner tonight. Some place we both really like and where we can talk and not be crazy."
"Are you calling me crazy?" She actually sounded hurt.
"Yes." He held up his hands in an expression of surrender. "I'm calling you crazy. Your plan is nothing short of insane.Im here you are here and there are many fine dining establishments I would love to take you too!"
"I think my dating plan is brilliant." Patti cocked her head defiantly.
"Everyone else thinks it's crazy."
"How do we know, Bill?" She looked at him pensively. "I mean, how do we really know?"
He took a step in her direction. "Not waiting six months to figure it out is a good start."
"I don't want to be your rebound," she said so very quietly he had to strain to hear the words. Bill's expression softened.
"And I don't want to be yours," he said, equally sotto voce.
"So you see? Six months makes sense." She sounded desperate now. He wanted to push that doubt just a little more, make her think it through. Patti looked pensive now and he wondered whether he was finally getting through to her.
"We've known each other fifteen years. It's not a rebound," he said with confidence.
"And you're sure?" she asked apprehensively.
"Yes."
"How can you be sure?"
"I just am." He took another step closer to her. "You've got to trust me, Patti."
"I do trust you."
"I hear a 'but' in there."
"This thing, it isn't good for the job right now." Patti took a deep breath, looking almost relieved. "There, I said it."
"I know it isn't good for the job right now, we are both real new. That's why I'm saying, let's scrap this dating plan and let me take you out to dinner tonight. You, me, a bottle of wine, and we'll talk. We'll be normal people, not crazy people."
"There you go again, calling me crazy. That's not the way to get me to change my mind. And consider that a freebie, Chamberlin. When you start going on your six months worth of dates, don't ever call the woman 'crazy', okay? It doesn't count if you drive the date off. It's gotta be the real thing, genuine, heartfelt and you--" she jabbed a finger in the direction of his chest "-- have to be your charming and seductive self."
"You are crazy, Patti." He smiled. "Maybe that's what I love about you. Maybe I need that in my life."
Patti pressed her hand against her face. "Is it still raining?" She sounded suddenly tired.
"Until Sunday. So the five-day forecast says. We already had this conversation," Bill said flatly.
"Because it's not good for the job, Bill. You and me."
"You already said that." He didn't mean to sound impatient, but Patti had a way of wearing down a person, of putting up barriers and excuses until the other person wilted out of frustration. He knew her tricks and games and wanted her to know that he was here to play, that he was going to win.
"We're both so new."
"And you think we're going to keep being the newbies arond here? That the police and other heroes are going to say that meteorologist is dating that hero Guardian Star so lets stop calling in crimes?" He stared at her in disbelief.
"No, I'm saying that I need to concentrate on our jobs." Dana ran her hand through her hair. After a moment, she turned to look out the window.
"And that's why you came up with the dating plan?" Bill asked quietly.
"Maybe."
"Be straight with me, Patti."
"It's about the job." Patti turned back to face him. "It's not the same thing."
"You are the show, Patti, you and everyone here in the base."
"No, you and Kara and those like you are the job."
"For the record, I don't think this 'thing' with you and me has anything to do with us being co workers" he said.
"Maybe not, but I can't take that chance." Patti sounded confident now, sure. More like her old self. Maybe another time, he'd ask Patti, try to find out if maybe this wasn't about him or the show but rather rediscovery: finding the Patti Goldman, Steven had lost.
"If you let me take you out to dinner, the crime will drop."
She didn't perk up quite the way he'd hoped. "How do you figure?" She asked.
"I just know. I know it the same way you know dating me would make the job situation worse."
"We're damn good at we do." She began to pace the length of her office. Despite her precariously high-heeled shoes, she still managed to move with amazing speed and fluidity. Bill moved out of her way.
"I know that."
"Then you've got to leave me alone, let me do this. Without distractions." She stopped in front of him.
"Hey you moved out here on your own" He said.
"Yes to help you and your sister, with your father." she said looking up at him.
"So I am a distraction?" The realization was oddly comforting he thought as he spoke.
"You've been a distraction for fifteen years, Bill." She took a deep breath. "And right now, I have to do something about this job."
"I can help you with that."
"No, no, you can't. Your job is so much different than mine." She looked at him sadly. "I need you in the game, Bill. I dont need to be visiting you in the hospital."
"I am and I am in the game. You say the word, Patti, and I'll come out swinging. Hell, I come out ready to play every single day. Every. Single. Day."
"And you need to keep doing that. If I can't get my life together I don't have you on my team."
"I've always been on your team, Patti."
"And you need to keep focus. You need to think of this as spring training."
"Spring training?"
"Yes." Patti eyed him speculatively. "Go out there and write your reports, Bill. Don't stand here and whine to me about how you can't write a report you write every single day of the week and then tell me the us thing isnt effecting our jobs. Go." She pointed to the door. "Go do your job and let me focus on mine."
He held up a hand. "Fine, fine. About the job, I get that. And six months. I got it all now."
"Bill?" Her voice was very soft, and he couldn't help but be seduced by the way the syllables of his name rolled off her tongue: smooth and rounded.
"What?"
"I think the plan's a good one."
"I'm not even going to answer that, Patti. You know how I feel," Bill said. "At least I know now it's all about you. You're using me as the excuse to hide behind." He put his hand on the door knob. "I don't know how that makes me feel." With that, he went out the door.
"You talked to Patti?" Kevin fell into step beside him.
"Where the hell did you come from?" Bill looked over his shoulder nervously beyond the friendly controller to scan the squad room. He was sure Nancy had to be hovering somewhere nearby and hell, maybe even Kara too. Unless Kevin had them all linked up telepathically. He coud do that. Whoa paranoid again.
"The men's room, but if you're looking for a more scientific explanation, the birds and the bees for instance, I'm going to have to refer you to your mother."
"The men's room will do just fine, thank you." Bill smirked as he slowed down. Sometimes this squadroom was a place out of a carnival, a spooky funhouse with people just appearing or knowing things. It was, Bill thought, nothing short of supernatural the way things just happened. "It's just there are always people. Coming from everywhere. I can't keep up."
"This is a squad room. There are people here."
"I'm aware of that, but it's the 'appearing suddenly' thing that makes me nervous."
"As it should, as it should." Kevin clapped Bill on the shoulder as they made their way into the squadbay proper.
"So it's nothing magical, just a crossing of paths." Bill dropped back slightly, allowing Kevin to step in front of him in order to navigate through the maze of desks.
"That's exactly what it is. Serendipitous, one might say."
"One might say."
"So the dating plan is still in effect?" Kevin asked in a low voice, slowing down a little to allow Bill to catch up with him.
"Yes." Bill couldn't keep the frustration out of his voice. He really, really, really didn't want to talk about this anymore. He'd go on his six months of dates, and then when it was all over, he'd take Patti out to dinner and she'd admit that he'd been right in the third place, that her plan was stupid in the second place and she should have said yes in the first place. Ha!
"You told her it's insane?"
"I told her it's insane. Nancy told her it's insane. But she's got her reasons."
"She doesn't want to be your rebound." At Bill's shocked experience, Kevin added, "Nancy told me Patti told her that."
Bill groaned. Of course. How could he forget? Kevin and Nancy were practically the same person these days. "No, she wants us to focus on our jobs."
"That's a more admirable motivation than being your rebound."
"She should have just said that from the beginning. I can understand not wanting to have any distractions. I speak two other languages and I attend a good college, I can understand something like that," Bill said. "She should have said, 'William, I want the two of us to be more focused and stable before we can begin any type of dating' But Patti didn't say that. She said, 'Bill, I think you should date other women for six months.' That's what she said. She should have said the first thing, but she didn't. So now, it's six months I've got to wait and in the meantime, we are to focus on our jobs.....and I date..others."
"But you have to admit, it's a more admirable motivation."
Bill stared at Kevin in exasperation. For such a smart guy, sometimes the boy could be awfully dense. And annoying, Bill silently added. Kevin could also be damn annoying. "It doesn't change how I feel," he said finally.
"Six months go by pretty quick."
"That sounds like a long time, Kevin."
"It goes by fast. Trust me. You'd be amazed at how fast 184 days go by."
"One hundred and eighty-four? I counted one-eighty-three." Bill stopped short in dismay. An extra twenty-four hours in addition to the 4,392 he'd already calculated seemed interminable.
"On the 184th day, you can take Patti out to dinner. So it's really 184 days. You can ask her out on the 183rd day though."
"Thanks, Kevin." Bill stopped in front of the office where this insane journey had begun. "I'm going in there now."
"Right."
"I'm going to write the a report that'll bring Statesman to his knees, crying at its beauty. That is how focused I will be!"
"That's the spirit!" Kevin made a fist-punching action. Bill raised an eyebrow. The smaller man shrugged casually.
"Because Patti and I, we don't have a 'thing'. We have a dating plan." Funny, the more Bill used the phrase 'dating plan', the more he got used to it. In fact, the words were almost rolling off his tongue naturally, as if he were now completely and totally comfortable with the idea. That's right, Chamberlin, he thought, you're now nothing short of delusional. Paranoid and Dellusional, how do they do this to us?
"A completely harebrained and insane dating plan," Kevin added, breaking into his thoughts.
"And I sort of understand it. I don't like it, but I understand it."
"Because we don't want to be unfocused anymore."
"Exactly." Bill nodded. "I don't necessarily agree one thing has to do with the other, but that's Patti's call, not mine. I'm going to go in there now."
Bill walked into the office. Kara was still sitting at her laptop, typing away. Her paperwork surrounding her still as she sat on the desk.
"It's still raining," She said, without looking up.
"So everyone keeps telling me." Bill slumped on the old patch covered sofa, swinging his legs up and staring gloomily up at the ceiling.
"Did you talk to Patti?" Kara stopped typing and looked across at Bill with concern.
"I talked to Patti."
"And?"
"It's about her, not about me." Bill stood up and paced restlessly. Back and forth in time with the rhythm of the rain beating against the window. He looked at Kara.
"Selfish," Kara said, his voice imbued with the warmth of solidarity.
"Very." Bill sat down in the chair opposite the desk. He stretched his arms out and flexed his fingers. "I'm ready to write this report now."
"Good."
"But first--" Bill looked up, a serious expression crossing his face "-- you tell me what plan Z is."
"There is no plan Z." Kara fiddled with the pencil in her hands.
"You said there was."
"I lied." Kara lifted her chin and looked defiantly at Bill. He didn't flinch.
"You lied to me?" Bill asked.
"Believe it or not, sometimes I like say things just to get you to shut up and so do something."
"So that was what? you giving me false hope?"
"We have a report to write. You can't write when you're obsessing about Patti." Kara's tone was matter-of-fact, but Bill knew that Kara had to be sick of this business. Hell, he was sick of it too. Move on, he thought, stop talking about it and just get on with it. Maybe Kevin was right; maybe six months would go faster than he thought they would. Maybe he would have a good time meeting these other women. Maybe he would learn how to dance so when he took the floor with Patti, he'd get it right and not step on her toes. Because, God knows, Bill wanted to get this right.
"In fact, William, you're practically impossible to be around where Patti is concerned."
"So Patti is right?" Bill knit his fingers together, refusing to make eye contact with her.
"Right about what?"
"That she and I, that we, the thing well its bad for focusing on our jobs?" He had to force the words out.
"Relationships so suck sometimes, when it comes to focusing, William. You have no idea. Simply no idea."
"I thought being with Patti would be a good thing for us. If it's a good thing for us, it'd be a good thing for focusing." Bill hunched over, putting all of his weight on his forearms as he looked glumly at Kara.
"Things don't always work out that way," Kara said gently. She pushed a writing pad and a pen in Bill's direction. "Come on, William."
He looked at the pad, was reminded of Patti, and then looked back at Kara. "Just so you know, on the 183rd day, I'm going to ask Patti out to dinner."
"Even though it's like bad for foscusing?"
Bill leaned forward, resting his elbows on the desk. "You don't honestly believe that, do you?"
Kara shrugged. "In six months, we'll so know for sure."
Bill leaned back in his chair. "Aye, there's the rub."
"In the meantime, are you going to help me write this stupid report or are you going to sit there and totally obsess about Patti?"
"I'm going to help you write the report."
"Okay."
"Because we're good together, me and Patti really good," Bill said. He knew Kara wouldn't be fooled by the false enthusiasm in his voice.
"Right."
"And we deserve a better and more stable chance." They stared at each other in silence and then Bill said, "So there really was no plan Z."
"No." Kara smirked warmly and slowly shook her head
"Plan A didn't work."
"I know."
"You said it would."
"I So said it had a better chance of working than any of the other options." Kara looked serious. "You can't blame it on the weather, William. That's the easy way out."
"Like a dating plan?"
"Yes," Kara said, her tone softened by measured sympathy, "exactly like that."
"I get it now." Bill sighed. "So, are we going to do this or not?"
"Finally" Kara smirked and began to write her report with him.
Find us here at Templars of the Abbey Webpage
Arc # 57740 - 'A Star is Rising Part One'
Arc # 90575 - 'A Lesson Taught'
Arc # 139943 - 'And The Game Goes Tilt'
January 9th 2007 - Skyway
There was the most annoying sound coming from the office where she had left Kara, after the failed patrol. RJ stood in front of the door, wincing, and finally found the bravado needed to enter. One would expect to look in and find Kara furious at not being able to complete her task, which usually resulted in pacing or simmering, practically about to snap when, in the most rare cases she was really agitated.
But this, this was an annoying whine, a fevered pitch, dotted by miniature squeals, and the person slumped over the desk wasnt engrossed in writing up her failed report, but holding a. . .a. . .
Kara, what is that? She asked as Fly, her orange tabby cat readjusted, perched high on RJ's shoulder, the small cat also seemed to be looking at Kara with puzzlement.
Kara looked up, or rather glanced up in a hurry, and continued to work her thumbs over a set of odd. . .things. Whack-A-Mole!
W-Whack a what? RJ blinked clearly expecting any other type of answer from her friend.
Whack-A-Mole....Oh Darn it! The game landed on her desk, padded by her documents. I so just lost. she added as the small consol game accented her loss with a chorus of mocking little high pitched giggles from these so called little moles.
RJ glanced down at the small currently cackling object. Kara. . .should I be concerned? I mean, you did have a childhood, right? It wasnt really spent with your nose in your books all the time, was it?
Like of course I did!" Kara smirked glaring down at her still mocking adversary.
Tell me again what that is.
Okay, so ...that much you like dont know?
Just tell me what the hell a Whack-A-Mole is! RJ asked still half stunned as the machine grew silent.
Wait, wait, wait, you like dont know what Whack-A-Mole is? Kara grinned and leaned forward. And you talk about my childhood?
Will you please. . . Rj was exasperated.
Remember the games in the arcade where you whack these things on the head that pop out of a hole?. . . Omigawd! you /so/ dont have a clue what Im talking about! She laughed softly standing up to sweep her long hair back behind her ears. You really dont!
No, Kara, I dont have a clue. That doesnt excuse you doing. . ." she gestured at her with her hands "whatever it is youre doing.
Why Rina Jessica! Im like stunned! I had no idea, wow, we so really need to go and get you acquainted with the world!
I am acquainted with the world! I work for the Freedom Corps!
And yet you are oblivious to the subtly of Whack-A-Mole!" Kara grinned teasingly now. RJ's competive side began to raise it hackles.
The subtly of Whack-A-Mole hardly constitutes a national security crisis of any kind, and it doesnt arrest criminals, and it doesnt sign my paycheck, so why should I care about it ? RJ eyed it askance as Fly leapt off of her shoulder to inspect the device and con Kara into petting him as usual. Looks. . .strange. She said moving closer.
Its complex. Kara smiled cocking her head a bit at her as she began to pet Fly, who leaned over and melted.
Its a kiddie game! RJ protested smiling.
It so requires both dexterity and a rapid eye, not to mention quick reflexes. They should SO have these things at military camps. Kara quipped scritching Fly here and there.
Ill put that in a memo, look, I need you to come with me, Swan wants to see you.
Wanna play? Kara grinned as she inquired.
. . .Did I not just say I need you to come with me to see Swan? Rj tried again.
Come on. One game. Bet you cant beat my score. Kara waved a gloved hand over the small console in an enticing manner as her other spoiled the now purring cat.
RJ pursed her lips and considered, then strode up to the desk and the machine. All right then! How do you play?
When the holes light up, press them.
Why is it called Whack-A-Mole? There arent any moles.
There are in like the big version, look, if youre a good girl well go to Anthonys pizza and you can play, Gawd, so still cant believe youve never done this, okay, look, put it on the low setting. . .there. Now.
RJ pressed a button and soon found herself frantically trying to press annoying red dots into submission making them squeal if she hit or mock her with giggles if she missed..
What the. . .
Press harder! You gotta press harder, RJ! Kara mockingly cheered.
Kinky. RJ smirked biting down on her tongue as she pressed and pressed after the elusive little lights.
Swan thought so too as she stood in the doorway silently, but with a smile as the two heroines hunched together over the desk and battled moles. Her smile grew as the small cat also there swatted at the screen as her owner was locked in what appeared to be mortal combat.
The girls competitive nature came out in chirps and bursts of enthusiasm as the levels grew in intensity, RJ cursing and yelling while Kara egged her on in support. This went on for a good five minutes before RJ was able to finally beat Karas score, and she leapt to her feet, throwing her hands into the air triumphantly as Kara gave her a congratulatory hug, then jumped three feet away as her eyes fell on Swan nearly knocking poor Fly off of the desk.
RJ was doing a victory dance with her eyes closed, then seemed to notice the room was suddenly now quiet. She froze in mid dance and slowly opened one eye, then the other. Her gaze settled on the horrifying sight of a hall full of people trying to peer inside, around Swan.
Whatcha two doing? Swan asked coyly.
We. . . uh. . . RJ looked to Kara, who looked back at her.
Were like. . .doing something for the Central Intelligence Agency. . . Added Kara as Swan glanced from one to the other.
. . .and FBI, added RJ quickly.
And. . .FBI. . . Kara nodded clearly blushing as RJ was now.
Oh wow sounds very important, Doing what? Swan then inquired as she crossed her arms clearly amused yet afraid of the answer.
Kara giggled and didnt miss a beat. Catching moles!
Find us here at Templars of the Abbey Webpage
Arc # 57740 - 'A Star is Rising Part One'
Arc # 90575 - 'A Lesson Taught'
Arc # 139943 - 'And The Game Goes Tilt'
January 15th 2007 - New Overbrook, Faultline
Phil sat cross legged atop her bed and scratched her head a bit as she looked at the calender that she had been given this christmas as a 'stocking stuffer'.
Kara paused at her door as she noticed Phil staring at the little calander and then her wall. She poked her head in, wondering what was going on with her little ward.
Hey, Squirtle. What're you doing?
Oh I am looking at this hanging this calender I think. Phil mused narrowing her eyes in intense concentration as to where.
Okay. Got a question to ask me? You so look a little puzzled sweetie.
Indeed I am a little." Phil pointed to the date January 15th. Who was Martin Luther King, Jr. really? The teachers spoke alot about him but still..
She looked up at her guardian with earnest interest as Kara smiled as she walked in and sat at the foot of her bed.
Well, little one" she began as Phil shifted a bit to listen hugging her calender close "Dr. King was a great man. He lived from 1929-1968. He fought for equal rights- for blacks and whites.
Phil furled her brow a bit What? I do not understand. What do you mean? That is silly?
Kara smiled at her, She remembered how she had asked the same questions to her Mother once long ago. Welp sweetie " her tone softer but more serious now "While Dr. King was alive, the whites, being people of lighter skin color hated, or were racist against people of much darker skin color, than their own." she sighed "I don't how to explain that to you easily, most likely because they were scared or because the blacks' ancestors had once been slaves of the white.
"Like how people sometimes treat mutants?" Phil asked softly.
"Yes....and no. " Kara said. "I mean we sometimes have the power to fight back sweetie, society left them no way to back then. I mean even today some of it still happens..fear and ignorance still run rampant. " she shook her head "Just so not to the accepted level it was back then...we have come a long way honey" she smiled a little sadly at Phil "But we have a long long way to go.."
Phil thought about this and then nodded "So then we keep on walking...right?" she tried hopefully.
Kara nodded "Oh yes sweetie..we keep moving forward, he was very important to teaching us how to"
Phil nodded again Is this why is he on the calender?"
He's on the calender because of all the great things he did. His civil rights efforts helped to bring about the passage of the Civil Rights Act of 1964 and the Voting Rights Act of 1965. He was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize in 1964.
Phil sighed a little as Kara slipped /right/ into teacher mode as she listened to the dates and the achievements.
This Nobel Peace Prize- it is a great honor? The small girl asked
Oh Yes, sweetie, it is. It's so one of the greatest honors anyone can ever receive. Kara said.
I think I would've liked to meet this Martin Luther King, Jr. Phil declared then looked up. "How did he die?"
Kara's smile slipped softly.
Um...oh boy, Kara said her voice soft and quiet as she spoke,Martin Luther King, Jr was assassinated on April 4th, 1968, in Memphis, Tennessee sweetie.
Phil blinked But , you just described him as a man of great power, and a great leader to a great cause. Why would someone kill h....?... Oh. The realization seemed to hit poor Phil full force, and she hugged her little calaender a little tighter.
You see honey, he is on the calender because the U.S. Congress in 1983 decided to make his birthday a national holiday. We celebrate his birthday the third Monday of January. Kara smiled a bit more "Which so happens to actually be his actual birthday today"
Kara looked down to her small ward and then an idea hit her. "Squirtle?"
Phil looked up "Yes?"
"Would you like to meet him? See and hear what he was like?"
Phil blinked then nodnoded "Yes Please! Can you /do/ that?"
Kara chuckled and nodded "Yes...sit here I will be right back" she said as she slipped off of the bed and out to her own room to retrieve her laptop. She double checked her cell modem and headed back to Phil's room.
As she entered the little girl's room Kara paused in mild astonishment. The little girl's entire room was decked out in balloons, streamers A table was now in the center of the room that had at its center a large cake reading,Happy Birthday, Doctor Martin! There was also a large banner reading the same saying floating above the child's bed.
Noticing her guardian's reaction Phil tried hopefully. "Well it is his birthday....yes?"
Kara nodded as she negotiated passed the small child's cheerful illusions erected in Dr. King's honor that now filled her room. "Oh yes sweetie "
She nodded as she sat back down on the beside Phil. "Very nice touch"
Phil scooted over as she saw Kara had cued up a video from the internet. "Is that him? Is that Dr. King?" she asked pointing at the frozen black and white image on the screen.
"Yes it is sweetie" Kara said getting comfortable as she began the video. Her voice growing quiet with a degree of reverence. "These are very important words...listen to them"
Phil nodnoded as she began to watch and listen to the dignified man's voice as he began to speak to a crowd Phil could not see..
Five score years ago, a great American, in whose symbolic shadow we stand signed the Emancipation Proclamation. This momentous decree came as a great beacon light of hope to millions of Negro slaves who had been seared in the flames of withering injustice. It came as a joyous daybreak to end the long night of captivity. But one hundred years later, we must face the tragic fact that the Negro is still not free.
One hundred years later, the life of the Negro is still sadly crippled by the manacles of segregation and the chains of discrimination. One hundred years later, the Negro lives on a lonely island of poverty in the midst of a vast ocean of material prosperity. One hundred years later, the Negro is still languishing in the corners of American society and finds himself an exile in his own land.
So we have come here today to dramatize an appalling condition. In a sense we have come to our nation's capital to cash a check. When the architects of our republic wrote the magnificent words of the Constitution and the Declaration of Independence, they were signing a promissory note to which every American was to fall heir.
This note was a promise that all men would be guaranteed the inalienable rights of life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness. It is obvious today that America has defaulted on this promissory note insofar as her citizens of color are concerned. Instead of honoring this sacred obligation, America has given the Negro people a bad check which has come back marked "insufficient funds." But we refuse to believe that the bank of justice is bankrupt. We refuse to believe that there are insufficient funds in the great vaults of opportunity of this nation.
So we have come to cash this check -- a check that will give us upon demand the riches of freedom and the security of justice. We have also come to this hallowed spot to remind America of the fierce urgency of now. This is no time to engage in the luxury of cooling off or to take the tranquilizing drug of gradualism. Now is the time to rise from the dark and desolate valley of segregation to the sunlit path of racial justice. Now is the time to open the doors of opportunity to all of God's children. Now is the time to lift our nation from the quicksands of racial injustice to the solid rock of brotherhood.
It would be fatal for the nation to overlook the urgency of the moment and to underestimate the determination of the Negro. This sweltering summer of the Negro's legitimate discontent will not pass until there is an invigorating autumn of freedom and equality. Nineteen sixty-three is not an end, but a beginning. Those who hope that the Negro needed to blow off steam and will now be content will have a rude awakening if the nation returns to business as usual. There will be neither rest nor tranquility in America until the Negro is granted his citizenship rights.
The whirlwinds of revolt will continue to shake the foundations of our nation until the bright day of justice emerges. But there is something that I must say to my people who stand on the warm threshold which leads into the palace of justice. In the process of gaining our rightful place we must not be guilty of wrongful deeds. Let us not seek to satisfy our thirst for freedom by drinking from the cup of bitterness and hatred.
We must forever conduct our struggle on the high plane of dignity and discipline. we must not allow our creative protest to degenerate into physical violence. Again and again we must rise to the majestic heights of meeting physical force with soul force.
The marvelous new militancy which has engulfed the Negro community must not lead us to distrust of all white people, for many of our white brothers, as evidenced by their presence here today, have come to realize that their destiny is tied up with our destiny and their freedom is inextricably bound to our freedom.
We cannot walk alone. And as we walk, we must make the pledge that we shall march ahead. We cannot turn back. There are those who are asking the devotees of civil rights, "When will you be satisfied?" we can never be satisfied as long as our bodies, heavy with the fatigue of travel, cannot gain lodging in the motels of the highways and the hotels of the cities. We cannot be satisfied as long as the Negro's basic mobility is from a smaller ghetto to a larger one. We can never be satisfied as long as a Negro in Mississippi cannot vote and a Negro in New York believes he has nothing for which to vote. No, no, we are not satisfied, and we will not be satisfied until justice rolls down like waters and righteousness like a mighty stream.
I am not unmindful that some of you have come here out of great trials and tribulations. Some of you have come fresh from narrow cells. Some of you have come from areas where your quest for freedom left you battered by the storms of persecution and staggered by the winds of police brutality. You have been the veterans of creative suffering. Continue to work with the faith that unearned suffering is redemptive.
Go back to Mississippi, go back to Alabama, go back to Georgia, go back to Louisiana, go back to the slums and ghettos of our northern cities, knowing that somehow this situation can and will be changed. Let us not wallow in the valley of despair. I say to you today, my friends, that in spite of the difficulties and frustrations of the moment, I still have a dream. It is a dream deeply rooted in the American dream.
I have a dream that one day this nation will rise up and live out the true meaning of its creed: "We hold these truths to be self-evident: that all men are created equal." I have a dream that one day on the red hills of Georgia the sons of former slaves and the sons of former slave owners will be able to sit down together at a table of brotherhood. I have a dream that one day even the state of Mississippi, a desert state, sweltering with the heat of injustice and oppression, will be transformed into an oasis of freedom and justice. I have a dream that my four children will one day live in a nation where they will not be judged by the color of their skin but by the content of their character. I have a dream today.
I have a dream that one day the state of Alabama, whose governor's lips are presently dripping with the words of interposition and nullification, will be transformed into a situation where little black boys and black girls will be able to join hands with little white boys and white girls and walk together as sisters and brothers. I have a dream today. I have a dream that one day every valley shall be exalted, every hill and mountain shall be made low, the rough places will be made plain, and the crooked places will be made straight, and the glory of the Lord shall be revealed, and all flesh shall see it together. This is our hope. This is the faith with which I return to the South. With this faith we will be able to hew out of the mountain of despair a stone of hope. With this faith we will be able to transform the jangling discords of our nation into a beautiful symphony of brotherhood. With this faith we will be able to work together, to pray together, to struggle together, to go to jail together, to stand up for freedom together, knowing that we will be free one day.
This will be the day when all of God's children will be able to sing with a new meaning, "My country, 'tis of thee, sweet land of liberty, of thee I sing. Land where my fathers died, land of the pilgrim's pride, from every mountainside, let freedom ring." And if America is to be a great nation, this must become true. So let freedom ring from the prodigious hilltops of New Hampshire. Let freedom ring from the mighty mountains of New York. Let freedom ring from the heightening Alleghenies of Pennsylvania! Let freedom ring from the snowcapped Rockies of Colorado! Let freedom ring from the curvaceous peaks of California! But not only that; let freedom ring from Stone Mountain of Georgia! Let freedom ring from Lookout Mountain of Tennessee! Let freedom ring from every hill and every molehill of Mississippi. From every mountainside, let freedom ring.
When we let freedom ring, when we let it ring from every village and every hamlet, from every state and every city, we will be able to speed up that day when all of God's children, black men and white men, Jews and Gentiles, Protestants and Catholics, will be able to join hands and sing in the words of the old Negro spiritual, "Free at last! free at last! thank God Almighty, we are free at last!"
The room was silent for about a half a second, and then Phil leaned over and hugged Kara tightly. Kara smiled and moved the laptop from her lap.
"Thank you!" Phil said as she hugged. "That explains alot!"
"You are welcome Squirtle" Kara said as she ruffled her ward's hair at bit. Phil stopped the hug and then asked eagerly.
"Where did he give that speech? When? Who was he talking to? Who were those people behind him?"
Kara chuckles at the rapid fire questions. "Do you really want to know?"
Phil nodnoded eagerly.
Kara returned the laptop to her lap and leaned back against the little bed's headboard.
"Okay " she said proudly, as Phil leaned over to snuggle and watch "Where to begin...."
Find us here at Templars of the Abbey Webpage
Arc # 57740 - 'A Star is Rising Part One'
Arc # 90575 - 'A Lesson Taught'
Arc # 139943 - 'And The Game Goes Tilt'
May 29th 2007 - Skyway
Why do you always do that?
Kara asked, forcing a glare across the table to where Bill continued to peruse the menu
again. This was always the case whenever the pair had decided to get a bite to eat whenever they patrolled together. Tonight had been a slow night for her in Peregrine, so she had eagerly accepted Bill's offer to join him in Skyway. However it had turned out to be just as quiet there for a change. After a few hours of routine Troll arrests and loud rave music he had suggested they hit their usual diner and she had eagerly agreed. The small diner had some of the best homemade cheesecake she had ever eaten, almost as good as Mazin's.
She sometimes agreed to these 'late night patrol lunches' with him, just to be given the chance to order a slice of their wonderful cheesecake. Yet so often she had to wait just to order it as Bill went over and over the menu to decide on his choice. Here he was /again/ , staring at the desert menu
...as she waited...
Do what? Bill asked biting his bottom lip as he scanned rigorously over his choices.
Like so stare at the dessert menu like you dont already know what youre going to get. she said with a mild exasperation.
Bill lifted his eyes from the menu and said, Because I dont know what Im going to get. I like to mull these things over.
HA. she barked
Bill arched an eyebrow in surprise. That was out loud, you know.
Kara smiled an oddly sweet smile Yes, and like Ill do it again." she raised her voice louder " HA!"
He winced, he was uncomfortable at drawing attention to himself, already uncomfortable at times with the looks they both got whenever they came into the diner in costume. He turned his head to smile awkwardly at the customers who now turned to look over at their table at Kara's loud bubbly 'Ha's '.
She continued "You like so mull nothing over...../Nothing!/... You, Bill are like a non-muller if I ever saw one.
Bill winced looking back Thats not a word.
My point is that you get the same dessert every single time we come here. said with a dismissive wave of her hand mowing through his attempts to deflect her issue
Im perusing the menu, Kara. I could change my mind. I could stumble upon a picture of a cheesecake and think, thats quite delectable and order that instead.
Kara smiled her usual sweet smile at the term cheesecake before returning to cut back into him William, weve SO been coming here for months now, and like youve never changed your mind.
I would think you be more understanding of my routine by now, Kar.
But you
Kara took a deep breath. She reminded herself of all the reasons why she actually loved her friend and /eventually/ those things and times kept her from jumping out of her seat and beating him senseless with his menu. Kara leaned back in her chair crossing her arms over her chest pouting a bit and said, No one understands your routine because it /so/ doesnt make any sense.
Says you. Bill quipped returning to his menu.
Hello!? So says the definition of the word sense. She smirked back.
I simply like to see what my options are. Is that a crime? he mused.
When you order the same thing every single time
it should be. She rolled her eyes now really hungry for her cheesecake.
How can you be sure He tried as he read the menu again.
Every. Single. Time. She tried to burn through him with her eyes.
Bill dropped the menu and folded his arms on the table. He shot Kara a look and then said, Okay! So? What am I getting, Kreskin?
Kara clicked her tongue Youll totally peruse the menu, make some comment about how no one actually likes Bananas Foster, and then like order a cup of rice pudding.
Well, Im pretty sure no one does like Bananas Foster. Its disgusting. He said somewhat amused now.
William
And why did you say rice pudding like that?
Like what?
Like you hated it with every fiber of your being. He said amused now.
Are we like really arguing about how I said rice pudding? Kara blinked.
Im just curious why you have such animosity for a harmless dessert, Kara. Did some bully back in the school cafeteria force you to eat rice pudding off his shoes?" he chuckled now as he watched her. "Did it haunt your nightmares as a child?
Were so not having this conversation. Like order your dessert so we can get served...finally. Kara smirked
Bill smirked as well and said with a degree of playfulness, I could order the rice pudding to go and show you the many ways that its not so bad.
Kara sighed as the routine as usual these last few weeks shifted to his new insane deflection Youre so not smearing rice pudding all over me, William....
He chuckled quirking an amused brow You always said you wanted a spiced up sex life.
Kara sighed It was you who said that about your sex life so not me...I don't have a sex life.." She sighed instantly regreting saying that, it was just more meat for his grinder...
He shook his head amused, "I know, that is so sad...now about the rice pudding.."
She sighed "William... really think about it...its /rice/... In pudding. She fixed a stare at him and waited for the rest of this recent routine to play out.
Fine. You have a crazy dislike of rice pudding. Its now noted. How about you let me eat my rice pudding in peace?
Yes! Finally! " She sat up in chair a bit, now eager to get to her cheesecake.
Bill shrugged and said impishly, If youre a very good girl, well stop at the store and get whipped cream on the way back to our patrol.
Kara sighed as she thought, 'Here we go again' William.....Tell Patti this dating plan is a nightmare and /order/! visions of her cheesecake moving just out of reach began again..
Well, that is unless you have any aversions to whipped cream I should know about. He smirked across the table at her
With a long sigh Kara just glared at him "Nope. None. It's like so great on /cheesecake/
Well then were good to go
thats if you can let me look over the menu for a few seconds. Bill picked up his menu once more.
You just said that you were going to have rice pudding. she blinked.
I like options. He mused, enjoying himself now.
Because youre certifiably insane. She scowled now. She just wanted her cheesecake now!
Im an insane man who was going to let you lick whipped cream off his body until you decided to get snippy. He chuckled.
Kara rolled her eyes. Order your rice pudding. She picked up her fork as if to emphasize she wasn't going to wait much longer to order her cheesecake "and call Patti...this dating plan so needs to end before I like end up killing you"
"If you think about it...the hell of her plan which i might add I've endured 3 months of the 6 month insanity" He began trying not to look at the crazed heroine with her fork.
"We've all endured Bill...." She added dryly now tapping the fork on the table
"Its a long wait....3 months..." He looked up his eyes watching the fork now
"Almost as long as I have waited to order my cheesecake" She said darkly.
"And I have only three more glorious months to wait....just another long agonizing slow moving period, much like the hell I'm waited through already...have I told you?" He said still watching the fork.
"Yes I'm so getting a taste of such a hell right now" She smirked as the waitress arrived and smiled at the pair of heroes.
"Are you ready to order?" She asked sweetly
Bill looked back at his menu then jumped with the waitress as Kara said quickly and loudly "YES" she was not allowing any more delays.
Kara turned to the surprised girl, smiled and then said in her usual soft sweet tone "I'll so have a slice of your chocolate cheesecake sweetie"
The shaken waitress nodded, her smile returning as she scribbled down her order and turned to Bill.
"I'll just go with the rice pudding" He said warmly as he handed their menus to the waitress, who then turned heading off to fetch their orders.
He turned back to find Kara staring at him "What? So? I like rice pudding...I'm not going to order something like Bananas Foster"
"Yeah cause like that is disgusting" Kara smirked
"Oh yes..cause really no one actually likes desserts like that" He said evenly
"Bill?"
"Yeah"
"Talk to Patti...tonight...tomorrow at the latest" Kara said shaking her head as the waitress returned with their orders. The sight of her cheesecake easing her mood somewhat.
Bill chuckled to himself seeing this.
"I've tried...she is insane..." he began
"Yeah like so are you..." Kara interrupted.
"Yeah well.." He sighed. then looked over to her from his rice pudding "So how is the cheesecake?"
She sighed but smiled "Great ...as always"
"So that is a no to the whipped cream then?" He mused playfully.
"I'm /so/ going to have to like kill you...aren't I?" she looked up playfully dark.
"Hey at least I will be out of my misery" He chuckled.
"So will we all sweetie...so will we all!" She smirked and returned to her cheesecake.
He shook his head and put aside his worry and frustration over the insanity of the woman he was in love with was forcing him to endure. He tried to forget he had 3 more agonizing months left to deal with before he could ask Patti out and just enjoyed the time he was spending with his friend. Though he was grateful that she was able to put up with him and his agony, he made a mental note though about how much time he could keep Kara away from cheesecake so he didn't end up dying a horrible death in the future.
Outside the diner where the two friends were now enjoying their desserts, a chilling wind whipped across the paned glass windows as the city slept.
Find us here at Templars of the Abbey Webpage
Arc # 57740 - 'A Star is Rising Part One'
Arc # 90575 - 'A Lesson Taught'
Arc # 139943 - 'And The Game Goes Tilt'
<<Edit - the previous story was March not May 2007, sorry! >>
(Originally posted by former Templar Skilla('Blossum'), best friend to Diamond (i.e. Kara or "bubbles"))
April 11, 2007 - Steel Canyon
"Welcome to KYWX 93.4 rock. This is our afternoon request hour. Call in your requests now at five five five, thirty-four, fifty-five..." the cheerful DJ intoned.
"Our next request is an email request going out to Bubbles from Blossom," the DJ said with a chuckle. "And the message reads...Forever...
"So Bubbles, if you are listening, this is from Blossom...
If I ever leave this world alive
I`ll thank ya for the things you did in my life
If I ever leave this world alive
I`ll come back down and sit beside your feet tonight
Where ever I am you`ll always be
More than just a memory
If I ever leave this world alive
If I ever leave this world alive
I`ll take on all the sadness
That I left behind
If I ever leave this world alive
The madness that you feel will soon subside
So in a word don`t shed a tear
I`ll be here when it all gets weird
If I ever leave this world alive
So when in doubt just call my name
Just before you go insane
If I ever leave this world
Hey I may never leave this world
But if I ever leave this world alive
She says I`m okay; I`m all right,
Though you have gone from my life
You said that it would
Now everything should be alright
She says I`m okay; I`m all right,
Though you have gone from my life
You said that it would
Now everything should be alright
Yeah, should be alright
...That was Flogging Molly's "If I Ever Leave this World Alive"... Lines are open for your requests..."
Find us here at Templars of the Abbey Webpage
Arc # 57740 - 'A Star is Rising Part One'
Arc # 90575 - 'A Lesson Taught'
Arc # 139943 - 'And The Game Goes Tilt'
May 8th, 2007 - Skyway
Diamond, Guardian Star, if its at all possible to squeeze into your busy schedule, could you possibly come to my briefing?
The Precincts Lead Agent s voice rang through the 'bullpen' as the aforementioned heroes rose from the desk where they had been finishing their reports.
She said you were cute? Kara began as Bill smiled at her.
She did indeed, my friend. Im cute as a button, according to certain members of the female persuasion. Kara shook her head as they began to make their way to the conference room, knowing if they didnt, Russell Benson would send in a pack of wild horses to drag them out. The Lead Agent had been an retired Army Sergeant Major and didn't take to procrastination.
Putting aside the small fact that no one is of gender persuasion, she said you were cute as a button? Kara quipped.
Yeah.
A button, Bill. They took their places around the table with the other heroes and agents as the detectives handed them their briefing folders.
I, Bill Chamberlin, am cute as a button. Bill said smugly as Kara pressed a button on her comm.
Hey Patti, are buttons cute? She asked in a playfully serious tone as Bill's eyes bugged out of his head. From somewhere else in the building Patti keyed her intercom that had been tied into their comm frequencies.
Mine are actually quite cute, but what does that have to do with the briefing you two are supposed to be /listening/ too?
One of the meter maids said Bill was as cute as a button, Kara explained as Bill frantically tried to wave her off. His frantic signalling began to draw the attention of the others in the room. Lead Agent Benson stared dourly at the pair "Can we please begin now?"
Kara smiled and nodded sweetly as Bill gaped and nodded slowly.
Nancy Taylor, Sapphire Rose the teams spritely little defender chimed in happily "Bunnys are very cute, this earned her an amused nod from Kara. However Kevin St. James, the teams controller named Psywarp, looked around Bill at his newly attained girlfriend Nancy adding....
They most definitely are not cute. Rabbits are the spawn of Satan and should be wiped off the face of the planet.
Everyone in the conference room turned to look at him, as the Lead Agent tried to clear his throat.
Bunnies are the spawn of Satan? Kara asked
Yes. Kevin declared with a definitive nod.
People.... Benson began in a voice that caused most present to turn back to face him. Most.
Hey Patti?! came Kara's voice over the comm system, Were you persuaded to be female?
Wha? Kara What is going on up there aren't you two in a briefing? Patti asked incredulously.
Geez, ask a fellow girl a simple question, and she like bites your head off. Kara pouted bringing several snickers from the surrounding agents.
Such is the way of all things, my friend, Bill said, making final readjustments to his briefing folder. The tapping of a metal pointer across the wooden podium caused Bill and Kara to sit up a little straighter in their chairs. The briefing was to begin, Benson had now made this very clear. Satisfied her had their attention he began.
Good evening, first off i want to congratulate you all on a perfect operation tonight, the cooperation of this precincts stake and SWAT teams easily facilitated the mop up of all suspects we found in the warehouse.
Benson's voice slipped into his now more usual tone as he felt his control of the room coming back. "Hero forces coordinated extremely well with Longbow flanking forces. This very large gang of Trolls..."
Nancy twirled her Tootsie Pop around in her mouth and hummed to herself as she listened to the operation they had just been completed summed up. Smiling impishly, she reached across Bill and handed Kevin a card and winked at him, returning to her seat. Out of the corner of his eye Benson sensed the movement but since it appeared minor her continued with his briefing, right up to the point where Kevin jumped up out of his chair with a loud yelp!
Nancy broke down into giggles, which soon spread around the room as Kevin glared at her.
That was not funny, Nancy!. He looked down at the pop-out bunny that was grinning at him from the card now sitting atop his briefing paper. Kara and Bill joined the others in laughing, though they tried to be a bit more discreet about it.
It sure is, and Ill tell you why. Because you, my cute-as-a-button man, are afraid of little bunny rabbits. She quipped and received a high five from Kara as Bill rolled his eyes.
"People..." Tried Benson again.
Kevin glowered and took back his seat as Kara took the bunny away from him with a soft "Soooo cute!"
The agents around them still chuckled and snickered as Benson tried again. "People I know this is only an after action briefing but we...."
Nancy smiled to herself at Kevins reaction and winked at Kara who had been making the scary bunny hop playfully in mid air, but lowered it as she caught the glare from Benson.
"Sorry" Kara said meekly through her smile "No more bunny"
Satisfied Benson began again. "Now as you know we coordinated our efforts with Federal.."
Hey Kara, you know what I found out? Bill leaned over to whisper to her.
Hmm like what? She whispered back, somewhat distracted by the redundant briefing.
If you move your hands over one letter from home position on the keyboard of any computer, you spell gpt instead of for. Kara looked over in amazement at her friend, trying to think of a response.
After a few minutes of silence, she then added softly Ive so got like nothing for that, William. Totally blanked.
Hearing the renewed mumbling Benson raised his voice just a little louder as he continued valiantly to get through his briefing.
Bill smiled. "My work is complete. He thought a moment. Going for food after this, you want something? Kara had returned to her briefing folder, jotting down a few notes before answering as Benson droned on.
Sure, like the usual, wherever youre going. She said quietly.
Bill thought for a moment before it dawned on him. "You know what, youre right. You get the same thing, no matter where you go. Burger King, its a Bacon double cheese burger meal, Dinos is the #19 with extra bacon, Mickey Ds its a double cheeseburger with bacon. The list is endless.
Im pretty sure it only extends to those places that sell food, Bill. she said in a bored voice.
The point is, you have no variety in your life. Eat something different for once. He said." and always followed 'Bill could you stop off at the diner to bring back a slice of that cheesecake'....see?".
Bill, if I ate something different, I couldnt tell you to get me the usual,.... because it wouldnt be the usual.... So get me the usual wherever you go. she smiled sweetly, confident she had made her point.
Tonys sound okay?
Sure.
Two slices of pepperoni, right? Bill whispered
"That is the 'usual' " She smirked sweetly as she tried to give listening to Benson's droning even half a chance.
"No variety Kar" Bill said twirling the pen in his fingers "Such a sad sad life"
"I so get by" She smirked softly. " 'Tis truly a wonder"
Nancy how are you feeling?" Kara leaned forward a bit bit as Benson droned on about how they approached their entry points for tonight's raid."How are you this fine evening. Kara was eager to end the Bill lecture on food as she smiled to her friend.
Oh I have a headache the size of Texas, because someone wasn't paying attention to where his girlfriend was standing in the warehouse" Nancy smirked.I'm so calling it the 'Whoops there she is!' incident"
'The Whoops there she is' incident!? Please tell me thats not what you two are gonna start calling that. Kevin pleaded his eyes widening in panic as a few surrounding agents chuckled. "I said I was sorry!"
Thats what we are calling it." Nancy taunted him before looking to Kara "Aren't we?" her look showed she wanted support and Bill winced he could tell what the answer would.
"Of course we like so have too" Kara nodded sagely to Kevin then smiled her support to Nancy who nodded gratefully. " Def the 'Whoops there she is!' Incident"
But I said I was sorry! Right when it happened and then here at the station! Kevin implored to Kara his voice rising a bit, bringing more chuckles from those agents that had been there when it happened. Benson raised his voice more as he used his pointer to point out the video feeds of their entry.
"I know, that was sweet wasn't it Nancy" Kara smiled.
"It was sweet" Nancy nodded to Kara then looked at Bill "Wasn't it?"
Kevin looked to Bill "Should an incident have a name even after one apologizes? I mean isn't there a rule? Don't we have to have a little civilization here?"
Bill's eyes grew wide "I'm /so/ not apart of this" he waved his hands hoping to dodge this bullet.
"They are supporting each other why don't you have my back here I thought I was your boy?" Kevin demanded quietly "Did we not bond over the last few months?
"We did indeed" Bill agreed
"So you are on my side...this is a no name incident" Kevin smugly glanced at Nancy
"William" Kara quipped with a playful menace.
"Sorry dude" Bill grinned "You are on you're own, its an incident"
Kevin gaped "But what about solidarity..men looking out for men?"
Bill chuckled "Never works against unified women, son" he shook his head "Besides you should ve been watching where you were tossing those trash cans"
Nancy grinned "Which is the key element behind the whole The Whoops there she is incident!"
Kara giggled. "Maybe he thought you were in dire danger of an approaching attack from a mean old bunny?"
Kevin stammered loudly "But!.....all I'm asking is for a little civilization here!"
Bill rolled his eyes, Nancy giggled, Kevin groaned into his hands as the rapid and loud tapping of a pointer caught their attention again amidst the chuckling of the other agents, who had become swept up by the discussion of the incident.
"Hey!" Benson barked with authority gaining everyone's attention now. "Excuse me can you four not see...."
"Four? I was not apart of this " Bill interrupted, defended himself. "I want that stated for the record..."
"That was clear when you jumped ship on your boy" Kevin muttered sitting back into his chair his arms crossed.
"People" Benson began again wearily
"Well Bill can tell who's fault the The 'Whoops there she is incident' was" Nancy said plainly. "Can't you Bill?" she looked at him.
"Here I am still sitting here not apart of this" Bill pleaded to Benson.
The mention of the incident again brought more chuckles from around the room and Kevin groaned. Lead Agent Benson softly rubbed the bridge of his nose "Nancy! Can we please get through this?"
"Sorry Boss" Nancy Chimed in, Kara nodded to her, Bill nodded still trying to look as if he had nothing to do with any of this and Kevin just looked defeated. Benson turned his gaze to the Hero of the City, hoping beyond hope she would at least try to behave herself this time.
He sighed as she returned his gaze with the sweetest of innocent smiles.
Can we please focus? Weve got to get through this after action briefing. So no more giggles and 'Incidents' Please" He sighed and fought off the deep urge to even ask what the 'The Whoops there she is!' incident actually was."
Yes, Dad, Kara and Bill intoned at the same time, bringing a few more chuckles.
I mean it. The two of you are old enough to know better. Benson locked a look at the pair.
And still too young to care, Bill replied, high-fiving Kara, who as usual messed up the high five and smacked Bill in the forehead. Benson groaned as the room broke into laughter.
The Lead Agent returned to his briefing, it was going to be one of those nights.
Nancy leaned forward almost immediately as Benson began talking, looking right at Kevin "Food? He smirked and nodded as he placed his folder down across the desk.
Nancy smiled So ...where to then, bunny-boy? My treat. He rolled his eyes as Kara giggled and Bill's ears perked up at her offer.
Your treat? Kevin smiled.
Least I could do, she blew him a soft kiss.
"The least you could do?" Bill quipped. "He hit you with a trashcan"
"Hush William" Kara smirked "Kevin is apologizing still"
"Sounds good...." Kevin blinked "I am?"
"and he is doing it so cute too" Nancy added eyeing Bill who sat back.
....as elements of SWAT then began to back up our people...." Benson tried in vain to continue...
Yes you are" Kara smiled as she chewed on the end of her pen.
I see...." Kevin looked at Nancy "I am coming across sincere enough this time?"
Bill blinked totally lost now.
Oh Yes" Nancy nodded "And you will too when we get where we are going.
Kara nodded "Pretty much for the rest of the night I would think"
Kevin blinked "I am..."
Nancy nodded "Oh yes he would like have too"
Kevin smirked starting to see now as he intoned "OH! ...Oh um...why no Nancy its my treat....it is the least I can do for carelessly hitting you in the head with my trashcan"
Nancy smiled to Kara "Isn't he just so totally adorable!"
Kara nodded smiling "Oh totally"
Bill looked to Kevin "Smart boy"
Kevin shrugs "Its what we men do"
Bill nodded "Especially when we men ever want to see a certain woman naked again"
Kara and Nancy looked over to Bill as the agents around then burst out chuckling again.
Benson groaned this was hopeless....
Kevin nodded to Bill "We must do what we must...."
Kara looked at Kevin then "So that is the only reason why you are apologizing?"
Kevin without missing a beat "No! um....I am apologizing because I was careless and wrong!"
Kara looked to Nancy "Good enough?"
Nancy nodded "As long as he keeps saying that"
Kevin turned to Bill "It's what we do"
Bill smirked happily "It's what we do"
"All right...."Benson leaned on his podium "We will try this again in the morning when we are all better rested and not so 'Keyed' up...." The agents and heroes in the room smiled as Benson added "Now get out of here and get some rest...."
Good Night everyone! Kara called out as she hopped up out of her seat. Nancy, Bill and Kevin joined her as they headed out of the briefing room to the crowded hallway where Patti was waiting for them. Kara smirked, though she was friends with the meteorologist, her insane dating plan for Bill was driving them all nuts. At least it would shut him up a bit if she joined them tonight.
Patti, Kara says Im not cute. What do you think? Bill smiled at her as the five walked down the corridor.
Are you two still having this conversation? Didnt it end, like, yesterday? Patti quipped
Kara shook her head. "No we only stopped it so as like not to interrupt the briefing"
Patti smirked at the bouncey heroine "Yes because that would be wrong"
"No, It just happened tonight..." Bill smirked as he continued "and No, we just postponed it so we could torture you more with it.
Patti smiled.Thanks guys, but nothing you could say could spoil my mood right now.
Oh, Im sure I could think of some things, Bill laughed, But if anyone were to overhear them, you would be on the front page of the National Enquirer tomorrow morning.
Kara and Nancy giggled.
Then please dont, Patti said smugly, grabbing her coat and purse from the desk she had left them on.
What are you doing tonight? Kara asked her as they entered the office they often used. Nancy reached for her purse as Kevin picked up his gym bag.
Uh, probably a nice bubble bath then bed Patti replied careful to avoid Bill's pleading stare.
You need to live more. Come on, well all go to El Perro Fumundo. Nancy threw in. Patti sighed, knowing she was going to lose this battle.
Alright, let's so grab some people. Kara clapped her hands together and walked out into the bullpen of the squad room.
Alright people, SO a party at El Perro Fumundo. Buy your own alcohol, but enjoy the company! Several cheers erupted around the room, and several Agents and Police joined Kara by the door as she turned and smiled.
Far away in his office Benson heard the heroine's chipper announcement and sighed. No one was going to be 'better rested' for his briefing tomorrow. "Why cant she play with the agents in Peregrine more often" he heard himself moan.
Kevin leaned over his desk and tapped Nancy on the shoulder. You wanna go with them? he asked. She smiled and nodded, holding up a finger.
Patti, you know what this means? she asked her.
Big blue things for two dollars off? Patti placed a blue ball cap backwards on her head from her purse as she smiled at Bill. Bill chuckled knowing that the bar often gave you two dollars off of a big blue margaretta that they made there if you wore something blue when you ordered it.
Big blue things for two dollars off! Kara cheered as her energy flowed around her body to alter her white costume to a cute short blue dress and heels. Nancy giggled as she pulled on her blue police jacket. She then turned to find Kevin standing in front of her, wearing a loudly blue tie with white bunnies on it.
She turned to look at Kara who erupted into laughter, soon joined by several of the other officers. Kevin wrapped an arm around Nancy's waist and they followed the crowd. Just before the happy mob reached the stairwell, Patti stopped Bill, letting the crowd pass them, until they were completely alone.
Whats this? Bill asked, thoroughly confused.
Im going to do something now, and I dont want you to freak out. She smiled, recalling her lines to him a month before.
Are you going to throw water at me? he teased.
No, she leaned up and kissed him, long and tenderly. Cupping her face with his hands, he pulled away after a moment, planting a kiss on her forehead. Does this mean what I think it means? He smiled warmly as she nodded, soft tears welling up a little in her gentle eyes and spilled over, but he carefully wiped them away with his thumbs. She leaned into him, pressing her face into his chest.
The dating plan is a loser" she said softly "I'm sorry...do you think we can...I mean?. A breath hed been holding for four months now was released, and he felt a sudden tidal wave of relief wash over him. He tightened his hold around her once before letting her go. She stepped back and looked at the stairwell.
You wanna skip The Flaming Dog? she asked coyly looking her hero over with a wry grin.
He raised his eyebrows.
Its The Smoking Dog, actually, and who really cares? he added at her very seductive look.
She grabbed his hand as they raced out the door.
Find us here at Templars of the Abbey Webpage
Arc # 57740 - 'A Star is Rising Part One'
Arc # 90575 - 'A Lesson Taught'
Arc # 139943 - 'And The Game Goes Tilt'
June 9th, 2007 -Talos
The moon hung low over the sleeping city, it's pale light graced across the dark sands of a lonely beach. It's grains reflecting a crystal white glow that illuminated the soft dark silhouette of a woman that moved across its gentle surface. Her form twisted and flowed with an almost supernatural grace to an unheard melody. Her arms swept through the night air in elegant arcs about her body, as her mane of soft black hair danced in the evening's breeze. Her grace battled with a hidden dark for control of her thoughts as she performed beneath the silent stars...
Dance...
Dance to forget.
Dance to remember.
She just wanted to dance...and dance.
She never wanted to do anything but dance.
To merge her soul so into the rhythm,
To so allow her body to /be/ the music
That everything became nothing.
Dance to get rid of the pain.
Dance to get rid of the fear.
Dance just to dance.
To soar...to Fly
She wishes she could dance like she use to.
She wishes she could just dance without the memories becoming her thoughts.
She wishes she could dance and see her father smile.
Dance for the past.
Dance for the future.
Dance for the now.
So much had changed, and she wishes she could just forget.
Not to be broken.
Not to remember breaking.
She wanted to dance to keep herself from fading away.
Dance for the now.
Dance for the future.
Dance for the past.
Dance just to dance.
Dance to get rid of the fear.
Dance to get rid of the pain.
Dance to remember.
Dance to forget.
Dance...
All she ever wanted was to dance...
And she did.
She danced by the bay, her body gliding across the sand.
She danced for her father, and she danced for her family,
She stretched high into the night sky,
Reaching for a dream,
as she danced for /her/.
Her eyes drew closed as she became her dance...
It was all she ever wanted...
...A soft electronic chirp, the most delicate of electronic sounds interrupted her dance. With a sigh she paused and held herself en pointe high in the sand as she listened, knowing her interlude had come to an end. The resignation and acceptance that gently filled her voice was soon replaced with determination and resolve.
Her response was immediate.
She took to the night sky with the simple grace of a falcon taking flight. Turning towards the distant cry of the sirens that now tore through the peace of the night, she knew one dance had just ended for Kara Reynolds...
...another dance, a more important one was soon to begin as The Valiant Dazzling Diamond.
Called yet again to give a command performance.
Find us here at Templars of the Abbey Webpage
Arc # 57740 - 'A Star is Rising Part One'
Arc # 90575 - 'A Lesson Taught'
Arc # 139943 - 'And The Game Goes Tilt'
June 12th, 2007 - Skyway
The noise and chatter of the busy precinct wafted in through the open door of the temporary office. Kara sat atop the old worn desk, legs crossed as she typed away at her laptop. A stack of arrest files lay next to her half in and half out of several manila folders. Her friend and fellow hero sat across from her at an adjacent desk, leaning back in his creaky old office chair. Kara grinned to herself, it had been good to be back in Skyway with Bill and the others tonight, her first time since she had been rescued.
Bill's chair creaked and he sighed. She smirked to herself, she had been half listening to him sigh and procrastinate for more than a half an hour now. She knew what was coming, she just didn't know what form it would take this time. He looked up from the magazine he'd been reading in an attempt to distract himself from his usual writer's block. Well how about that...We're part of the liberal media.
Kara made a face but otherwise didn't take her attention off her computer screen. We're like what now? she winced to herself, she had answered before she could stop herself.
We're part of the liberal media.
Says who? Kara clicked her tongue as she tried to remain focused on her arrest report.
Bill O'Reilly.
Kara rolled her eyes and groaned softly That man would so accuse his mother of being part of the liberal media if she said she didn't like his haircut.
How does criticizing a haircut make you part of the liberal media? Wondered Bill.
The same way being a superhero makes us part of the liberal media?
Bill O'Reilly's obvious insanity? Tried Bill.
There you go. his friend smirked as she tried to concentrate on her arrest report, hoping in vain that this would settle it.
Listen to this... Bill grinned playfully at her.
I don't want to, Bill; I'm trying to like actually work /here/... you see we so once again have these arrest reports to fill out...the police kinda appreciate when we do this, soooo helps them in court and it's like why they so let us hang out with them...
That's not just because we're fun people?
Evidently not. Kara clicked her tongue in mild annoyance to Bill's usual procrastination. He was going full steam now, she realized.
Just listen to this." He read from the article. " It's alarming, how far this insipid liberalism has spread...
Does O'Reilly even know what the word insipid means? Kara smirked as she checked some facts from her stack of papers.
My guess is no. I mean he is still struggling with the definition of liberalism...But I'm not done." Bill added before he began to read aloud once more. " Even once-trustworthy, fair-minded heroes are bending to the pressures of their bosses' ideologies....
Is he like accidentally talking about himself? Kara looked up at that last part though, her brow quirked. "and like what bosses?"
Maybe. The jury's still out. Bill held up a gloved finger. "and he doesn't say but wait...There's more..."
Of course there's more. She shook her head. "Bill....your reports?"
Sadly, it's not restricted to the mainstream media or politics anymore." Bill continued to read her the article " ' Even superheroes have decided to take sides, something noteworthy with the Freedom Phalanx, The Vindicators and more recently, Paragon City's host of spandex clad heroes and heroines...
Statesman and Ms. Liberty are Liberals?" Kara half mused as she struggled to continue her typing.
Bill smiled and read "It's disappointing, of course, but not surprising, given that some of their most respected 'rising stars' are notorious liberal Democrats... Bill stopped quoting, blinking. Being a Democrat makes you notorious now?
Like didn't you know? She sighed shaking her head, He wasn't going to let this go.
Indeed I did not. Bill tried to sound all innocent.
Good of O'Reilly to like set you straight, then.
I'm almost done. ...and one such example herself has been linked to certain leftist organizations. Bill smirked. Do you think he means you?"
I so have almost no doubt, Kara said, semi-absently as she continued typing. "Though who knows what someone like O'Rielly thinks what a leftist organization might be?"
Bill continued I had just hoped that maybe the other heroes she works with would stay fair...
And balanced? Kara added dryly.
That's Fox New's thing." Bill quipped " We can't take their thing. Then not only would we be part of the liberal crowd and the leftist media but we'd be plagiarists.
Wouldnt we like just be violating their copyright? Kara sounded somewhat amused now.
Well, yeah, but copyright violator doesnt have the same ring to it as plagiarist. Bill chuckled.
Right." Kara giggled a little, amused now "Why does Fox get that slogan, anyway? It's /so/ not even accurate.
Who needs accuracy? They're fair and balanced. Bill smiled as he placed his boots up on the desk stretching out some.
When compared to whom? Fidel Castro? Tyrant? Lord Recluse? She said she she returned to her lap top screen to try and pick up where she had left off. Darn him, she thought to herself. He is like way too distracting tonight.
Stop distracting me. Im almost finished." Bill said as he smirked wryly as if he could read her thoughts> Kara just looked over at him with an incredulous look on her face as he continued. ...but those that often work beside of her have succumbed to the pressure her beliefs generate that surround them. It's unfortunate.
Are you done? Kara sighed and gave him the 'look', trying not to smile.
Yes. He said sheepishly.
I drew two conclusions from O'Rielly's article." Bill looked up and canted his head as he listened to her "One, you fixate on random, meaningless pieces of information...
Everyone loves me because of that quality. Bill added quickly.
Everyone loves you in spite of that quality. Kara corrected just as quickly.
Bill smirked as he raised a glove finger But you concede that everyone loves me.
Kara rolled her eyes and then continued. And two, O'Reilly like talks a lot, but really says so little.
It's a certain talent, I feel. Bill nodded.
From the half opened door Sapphire Rose poked her head in just then. Hey, guys...
Guess what, Nancy. We're part of the liberal media now because /she/ is pressuring us Bill told her as he pointed a half accusing finger towards Kara.
Nancy looked to Kara and as Bill watched. It was as if the two women communicated without saying a word. She then gave Kara a knowing smile and nodded as she entered the office with a file. That's just fine, Bill. Benson needs you to look at this. She handed him the file the Lead Agent had given her and shook her head to Kara before leaving.
She didn't seem enthused or even the least bit concerned. Bill said as he glanced at the coversheet of the file he had been handed.
Probably like because no one cares but you, Kara answered with a dismissive shrug. That's so just a guess, though.
I happen to find this pretty exciting. Bill mused further as he opened his new file.
I noticed. Kara smirked as she moved on to her next report.
It means we've finally arrived. Bill nodded.
We're being called liberals, so...this means we've arrived?" Kara blinked and looked over to him "What would we be if we were being called conservative?
Hopefully dead and buried. Possibly insane. At the very least, incredibly sad. I know I would be. I just haven't had a good day unless I've corrupted a minimum of two people with my insipid liberalism. He grinned at his friend. "I cave to all this pressure you are putting on me with your /certain/ beliefs you see"
William?
Bill winced a little as he heard her 'teacher' tone softly creep into her voice. "Yes?"
Stop talking. SO start writing.
Hey, I think I can. Mocking O'Reilly has helped. Do you think he realizes he's a cure for my procrastination? Bill asked innocently.
Maybe that's why hes like crazy all the time." Kara rolled her eyes and shook her head before adding dryly "Maybe it's really just all an act so he can help out people like you, Bill.
Nah... Bill said as he opened his laptop, before adding with a definitive nod. "...He is just crazy"
Kara smirked to herself as her friend /finally/ began to fill out his arrest reports. She shook her head as she returned to her own work. Somehow it felt all right again, like she was truly letting herself come home.
Find us here at Templars of the Abbey Webpage
Arc # 57740 - 'A Star is Rising Part One'
Arc # 90575 - 'A Lesson Taught'
Arc # 139943 - 'And The Game Goes Tilt'
August 30th, 2007 - Skyway
"....You do know that you can't win this game by only answering the sports questions, right?"
Bill glared across the table in the precinct's old squad room, and the Trivial Pursuit board at a smirking Kevin. Kevin's pie-shaped game piece had five pie pieces in it already, missing only one. Bill's, to no one's surprise, holds a single green piece. Around the old card table sat Nancy Taylor, also known as Sapphire Rose, next to her a still smirking Psiwarp better known as Kevin St. James and beside Bill, Patti a consultant to the PPD as well as the woman he loved.
"Yeah, well /wonderboy/, I understand the rules of the game." Bill quipped
"So are you actually trying to win, or just... playing for the hell of it?" chuckled Kevin.
"Bill has this fear of losing," Patti offered helpfully.
"Patti..."
"He thinks if he answers any questions that aren't sports-related, he's going to get it wrong."
Nancy grinned and added, "We promise not to laugh at you. Much."
Bill smirked to himself, all of the women in this building seem to have that fake-helpful tone down, he thought as he surveyed the board. Or maybe it's just women in general. His old girl, Janine used to sound like that from time to time, but whenever she did it, bad things happened - usually the worst that happens when he hears it from Nancy and Patti is that he gets humiliated one way or another.
"Hey, Kara!" Bill called, raising his voice so that Kara will hear him in the office. "You want to help me out here?"
She had been in there with her little ward Philomela for over and hour now. Kara had come in on her day off to show Phil around the squad bay and finish off some paperwork. The little girl was currently amusing herself by filling the office with dozens of multicolored illusionary butterflies as her guardian worked.
Kara's voice drifted out to him, skeptical. "Help you with what?"
"...They're laughing at me."
"Not yet," Nancy mumbled under her breath as she snuggled against Kevin.
A moment later comes Kara's highly amused response :
"I really don't Bill, I'm like so totally sure you deserve it." the little girl in there with Kara even snickered.
Bah, he thought. Women.
Betrayed Bill turned back to silently consider the other three gathered around the table, and finally announced, "I think you all get meaner the later it gets."
"Yeah, yeah." Patti shoved the dice toward him. "You wanna play, or you wanna whine?"
"Devil woman," he murmured as he reached for the dice and rolled them, and Patti responds with only a smile.
The dice clatter, Bill surveyed his options and finds the two available, one a green space - sports, again - or a pink pie space. Nancy's watching him intently; Kevin is too, but he's got that slightly mocking smirk about it, which he can afford, because everyone, with the exception of Patti knew right from the beginning that he was going to win.
He always won.
Patti is still smiling, but with a bit of superiority, probably because she knows he'll go for the sports. Bill smirks knowing she is thinking he just isn't 'cool' enough to handle the entertainment questions. Her specialty.
He meets her eyes and deliberately nudged his piece toward the pink space.
"That's a bold move there Sports Boy" Patti comments, eyebrows raised. "You aren't exactly 'Entertainment Tonight' Bill"
Bill just offered her a challenging smile and gestures toward the card box. "Well, I'm waiting for my question."
Patti drew the card, shielding the back of it with her hands. Her eyebrows shot up, for a moment there's silence, and then she scoffs in disbelief. Nancy leaned over to read the question, and her mouth drops open. "Oh My God!, you have got to be kidding me!"
"What's the question?" Bill and Kevin asked at the same time.
Patti looked up at Bill with an entirely unamused look, like she somehow blames him for whatever's on the card, then down at the card again, clears her throat and asks slowly, "Tina Turner's Classic 'Simply the Best' was the Championship theme song for what 1994 NHL Stanley Cup Championship Hockey Team?"
Nancy and Jeremy turned slowly to look over at Bill with disbelief matching Patti's.
Bill's lips quirk into an amused smirk. "Hey? Now see that is entertainment!"
The table groaned as beyond them a field of dancing butterflies soared around the office while Kara finished up her paperwork.
Unable to keep herself from marveling over Bill's luck.
Find us here at Templars of the Abbey Webpage
Arc # 57740 - 'A Star is Rising Part One'
Arc # 90575 - 'A Lesson Taught'
Arc # 139943 - 'And The Game Goes Tilt'
October 1st, 2007 - New Overbrook, Faultline
Dark clouds raged above the visage of Brooklyn. On a cold and stormy night peak hour is at its worst, the wind howls, the rain pours down. Lightning and thunder strike at random. Meanwhile throughout the streets the army guys are devising a 'super missile' that will obliterate anything in its path. The large launcher crawler fills the street as the soldiers crawl al over it.
Its almost done says an army officer in a booming voice.
Soon well be ready for anything that is unfortunate enough to stumble upon this city says another army officer.
Right on cue a large booming noise fills the wet air. The monster Megalon rises from the river. With drills on his hands he makes short work of any buildings he comes ashore. Megalon Drills through the buildings and picks up a passing train, he throws it at another building. The army, fed up with all these monster attacks, takes serious action. They launch the super missile to obliterate Megalon. The surprised kajiu just notices it and starts to run but the missile is to fast.
Megalon hides behind some buildings but the missile smashes right through the buildings and keeps on going, the city streets are filled with screams and the sound of falling rubble. With no other option he jumps back into the river but that doesnt stop the missile. Megalon dodges the missile under the water swimming around in a furious panic, he jumps back up onto land and starts to spin his drills on his hands really fast. The missile comes out of the river right behind him but is a second to late.
The army officers watch as Megalon dives underground. The missile explodes the spot were Megalon dug. It destroys any building within 500 meters raining fire and debris down all over the city as a small mushroom cloud swells high above the city skyline.
"Gonna hear about that one" Says the first army officer
"Rotten Tax payers" groans the second.
The army men look on to see if Megalon survived when suddenly he jumps out of the ground and roars in victory. The army men are exploding with rage and anger at their failure.
Megalon then destroys the army base killing all the officers as many soldier scatter like insects away from the fury of his attack.
Then! Suddenly, Godzilla comes out of no where and starts destroying buildings. /But/ Godzilla hasnt noticed Megalon but Megalon /has/ noticed Godzilla.
Quietly Megalon starts to spin his drills on his hands and dives underground. He digs right under Godzilla and suddenly pulls him under the ground. The famous Kajiu vanishes with a surprised squawk of a roar, his tail thrashing behind him. There is a titanic struggle that shakes the ground and everyone in Brooklyn looks on while they try to keep their footing.
The winner of this underground battle is proven when Godzilla blasts Megalon up out of the ground and into a building with his atomic breath. Megalon lunges to stab Godzilla with his drills and spins them in his body before throwing him above his head and kicking him into another building on his way down. Godzilla whirls roaring with rage as he picks Megalon up and slams him into the Brooklyn Bridge splintering it as if it was made of matchsticks. Megalon disappears for quite a while beneath the waves but then suddenly jumps up from the ground behind Godzilla but Godzilla senses his approach and tail slams Megalon into yet another building.
Godzilla then picks up the electric wires from the side of the road and electrocutes Megalon with them. Godzilla continuously electrocutes Megalon, as the giant cockroach shutters and spasms in pain until Godzilla is struck by lightning and drops the electric wires on his foot further electrocuting Godzilla.
Godzilla roars in agony as the lighting and the electricity from the wires dances across his skin. Megalon sees this as a chance to attack Godzilla. Megalon kicks Godzilla but Godzilla blasts Megalon with his nuclear pulse which destroys everything around them in a blinding blast. Godzilla charges up his atomic breath but Megalon dives underground and tunnels away whimpering in fear as he goes.
Godzilla roars in victory before diving into the waves, leaving behind a burning Brooklyn filled with rubble and toppled buildings.
Katrina clapped as she sat brushing a languishing Columbus as Phil turned and smiled a happy grin across the room. Kara, sitting on the couch with her legs curled up beside of her, returned the smile as she shook her head. The images of the fierce battle began to fad from the expanse of carpet that lay between her and the two girls with a twitch of Phil's fingers.
"Well, Mom?" Phil giggled "What do you think?" Katrina turned to look over to Kara as well as Columbus purred.
"What do I think?" Kara softly chuckled softly at Phil's new use of the that particular term, as she picked up her laptop once more. "I think I now know why I have so much trouble getting babysitters"
The girls giggled as Kara relented and tossed Phil the remote "Here, an hour before bed...you two decide"
Kara returned to her thesis and smiled as she heard the girls debate on what to watch.
She couldn't help but hope Sponge Bob Square Pants would win.
Find us here at Templars of the Abbey Webpage
Arc # 57740 - 'A Star is Rising Part One'
Arc # 90575 - 'A Lesson Taught'
Arc # 139943 - 'And The Game Goes Tilt'
November 18th, 2007 - Skyway
As the elevator doors opened, Bill walked into the Police Station's main offices with a huge grin on his face and his hands raised in victory. He was excited, borderline ecstatic, at the thought of escaping the coming evil New England winter in favor of the Florida sunshine, if only for a little while. Two patrols left and a long weekend would be his.
Oh yes, things were definitely looking good.
I hate you, Nancy said, falling into line with him in the hallway.
Do not blame the recipient of the trip, blame your boss, Bill said, patting her head as though that would somehow placate Nancy.
Nah, Id rather hate you and Kara /understands/. she replied as she turned in the opposite direction and stomped off.
Bills smile didnt waver though as he mimiced her behind her back as she retreated 'and Kara understands'. He huffed a little, so what if Nancy was trying to guilt him for abandoning the squad for four days? So what if Nancy had decided she hated him for escaping the evils of winter? He was going to Florida and he was going to golf and get a tan. Bills grin grew broader as he reached the door to the office he shared with his friend.
He entered, met Karas bemused gaze, and replied, Tonight is the night, my friend. I escape from the coming sleet and freezing temperatures.
Yeah, to attend a Meta Human Law Enforcements conference, Bill. So /not/ exactly the epitome of fun, Kara countered as she typed away on her lap top.
Beside her on the couch sat little Phil with a soda in her hand. She sat with her school books open and beside her as she waited for Kara to finish up her paperwork from the night before. Bill allowed himself a smirk as he returned the little one's smile. He always thought Kara would make a good mom. He just hadn't expected it so soon. Not that he didn't like Phil, he mused. She was a slice of awesome, but she seemed to have picked up a knack for joining her soon to be 'Mom' in picking on him.
It's not that she does it, He thought to himself, crossing over to her side of the office. It was that the little bugger did it so well.
Kara, Kara, Kara...its like you dont know me at all. I have a plan.
A plan? Kara looked up. Oh lord, she thought as she tossed an amused glance over to Phil.
The little girl giggled.
Yes, a plan, a brilliant strategy that will result in me escaping the conference rooms and ending up on the golf course. Bill gestured, proud of his plan. He quirked a brow and pointed at Phil. "She is giggling Kara...she isn't taking me seriously again"
"Like imagine that" Kara chuckled Bill, Yourre so one of the guest speakers.
So?
You like dont think theyll notice if one of their guest speakers go missing? Kara asked. She flipped through the pages of her report and added, Face it, Bill. The only part of Florida you are going to see is Heroes Night at Unerversal Studios.
Bills face contorted in pain at the thought. He fell onto the couch beside Phil with a long, dramatic sigh and stared out the window. After a minute, he pointed at Kara and said, You see, this is your problem, Kara.
A firm grip on reality? she clicked her tongue and the little girl giggled again.
You dont think outside the box.
William, there like is no box. There is you and me, talking about how you will so be stuck in a boring conference that will suck four days out of your life.
You know what I think? Bill replied, sitting up and staring down Kara.
Like does it matter?
I think youre scared of how badly I will beat your golf average on the greens.
Says the man whose last score was so high over par that he set a new record, Kara replied.
Phil looked up at Kara disbelieving. "You even have a golf score Mom?"
Kara meet her gaze "Bill took me with him in High School once. " she smirked wickedly "I beat him"
Phil giggled and turned to gaze up at Bill over her glasses "Mr. Bill, you were that bad at golf?"
I wasnt that bad. Bill added indignately then glared at Kara "and /you/ got lucky!"
Kara giggled to Phil "It was so totally cute, he grumbled the whole night"
Phil giggled as well smiling up at him.
"This not about the past Kara" Bill tried to regain his dignity.
Bill" she sighed trying to focus on her work "Patti and a six year old beat you on the minature golf course. Kara added."William you like do this to yourself everytime Patti is out of town"
Phil giggled some more.
Bill, ignoring the comment about his out of town girl friend pointed to the windows where rain trickled down the panes and left a mist in its wake. He said. Look at this mess, Kara. I want some sun. I want some girls in tiny amounts of clothing." Phil looked up to her guardian, who softly rolled her eyes at her as he continued "I want a break from all the crap that has surrounded this city for the past six months. If I have to make a speech and answer questions at a boring conference to get it, Ill make do. Bill stood up and said, No one is going to ruin this trip for me.
"Good for you" Kara nodded barely paying attention now.
Nancy stuck her head into the office and said to Kara, Boss man is looking for everyone's reports from last night's raid in the next half hour. She noticed Bills smile. She placed her hands on her hips and said, I hope your flight isnt late. That would suck, wouldnt it?
Bill shrugged and said, Ill take a later flight, Miss Negativity.
Yeah, but you wouldnt want to end up on one of those el-cheapo flights. I mean, dont they tend to crash into swamps?
Kara snickered at that.
Phil giggled diligently returning to her schoolwork.
Bill wondered if the little girl was delibrately trying to look like Kara doing her work just to annoy him. It was all a conspiracy now.
You have a terrible mean streak, Nancy, Bill replied. He focused his smile directly on her and said, But Im willing to risk it. After all, Im more likely to die in a car accident than a plane crash.
Nancy glared at him and once again stormed off. Bill pointed in her retreating direction and said, Can you believe her?
You are somewhat irritating with the blissful look on your face, Kara commented. She then sighed ran a hand over her face and said, You want to take the lead to the raid tonight or the mop up?
Lead, Bill replied. He moved over next to Kara and sat on the edge of her desk. He said, Do I really look blissful?
William.../work/...we still have two patrols to do before you leave for Florida.
Youre not even the teensiest bit excited for me about my trip?
Bill didnt need an answer. He knew Kara well enough to know that she was as excited for him about the idea of four days away from the insanity that had become home to him now. It didnt surprise him when Kara responded, Of course Im excited. But Im also scared of what Nancy might do to you.
I heard that, Kara, Nancy said as she walked by. She pointed at Bill and asked, What about alligators?
Alligators? Bill questioned.
I hear theyre fond of out of state hero meat.
Petty doesnt become you, Nancy, Bill replied.
All Im saying is that Florida is overrun with alligators. A friend of mine in college used to tell me stories of alligators hanging out in her backyard and the occasional tale of a gator that made off with a heros arm.
You have a sickness.
Youre thinking, happy holiday in the sun and all I see is gator food, Nancy replied. She glanced at her watch and then Kara, Those reports would be nice.
Maybe if you stopped barging into our office, Kara called out as Nancy rushed off again. Kara looked at Bill and said, As like demented as she is, she does so have a point. If I were you I wouldnt be particularly fond of knocking a golfball into a sandtrap and being surprised by an alligator. Maybe you should stay at the hotel.
Maybe I should avoid sandtraps.
My roommate in college said she knew a guy who knew a girl who was attacked by an alligator while she was on vacation in Florida before. It tore off her leg.
Oh, okay then. Because I knew a guy who knew a girl who went to Florida and hooked up with a successful hero who wasn't afraid of alligators.
If you want to be Bill, the Peg Leg Defender of Paragon City, I cant stop you.
On the off chance that Im attacked by an alligator, I would imagine few alligators can get through my forcefields. Bill rolled his eyes. "So Ive got it covered"
Yeah well, like catching a few episodes of the Crocodile Hunter on television doesnt equate to having it covered, Kara replied.
Again the little girl snickered.
Bill shook his head and shot Kara his typical when-will-you-learn-my-friend look. He said, First, those are crocodiles. Not the same thing. On behalf of all reptiles, I shame you." she looked up and smirked at him. "Second, I dont plan to go out of my way to wrestle an alligator to the ground, but if I were attacked, I do know a few things.
Screaming like a little girl and running for cover so doesn't count... Phil offered to Kara "Does it Mom?"
"No sweetie" Kara said warmly to her, ignoring Bill as he waved his hands.
Hey now! I watch the Discovery Channel and have learned how to handle myself in certain situations that might arise concerning a vicous 'I want to eat Bill' scenario.
Such as alligator attacks? Kara replied with an incredulous look.
Yes, " He frowned usure now how he was losing control of the conversation "Yes..such as alligator attacks.
And how exactly does one handle himself when an alligator is chewing on his arm? Kara asked sweetly disinterested as she returned to her reports.
Phil smiled and looked over to Bill, eager to hear his answer.
The plan, of course, is not to wait until its chewing on your arm, but you have to hit it on its snout or behind the ears with your fist or a weapon.
Bill, not to doubt your emergency planning, but you want me to believe that a punch in the nose is all it takes to avoid an alligator attack?
Well, it would have to be a hard punch. Aim for the snout, behind the ears, and the eyes.
A punch in the nose? Kara repeated again. "not blasting it?"
Well the point is to stop the alligator's attack not fry the alligator...I mean have you ever been hit in the nose, Kara. It stings like a [censored], Bill answered. He sat down in front of his computer and said, Like I said before. Nothing is ruining this trip for me, including some psychotic, golfcourse-roaming alligator.
"That is forcefield resistant" Phil offered hopefully.
"Exactly!" Bill pointed to Phil.
Gator food, Nancy hollered through the office.
Kara stood up, moved over next to Bill, and placed her hand on his shoulder. He said, Weve all got our priorities. I like guess limbs arent that important to you.
I like my limbs just fine. Stop being such a wuss and prepare to accept the fact I'm about to topple your golf score woman. No alligator attack will let you off the hook.
Kara smirked and replied, Yes, because the man who still cant distinguish a nine-iron from a putter, instills fear on the golf course. Kara patted Bills cheek and said, Im running these reports down to Benson before he has an aneurysm. Kara collected up her and Bill's reports and started to walk off, but hovered by the door for a minute, William, do me a favor?
Yeah...
If like Im ever attacked by an alligator on a golf course, dont punch it in the nose. Just blast it She replied, chuckling to herself as she walked off.
Bill rolled his eyes and muttered to Phil with a wink, Like Id go anywehere near an alligator.
Phil giggled shaking her head as she returned to her homework. There was stuff to do with Mom tonight.
Much mayhem and mischief after that with her friends.
Find us here at Templars of the Abbey Webpage
Arc # 57740 - 'A Star is Rising Part One'
Arc # 90575 - 'A Lesson Taught'
Arc # 139943 - 'And The Game Goes Tilt'
January 28th 2008 - Skyway
[u]Recorded by Guardian Star as a prank payback : DvD entitled : "The Five Times Kara Laughed Inappropriately over the PPD Comm. System"[u]
1. That time with the Iraqi Pawn Shop Owner
Kara was going to kill Guardian Star. It was entirely Bills fault that she had snickered over the comm. system like a ten-year-old when the Iranian owner of the Skyway pawn shop, recently robbed had explained that owning a store here and sending money home to his family was his duty to his country.
The minute the word duty came out of the store owner's mouth, Kara snickered and mouthed duty to herself, as though she wasnt on comm., as though this wasnt an interview with a witness to a crime by the Trolls.
Needless to say the pawn shop owner was not amused by being the subject of her snickering.
Bill looked at her, trying hard not to laugh himself, and quickly closed the interview and turned it over to the PPD. The damage, however was done. To the rest of the agents and the nearby police Kara knew she would be known as the heroine with the sense of humor of a grade schooled.
I so totally hate you, Kara stated once they began to walk away.
Me? He tried not to chuckle Im not the one laughing inappropriately while interviewing a potentially important witness.
Because you /so/ refused to do it. She half glared at him.
Its nothing personal against the guy, I just hate guys who run pawn shops and rip people off who are down on their luck not to mention I think theyre out to ruin the world.
She frowned amused I so thought you thought this of lawyers?
Bill shrugged smirking Yeah? well them too
Nothing personal though. Kara said as they stepped outside.
Im not the one who snickered when he said duty, now did I? He quipped.
Bill
He probably doesnt get it either. Probably thinks you were mocking his love for his country.
I hate you.
Not my fault you laughed at something like that. I bet little Phil doesnt even laugh at that stuff anymore.
Im like still blaming you for this.
Of course, Bill replied. He motioned in the direction of the precinct and said, Were due back for a briefing. Think you can handle using words like cuffed and scored without breaking out into a chuckle?
Im like way too busy hating you right now to be waylaid by laughter.
Im sure Lead Agent Benson will appreciate that.
2. Those pesky Patriot fans
While the citizens were able to get to cover, we engaged the Rikti Kara continued her report to the Lead Agent over the com as the emergency vehicles now had beging to arrive. Small fire burned here and there after yet another failed Rikti bombing strafe had torn through Skyway. We were actually able to gain the upper hand when the Chief Soldier leading the ground forces was
um
distracted
Bill glanced over to Kara who was surrounded by a small group of New England Patriots fans of various ages, whose bus had been caught in the attack.
Distracted how? Benson had inquired.
Well like..um.. Kara began Several irate citizens took it upon themselves to um
Um
What? Benson pressed.
Seeing her discomfort a small little old lady in a Patriots jacket and hat leaned over and stood on her tippy toes to bellow out We mooned the [censored] out of them she means
With that she nodded to Kara as an offer of encouragement to carry on as she moved back to the group of currently smiling fans. Kara paused, the scary image filtering through her head of not only reliving the moment of the young and old dropping trow that had so stunned the Rikti war leader but adding now to that image the little old womans outburst over her comm. that had rendered Benson and herself silent. She could only imagine the look of the Lead Agents face sitting behind his desk trying to listen to her report.
That image wasnt helping her as she cleared her throat, but no words came out. Still stuck on a very scary image.
Bill immediately sprung into action and said, Their tricky ploy worked boss as the Rikti learned no one messes with Patriot fans, except the Patriots.
And Kara couldnt help it. She felt the loud giggle escape her lips and immediately turned a bright shade of crimson. She was a professional for gods sake. Why the hell was she laughing?
Bill, for his part, did not start laughing at Karas reaction to her report and the old lady. However, Kara knew she was never going to live it down.
Proving her point, as he finished his report, Bill leaned over and asked in a way too serious tone, Kara, what have I told you about getting liquored up with old ladies before filing a report for Benson?
Shut up.
I mean girl
he smirked.
Bill?
Yes Kara?
I hate you
I know
3. Sometimes the Ceiling Caves In
There werent many times that Kara laughed on camera during an interview with a reporter unless she was supposed to. She was a professional, a veteran of television and cable news interviews, who knew how to behave when filming. But she was human, after all, and the image of Psiwarp getting beaned in the head with a piece of falling ceiling tile while inside the crumbling Troll headquarters in the Hollows, while being interviewed by the local news was
.well it was
quite funny.
4. Tanya Harding Had It Coming
Sometimes laughter on camera is not a bad thing. Okay, so on that day, it was, but really, the Good Morning Paragon guest had it coming.
I cant believe you, Diamond Benson stated, storming into their office at the precinct, swishing papers around in his hands.
Kara who knew this was coming following the incident on the morning talk show glanced over at Bill, who smirked and pretended to be typing away on his computer. Kara shook her head and raised her hands in mock surrender. It SO wasnt my fault!
Right.
She just started crying on air.
And you think thats an appropriate time to laugh?
Bill shook his head solemnly. No one should ever laugh at Tonya Harding and her plight.
Both Kara and Benson glared in Bills direction. Kara then sighed and said, I so think its time for her to get over it.
Benson went to respond yet Bill beat him to it Someone assaulted her, Kar.
No they didnt
she had someone assaulted and that so wasnt what she was crying over as she recounted her like tale of woe
She had someone assaulted? Bill interrupted Benson again.
Yes
hello Bill ..Nancy Kerrigan ring a bell?
Bill nodded OooooooH Riiiiight the knee whacking thing!
Benson tried once more That is NOT the point
.
Anyways she was crying about her skate lace breaking during her Olympic performance Kara intoned dryly and like that is when I laughed
Benson opened his mouth yet again only to be stooped by Bill A skate lace?
Yes Bill
a skate lace
Wow and for that she cried to the point of having a horse face
Kara had opened her mouth at the horse face comment when Benson stepped across the room and slapped Bill on the back of the head. He then pointed at Kara and said, Youre going to apologize for being an insensitive idiot. Benson stormed out of the office, but quickly reappeared. He glanced at Bill and said, And remind me never to let you anywhere near anything involving Nancy Kerrigan and talk shows..if she blew it god knows had much you would screw it up.
Tonya Harding boss they said at the same time.
I should fire the both of you.
Bill rolled his eyes and Kara shrugged adding But you wont. Once Benson disappeared down the hall, she glanced at Bill and replied, Horse face?
Its distracting
like a lazy eye.
You have problems, William
Hey, Im not the one who laughed when she recounted her harrowing tale of the broken skate lace.
I so hate you
I know
5. Inappropriate laughter due to inappropriate behavior
Kara was used to the occasional snafu that occurred during the running of a raid. It was a given that on some nights things were going to happen and for the most part, she could handle it.
This night however, after two power outages, a severe wire crossing that had her, Bill and agents with them listening to a nearby buildings elevators smooth jazz music in their ear pieces, and well Bills latest haircut, well, it tested even his professional limits. All she kept thinking is there was no way Patti, his current girlfriend had anything to do with that.
Needless to say, no one shouldve been surprised when, during the middle of providing the Lead Agent with the information her contacts had given her on the local Troll gang leader, she burst out laughing. Bill simply looked at her like she was insane and finished off the report while Benson covered his face with his hands.
When the raid was eventually finished, while the remaining Trolls were being arrested, Benson appeared in front of her at the van and before he could even ask what had happened, Kara interrupted him by holding up her hand and asked, Did Nancy..um Sapphire Rose, arrive late for tonights raid?
Yeah, but
Maybe Kevin too?
Psiwarp? Yeah, but
oh!
We SO need to get these ear pieces fixed boss.
Are you telling me that
Kevin like so likes to talk dirty. Who wouldve thought it?
Really scary mental picture. Benson began rubbing the bridge of his nose.
Im so just telling you. Its a bit distracting hearing oooh baby, youre such a naughty little girl in ones ear piece when youre trying to give your boss a report.
Benson sighed covering his ears and said, I think Im going to throw up now.
Kara giggled I so know how you feel She turned to Bill as he walked up and said, You totally didnt hear any of that over the comm.?
Doesnt phase me. Bill shrugged as he turned over the subdued green giant to the vans officers.
Doesnt phase you? Kara seemed stunned You so have to be kidding me
Ive walked in on them. Im beyond anymore scarring, Bill replied. He patted Kara on the back and said, If you want more than the teaser you heard, you should check out the supply closet from time to time.
With a smirk he took to the night sky as he left her standing there with the image he just created for her.
Find us here at Templars of the Abbey Webpage
Arc # 57740 - 'A Star is Rising Part One'
Arc # 90575 - 'A Lesson Taught'
Arc # 139943 - 'And The Game Goes Tilt'
May 12th 2008 - Finnesville, New Jersey
Kara stood silently over the marble marker as the wind blew through the folds of her black dress. Her hand tightly holding the hand of her adopted daughter Philomelia. She had come here each Mother's day, every year that she could since her mother had come to rest here.
She had brought the child with her this time to introduce her mother to her. As she approached the marker she found her throat tighten and could feel the tears begin well up. Somehow this time it hurt more, to stand here in silence. She found herself going back in time, to another visit.
Her first on this day...the wind, the wind itself seemed to carry her back...
The wind...
...The wind pushed through the trees, scattering fallen autumn leaves, as two somber figures, that of a man and a small girl, walked slowly through the cemetery. The wind ruffled the little girls long hair, black locks like silk flowing across her wide eyed features.
Along with messing up her hair and playing through the folds of the skirt of her long sleeved black dress, the wind sent small dry leaves skittering towards her. The nervous little girl jumped, clinging tighter to her fathers hand. Her father flinched and looked down at her, light glinting off his glasses, hiding his cold dark brown eyes.
Biting her lip little Kara relinquished the tight hold on her fathers hand, and looked away, staring at her black shoes as she walked. Her body ached with each step, particularly her knees and she bit back a small whimper. She remembered the last time they had come here, all of the people that been here. All of them hugging her and her father and brother. She had felt safe then, so many people around then had given the place and the memory a safe feel to it. Unlike now, now she was alone with only her father to protect her.
She knew, they were going back. Her brother had been left with her Aunt, he was too young her father had said. Kara couldn't help feel her father felt he couldn't protect both and she was the oldest. She had to go with him, Mommy would've wanted that.
Her father stopped, silent as ever, and little Kara stopped too, her sad green eyes staring at the white marble of her mothers grave marker. She released her fathers hand, stepping forward and brushing her tiny fingers over the cool marble. While the driver that had hit her mother had managed to escape with her life, her mother had not been as lucky. Melissa Reynolds had died in the fire that had consumed the car following the crash. A crash caused by the other woman's drinking. Kara remembered waiting and waiting to be picked up from ballet. She had stood in the hallway of the studio for what seemed like forever. Waiting for her mother to come pick her up.
In a way, she still waits...
Slowly, little Kara kissed the stone, laying the bouquet of lilies in front of it as she did so. The black haired girl rested her alabaster cheek against the marble, letting a few crystal tears slip from her eyes. Ever since her mothers death, her father had thrown himself into some mysterious work, and sometime Kara felt she had lost both her parents. She can still see him crumbled against the wall of the hospital after that nice policeman came to talk to him. Wiping the tears away with the back of her palm she stood back up and walked to her father.
The balding brown haired man stood there, hands clasped, head bowed. The wind played with his hair, and Kara watched as she saw the skin around his eyes twitch as he prayed. Patiently she waited for her father to speak, and shyly spoke after a few minutes, when he didnt.
Daddy? Kara asked, blinking shyly her voice small and timid on the wind.
Her father blinked, nodding, before taking his daughters hand. Silently he walked them towards the gate, Kara's little legs hurrying to keep pace. William Reynolds pulled her along, staring directly in front of him, never sparing a reassuring glance at his daughter.
Suddenly Kara crumpled, knees buckling and causing her to fall to the ground, her lungs struggling to take in air. Tears sprung to life in her eyes as she whimpered at the pain from the sudden fall. As much as tried she could not push it back, and now she began to cry at the thought of being weak in front of her father. He needed her to be strong now that mommy was gone.
Didn't he? Isn't that what Mommy would want? He was too sad already, she didn't want to make him sadder.
With a sigh Dr. Reynolds picked her up, rubbing her on the back as her fit began to fade away.
He began to walk again, careful not to jostle the little girl in his arms as he held her gently. In a few minutes they were exiting the cemetery and back into the quiet peaceful town of Finnesville. Dr. Reynolds set his daughter down as he unlocked his car. Holding the door open as Kara climbed into it, silent as her father joined her.
Without so much as a look to his little girl, Doctor Reynolds started the car and they drove off. Kara squirmed and turned in her seat as much as her seat belt would allow, looking behind them at her mothers final resting place as it disappeared from sight.
The rest of the ride was in sad silence between father and daughter...
Kara blinked as she felt the softest little squeeze of her hand. She turned her gaze downward to meet the offered warm smile of little Phil. Mother and daughter shared a look for a moment, for Kara it was one of love and gratitude. She could see a degree of concern and worry in Phil's eyes, kneeling behind her Kara wrapped her arms around little Phil and held her tightly.
"Phil this is my Mommy" She said smiling through her soft tears now, looking up to the Marble face of the marker Kara then added proudly "Mommy, this is your grand daughter, Philomelia"
It was all Kara could do to keep from crying openly when Phil laid down the small bouquet of lilies Kara had given her and said to the Headstone "Hello!" in a warm chipper voice. Kara marveled happily as Phil arraigned the lilies just so.
They remained for awhile longer, as Kara told Phil a little more about her Grandmother. Phil had listened with wide eyes and with rapt attention. Asking questions and sharing things too with her Grandmother happily. Afterward the pair of figures walked out of the small cemetery hand in hand, Kara letting Phil lead the way. Smiling warmer as she watched the small girl skip beside her as they headed back towards their rented car. Opening the door she waited for Phil to jump within "Buckle up!" Kara reminded.
She closed Phil's door as the girl wrestled with an uncooperative seat belt. As the wind wafted through her long black hair, Kara turned to look back once more in the direction of her mother's final resting place and whispered.
"Mahal Kita Mommy"
She then turned and slipped into the car, starting it she drove off with Phil, heading back into town.
Find us here at Templars of the Abbey Webpage
Arc # 57740 - 'A Star is Rising Part One'
Arc # 90575 - 'A Lesson Taught'
Arc # 139943 - 'And The Game Goes Tilt'
May 20th 2008 - Finnesville, New Jersey
"Kevin?" Bill said, leaning against the aged and rickety RV. He inwardly sighed, that should have been the first clue this was a bad idea, when they went rented an RV. Well, actually there had been plenty of other clues, he smirked but that one in particular seemed to stick out just now.
The three of them decided to take the weekend and get away from the city and the crime they each faced each day. To relax had been then point, to not be Psiwarp just be Kevin, to not be called Guardian Star, just be Bill. Bill smirked, the theory didn't hold up too well for Kyle, Kyle didn't use a registered name, he was just good old Kyle Donner.
However the principle was still the same. Bill nodded to himself as he called louder "Kevin?!"
"Yeah?" Kevin said from inside, and Bill didn't want to know what he was doing. He trusted Kevin with a computer, but with an truck...of this age and size.
"You know this is all your fault, right?"
"I already told you guys I accept full and total responsibility!" Kevin protested.
"The call of the open road, seeing our great state from beyond the city... any of this ringing a bell?" Bill added "A weekend fishing trip...be back way before Monday?"
"I said I accept full and total responsibility," Kevin said, sounding annoyed, or at least frustrated or something. In point of fact, he sounded just like he had the time Bill had glued all of his things inside of his locker at the precinct.
"I'm just saying, when Patti and Nancy and Kara, especially Kara ask why we got stranded in the middle of nowhere, Kyle and I are gonna be pointing at you."
Kyle stepped out of the RV, ducking his head so he didn't knock it on the low door frame like he had the first several times. He was carrying two beer bottles, one of which he handed to Bill. "You did call a mechanic or something, right, 'cause... Kevin's not looking so good in there."
"I thought you were the mechanic" Bill quipped.
"A motorcycle mechanic" Kyle jerked his thumb at their big rusty monster "That is an aged dinosaur and can not in any way be mistaken for a bike"
Bill rolled his eyes. "Yeah, I took care of it." He popped the top of his beer - at least it was cold, in this stifling early spring heat. Staring out over the fields that were the only thing visible from the road, he added, "When they'll get here is a whole other matter."
"Well this is great," Kyle muttered into his beer.
"I'm taking care of it!" Kevin yelled from inside over the sound of dropping tools.
Kyle craned his neck to look inside the door and try to see what Kevin was doing. Bill didn't even bother, he couldn't bear to see. My god he thought the fodder this would provide Kara. It would never end.
"Well, consider this our backup plan." Bill said.
"You know if he doesn't get the battery hooked up again " Kyle added "That fish we caught are gonna start to smell wonderful in this heat"
"Oh yes" Bill nodded "New highs in the lows of this weekend"
"The boat?" Kyle asked. "This is still about the boat too?"
Bill winced "Yes its about the boat all of this is connected...the boat..oh the boat"
Kyle chuckled "Yeah that was a bit of a surprise one minute you have something on your line...I have my face in the cooler looking for a new beer and then..." he trailed off slowly knowing what was coming next.
"I didn't see that waterfall!" Kevin howled from underneath the dashboard "Who knew we were that close anyways"
"What was the deposit on that boat?" Kyle asked as his eyes scanned the fields beyond.
"Quite a bit " Bill sipped at his beer "And that guy Earl was really pissed"
"I said I took..." Kevin yelled
"...Full and total responsibility " Kyle and Bill finished with him. The two men outside the RV smirked amused now. The flailing within the clunky beast continued behind them.
"What is that?" Kyle asked, nodding at the field in front of them. "Corn?"
"I believe that would be the amber waves of grain," Bill said dryly.
"They're not as impressive in person."
"No."
"What do you think the others are doing right now back in Paragon?"
"Well, considering that like normal, sane, and, most importantly, modern people, stayed in the city this weekend, probably sitting on a beach in Talos in bikinis and swim trunks, drinking fruity drinks with umbrellas in them or nice cool draft beer."
"While here we sit." Kyle nodded.
"Here we sit in, what, Brazil?, Zimbabwe??"
"We never left Rhode Island!" Kevin called out exasperated now. "its Croatoa!"
Kyle chuckled into his beer.
"Thank you, Kevin. Here we sit in Rhode Island, staring at amber waves of grain." The two outside were both silent for a moment, and then Bill sighed. "You know, I really think we got the raw end of this deal."
"I think so too. Hey, Kevin?"
"Yeah?"
"Next time we have to go to fishing, we're renting a jeep, a car, a horse...something that you know.../runs/."
"Absolutely." Kevin grunted and moaned.
"Yep" Bill muttered "We are SO not talking about this trip to anyone"
"Absolutely " Kyle smirked. "By the way, Exactly what is that walking around that field over there?"
"That Kyle appears to be a walking pumpkin vine with a pumpkin for a head and what seems to be some kind of magical green fire for eyes" Bill added dryly as he sipped his beer.
"Ahhh okay just checking!" Kyle nodded again and took a drink of his beer.
As the two men watched the lone Fir Bolg wandered around the waves of grain. Eventually it found its two partners, who then joined it in its seemingly endless wandering.
Behind the two 'relaxing' heroes from Paragon, tools dropped and fiddling continued inside the ancient RV, as life in Croatoa merely continued around them in the heat of the afternoon.
Find us here at Templars of the Abbey Webpage
Arc # 57740 - 'A Star is Rising Part One'
Arc # 90575 - 'A Lesson Taught'
Arc # 139943 - 'And The Game Goes Tilt'
May 22nd, 2008 - Steel Canyon
What did you so just say?
Kara sat there stunned looking across the coffee table at her friend.
I said, have you two ever slept together
even before I was in the picture? Patti's voice was even as she repeated her question, yet it could not contain the slight quiver beneath the veil of calm.
Kara carefully set her teacup on the table and frowned softly "You mean in High School? "
Patti set her cup down as well, sitting back and merely waiting for an answer. Her eyes followed Kara's as she stood.
You like know that we have not. Im so sure he has told you himself countless times, Kara said as she walked toward the door to leave, her back stiff.
Dont act so offended. I only asked because something has changed within him and I needed to know for certain that it wasnt my worst fear, her friend said as she sat down deep into the recliner.
Kara paused and turned What has changed? her frown increased as she took a step back to the couch.
Patti looked at Kara for a long moment before continuing.
Ever since hes come back from that series of patrols with you during the last Rikti invasion well, hes been distant. Hes been less careful of certain things.
Kara walked over to Patti and placed a hand on her shoulder.
What is it, Patti? she asked softly, concerned now for both of her friends "What has happened?"
When Bill and I are....." she paused and drew a breath "...you know when we are... intimate... he always treats my body like glass. A precious relic, he goes out of his way to make me feel special
his energy or radiation...like yours can make him stronger...but after the last invasion... when he came back from those fights he forgot himself.
Kara closed her eyes and sighed He hurt you.
Not on purpose but I have a pretty bad bruise, right here, she said as she lifted her shirtsleeve to show the purple discoloration of a nasty bruise. Kara winced, it was not a twisting bruise nor a mark from a vicious impact.
He was bracing himself against my arm and he held a little too tight. I was whimpering a little when he finally snapped out of whatever fantasy he was in
He felt awful about losing control. He never did before. Patti was watching Kara again
.
Karas own eyes strayed to the floor.
Nothing happened between us Patti. I totally swear it. You know how much I value integrity. My word is everything. her voice was soft yet firm.
So, why cant you look at me?
Kara turned up to face her that moment.
We have not slept together
not in high school and so not now, but there was a moment in between battles you see when we almost
Kara was trying very hard not to make this any more awkward for them both now.
Oh, I see. Patti said dryly.
Kara sighed and her frown returned No, you dont see." she shook her head "We had been fighting for almost two whole days straight, the Rikti were on the city streets somewhere at any given hour during that period. During the rare pauses, and so trust me on this, he never could get you out of his mind
it wasnt until one night after an extremely rigorous battle in which he was trying to heal from his injuries I guess he
Kara trailed off...
Please, continue, Patti said with her eyes focused on her own hands.
Look I was checking the dressing on his chest wound when he pulled my hair behind my ears." Kara shuddered a bit at the memory, not caring if Patti saw her guard slip at the memory of a surprising or unwanted touch. Undaunted she continued "I looked up then and his lips were so very close to mine, but circumstances outside of our control stopped him from going further.
What do you mean?
At exactly that moment one of the Vanguard officers requested our help in the repelling of an attack in Steel and that was that.
Heroes always go where theyre needed, Patti said with her patented brand of sarcasm.
Look Patti you wanted to know and now you do." Kara then added with equal dryness. "Do you feel better now?
No. I feel like Im second in line. He obviously wishes something had occurred. Otherwise, I wouldnt have this bruise on my forearm.
Bill, loves you more than anything. He just forgot himself that night. Kara softly added "He tried to apologize but I saw it in his eyes he was seeing you, he was just so exhausted Patti"
I know he loves me. God, I know that, but I also know that Bill has a big heart and I would not put it beyond him that would be honestly in love with two people.
Kara was about to protest the statement but she knew it was futile. Patti wouldn't understand, her and Bill were close but though he loved her, he was in love with Patti. Kara sighed deeply, the irony of this was also beyond Patti. Her friend had no clue why even if Bill was in love with Kara, she wouldn't be able to return it.
I will totally never come between you two." Kara tried to explain "Please believe me I am not waiting to have Bill.
I know you are not seeing anyone and Bill is always cryptic about how and why you never seem to be with anyone " Patti sighed "Its hard Kara you two work so closely with one another..sharing something I can never share with him...I can't help think Kara youre kidding yourself if you dont realize that a part of you is waiting for Bill
the same way that hes waiting for you.
Kara sighed as she lightly fingered the small gold locket she always wore around her neck. She hadn't even told Bill this part, of the who and the why she couldn't be waiting to take Bill from Patti. She hadn't spoken to anyone outside of the Templars about this for the last year and a half. It was time, she thought Patti would understand for sure now. Patti, I
Look," Patti held up her hand as she interrupted her "I didnt mean to have such an intimate discussion when I invited you over. These things have been bothering me for a while. I wanted to know the truth and I do trust your word.
Well, Im glad for that at least
" She started again, but stopped. Patti would only see the truth as an offered excuse. This was Patti's issue to work out and Kara was a tad angry at the flare of jealousy her friend was exhibiting. "I really like think I should go.
Yeah, I really need to finish this report that Ive been working on.
Good-bye, Patti.
Bye, Kara.
The creaking door shut behind her was the only sound that filled the apartment as Patti sat staring at her hands now folded in her lap.
Find us here at Templars of the Abbey Webpage
Arc # 57740 - 'A Star is Rising Part One'
Arc # 90575 - 'A Lesson Taught'
Arc # 139943 - 'And The Game Goes Tilt'
May 29th, 2008 - Skyway
THEN...
In the stillness of the night the dream had become a nightmare and the nightmare in turn reality.
Laughing
Always the haunting echo of laughter. A constant reminder of the depth of her failure, an echo of her shame and pain.
She awoke with a start and bolted upright barely stifling her scream. Her form taunt and rigid with fear, awaiting...
"No God damn it" she whispered harshly to herself, her body glistened wit sweat as if were a hot sticky summer night in Georgia instead of the chill of the mid winter evening of Rhode Island that lay in darkness outside of her dorm room. She instinctively brought her knees up to her chest, and wrapped her arms tightly around them in a vain attempt to keep from trembling.
Jesus she thought, not again, it had felt so real. They had been right here in the room with her, reaching for her, seeking her out...touching....
Damn that laughing, she thought as she pressed her hands to either side of her head to attempt to chase away the echo's still lingering.
She could still see their faces,their horrible hungry eyes, smell the stale alcohol on their breath....she shuddered
Damn them! She thought furiously, why can't I just forget!
Hugging her knees once more she began to rock back and forth in the dark, soft whimpers of fear and frustration slipped out of her. She felt all alone , so terribly alone and she knew her problems were just beginning now that they had learned the truth about her....
<CLICK>
She gasped as the room was brightly bathed in light and she felt something in the room move toward her.
My God!, she thought feeling herself near the brink of panic and hysteria. They've found me!
Her mind raced to seek escape but she found herself paralyzed with fear.
HELP!
She cringed as she snapped her eyes tightly shut. She could feel her bed sink as someone sat near her at it's edge. She began to weep louder as her fear overwhelmed her.
No More!
She could feel the revulsion and the loathing, knowing what would happen next twist in her gut. Her breathing grew rapid and it happened! She could feel a hand reach out and gingerly touch her forearm only to retreat quickly when the scream was ripped from Kara. Her eyes snapped open as she retreated higher , pressed back as much as she could to her headboard, trembling as her shoulder pressed tightly to the corner of the room where it met her bed.
"Oh God! Oh my God Kara are you okay" a frightened voice called to her "Kara please....you are dreaming!"
Kara's terrified mind struggled to give this person's face and soft voice a name. She dared to look eventually and the memory of this person began to push itself forward, past the dark shadows of fear that lay siege to her mind.
Mary, she thought Mary Lewis, yes that was it. Kara swallowed as she remembered. Mary was a good memory, a good trusting person. The last one to date who had not pulled away from her.
Had not called her a freak or a monster.
Yes there was nothing to fear from Mary.
The fear that covered Kara's features gave ground to a degree of recognition. Her breathing became less labored as she fought back new tears. However no matter how hard she fought, she could not help the shaking.
The memory of Mary acted as a solid foundation, one to build one to climb out of her fear. She began to remember where she was. She was still in her dorm room on the campus of Paragon City University. Mary was her room mate.
She was also the only friend Kara had left, since that horrible day that the Rikti had come. The day she was forced to use her powers, powers she didn't know she possessed herself.
The day it was seen on the news, the day her friends withdrew from her following the defeat of the Rikti. The day she began to lose her family.
Everyone but Mary. The friendship between the two girls had proven to be as strong and close as it was odd. Both girls were complete opposites. Where Kara was out going and bubbly, Mary was slightly introverted and shied away from people. Slightly overweight due to her build added to her shyness and she was someone who not many people liked or even took the time to get to know.
Kara smiled a little as she reflected on Mary's attitude about this "What I ain't got in looks I make up in personality"
Kara and Mary had been friends, sharing a common interest in Math, Kara possessing an almost natural aptitude for it and Mary holding it as a hobby second only to her choice of major, computer programming.
Mary had steadfastly refused to give up her friendship to Kara at first despite, her roommate turning out to be a latent mutant. She was in fact the only one who would room with her since that day in the student center when Kara's abilities emerged. It was going to be hard after next semester, Mary was about to graduate, leaving her friend without a roommate. Mary had heard of other people with powers on Campus, but no real organization had formed just yet. Mary was worried about what would happen to Kara once she left school.
Kara looked to her friend unsure of how to explain what had happened to her. "My God Mary" cried and began to softly weep once more. Mary frowned with concern and leaned forward to pull her frightened friend closer to embrace her into a hug. She was surprised to feel what she interpreted as reluctance before Kara melted into her embrace and let go of the breath of tears she had back.
"Kara what's ...." Began Mary as she began to softly rock her friend.
"Nothing..." Kara lied, when she finally got her voice back, slowly she began to calm herself. She used Mary as an anchor, despite the utter revulsion she was feeling from the Mare touch offered by Mary. Hatred of being confined again struggled deeply inside of her with the terrible need for comfort now. An impossible war now raged inside of her heart as her voice trembles slight as she spoke. "It ..it was just a nightmare.."
"God" Mary said " That had to be a whopper kiddo"
"Lord Mar" She swallowed tightly "It seemed so...so .."
"I know Kar" Mary interrupted her as she almost maternally stroked her long black hair now as she held her tightly "Yes...god They can seem so real" She sighed with worry and deep concern as she felt her friend fall deeper into her hug. She held Kara tightly as if she were holding her from falling off of a tall building.
For a long time after that exchange Mary continued to hold and rock her friend. She listened as Kara's breathing began to slow and her body began to relax, the tears began to dry and her trembling began to subside. She pulled back at bit and searched for her friend's eyes, looking deep into the doe eyed wide, fear entrenched look. She found herself shivering as she though, Good God Kara, what has you so terrified.
Feebly Mary found herself ask "Are you going to be all right?"
Kara couldn't answer as her mind screamed, Am I going to be all right?
No, never again.
Yet despite this she offered her friend a simple smile "I'll be fine" she lied. "it was just a nightmare.." She forced a chuckle "It just got to me...really I'm..fine"
Kara faked a smile and immediately regretted it. Like her childhood friends Bill and Melissa, Mary was always able to spot it. And just worry more.
Kara sighed, Just like Lissa.
"Still try to get some sleep Okay Kar?" said Mary as she stood up holding her friend's hand as Kara lay back down. She then helped her friend readjust the blankets around her, tucking her in.
"Okay I will try, good night Mae" Kara replied softly, barely concealing the fear that remained inside of her. "Ill try..." She then added as Mar moved back toward her own bed. "and Mar?"
Mary turned and quirked a brow "Mmm?"
"Thank you" she softly choked out.
"Anytime Kiddo" Mary said unable to keep the worry out of her voice. "if you ever need to talk about..." She paused before continuing softer "the nightmare ..or Anything...ever"
Kara smiled as she could feel sleep begin to creep up on her. "I know thanks Mar"
As Kara watched Mar put herself back to bed yet did not slip back under the covers. She remained sitting up with just her reading lamp on, angled away from her roommate. Mary opened a book and placed her horned rimmed glasses on her nose. She silently began to read.
Kara watched her, smiling a little. The way Mary was reading...her Posture, reminded Kara of her mother. How she would sit up beside Kara when she was just a little girl. With Mary on vigil tonight Kara felt safe enough for sleep to eventually catch up to her.
The dreams did not come again that night...
NOW...
...but They did come back, Kara thought as she stood in the warm night's breeze high atop the police precinct. The breeze danced through her hair as she stood on the building's edge just beyond the helipad as she thought back to that night more than four years ago now.
She remembered how Mary had found her that pamphlet that had led her to the New Porter Institute after she had left. Kara sighed sadly, Everything she had become since, a hero, a mother, a teacher, was because of who she became at NPI. She stood in the night air and looked out over the city she helped protect, as she clutched a folded copy of a newspaper in her hand.
She smiled to herself as she still remembered Mary's smile.
"Kar?"
She jumped a little inside as Bill approached her slowly. Old scars never fully heal it would seem.
"You all right? " he asked softly stepping up next to her, his own cape now danced and floated in the breeze as he cast a sidelong glance her way "You took off after Nancy loaned you her copy of the Tribune"
Kara swallowed and nodded slowly. Her eyes never leaving the brightly light city skyline.
"Well what happened...what was in it?" He turned to face her. "Come on, Share partner" He stopped short as he saw the tears softly running down her cheeks
She reached out not looking at him, handing him the news paper. He accepted and looked down at the folded section, and read...
Pregnant Teacher Collapses at High School in Dover, Dies
Graduates at a North Jersey high school took time to remember a pregnant teacher who collapsed at school and died just hours before the ceremony.
Dover High School in Morris County held a moment of silence in memory of 27-year-old Mary Lewis- Roberts at the beginning of its graduation ceremony Thursday night.
Lewis-Roberts was an Computer Science teacher who spent part of her career helping struggling students. She was 8½ months pregnant.
But the popular teacher collapsed just as final exams ended, and she died later at a hospital. Her unborn baby was able to be saved. Currently 'Mary' as she was named by her father to honor his late wife has been removed from an incubator and is expected to return home with her father this week.
Superintendent Sam Harris says Lewis- Roberts had a possible aneurysm and a ruptured spleen. She is survived also by her husband Paul and a daughter Elizabeth who just turned two.
Bill frowned as he read it, aside from the New Jersey reference, He didn't make the connection. Both he and Kara had grown up in South Jersey. The hero known as Guardian Star turned to his friend, trying to understand her tears.
"Did you know her Kara?" He asked "Who was she?"
Kara swallowed hard as a fresh tear swept down her cheek
"She was a hero Bill" the Valiant Dazzling Diamond announced "She was the very type we fight for every night" She then turned to meet his gaze "And she was my friend" she reached out and placed a hand on his shoulder to squeeze it softly "Just like you"
Bill blinked and smiled at her as she then strode past him and took to the night sky heading off towards the direction of New Overbrook. He watched her head home for a bit then looked back down at the paper in his hand.
"Mary Lewis- Roberts" Bill shook his head "I have no idea who you are lady, but you definitely made some kind of an impression" He then turned and made as if to toss the paper away. He stopped himself, looking back down at it he read the story one more time.
Before long, the sirens and calls would sweep him away, back into the grind of protecting the city. Yet tonight he does so with the name of a woman he has never met in the back of his mind. The last thing Kara had said to him foremost in his mind.
"She was a hero Bill, She was the very type we fight for every night"
"And she was my friend, Just like you"
To Serve and to Protect, tonight it held that much more meaning for him as he moved through the city streets...
Find us here at Templars of the Abbey Webpage
Arc # 57740 - 'A Star is Rising Part One'
Arc # 90575 - 'A Lesson Taught'
Arc # 139943 - 'And The Game Goes Tilt'
[Bits and Drabbles of daily life and what not from my Character and a few Templars. Was always worried that my writing wasnt good enough for here but the other thread seems to be doing well enough so i thought I would share
Hope you like these too. These are the momentary snapshots to explain why we do the things we do ]
April 17th 2006 - Steel Canyon
The silence in the apartment had been deafening for about an hour and half now, save for the music streaming out of Kara's laptop on the table before her. Phil had dragged her feet over her chores and then her homework. Kara had been stern and short with her to get the girl to get her responsibilites done. Kara had a lot of work to do and it had not been a good week at all.
So much...so much had hit her, but nothing like what was tearing at her right now. Her heart had been struck and shattered. Betrayed and hurt she had thrown herself into her work to forget the problems at the Abbey and had even recieved a honorary commission at the Firebase. She had decided it would be easier to have them both do their homework together. Kara had sighed though, Phil only acted like this when she knew something was wrong with her guardian and Kara wasnt sharing.
Kara sighed, she was going to have to find some way of blocking this or hiding it. She had to deal with this on her own, but make sure it didnt hurt anyone else...
Ma-ia-hii
Ma-ia-huu
Ma-ia-hoo
Ma-ia-haa
Kara smiled as the silly song ripped through her thoughts as she stared at her homework on the little screen of the laptop. She had been working on her final thesis at the dinning room table as Phil struggled with her homework on the far end.
Ma-ia-hii
Ma-ia-huu
Ma-ia-hoo
Ma-ia-haa
She began to sing, causing the child to look up surprised at the first sounds Kara had made all afternoon.
Grinning at the girl Kara sang goofily
Ma-ia-hii
Ma-ia-huu
Ma-ia-hoo
Ma-ia-haa
Phil blinked slowly lowering her pen to the table as she watched her guardian begin to weave her hands in the air above her head to the goofy beat and begin to sway in her chair
Ma-ia-hii
Ma-ia-huu
Ma-ia-hoo
Ma-ia-haa
She stopped waving her hands as the beat became happily jumbled her hands happily tumbling to it gracefully, turning to her ward she got a fake macho sauve look on her face and sung to her
Alo, salut, sunt eu un haiduc
Si te rog iubirea mea primeste fericirea.
Alo alo with a wave to her shegrinned as she got a soft silent giggle from Phil sunt eu picasso
Ti-am dat beep si sunt voinic *with a sly wink Kara got another, a real one this time as Phil began to sway to the happy tune in her chair as well
Dar sa stii nu-ti cer nimic.
Rising out of her chair to spin into a playful allegro style of dance Kara turned gracefully on the rug her arms pumping over her head. Phil clapped happily in her chair as she watched listening to her guardian sing
Vrei sa pleci dar nu ma nu ma iei
Nu ma nu ma iei nu ma nu ma nu ma iei.
Chipul tau si dragostea din tei
Mi-amintesc de ochii tai.
Vrei sa pleci dar nu ma nu ma iei
Nu ma nu ma iei nu ma nu ma nu ma iei.
The bopping little Phil hopped up and began a graceful dance beside Kara with her own lovely grace as Kara turned around her in a circle...both smiling now as she and Kara sang along with the romanian lyrics. Kara knowing them and Phil faking it!
Chipul tau si dragostea din tei
Mi-amintesc de ochii tai.
Slowing their graceful dance they turned to each other as Kara dropped to her knee and and sauvely belted out to her giggling ward..
Te sun sa-ti spun ce simt acum
Alo , Phil waved to her making Kara smile brightly as she tried to stay absurdly smooth. iubirea mea sunt eu fericirea.
Alo , giggling as they both waved to each other alo again as she sang and Phil smiled.. sunt iarasi eu picasso
Ti-am dat beep si sunt voinic
Dar sa stii nu-ti cer nimic.
Both launch back into a smooth yet stylish allegro dance of swirls and turns as the beat resumed. Around the pair Phil cast her arms up and dozens of illusionary butterflies danced around the now happy pair to the song..
Te sun sa-ti spun ce simt acum
Alo iubirea mea sunt eu fericirea.
Alo alo sunt iarasi eu picasso
Ti-am dat beep si sunt voinic
Dar sa stii nu-ti cer nimic.
Vrei sa pleci dar nu ma nu ma iei
Standing together they swirled and pumped their arms high in the air to the music as the butterflies cooed and swarmed around them as their singing voice became laced with giggles...
Nu ma nu ma iei nu ma nu ma nu ma iei.
Chipul tau si dragostea din tei
Mi-amintesc de ochii tai.
Vrei sa pleci dar nu ma nu ma iei
Nu ma nu ma iei nu ma nu ma nu ma iei.
Chipul tau si dragostea din tei
Mi-amintesc de ochii tai.
Ma-ia-hii
Ma-ia-huu
Ma-ia-hoo
Ma-ia-haa
Ma-ia-hii
Ma-ia-huu
Ma-ia-hoo
Ma-ia-haa
Ma-ia-hii
Ma-ia-huu
Ma-ia-hoo
Ma-ia-haa
Ma-ia-hii
Ma-ia-huu
Ma-ia-hoo
Ma-ia-haa
Swirling and twirling like a pair of goofy dervishes they danced as Kara sung out loud in a happy voice, joined by the bouncing girl beside of her.............
Vrei sa pleci dar nu ma nu ma iei
Nu ma nu ma iei nu ma nu ma nu ma iei.
Chipul tau si dragostea din tei
Mi-amintesc de ochii tai.
Both girls fell to the carpet and collapsed into a fit of giggles, the butterflies fluttered and vanished as Kara helped Phil up. Sweeping the girl into her arms she hugged her tightly and sighed. It is for these moments, she thought. I'm so gonna get through this....
Unseen by her now energetic little ward Kara sighed softly as she watched her hop up and slip back into her chair to dive back into her homework humming to her self in that happy little voice only little girls seem to possess..
"Nummy ma yay nummy nummy Yay!"
Kara smiled a little as she sat back on her calves, brushing her hair back out of her face...
..atleast for these moments.
Find us here at Templars of the Abbey Webpage
Arc # 57740 - 'A Star is Rising Part One'
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