Is You Or Is You Ain't My Baby?

Beth:  Is this your office?

Sam:  Hole in the wall.

Beth:  Beats cube city.  Where are you staying?

Sam:  Never mind where I'm staying.  Ask me where we're going.

Beth:  Okay, I'll bite.  Where are we going?

Sam:  North.  Cruise got cut short and I never have enough time alone with
you.  Place in the woods.  

Beth:  Um...where in the woods?

Sam:  North Shore.  Fellow down in District Court has a cottage north of 
Lutsen he's gonna let up borrow.  Up on a hill with a view of the lake...
not a soul within miles...kind of a beach to walk on...

Beth:  It sounds wonderful...why are you packing that laptop?

Sam:  Baby...okay, you're right.  You deserve a straight answer.  I want
Strannix to relax, get lazy, maybe let his guard down a little.  One way
to do that is to lie low.

Beth:  He NEVER relaxes, I oughta know!  So I'm a means to an end, then!  
Bait?

Sam stepped around his desk, enveloped Beth in his arms and dropped
his nose into her soft, dark hair.

Sam:  Shut up, my heart, you know better.  I wouldn't be doing any of this
if it weren't for you.  I'd be pounding around as usual and driving every-
body shit out of their minds.  I haven't been this relaxed on a case, or in
my life, ever.  You're teaching me a little finesse...and I need a seminar.

Cosmo gawped through Sam's office door.  He'd seen the Big Dog with 
women, even introduced him to a few...but he'd never seen the man trying
to put a female into his pocket.  Sam didn't take his attention from the 
lady once.

Sam:  Go do some work, Renfro.  Earn the taxpayers money.

Cosmo:  We've got a hit on Strannix, Sam.  He's movin' south again.

Sam:  Sure?

Cosmo:  How many black Expeditions with Texas vanity plates that say
"BSBUGGY" d'you s'pose there are?

Sam:  One's enough.  Thank the THP, willya, and tell 'em to keep us advised.

Beth:  You're watching him?

Sam:  Simple observation, girl.  We've got it out on all the vehicles he's
likely to use.  We spotted Deb's Escort in Detroit...but it isn't hers 
anymore.

Beth:  She never sold it.  She wants to know where it is.

Sam:  Signature on the title transfer looks like hers.  Probably Gaerity's
woman.

Beth:  Jade?  Get outa here!  Jade, no way!  She's an artist!

Sam:  And a forger.  And a courier.  And the operator of a safe-house...

Beth:  Migod...little Jade.  The things we do for love.

Sam:  Wan't that a song?  Seems to me I remember something like that on the
radio about the time I was getting divorced.  I used to sit in the bar
sloppin' up beers and wondering why I didn't feel more upset.

Beth:  The album was called Deceptive Bends, I think.  Something by 10cc.

Sam:  I know this much...if I lost you, angel, I wouldn't have the energy
to drink.  It would take everything I had just to get through the days.
I'd be dead and looking for a spot to lie down in.

Beth lifted her face to Sam's, and Cosmo got a quick look at Gerard's
passionate side before the steel door slammed two inches from his nose.

As soon as the truck stopped, I was out the tailgate and hightailing it
for the truckers restaurant, looking for Ryan.  I didn't want to deal with
Billy just then.  I heard the boots clocking along behind me and increased
my speed, ignoring them.  I was able to do that right up until Billy caught
up with me and grabbed my arm in a punishing grip, spinning me around.

Billy:  Don't you walk away from me.

Deb:  Don't you yank my arm.

I wrenched myself away and, despite some pretty specific instructions,
strode away from Billy a second time.  I found Ryan sitting at the lunch
counter with a plate of food that might have been a cross between scrambled
eggs and haggis.  It looked horrendous.  He was glaring into a cup of tea.

Deb:  Ryan?

Ryan:  When will you Yanks learn to drink proper tea?  When will you learn
to make proper beer?  When will you learn to eat proper goddam food?

Deb:  When our tastebuds are atrophied like yours, that's when.

Ryan:  Bring the lady a cup of coffee.  Hungry, lass?

Deb:  I couldn't...

Ryan:  And she'll have a plate of those flagstones you call flapjacks.
Where's Billy?

Deb:  Outside looking for a small animal to torture or a midget to beat up.
We had words, and I've been managing not to revert to 'yes, Billy' mode,
so he's mad.

Ryan:  He mentioned you weren't too happy to be making this trip again.

Deb:  Billy has a talent for understatement.  I'm just glad I'm not on that
boat.  I can stare at Bully in the rigging all damn day long, but one trip
through the Panama Canal is enough for this kid.  Wonderful experience,
but too hot by half for this old bat.

Billy slung himself into the seat beside me, spun me to face him, and we
went nose to nose.

Billy:  That candy-ass lays a hand on you, he's a dead man.

Deb:  Bite me.

I moved to a seat on the other side of Ryan, putting the Irishman
between Billy and I and myself between the Setter and a trucker who might've
given Billy something to think about.  My flapjacks came, and Billy ordered
steak and hard fried eggs - was there anything about the man not hard?
Ryan continued to plow through his food, Billy went to work on the slab of
cow he'd been served, and I sliced my pancakes up into neat geometric
shapes without eating a one of them.  I leaned to murmur in Ryan's ear.

Deb:  Ryan, could I ride with you?  Just to wherever we stop for the night?

Ryan:  Of course, lass.

Billy:  What'n hell are you two mutterin' about?

Deb:  Your table manners.

Billy:  You lookin' for trouble?

Deb:  Found all I can handle, thanks.

Billy:  You gonna eat those?

I practically threw the soggy pancakes at Billy.

It had been a beastly long ride, but they'd finally found the cabin by the
big lake.  It had been too late when they got there to do much more than
go straight to bed, but Sam had made that a rewarding experience.  They had
thrown the windows open to the sound of insects, birds, wind and water.
With Sam's help, Beth had added her voice to the nocturnal music.  They
had slept late, shared a leisurely shower that had led them back to bed,
and finally made it out to the rocky shoreline about four.

Beth:  I've never seen a lake that big.

Sam:  This one's just shy of an inland sea.  Here, sweetie, you're 
shivering.  Put this on.

Beth:  But...

Sam:  Hush, put this on.

Sam draped the jacket he wore when on a work detail around her shoulders.
Stenciled with his branch and district of government employment, it wasn't
exactly an article of clothing to inspire romantic feelings.  But Beth
thought his offering it was the most romantic and gallant of all the
romantic and gallant things Sam had done in their relationship thus far.
The jacket was miles too big for her, but it had that evocative scent of
fine cologne and good cigars that was Sam, and she wrapped herself in it.
Standing behind her, Sam wrapped his arms around her shoulders and pulled
her back against him.  They stood in loving, quiet companionship, listening
to the wind in the trees and the lake lapping steadily against the shore
line - not as dramatic as an ocean but oh, so soothing.  She knew his cheek
rested against her hair and she felt the rise and fall of his chest as he
drew each quiet breath.  She knew, instinctively, that she was in the arms
of a man who would die for her if need be.

Sam:  Beth...marry me.

Beth:  What?  Sam?  Are you serious?

Sam:  Marry me.  Not with a preacher or a piece of paper, none of that shit.
Marry me in your mind and in your heart...where it counts.  Then it won't
matter how far apart we are, we'll belong to each other.

Beth:  Oh, Sam...honey...I already did that.

So they stood.  After a time, Beth forgot where Sam left off and she
began.  It was the most perfect moment she could remember, ever, in her
life.

Ryan and I hurried out of the restaurant once Billy had gone to the men's
room.  I knew I would have trouble getting to the Suburban otherwise.  
Ryan paid the check and we started across the parking lot.

Ryan:  You two quarrellin', lass?

Deb:  I guess so.  You know how I feel about Billy.

Ryan:  If you'll pardon a cliche, lass, it's plain as the nose on your face.
Why?

Deb:  That's not a state I fall into easily, Ryan...and I think this is the
big one.  I really do, I think Billy's the one.  And he's laughing at me.

Ryan:  Aw, Darlin', no...maybe he just doesn't know how to act.

Ryan unlocked the Suburban and I climbed in.  The door was yanked open
again as soon as I got it closed - I must have been so immersed in my own
miseries that I hadn't heard the boots.  I was dragged out of the truck 
and though I struggled mightily to get loose, I was held firmly.

Billy:  Get a move on, Ryan.  We'll catch up.

Ryan:  Be gentle, lad.

Billy:  She's the one has to worry about that.  G'wan, split.  Haul ass.

Ryan drove out of the lot, pulled onto the freeway.  Billy continued to
hold me tight against his chest.  I started fussing again but, if nothing 
else, Billy's grip tightened to painful levels.  I beat on his shoulders,
all very theatric, but utterly useless.

Deb:  Turn me loose, damn you.

Billy:  Hold still.

Deb:  Let me go.  I give you the only thing I have of any value and you
laugh at me.

Billy:  Look at me.

Deb:  What for, so you can bust up in my face?

Billy:  Look at me...shut the goddam hell up and LOOK.

He kept shaking me until I raised my eyes to his face.

Billy:  Do I look like I'm laughin'?

Deb:  No.  Not now, anyway.

Billy:  I didn't ask for this shit, girl.  It's gonna be nothin' but a big
fat pain in the ass...but now I got it, don't you try and take it away from
me.

Deb:  Is this what I think it is?

To think that I knew I had his gorgeous body and probably as much of his
mind as he was bound to surrender...and on top of it I might actually have
what I really wanted, Billy's wayward heart...was frightening and humbling 
and exhilerating all at the same time.  I relaxed completely in his strong
arms, put my own around his shoulders.

Billy:  Maybe.  Depends.

Deb:  On what?  Me?  I'll be the eye of your storm, Billy.  If you ever want
five minutes of quiet, you'll know where to find it.  I'll be anything you
want, anything you need.

Billy;  Just be, baby.  And be with me.  It'll be enough for me.  Will it
be enough for you?

Deb:  I've got a surprise for you, Billy.  You've always been enough for
me...but all of you, not just part of you.  I want as much of you as you're
willing to give.  And that'll be enough.

TO BE CONTINUED...