Testing a Theory

Disclaimer: QOS Characters belong to Fireworks Entertainment. I'm just borrowing them for the time being.

Rating: PG-13

Synopsis: After his last encounter with the Queen, Grisham is trying to put 2 and 2 together. Will he come up with the right answer? Sequel to "Midnight Visitation".

Grisham paced the length of his quarters, insomnia once again getting the better of him. It had been a week since THE KISS—a week since he'd been able to sleep for more than an hour a night. A thousand questions raced through his mind, as they had every night since IT happened. That kiss had been eerily similar to the one he'd gotten from Senorita Alvarado last year. No matter how much time passed, that one moment would remain fresh in his memory. Her red dress strategically placed on her shoulders which showed off just enough to have him begging for more. The slow, deliberate, seductive movements of her lusciously curved body as she danced for him. That first gentle press of her lips to his, followed by one that was far more intense, as her needs and desires quickly became as evident as his own. For that one, brief moment, Grisham had felt like he was touching Heaven. And then, just like that, it was gone. She was gone, leaving him alone once more. And up until last week, he thought he'd never feel that way again. Kissing the Queen had sent him soaring to even greater heights before her sudden need to be elsewhere had brought him crashing back down to earth.

It hadn't taken long to make the connection, but Grisham was going crazy trying to reconcile the two. How could the meek, vapid, fragile Tessa, known to faint at the slightest provocation, possibly be the brash, intelligent, courageous Queen who kicked his ass on a weekly basis? The only remotely logical explanation he'd been able to come up with so far was that the Queen of Swords was the "real" Tessa, while the flighty, doctor-obsessed Dona was a ruse to keep someone like him from suspecting anything.

The more Grisham thought about it, the more sense that theory made. There were several incidents he could recall where Tessa had acted strangely out of character, only to cover it up with a faint or some feeble excuse. Like the time when she stopped Vera's runaway carriage. Or the incident with that blowhard Antonio. No one else seemed to have noticed it, but he could clearly remember seeing Tessa holding a gun, ready to shoot the boy right off his horse. Though her hand had been shaking, he could tell that she knew exactly what she was doing with that weapon. And last time he checked, gunplay wasn't exactly a popular subject in finishing schools.

There had been other things too. Other little incidents that should've tipped him off, but somehow didn't. But the thing with Antonio is what stuck out foremost in his mind, mostly because it was the first time Grisham had realized that he might have actual feelings for the young Dona. He'd shot Antonio out of jealousy more than duty, but seeing her reaction to the boy's death had damn near broken his heart.

Afterwards, the tried his hardest to suppress those feelings and concentrate on what he did have with Vera and might have with the Queen. His relationship with the lovely Vera, no matter how hard he may try to fool himself into thinking otherwise, was purely physical. Nothing more.

He was attracted to the Queen on a physical level too, no denying that one, but that attraction went beyond what was on the surface. He admired her spirit, her cunning, and, though he'd never admit it publicly, he enjoyed watching her stick it to Montoya. Something he always wished he could do but never tried for fear of what might happen.

And Tessa…to Grisham, she was the perfect woman. The unattainable dream. Something he wanted desperately but knew he'd never be able to have. After all, a common soldier, even one as high in rank as he, hardly topped the list of potential grooms for a young aristocrat such as her.

Now, if his theory was right—if Tessa Alvarado really was the Queen, it could work either for or against him. Either it would make Tessa that much more attainable, because being the Queen would prove that she didn't put that much stock in things like class and money. Or, it would put the Queen even further out of his reach, because there had to be a reason Tessa decided to do this and Grisham would lay odds that he and Montoya were somehow involved.

There was only one way to prove whether his theory was right or not. He'd have to arrange another meeting between them, this time through Tessa. Or, more accurately, Tessa's gypsy servant, as neither the senorita nor her alter-ego had been seen in town since the KISS. Slowly, a plan began to take shape. While in town tomorrow, he'd slip a note into the gypsy's basket—one addressed to Tessa, of course. In it, he'd ask her to meet him at midnight in a place only the Queen would know about. Of course, he'd have to word it carefully so only the Queen would be able to figure out where. Come midnight, he'd know for sure if the bandit Queen and the flighty Dona were indeed one and the same. Now that he had a plan, Grisham finally stopped pacing and, for the first time in a week, was able to get a decent night's sleep.

Grisham awoke the next morning feeling totally refreshed and ready to put his plan into action. He wrote a carefully coded note which, hopefully, would bring Tessa to the collapsed mine where they almost…well, actually, they didn't get to do anything. She stripped down to her unmentionables and stole his uniform, leaving him in his. Still, it was a moment, and one that only the Queen would know about, because he highly doubted that she'd admit what happened to anyone and let them live to tell the tale.

Returning from that brief mental detour, Grisham finished the note, making sure it was addressed to Tessa, stuffed it inside his shirt and headed out the door to start his rounds.

His opportunity came in the early afternoon when he spotted Senorita Alvarado's gypsy in the marketplace. She was alone, which meant that Tessa was still avoiding him. Oh well. If his plan worked, they'd be seeing each other again very soon.

Vera approached the servant, probably to ask where Tessa was, and Grisham chose that moment to make his move. He made a beeline for Senora Hidalgo, "accidentally" bumping into the gypsy woman in the process.

"Excuse me…" Damn…strike one already. He must have hit her a little harder than he'd intended, because instead of just nudging her Grisham had actually knocked her over, spilling the contents of her basket. "Jesus…I am so sorry…here, let me help you with that." He dropped down and started gathering up the strewn fruits, slyly slipping the note in with them as he returned the items to the basket.

"I don't need your help!" the gitana snapped angrily, snatching the basket away.

"I apologize, Senora. I meant no offense."

"Just watch where you're going from now on, and don't let yourself be so easily…distracted."

Grisham stole a glance at the retreating Vera Hidalgo, who apparently had decided to leave rather than witness the Captain making an ass of himself in public. Bitch.

"Yeah…well…it won't happen again, I assure you. Uh…your mistress wouldn't be around by any chance, would she?"

"I'm afraid that Senorita Alvarado has taken ill."

Sick of me, no doubt. "That's too bad. Would you be so kind as to tell her that I hope she recovers soon. Things are starting to get pretty dull around here…" Shit! Strike two. The Queen's the one that livens things up, not Tessa. "Um…what I meant to say was…uh…that Montoya's having another fiesta soon and I was kinda hoping that she'd give me the honor of escorting her there…or at least let me dance with her a few times." The gypsy arched a skeptical eyebrow at him, as if trying to read a deeper meaning into his words. Strike three.

"I'll see that she gets your message. Good day, Capitan." She brushed by him without another word, or even as much as a second glance. Great. Now she probably thinks I'm the world's biggest jackass. Oh well. At least Tessa will get the note. Come tonight, I'll know the truth. Question is, what do I do with it?

The End?