And More...

[athersgeo]

...commentary. It really IS addictive stuff...

Disclaimers: See the prologue -- suffice to say, I don't own anyone barring Ben and Cawdron.

And actually, I don't own Ben, either - he belongs to Ekat. Ooops!

Many thanks to Gamine, Irina, Chris and Dagmar who've all seen little bits of this and offered suggestions as I've gone along. Muchos gracias!

Again, quite the beta gallery, though not as bad as chapter four. I don't NORMALLY work with this many people feeding back to me.

Please offer feedback -- it tells me how I'm doing; glad you guys are enjoying it so far.

~*~

Chapter 5 -- Calling In The Cavalry

This was a no brainer chapter title. This chapter, though, is comfortably my least favourite. It was a real pain in the rear to write.

 

Kimberly looked at Eric, a little bemused. "The phone number?" she echoed.

Eric's smile turned sheepish. "Um, yeah."

"OK, you want to run that by me again, this time making sense?"

Eric looked even more sheepish. "Sorry." He pinched the bridge of his nose in a gesture that Kimberly was starting to recognise as a sign that he was a little more stressed by what was going on around him than he necessarily looked. "What I mean is, I need to call... Oh hell. Take a seat."

Another sign Eric's changing right before our very eyes - prior to chapter 4, he would have probably been fairly vague, keeping the details to himself, not wanting to worry Kim. The difference now is that, while he doesn't want to worry Kim, he's consciously realised she's very much in this with him and he owes it to her to be straight about it.

Bemused, Kimberly perched on the edge of the unmade bed as Eric started to pace. "My former CO paid me a visit yesterday morning...Colonel John Cawdron...he was the one who dumped all this on me yesterday."

Kimberly nodded slowly. "The one who stirred up the bad memories?"

Eric nodded. "The guy who got stiffed with talking me into not re-enlisting, amongst other things." He paused. "I guess...in lieu of a better idea right now, he's the best person to call. There's just one...slight problem."

"You don't remember the phone number," Kimberly guessed.

Eric looked sheepish again. "Well, that plus I don't know for sure that he's still based outta Camp Pendleton."

Kimberly rolled her eyes. "And you didn't think to ask him?"

Kim raising the very good point...again, this is me trying to 'fix' the nit. Why didn't I go back to chapter 1 and fix it there instead? Well, mostly because by the point I reached here, I'd actually already posted chapter 1 (my rule of thumb is once it's posted, it's set in stone unless I've *really* screwed up spelling or grammar - I do fix those). The rest of it was because I did realise that Eric hadn't really been thinking straight after Cawdron's visit, so to an extent it did actually work with him not asking...

Eric shrugged a little, looking more and more sheepish by the second. "I wasn't exactly thinking straight," he murmured.

Kimberly relented. "It's OK. Sounds like Camp Pendleton's a good place to start -- and if you really can't remember the number, you could always ask the operator." Eric blinked, looking at her as if she'd grown an extra head. "What? The CIA is in the phone book -- why shouldn't a US Marine base be?"

Eric shook his head. "No -- I know. I just wonder..."

"...how long it would have taken me to think of that." is how that sentence was going to finish. And yes, for anyone interested, the CIA IS in the phone book! (Which is more than the West Hollywood PD is... [long story])

And interrupting the conversation came an electronic bleeping. Kimberly frowned. Eric looked puzzled for a moment, then dived across the room to the TV. Kimberly watched him move and recognition of what the noise was came to her: Eric's cell phone.

She listened to his side of the conversation: "Myers...Sorry Ben -- it's a long story...No I'd rather not say over a cell line...Yes I am that paranoid...Cawdron's there? In that case he can probably tell you why I'm that paranoid...No, don't put him on...Because I'm going to call you back on a landline...Because I might be paranoid but they are out to get me...Not my fault. Give me five." Without offering Ben a chance to come back after that, Eric disconnected the call and headed for the hotel phone.

Eric's started to think again - recalling that cellphone calls are very, VERY easy to intercept.

"Problem solved?" Kimberly asked.

"Potentially," Eric answered, rapidly dialling a number. "Give me half an hour to talk to Cawdron and I'll know one way or the other... Sorry about that Gina -- is Ben there?"

Kimberly smiled. "Good luck," she murmured. "I'll leave you to it."

~*~

Eric offered Kimberly a smile as she left the room.

"Eric what the hell is going on?" Ben all but yelled as the call was finally transferred to him.

Eric smiled wryly to himself. "What has Cawdron said to you?"

"Nothing," Ben retorted. "All I know is that your place was razed to the ground last night and no-one had seen you since you went home from work early. Man, you've had Gina freaking out."

Not just Gina from the sound of things. "Well as you can see, I haven't done something 'stupid'," Eric replied dryly. "Ben, I need to speak to Cawdron."

I like Ben. Ekat created him for her PRTF series that piggybacks Identity, essentially as someone who can call Eric on his bullshit - the irony is, I think I've used him more than she has!

"And that's another thing!" Ben added. "Who is this guy that he can just waltz in here and make demands?"

"A Colonel in the USMC," Eric answered.

"Can't be," Ben objected.

Eric pinched the bridge of his nose, knowing he was going to regret asking this. "Why not?"

"Since when was Barbie a Marine?"

I wasn't originally planning on having 'Barbie' Hines showing up in this story - she was supposed to be a one joke character in Scars...and Gamine really championed her. As Gamine tends to be right about these things, I followed her advice...and sure enough, she was!

That was it. Eric found himself laughing. He could picture all too clearly who else was with Cawdron.

"Why are you laughing? I'm serious!"

"I know you are, Ben, I spent six months sharing an office with her."

"YOU WERE A MARINE?" Ben sounded even more incredulous.

"Yes, I was a Marine." Eric rolled his eyes. "Ben, I need to speak to Cawdron. Please." If I get out of this I am going to have so many questions to answer. He grimaced at the thought.

He might have worked through some of the issue, but that doesn't mean he suddenly likes talking about himself.

"Sure, but..."

"But I owe you one hell of an explanation. I know."

"Damn straight."

The line went quiet as Ben presumably passed the receiver to Cawdron.

"Myers what the hell happened?" Cawdron asked without pre-amble.

And here we go... "You tell me," Eric replied. "I took my neighbour and her daughter to the park, headed home to find myself being trailed by some jerk in a Plymouth Prowler, got home to find four fire trucks pulled up where my house was and the Prowler attempting to block me in."

"How did you know the Prowler wasn't Intel's?" Cawdron asked.

A damn good question - it was quite a leap for Eric even in the situation.

It was a question Eric had asked himself several times the night before and going through the incident logically, there was any number of clues that his subconscious had doubtless picked up on,

Unfortunately, I'm stuffed if I can remember what they were now! I do know I had 'em all lined up and then couldn't quite work them into the narrative, but...

but... "I didn't at the time," Eric admitted quietly.

"Heck of a gut instinct," Cawdron replied. "You were right, of course. The Intel boys picked up the occupants of the Prowler who were, based on what I've been told this morning, too stunned by your escape to even think of trying to evade capture themselves."

Eric had no response to that.

"So where did you take off to?" Cawdron asked.

Eric sighed. "Got on the I1 and headed south. I guess I was half heading for Camp Pendleton."

"But you obviously aren't there," Cawdron stated.

Eric gave a huff of humourless laughter. "If my neighbour hadn't made me stop an hour or so into the journey I might well have been."

Despite having told Kim he was planning to break at the Novotel anyway... Continuity Police, I plead guilty!

"I see. So you're...where?"

"Novotel just east of Malibu."

"And you still have your neighbour and her daughter with you?"

"Yes."

"Hmm." Eric got the impression that Cawdron was frowning. "I need you to sit tight for now. You obviously have a landline number -- I'm presuming you're not on a payphone."

"I'm not," Eric agreed, smiling faintly.

"OK. May I have it? That way, once it's been decided what we need to do, I can call you back to tell you."

"Sure." Eric carefully read out the number printed on the phone. "The room number's 402."

"OK. Thank you -- I will call you back as soon as something has been arranged."

~*~

The second Kimberly returned to her room an anxious looking Alice pounced on her.

The timing of this gets a little screwy - it's very difficult to show things happening at the same time in a story, so sometimes you do end up having things take place one after another that, in practice, are concurrent.

"Is Eric OK?" she asked.

"Uh-huh," Kimberly answered, nodding. It wasn't strictly true, she knew, but it was close enough for Alice without having to explain the details.

"Did you make him better?"

Not for the first time, Kimberly found herself smiling at the faith Alice had in her. "Actually I didn't -- he made himself better."

Alice tipped her head on one side and stared at Kimberly. "Can people do that?"

Kimberly nodded. "Sometimes." When they have the motivation.

"Cool -- I wanna do that."

Kimberly blinked. "Do what?"

"Make myself better. When I grow up, I wanna be like Eric."

Yup - Alice really DOES idolise Eric.

Kimberly smiled at that thought. She had a very good idea of what Eric's reaction to it would be. Alice could certainly have worse role models than Eric, she mused. Although I hope she doesn't grow up to be as insular...or as lonely.

The irony to that line is that I knew how Far Future was going to play out by this point and knew that actually, Alice was almost going to be *MORE* insular and lonely than Eric!

"Mommy, why are we here?" Alice asked, drawing Kimberly from her thoughts. "When can we go home?"

"It's..." But how did you explain this situation to a six-year-old? Alice looked expectant. "It's complicated."

"That's not an answer," Alice objected, pouting.

Find me the child that WILL accept that as an answer, I certainly never did!

Kimberly groaned softly. "It's..."

"My fault," said a voice quietly from behind Kimberly.

And cue Eric's return to the party. Again - time's a little screwed up. Couldn't really help it because I needed to show the conversation with Cawdron *AND* Kim's conversation with Alice.

She jumped; she hadn't heard the connecting door open or Eric enter the room. She wondered how much of the conversation he'd heard, but looking round, his expression was giving nothing away.

"Eric!" Not allowing him to say anything, Alice flung herself at him in a wild bear hug.

Kimberly bit her lip trying not to laugh at the half-stunned expression that briefly featured on Eric's face before being chased away by an expression that could only be described as relief.

He now knows that Alice isn't holding his reaction against him.

"I'm sorry I was bad," Alice mumbled, the words muffled by the fact that she was effectively speaking into Eric's stomach.

"You weren't bad," Eric replied, somehow managing to loosen her grip so that he could crouch down and meet Alice's gaze. "Sometimes...adults can get scared by silly things...it doesn't mean that the silly things are bad things."

Alice blinked a little. "I scared you?"

Kimberly caught the silent appeal for help that Eric gave her but this was going to have to be something he explained. She shrugged apologetically.

Eric finally nodded. "You did."

"I didn't mean to."

He smiled, reassuringly. "I know you didn't -- but what you said... No-one's ever said that to me before."

The look of outrage on Alice's face was such that Kimberly again had to bite her lip in an effort not to laugh.

Such a kid-thing to do this bit.

"Why not?" Alice demanded.

The look of complete helplessness on Eric's face prompted Kimberly to step in. "Alice, sometimes people can't look beyond what they see on the surface of a person."

"That's dumb," Alice proclaimed.

"Yes, it is," Eric agreed, "but that is what adults do."

"Well, I'm never going to do it. It's silly." Alice tipped her head on one side and regarded Eric for a few moments. "Do I still scare you?"

"No."

"Does this mean you can be my daddy now?"

Kimberly held her breath, waiting for Eric's reaction, praying that this was one of the demons he'd managed to work through.

"I think that depends on what your mom wants," Eric replied, smiling a little. Kimberly released the held breath. "And I think it also depends on us getting out of this."

"So what is going on?" Alice wanted to know. "How can it be your fault?"

Round number two, Kimberly mused. This should be interesting...

This bit provided me with a bit of difficulty as to how exactly to explain this to Alice.

Eric's smile turned wry. "Sometimes, bad things happen to people, even when they've done nothing wrong..."

"Mommy said something bad happened to you," Alice cut in a little tearfully.

Again Kimberly caught the look Eric cast her. She shrugged a little apologetically -- she'd had to say something to Alice. He offered her a smile before turning his attention back to Alice.

He nodded. "It did," he agreed. "And...sometimes, the people who do those bad things aren't satisfied by just doing them once."

Alice gasped. "They hurt you twice?"

Eric shook his head. "No -- but they want to. That's why we're here, because they want to hurt me again."

"You can't let them!" Alice turned to Kimberly. "You can't let them hurt Eric, mommy!"

Again, very kid thing to do!

Eric looked amused by the suggestion. Not one word, Eric, not one word. "Honey, it doesn't quite work like that," Kimberly said.

"I've got a friend," Eric added, "who is going to help us -- help me -- by getting the bad guys. But until he calls me back, we have to stay here, so that the bad guys don't know where we are."

"Sort of like playing hide and seek?" Alice suggested.

"Exactly like playing hide and seek," Eric agreed.

And Rach works the title into the story... *cringe*

"Cool."

"And when is your 'friend' calling you back?" Kimberly asked.

Eric sighed as he finally got back to his feet. "He has to talk to various people and they need to decide on the best course of action. Knowing the people involved with that, the call could be...any time."

Kimberly nodded. She'd guessed as much. "So what do we do in the meantime?"

"Can we go to the pool?" Alice asked.

"Do Novotels have pools?" Kimberly wondered.

"This one does," Eric answered.

"Yay!" said Alice. "Can we?"

I originally was going to have them stuck in the room all day, and Eric was going to get Alice interested in martial arts, but I just could NOT get that to work out right. Enter Gamine...this next little piece (particularly about the Wal Mart) was her idea.

Kimberly groaned. "Alice -- you don't have anything to swim in and I don't think it's a good idea. Right, Eric?"

"Actually," Eric admitted, "it's not the worst idea I've heard."

"But..."

In a low tone, Eric answered, "The pool's sheltered from the highway and it would add to the impression that we're on vacation not on the run. Plus, Cawdron's going to ring my cell phone twice to let me know he's ready to speak to me so that I'm not completely tied to the room."

Kimberly nodded slowly. What Eric was saying made sense, but... "And what do you suggest we swim in?"

Eric offered a smile. "There's a Wal-Mart next door to this place. You could go see what they have for you and Alice."

"What about you?"

Eric shook his head. "I don't swim. It avoids...problems."

The prospect of having to explain the scars to Alice was just too much, even for me!

Kimberly winced. "Besides, I think I have work out gear in my bag. There's other things I can do poolside."

Kimberly lifted her eyebrows. "Oh?"

Eric grinned. "You'll see."

Kimberly blinked. Was it her imagination, or was Eric teasing her?

Another sign that Eric is starting to improve - and that he's more at ease with the situation.

"Mommy come on!" Alice cut in impatiently. "I wanna go swimming."

Kimberly sighed. "OK." She looked at Eric. "If you're sure?"

He nodded. "Better to be doing something than nothing."

Kimberly reflected that was almost certainly true. "OK -- c'mon Alice. Let's go see what Wal-Mart has for us."

~*~

Eric tried not to worry over the length of time Kimberly and Alice were gone from the hotel room but it was a well nigh impossible task. He tried to distract himself by getting changed into the loose, black, cotton pants and well-worn, grey t-shirt that constituted his work out gear, but as he pulled on the garment, he caught a brief whiff of the citrus-and-musk that was Kimberly's perfume and he remembered that she'd borrowed the t-shirt to sleep in the night before. He tried to tell himself that he had nothing to worry about but as minutes ticked by and turned themselves into hours, it was harder and harder to remember that.

When the hotel room door finally opened to readmit Alice and Kimberly it took every shred of self-control for Eric not to dive across the room and crush Kimberly with an Alice-like bear hug. Much as he wanted to do that, giving in to the temptation would telegraph how worried he'd become and that in turn would worry Kimberly. Besides, he was being stupid.

"Sorry," Kimberly apologised, setting down her two bags, "but I figured there were a couple of other bits and pieces we could all use."

"Oh?"

Kimberly rummaged in one of the bags. "Like..." She tossed a small packet in his direction.

He caught it and turned it over. A travel shaving kit. Reflexively he felt his jaw line and grimaced. "Guess I need it, huh?"

Kimberly offered a slight smile. "Unless you're planning on growing a disguise."

This bit came about because, practically speaking, Eric/Dan Southworth has the sort of complexion that shows stubble really easily. Rather than ignore that, I thought I'd work it into the story.

Eric lifted his eyebrows. "Think that would work?" Kimberly giggled. "Me either. Did you find some swimwear?"

"Uh-huh," said Alice. "They had lots."

Eric frowned at Alice's reply. "Do I get to know what it looks like?" But a look at Alice's stern expression told him the answer to that question. "I see. Let me go shave, you guys can get changed and then we can go."

"I have a better idea," said Kimberly. "You shave and we'll meet you down there."

Eric looked at Kimberly for a moment. She favoured him with a smile. I am so screwed.

~*~

Time for a little bit of fun...

Kimberly looked at herself in the mirror of the tiny changing area beside the pool. The black, halter-neck swimsuit did look good on her and the deep red trim highlighted her trim figure but... Was this a good idea?

Was this a step too far?

It had seemed like a good idea when she'd seen the suit in Wal-Mart. It was sexy, it would look good on her -- it would give Eric a treat.

But was this a step too far?

Too late for second thoughts.

"Mommy, come on!" Alice ordered.

Definitely too late for second thoughts. "OK -- I'm coming."

Kimberly followed her daughter out of the changing area and onto the poolside terrace. No sign of Eric yet.

"Alice, honey -- come here a second. Let me put some sun block on you." Alice pouted but consented to stand still while Kimberly applied the waterproof sun block to her shoulders, back and legs. "OK."

"Yay!"

Kimberly watched as Alice gleefully jumped into the pool. She had no qualms about her being in the water -- they had lived in a beachfront property in Miami and Alice had learned to swim almost before she could walk -- particularly given Alice wouldn't be swimming alone. With practiced speed, she applied sun block to her own shoulders before entering the pool herself.

The water felt good as Kimberly slowly swam the pool's length. After the events of the previous evening and this morning, it was good to relax and she realised that Eric really did have a point about this not being the worst idea. She turned and swam back towards the shallow end where Alice was splashing around. For a few minutes, Kimberly could even imagine this was a holiday. It was sunny, it was warm, Alice was happy...

As she turned to sit on the wide, roman-style steps that led into the shallow end of the pool, she saw Eric finally appear on the poolside terrace. For a fraction of a second, their eyes met. She could see him taking in the swimsuit and how it looked on her and to her relief, while he did blush a little, his main reaction was a slight curve of the lips. She couldn't call it a smile, precisely, but she got the impression he liked what he saw.

And I certainly have no room to complain, she decided. The loose fitting pants and t-shirt shouldn't have looked sexy, but they did. Not for the first time, she wondered what it was he was planning on doing -- particularly as he was carrying a towel.

Finding herself strangely unable to look away, Kimberly watched him walk the length of the poolside until he was on the sun-soaked portion of the terrace near to the changing area. He claimed a pool lounger briefly, to remove his sneakers, before setting down the towel -- and presumably the cell phone too, although Kimberly couldn't see that device at this distance -- and moving to stand, bare-foot, roughly in the middle of the free space.

"Mommy!" Alice's excited whoop dragged Kimberly's attention away from Eric. "Look at me!"

Almost reluctantly, Kimberly looked to see Alice had taught herself how to turn a somersault in the water. She watched for a few moments, but found her attention gradually being drawn back to Eric who was now performing a series of basic warm-up stretches. The stretches gradually evolved into something that Kimberly half recognised. It was a kata of some description but what martial arts knowledge she might have had once upon a time had atrophied considerably and she wasn't sure what style it was -- or even which one of her friends had shown it to her, and she was certain one of the ex-rangers had.

This is a remnant of a discarded plot line where it was going to turn out that Eric's sensei was also the sensei of Adam, Aisha and Rocky.

"Mommy?" Alice's quiet query again snagged her attention. Turning back to look, she realised Alice was now standing in front of her, regarding her strangely. "What's Eric doing?" she asked.

Kimberly smiled. "It's called a kata."

"What's one of those?"

"It's a sort of practice routine for martial arts."

"Cool."

Alice splashed away. Kimberly smiled. Eric was good. Being a ranger didn't automatically mean you were a master martial artist, but it certainly helped if you were one. Her knowledge might have deteriorated, but she still remembered the things that Tommy, Jason, Trini, Rocky, Aisha and Adam had taught her to look out for in a martial artist. Balance, poise, control... All things she could see in every movement Eric made. No, Eric wasn't just good -- he was very good.

The first kata gave way to a second, more physical, kata without any discernible break. The expression on his face was one of pure concentration and Kimberly got the feeling that he had probably ceased to notice her or Alice. Zoning was what Tommy had called it -- the point where your body moved without conscious thought -- and there was definitely something sexy about it.

Contrary to popular belief, while I am perfectly well aware Cheryl Roberts uses the term 'zoning' in at least one of her stories, I've actually picked the term up from listening to Michael Atherton and Steve Waugh talk about batting in cricket and it's in that sense I'm using it here!

For possibly the first time, Kimberly could see the predator that -- on one level -- she knew Eric had to be. Each kick and punch was filled with a very obvious, deadly grace. Every movement was sharp, precise, defined and unquestionably lethal. She ought to have felt intimidated by it, but she knew -- almost instinctively -- that he would never turn those skills on her or on Alice.

The second kata flowed smoothly into a third, even more physical, routine. Kimberly found herself mesmerised by the movements. The slap-slap of Eric's bare feet hitting the concrete was hypnotic. The sound of his breathing, the grunts of exertion, filled her ears. The whole combination was completely intoxicating and utterly breathtaking.

He's putting on a show, Kimberly realised. For me... She swallowed. It had been a very, very long time since anyone had done that for her. Knowing that Eric was making the effort for her -- and just for her -- was almost as much of an aphrodisiac as the katas themselves.

You just *know* what's going to happen next...

Then the moment shattered irrevocably as water splashed all over her. The sound of Alice's giggle completed what the water had started. Kimberly's attention snapped back to her daughter to see Alice grinning mischievously.

See?

"Alice!" Kimberly objected.

"Catch me if you can!" Alice retorted, hastily taking off for the far end of the pool.

"Oooh, Alice Megan Cunningham..." Kimberly set off after her laughing daughter.

"Quick Alice -- your mom's gaining on you." Eric's observation took Kimberly's attention from her pursuit.

Looking over her shoulder, Kimberly noted that Eric's kata had finished and he was now standing on the pool's edge, not too far away, grinning. Encourage her, will you? It was not much of an effort for her to change direction. Kimberly smiled. Eric looked briefly puzzled.

"No...Kim..."

Too late he started to back away. Using the edge of the pool for leverage, Kimberly surged upwards, half out of the pool, grabbed an outstretched, protesting hand and pulled. Eric had a chance to give a solitary yelp of distress as he went head first into the pool with a loud and inelegant splash.

And my second favourite piece of description. This last scene was designed, again, to be counterpoint to the angst in the previous chapter and the first two thirds of this one, and to the content of the next chapter, which is back to the serious stuff.

More tomorrow.

Comments

[weirdweb.livejournal.com]

I like Ben. Ekat created him for her PRTF series that piggybacks Identity, essentially as someone who can call Eric on his bullshit - the irony is, I think I've used him more than she has!

Hm. I think you may have, too.

The timing of this gets a little screwy - it's very difficult to show things happening at the same time in a story, so sometimes you do end up having things take place one after another that, in practice, are concurrent.

At least, for the moment, you're working with three characters, so it's doable. I've had trouble with setting concurrent scenes in fics where I've been juggling six characters...

And Rach works the title into the story... *cringe*

Meh, not that cringe-worthy. I've done far worse.

Contrary to popular belief, while I am perfectly well aware Cheryl Roberts uses the term 'zoning' in at least one of her stories, I've actually picked the term up from listening to Michael Atherton and Steve Waugh talk about batting in cricket and it's in that sense I'm using it here!

I think there's a term for that - the Collective Fanfic Writer Consciousness. Two writers use the same term or come up with similar ideas completely independently of one another. It happens.