Chapter Six
Sandra Collins stepped into Eve’s home a short time
after the policewoman’s hasty departure with her companions with a tightening
knot of tension in her stomach. She
could tell just by the silence after her people kicked in the door that they
were too late. Eve McCaughley was no fool. She would have guessed the forces
rallied against her and ensured that when Malcolm Industries resumed their hunt
for her and Doctor Stone, this was most likely the place they would begin. As Sandra
left the foyer and followed the small annex emptying into the living room, she
could tell by the disarray that they had not been gone very long.
Unfortunately, where the woman might have fled was another thing entirely.
It appeared that Eve McCaughley and Aaron Stone had
one thing in common; neither had any family to speak of and thus no leads to
where they might seek sanctuary if they were driven from their homes. Sandra
had not paid enough attention to McCaughely to know where the woman might go after
leaving here and someone was already watching Stone’s apartment. Sandra did not think the doctor was foolish
enough to back there anyway. The situation was getting worse by the minute and
she did not relish the notion of returning to Malcolm and informing him that
they had lost both parties.
Sandra moved through the house, studying the
memorabilia from a lifetime beyond that of Officer McCaughley. Sandra had
recalled reading the file on the woman revealing her family’s close association
with the police force. Eve’s father and brother had been police officers; one
had died in the line of duty and the other with grief. Her mother had passed away of cancer or
something of the like when McCaughley was ten and so the young woman was raised
with a predominantly masculine upbringing.
It was obviously a close family, Sandra determined
by the apparent warmth in the photographs on the mantle piece. The house was very much a relic of Eve
McCaughley’s connection to her past. Very little about it had changed according
to the photographs and Sandra had the impression while little parts of it had
been decorated to suit its present owner, McCaughley had left it untouched as a
homage to the family that was now buried in the ground.
“Anything?” Sandra asked as she was approached by
one of Malcolm Industries ‘security’ consultants, a bear of man named Barry who
wore a dark suit and looked like a secret service agent instead of the hired
goon that he was.
“No,” Barry shook his cropped blond head. “If they
were here, they left in a hurry. They cleared out the kitchen, took supplies
with them and left.”
“Supplies?” Sandra gave him a look. “What sort of
supplies?”
“Well the kitchen’s empty,” Barry answered,
remembering what the other members of his team had reported during their search
of the house, “looks like they took food with them. Upstairs closet in the hallway looks like someone went through
it. I think they took blankets and pillows with them.”
“How interesting,” Sandra said contemplatively. “It appears they have gone to ground.”
“What are your instructions?” Barry inquired since
it looked as if they would find nothing here.
“I want to go back to Stone’s apartment,” Sandra
answered as she paused in front of the mantle piece and examined a framed
picture of McCaughley and her brother Darien.
She stared at the picture for a long while before replacing it on the
mantle piece.
“Yes ma’am,” Barry nodded. “I’ll get the others
moving.”
“Not yet,” Sandra stopped him before he moved past
her. “I’ll go to Stone’s apartment. I want you to meet me there after you
finish up here.”
“Finish up?” Barry looked at her with puzzlement.
“There’s nothing to find here. I don’t think McCaughley will be back.”
“I don’t either,” Sandra said icily, “but if she
does, I want her homecoming to be memorable. So burn it down, Barry, burn it all
down.”
************
Eve could not remember the last time she had been
any place as pretty as this.
Being an officer of the
NYPD, it was easy to forget that there was a world beyond homicides and vice,
where there were no ghetto wars, no drive by shootings or liquor store
robberies. Beyond the walls of the
concrete jungle, there was a simpler world and half the time it was a pretty
nice place to be. There was a time before she had followed the family
profession when Eve considered escaping the boundaries of that world to see
what lay beyond it. She had wanted to
travel and experience a little of life’s beauty before she became bound to see
its ugliness from the other side of the badge.
However, it did not come to pass and Eve found herself enrolled at the
Police Academy far sooner than she would have desired.
She regretted none the
choices she had made. Yet as she stood
on the porch of Aaron’s cabin, staring out into the hills where Bear Mountain
held court over the landscape, Eve wondered if she had missed out by never
taking that road to self-discovery. For
so long, her life had been the job and it had become worse since her father had
passed away. Until now, she had not
considered how lonely her life was especially since she was all that was left
of the family she knew as a child.
After Darien and her father
had died within a year of each other, Eve knew that she had become a little
insular. She devoted herself to the job because emotionally, it was less taxing
than caring for people who would only leave you in the due course of time.
Living this way served her well even if it was a subconscious desire and not
any real effort to keep people at a distance.
Unfortunately, it appeared
fate had other plans for her since her life in a space of 48 hours had suddenly
become inundated with new faces. How
she had come to risk everything, her life and her career on a trio of elves, an
insane old man with the propensity to destroy hotel rooms and a psychiatrist
who was apparently had more names than the artist formerly known as (insert
named here).
Not that he was not
intriguing in his own way, Eve mused as she stood on the porch, wrapped in the
old flannel robe she did not have the heart to give to goodwill when her
brother died, staring out in the resplendent beauty of Bear Mountain at dawn,
nursing a steaming coffee.
There was something about
Aaron that was familiar in a way that made her feel warm and predisposed
towards him, though she would need to be at gunpoint before she admitted that
to anyone, least of all him. Eve’s relationships in the past told her that it
was difficult for most men to accept her lifestyle even though the idea of the
uniform and handcuffs was often a point of titillation. However, for most part Eve found that it was
easier to date men in the force because they were the ones who were more
accepting of her manner.
Aaron was not what she
expected of a psychiatrist. Her perception probably had to do with the elitist
superiority they tended to project to those who were not of the
profession. Of course, she was probably
a little biased by the fact that they always seemed to be facilitating the
criminal elements justification of horrific crimes by supporting their pleas of
insanity. Still, she was impressed by
how much Aaron had been willing to suffer for the sake of his patient, the
strange old man called Moses or Gandalf as they know believed.
“Good morning,” she heard
him step out onto the porch with her.
“Morning,” she glanced over
her shoulder briefly before she returned her gaze to the rustic scenery before
her.
“How did you sleep?” Aaron
asked casually as he joined her.
“After the day we had?” She
crooked a brow at him, “like a log.”
“Me too,” he confessed,
following her gaze to the scenery before them.
They had arrived at the
cabin in the small hours of the night. After buying supplies that they had not
be able to scavenge from her house, they had sat on the highway all the way out
of town, painfully aware that they could be followed. Fortunately, it appeared
as if they had made good their escape though neither Eve nor Aaron believed for
a moment that they were safe. With the
resources at Malcolm’s disposal, it was possible that he could still find them,
even here. Although there was nothing
on paper anyway that indicated Aaron Stone frequented this lodge house at the
foot of Bear Mountain, there was no reason to assume that they could remain
hidden indefinitely.
“How long have you been
coming here?” She asked, flicking a strand of dark hair from her face as she
regarded him.
“A couple of years,” Aaron
replied, trying not to look directly at her because now that things were not so
chaotic, he was noticing her far more than he had before. He supposed, it might have something to do
with the fact that even though she was clad in the most unflattering
flannelette robe he had ever seen, she still managed to make it look good.
“It’s a great place,” she
nodded with a little smile. “My grandparents used to have something like this
when I was little. Its nice to have somewhere you can just leave the city
behind you.”
“Yeah,” Aaron agreed,
“Stuart were I going to….”
Aaron paused a moment when
he realised that he and Stuart were never going to do anything
again. It was only a few weeks ago that
they talked about another trip out here. A surge of grief for his old friend
lost came upon him so suddenly that Aaron was scarcely able to breathe. For a moment, just a brief instant of time,
Aaron had forgotten that Stuart was dead.
Remembering the truth hurt and it showed on Aaron’s face.
“Hey,” Eve said reaching for
his hand and held it in hers for a moment. Eve knew what it was like to lose a
loved one and while she could empathize with his pain, she was not about to let
him face it alone, especially when she had every suspicion that he believed
what happened to Stuart was his
fault.
“Its okay to hurt Aaron,”
she gave him a look of sympathy.
“I know,” he swallowed
thickly, trying to restrain the grief he felt over the loss of his best friend.
“I really miss him. He’s always been
there and I haven’t got used to the idea that he’s gone.”
“It takes awhile,” she
offered compassionately. “Losing him the way you did doesn’t make it any easier
either.”
“No it doesn’t” Aaron had to
concede and lifted his gaze to meet hers. Once again, the depths of her eyes
momentarily soothed thoughts of Stuart and Aaron found that being with her made
him feel a little better, “I thought I was supposed to be the shrink?”
“You are,” she looked at him
with the same growing affection, “but we cops know more about dealing with
people dying than you do during sessions.
We live with the possibility every day because it could happen to us or
to someone we know. The best way to
deal with it is to just feel the pain and then move on. We can’t afford to let
it eat us up inside. We let the grief
get out of hand and it will reflect how we do the job.”
“You lose many people in
your life?” Aaron asked quietly, sensing that she spoke from experience.
“My mother when I was little
and after my brother was killed in the line of duty, my father just slipped
away,” Eve replied with more feeling than she intended.
Aaron sensed that as bravely
as she spoke, she was still suffering the lingering effects of such a
devastating loss. “I’m sorry,” he offered.
“They’ve been gone awhile,”
she shrugged. “I miss them but I’m over it.”
Aaron did not believe it but
he was not about to be to contradict her.
“So how long do we stay
here?” He asked, deciding that it was prudent to change the subject and he did
not wish to dwell too much on his pain over Stuart’s death. He may be a psychiatrist but he was not
ready to discuss the full extent of his grief in detail to anyone, not even to
Eve despite how attractive she was. It
was still too fresh. Perhaps when this
was over, he would be ready to talk about it and if Eve was still in his life,
he hoped he could talk to her. For the
moment however, he just wanted to forget.
“I don’t know,” she said honestly.
“Malcolm’s a powerful man, it won’t take long to track us down. We can’t hide forever. The man has resources
we don’t.”
“I’m sorry I got you into
this,” Aaron apologised.
“I think I was on my way
there anyway,” Eve declared. “Running into you just kicked things in to
overdrive. Besides, it’s for the better. You and I both have different pieces
of the same jigsaw.”
“Speaking of your pieces,
where are the other two?” He asked referring to Elladan and Elrohir who were
not in the lodge when he awoke. Legolas
had taken the duty of keeping a vigil on Moses while Aaron caught up on his
sleep.
“Communing with nature I
think,” Eve retorted. “They were just itching to go out into the woods, I think
they’ve had enough of the city.”
“You notice they don’t
sleep,” Aaron remarked.
“Tell me about it,” Eve
rolled her eyes remembering how she had found all three fixated on the
television set the first night they had enjoyed her hospitality. “I don’t think
they sleep the way that we do.”
“How do you know?” He looked
at her.
”Just a feeling,” Eve sighed, not wishing to reveal to him that it was
something she sensed more than anything she could explain.
”I can’t get much out of Legolas,” Aaron retorted, “but he kept watch on Moses
all night so I could get some sleep. He doesn’t even look sleepy.”
“He looks very
attached to you,” Eve pointed out.
“Yeah I noticed that,” Aaron
nodded, recalling Legolas’ initial reaction to him. “I think Legolas and Strider were very close.”
It was not an idle
supposition. Whoever he was to Legolas in the past, it was clear the elf cared
deeply for him. In another life, Aaron
suspected they might have been friends the way he and Stuart had been. Another
disturbing aspect, which Aaron did not reveal to Eve, was his ability to guess
what the elf was thinking even without words.
Aaron would have put it down to his psychiatric training but the truth
was, he just knew how Legolas was going to react about certain things. Legolas
seemed to have the same insight into his personality. Once again, the whole notion of reincarnation left Aaron very
off balance.
“When I was in high school,”
Eve replied, “I had a philosophy class where the teacher claimed that
reincarnation was not just coming back with the same soul but also to the same
people. Your soul finds the people it
knew in the past, maybe that’s why this is happening. Maybe this is some cosmic
turntable and we’re just playing the same record with a different tune.”
Aaron looked at her before
declaring with a smile, “you have too many thoughts.”
Eve laughed, “maybe but I’ve
also decided that if we’re going to play highlights from the fugitive, then I’m
going to have to teach you some new skills.”
Aaron did not like the sound
of this, “new skills?”
Eve smiled at him, “trust me.”
*************
Legolas Greenleaf sat in the
chair watching Mithrandir, unable to imagine that the most powerful Istar he
knew and the Maia servant of Manwe was presently asleep in his bed, resembling
little more than a frail and helpless old man. It was difficult for Legolas to accustom to himself with what he
was seeing now when he remembered the feats the wizard had accomplished in his
long life. Legolas remembered how
Mithrandir had stood against the Balrog in the mines of Moria, how he had rallied
the armies of light in the dark days during the War of the Ring and carried out
countless other deeds of heroism that could not all be named.
That he was here before
Legolas, helpless and forgotten after four centuries with his mind in tatters
was such an affront to the elf that Legolas could barely restrain his
outrage.
Vengeance was not an emotion
elves preferred to harbour. However,
seeing the once great wizard in such terrible condition, a wizard who had not
only done a great service to the peoples of Middle earth and who was also his
friend, compelled Legolas rethink the whole notion of retribution. He wondered
if Aaron understood that any ailment with the power to undo the mind of an
istar was most likely incapable of being cured by human hands. However, it was in Aaron’s nature to try in
much the same way it had been Aragorn’s.
For so long Legolas had
feared he was the last of the Fellowship.
He had mired himself in grief at the loss of the mortal companions who
meant so much to him, not just Melia. Of all those who had passed into the next
life, it was Aragorn that Legolas missed the most, perhaps even more than Gimli
who had been his constant companion until the dwarf’s passing. Valinor ensured
a mortal’s life was long and without disease, it did not prolong it. When Mithrandir had been lost four centuries
ago, Legolas had refused to believe that he could be dead. He did not want to be the last of the nine walkers.
The tragedy of being
immortal was the continuous death of loved ones.
His fear of this had driven
him to embark upon this quest although not in a million years did he conceive
that he would find what he had. Not only was Mithrandir alive but so was
Aragorn and Arwen. True, the duo had
little memory of the people they had been but Legolas recognised them as surely
as he had recognised Ariel wearing Melia’s soul the firs time had laid eyes
upon the elf maid. Everything about
Aaron was Aragorn. The way he looked,
the stubborn desire to help no matter what the consequences to himself and even
the same self-depreciating manner. Even though the inability to converse could
not convey what danger they were faced with, Legolas could tell that it had
everything to do with Mithrandir and Aaron was determined to protect him.
This was the Aragorn that Legolas knew and as if the last one hundred thousand
years had simply melted away, Legolas was committed to stand by his side while
he did just that.
The elf’s ruminations were
interrupted when he heard a slight moan and looked up to see Mithrandir
stirring in his bed. Legolas remained
in his chair, sitting quietly as the old man came out of his slumber. He remembered what effect saying his name
had upon Mithrandir and resolved himself not to speak the Istar’s name. Legolas had seen first hand what the wizard
was capable of when his control of his powers were unleashed.
“Good morning old friend,”
Legolas spoke in elvish, recalling Mithrandir had understood him when they last
spoke.
“You are still here,” Moses
muttered as he looked at Legolas through heavy eyelids. “I thought I had
dreamed you.”
“I am here,” Legolas
replied. “I have come a long way to find you.”
“From where?” Moses asked
with a little more animation in his speech.
“It is not important that
you know,” Legolas declared, deciding that he should not confront Mithrandir
with too many facts about his past. In his fragile state of mind, the
consequences could be another dangerous outburst of power. “Only that I have come to take you home.”
Moses sat up in his bed, “I
have been lost for a very long time haven’t I?”
“Yes,” Legolas nodded
sombrely. “We feared you were dead. I would not believe it until I saw your
body for myself.”
“How is that I can
understand you?” Moses retorted, his heavy grey bows raising slightly as he
waited for an answer.
Legolas smiled faintly, “you
know a number of languages. Elvish is
but one the many tongues you speak.”
“Oh,” Moses looked confused
because he remembered none of it. “I find it disconcerting that there is
nothing about you that strikes me as odd even though you are as you say,
elvish.”
“You are accustomed to being
around many races,” Legolas offered helpfully.
“There was a time when that was all you did, travelling around meeting
new people.”
“Wonderful,” Moses rumbled.
“I was always a vagrant.”
“Not quite,” Legolas laughed
and paused when he heard footsteps approaching the room and knew that it was
Aaron and Eve. Unfortunately, Aaron did
not possess the stealth or the ability that Aragorn possessed to go about
unnoticed. A moment later, the door
swung open and Aaron stepped through the doorway first, his eyes fixed upon
Mithrandir before resting on Legolas.
“You’re awake Moses,” Aaron
declared with genuine relief. “How are you feeling?”
“A good deal better though I
have an elf in my room and I am able to speak his language,” Moses replied.
“So you can
understand him?” Eve asked, gazing at Legolas.
“Apparently so,” Moses
shrugged, too weary to question why.
“Ask him why Aaron has so
many names,” she quipped and secured a look from Aaron in quick succession.
“Moses, can you ask him who
he thinks I am?” Aaron asked, turning back to Legolas.
“I can,” Moses nodded and
turn to Legolas, relating the question and in turn receiving an answer. The old man rose both brows as the elf gave
him a response for Aaron and his reaction made Aragorn nervous.
“He says,” Moses replied
after a pause, “that you were once Aragorn Elessar, King of Gondor, ruler of
House Telecontari, formerly a Ranger named Strider, also the Dunedain and for a
time known in Rohan as Thorongil – the Eagle of the Star.”
“Jesus,” Eve looked at Aaron
in astonishment.
“And you were his wife,”
Moses concluded with a little smile.
“What?” Eve exclaimed and
stared at Aaron whose initial shock was now giving way to a wide smirk across
his face.
“You were Queen Arwen
Evenstar or as it was pronounced in elvish, Undomiel,” Moses replied.
“Did you say wife?” Eve
stammered, feeling a hot flush of embarrassment racing to her cheeks.
“He said wife,” Aaron
replied with grin.
“Get that smile off your
face,” Eve snapped, disliking the notion that cosmic turntable meant that she
was karmically predisposed to falling for this man.
“Its fate,” he continued to
smile, his hand lowering onto her shoulder and succeeded in getting himself
elbowed in the stomach.
Legolas seemed to chuckle
and spoke to Moses further.
“He says that you have not
changed much Aaron,” Moses remarked with a little smile.
At that remark, Aaron
regarded the elf and spoke to Moses, “how do we know each other?”
Moses relayed the question
and was afforded an answer in good time.
Legolas seemed to stare at Aaron and awaited his reaction as Moses
responded.
“He says that he knew you
for most of your life, that you were friends through many great
adventures. You have saved his life
many times and he has saved yours. When
the elves were leaving this world, you were the reason he remained behind for
as long as he did. When you passed into death, he could no longer bear to watch
any more friends die, that is when he left. You were closer than brothers and
more than friends.”
Aaron could feel it as the
elf stared at him. He could feel the
kinship that Legolas felt for him and wished he could remember something of the
friendship the elf placed so much value upon.
However, it did not matter if the memory did not remain, the emotions
this elf engendered in him were not unlike the feelings he had for Stuart.
“Why did he come here?”
Aaron asked after a moment, breaking away from Legolas’ gaze.
“I believe he came looking
for me,” Moses replied, seeing no need to ask Legolas that question when he
already knew the answer. “I appear to
have been lost for quite some time.”
“Ask him if he knows why you
came here,” Aaron inquired further, not wishing to tax Moses too much by making
him act as translator. However, there were certain things that they needed to
know and Moses was possibly the only person alive who could understand what
Legolas was saying.
Moses turned towards Legolas
and related the question. The elf met
Aaron’s eyes and showed his trepidation at answering the question but Aaron
nodded at him to continue because they needed to know something about what
happened to Moses. Unfortunately, they needed to tread cautiously as well
because Moses’ mind was still in a fragile state. Aaron did not wish to spark another violent episode by
inadvertently causing man to delve too deeply into his identity. Legolas spoke shortly and Aaron saw Moses
reacting slightly but not enough to cause him concern.
“I was sent to find the
cause of the darkness,” Moses replied, staring uncertainly at Legolas as he
translated the words. “They felt it from across the world, it penetrated the
realms that separate the realm of elves.”
“And this evil is somehow
John Malcolm?” Eve looked at Aaron sceptically. She could believe that the man
had too much power but she had been a cop too long to accept that there could
be evil in the world. Eve saw evil as a
state of mind, not as a living, breathing entity. To think that real evil could exist, the kind so prolifically
detailed in many religious texts made Eve’s skin crawl.
“Yes,” Moses nodded without
even having to translate that question for Legolas. “It is Malcolm.”
Legolas reacted to Malcolm’s
name and began speaking quickly as if he had an opinion in the matter. Moses absorbed what he said with growing
apprehension and Aaron was about to put a stop to it when the old man began
speaking again.
“He wants to know if we are
speaking of a creature called Melkor?”
“Malcolm?” Aaron guessed,
understanding why Legolas had brought it up earlier. Malcolm and Melkor, there were similarities in the sound of the
name. Was it because they were one and the same? “It’s possible. Who is Melkor?”
“He was called the Dark
Enemy,” Moses started speaking and Aaron had the feeling that his words were
not from Legolas’ translation. “In his
time, he laid waste to much of the world, long before all this was even
conceived in the minds of men. The
powers that sent me here banished him to the void and there he was thought to
have been, until now.” Moses concluded raising his eyes to meet Aaron’s. “He is
Malcolm,” Moses said softly. “I know it.”
“And now he wants to kill
you because you know his secret,” Aaron surmised.
“No Aaron,” Eve said gravely,
“he wants to kill all of us because now we know.”
Aaron met her gaze and
remembered the chase that had led to them being here, “you’re right.”
“I think that its time you
learn those new skills I was talking about,” she replied staring at Aaron and then
at Legolas as well. “The both of you.”
************
Aaron looked dubiously at
the gun in his hand and decided that nothing in his world had gone as
completely mad as his agreeing to pick up the weapon. Unfortunately, despite his natural dislike for handling guns of
any kind, he had begrudgingly admit that he could not rely on Eve to protect
him as she had done when she saved his life in the parking lot of the Malcolm
Building. As she pointed out and rather
determinedly, there were dangerous people after them and he needed to be able
to protect himself in her absence. While Aaron did not like the notion of
anything happening to Eve, he had to admit that the possibility existed that
harm might befall her in the course of this situation they found themselves
in.
“I don’t think this is a
good idea,” Aaron replied as he looked at the gun she was showing him how to
load.
“Don’t be such a baby,” Eve
retorted as she slid the magazine into place. “Now this is a 9 millimetre Barretta, the sidearm of choice for most
police officers and military personnel. It has 22 rounds and is what you call a
double action semi-automatic weapon.”
“As in twenty
two bullets?” He looked at her.
“You have a
lodge in the woods and you don’t know how to use a gun?” She stared at him.
“Didn’t you even go hunting?”
“I don’t like
guns,” he repeated himself. “If I want meat, that’s what the supermarket is
for.”
“Look,” she
sucked in a deep breath, indicating that she was starting to get annoyed. “I
don’t much like the idea of giving civilians guns either. Personally, the
deconstruction of society is the readiness to solve our problems with one of
these but the men who are after us, don’t have that moral objection and will
shoot us or worse if you do not know how to protect yourself.”
“Alright,” Aaron
frowned and saw a similar look of displeasure on the faces of Legolas, Elladan
and Elrohir, who had returned from their explorations to be drafted into this
unpleasant exercise. “What do I have to do?”
“Now this thing
is loaded,” she replied, carefully the weapon to him, butt first. “Keep your
finger off the trigger unless you’re ready to fire. You’ve seen how I took the
safety off. When you don’t plan on using it, make sure the safety is on all the
time.”
Aaron took the
weapon in his hand, disliking the feel of the cold steel against his skin. He had been in the emergency room enough
times to know just how much damage these weapons could inflict upon a person. He had never desired to use one himself but
Eve was correct, he had to learn.
”Do I just point and shoot?” He looked at her.
“Something like
that,” Eve shook her head, realising she had an uphill battle.
Aaron swallowed
and stared at the target in front of him that was in actuality a number of
bottles spaced out across a wooden face.
The elves were staring at him in sympathy for it appeared they had no
wish to use the weapon themselves. Of course, Aaron kept silent the fact that
they were in no position to take the moral high ground because their arsenal
included archery weapons and swords that was almost as deadly as a gun, if not
more.
“Just line up
the target with the sight,” Eve instructed, having given him preliminaries
before they reached this point.
Aaron held the
weapon the way Eve had told him and took aim.
He thought briefly that the Pepsi Cola bottle had done nothing to
deserve a bullet and told himself he was starting to sound like Hawkeye Pierce
from MASH. Taking a deep breath, he squeezed the trigger gently, bracing
himself for the noise that would followed.
To the elves,
the shot fired was like hearing the sudden crack of thunder. Legolas, Elladan and Elrohir reacted at once
as the noise tore through their ears.
All three jumped up startled by the thunderous explosion of sound and
reached instinctively for their ears.
However, the shock of the weapon’s loud bang was nothing in comparison
to the effect the projectile ejected from the barrel, had upon the target. The plastic bottle flew through the air,
spinning like a wheel before it landed on the ground smoking, its body split
open.
“Elbereth!”
Elladan exclaimed in astonishment as they saw for the first time, what those
weapons were capable of. “I am glad we
were not on the receiving end of that.”
“We almost
were,” Elrohir reminded, recalling how they had engaged the two thieves that
had accosted the shop where they had bought a meal during their first night in
this strange land.
“Its range is
considerable,” Legolas commented, paying attention the technical aspects of it
rather than the weapon’s awesome abilities.
“It travels almost as far as an arrow.”
“With greater
speed,” Elrohir reminded. “You cannot chart its progress with the naked eye.”
“I suppose,”
Legolas shrugged, unwilling to admit his bow was a less superior weapon. “I
wonder what that small projectile would do once inside the body.”
“Judging by
Aaron’s reluctance to use it, I would say the damage would be considerable,”
Elladan pointed out.
***********
“Hey I got it!” Aaron said with more enthusiasm than he thought possible. He was certain that his novice handling of the gun would prevent him from getting a bullet even close to the target; however, his effort was far from disappointing.
“Yeah,” Eve
stared at him a moment, rather surprised that he made the shot so well. Must be
beginner’s luck, she thought silently. “Try another one,” she prompted.
“Okay,” Aaron
cocked the weapon again, this time greatly encouraged by his success. “Here’s
goes.”
The weapon fired
again and this time with a less dramatic reaction from the elves although they
still held their ears in reaction to the loud bang that followed the pulling of
the trigger. The second target this
time, was a can of Doctor Pepper and bounced off the fence swiftly and landed
in the grass nearby.
“Again,” Eve
ordered, just to see if the doctor could maintain his aim now that he had some
momentum.
Aaron readjusted
his aim and fired, following her prompt before each pull of the trigger. The air was alive with the sound of
gunfire. Wildlife residing in trees
close by took flight, their beating wings a distant sound as they soared across
the sky away from the commotion. After
a time, Aaron was not even pausing to taking aim. It was frightening how easy
it was for him to be accustomed to handling the gun. Aaron did not know how many rounds he had squeezed off before
there were no more targets to shoot but the weapon no longer felt so alien to
him any more.
Aaron was
undecided if this was a good thing or not.
“You can have it
back now,” Aaron replied returning the Barretta to her.
Eve saw the
uneven trail of bottles lying across the ground, ruined completely by the
marksmanship of the doctor and wondered if he was hustling her. She supposed it could be beginner’s luck but
more accurately, he had a good eye for targeting. It was probably a skill his educated background had never
exploited before now and it was clear that he was just as surprised by how well
he did, as she was.
“You sure you
haven’t fired a gun before?” Eve asked as Aaron sat down next to Legolas.
“No,” he
shrugged uncomfortably. “I don’t like guns. I’m a doctor; I’ve seen first hand
what they can do but I did do okay?”
“Yeah you
weren’t bad,” Eve retorted, preparing to stack some old bottles she had found
on the fence to resume their target practice.
“For a
beginner,” she added.
“A beginner?”
Aaron exclaimed rather offended by her assessment of his skill. “I shot every
one of those things. Those cans and
bottles will never threaten anyone again.”
“True,” she
looked over her shoulder with a smirk. “If we’re at a seven eleven, we’ll be
completely protected.”
“Very funny,” he
retorted, unaware that three sets of eyes were watching them closely with
rising amusement.
***********
“Reincarnated or not, they are still the same,” Elladan remarked with a smile as he watched the playful banter between Eve and Aaron. While they understood nothing that was being said, the body language between the two was clear enough for even a blind man to interpret.
“They are destined for each other,” Elrohir agreed, remembering how it had been in the early days of Aragorn and Arwen’s great love for each other. It had amused the brothers to no end to watch their youthful friend yearn for their seemingly unattainable sister.
For an elf, Arwen had taken long time to choose someone worthy of her affections. Elves usually married in the first century of their lives, those who remained unmarried for so long, usually did not do so at all. Since the Eldar found the concept of arranged marriages offensive, the twins as well as their father, assumed that Arwen would find love in her own good time. There were occasions when they thought that it might be Legolas who would win the Evenstar’s hand. After all, she had remained at Lothlorien long enough to sometimes cross paths with the Prince of Mirkwood during visits between Celeborn and Thranduil’s kingdom. However, their relationship had never progressed beyond its platonic boundaries and was more akin to sibling affection than romantic love.
When she did chose, it was beyond anyone’s comprehension that she would pick a human. Aragorn had come to mean a great deal to House of Elrond, not simply because he was the son of Arathorn, but also because he was raised by the Lord of Imlardis in the years after his father’s death. There were many that compared the love of Arwen and Aragorn to that of Beren and Luthien. It was meant to be magnificent and beautiful; an expression of love that would ultimately culminate in tragedy but not even her family suspected that Arwen was willing to die a mortal death for Isildur’s heir.
It broke their hearts to know that she would not sail across the sea to Valinor but her love for her king was blinding and had a tendency to inspire even the most jaded soul to feel something of it. In the end they understood her choice but Elrond never recovered losing his precious daughter. Even in the years following their departure from Middle earth, Elrond and Celebrian mourned their missing child. More than anything Elrohir wished their father could be here now because knowing that the Evenstar was reborn, even if it was in human flesh would have been a source of great joy.
“It will be difficult for me to leave,” Legolas suddenly stated.
Elladan turned to him sharply, “you cannot stay here Legolas.”
Legolas did not answer and that made Elladan even more nervous. Elladan knew how deep Legolas’ friendship with Aragorn had been. He was the last elf to leave Middle earth because of this friendship and his loyalty to the king of Gondor.
“Legolas, this is an entirely different world than the one we left,” Elladan stared at the elf, perfectly aware how determined Legolas could be when the mood took him, “you cannot remain.”
“I know,” Legolas agreed begrudgingly. “It is just that I have always found it difficult to say goodbye to him.”
“He is not the Aragorn you knew Legolas,” Elrohir said gently, “he is a hundred thousand years away from the Elfstone.”
“Yes,” Legolas replied, “but it is still good to see him.”
“I cannot disagree with you there,” Elladan confessed as he stared at the woman who was once his sister and the man who was once his friend, “I will miss them when it is time to leave.”
************
Eve managed to convince the elves to try their hand at shooting the Barretta but soon came to the conclusion that while Legolas showed some ability, none of them were at all comfortable with firing a gun. In away she understood the reasoning since it was rather profane trying to imagine an elf carrying a 9 millimetre handgun. Instead, Elladan seemed determined that Aaron should learn how to use a sword, as he was supposedly very good at it once. Unfortunately, he did not pick up swordsmanship as quickly as he was able to shoot and Eve was very amused by Aaron’s attempts to play Errol Flynn. It was strange how fast the bond between the four men had developed, even though they could barely form the words to express themselves to each other.
Instead of progressing with another hypnosis session now that they were in more remote surroundings, Aaron had decided to allow Moses the opportunity to recover from his previous session and the violent episode the day after. Although Moses seemed less uncomfortable around the elves, the doctor still worried for the patient’s well being, particularly in light of what they were discovering about himself and about John Malcolm. Eve could not blame Aaron wanting to allow Moses a little recovery time. After seeing what he was capable of, she was not overly anxious to see the psychiatrist delving into the old man’s mind again when it was capable of manifesting itself in a physical attack.
Eve sat on the porch steps staring at the moon in the sky above the mountain. The quiet was allowing her to shift through her own thoughts regarding this situation, particularly the feelings she had around Aaron. A part of her was fighting her attraction to him and as much as she disliked it, she could not deny that she was attracted to him. Eve liked to think that she was in control of her own destiny that her life unfolded, as she willed not according to the whims of fate. The old man said that they were husband and wife in that distant life and Eve remembered her vision and how it had felt that one vital element was missing when she had been bombarded by those strange images.
She heard the creak of the door and knew instinctively that it would be Aaron behind her. While she fought the growing feelings for him, Eve’s own intuition was capable of telling her that Aaron cared for her almost as deeply. However, he did not seem to have any trouble with the notion that they were destined for each other. It was strange how men could sometimes be more romantic than women about such things.
“If you rather be alone, I’ll leave,” Aaron offered when Eve looked over her shoulder to see him emerging from the lodge with two mugs of steaming hot chocolate.
“Some psychiatrist,” Eve snorted, “don’t you know you’re not suppose to approach a woman with chocolate unless you mean to give to her?”
Aaron chuckled, “sorry I slept that day in class,” he replied handing the mug.
“You put marshmallow in it,” she noted with a raised brow.
“Well I didn’t say I was completely ignorant,” he grinned sitting down next to her on the step.
“Thanks,” she smiled at him as she nursed the warm cup in her hands.
“What are you doing out here?” Aaron asked, although he could venture a guess. She was a strong woman accustomed to being in control of her situation, however the events of late were enough to shake the foundations of even the most centred person and he could see that she was struggling to cope with everything that they had recently learnt about the world and each other.
“Just taking a breather,” she replied, “its not every day I teach a bunch of elves and a psychiatrist to shoot a gun.”
Aaron could sense it was more than that. He was certain her need for adjustment had to do more with learning that in their previous lives, they were husband and wife. As much amusement Aaron had drawn out of the revelation at the time, he was just as overwhelmed as she was about the whole notion. It was telling that neither of them had asked Moses or Legolas to relate the details of that past relationship. Aaron knew he was attracted to Eve but he did not know that he could love her. This news of their love in the past made it difficult to admit any feelings for each other in the present. If something was to happen between them, Aaron wished it to occur naturally, not because either of them believed it was some preordained destiny that they were meant to be.
“Want to talk about it?” He asked with genuine concern.
“Is that a professional inquiry?” Eve met his gaze with a hint of sarcasm in her voice.
“Well I can go find a couch if you like but I was just asking as a friend,” Aaron retorted.
“Okay,” Eve replied a little admonished by her acerbic behaviour, “I’ll withdraw to the 39th parallel. I’m sorry, I am just a feeling a little displaced at the moment.”
“I understand,” Aaron said in turn, making the statement as more than just a psychiatrist but as someone who was just as overwhelmed as she by all the things that had happened to them in the last two days. “I learn to shoot a gun today. Do you know how far away that is from what I am?”
“You learnt quickly,” she replied encouragingly, aware of how difficult it was for him to set aside his natural aversion to using weapons of any kind. “And you don’t have to use it just because you know how.”
It was one of the qualities about Aaron that Eve liked, the fact that he did not wish to hurt anyone really. In the police force, it was ultimate blunt force that got things done, even more than talking and Eve wished it were different. Since the destruction of the World Trade Centre, the notion of talking first and acting later had been forgotten in the post traumatic grief shared by the police and other law enforcement agencies. There was this underlying belief among all of them that they had failed the community when they were unable to prevent the tragedy.
“I know,” he said confidently, “just like I know we’ll get through this. You know why?”
“Why?” She asked smiling, encouraged by his confidence.
“Because I’m a brilliant psychiatrist and you got more guns in the trunk of yours than the men of Desert Storm,” he grinned.
Eve laughed and did not resist when she felt his arm drape over her shoulder in gesture of affection. It was meant to be purely innocent but the touch of him was electric and suddenly Eve found herself thinking how nice it was to feel him so close to her. She felt the shudder ripple slightly through him as if he had felt it just as potently as her. Eve raised her eyes to Aaron’s and saw the cocky expression on his face had given away to a more intense emotion.
She did not pull away when he lowered his lips to her, did not resist as he kissed her tentatively at first. Eve closed her eyes and felt her mouth opening beneath his, entering the strange limbo that existed between men and women when that first intimate hurdle had been breached. The pause when either were undecided upon whether or not this was where they wanted the relationship to go or was it possible to pull back and salvage what was by sacrificing what might be.
All that was washed away when Aaron reacted to the consent given by her parting lips by kissing her more intently. She tasted far sweeter than anything ever had in his life and he wanted to savour every bit of her. His kiss was exploratory for he was so lost in the scent and taste of her that he wanted to relish every moment of the experience. Anything more passionate could come later when they were both ready for it and the psychiatrist in the back of his mind, seemed to believe they were not. Instead, Aaron basked in the texture of her lips, the soft sigh in the back of her throat as she surrendered a little of herself to him and the slight hint of perfume that would brand itself into his mind as her scent.
She tasted like marshmallows, he thought absurdly.
Eve was afraid of becoming a slave to fate but it was hard to think when the touch of him was so dizzying. She was not the kind of female that fell easily under the spell of a man. In fact, the last six months of dates had been wholly unimpressive and even then, the intimacy had been more than this simple kiss. However, as she felt his lips tasting her as if she were something wonderful, Eve could not help but delight in how he was making her feel. Her pulse was quickening as she allowed him to explore her mouth, taking in everything that he was in a single breath of air.
When they pulled away from each other, there was no embarrassment or regret, just the warmth of knowing that they could feel deeply for each other and a willingness to let those emotions take them where it may, without the notions of destiny or any past connection. Eve rested her head against his shoulder while they took in the beauty of the night, neither said little and were perfectly contented with their unspoken understanding with Aaron deciding that cosmic turntables were not such bad things after all.
*************
It was a hope borne out of desperation that forced Sandra Collins to return to Aaron Stone’s apartment again.
They had left McCaughley’s house a flaming pyre of ash when they were finished with it and Sandra was feeling just enough vitriol to issue the same order for the doctor’s abode. So far, there had been no indication where the duo would have escaped to with the patient. Mr Malcolm was becoming more irate at the growing escalation of the problem. Sandra had no desire to face his wrath if his desire for a speedy resolution to this situation was not met soon. Unfortunately, Sandra was limited by how much interest she was able to show in the doctor’s disappearance. As it was, uncomfortable questions were being raised about why the respected head of psychiatric at major city hospital had stolen a patient and fled his home.
She came to his apartment, hoping to find something and found it almost as
useful as McCaughley’s late home. Barry
and his men were ransacking the place, trying to find some clue as to where the
doctor might have gone and Sandra was starting to consider that there might be
nothing here to find. As she walked
through the doctor’s study while the rest of the apartment was alive with the
sound of drawers and cupboards doors being pulled open, Sandra scanned the room
for anything useful. She had almost given up when something caught her eye at
the corner of the desk.
“Barry!” She called out sharply.
Within seconds, the tall man was at her side, puzzlement on his face. “Yes ma’am?”
Sandra did not answer immediately. Her gaze was too affixed upon a framed picture of Aaron Stone and the late Stuart Farmer standing in what appeared to be the country, proudly displaying their fishing rods, with the outline of a mountain in the backdrop.
She looked at him after a moment and ordered, “find out where this is.”