Here goes... this is
my first attempt at RS fic. I'm really interested
in all critique/feedback, etc. Thanks so much to Debra for all
her help
in the "polish" and helping get my first fic off to
you all.
--Lori
Runaway Steele
Remington Steele bounded into the
office with his usual joie de vivre.
"Good Morning, Mildred," he said as he flashed his famous
grin.
"Good Morning, Boss."
"Is Miss Holt in?"
"Not yet," Mildred replied.
"But she's on her way. She
called to say she would be a little late. You've got a 10
o'clock with a Mr. Murray Reskin. She said she'd be here by
then."
"Very well," he said with
a wave of his hand before opening the
door to his office.
"The paper's on your desk, Chief.
Should I bring in your
tea?"
"Yes, yes, Mildred," he
answered. "And what about some of
those cherry pastries?"
"Right away, Mr. Steele."
********
"Mr. Reskin," Laura began,
"has your daughter ever gone off
on her own before?"
"No, Miss Holt, she hasn't."
He turned Remington, who was
sitting behind the desk and leaning back in his chair, fingers
tip to
tip, apparently deep in thought.
"I came to the Remington Steele
Agency because I thought I'd get
something different from you. You're supposed to be the best.
My
daughter is NOT a runaway, Steele!"
"Certainly not, Mr. Reskin. Miss
Holt is simply trying to gather as
much information on your daughter as possible. We here at the
Steele
Agency are nothing if not thorough."
The man dropped his head and turned
to Laura, "I'm sorry, Miss
Holt," he said softly. "It's just that my Mandy is my
life.
Since her mother passed away, she's all I've got. She
wouldn't run away. I know that." He turned back to Steele.
"You've got to find her, Mr. Steele."
"We will, Murray," Steele assured him. "We will."
********
"So, Laura you never told me
where you were this morning. It's
unlike you to be late for the office." Remington looked over
at her,
so lovely with the wind in her hair as they drove down the Pacific
Coast
Highway.
"No, I didn't," she grinned
at him. "We both need a
little mystery, Mr. Steele."
He quickly covered the puzzled look
on his face, but not before Laura
caught sight of it. "Good," she thought. "Maybe
I'll
keep HIM off kilter for once."
"Indeed, Miss Holt. Indeed."
Not the response she was hoping for. He could be so exasperating.
"I just had some errands, that's all."
"That's all, eh?"
Damn that twinkle in his eye. "Oh,
there might be a surprise or
two…" she smiled as they both fell into their familiar
dance.
"Why Miss Holt, I LOVE surprises."
********
The sun was still high in the sky
as they drove onto the Malibu campus
of West Coast University. Following Murray's directions, they
found
their way to
McCullum Hall, the Freshman dorm.
"Shall we, Mr. Steele?" Laura readied herself to exit the car.
"After you, Laura," he answered, smiling.
He followed her up the long walk to
the front door of the dormitory. He
loved to watch her walk, so purposeful. It still amazed him that
a woman
like Laura Holt could beguile him so. He followed her into the
building
and up to the reception desk.
"Amanda Reskin, please,"
Laura said to the young woman behind
the counter.
"She's in room 214," the
clerk answered without looking up,
"but he'll have to stay here. No men allowed."
"Sweetheart," Laura turned
to Steele and kissed him on the
cheek. "You wait here and I'll go up and see if our Mandy
is
ready. We shouldn't be long, you know how she hates to keep her
favorite uncle waiting." She winked at him as she turned
toward the
stairs.
"Of course, Dear. I'll be right
here." Steele sat down and
picked up a magazine. He glanced around the lobby for anything
suspicious while flipping through the
latest issue of "Cosmopolitan". He hoped Laura was having
better luck
upstairs.
Laura knocked on the door of room
214, hoping that Amanda's roommate
could shed some light on her whereabouts.
"Come in!" a voice called from the other side of the door.
"Mandy, honey…" Laura began as she entered the room.
"Mandy's not here," the girl said matter of factly.
"Oh, darn," Laura replied.
"We were hoping to surprise
her."
"We?"
"Yes, my husband and I,"
Laura reached out her hand to the young
woman. "Judy Peppler. Amanda's aunt. We came down from Fresno
and were going to take her out to lunch."
"I'm Kelly Grayson," the
girl shook Laura's hand.
"Mandy's roommate. It's nice to meet you, Mrs. Peppler."
"Nice to meet you, too, Kelly.
Do you know when Mandy will be
back?"
"No," Kelly answered, "Sorry.
I haven't seen her for a
few days. In fact, pardon me for speaking out of turn, Mrs. Peppler,
but
I'm a little worried about her. It's not like her to just go off
without saying anything. And we have mid-terms this week."
"Kelly, why don't you join Mr.
Peppler and me for lunch? The
three of us can put our heads together and find if there's cause
to
worry."
Laura waited while Kelly finished
what she'd been doing and got
ready for lunch and then Kelly followed her down to the lobby,
where
they were immediately greeted by Remington Steele.
"Bob, honey," Laura greeted
him. "Our Mandy is out, it
seems. This is her roommate, Kelly. I've invited her to join us
for
lunch."
"Splendid," he replied.
Kelly turned to Laura, "Thanks again, Mrs. Peppler."
Steele smiled and raised an eyebrow in Laura's direction.
********
Remington followed Laura into her loft.
"I rather like being a Peppler,
" he said, stepping up behind
her and wrapping his arms around her waist. He leaned in and placed
a
soft kiss on the side of her neck.
"Me, too," she said quietly, closing her eyes.
He led her over to the sofa where
they sat in each others arms for a
long while. It was at times like these that she forgot he was
the man
with no name. In this moment, he was Steele. Her Remington Steele.
And
that was what frightened her the most.
"So, what do we know?" she
sat straight up and leaned forward,
practically knocking him back against the back of the sofa.
"Back to work, eh?" He sat
up and followed her with his gaze as
she began to pace the room.
"I keep going back to the boyfriend,"
she said, though it
wasn't clear if it was directed to him or back to herself. "If
she weren't so conscientious about her studies, I'd say
she'd gone off with her boyfriend. I mean, it would make sense,
you
know--- the independence of going off to school. Being away from
home
for the first time. Oh no, I guess you wouldn't know, would
you?" She focused on him for a moment. "For a girl like
Amanda
Reskin, college is the place to explore, to start finding yourself.
To
do things you've never done before--- or maybe never thought
you'd do…"
He listened as she went on about the
experiences that Amanda must have
been going through, but he was only half listening. He was imagining
his
Laura finding her wild streak at Stanford, away from Abigail's
watchful and often critical eye. He would have loved to have
known her
then.
"…but she would never miss
this many classes. No, I'm starting
to believe that Mr. Reskin is right. His daughter did not disappear
on
her own."
"What is it, Mildred?" Laura asked.
Mildred walked passed her and handed
the file she was carrying to Steele
as Laura rolled her eyes.
"I ran a check on Amanda's license
plate. It seems her Chevette
was found with a couple of parking tickets. The police thought
it was
abandoned."
"Excellent work, Mildred,"
Steele patted Mildred on the back.
"Excellent work."
"Thanks, Chief."
"Eh-hem," Laura cleared her throat.
"Yes, Miss Holt?" Steele asked as he turned to her.
"Where? Where did they find the car, Mildred?"
"Oh!" Mildred exclaimed.
"On Alvarado Street. In San
Diego."
"San Diego?" Remington and Laura asked in unison.
********
Laura was two steps behind Steele
as they walked into the San Diego
Police Department. She watched him with curiosity as he entered
the
station. Being in such close proximity to members of law enforcement
tended to set his teeth on edge. But she was proud of him. He
seemed to
really be growing. She believed it meant a lot to him to be her
Remington Steele. She wanted to believe it would be that way forever.
He walked up to the desk Captain.
"The name's Steele. Remington
Steele. This is my associate, Laura Holt. We're private
investigators from Los Angeles…"
"I know who you are, Mr. Steele,"
the Captain interrupted.
"How can we help you?"
"We're working on the case of
a missing young woman," Steele
answered. "And we understand that you've recovered her
vehicle."
"A 1980 Chevrolet Chevette,"
Laura interjected. "It's
yellow."
"Oh, yeah," the officer
nodded. "It was double parked over
on Alvarado Street. It's in the impound."
"May we see it?" Laura asked.
"Sure," he answered. "The
SDPD would be happy to assist
Remington Steele in solving a case."
"Good, good. Thank you," Steele smiled.
Laura just shook her head.
********
"Pull over here," Laura
instructed. They were looking for an
address they'd found on a scrap of paper in Amanda's car. It was
several blocks from where the car had been found. Laura was scanning
the
houses for numbers. "There it is," she pointed down
the block to
a small pink bungalow.
They got out of the car and walked
up to the doorstep. Steele leaned
over to ring the doorbell.
A young woman answered. "May I help you?"
Remington and Laura looked at each
other, dumbfounded and asked at the
same time, "Amanda?"
"Who are you?" Amanda asked.
"I'm Remington Steele and this
is Laura Holt. We're private
investigators…"
"May we come in?" Laura
asked before he could say anything
further.
"I guess so." The young woman stepped aside to let them in.
The three of them sat down together
and Laura explained why they were
there as Amanda explained how she ended up in San Diego.
********
Laura sank down into Remington's soft
grey sofa. It had been a long
week and she was tired. He brought them each a drink and sat down
next
to her. He reached down to turn her around by pulling her feet
into his
lap. She closed her eyes and let out a soft moan as he massaged
her
weary feet.
"You're too good at that, you know."
He just smiled and leaned over to kiss her.
This was his favorite time--- they'd
solved the case and were
spending a quiet evening alone, at home. A year ago, he'd never
have
believed it, but Laura Holt had him practically domesticated.
His Laura.
He watched her. Any minute now the silence would be broken and
she'd
start going over the case.
"Who would ever have thought. . ." she began.
He smiled. He knew her so well.
". . .that our Mr. Reskin was
a kidnapper? It's amazing what
divorce can do to people. But for him to have abducted Mandy all
those
years ago and raised her to think that her mother had died…"
"And what about the mother? Finding
her again through her
neighbor's photos of their son at university…" he added.
"They were so caught up in their
reunion, Mandy hadn't made it back to
school. I suppose it was hard for her to think about her father
finding
out she'd been reunited with her mother." Laura sighed, stopping
to
think for the briefest second about her own father. Then she thought
better of it, turned to put her feet back on the floor and leaned
into
his embrace. "All's well that ends well, Mr. Steele."
"But Laura," he said as
he brushed her hair out of her eyes.
"We seem to have forgotten something"
"We have?" Laura asked.
"What about that surprise?" he asked as he kissed her softly.
"Patience," she grinned, breaking the kiss.
Then, as if it were magic, there was a knock at the door.
"Bloody hell," he muttered. Every time they were alone.
"Answer it," she prodded.
His eyes drew open wide as he realized
this must be her surprise. He
jumped up and nearly ran to the door, where a deliveryman handed
him a
very large basket. He carried the basket over to the coffee table
and
opened it to find a full course gourmet dinner for two, champagne,
popcorn and a videocassette.
"'Breakfast at Tiffany's`. George
Peppard, Audrey Hepburn.
Paramount 1961." Laura said. "Two New York singles-
one carefree
and the other steadfast- find their way to love, with a few bumps
along
the way."
"Why, Laura," he held out
his hand to take her into his arms.
"You've constructed the perfect night in."
"I know," she whispered before he leaned in to kiss her again.