Out of the Line of Fire

"I think I'm going to take myself out of the line of fire for this one, guys," Riley laughed as he backed away from the office door and planted himself inconspicuously in a wooden chair against the other wall. He'd heard enough of Ben's mother from Ben himself and a little from Patrick on the way over, to know that this meeting was bound to be explosive.

And after their experience on the "Charlotte", Riley wasn't fond of explosions.

After the office door closed, he knitted his fingers in front of himself and slouched in the chair, absentmindedly tapping his feet and glancing up and down the hall. Being Riley—and being a guy—Riley couldn't help but notice that the University of Maryland certainly had its share of talent.

"Hello, Handsome." A strange female voice purred, drawing his attention to a lovely young lady with dark blonde hair and green eyes that gleamed with interest behind the lenses of her glasses. "Where did you come from?"

"Will you be staying long?" A second female voice asked. This belonged to a shorter woman with rich brown hair and blue eyes, also wearing glasses.

He offered the most charming smile he could muster. "I'm just waiting for some friends of mine."

The blonde turned and glanced at the door he gestured toward and then turned back with a look of sheer glee.

"Your friends are friends of Dr. Appleton?" she asked with a smile. Riley fought the blush creeping up into his cheeks.

"B-my best friend is, uh, her son, actually," Riley stammered, giving them a smile in return that covered the anxious heart beat behind his ribs.

"Really?" squealed the brunette. "That's so cool! Dr. Appleton is, like, our favorite professor."

"Really?" Riley asked, as much from surprise as to make conversation. This wasn't the Dr. Appleton he'd heard about at all! The girls' expressions turned sincere at this.

"Really. Her grasp of proto-Zoquean Olmec is really amazing," the blonde said. A taller girl with long, straight ginger red hair and flawless crème colored skin stopped to join the conversation.

"Are you talking about Dr. Appleton? She's my hero!" the red-head offered. Riley blinked back his shock and grinned.

"Well, that's part of the reason I'm here," Riley said slowly, building the story one thought at a time. "Her son is my best friend and he's told me so much about her that he brought me with him to introduce us!" Riley fabricated.

"Well, then why didn't you go in with him?" the blonde asked, flipping her shiny hair back over her shoulder. Riley hadn't thought that far ahead.

"Well…that is…it's his *mom*…I mean, I wouldn't want to intrude on his time with his mom!" Riley stammered. The brunette pressed her hand to her chest, against the skin that her close-fitting scoop necked tee-shirt didn't cover.

"Oh, that's so sweet! Isn't he sweet?" she said to her companions.

"He's having you on." A black-haired woman appeared just then, scowling. "I saw a couple other people go in there and *you* stayed out here!"

Riley's brain raced at that. Now what? "Uh, well, the others are my best friend's girlfriend and his dad. Family moment, you know?"

"Rhona, stop being a wet blanket." The brunette poked her friend in the ribs. "Just because Dr. Appleton wouldn't let you turn in the paper you wrote--"

The black-haired woman slapped the other woman's hand away. "I had a perfectly valid reason for not having it done on time and she still refused!"

"You *knew* the due date." The redhead butted in this time. "You had plenty of time to write it!"

Snorting, 'Rhona' turned on her heel and stalked down the hall. The blonde turned back to Riley. "Sorry about Rhona. She's sore because Dr. Appleton is very strict about due dates."

He nodded understandingly, remembering a few professors of his own who'd been like that. "So what do you like about Dr. Appleton aside from her grasp of proto-Zoquean Olmec?"

"She's brilliant!" said the red-head, "and does she look 65? I mean, really?"

"Not a day over 50," said the brunette. "She's really beautiful for a woman her age."

"Rhona takes everything so personally," the blonde added. "If you know that her temper is just part of her personality and you know how to communicate with her then she's really nice. It doesn't hurt to keep up in her class, either."

"Listen to us," giggled the red-head, touching Riley's sleeve. "We've been going on about Dr. Appleton when we haven't even all been introduced! I'm Stacey."

"I'm Jenna, call me J.J.," said the blonde.

"I'm Annette," said the brunette.

"Nice to meet you," Riley said with a smug grin. He would have given a less favored body part to have Ben walk out that door and see him surrounded by beautiful girls. "I'm Riley."

"Ooh, he's even got a cute name," Jenna said to Annette just loud enough for the others to hear.

"What's your major, Riley?" asked Stacey.

"Computer Science…I…actually already graduated," Riley said, settling into the conversation a little but not losing the Prince Charming smile.

"Really?" said Annette.

"You know what they say about geeks, right, girls?" Stacey said with a well executed purr. There was collective laughter and then Riley couldn't be sure, but he thought he saw the looks in their eyes change, though the rest of their expressions remained unaltered. Riley hadn't seen that look directed at him in a very long time.

"The coffee shop is just down the hall here. Would you want to come with us?" Jenna asked, tucking a lock of hair behind her ear.

"I don't know…I think I should—"

"Aw, please?" Stacey pouted. Riley blinked. What was it with him and red-heads?

"Lead on, ladies!" Riley chimed, sitting up and then standing as the girls cheered. Stacey wrapped her hand around his left arm and Annette his right while Jenna walked just ahead of them, occasionally turning back to giggle, or add to the conversation.

Leaning on his arm, Stacey asked, "What do you do with your computer science degree, Riley?"

"I, um, help my friend with computer stuff," he offered, not sure how much he should reveal to them. "He's pretty hopeless when it comes to anything beyond the basics."

Annette purred, nudging her head against his shoulder. "You're such a good friend!"

"Yeah, you could say that." He grinned, preening just a little.

Just as they reached the end of the corridor, a voice called from behind them, "Riley!"

Riley stopped in his tracks to whirl and see Ben, Patrick and Abigail approaching them.

"Guys! What's going on?" he asked in confusion.

"We could ask you the same thing," said Abigail, hiding a snort of laughter.

"Riley, we've got to get going," Ben said. Patrick hadn't said anything, but looked to be fighting between wanting to leave and wanting to laugh. Riley didn't have time to reply before Stacey and Annette each grabbed one of his hands to write their phone numbers on his palms in dark blue and pink ballpoint pen respectively and bold Jenna went for the cell phone in his pants pocket. She was going to make *sure* Riley called her. Jenna tucked the phone back where she'd found it, Annette ruffled his hair and Stacey swatted his butt as the trio walked away, smiling and waving as they called, "Bye, Riley!" and "Don't forget to call!"

Riley slowly smoothed his hair and his jacket before turning to look at Ben, who had the decency to wait until the girls were out of sight before he started laughing and shaking his head. He draped his arm around Riley's neck and pulled him along with them toward the exit.

"What are we going to do with you, Mr. Poole?"

"Your mother did all three of those things to me on our first date," Patrick chuckled. Ben stopped just outside the door.

"Too much information, dad," Ben whined.

"Between that and her line about excitement, adrenaline and tequila, that had to be some date!" Abigail said as they moved down the sidewalk.

"Well, at least we know where the other half of the map is," said Ben in a last ditch effort to change the subject.

THE END