Author's Note: I don't know what inspired me to write this, I think after I watched the movie, 3,000 miles to Graceland, ideas started to pop up in my head. Anyway, this is the prologue, it's all about Matt and T.K.'s parents before they were born. The rest of the story will be about Matt and T.K. Anyways, hope you like. It's rather long.
Rating: PG-13, for guns and stuff.
Disclaimer: Don't own it, wished I did, but I don't. Don't wanna hear me complain? Then I won't.
The young lady took a deep breath and smiled as she walked up the steps to the main entrance of the office building. She wore an off-white buttoned down blouse that was tucked into a light blue skirt that fell just below her knees. She stopped outside a pair of double doors and gazed at her reflection in the glass. Her hair was short and light brown, she wore it straight. She checked to make sure her stockings had no runs and clutched her purse to her side as she squeezed her eyes shut and proceeded through the front door.
It was Nancy Takaishi's first day on the job as a writer for the newspaper, and she really wanted to make a good impression with the editor. She casually strolled over to the front desk, trying to act non-chalant, as if she had been there a thousand times in the past. She glanced down at the receptionist, who seemed to look friendly and quietly asked to speak to Mr. Yokohana.
"Excuse me Miss, but you'll have to speak up." The lady replied, adjusting her thick-framed glasses.
"Uh, Mr. Yokohana please." She answered nervously, her air of confidence already beginning to deteriorate.
"Oh, you must be the new girl." The stout woman replied. She pushed a button on her intercom, "Hey Earl! New kid's here to see ya!" she practically hollered into the little device.
Nancy bit her lip and began to glance around nervously.
"He says to come right in," the lady finally said, after what seemed like hours of waiting.
"Through that door?" Nancy questioned, pointing to the door marked "Press Room."
The pudgy little woman stood up and adjusted her glasses while squinting her eyes, "Uh, do ya see any others girlie?" she replied sarcastically.
Nancy looked around and realized that it was the only door there. Now she felt extremely embarrassed, her face began to glow a pinkish hue and she covered it with one hand as she pushed through the door.
She heard a loud thud and saw papers go flying in every direction in front of her.
"Oh my!" she exclaimed and peered around the door to see that she had accidentally knocked somebody over. Things were really not going well, she thought. The man laying on the floor glared up at her and let out a long, dramatic sigh.
"Now I gotta re-organize all of these all over again!" he complained as he began to gather up the loose papers.
Nancy knelt down to help him. "I'm terribly sorry," she said, offering him some of the papers. He snatched them from her hand, "Yeah, yeah. Thanks lady, I really appreciate your sympathy." He said dryly. Nancy was almost compelled to turn back around and head back to her car. When all the papers had been collected, she wandered down one of the cubicle aisles in search of Mr. Yokohana. The news room was very loud, and the constant ding of typewriter carriages and the inaudible drone of voices only added to Nancy's confusion. She finally managed to find a door marked "Editor-in-Chief." She took a deep breath and placed her hand on the doorknob, praying that Mr. Yokohana was not standing behind the door. She didn't want any more accidents on her record.
As Nancy entered the small office, she noticed a large desk in the center of the room, with a nameplate that read E. Yokohana in bold lettering. The chair was facing the opposite wall and Nancy quietly cleared her throat, trying to catch his attention.
"Excuse me?" she said tentatively.
"Yes," was the stern reply as the chair swiveled around to reveal an elderly looking man, perhaps in his late forties. He had dark rings under his eyes, which reminded Nancy of a raccoon. His tie was crooked and only halfway fastened, while his hair looked as if he had never even ran a comb through it that morning.
"Good morning, sir. Nancy Takaishi, reporting for work." She managed.
"Ah, yes. The new girl." He smiled as he cracked his knuckles. "So, tell me a little about yourself, Nancy." He said, indicating for her to have a seat in one of the chairs in front of his desk.
"Thank you." She replied as she seated herself. "Well, there's really not much to tell, I'm very anxious to get started. As you can see by my resume, I'm an experienced writer. I wrote for my college's school news—," Mr. Yokohana raised a hand to silence her.
"Well Nancy, let me start off by saying that this is not your "school" newspaper. This job will require you to do more than interview the lunch ladies about the mystery behind the mystery meat."
"I know that sir…" she replied, but was once again interrupted.
"Let me finish…I usually put my first-timers to a test. I want to see how well your journalism skills are." He said and raised his eyebrow, waiting for any objections from the young lady. When he saw that she had his undivided attention, he went on. "I know you can write, hell, I could even have the receptionist out there write for this paper, but that's not the point. The point is, in order to work here, you gotta be able to find the stories. So, if you're still interested your first assignment is to get me a worthwhile story. If you can do that, then you've got yourself a job."
Nancy smiled, "Oh yes sir, I can do that." She chirped enthusiastically. "Thank you sir, I'll get right on it." She said shaking his hand. He cracked a smile and nodded as she made her way out of his office.
"She's got enthusiasm." He commented, "I like that in a journalist." He said as he sat back down at his desk. "I think she'll do alright."
Nancy hurried down the steps outside the building. She opened her purse and fumbled around for her car keys as she dashed across the parking lot towards her vehicle.
"Okay, big story Nancy. That's what you need to show these guys."she said to herself as she sat down in the driver's seat. Her brow furrowed and she let out a small sigh. "Where am I going to find a story that will really show off my skills as a good journalist?" After much thought, she finally decided to cruise around town in search of her story.
A few blocks up the street, Nancy swore she saw smoke rising up from one of the buildings. "A fire!" she exclaimed as she slammed on her brakes and jerked the car to the side of the road. She leapt out of the car and sprinted up the street, pencil and notepad in hand. The young woman skidded to a halt in front of a few fire trucks and weaved in and out of a line of police cars and ambulances. When she had finally managed to get within good range of the building itself she realized that there was already a news crew from the local t.v. station covering the story. She let out a frustrated sigh before she was mowed down from behind by at least ten other news reporters. Nancy lay on the ground in a heap.
A tall, young man with chestnut brown hair eyed her from the distance. He had been the reporter who was first on the scene. He signaled for his cameraman to cut and stuck his microphone in his back pocket as he smoothly made his way over to Nancy.
"Need a hand?" he asked as he offered his to her.
"Why thank you." She said as she brushed a stray lock of hair out of her face. Her hand met his and he clutched it and pulled Nancy to her feet.
"Are you alright?" he asked concerned.
"I think so…" she began and then realized who she was speaking to. She immediately pulled her hand back and dusted herself off. "If you'll excuse me, I have a story to find." She said arrogantly as she shoved past him and stormed back up the street to her car.
"Dude, what's her problem?" the reporter's cameraman asked, scratching his head.
"I don't know? You'd think she'd be grateful?" he replied. "Well, Jim, let's get this footage back to the t.v. station, it'll make a great six o'clock story."
"Sure thing boss." The cameraman replied, hoisting his camcorder over his shoulder. The two headed back to their van and sped off down the street.
Once she was back at her car, Nancy began to feel guilty for how she treated the young reporter, who was only trying to help her, but her mind was still tainted with jealousy at the fact that he had arrived first. There was no way she wanted second hand news. After all, this was her first assignment, it had to be meaningful! She had to impress the editor, didn't she?
Nancy stuck her key in the ignition and took off down the road. A few hours later she had come to the scene of another newsworthy story, a car accident in the center of town. She stepped out of her automobile, but the minute she looked on the scene a scowl crossed her face. There he was again! Nancy thought as she eyed the young man suspiciously. She let out a slight groan and hopped back into her car.
This continued throughout the rest of the day. It seemed wherever she found a prospective story, her little acquaintance was already one step ahead of her. Nancy had finally had enough of it. She stamped her foot on the ground in frustration.
"So we meet again." The reporter smiled as he ran over to her. This time they stood in front of a liquor store that had just been robbed. He hopped over the police tape and landed squarely in front of her, blocking any exit she would have had.
"What do you want?" she said folding her arms as she cocked her head to one side to avoid eye contact. "Why don't you just go ahead and steal all my stories!" she spat, but quickly covered her mouth when she realized the last few lines were actually spoken.
The young man stood stunned, he had no idea she thought of him that way.
"Uh…I didn't even get your name before…" he said, awkwardly fidgeting.
Nancy noticed his nervous behavior and decided to give him a break, she had been a little out of line earlier.
"Nancy Takaishi," she said holding out her hand. "I'm a journalist with the Odaiba Chronicle."
"Malcolm Ishida," he replied shaking her hand, "Channel 3 News."
"Well, do excuse me Mr. Ishida, but as you can see I have had an extremely rough day, I'm going home now. It was a pleasure to meet you." She said insincerely as she turned on her heel and headed back to her car.
"Hmmm…" Malcolm sighed as he watched her drive off.
The next morning, Nancy was up bright and early and on the job. She decided that maybe her best bet was to walk around town. All the driving she had done the day prior left her fruitless, with an empty tank to match. So walking would be a different approach, she thought, trying to convince herself.
She had been walking for hours and the sun was beating down relentlessly. She had been to over twenty businesses that day trying to find some huge story, but she always seemed to turn up empty.
"I don't know," she sighed, "maybe I just need to set my sights lower." She gazed up to see the last building on the block. It was a large bank, she knew it would have air conditioning and at least she could sit down and take a break. Her feet were killing her, no doubt she had acquired a number of blisters by now. She began to approach the bank, but stopped suddenly when a black Lincoln whizzed by her nearly knocking her off the curb. It screeched to a halt just outside the bank doors and four seedy looking men exited the vehicle wearing black suits and sunglasses. Each carried a large briefcase.
"Hmmm…"Nancy thought as she peered around the side of the bank wall. Perhaps these were bank robbers, wouldn't that make a great story! She didn't want to jump to any conclusions, and decided that the best thing to do was follow her inquisitive side and investigate.
Nancy slid inside the bank, without so much as a second glance from any of the busy bank tellers. She glanced back and forth in search of the four men when she saw them entering an elevator. Nancy rushed towards the elevators and looked up to see what floor they were getting off on. She hopped into the nearest lift and hit the button for the top floor.
She cautiously exited the elevator, just in case the men were still in the hall. She crept down the hall with feline-like stealth and poked her head around the corner in time to catch a glimpse of a black trench coat as a door shut behind it. Nancy flattened herself against the wall and let out a relieved sigh, so far, so good, she thought. The young journalist peered around the corner again, checking to make sure everything was clear before she made her way over to where she had last seen the four men.
Nancy pressed her ear to the door and just as expected, she heard voices. The men were speaking rather casually about sports and the stock market, and such. Nancy soon became bored and felt like she had just wasted her time with her crazy suspicions. Before leaving though, she thought she'd catch a peek of these guys and stooped down to the keyhole.
"This always works in the movies," she silently cursed when she realized she could not see anything through the keyhole. Nancy stood up and turned to go, but neglected to notice the man standing directly behind her. She spun around and ran right into him.
Nancy was startled and took a few steps back as the man reached out and clamped his hand over her mouth.
"Shhhhhh…" he whispered, bringing his index finger up to his lips.
Nancy grabbed his hand and threw it back at him.
"What do you want!?" she began, before he placed his hand back over her mouth. When she started to retaliate again he grabbed her by the waist and pulled her back around the corner and into one of the waiting elevators.
"Listen," he said glancing around the elevator as if someone else could hear them, "stay quiet okay."
"I am not going to be quiet!" she said in a hushed whisper. "What are you doing here anyway? Are you following me!?" she said and began to go on about how that was his game and how he was stealing all her good stories when Malcolm Ishida quickly placed his hand over her mouth for a third time.
"Look, I'll tell you what's going on if you just stay quiet for a few minutes. You have no idea the danger you are in right now!"
Nancy gave him a suspicious look as she squinted her eyes and looked into his. He did have very nice eyes she mused, but shook her head to clear that little unexpected thought. After a few seconds, she decided that she would believe him.
"Alright, spill it." she said in a sassy tone, trying to act like she had some sort of control.
"Okay, I made this deal with the cops, so right now I'm sort of undercover, anyway I have this little recorder on me and I'm supposed to pretend to be a client…" he was interrupted by Nancy flailing her arms back and forth in front of him.
"Whoa…whoa…whoa…you lost me there. I got everything about the cops, but why?"
"I was getting to that," he said impatiently. "Those four guys you saw, they are a part of this big money laundering scheme, but the cops haven't been able to nail them because they lack evidence, so I'm going to get that evidence for them." he smiled, holding up the mini-recorder for her to see. "And all I get in return is the rights to the story." he grinned.
Wow, Nancy thought, this would be a great story…but her mind trailed off again, as she was reminded of the last few lines he had uttered. She just couldn't let this story pass her by though, she had to think of a way that she could cover it. When she couldn't think of anyway of getting the story she just came flat out and said it to him.
"Alright Ishida, this is my story!"
The young man started to chuckle at the notion. "You're kidding right?"
"No, I'm serious," she stammered, "I-I need…er…I tracked this story first." She lied, trying to sound authoritative.
"Really?" Malcolm replied skeptically.
"Of course…why do you think I was up here spying on those guys?"
Malcolm scratched his head, but then he became angry, "This is foolish Nancy. You're in over your head. Just let me cover this story and next time we meet I'll let you have it."
Nancy clenched her fists, she was becoming more frustrated by the minute. She had spent two days wandering the city for something big and now that she found it, this guy who seemed to attract the stories like flies going after honey, he…HE…wanted her to back off?
The elevator came to a stop on the bottom floor and the doors slid open. Malcolm started to usher Nancy out of the elevator, when she turned back around and shoved him back in. Malcolm slammed into the wall and before he could react, Nancy hit the button to go back up to the top floor.
"What are you doing?" he shouted.
"I'm going back up there to get my story!"
Malcolm decided that he had had enough of this girl's stubborn foolishness and marched over to the wall panel and hit the emergency stop button. The elevator lurched to a halt.
"What did you do that for?" she hollered at him.
"You're getting off right now and going back downstairs!" he shot back as he began to pry open the elevator doors with his hands.
"And I don't want anymore complaints," he said wagging his finger at her, as the doors slid open partially. "This is no place for a rookie…" he started to say as he reached for her hand and was about to step out of the elevator when he looked too late and saw that they were in between floors.
"Malcolm watch out!!" she screamed as he put one foot out into thin air and fell out of the elevator.
Nancy leapt towards him, her arm outstretched, as she reached to grasp his hand. She felt his fingers lace around her arm and she braced herself against the elevator door with her free hand.
She looked down to see the terrified face of Malcolm Ishida staring wide-eyed back up at her. He watched as a slow, evil smirk spread across her face.
"So…Who's covering this story?" she smiled.
Malcolm bowed his head in defeat, "Fine, just pull me up already." He sighed, hating to give in to her, but his life was in her hands at the moment.
Moments later, Malcolm was safely back in the elevator, briefing Nancy on her part.
"Okay, here," he said as he shoved a small electrical device into the palm of her hand. "Use this tape recorder when I start talking to these guys."
"Am I going to be in the room with you?" she asked nervously.
"No, you'll be outside. Your recording will be for your story, consider that a gift," he said motioning to the recorder, "the one I'm wearing will be for the cops."
Nancy rolled the electronic device around in her hand, "So you're really going to let me have this story?" she asked gazing down into her palm.
Malcolm gave her a side ward glance, "What the heck?" he sighed, "Might as well give you a break since this is your first assignment." He finished, leaving out the part about how he started to feel strongly attracted to her. Malcolm shook his head, this was no time to be thinking about things like that, he reminded himself.
The two exited the elevator and headed down the hall towards the door they had first encountered each other at earlier. The young man reached up and began to pry a small vent from the ceiling.
"This ventilation shaft goes directly above this room." He explained.
"You don't honestly think I'm going…" she started until he gave her a look which she took to mean, do it or leave. She bit her lower lip and let out a small sigh. "Give me a lift."
With that Malcolm hoisted her up over his shoulders as she pulled herself through the tight corridor.
"Remember, be quiet." He whispered up to her before he straightened his tie and prepared to enter the room.
"Please excuse me gentlemen, I apologize for being late. I had a little elevator trouble if you know what I mean." Malcolm said rolling his eyes as he casually sat down in the nearest vacant seat.
One of the men stood up to greet him. From Nancy's perspective, she figured him to be the ringleader of the group. She had barely enough room to reach into her pocket and retrieve the small recorder, when he began to talk again.
"See that it doesn't happen again, you know how I despise tardiness." The man stated.
"Shall we get down to business?" Malcolm suggested.
About twenty minutes into the meeting, Nancy began to feel extremely uncomfortable and wondered how much longer she would have to remain in her cramped surroundings. If only there were a way for her to get a better recording and also a more comfortable position. She decided that maybe she would be able to move closer to the air vent without making too much noise It was worth a try, she thought, as she slowly began to inch forwards.
"Perfect," she whispered. She was now directly above the small opening. Nancy began to fumble with the recorder, trying to find the best place to prop it up so she wouldn't have to hold it the entire time. She took great caution not to drop it in between the vent grating. Another fifteen minutes had gone by and Nancy let out another sigh. The situation was fairly exciting, and she wasn't at all bored, she was just tired of being cooped up in the ventilation shaft for more than half an hour.
"This is what you wanted after all," Nancy said to herself. After some time she started to notice something crawling towards her.
"A spider!" she yelped clamping her hands over her mouth. She started to back out of the ventilation shaft as it came ever so closer to her. Nancy reached down to grab her shoe, but the spider moved too fast and lunged in her general direction. Nancy held back a scream as she flung her shoe at the spider. She despised spiders. The shoe bounced off the top of the duct work and succeeded in knocking the small recorder over. Nancy watched in horror as it teetered over the edge of the small vent openings. She dove to save it, but was too late, and squeezed her eyes shut as she heard it clatter onto the table below.
The room below filled with silence, as the leader of the group reached out and picked up the recorder. He glanced over at Malcolm and noticed he was tugging at his shirt collar rather nervously, and beads of sweat began to form around his face.
"Hmmm…I smell a set-up," he hissed and signaled to the rest of his men, who all stood up in unison. Malcolm noticed at that time, that they were all brandishing guns. He reached into his coat pocket and hit a small button on his hidden recording device. The button sent a signal to a police van parked outside, monitoring the whole situation.
"Let's go!" hollered one of the police officers as he pulled on a bullet-proof vest. Now all Malcolm could do was wait for back-up, and pray they'd get there in time.
Nancy stared wide-eyed down at the men with guns. She knew she had to get out of there fast. She squeezed back down the passage and hopped down from the ceiling, landing right outside the door to the conference room.
The men attached silencers to their guns and began to fire up at the ventilation shaft. Malcolm could only watch in slight horror as the bullets ricocheted right and left, entering and exiting the ceiling. He ducked behind the large table.
"Stop it you idiots!" shouted the leader, as he took cover as well.
Malcolm only hoped that Nancy had enough sense to get out of there, but now that was the least of his concerns, as he felt a cold piece of metal spear him in the back.
"Get on your feet!" his captor yelled, and he obeyed.
"What should we do with this guy, Murphy?" one of the men asked.
Murphy walked over to where the young man stood with his arms up. He reached into Malcolm's coat pocket and ripped out the recorder.
"You a cop?" he sneered, eyeing the recorder before chucking it to the ground and stepping on it.
"N..No. A reporter." Malcolm grinned sheepishly.
Murphy whipped out a gun and aimed it directly at Malcolm's forehead.
"Well, I'm afraid this is one story you ain't gonna get." he chuckled, waving the gun around maliciously.
At that moment Nancy burst through the door, everyone turned around in surprise. She had know idea what she was doing, but she couldn't let them kill Malcolm over her stupid mistake.
"Hold it!" she screamed. Murphy turned around and started to laugh at her.
"What do you want lady?" he said fixing the gun on her.
"Uh…." her mind went blank for a few seconds, all she had wanted to do was stop them from killing Malcolm. She glanced across the room and made eye contact with him. "RUN!!" she screamed, as she turned around and began to sprint down the hall. Malcolm dove underneath the table as the guns started firing after her. Murphy swung his head back around to see Malcolm gone. This was his chance, while everyone stood looking around in confusion, he tore out from under the table and pounded down the hallway in pursuit of Nancy.
"Get after them!" Murphy yelled, but as the other three men were about to pile out of the room, a group of cops barricaded them in.
"Freeze!" yelled one of them, as they all trained their weapons on the four men. "Drop your weapons!"
Malcolm finally caught up with Nancy and they turned to see the line of policemen dragging the criminals off in handcuffs. Murphy glared at the two as they passed.
"I won't forget this." He hissed.
"Great job Ishida, we got it all on tape." One of the officers congratulated.
Malcolm looked back at Nancy and noticed she was only wearing one shoe. "You okay?"
"You know, that's twice I saved your life." She replied smugly.
Malcolm stood dumbstruck, "My life wouldn't have been in any danger either time if it wasn't for you!" he stammered.
Nancy only smiled coyly and walked away, glancing over her shoulder and holding up the tape recorder.
"How did you…" he started, as she flashed him a big smile. He sighed and rolled his eyes, "I have a headache." he whined, clutching his forehead.
….The next day….
Malcolm Ishida's telephone rang and he stumbled out of bed to answer it.
"Hello.." he said groggily.
"Malcolm!" Nancy chirped on the other end. "He loved it! Mr. Yokohana was thrilled with my story! Thank you so much!"
Malcolm scratched his head and yawned, "Is that what you woke me up for? To gloat?"
"Well…" Nancy giggled, "That and I was wondering if you were doing anything later on tonight?"
Malcolm's eyes immediately shot open after that remark, "Uh…no, I'm not busy at all!" he smiled.
……
And the rest is history…I mean you know what happens next…they date…they get married…have kids…sound familiar?
……
to be continued…
End note: Well, if you've read this far, then I congratulate you! This is the prologue of my next story, it's supposed to give a little background info, so you know how the next series of events connect. It's also my take on how Matt and T.K.'s parents met, which I don't think has ever been done before. lol. Anyways, I promise, the next part in the story is gonna be all about Matt and T.K.! They are the main characters after all. Hope you enjoyed, and sorry if this seemed a little too boring, but I felt it was necessary. ^_^ R+R please.
Also, in this part of the story, Nancy and Malcolm are in their early twenties and just starting out. Somebody told me what Matt's father's name was in Japanese, forgive me for not giving you credit whoever told me, anyways I'm using his English equivalent name, which I believe Spryte64 told me. Anyway, that's all for now!
