From: Peppermint Patty
To: <rsfic@yahoogroups.com>
Subject: ROUND ROBIN: Part 2
Date: Wednesday, July 17, 2002 4:07 PM
Steele Trying to Get It Right
Part II
by Peppermint Patty
Fred didn't take his five minutes - he was there almost instantly.
Laura ran out of the apartment as fast as she could, but felt
terribly
handicapped because of her condition. Breathing heavily she gave
Fred a
short description of the circumstances: "Rem. - I mean, Mr.
Steele, and
Miss Krebs are on a stake out. It seemed to be a case that could
be handled
rather routinely. But I just got an anonymous phone call - someone
must
have set up a trap for them! The caller threatened me that they
could would
be killed!" Just as she said this Laura realized for the
first time how
terribly horrifying this thought was. Having spoken out the words
aloud
seemed to make the threat more real. The thought of Remington
being dead
almost killed her herself. She suddenly realized that sometime
ago she
had started to think of Mildred as the grandmother-to-be of her
baby,
Mildred as well meant way too much to her for her being able to
live without her. Laura had pull herself together really hard,
permanently telling herself "Panicking won't help them!"
While Laura was still lost in her thoughts, Fred had shoveled
her into
the car after she had finished her short briefing. "Where
is the warehouse?" he asked and Laura's mind sprang back
into reality. She gave him the address and he sped off instantly.
Laura was far too lost in her own troubling thoughts, already
seeing
herself as a single parent-family - which drove tears in her eyes,
and not only because of the baby - to fully internalize Fred's
behavior. She wasn't
aware that she wasn't sitting in the fond of the limo, but instead
next
to Fred on the front seat. Neither had she realized that Fred
didn't ask
her for directions, he was just taking action on his own.
Laura had lost herself in her thoughts about what it could mean
to loose
the only two people that meant the world to her. She was surprised
at her
conclusion that it actually was the world they meant to her. Not
long
ago she would rather have died than admitted this to anyone including
herself. Why was it that now she wasn't afraid of losing her independence
any more, but rather of having it back on full scale. When she
thought about her baby, which might have to grow up without a
father she felt a sudden pain in her heart. Would history repeat
itself? Would Remington have to leave his own child alone like
he had been left alone long ago? Would all his fear he ever had
about not being able to fulfill the obligations serious commitment
brought with it prove to have been true? Once more Laura forced
herself to drive the dark clouds out of her mind and concentrated
on the route.
The moment he saw Laura, Fred had realized what condition she
was in.
She wasn't her usual reliable, precisely working self, no, she
was far away
from that. He could imagine what thoughts were troubling her,
he was really
worried himself, for he had started to feel like a part of peculiar
family himself, though he had never admitted this to anyone. Well,
this was the moment where he had to prove what his "family"
meant to him. His boss'
and Miss Krebs life could depend on him, and probably even Laura
and her
unborn child could be endangered. But he knew her well enough,
so he
didn't even try to convince her to stay at home and let him handle
the
situation.
After what had seemed to be an eternity they finally arrived in
the
neighbourhood of the warehouse. Fred slowed down and shut off
the
headlights, carefully avoiding any unnecessary attention. When
they had
come close enough, he stopped at the side of the street and shut
down the
engine.
He just about could grab Laura's sleeve to hold her back from
just
running out to the warehouse. She looked at him in surprise. "Fred?"
she
inquired, "would you please let me do my job?" The answer
surprised her even more, for it was a plain "No." "What
do you mean, no? My husband and Mildred might be risking their
lives this very moment! So just let me get out and find them!"
Laura bawled out, panic becoming audible in her voice.
"Laura, calm down" Fred told her. She wasn't aware that
he had used her
first name. "I don't want anything to happen to them any
less than you.
But neither do I want to see you or your baby hurt, you understand?"
The
thought hadn't come to Laura yet. But of course she couldn't help
to agree that she mustn't endanger any more lives than those already
currently at stake.
"But." she started, but
her voice trailed off, "but what can I do? I
have to save them! I need them!" She hardly could hold back
her tears this
moment.
Fred patted her hand reassuringly
and his voice became soft as he spoke
again "Laura, I'm here as well. How should I live without
all the
three., no, four of you? Let's quickly go through the situation
again, and then we'll proceed". His reason helped Laura to
calm down a bit. This time
she was a bit more detailed about what exactly Remington's and
Mildred's job was, and where they should be. That they should
find out why all the
excellent security equipment couldn't prevent the burglars, but
oddly
nothing yet had been stolen.
Fred convinced Laura to stay in the limo as a back-up, and to
stay near
the phone that was in the car. He himself went out to the warehouse
to
challenge whoever it was that wanted to harm Remington and Mildred.
As he cautiously scanned the area he gladly thought, that perhaps
now
was the moment where he could prove that he was by far more than
only a
chauffeur. He wanted all of them to be proud of him, but in particular
it was Remington's appreciation he was keen for. He admired his
boss for
what he was and particularly for what he had made of his live.
Remington had always been the only person to know that Fred hadn't
been a driver his
entire life. But he was generous enough to give people a chance
when
they wanted to change their lives, doubtlessly because he had
learned himself what it meant to have somebody believing in you
and helping you through this often hard and cruel process of "self-transformation".
In the same time, Laura started thinking about Fred and his motives,
an
to her surprise - and much to her dishonour as well, she had to
admit - it
occurred to her that she had hardly ever thought of Fred as anything
else than a valuable, reliable driver. How much more there had
to be behind
this stoic faade he always maintained. "How should I live
without the four
of you", he had said. And he had meant it exactly that way,
Laura was sure.
She smiled inwardly at the fact that even Fred was obviously looking
forward to her having a baby. She would thank him for that, how
she didn't know yet, once this horrible stake out was over.
This turned her mind back to the events at hand. She hadn't seen
or
heard anything of neither Fred nor Remington and Mildred yet.
And she couldn't stop the cold fear from climbing up her bones.
All the while Remington and Mildred had taken their time to check
out
the place carefully. Mildred wasn't as nervous as she'd supposed
she would
be considering this was one of the first occasions where she really
had to
do the job with no Laura around as a "mentor". Remington
couldn't help but
having an odd feeling about the entire situation. Well, after
all it
really was a strange situation. Ten times Mr. Hapgood's warehouse
had been
broken into, ten times nothing had been stolen though there were
some really valuable items around. It reminded Remington very
strongly of some
incidents in his own past - one could call it "training camp".
It was very well possible that some ominous organisation was having
their
accomplices-to-be practising their skills. If this was the thing
going on, they'd be up to something far more bigger, and Remington
didn't like the idea of what it would mean to the agency if they
had to pursue the case.
Nevertheless, right now everything seemed to be quiet, so he let
Mildred
question him about the events of earlier this day. "I want
to know
exactly how it went with the INS", she said. "Well,
apparently everything was fine, Estelle Becker couldn't do me
any harm since she had been transferred to San Diego", he
grinned. "But nevertheless it somehow went too smoothly.
I only hope they are truly contented with me and my personality
by now." He wanted to go a bit more into details about the
events, but then something moving slowly around the court caught
his attraction.
With a wave of his hand he silenced Mildred and signalled her
to hide a
bit more behind the stack of empty pallets they had chosen as
their hideout. Mildred was first to realise who it was they saw:
"What the heck is Fred doing here?" she whispered. Remington
didn't have the time to answer, for he just realized it wasn't
only Fred walking through the court cautiously. Someone else was
just sneaking up behind him.
tbc
To Part 3