THE MULE KICKS BACK
Part Ten:
An End in Sight
"Well, here we are!" Face pulled the Corvette to a halt outside the gaudy, neon light flashing building as it beamed out into the sweltering twilight before them. "Are you sure this is the right place?" he asked.
"Gee, thanks, Face," Murdock replied. "And thanks for getting me out the VA again and driving me over here."
"No problem."
"You really are the bestest friend I ever had. Sure you don't mind about me and Chrissie?"
"Hey, I already told you Murdock, Chrissie's a great girl – you'll get on really well. Just take a tip from me – don't leave her to pay the check!"
"Check?" Murdock repeated. "Oh, we're not going out to dinner – no way we want to spend the night cooped up in a stuffy restaurant. No, Chrissie reckons she got 158 million, 582 thousand, three hundred fifty two on Chucky Egg. I told her it wasn't possible." He nodded toward the arcade. "She's gonna show me – I gotta see this!"
"Chucky egg?!"
"Yeah, it's a computer game. Come and watch, Face. It'll be great, really it will!"
Face shook his head. "I think I'll pass on that Murdock but thanks for the invite!"
"We might go for a burger later. Chrissie only needs one more voucher for a Captain Bellybuster hat!"
"You sure know a lot about her, HM," Face said teasingly.
Murdock ignored the ironic comment. "We talked on the phone for ages last night. She's really nice!"
"Sure you don't want to come back to my new place?" Face wiggled his eyebrows suggestively.
"Why, you got arcade games there too?"
Face snorted in frustration. "No. But I thought you might want to do something else!"
"On a first date? Faceman! I'm shocked! I don't think Chrissie is that sort of girl at all!"
Face let out a sigh. "No, maybe not," he muttered.
Murdock glanced at his watch. "We're a bit early – that's good 'cause I wanted to give you something."
"Me?" Face tensed. "Why?"
"Because you are the bestest friend I ever had and you've been through a lot recently and I wasn't as helpful as I could be and….."
"Enough already, Murdock! I get the point but you don't have to buy me something."
"I didn't buy it."
"What you stole it? You're giving me stolen goods now?"
Murdock rolled his eyes. "As if that makes a difference to you."
"So what is it?" Face said ignoring the pilot's remark.
"Close your eyes and put your hand out."
"Murdock, I…."
"You want this, don't you?" Face nodded. "Well shut up, close your eyes and put out your hand!"
Peck sighed expressively and expansively but did as he was told. Murdock placed something small and hard on to his hand.
"Now you can open them!"
Face did so and simply stared at the round brown object that perched on his hand. "Murdock, it's a walnut," he said.
"Ssssh – I think we might get away with it!"
"What?"
"I saw it in the kitchen at the VA and I thought it might work."
"Work?"
"Uh-huh. I feel kind of bad that we never found your brain so I thought you could use this instead. No one will know, you could keep it in your pocket and get it out when you needed it. I reckon with your talent you'd pull it off, Faceman!"
"A walnut…… my brain!" Face let out a sigh of defeat. "Gee, thanks Murdock. I don't know what to say…."
Murdock put his hand over Face's and gently closed the con man's fingers around the nut. "Don't mention it, what are friends for? Quick hide it – here comes Chrissie!"
Sure enough making her way down the sidewalk in front of them was Murdock's date. She was wearing jeans, a sweat top and sneakers and Face had to admit, as he fumbled to secret the walnut into his pocket, she looked a lot more comfortable than on the night he had taken her out.
Murdock got out of the car to greet her. They both squatted down to talk to Face through the door window.
"Hi, Face," Chrissie smiled.
"Hi, Chrissie."
"You OK?"
"Fine!"
"Not got a date tonight?"
"Not got a date tonight?" Face scoffed. "Are you kidding? I thought I'd…."
"She gave him the brush off," Murdock cut in.
"Who?" Chrissie asked, her eyes flashing her interest.
"Rosa Garcia."
"Murdock!" Face snorted. "There was nothing going on there – she was just teaching me to tango!"
"Yeah?"
"Yeah!" Face felt himself flush.
"Tango!" Murdock shook his head, eyes shining in sympathy. He turned back to Chrissie. "She said she'd phone him, just like he says he'll phone the girl after our cases are over but he never does!"
Chrissie's eyes were so full of sympathy that Peck felt himself squirm uncomfortably. "Too bad, Temp. Say why don't you come with us? We won't mind, will we, HM?"
"Look, I am not some charity case that you all have to take pity on me and organise my social calendar!" Face exploded. "There's plenty of people I could look up. BA invited me to watch the football and Hannibal…." He stopped after looking up to see that neither of them were listening to him. Instead both were lost, looking deep into the other's eyes.
"See you later, Face," Murdock said breathlessly.
"See you," Chrissie chirped in.
"Yeah, bye! Have fun with Chucky Egg!" They never heard him as they turned away. Face sat in the car and watched them enter the arcade arm-in-arm, completely oblivious to everyone and everything else.
Face sighed. He remembered that feeling, wanted it now but…..
He gunned the engine, moving the Corvette through the evening traffic as the thoughts tumbled through his head. The truth was slightly different from the lines he had been prepared to feed to Chrissie and Murdock, if either of them had been prepared to give the other one up long enough to listen. In truth BA still had not got him back for vomiting on his precious upholstery, so Peck did not want to risk going anywhere near the big guy and definitely not on his own! Hannibal had hooked up with two leggy blondes he had met on the set of his latest movie and the Colonel had made it quite clear that Peck was not wanted when he had tried to muscle in on the action.
So Face really didn't have anyone to share the night with. But hell, he didn't need anyone, did he? He thought about heading over to Laurent's but in truth he knew he couldn't stomach the ostentatious people and their superficial glamour, not this night. He turned the Corvette into the parking lot of his new pad. A quiet night in would be good, he needed to relax after the hassles of the last few days but a nasty thought hit him. Gamely, he tried to ignore it as it continued to linger, growing even larger, in his mind until by the time he was up to his apartment it had bloomed into a horrifying possibility.
What if he was losing it? What if the rest of his life was going to be like this – alone. He gulped back a tumbler of scotch in one panicked choke. Surely it couldn't be – all right, so he wasn't as young as he once had been but he wasn't old! He thought back through the day – remembered the pretty brunette at the gas station – she had given him a come-on smile but she hadn't pushed it any further. Time was a smile like that would have led to a telephone number, dinner, back to her place….
But this time …. today …. now… he was sitting alone in the dark with only a glass of whiskey for company. Was this it? Was this how it was going to be from here on in?
A bang at the door rescued him from the morose maelstrom that his mind was rapidly sliding into. He sat momentarily unsure of what to do.
The knock came again…. Murdock – had to be! Obviously Chucky Egg had only limited entertainment value and now they were back to practise something a little more demanding. Which was, of course, bad news for Peck – at least a couple of seconds ago he had a place to spend his lonely night, now he was going to lose that too!
Get a grip, Peck!
He stood rather wearily and made his way to the door, assuming his best conceited, unconcerned look. "I knew Chucky Egg wouldn't keep you….." He stopped, his mouth falling open.
"Brought your handkerchief back, Templeton," she purred in that husky voice that sent flames of heat firing straight to his crotch.
"Rrrrrosa," he managed to say.
She smiled, swung the aforementioned hankie in his face and then gently dropped it into his hands as she pushed passed him into the apartment.
He clutched at his decorum desperately. All right, she'd wrong footed him for sure but that didn't mean that he had to give in to her charms completely… not yet anyway!
"Cleaned and ironed, thanks!" he said smoothly, putting the hankie in his pocket and then turning to watch her as she made an examination of the apartment.
"Maid at the hotel did it – I'm not really the domestic type," she said, arching those delectable eyebrows. She pouted and looked around the room, running her hand along the top of the white, leather sofa. "Nice place you got here, Temp!" she purred again.
God; he could hardly swallow!
"Not mine. I …. er … I'm looking after it for a friend!" He followed those mesmerising, swaying hips, that he seemed unable to get out of his eye line, into the bedroom.
"Water bed? View of the ocean," she said. "How very arousing!"
Face gulped, hang on to it, hang on, he was telling himself. Think! Come on coherent thought, help me out here – jeez, is it time to use that damn walnut, he thought in desperation! "I … ah …."
She turned back to him then. Stepped forwards so they were incredibly close. "I owe you an apology, Templeton and a big thank you for getting me away from Grondyke. I like to pay my debts!"
He forced out a nervous chuckle. "It was nothing, really!"
She reached up and began to undo his tie. "Nifty driving, courage, plus a little paramedic skill thrown in." She looked up into his eyes, running that eloquent tongue across her lips and moving so their bodies were touching. "You impressed me and there is nothing I find more attractive and stimulating than an impressive, resourceful man!"
"There isn't?" Where they touched Face could feel the excitement sparking between them, arcing like lightening across a summer sky.
"Oh, no; there isn't." She was ready, ripe and open and who was he to deny a woman so obviously in need?
He smiled, remembering the buzz that saving her had brought him, remembering how in control he had been and realising that he could be so again. He reached out and enveloped her in his arms, pulling her even closer and engulfing her mouth with the heat of his own.
They kissed hot, long and hard and then they pulled apart. Rosa smiled. "You could never be a mule, Templeton."
"No?"
"Mules are almost always sterile," she beamed. "And I know you are all man!"
He grabbed her again. "I am, aren't I?" he agreed conceitedly before setting about proving the fact with great gusto, enthusiasm and stamina.
Lord, Face thought as he lounged on the water bed many hours later, who needs to tango anyway?
The morning sun light was arrowing in through the window and dappling on to the quilt that covered him. He sighed and gently pulled it up over the sleeping form beside him.
Next time I really will listen, Colonel, the guilty thought fluttered around his head like a moth looking for the light. After all Hannibal had been telling him for years he should learn to control his natural appetites, but how could he? If she was pretty and available and giving him the 'come-on' with a sexy smile, Face felt he had a duty to oblige – making people, especially beautiful woman, happy was what he'd been put on this earth for, surely?
And then again, he snuggled up to the lithe beautiful body of Rosa sleeping beside him, still bathed with the radiant afterglow of their passion and he knew he never would. No matter what Hannibal said, the risk was always worth it because sometimes …. just sometimes … this was the result. He could take all the other times, all the hassles they brought with them, sure in the knowledge his Team mates would get him out, would willingly risk themselves to save him from any danger. They would do that because they were a Team and he was a valued member. They knew his weaknesses and they compensated, helped him through, as he did with them.
He would never be able to say no, not to this, not to the ecstasy, and they would never really expect him to.
He smiled again – he could never give this up because for all the nuisance and trouble it caused, there was always the remote chance that at the end of it there would be a sparkling jewel like Rosa waiting for him.
He saw then it did not matter what the future would bring, this moment was all that was important to him, and all that ever would be………………
The End