(Author's Note: My apologies for another long delay in updating. Again real life has prevented me from doing any writing, I run a small business and the holiday rush is my busiest time of the year! But I am determined to finish this story so no one is left hanging.)
Steele reached the gate of the cemetery fence, which looked old and rusty, but had a brand new padlock on it. Glancing up at the sharp points on the top of the fence, he dropped to his knees and began to twirl the dial and listen for the subtle sounds of the tumblers falling into place. These were much harder to do than safes, but he had bad memories of trying to go over a pointed fence and would keep that as a last resort. After what seemed like a small eternity, the last 'snick' could be heard and the lock was open. He pulled it loose from the gate and entered the cemetery. Around the perimeter were old faded crosses and a couple of granite markers. Up against the side of the church were four tombstones looking brand new, with the tombstones set up as two pairs. The grave on the far right was open, and the grave next to his was freshly filled in. With a feeling of dread that he had found Laura, he moved closer. Approaching them carefully, he began to scan the text on the four stones.
The stone on the far left read "Major Percy Descoine" followed by his birthdate and death date, only 4 months earlier. Steele frowned, wondering why Detective Jarvis hadn't said anything if their nemesis had died in prison. Below that it said, "Beloved husband and father who was misunderstood by the world". The stone next to is said, "Lily Martin" with her birthdate and death date, and below that it said, "May Good Fortune Follow Her Always". The stone next to it, over the freshly filled in grave chilled Steele's heart. It said, "Laura Holt Steele" with her birth date and what would be today's date for a death date, followed by "Killed by her husband, how unlucky was she?". The last stone standing over the open grave had his own name, the birth date Laura had given Remington Steele and today's date for a death date, followed by "Finally Got What He Deserved".
His eyes darted back over to Laura's tombstone. It said unlucky, and it was a grave, and obviously fresh. Laura must have been buried alive in the graveyard. Glancing up at the clock, he had just 2 hours to dig her out before her air supply would run out! Looking around, he found a shovel in a pile of dirt, waiting to fill in the last of the graves. He dropped to his knees and yelled down into the dirt, having no idea if Laura would be able to hear him. "Laura! I'm going to get you out of there Laura, just hang on!" He jumped up, grabbed the shovel and began to dig Laura out of her grave, praying under his breath that he wasn't going to be too late.
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Laura had just finished rolling back over onto her back when she heard a faint voice from above her, "Laura..." "...just hang on!". *It was Steele! He was still alive!* "I'm here! I'm here!" She began to scream and pound on the lid of the box before catching herself and forcing herself to relax. Using up her air supply by shouting wouldn't help her, she needed to wait until he was much closer and would stand a better chance of hearing her. Closing her eyes, she forced herself to relax and strained her ears to hear any sound of his efforts to reach her getting close enough.
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Steele had done many jobs in his shadowy past, but grave digger was definitely not one of them. He had to stop for breath regularly, having not eaten for at least a day was taking its toll on his strength, and the dirt seemed to have a lot of clay in it and was compacted, so it seemed to be an agonizingly slow process to make any headway digging down. Minor probably had done something to make it as difficult as possible for him to get her out. His frustration rose and fired him up for a few more digs, and when he had to take a break he would yell down to Laura, "I'm coming, Laura, just hang on for me, luv." He kept glancing up at the clock, and knew that at the rate he was going, by the time he reached a depth of 6 feet, where he expected to find Laura in a coffin, he'd only have minutes to spare.
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Eventually Laura could hear the sounds of a shovel hitting dirt and Steele's shouts seemed to be getting closer, but the longer she waited, the more something didn't seem right. She had no idea how much time had past until it sounded like he was almost on top of her - but off to the left, not above her. She couldn't figure out what that meant, and began to get light headed. She was fearful that her air supply might be running low and tried to slow her breathing on concentrate.
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With only 5 minutes left on the clock, Steele's shovel finally hit the lit of a coffin. He banged on it several times with the shovel, shouting, "Laura! I'm here, I'm here!" and used the shovel to clear the dirt away from the lid, looking for the hinges or latch so he could open it. Finding the latch, he dropped to his knees, and prepared to undo the lock and pull himself out of the way as he opened the lid.
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Laura's relaxation techniques fought off the fuzzy feeling in her head, and she realized she could definitely hear Steele and his voice was definitely coming from the left. She had a sudden sinking feeling that Minor Descoine had one last trap up her sleeve, and she needed to get Steele's attention somehow. Rolling over onto her left side, she put her face right up against the side of the box and taking a deep breath, screamed as loudly as she could, "REM-ING-TON!" The fuzzy feeling returned and she passed out.
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Steele had just undone the latch and was trying to figure out how to open the lid while he was on top of it when he clearly heard a voice shout "REM-ING-TON", but it was coming from his left, not beneath him! Turning he looked at the wall of the hole had dug, and could see a couple of places where his digging efforts had knocked the earth away from portions of a black wall. Looking down at the coffin below him, he knew he would only have time to try one option before Laura ran out of time. Could Laura's voice be one of Minor's trick to prevent him from getting Laura out in time? Or was the real trap beneath his knees? Steele was frozen with indecision before picking up the shovel and using it to scrape away more of the dirt from the black wall. He soon found the edges of a panel and clearing it away, found a simple latch holding it closed. As the steeple clock began to chime, he looked back down. Only one chance to pick the right one, as he felt fairly certain the wrong choice would have explosive consequences.
Taking a deep breath, he twisted the latch on the panel and pulled it open, and an unconscious Laura dressed in one of Minor's period dresses fell into his arms. He grabbed her to him tightly for an instant in fear that he was too late, but he could feel her breath upon his neck. He lifted her out of the grave and then climbed up after her, being careful not to jar the coffin beneath him. He picked Laura up and glanced back at the grave marker over Lily's grave, where Laura had actually been hidden. "Good Fortune... Good Luck," he murmured, and moved away from the graveyard, trying to think of a safe place to shelter them until Laura regained consciousness. He didn't dare leave her unprotected to go after Minor alone, no badly how badly he wanted to do so. He knew Minor was probably watching his every move as well, and probably had every building in the place wired to blow up. He finally settled for moving back behind the church, in the lee side of a small hill that provided enough shade from the sun to lay Laura down, and he could keep an eye on the town in front of him. He stroked Laura's hair, murmuring to her softly, his Irish brogue become thick as the emotion of what had happened began to hit him. He had been so focused on what he thought the answer was, he had probably almost killed them both by opening the wrong coffin. Which is of course exactly what Minor Descoine had planned.
Laura began to stir after only a few minutes out in the fresh air. She blinked her eyes open and then covered them with an arm, the bright light of day too much for her dark-adjusted eyes to take. Steele pulled her up into his chest, blocking the sun from her face and almost preventing her from being able to breathe again as he squeezed her tightly, "Laura, Laura-love, I thought I'd lost ya, I did." Laura wrapped her arms around him and just held on, she could feel Steele's tears dropping on her head, and knowing he hated to show emotion was contented to listen to his heartbeat under her ear. They sat like that in near silence for several minutes until a loud screeching yell of "NO!" could be heard coming from the church.
Steele looked up, and saw Minor Descoine had emerged from a secret door in the side of the church behind the graves and stood glaring in their direction, hands balled up in fists at her sides. She was screaming at them, "How did you figure it out? You were supposed to die! You have to pay for what you did to them, it's my duty to make you pay!" She took a few steps towards them, obviously completely lost in her anger at being thwarted, and slipped on the loose dirt and fell into one of the two open graves. She began to pull herself out the other side, and reached back, her dress caught on something beneath her. Steele's eyes widened with realization at what it probably was and he barely had time to duck his head next to Laura's before the church and graveyard exploded in a large fireball. Steele hugged Laura to him and said loudly in her ear, "Minor fell into your grave. Her dress must have gotten caught on the coffin that was buried under your gravestone. That was the booby trap, and I had unlatched it but not opened it. When she tried to pull her dress free, she opened the lid, and everything exploded." They sat there for awhile, letting the fire engulf the church. Finally Steele rose, "I need to see if she had a vehicle we can use. Stay here in the shade." He tried to shift her off of him, but she latched on and hoarsely said, "No, where you go, I go." She reached down and ripped a piece of fabric from the bottom of the ugly dress and blindfolded herself to minimize the light as much as she could, and held a hand out to be led back into the ghost town. Steele smiled, feeling a rise of feeling at this simple sign of trust on her part, and took her hand and returned to the city. It didn't take long for them to find the horses that had been spooked by the explosion in their pen, and Steele helped Laura mount one and then climbed up behind her, holding the reins of the second horse to bring him along. He had no idea which way civilization was, but figured eventually one direction would have to lead to civilization. Any supplies Minor had probably were in the church and were destroyed along with her.
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Luck was with the Steeles, as they came to a highway after about an hour's ride. Laura dozed against his chest as they rode along. Once they reached the highway, he started heading west and waiting for a car to come along. Another hour and they found a delivery truck coming up behind them and stopping, the trucker happy to use his radio to call for assistance for the couple. Steele was surprised they were only a couple of hours away from L.A., and it didn't take long for an ambulance to come and take both of the Steeles to the hospital. Except for minor cuts and dehydration, they were both fine, and Mildred called to come and fetch them from the hospital. Mildred arrived with the details of how Fred was found in the alleyway unconscious, and everyone had been searching for the Steeles and the limo since they had disappeared. The Steeles promised to tell Mildred all about their adventure after they got some rest. She dropped the couple off at Steele's apartment, giving him the spare key she had, and they headed upstairs.
After letting themselves in, both headed straight to the bathroom, wanting to shower off the dust and dirt of the adventure. Ever the gentleman, Steele let Laura go first taking one of his dress shirts with her. After turning down the bed, sat on the end of the bed, reciting every prayer he could remember from his spotty Irish Catholic upbringing. When Laura came out wearing only one of his shirts, she headed straight for the bed while he headed for the shower himself, grabbing a pair of pyjama bottoms. He took a quick shower, dried off, and wiped the mist off of the mirror and looked at himself in surprise. The sun had burned his skin, his eyes looked hollow, and his whiskers stood out against the tanned skin. Too weary to shave, he dressed and emerged from the bathroom, expecting to find Laura already asleep. Instead he found her sitting up in bed, hugging her knees to her chest. Not liking the looks of this, he went to his side of the bed and crawled in to sit next to her.
He knew he didn't have to ask her what was wrong, she would talk when she was ready. Eventually she whispered, "I thought you were dead." He nodded, "I thought the same of you a time or two." She continued, "Minor taunted me inside my prison, telling me what was happening. I could hear the explosions and didn't know if you had died or survived. I didn't care what happened to me, as long as you were all right." Steele reached out a hand and slowly turned her chin to face him, "I was feeling the same thing, but I knew I couldn't let Minor defeat me or you wouldn't survive. You kept me going, you're my whole reason for living, Laura. Without you... there wouldn't be a reason to go on." They reached for each other and comforted each other. They'd reschedule their honeymoon for another time, but first there was some healing and comforting that needed to take place, and Home was the best place for that.
Fin