The Pike: Ships In The Night (16 page)

I felt an intense heat on my cheeks that traveled down my neck as I looked down and brushed my problematic hair out of my face.

She took a deep breath then exhaled and cocked her head.  I couldn't read the smile on her lips.  It seemed happy and sad at the same time.  I absently wondered if there was a reference chart online that categorized all of the minor inconsistencies in the human smile and the corresponding meanings behind each.

She brought her left hand to my cheek and cupped it.  It felt so warm, so... right.  I closed my eyes for a moment and leaned into it.  When I opened my eyes, her face was just inches from mine and a raging heat bloomed inside me as I felt her hot breath on my face.  Her eyes held me immobile as she whispered, “And you, Imme, make me very happy as well.”

That's when I received my first kiss.  Her lips were so soft, warm, and inviting as they pressed against mine.  My body felt as if it were on fire and I curled my toes into tight balls as I sighed into the kiss.  She pulled back, and I know it is illogical, but I swear I could see the smile in her eyes.

I wasn't sure the proper dating protocols for a first kiss.  I reasoned that I didn't have enough data, I needed more data, much more.  That's the only logical reason I giggled and then leaned in to kiss her again.

This time, it was igniting something primal inside me that had nothing to do with logic, and everything to do with her.  She was so gentle with me and the feelings intensified as her tongue ran across my lips, then quested gently.  I allowed access, and I let her and the raging fire inside take me away.

We finally broke the kiss because I needed air.  I was panting and smiling.  Wow.  For the first time in my life, I couldn't think of my math or anything but her lips.  She ran a hand through my hair as she gave me a proprietary look that made me feel so very close to her.

She smiled and said, “We should get back to your place.”

I matched her smile and then asked as I started the Chevy, “Are these the variables for a typical first date?”

She shook her head with a big grin as she looked away from me and out the windshield.  “Pretty much, except with less panic and tears.”

Then she said as she looked away, “Thanks, Imme.”

Thanks for what?  The kisses?  Was it customary to thank your partner?  Something told me the thank you ran much deeper.  Thank you for the words?  Or for just being there for her like she is there for anyone in need?  I shrugged and pulled us out onto the road again.  My hand drifting to my lips.  I swear I could still feel her lips on mine.  Yes, I would have to gather much more data... many more kisses.  I smiled as I drove.

I arrived at Imme's with a spring in my step.  I opened the kitchen door, tapping it with my cane.  Vince looked up from the table where he was staring intently at the chessboard, waving lazily.  Lili smiled from where she was putting away some dishes.

I stepped up to her.  “Mano po?”

She smiled and offered her hand.  I pressed the back of it to my forehead as she said, “God bless you, child.”

This had become our morning routine the past few weeks after old man Porter's barbecue.  I winked at Lili then stepped over to the table and looked at Vince and the board. “What has your panties in a twist?”

The man is never caught off guard as he shot back instantly, “How'd you know I had Lili's panties on today?”

I snorted as Lili blurted out in exasperation, “Vince!”

He crinkled his nose at her then looked back at the board.  He mumbled to me, “What has my panties in a twist is that it looks like we have history in the making here.”  He looked a little confused as he moved his knight to take Imme's queen.  He didn't look happy about the move.

He pushed back and stood and grinned at me.  Then we all turned as Liya stepped in then hopped up to me on her last step and leaned up as I leaned down to give her a good morning kiss.  I obliged, savoring the taste of her then said, “Mornin' lady.”

She grinned cutely and said, “Good morning Allie.”  Then she added, “I know that it will upset the structure of our daily routine.  But there is someone I want you to meet this morning at the Pike.  I know it is an unexpected variable that needs to be...”

I chuckled.  “It's fine Imme.  Really.  You don't need to live inside your own constructs of order all the time.  Throw caution to the wind, live a little.”

Vince said, “Here here.”

I asked as she paused to look at the chessboard.  “Who is it we're meeting with?  A colleague of yours?”  I've met a few people vetting her team's findings.  A deplorable lot down to the last one.  They have been trying to pick apart her team's work for weeks.  The lead researcher from Sky Computing, Ben Kowalski has even resorted to personal attacks on her character.  Who knew physics could be so petty and cutthroat?

I paused at the look on her face as she looked so intently at the board I thought she'd fall face first into it.  I don't think she heard my question.  She placed a finger on her rook and looked back at her father with confusion.  Then she swallowed and slid the rook over one space and whispered, “Checkmate?”

Vince was nothing but smiles as the realization spread on his daughter's face that she had beat him for the first time ever.  I beamed at her and kissed the top of her head, and she enthusiastically grabbed my hand.  I don't think I've ever seen her happier, or Vince prouder.  He dipped his head in gracious defeat as she just beamed.

Vince waved at us. “See you girls at Kusina Ni Tala tonight.  I gotta get Lili to work before she wilts.”  Lili slapped his shoulder, an affectionate grin on her lips.

Liya dragged me to the door as she called out, “By mom, daddy.”

We locked up and watched her parents pull out in the van as we went to the garage to get into the Chevy.  It was such a concession for Imme to change her routine to drive to work instead of riding the bus.  But she loved being behind the wheel of “Beast”.  But she wouldn't change the rest of her routine.  We were still at the Pike every morning precisely at six twenty-three.

She was a little reticent about going to the University that day because Kowalski from Sky computing was going to be there to try to tear down her team's accomplishments again.

As she turned Beast down the road toward the ferry dock, I asked again, “Who are we meeting?”

She looked pensive and then asked, “Remember my cousin I mentioned last week?”

I nodded.  “Missy?”

She bit her lower lip and confirmed, “Yes.  We are meeting her.  Missy isn't like other people...”

I cocked my head and asked with a sly grin, “Like you?”

She shook her head. “No... not like me.  Missy is...”  Then she looked over at me when we stopped at a light.  “You have to promise not to allow her verbal eccentricities affect your mood in a negative manner.”

I nodded. “Ahhh... got it.  She's a little verbally abusive.  I have a thick skin.”

She exhaled and said, “Thank you, Allie.  She really means well.”

I nodded, I knew some pretty aggravating people so being forewarned would allow me to let it slide off my back.  I narrowed an eye. “Didn't you say she was a curator at a museum or something like that?  Why are we meeting her?”

She clammed up again, she was really nervous I'd take this meeting badly, wasn't she?  I poked her in the ribs, and she squirmed away with a smile as the light turned green and we started moving again.  I asked, “Imme?  What did you do?”

She shrank down in her seat a bit, I was worried she couldn't see over the hood of the car.  She said carefully, “It isn't really Missy we're going to speak with, she just knows the person I wanted to introduce you to.  Missy is really protective of both her and me, so don't take any of the dispersion she chooses to vocalize as an attack upon your character.”

I winked. “Hardass, check.”

She relaxed again and sat up taller, I had to grin at the way she stretched that sublime neck of hers to see over the wheel.  I just wanted to run my tongue along... oh, sorry  I got a little distracted.

We held hands on the observation deck of the ferry on the ride into Seattle.  She looked up at me half way through the trip and asked cutely as she stared up into my eyes, “More data please?”

I cocked my head and felt a blush on my cheeks as I nodded, “My pleasure.”  She really liked kissing, and I was more than happy to oblige.  I leaned down and gave her a whispering kiss full of promise.  She had been getting braver and braver about our... interactions.  This was the most glacially slow I have ever moved with anyone, and it was killing me.  Almost every night I went home frustrated and warm in all the right places.  But she was definitely worth the wait, the more I learned about her the closer I got, and the more I wanted to, no, needed to know.

She smiled into my kiss and became a little aggressive and turned the kiss into something that I knew was going to leave me in that aroused frustration again.

Wait a minute... the little minx was distracting me!

I pulled back, her lips chasing me before I could gasp out a breath, “What are you up to Imme?  Who are we meeting?”

She had the look of a kid caught with her hand in the cookie jar.  She shoved her glasses up her nose a bit as she blushed.  I squinted one eye, causing her to smile and look out over the Sound.  She shivered, and I held my jacket open for her, and she snuggled in and I wrapped my arms around her.

She ran a finger along my collarbone playfully as she inquired, “You remember that talk we had last week at your place?  About you wanting to find something to do before you go stir crazy and snap?”

I nodded, and she continued, “Well, my cousin is bringing someone who might be able to find something for you with your particular skill-set of aiding others.  She excels in the field of helping those that society has forgotten or given up on.  All of the parameters seemed to correlate with the variables that you outlined in your specifications for employment.”

Then she seemed to deflate a little and said in an almost meek and apologetic voice, devoid of her customary intellectual lingo like she was speaking from her heart, something she has been doing more and more lately, “I know it isn't firefighting, Allie.  But I believe there are still so many people that you can help.”

I kissed the top of her head as I thought back to the conversation she mentioned.  It had been weeks since my meltdown at the barbecue, and it seemed like she had been building her courage to ask about it over that time.  I had been ignoring calls from both Trip and old man Porter and she finally blurted out when I sent another voicemail to digital oblivion, “What happened in that fire?  I've heard a bit from Tanner, but that was just superficial data that was from a single point of view.”

I had opened up about what had happened that night that had changed my life forever, in more ways than one.  I had never shared it with anyone.  Not my crew, my doctors, nor physical therapists.  And I wasn't about to go to the company shrink who was recommended to me.

I guess I didn't have the courage to ever speak about it.  Because I still felt the shame that the flames did what they always do, destroy.  They destroyed me, they beat me.  I remember as I looked at my respirator mask sitting just out of my reach, that I felt rage for the red beast more than the agony of the flames burning through my gear, raking its claws across the flesh beneath.  My anger eclipsed the choking and burning smoke that was clogging my lungs and singeing my throat.

And most of all, my anger at myself that I wasn't strong enough to beat the flames this one last time.  Just like my parents.  My last thought I sent out to the flames as I lost consciousness was a petty, “Fuck you.”

Imme had just listened, and when I was done, she looked so confused and frightened, like she didn't know what to do.  I realized that was true.  She didn't know what to do, and that scared her.  She couldn't process the feelings that were heavy in the air.  She finally just pulled me to her and held me.  So in the end, she had instinctively known exactly what to do.  I had sighed and just let her console me, and it felt... right.

She had finally spoken in a hoarse voice after a few minutes, “It didn't beat you.  You just proved that conjecture in the negative by the data you provided in that last revelation.  Even when you thought it was the end, you defied the flames with your epitaph.”

She didn't say anything else after that.  I have been going over that statement ad nauseam, dissecting it and digesting it.  I'm slowly coming to terms with the fact that maybe the fire didn't completely break me like I thought.  It may have bruised and scarred me both physically and mentally, but it didn't take my sense of self from me.  It didn't win.  The crew of my station was able to pull me out.  The trials of this past long year have just been to prepare me for round two.

That's when I told her that I was done hiding away.  I was about as healed as I could ever be and it was time for me to get back out in the workforce.  I finally called both Trip and Cap and let them know that I couldn't take the fire inspector position.  They were disappointed but understood.  And they did understand.  Every firefighter understood that it could just as easily be them next.

A week back, the medical office had informed me that I only needed one day a week of physical therapy now.  But I still come into the city with Liya every day to be with her at the Pike and then take the ferry home with her.

I've been knocking on doors and looking into various other ways I can help out the community that wouldn't be around fire.  I had plenty of skills.  Nothing has felt... right, yet. And I feel the draw, the longing every time I hear a siren in the distance.  Something deep down inside calling out, “I can help.”

I shook the thoughts out of my head and looked down at my Imme.  I kissed the top of her head and said, “It's ok short stuff, I'll speak with them.”

She visibly relaxed and cuddled in tighter, sharing my heat as we looked out over the waters, pods of whales were cresting, welcoming the rapid approach of winter.

After we docked and made our way to the Market and parked near the Post Street Alley buildings, we headed to the Pike, hand in hand.  Liya perked up when we saw two forty-something blondes standing outside the door to the building.  A taller woman and a shorter one who looked to be so devoid of color she almost looked albino.  I recognized her for some reason, but couldn't quite place her.

When they saw us approaching, the taller woman moved subtly in front of the other, in a protective gesture that seemed natural to her.

She was an attractive woman that had the air of someone you'd think was a cheerleader in another life, but there was also something hard about her that was a stark contrast to her appearance. Her rich blonde hair was lightly frosted with grey and silver strands.

I liked that she wasn't vain enough to dye it to hide the grey, it was almost like she were throwing out a challenge to time.  She wore an impeccably pressed business pantsuit that was offset by the white ankle socks and pink sneakers she wore.

The shoes felt like a dare for you to say anything.  She was eyeing me critically as we stepped up to them, she narrowed her eyes at me in challenge.  This just HAD to be Missy.  She didn't give a shit about what other people thought of her.

She finally turned her eyes to her cousin, and it was like a complete transformation.  She softened and looked at her like she would her own child.  She held her arms out wiggling her fingers, “Hey kiddo.”

Imme released my hand and hugged the woman as she said shyly, “Hello Missy.”

Then she said as she looked at us, “Missy, this is Allison, my... girlfriend.”  She blushed profusely and smiled as she said the last word.

Missy stepped a half step into my personal space and offered her hand, and said bluntly as we shook, “Pleased to meet you, gimp.”

I suppressed a growl, remembering Liya's warnings about her cousin as she pulled my hand and moved her face next to my ear.  I had her by four inches and thirty pounds, but she whispered in a calm tone, “You hurt Ligaya and I will hunt your gimpy Amazon ass down and end you.  She isn't like other girls.”