A Hero's Reward (7 page)

“Just over the state line, in a
small town called Turnsville.”

Greg smiled, “That's actually
good. Since he refuses to turn Jack back over to you and lives across
the state line from where Jack is supposed to live, we might be able
to get the feds involved. If it's considered kidnapping by not
returning him, then it's a federal offense. A visit from a couple of
FBI agents might change Freddy's mind for him, don't you think?”

“I couldn't do that to him.”

“I can. What's his address? I'll
have to make sure that it qualifies as a federal offense but I'm
guessing that they can dig up something and if this church is as out
there as you say, they're probably already keeping an eye on it. My
boss knows a guy in the FBI office, I can probably get him to hook me
up as a favor.”

He could see her considering it for a
moment, a very short moment:

“1818 Wagon Wheel Rd.”

“Let me make a couple of phone
calls, okay? My boss probably wasn't working today anyhow because of
the weather.”

Greg spent the next half hour on the
phone. First he was talking to his boss and then, after explaining
the situation to him, he got a number for the FBI agent.

When Greg called the FBI, he was
shuffled around a bit, but when he got to the right agents they were
more than happy to hear about the situation. In the intervening years
since Margaret had been there the church had become more extreme, and
at this point the FBI was considering putting them under watch as a
potential hate group. When Greg explained the situation, he was told
it would be taken care of and asked if would he prefer the child to
get a ride back with the FBI or would he prefer the mother to come
down with them and take custody of the child there. A quick question
to Margaret and they were scheduled to go down with a pair of FBI
agents in two days to reclaim Jack. If Freddy resisted, the FBI
agents were willing to get a warrant for him on a charge of
kidnapping. It probably wouldn't hold up in court but the warrant
alone would allow Margaret to take custody of Jack again.

Margaret was very nearly smiling when
Greg hung up the phone. She walked over to him, leaned down and gave
him a chaste peck on the lips:

“Thank you, again. I would have
done anything to get Jack back and here you go and arrange it without
asking for anything. I would have willingly given myself to you in
'that way' to get you to do what you just did. But you did it without
asking for anything and without a second thought. I don't understand
you at all. I thought I knew what people were like but you keep
insisting on acting in ways that I didn't think people acted
anymore.”

Greg was stunned from her kiss. The
scent of her filled his nostrils and the feel of her soft, but
slightly chapped, lips lingered on his own.

“Well first off, I wouldn't have
considered that to be willing, I would've considered that as
coercion. Not a good way to start a relationship, physical or
otherwise. Secondly, I've an ulterior motive. I told you I want to
see you smile, I think I'll have a better chance if you have your son
with you.

I have three spare bedrooms in this
house. My mom and dad made sure they had three spare bedrooms because
I have two siblings. They looked forward to any time all of us were
home together so they made sure that they had room for us all. So,
your son can have one of those while you are staying here. You can
have another one and there will still be a spare.

Speaking of which, let me show them to
you and you can pick one for yourself. We'll need to make the bed and
maybe do a little tidying, I don't go into the spare bedrooms much.”

Greg led her up the stairs since all
four bedrooms were on the second floor.

“There's a bathroom at the end of
the hall. You won't need to worry about me regarding that. I have one
in my own bedroom, it's a master suite.”

Greg showed her the linen closet in the
middle of the hallway and then the three available rooms. She picked
the two with south facing windows for her and Jack.

“I like waking up with the sun on
my face. It tends to start my day off better. Now, you go fetch the
linens for these bedrooms, I'll make the beds and tidy the rooms. You
need to rest your back and this is all stuff I can do on my own. I
don't think carrying sheets and blankets will do your back any harm
though. So you can make yourself useful that way.”

Greg got the linens from the hall
closet and set them on the bed.

“Do you have a vacuum cleaner
anywhere around here? The floors could use a quick once over.”

“It's in the closet in my
bedroom, I'll get it for you.”

Greg returned with the vacuum cleaner
and sat down in the room's chair. He watched Margaret as she
efficiently bustled about the room, making the bed, tidying this and
that, and finally starting the vacuum cleaner. He was mainly watching
her face. She had intent furrows that showed as she was concentrating
on her task. He found them fascinating. They totally changed the
general appearance of her face. Instead of looking sorrowed, she
looked determined when she concentrated like that. Margaret caught
him looking once or twice and each time she blushed but didn't say
anything.

The room was habitable again all too
quickly for Greg's taste. He had gotten up and moved to the hallway
while Margaret vacuumed. As soon as she was done in this room she
moved to the other and began to clean it as quickly and efficiently
as the first. Once she was done, they both headed back downstairs.

“I think the roads have cleared
enough. I can take you out to dinner if you like, but you'd have to
drive.” Greg offered.

“Thank you but as I said, you're
already doing far too much for me. How about I rummage around in your
kitchen and see what I can come up with to make dinner for the two of
us?” Margaret said, deftly deflecting his offer.

“Honestly, I can take you out to
dinner, I don't mind.” Greg repeated.

“What's wrong? Does your kitchen
look like the average bachelor's and only have things that you can
make quickly and easily?” she riposted.

It was Greg's turn to blush:

“Umm, no, not entirely, but
there's probably lots more of that kind of stuff in there than there
are things to make a proper meal with. We can stop at a grocery store
tomorrow after the DMV and pick up whatever you'd like to cook with
though. I'm overdue for a grocery run.”

“Well, it's good to know that you
do have some faults. I'd been getting suspicious when you seemed like
Mr. Perfect to me.”

Greg's blush actually intensified. He
wondered what was going on, he hadn't blushed like this since early
in high school when he was working up his nerve to ask a girl for a
date. He eagerly latched on to her reference that he seemed like Mr.
Perfect to her though and thinking about that helped him recover his
aplomb.

Margaret managed to find a few things
to work with in his kitchen. He could see that she had some rice,
some honey, some almonds in their shell, and a couple of vaguely
wilted carrots. She had rummaged through the microwaveable meals in
his freezer and found a package of chicken breasts behind them.

“Alright, show me where your
nutcracker, your cooking utensils, and your pots and pans are. After
you do that, pour yourself a cup of coffee and go out to the living
room. Maybe put some more music on but if you do, please turn it up
loud enough that I can hear it also.”

Greg noticed that she once again had
the intent furrows on her face as he showed her the location of the
things she had requested. He had an 'aha!' moment as he realized that
she was stubborn, determined, and defensive when it came to the areas
that her ex-husband had considered 'hers' and that she was much less
confident dealing with anything outside of those parameters.

Greg did as she had told him to. He did
indeed put some music on, he picked a few classical pieces that he
thought she might enjoy and set them to run in a playlist. Then he
settled in to nurse his coffee as wonderful aromas began to drift out
of the kitchen.

It was less than half an hour before
Margaret came out with two plates in hand. She set them on the table
and returned for silverware. Greg moved to the table and looked at
dinner. It looked, and smelled, delicious but aside from knowing what
the ingredients were he had no idea how she had prepared it,
especially as quickly as she did.

“It's a honey-almond rice with
honey buttered carrots and honey glazed chicken.” came from
behind him as Margaret came back with the rest of the tableware.

“It looks and smells delicious.
How did you do that so quickly?”

“Everything in it cooks quickly,
well except the carrots but yours were a bit soft so they didn't need
to cook as long as they normally would. You cook the rice as normal,
steam or boil the carrots, and start the chicken cooking. While
everything is cooking you mix up some melted butter and honey for a
glaze and crack your almonds. Part of rice's cooking process is
taking it off the heat, fluffing it up, and letting it steam. You add
the almonds to it while it steams. Glaze the chicken with honey while
the rice steams also. When the rice is done steaming you serve it and
drizzle honey over it, being sure to get some on the almonds. You
pull the carrots, serve them and drizzle the honey-butter sauce over
them, then you pull the glazed chicken. You can pepper it to taste if
you like, I normally use a tiny dash on the chicken and rice. Then
serve. It's quick and easy. Plus, sometimes even bachelors have
everything you need to make it.”

Margaret's lips flashed up into a
smirk, almost a smile, with her last sentence.

“You smiled, I saw it!”

“No I didn't, that was a smirk.
There's a difference. Although you probably didn't deserve the smirk
but since you were so amazed by the meal and I consider it a very
easy and non-fancy one to make. I thought I might twit you a little
over it.”

“Well, if it involves smiles, or
even almost smiles or smirks, feel free to twit me about anything you
like.”

Once dinner was over, they settled into
the living room.

“What do you normally do of an
evening Greg?”

“Well, the last few years I
normally settle in with a movie or maybe a book. I don't read as much
as I used to though so I've been watching more movies recently.”

Margaret looked at the bookcase Greg
had dedicated to holding his movies.

“What kind of movies do you
watch?”

“Normally action adventure,
probably seventy-five percent of what's on the shelves there is
action adventure. The rest is a mixture of documentaries, comedies,
and a few other things.”

“Do you mind if I look through
and see what you have?”

“Sure, the bottom row is where
everything that isn't action adventure lives, the top three rows are
action adventure. Take a look and see if you can find something you'd
like to watch.”

Margaret went over and examined the
shelf. While she was doing so Greg went into the kitchen, took his
painkillers that he was due for, and started another pot of coffee.
This time he went with an Ethiopian blend he was fond of. It was as
far different from regular coffee as the earlier Jamaican was but
entirely different from the earlier brew as well. He considered the
fact that he might be trying to impress Margaret and decided that he
probably was. Maybe fancy coffee wasn't the right way to do it but it
was one of the few options he had in his arsenal that he could use
right now.

He headed out to the living room again
while the coffee brewed.

“Did you find something?”

“Yes, I did. How about this one?
I think it's part comedy and part action adventure, yes? It might
appeal to both of us.” She held up 'Last Action Hero', an okay
movie in his opinion, but not one of Arnold's better films.

“Sure we can watch that; it's
okay, but not great. It has a few good moments though, and it is both
comedy and action.”

Margaret bent over and placed the disc
in the player.

“Oh, I had a thought, I should've
mentioned it earlier” Greg said, “We should probably wash
your regular clothes if you want them to wear tomorrow instead of
stuff that's too large. If we pause in the middle of the movie to
switch them to the dryer they'll probably be done and ready by the
time it's over.”

“Oh, thank you. I hadn't thought
of that. It's been a strange day.”

“You've got that right. I've been
having a pretty strange week myself. Here, I'll show you where the
washer and dryer are or I can just put them in myself if you like.”

“No, that's okay” Margaret
grabbed her clothes which were still folded and stacked on a table in
the corner. Greg noted that she went out of her way to ensure that
her underclothes were hidden inside the other clothes.

“Follow me then, it's just next
to the downstairs bathroom here.”

Greg showed her the tiny laundry room
and then went back out to the kitchen to pour some coffee. He brought
it into the living room just as Margaret was returning.

“If we listen during the quieter
parts of the movie, we can hear when the washer shuts off and pause
to switch them over to the dryer.”

“Thank you again, I would've
hated to put those on in the morning if they hadn't been cleaned.
They're the only clothes I have left and I'd already worn them for a
few days.”

“You're welcome. Here's a
different kind of coffee for you to try.” he handed her the
cup, “let's get the movie going, shall we?”

The movie went over well. He had
worried that there might be a bit too much overblown action to it for
her to enjoy but she seemed to like it just fine and even laughed at
a few spots. Despite watching, he still didn't see her smile though,
even when laughing her mouth stayed mostly straight except for a few
upward twitches at the corners of her mouth.