Thanks to Sue for her excellent suggestions, to the Friday Night
Chat ladies for letting me bounce bits off of them and for Kim’s continued
belief in me. I don’t mean to leave anybody out, so this is dedicated to those
who need a hero once in a while. In my timeline, this story takes place after
Doppelganger and Company of Shadows and before Eavesdropper and World on Fire.
Good Run of Bad Luck
Sharon h.
~<<>>~
Chip Morton could
not stifle the groan as he ran his fingers through his short blond hair, messing
his normally impeccable hairstyle. The new sonar software was nowhere near
finished and until he went through every line of code personally, he wasn’t
about to let it come within a hundred feet of Seaview. Number one, Lee
would kill him if a virus made its way into the system, and number two, Chip
swore he would take a flying leap off Seaview’s conning tower if he let
something slip by. Since he didn’t feel like taking a flying leap today, he
opted to read code till his eyes crossed.
He glanced up at
the clock, surprised at the time. He had come in early, just after 0500, giving
up a perfectly nice Saturday to spent time with the only lady in his life at
the moment. It was already past 1000 and he was barely a quarter of the way
into the program. Truth be known, it would take days to go over the whole
thing. He simply didn’t trust anyone else with Seaview’s software.
A quick knock at
the door pulled Chip’s attention from the computer screen. He looked up to see
the dark haired figure of his CO and best friend, Lee Crane, leaning against
the door, arms crossed over his chest.
“You look like
you’re having fun,” Lee said with a smirk, festooned in his khaki armor.
“Oodles and
oodles. What the heck are you doing, in uniform, on a Saturday? I thought you
were taking the day off. Something about little white balls and holes.”
Lee snorted. “Pull
up NEXRAD1 and tell me what you see.”
With a raised
eyebrow, Chip did as ordered, his long fingers clicking across the keyboard.
“Impressive. Most
Impressive,” Chip said, imitating the deep tones of a popular science fiction
villain. “Moving fast, too” Lee moved to stand behind Morton. A massive bank of
greens, yellows, and reds colored the computer screen, moving quickly from the
coast.
Chip glossed over
the forecast for the day. Rain, rain and more rain. Glancing out the window,
Morton saw the clouds were making their claim on the late summer sky.
Lee hitched a hip
onto the edge of Chip’s desk, tapping the stone of his ring against the
desktop. “Once I saw that, I figured a day on the course would be a waste of
time. I thought I could get more done if I came in and got a start on the prep
work for the next run.”
Chip could not
stop the eye roll. “Lee, we don’t head out for another three weeks. We have
plenty of time to get ready. I think you’re just bored.”
Lee got to his
feet and roamed the office, not really pacing, just unable to sit still.
“What gives you
that idea? I can keep busy.”
Morton snorted as
he attacked the keyboard in a frenzy of clicking. “Well, let’s see, this is
Saturday--day four of Wendy’s being gone off on this mysterious errand of hers.
Ergo, she’s not home, ergo, she’s not at your house…” Chip trailed off with a
gleam in his eye as he watched his best friend fidget.
“All right, you
made your point. Maybe I’m a little bored. I can’t help it, I’ve kind of gotten
used to her being around. What about Serena? She’s out of town too.”
“She actually came
back this morning, but she’s not camping out at my house when I’m home.” An
eye-roll accompanied the flippant comment.
Lee crossed
his arms over the top of Chip’s monitor and rested his chin on his arms. Leave
it to Chip to know exactly were Serena was.
“And why is that, Mister Chicken, I mean Morton?”
“Come on Lee.
We’ve talked about this. I’m not going to push where I’m not wanted.”
This time is was
Lee’s turn to roll his eyes. Chip was such a gentleman sometimes it made the
brunet grind his teeth in frustration. Chip had more than a passing interest in
the institute’s marine archaeologist, but as of yet, he’d never acted on the
impulse to ask her out. The fact that Serena Harrison was also the daughter of
Admiral Harriman Nelson, who happened to be their boss, probably played no
small part in his reluctance to ask the lady in question for a date. It also
didn’t help that somewhere along the line Chip had gotten the impression that
Serena wouldn’t give him the time of day.
Lee knew better.
While very sick at the time, with her defenses down, Serena had admitted to Lee
that she thought Chip was too good for her and, outside of just being nice,
he’d never notice her2. Such a
notion was likely to get the stuffing kicked out of her if her father ever
caught wind.
“Maybe you
should just come out and ask her, Chip. What’s she going to say? No? At least
you’ll know for sure then.”
“She avoids me
like I was a week old liverwurst sandwich. I can take a hint. She just wants to
be friends.”
Lee sighed, not
sure what to say. He watched as Chip locked his emotions down, retreating
behind the mask of professionalism that he wore to cover the truly deep
feelings Lee knew he had.
“Maybe if you…”
Lee began only to have the blond shake his head.
“Don’t. I know you
mean well, but this is one of those things you can’t fix. Just…just leave it
alone. Please,” Chip said.
Reluctantly, Lee
backed down. He wasn’t sure how to proceed in this. There had to be a way to
get Serena to see that Chip had feelings for her, just as there had to be a
subtle way of showing Chip that Serena needed him.
Lee was about to
say something else when a low growl rumbled through the room. For a second, Lee
thought it was thunder until he saw the sheepish grin on Chip’s face.
Lee fixed his best
friend with a look. “Long time, no eat?”
“Breakfast was a
few hours ago. You game for an early lunch?”
Lee shrugged.
“Since you’re buying, why not?” he teased as Chip stuck out his tongue. Morton
locked his computer down and got up as his stomach did another growl.
Lee couldn’t
resist. “So, it sounds like we’re doing buffet. It’s the only thing I can think
of that will top off your bottomless pit.”
Lee got an elbow
in his rubs for his suggestion.
“Just drive, will
ya? And let’s get there in one piece?”
“Relax, pal.
You’re with me.”
Chip rolled his
blue eyes, a habit he seemed to indulge in more often when he was in Lee’s
company, and fell into step beside his friend. “Yeah, I know. That’s what
worries me.”
~<<>>~
Serena Leigh
Harrison took one look at her desk and wished she had listened to Wendy.
Her “in-box” was
literally overflowing, over the rim of the basket and on to the top of the
desk. There was a three-inch stack of manila folders on her desk that wasn't
there when she left. Her call box was full of pink message slips. Wendy had
told her to take another day off and get some rest, but Serena had argued,
saying she wasn't getting paid to lie around. So here she was, on a Saturday
morning, trying to catch up on nearly three weeks worth of backlog. She was
going to seriously have to consider her father's suggestion and get an
assistant at some point.
With a sigh that
came from the bottom of her shoes, Serena dropped her briefcase off on the
desk. The purse went into the empty bottom drawer of the file cabinet. She
dropped down into her chair and hit the monitor switch on the computer. The
screen flared to life, blinked twice, then the system went dark.
What the hell? Serena wondered to herself, staring at
the blank screen. She reached down under the desk and hit the reset button on
the CPU. She waited. Nothing happened. Wonderful. Freaking wonderful.
“For once I
dressed for setting on my rear, not crawling around in the silt and muck,” the
redhead said to the empty room. She stood up, looking down at herself, taking
in the light green skirt, white silk blouse, matching green jacket and the high
heel shoes Wendy had talked her into buying. She kicked off the shoes and
dropped to her knees by the desk, then crawled under it to inspect the wiring.
After about five
minutes of looking, Serena could find nothing wrong with the system's wiring.
She started to rise up from the floor when the fabric of her stocking caught on
a snag on the edge of the antique maple desk. She ended up with a five-inch
long run in the leg of her hose.
Cursing under her
breath, Serena jammed her feet back into her shoes and snatched up the phone.
She dialed up I.T. support but then realized her phone was dead. No dial tone.
With another un-lady like snort she dropped the receiver in its cradle and
contemplated her next action. Cell phone. She'd call I.T. from her cell phone.
Only her cell
phone was in the car, re-charging. She'd forget to grab it on her way in. This
was quickly turning out to be not her day. Frowning, Serena gathered up a
couple of folders from the stack on her desk and headed out the door. She would
drop by the I.T. department and put in a repair ticket, then double back and
head for the lab. She could use the computer down there until I.T. got her
office system back up and running.
She was half way
across the breezeway separating the Physical Science building from the
Administration building when the heel of her left shoe got hung on a crack in
the sidewalk. With a snap, the heel broke off, the stack of papers in her grip
went flying and Serena took a fall, skinning the palms of her hands as she
caught herself against the pavement.
A gentle wind caught the dropped papers and scattered them
across the breezeway. Biting back a vicious curse that she was sure her father
wouldn't approve of, she peeled off the other shoe and in her stockinged feet,
she began chasing down her wayward papers.
It took her nearly
ten minutes to retrieve the scattered papers. By now the clouds were building
and the sky was growing darker. The rain promised in the morning forecast was
fast moving in.
That's when Serena
remembered her thumb drive was still in her car, along with her cell phone. The
cell phone she could live without but she needed the thumb drive. It wasn't
that far to the parking lot and she really wanted to download the information
she had collected in Florida. If she was lucky, she could also get her umbrella
before the rain started. With her mangled papers tucked under one arm, her
shoes in the other hand, Serena headed for the parking lot.
She made it to her
car and fished out the keys from her jacket pocket. Once the car was unlocked,
she dropped the keys in the front seat. The papers landed with a soft thump on
top of the keys. After finding the thumb drive in the glove compartment, she
gathered up the papers, hit the door locks and slammed the door shut with a
twist of her hip.
Umbrella. She
forgot the umbrella. Already the hood of the car was sprinkled with fat
raindrops. She reached into her pocket for the keys and stopped. The keys to
her townhouse and car as well as her cell phone lay in the front seat of her
car. She took a deep breath to calm her nerves. Simple. She would call security
once she got up to the I.T. department and have someone unlock her car door.
Serena turned and started back up the hill to the shelter of the buildings.
Half way there,
the sky opened up and buckets of rain began pouring down. What is it with me
and the freaking rain? she wondered and darted across the grass, only to
have her right foot slip out from under her. She fell flat on her backside,
wrenching her already weaker right knee in the process. The mud soaked into her
skirt, jacket and blouse completely ruining all three.
Heaving to her
feet, Serena gave up all pretenses of trying to stay dry and limped up the
hill, soaking wet and mud covered. Her long auburn hair had come loose from the
combs holding it back and it hung in disheveled strings around her face. At
least nobody's around to see me like this, she thought to herself as she
headed back toward her office. She kept a few changes of clothes there so she
could do heavy work in the lab. She just cleared the top hill when two figures
came out of the Administration Building. With a groan she recognized the
figures as the last two people on the planet she wanted to deal with right now.
~<<>>~
Lee and Chip
didn't see her at first, caught up in their own conversation. Someone darted
across the breezeway and both men looked up to see Serena Harrison, soaking
wet, mud-covered and bare-footed, heading for the Physical Sciences building.
“Hey Serena, are
you okay?” Lee asked as he and Chip jogged down the breezeway, wondering what
on earth the archaeologist had been into. It wasn’t uncommon to find her in mud
up to her knees and coated in a layer of grime, but not barefoot and not while
wearing a skirt. Even the very hands-on marine archaeologist has limits. Serena
stopped dead in her tracks then slowly turned and pinned the two officers with
a disgusted, green-eyed gaze.
“Do I look okay?”
she snarled with a pair of shoes in one hand and a muddy mess of folders in the
other. Without any further words, Serena whirled and limped off into the
building. Chip and Lee stood there, looking puzzled and confused.
“Did we say
something wrong?” Chip asked, watching the door swing shut. Lee shrugged.
“I don't get
women. Just when you think you understand them, they throw a curve ball at you
and you realize you don't know anything.”
“Ain't that the
truth,” Chip replied with a puzzled look. He still wondered if she was okay.
“If we hadn't said something, she’d have said we were insensitive. We ask if
she's okay and we get growled at. I think I'll go after her and apologize.”
“She looks madder
than a Great White with a toothache. I'd leave her alone. She’s apt to take
your head off. Then who’s gonna keep the crew in line?” Lee advised, shaking
his head to punctuate his point.
But Chip wasn't
ready to give up. Somewhere along the line he was going to have to get the
courage up to confront his feelings about Serena. Lee was right, maybe if he
went and checked on her, he could show her his intentions were honorable. Yeah,
that's what he would do.
“You’ll just have
to get creative. I'll catch up with you later,” Chip said and pulled open the
door.
“Alright, nice
knowing ya. Any famous last words for Wen? Can I have your stereo?”
“Ha-ha,” Chip's
voice faded as he disappeared into the building. With a grin on his face, Lee
wandered off, wondering how much longer those two were going to keep this
little dance going.
~<<>>~
Serena dropped the
soggy bundle of papers on her desk with a wet splat. The shoes—the shoes she
bought on Wendy’s advice thinking that somebody might notice her if she had an
extra inch of height—she dropped into the garbage can by her desk. No sense in
keeping them now. It was a lost cause anyway. She pulled open the bottom drawer
of her cabinet to dig out her spare dry clothes and found herself staring at
her purse. And nothing else. Then she
remembered. She had been in Med Bay, under observation after suffering from
heat stroke when a fruit bat impersonating Lee had kidnapped her and stuffed
her into the trunk of Lee’s car3. When she
had finally been released she had changed into the clothes she kept in her
office so she could go home. She hadn’t had the chance to bring back a new set
since she had left for the admiral's cabin right after that. Then there was the
lovely extended stay in Sickbay. When she was deemed well enough, she'd taken
off for Florida.
Damn. That was it.
The absolute last straw. She snatched her purse up and slung it over one
shoulder, then picked up her briefcase. On impulse she grabbed a handful of dry
folders from the stack on her desk and jammed them into her briefcase. If she
couldn’t work here, the least she could do was work from home. Maybe the day
wouldn’t be a total washout. Without a backward glance, she padded out of her
office and back down the hall, leaving a trail of muddy footprints behind her.
She avoided
elevators on principle, instead choosing to head for the stairs. She rounded
the corner and ran right into six feet of blond Morton male. She plowed right
into him, splattering his pristine khaki uniform with mud. The briefcase hit
the floor with a clatter and her purse dropped off her shoulder with thud.
“Chip, oh, I'm so
sorry, this just isn't my day, I swear, I'm not trying to run you over. I guess
I'm just in a hurry to get out of here before something else happens. I’ve had
nothing but one problem after the other,” Serena gushed, overtaken by the same
nervousness she always felt whenever she was alone with him. She managed just
fine when there were other people around but if he was alone, then she couldn’t seem to stop babbling. Serena
felt the heat of embarrassment climbing up her neck. Quickly, she snapped her
jaws shut.
“Easy, it's okay.
I’m washable. I just wanted to check on you and see if you needed anything. You
seemed kind of frazzled downstairs,” Chip said, cranking up the wattage on the
smile. He bent down and picked up her briefcase, but didn’t hand it back to her
right away.
Serena wanted to
be mad. He followed up to her office? She looked like she went ten rounds with
a warthog! But then he smiled and she felt her anger slipping away. He was just
checking on her, after all. Wendy would have done the same thing if she were
here. The Mortons were like that.
“A towel, maybe? I
was on my way back from my car when I kinda fell. I thought I had clean clothes
stashed in my office, but I don't and I can't spent the rest of the day like
this, so I'm giving up. The last thing I need is another round of pneumonia.
Wendy told me to stay home. I should have listened to her,” she babbled. Why
can’t I sound like an adult, not a twelve-year old?
“I can walk you to
your car, if you like?”
Serena looked up
at him and blinked. She had forgotten her keys were locked in her car still.
“You don’t have to do that,” she said evasively. The last thing she needed was
for him to know she’d locked her keys in her car. Chip was going to think she
was a ditz, on top of being a klutz. She reached out for her case, but Chip
eased it just out of her reach.
“It’s not a
problem, really,” he insisted, his crystal blue eyes sincere.
“You don’t have
to. There’s really not point in us both getting soaking wet. I’m sure you have
executive officer type stuff that needs to be done,” Serena replied, mentally
wincing at how lame the excuse sounded.
“I’ve got an umbrella
in my office. Won’t take five minutes to walk down and get it. I might even
have a towel you can dry off a bit with.”
“I locked my keys
in my car.”
“Beg pardon?” Chip
asked, turning his head sideways, a puzzled expression on his face.
“What part of 'I
locked my keys in my car' did you not understand?” Serena snapped, slowly
reaching the end of her patience. Then she felt bad for snapping at the poor
man. He was only trying to be nice and here she was biting his head off. What
ungrateful wench she was turning out to be. She took a deep breath and tried to
settle her shattered nerves. She tried to cover her outburst by picking up the
fallen purse and pulling the strap over her shoulder.
Chip waved a hand
dismissively. “Calm down, we’ll call Security and they’ll get your car
unlocked. If nothing else, we can get Lee to jimmy the lock for you. In the
meantime, you come down to my office. I know I've got some towels down there
and you can dry off before you go home.” Chip pulled his cell from his back pocket
and punched up a few numbers. With one finger crooked in a 'follow me gesture',
Chip headed down the stairs. Feeling like a lost kitten trailing behind someone
with a can of tuna, Serena followed. She
really had no choice, since Chip still had her briefcase. Eventually, Chip
stuck the phone back into his pocket.
“Taken care of.
Come on, let’s swing by my office, I might have a blanket I can loan you.”
Wordlessly, Serena
followed Chip up to his second story office in the Administration Building. His
office was neat and well furnished, with comfortable chairs and a cozy couch on
one corner, exactly what she expected of the super-organized executive officer.
I’ll bet Chip never forgot his cell phone in his car on a rainy day, or
locked his keys in the car for that matter. He has to think I’m the
biggest ditz on the west coast.
“Be right back,
don't run off,” he said, and disappeared behind another set of doors. Serena
wrapped her arms around herself, getting chilled in the air-conditioned office.
Her right knee ached from the fall she had taken and her palms still stung. She
was soggy and dripping mud and water all over Chip's carpet. In short, she was
miserable and embarrassed. If there was even the remotest chance Chip was going
to look at her before, she had most assuredly blown her chance out of the
water, to borrow a phrase. She looked like a wet cat, her hair hanging limp and
sodden, her bangs plastered to her forehead, and what little bit of make up she
wore was completely gone, washed off in the downpour. As if to emphasize her
miserable state, a glob of mud dripped of the edge of her once spring green
skirt, landing with a cold, wet ‘splat’ onto the floor. Serena closed her eyes,
praying the maybe the floor would just open up and she’s disappear so she
wouldn’t have to face Lieutenant Commander Charles Morton.
No such luck. Chip
emerged from the back, a large towel in one hand and a gray blanket in the
other. The towel he handed to Serena and the blanket he unfolded and draped
across her shoulders. She snuggled into the warmth as Chip's hands lingered on
her shoulders for a second before pulling away. She wrapped her long auburn
hair in the towel, trying to wring out what seemed like gallons of water.
Chip smiled down
at her again. “Better?” he asked.
Serena couldn't
help returning his hundred-watt smile. What she wouldn't give to see him smile
at her like that all the time. “Much better now, thank you.”
“Just doing my
job. Come on, I’ll walk you to your car.” Chip had an umbrella in one hand and
he was still gallantly carrying her briefcase. Serena had no choice but to
comply. She followed him down the hall to the stairwell and he headed down the
first flight of stairs, She couldn’t help but watch how the muscles in his
broad back shifted as he moved, not to mention how well his khaki trousers
seemed to fit. Serena was watching Chip and not watching where she put her
feet.
The fates
intervened. Serena's good run of bad luck wasn't done with her yet. Her weaker
right leg and the wrenched knee were unable to handle her weight as she stepped
onto the first step heading down. Her muddy foot slid on the already slick tile
step and she went tumbling down the stairs. Chip dropped the umbrella and
briefcase as he made a grab for her. His hands closed around empty air as
Serena fell down the twelve steps to the first landing. She rolled and Chip
heard a thud as her head connected solidly with the wall.
“Serena! Are you
okay?” In an instant, Chip was on his knees by her side as she looked up at him
with crossed green eyes.
At first all
Serena could see were stars as they danced and sparkled before her eyes. It
took her a second to get her vision back. Slowly her eyes uncrossed and then
she closed them, trying to fend off the wicked pounding that had started up in
the back of her head. Well if Chip didn’t think she was a klutz before, this
certainly proved it.
In a voice close
to a whimper, she whispered, “Can this day get any worse? I just want to go
home before something falls on me or I break something.”
Chip breathed a
sigh of relief. If she was making weak jokes she couldn't be hurt too bad. He
rose to his feet and got one arm around her shoulders. “Come on, do you think
you can stand?’
“I think so,” she
said, letting Chip help her to her feet. She felt like a complete, blundering
idiot. Of all days for the best looking guy in town to pay any attention to
her, it would be the day she looked like she'd been wrestling alligators.
Probably felt sorry for her, a poor klutzy girl can’t even walk down stairs without
falling over her own two feet. Well, she didn’t need his sympathy—she could
walk on her two feet, thank you very much!
The second she put
her full weight on her left foot, she crumpled as a stabbing pain zinged
through her ankle. Chip caught her around the waist as she staggered.
“Easy there. Did
you twist your ankle or something?” Chip asked, the concern in his voice clear
if only Serena had been listening. The pounding of her head was a distraction
that kept her from focusing on the handsome blond man at her side.
The very last
thing she wanted was to admit that her foot felt like somebody had rammed a
knife through it. She was not some Hollywood damsel in distress! Gritting her
teeth, she shook her head, her damp auburn locks falling into her eyes. With a
distracted hand, she tried to hook her hair behind her ears.
“I’m fine. I just
want to go home,” she said, trying to gather up was left of her shattered
pride. She tried to take another step and again nearly fell. Serena stumbled
against the wall, bracing herself with one hand. When she did, pain crawled up
her arm, emanating from her wrist. She balled her fingers into a tight fist
against the pain and blinked back hot tears of agony and frustrations. She
would not cry in front of Chip, she would not. All she needed was to prove to
him she was some emotional ditz who couldn’t walk across the floor without help
and cried at the drop of a hat.
“I think you might
have done something to your ankle. Maybe you should see a doctor.”
Serena did her
best to keep from growling at the man. Was he so dense he couldn’t see she just
wanted to go home?
“I don’t need a
doctor,” she ground out, “I just need to go home.”
Chip pinned her
with a crystal blue-eyed gaze.
“Serena, you just
took a nasty spill down twelve steps, you probably don't need to be driving,”
he said.
Serena took a deep
long breath, not at all used to dealing with someone this stubborn. Wendy was
bad, but she would have given in at this point and just taken her home. Chip
seemed to be made of sterner stuff than his sister. Must come from dealing with
Lee all these years.
“I just need to go
home and put some ice on it. I’ll be fine in the morning,” she said and
stubbornly tried to walk. She caught herself on the wall and this time a
whimper of pain escaped her lips.
Without warning,
Serena felt herself lifted up off the ground as Chip picked her up in his arms.
“What are you
doing? Put me down! You only just healed up from two gun shot wounds4. I don’t need you to carry me,” she
protested as Chip carried her back up the stairs to his office.
“I’m fine. Doc
completely cleared me weeks ago. You can’t walk on that foot, that much is
obvious. Just humor me.”
Serena found
herself carried back down the hall to Chip’s office. She was very carefully
deposited on the couch. With those long delicate fingers of his, Chip held
Serena's foot gently, yet firmly while he examined the already swelling joint.
With a frown he looked up at the marine archaeologist.
“You've definitely
twisted or torn something. You probably shouldn't put any weight on it right
now. You need to have Jamie take look at it,” he said, looking up into Serena's
green eyes. His frown deepened as he looked closer into her eyes. He held up a
finger, drawing it across Serena's field of vision. Automatically, her eyes
tracked the movement or tried to, at any rate. Her green eyes were slow to
track his finger and Chip frowned at the implication.
“You're not
tracking well. Does your head hurt?”
Like Ringo
Starr has added my head to his drum kit. With a sigh, she nodded. Only that's when things started
spinning. She closed her eyes and dropped her head forward. She felt Chip's
hand on the back of her head, gently probing the goose egg that was getting
bigger by the moment.
“You hit your head
on the base board. No wonder you’re dizzy. Come on, I need to get you to Med
Bay.”
“I don't wanna go
to Med Bay,” she sulked sounding more like a moody teenager than a grown woman.
Without realizing it, Serena had cradled her right arm against her chest.
Chip refused to
let it go. Why is she being so stubborn? Anybody can see she’s hurting. Why
doesn’t she just let me help her? “You need to have that ankle looked at
and I think you have more than a lump on your head. Obviously you've done
something to your arm.”
“Can't you just
drive me home?” Serena asked pathetically. She didn't want a doctor, and she
didn't want to go to Med Bay. Jamieson had already had her as patient more
times this year than she cared to count. She just wanted to go home and sleep
until Chip forgot what a monumental klutz she was. Serena figured ten years
ought to be enough.
But Chip Morton
wasn't backing down. Years of bullying and threatening Lee simply meant that
Serena Harrison didn't stand a chance. He rose up to his full height of six
feet, crossed his arms over his chest and glared down at the smaller woman.
Serena blinked and tried to look pathetic. She batted wide green eyes up at
him.
“You are going to
Med Bay.” His tone clearly broke no argument.
“Do I have to?”
Chip rolled his
eyes skyward. Why is she being so hardheaded about this? At least I could
talk sense into Lee. “You're going
to Med Bay, I out rank you, so don't argue. You need a doctor.”
“I'm not Navy, how
do you out rank me?” Serena squeaked, but Chip wasn't listening. In one quick
motion Chip lifted Serena off the couch. The archaeologist naturally protested.
“Chip, put me
down, I can manage,” she grumbled, the whole time hanging on to the blond
officer as the sudden movement incited another wave of dizziness.
Chip was not
persuaded. “You can't walk on that foot, so I'm taking you to Med Bay. Don't
argue with me, that's an order,” he replied as he headed down the hall.
“My briefcase and
my stuff . . .” she stuttered, at this point more surprised than angry.
“When we get to
Med Bay, I'll call Security and have somebody come back up for them. Just
relax. I've got you.”
It was pointless
to argue at this stage. Serena simply gave in, letting Chip carry her to the
elevator. She laid her pounding head against his shoulder and closed her eyes.
She said nothing as Chip elbowed the buttons and in a few minutes the two were
on the ground floor. As Chip carried her out the building and down to Med Bay,
she became aware of his muscles as they shifted and bunched under his long
sleeved khaki shirt. Shoulder muscles, tight chest muscles, corded neck
muscles, and of course, biceps. Her mind flashed back to her first cruise
aboard Seaview. Serena could never forget following Lee into Chip’s
cabin that day, to find Chip half dressed, wearing only a towel. She could
still remember the well-toned biceps of his upper arms, the broad chest, the
way his waist tapered down to his hips, his long, powerful legs5 . . .
Harrison snapped
her eyes open, to find Chip's crystal blue eyes looking down into hers. “You
okay? You got kinda of quiet on me,” he said, the deep timbre of his voice
rolling over her senses. What's wrong with you? Get a grip for crying out
loud! He's just being polite.
“I guess I'm just
a little dizzy,” she replied honestly.
Chip shouldered
the Med Bay doors open and just happen to catch William Jamieson at the
Administration desk.
“Chip? What
happened . . .Serena?” Jamie said, eyes darting from one to the other, clearly
not expecting this turn of events. Will suppressed a sigh. Actually, having
Serena as a patient was getting to be a habit these days. She had a long way to
go before she could match the exploits of her escort or his commanding officer,
but she was beginning to get something of a reputation as someone who did not care
for Med Bay.
“She's had a rough
day. Twisted ankle, a possible sprained wrist, and she took a whack on the back
of her head. Think you could take a look at her?” Chip explained.
“The first thing
we need to do is get her out of those wet clothes. I think she’s had enough
pneumonia for a while. Nancy, would you give her a hand?” Jamieson spoke to a
nurse behind the counter and the older woman nodded with a sympathetic look at
the marine archaeologist.
The next few
minutes found Serena in an exam room, while Nancy scrounged up some dry
clothes. Granted they were hospital scrubs and way too big, but at least they
were dry and she could start to get warm again. She had to roll the long
sleeves of the top up to her elbows, and then cuff the bottoms up to her
ankles. Serena felt like somebody's kid sister, given clothes to grow into.
With a borrowed comb, she tried to work the knots out of her tangled hair.
Nancy hung around to give her hand with that as well, even finding a fat rubber
band she could pull her damp hair back with.
Settled on an exam
table with Chip hovering outside the door, Serena let Jamieson work his doctor
skills, shining a light into her eyes, and asking all the standard, annoying
questions.
“I notice you're
not tracking well. Do you have a headache? ”
“A little,” she
admitted. Jamieson gave her a look like she'd been caught breaking curfew.
“A little, my
foot. You know you probably have a mild, very mild concussion?” The question
was asked in an almost chilly manner as Jamieson accepted the x-rays from a
technician. He jammed them up on the light board and took a hard look at them.
“You are very lucky, Serena. It’s not broken, but that ankle is badly twisted.
Chip called it right, you also have a sprained wrist.”
Serena heaved
another sigh. “You're kidding? You make it sound like I rolled down the side of
a mountain. All I did was roll down twelve steps.”
Jamieson wasn't
impressed. “Well, it was twelve steps too many and I never joke about twisted
and sprained joints. I'm going to wrap both that foot and wrist. I don't want
you to put any weight on your ankle and if possible, avoid using the wrist. As
far as that concussion, I've seen your medical records, I should not have to
tell you what I expect from you.”
“Go home, get some
rest, have somebody wake me up every few hours. I'm familiar with the routine.”
Her fingers inched toward her throat for the necklace that was no longer there.
Mason had taken it from her 6 and
after the whole mess was over, it had simply never turned up. Serena so far
hadn’t been able to break the habit of pulling the pendent back and forth along
the chain.
“You have somebody
who can keep an eye on you?”
“I, uh, well . .
.” Serena stuttered. Wendy was out of town, on some mysterious errand she
refused to discuss with anyone and the admiral was in series of meetings in
Bangor, Washington, working out the final details of some project he’d been
focused on for the last few months. His illness 7
had thrown the whole project behind several weeks and he was anxious to wrap
things up. Chip came though the door and leaned against the frame, crossing his
arms over his chest. He pinned her with another of those frosty looks.
“I can keep an eye
on her until Wendy gets back.” Chip said with conviction.
“Chip, that's
absurd, I can't ask you to do that,” Serena protested, only to have Jamieson
raise a hand, signaling her silence. Serena acquiesced.
“Doctor Harrison,
you have a mild concussion, a badly twisted ankle and a sprained wrist. You
can't drive and I refuse to let you go home on your own. I suggest you accept
the commander's offer, else you're looking at an overnight stay here in Med Bay
and I report this to the admiral.”
If this day wasn’t
bad enough, now Jamie was threatening to tell the admiral that his resident
marine archaeologist and only daughter was a first class klutz. Serena wasn’t
sure if this day could get much worse.
“I'm not staying
in Med Bay,” the redhead mumbled under her breath.
“Then I take it
you're accepting Mister Morton's offer?” Jamieson asked.
Serena rolled her
eyes. “I have a choice?”
Chip laughed. “I
don't bite, I promise to be a perfect gentleman. I'm just going to make sure
you get some rest and follow Jamie’s advice.”
Serena felt
another sigh coming up. Concussed with a twisted ankle, stuck in the house with
one blond, handsome hunk of an officer, who was trying so hard to be nice to
her. She let out the pent up sigh with deliberation. Could this day get any
worse?
~<<>>~
Chip pulled his
SUV to Med Bay's main front entrance and shifted down into park. Poor girl just
wasn't having a good day and now she had a mild concussion. She didn't need to
be alone for the next few hours and with Wendy out of town, Chip felt he should
keep and eye on her and make sure she took care of herself.
He found Serena
still sitting in the wheelchair he had left her in. The woman looked absolutely
miserable, dressed in pale blue scrubs that were too big for her and still
wrapped in his borrowed blanket.
Ready?” he asked
her with a smile.
“As ready as I’m
ever going to be, I guess. This is not how I expected to spend my Saturday,”
she replied as Chip pushed her outside.
Once by the car,
Serena made as if to push herself up. The cold glare from Chip’s blue eyes
stopped her short.
“What are you
doing?” he asked her. She dropped back into the wheelchair and glanced up at
him through her lashes, trying to look sad and pathetic. Obviously, Serena had
borrowed a page out of the Lee Crane book of 'how to make people feel sorry for
you'.
“I had the bright
idea I might get in the car?” she suggested, looking up at Morton innocently.
Chip just shook
his head. “Doc said not to put any weight on that foot. That’s why you are on
crutches and why I am picking you up and setting you in the front seat.” With
that announcement, Chip proceeded to do just that. Once he got her settled, he
closed the door gently. By the time he crossed the front of the truck to his
side and climbed in, Serena had already buckled her seat belt
“So where are we headed? I have a general idea
of where you live, but I don’t know the exact address.”
“Yeah, an address
would be nice,” Serena mumbled weakly. As Chip started the engine, she
explained directions to her apartment. At one point Chip gave her an odd look.
“I know that area.
It’s one of the older parts of town. Quite a drive back and forth. I thought
the admiral was trying to talk you into moving into the Institute property.”
Chip knew perfectly well the admiral wanted her in Institute housing. He wanted
her off the streets and under some semblance of security. The admiral had been
most adamant about the subject. After her and Lee’s kidnapping by Mason, Nelson
had practically ordered her onto the property, but so far Serena had produced
one excuse after another to put off the move. The latest had been a trip to
Florida, as part of her ongoing pet project to locate and catalog the vast
collection of downed planes and ships in that stretch of ocean between southern
Florida, Bimini and Bermuda. Chip was well aware that Nelson was running out of
patience with his stubborn daughter, and at some point the admiral wasn’t going
to tolerate her excuses for much longer.
Serena leaned back
in the seat. Chip could tell by her posture she was getting defensive. “He's
got you in on the scheme now, huh?”
“He is my
boss,” Chip replied.
“I'm considering
it, okay? Angie's shown me a very nice place and I'm thinking about it right
now.8”
Serena obviously
didn't want to talk further about the subject, so Chip didn’t press it. He knew
the admiral wanted Serena on the institute property, but short of shanghaiing
her and forcing her to move, there wasn’t much anyone could do. The admiral's
concerns about her safety were valid. Chip knew firsthand how determined some
of the radical groups could be if they really wanted to get their hands on
Admiral Nelson's daughter. He and Lee had plenty of stories about what they had
run into over the years, but he didn’t want to scare her. They drove for a
little longer in silence before Chip spoke up again.
“We’re coming up
on your place. Where do you usually park?”
Serena stirred,
obviously dozing as Chip drove. “I have a driveway. Just pull up since you
don’t have to worry about blocking me in.”
Serena's apartment
turned out to be an elegant, older townhouse on the dead end of a quiet street.
Chip pulled the SUV into the driver and killed the engine.
“Security unlocked
your car and gave me your keys. Stay put and I’ll be right back.”
“If I'm a good
girl, do I get a Scooby Snack?” Serena muttered, watching Chip bounce from his
side of the truck. He walked up the steps, unlocked the front door, and pushed
it open. He then came back to the car and carefully lifted Serena out of the
front seat.
He carried her
into the house, closing the front door with a swift kick of his foot. “Where
to, Doctor?” he asked with a teasing grin.
“Upstairs. I need
to get the mud off of me and find some clothes that fit me. I'll use the crutches,
I promise. I won't be on my feet. After that, I'm going to bed.”
“Are you sure? I
don’t think you should be using that wrist.”
Choking back an
exasperated sigh, Serena managed to be civil. “I'm positive. I can balance on
my right foot. I was told not to overuse my wrist, and I promise to be careful.
Besides, I hardly think you want to hang around while I change clothes and wash
the mud off.”
You might be
surprised, Chip thought
as he carried the archaeologist upstairs and dropped her off in her bedroom,
where he sat her down on the edge of the bed. “I'll be downstairs if you need
anything,” Chip said. He couldn’t help a
quick look around. What surprised him the six-foot tall shelf in the corner,
filled from the floor to the ceiling with pink stuffed animals. Closer
examination showed they were Pink Panther9
figures. Pink Panther? Serena collected the Pink Panther?
Serena noticed his
gaze. “I happen to like the Pink Panther. Something wrong with that?”
“No, nothing wrong
with that, I just didn’t know that about you.” Chip decided a change of subject
was in order if he was going to stay on her good side and not get knocked
upside the head with a crutch. “Are you
sure you’ll be okay? I just don’t want you trying to do more than you should.”
“I'll be fine,
Chip. Go on. There are leftovers in the fridge. Fix yourself something to eat.
If I need you, I promise to yell.”
Somewhat
reluctantly, Chip wandered downstairs, taking in the room. The furniture wasn't
new, but it was sturdy and well kept. There was a mix of modern style and
antique Victorian era, lending to an eclectic feel to the house. Mismatched
antique shelves from different eras lined the walls and were filled with books
and magazines. Curiously, Chip circled the room, getting a glimpse inside
Serena's head.
The first thing he
noticed was that she had tons of books on archeology. There were books on
maritime history, Egyptology, and even a few on marine biology. There was quite
a collection of fiction. He recognized the names of a number of authors. O’Brien.
Forester. Pope. London. Cussler. Lawrence. Journals on Marine research. Tons
and tons of National Geographic magazines. Massive works on the Bermuda
Triangle. She had a number of music CD's that seemed to run from modern rock up
to classical pieces. There were a few photos in frames scattered among the
books. There was one shot of Serena and Wendy on the deck of some boat, and
another of the two at some formal dinner, Wendy dressed in midnight blue
evening gown, Serena dressed in deep forest green. Chip noticed that she seemed
to favor greens and browns. He wondered briefly if she still had that dress.
There were more pictures of Serena with various scientists Chip knew of. He
recognized Robert Ballard, Sylvia Earle, and Philippe Cousteau. On the back of
one shelf was a small picture of a woman with strawberry-blond hair and
Serena's green eyes. He could see the resemblance and figured this must be her
mother. A touch of whimsy was reflected
in two wooden plaques that hung on the wall among the antique maps. One plague
read Archaeologists don’t die, they just go underground while a second
read Archaeology—can you dig it?
Knick-knacks were
scattered around the room, drawn from a dozen or more countries. Fossils, odd
crystals in different shapes and colors, shards of pottery, odd things he
couldn't identify. There were vases and bowls of various shapes and colors. A
few compasses that weren't on display in her office were perched on various
shelves. She seemed to be a collector of odd things, no one overriding theme,
just whatever struck her fancy. It was as if she couldn't pick one thing to
focus on. Chip was reminded of the admiral and how he always seemed to be
thinking of a dozen things at once. His stomach rumbled and he remembered the
meal he had sacrificed to help his boss’s daughter.
As he pilfered
through the refrigerator, he found himself rethinking the past couple of hours.
Had he done the right thing? He couldn't let Serena stay by herself. She had a
mild concussion and she had no business being by herself. He couldn't fault her
for not wanting to stay in Med Bay. What's restful about someone checking your
pulse and shining a light in your eyes every half an hour?
Thinking about Med
Bay, Chip remembered he needed to call Lee and let him know what was going on.
He pulled his cell phone out and dialed Lee’s number. It rang twice before Lee
picked up.
“No you can’t
borrow my car,” came Lee’s voice by way of greeting.
“You’re just
jealous cause I look better driving it than you do,” Chip teased. Lee’s car was
an ongoing joke between the two and Chip never failed to make at least a token
attempt to get behind the wheel. Chip knew all he had to do was ask, but the
game was getting the car WITHOUT actually asking.
“Cute,” Lee
replied.
“Flattery will get
you nowhere pal. Listen, I thought I’d let you know I’m staying with Serena, at
least until Wendy gets back.”
Chip could
hear Lee smiling over the phone and chose to ignore it. When Crane got an idea
in his head, he never let go of it.
“Okay. I’ll
bite. Why are you staying at Serena’s?”
Chip paused.
It was possible that Jamie hadn’t told Lee about Serena’s fall. She wasn’t
crew, so Lee wouldn’t necessarily need to be notified. “She fell,” Chip said
without going into detail. “Jamie said she has a sprained ankle and wrist as
well as a mild concussion.”
“Ah ha. Now I
understand. Wendy’s out of town and she needs someone to stay with her to keep
an eye on her. I’m sure the admiral will appreciate that.”
“I’m just
going to make sure she doesn’t have any complications, since I’ve dealt with so
many of yours,” Chip snapped teasingly.
“Hey, is it my
fault that your head is harder than mine? Seriously, keep an eye on her. Let me
know if you need anything, okay?”
“Sure thing,
Lee. Try not to let something blow up while I’m gone.”
“Funny one,
Morton. Take care of your girlfriend. Talk to you later,” Lee shot back.
“She’s not my
girlfriend…” Chip started but Lee had already hung up. With a snort, Chip
shoved the phone back into his pocket and dove back into the refrigerator.
That’s when he
remembered Serena’s stuff was still out in the Jeep. Leaving an interesting
dish of leftover ham and potato casserole on the counter, he popped out to
retrieve her purse and the laptop case from the front seat of his car then
dropped her stuff off on a small table by the door. A sudden crash from
upstairs had Chip running, taking the stairs two at a time.
At the top of the
stairs, Chip stopped and listened, following the sound of muttered, muffled
swearing. He found Serena setting in a heap on the floor of her bedroom with
one leg folded under her and the other leg—with the ankle still wrapped in the
Ace bandage—stretched out in front of her. She had changed clothes and was now
wearing an oversized tee shirt and a faded green robe. Chip noticed that she
had some how managed to wash her hair. It hung loosely around her face, down
her back and over her shoulders. Her green eyes glittered with unshed tears and
Chip felt his heart flip, seeing her vulnerable without her defenses.
“Serena?” he
asked. The redhead jerked up at the sound of his voice, wiping at her eyes and
pulling herself back together.
“I was trying to
comb out my hair and dropped my comb. When I tried to pick it up I overbalanced
and hit the floor,” she said, her voice a touch shaky as she tried to raise
herself up off the floor. Without a word, Chip put his arm around her waist and
lifted her onto the edge of the bed. Serena settled down and took a deep
breath.
Chip bent down a
picked up the comb in question. “If you'll let me, I can help you with that.
You don't have to prove you can do everything on your own.”
“You want to comb my hair?” Serena asked
incredulously.
“You’re right hand
dominate and you can't use that hand very well now. Most likely that's why
dropped the comb. Just let me help.”
Serena was taken
aback when Chip sat down on the edge of the bed. Carefully he worked the comb
through the mass of her coppery hair, his long fingers working out the tangles
and knots. As he worked, Serena had the thought that maybe this wasn't the
first time he was done this for someone. She knew he had been married before
but Wendy spoke very little of Chip’s ex-wife, save for the occasional
disparaging remark. Serena wondered if Chip still spoke to his ex.
“Is that better?”
he finally asked, the deep timbre of his voice touching off a spark in her gut
that set the butterflies dancing again. She pulled herself out of her daydream
and nodded.
“Thanks. If you
don't mind, I think I'm going to try and get some sleep. You're welcome to stay
in the spare bedroom, if you like,” she said. She pushed back the thought of
curling up against that broad strong chest, letting his heartbeat lull her to
sleep. Why did she keep having that thought?10 That was a fantasy if she ever
dreamed one up and she shook her head to clear the invading thought.
Chip stood and
smiled that warm smile that did nothing for the already spastic butterflies.
“Do you need anything? I'll be just down the hall.”
Serena took a deep
breath and closed her eyes. “First off, I need to apologize. I have been
absolutely horrid to you. You could have left me in Med Bay.”
“Don't worry about
it. I've been dealing with both Lee and the admiral for a few years now. All in
all, you're not bad. Trust me, I've been stuck in Med Bay more times than I
care to remember and I know for a fact it’s no fun. I wouldn't have left you
there if I could help it.”
Serena smiled
shyly and hooked a loose tendril of hair behind her ear. “Well, thanks again,
anyway.” The fingers of her other hand strayed toward the necklace she no
longer wore, still missing its presence.
Chip wondered if
there was a way he could find a replacement. He got to his feet and moved
toward the door, setting the comb down on the dresser as he went. “You sure you
don't need anything?”
“No, I'm fine.
I'll yell if I need anything.”
“Sleep well,
then,” Chip backed out of the bedroom, tactfully pulling the door closed behind
him. For a long second he stood on the other side of the door, one hand
lingering on the knob. Now was not the time, he forcefully told himself. She
was tired, off center, and probably still in some degree of pain. He'd be a
very poor man indeed if he tried to take advantage of the situation.
Morton took two
steps way from the door and turned to go downstairs. There was the still the matter of that ham
and potato casserole he had left on the counter.
At the top of the
stair Chip felt his knees wobble and he had to grab at the wall to keep his
balance. That's when he realized it wasn’t him but the whole house that was
shaking.
What the devil . .
.” Chip said aloud, glancing upwards. Cracks were appearing in the ceiling
above him as understanding slowly down on him. There was only one thing it
could be—an earthquake.
With out wasting
time, Chip bolted back to Serena's room and threw the door open. He found her
setting on the edge of the bed, the hands braced against the mattress. He
snatched Serena up by the waist and pulled her toward the bedroom door.
“Downstairs,” he
ordered and was grateful when she didn't argue. The house groaned and creaked
as the ground shook. Chip didn't think the old house was going to stand the
strain. Plaster was falling down around them and the doorframe cracked right
over his head. Pulling Serena along with him, Chip wedged the two of them in
the corner of the bedroom. There simply wasn't time to get downstairs. He wrapped his arms around the smaller woman,
doing his best to protect her as her house slowly came crashing down around
them.
The ceiling,
stressed by time and past tremors, finally gave out. Great chunks of plaster
and timbers began crashing all around the two as Chip held on to Serena. The
floor rolled under their feet. It was like trying to stand on an ocean wave.
Under them the floor dropped a good five feet and tilted sharply to the right.
Serena jerked in surprise, clutching at Chip as the floor rolled. Both of them
slid in the direction of the tilt, Chip doing his best to brace against
gravity. The noise was deafening.
There was aloud
'snap'. The house was plunged into darkness. Finally everything grew still.
Slowly, Chip
raised his head and felt his stomach take a nosedive. It was pitch black. Chip
couldn’t even see his hand in front of his face. There was only the sound of
the house settling in the aftermath, as if waiting. There was a second of
panic, as the memory of being blind11 came rushing back him. He didn’t have time for
that right now. Serena was depending on him and he had to get them out of this
mess. He took a few calming breaths as his eyes slowly adjusted to the dark. He
could just make out the outline of a far wall and the broken, hanging beams
from the ceiling. Tangles of wires hung down and Chip prayed they weren’t live.
In his arms, he
could feel Serena start to tremble. Lee had told him that Harrison had a phobia
of the dark. Chip needed to see if there was a way out of this mess, but he
didn’t think he could leave her. He felt her trembling slow as she got herself
under control. If he was going to look for a way out, now was the time.
“Serena, I need to
see if we can get out of here. I have to leave you but I want you to promise me
you’ll stay here and not move. If there are any aftershocks, you’ll be
protected here. Promise me.”
“I’m not going
anywhere. Just don’t be gone long, okay?” Serena said. Her voice shook and Chip
could tell that she was having a hard time keeping control of herself. He'd
better make this fast.
“Good girl. I’ll
be back. Promise.”
Chip let go of her
and felt his way along the wall careful of the hanging wires and of anything
that might trip him up. The floor under his feet took that opportunity to
announce its instability, groaning and shifting before dropping another couple
of inches. He froze and behind him heard the sharp intake of air as Serena
reacted to the shifting floor. Step by agonizingly slow step, Chip eased his
way back to his charge.
“I think maybe
it’s time we called for backup,” Chip said.
He reached out for her and felt her hand touch his arm, felt her fingers
close around his wrist. He moved closer and pulled her closer to him. The two
of them sank down to the floor, braced against the wall to wait.
“Backup would be
handy about now,” she agreed with a shaky voice. Feeling around in his back pocket, Chip
retrieved his cell phone. The light from the keypad and the screen lit the
small space around them with an eerie blue glow. He pulled up Lee's number and
waited.
“Come on, Lee.
Pick up. Pick up. Pick up the phone.” Chip chanted over the ringing. Finally
there was a click and Lee's voice answered.
“About time you
answered,” Chip said.
“I was busy,
commander smarty-pants.” Lee didn't sound at all repentant.
“What the blazes
are you doing?”
“Earthquake. There
may have been hull damage if Seaview knocked against the docks. You did
know there was an earthquake, or were you to busy to notice?” Lee asked, his
voice teasing.
“Yes, I know there
was an earthquake,” Morton replied, ignoring the thinly veiled suggestion. “How
about you give me the details after you dig us out.”
“Dig you out? What
happened? Where are you? I thought you took Serena home.”
“I did. I think
this place is a hold over from 190612. Only it didn't make it this time around.
Looks like the roof came down on us. We’re kind sealed in. I felt the first
tremor and went back for her. We never made it downstairs.”
Lee's voice took
on a frantic twist. “Good God! Are you all right? How's Serena, she okay?” Do
you have plenty of air?”
“Lee, calm down,
we’re both fine. You need to hurry though. We're upstairs and I don't think the
floor is all that steady.”
“Let me see what I
can do. Hold on, okay?” A burst of static drowned out whatever Lee had to say.
All Chip understood was, “…promise…out…how…hang on.”
“Sure, just hurry,
will ya?” Chip said, but the line went dead and he wasn’t sure if Lee heard
him. The phone lines were probably overwhelmed and there was no telling what
kind of damage there might be. He put his arm around Serena. “Sill with me?” he
to the figure tucked against his side.
“Nope, I thought I
would step out for a pizza,” she quipped. The quiver in her voice was
unmistakable. She was trying valiantly to hold herself together but Chip could
tell it was a loosing battle.
“Extra pepperoni
on mine. We seem to be stuck for the duration,” he answered. Her trembling had
started again and this time she couldn’t seem stop. Chip tightened his grip,
trying to reassure her.
“I’ve got you now,
it’s okay. Nothing is going to happen to you while I’ve got you.” Chip’s voice
was comforting and soothing, it gave her something to focus on, something to
draw her attention way from the nightmare that was clawing at her mind and
senses.
It didn’t last. In
the darkness of Serena's own mind, memories of another accident began to
emerge. The rumble as the cave ceiling gave out, the terrified screams of the
other researchers, the crushing weight of rock and debris pinning her to the
floor. The snap of both long bones of her lower right leg. The hours of being
trapped in pitch darkness.
This time the
terror crawled out of her soul like a starving dragon. There was no room for
anything, no reason, no sense, no anything. Tears she had held back for so long
finally broke free and like flood waters washing over levees, Serena felt her
defenses slipping.
Unable to stop herself, Serena cried, deep, wracking sobs that shook
her heart and soul. Chip held on to her as if he could somehow hold her
together, his strong arms wrapped around her, his deep voice murmuring quiet
words as she rode out one emotional wave after another.
“Just let it out.
Let it go. I’ll bet you’ve kept this bottled up for a long time and you need to
just let it go. I’ll never tell anyone, you can trust me. Just let it go.” He
let instinct guide his words, hoping she would listen or that she would at
least understand he was there for her.
Violent tremors
made her whole body convulse as if she were seizing. Her fingers gripped the
material of his shirt as she clung to him. He had never seen anyone react like
this before. Lee had nightmares and was prone to lashing out if awakened too
abruptly, but this wasn't natural. It was almost like she was flashing back to
some point in her past. He knew very little about what she had been through.
The best he could do for her was act as an anchor and hope that she could find
her center once she had cried herself out.
After what seemed
like hours, Serena’s shaking stopped and she grew quiet. Chip could still feel
her breathing, slow and steady. With one hand he reached up and slowly ran his
fingers over her long hair. He felt her shift position as she settled herself
more securely against him.
Feeling better?”
he asked quietly.
“Other than being
completely and totally embarrassed that I acted like little preschooler scared
of some monster,” she said. Her voice was low and rough from dealing with so
many raw emotions.
“You have nothing
to be embarrassed about. I’ll never tell anyone. I swear.”
“You won’t tell
Jamie?”
Why is she
afraid that I might tell Jamie? Chip shook his head and settled his arm around her. The
uncontrollable shaking had stopped, but she still trembled. “I promise not to tell Jamie. Scout’s honor.”
“Mister Morton,
somehow I don’t see you as a scout,” she replied weakly.
Chip settled his
arm protectively around her, his hand found hers and he entwined his fingers
with hers. He ran his thumb over the back of her hand, still feeling her
trembling slightly. What ever had her so terrified was still lurking in the
back of her mind. Chip knew he needed to get her mind off what ever it was that
was so frightening. The only way to conquer a fear was to get her to open up
about it. Fear was something he understood all too well.
“Can I ask you something?”
Serena hesitated
before answering, “Okay.”
“Why are you
afraid of the dark?”
“Who told you I
was afraid of the dark?”
“A little bird
told me. Talk to me, Ms. Harrison.”
For a long time
Serena was quiet. There was only the feel of her steady breathing as Chip held
her close. He thought maybe she had drifted off to sleep when her voice, still
thick with emotions, drifted upwards.
“You know about
the cave in,” she began.
Chip nodded then
added a quiet ‘yes’, still gently caressing her hand with his thumb. The motion
seemed to calm her somewhat and Chip was reluctant to stop.
“I’ve never known
darkness like that. Complete and utter darkness. My leg was broken, the rocks
were pinning me in. I thought…no one was going to find me. I was going to die
alone, in the dark.”
The trembling
started again, with violent shivers so severe, Serena could hardly talk. Chip
wrapped both arms around her and held her close. She was fighting not to
breakdown. When she spoke again Chip
could barely hear her.
“Out of five
people who went into that cave, I was the only one who came out alive.” She
took a deep shuddering breath before continuing. Chip just held onto her as she
shook.
“I couldn’t stand
the darkness after that. After I got out of the hospital, I used to have panic
attacks. Wendy and I connected somehow after the investigation and she’d visit
when she could. She was the only one who could calm me down when I had an
attack. Afterwards when she couldn’t be there, I used to curl up with a stuffed
Pink Panther and ride out the attacks.”
Her voice broke
and once more she lost control of her defenses. Like before, Chip held her and
spoke softly into her ear, rocking her gently as she cried and trembled as the
terror of her ordeal came back to haunt her.
“I’ve got you, I
won’t let you go. I promise.”
~<<>>~
For Chip, it
seemed like days had passed. Serena eventually settled down and drifted off to
sleep. Chip kept his arms wrapped around her, holding her close to him. She
didn’t resist but actually snuggled closer to him. At one point she stirred in
his arms and he felt her hand reaching up his chest.
“I want to
feel your heartbeat. I have to know this is real and not my imagination,”
Serena said softly.
Chip felt a
smile creep over him. “Anything you need.”
“Chip, something
else…at the cabin, I dreamed I fell asleep with you holding me. That wasn’t a
dream, was it?”
Chip leaned
his head back, remembering how she had folded against him, her body pressed
against his…”No, that wasn’t a dream. You were so exhausted, you just drifted
off and I didn’t have the heart to move you.”
A few minutes
later, with her hand over his chest, Serena drifted off once more. Chip thought
it was only fitting since the day he first saw her she owned his heart.
A low thud
sounded overhead. Chip jerked his head upwards, following the sound as it
seemed to move. A roar—muffled by the roof itself—filled the air, and then a
thin shaft of light pierced the darkness. Someone was cutting a hole in the
roof in an attempt to reach them.
Chip shook
Serena’s shoulder gently. “Sweetheart, the cavalry's here.”
“About time.
Tell Lee he’s got lousy customer service,” Serena mumbled.
A few more
minutes and the shaft of light was now a beam, and then the beam became a
blinding gift from above. A huge section of roof had been cut away and Chip was
staring up at the very familiar silhouette of Lee Crane.
“Nice of you
to drop in,” Chip said as Lee slowly climbed into the room.
“I thought you
might like the company but I see you don’t need my help. Getting to be a habit
with you,” Lee replied with an amused glance at Chip on the floor with the
boss’s daughter in a protective embrace.
Chip glared up
at Lee. “Not funny. Lee. She’s exhausted. Don’t make jokes.”
“Okay, okay,
don’t get your socks in a wad. Either of you hurt?”
“I’m fine.
Serena only has the injuries she had when I brought her home. We’ll have to
carry her out.”
“You’d better
let me take her. I don’t know if you can navigate through this mess holding
her,” Lee said, with an eye on the myriad of hanging wires and loose pieces of
dangling ceiling.
Chip pulled
himself to his feet and mindful of Serena’s ankle, lifted her off the floor.
She didn’t argue, but instead wrapped both arms around his neck as he eased
closer to Lee.
Lee raised a
curious eyebrow. Shy and timid around Chip, now suddenly Serena was holding
onto him like he was a lifeline to sanity? Had something happened that Chip
wasn’t talking about? Morton caught the raised-eyebrow look and frowned, his
own expression turning frosty. The statement was clear to Lee. Whatever had
happened, Chip wasn’t talking. Well, whatever it was, it could wait till he got
everybody to safety. Lee came forward,
ready to take Serena from Morton. Before Chip could warn him, the unstable
floor shifted under Lee’s weight and the floor collapsed.
Gravity took
over and Chip over-balanced with Serena slipping out of his grasp and sliding
along in front of him. He managed to grab hold of her left hand as she slid
over the edge of the disintegrating floor but he couldn’t stop himself from
following. They were going over and there wasn’t anything Chip could do to save
them.
There was a
hard jerk around Chip’s midsection and everything stopped. Serena dangled over
a nest of wires, plumbing and jagged-edged boards, caught in a two handed grip
as Chip held onto her left hand and wrist. With a quick backwards glance, Chip
understood why he had stopped.
Lee Crane had
his own vice-like grip on the back of Morton’s belt while the other hand held
onto a rope tied around Lee’s waist, a rope that Chip never noticed till now.
The other end of the rope vanished outside the hole in the roof. It was the
only thing that had saved the three of them.
Lee tossed a
glance back to the hole and bellowed, “Kowalski! I need you to pull!”
Chip felt the
tension growing and slowly Lee backed toward the hole, pulling Chip and Serena
along as he went. Finally Chip was able to pull her out of the hole.
Shaking and
trembling like a leaf in the wind, Serena didn’t have the strength to stand on
her own, even if Chip would let her. With his arms around her waist, she
glanced up into his blue eyes.
“You did say
you wouldn’t let go,” she said as her eyes rolled back and she collapsed into
Morton’s arms.
~<<>>~
The last thing
Serena remembered before everything went black was looking up into Chip’s
brilliant blue eyes. She must have passed out at some point, but she certainly
didn’t remember it. She didn’t remember being brought back to Med Bay either,
but that’s certainly where she was now.
She glanced
around, noticing the lights were turned down low, but weren’t completely turned
off. Her right wrist was wrapped in a clean bandage. She could only assume her
ankle had been taken care of as well. She glanced over to her right to see the
broad-chested figure of Chip Morton, stretched out in a chair, his feet propped
up on the edge of the mattress.
How many times had
he done this for Lee? Countless. She had heard the stories, seen it a few times
herself. Wendy had done that for her, after the accident. Was this a Morton
trait? Or was Chip keeping watch over her something more?
“Chip?” she said
softly and was rewarded when his luminescent blue eyes open. He smiled at her
as he straightened up.
“Nice to see you
awake. How are you feeling?”
“Tired. Sore. How
did I get here?”
“You passed out,
so we brought you back here. Jamie wants to keep you under observation. He says
your heart rate is elevated and your blood pressure is up. I tried to tell him
MY blood pressure goes up when I’m stuck in here.”
“Did you tell him
about me?” Serena had been though therapy before. She hated it and she’d hated
the therapist, Dr. Stephen Rinaldi. His probing questions about her childhood
had nothing to do with the accident or her phobia of the dark. She’s gone to
four sessions, then walked out and had refused any further association with the
man. She’d never mentioned him and there was no record of being treated by him
in her medical record. The idea that Jamie might send her back into therapy had
always lurked in the back of her mind. It was the reason she’d worked hard not
to draw attention to her fear of the dark.
Chip shook his
head and raked a hand through his short blond hair. “I said I would never tell.
Not to Jamie, not to the admiral. A promise is a promise. I wouldn’t be a very
good officer if I couldn’t keep a few secrets.”
Serena felt a
smile tug at her lips. “And how many secrets are you keeping, Commander
Morton?”
Chip smiled, full
wattage. “That would be telling,” he replied. “I think you should tell Jamie
though. He’s very good, and this is something he needs to know. Trust me.”
Serena felt the
exhaustion creeping back on her. She let out a weary breath, thinking about the
last few hours. It suddenly occurred to her that her house was probably a
complete loss.
“I’ll have a talk
with him later,” she relented, with reluctance oozing from every pore.
“Anything left of my house?” she asked.
“Good girl. About
your house, there isn’t much, I’m afraid. The top floor collapsed in an
aftershock, right after Lee dug us out. I know it’s probably not the best time
to ask this, but where are you going to go from here?”
“Well, I was
looking at a house here on the grounds. I can move into that, I guess. I don’t
suppose any of my stuff is salvageable?”
Chip thought back
to the wreckage of her house. “Not really. Sweetheart, I’m sorry.”
“All my pictures.
My music. My books. Did you know I had almost the entire collection of National
Geographics? I just needed nine issues to complete the collection,” she said
sadly. She couldn’t seem to keep her eyes open and slowly they closed.
Chip couldn’t help
himself. He reached over to her and brushed a stray strand of coppery auburn
hair from her eyes. “Let me see what I can do. We might be able to salvage some
of your stuff.” Chip was determined to save what he could of her belongings. He
already had one piece, something he had grabbed on his way out after Lee came
after them.
But Serena didn’t
seem to hear him. She had drifted off again. Chip watched her breathing grow
slow and regular. Gently Chip gathered one of her hands in his, watching as her
slender fingers curled against the palm of his hand in reflex.
He wanted nothing
more than to simply gather her in his arms and protect her. Or at least try to.
He wanted her to know he was there if she needed him. He wanted her to
understand that he wanted to be there for her. What was he feeling for her? He
had thought he loved Vanessa, but this. . . this was different.
From the floor
next to the bed, Chip reached down and retrieved the one thing he had been able
to snatch before scrambling out of her house. Carefully he tucked the object
against Serena’s side, in the crook of her arm. In her sleep she reflexively
tightened her grip on it, drawing it closer to her. Watching her now, Chip had
a glimpse of the child she must have been at ten or eleven, before the events
of her life molded and shaped her. Again, he wanted to just hold her and
protect her, to try and make her feel safe.
Chip rose out of
the chair and made his way across the room to the door, just as Lee appeared.
“How is she?” Lee
asked with a nod to his boss’s daughter.
“She’s exhausted.
I think she’ll be all right though. I want a couple of volunteers to go back to
her house and salvage what we can.”
“Shouldn’t be a
problem. What about you?” Lee asked with a raised eyebrow. Chip was smart
enough to know he wasn’t asking about his physical health
For a second Chip
almost broke and told Lee what he was feeling for Admiral Nelson’s daughter. He
had already ready admitted having feelings for her. Chip couldn’t get her out
of his head, the smell of her hair, the feel of her body against his, the way
she trembled in the dark as he held her close….
Chip shook his
head to chase away the memory. “I’m fine. I need to know which house Serena was
looking at. She’s going to need a place to live and we need a place to put what
we can salvage.” Chip picked up his pace and was heading down the hall. When he
realized that Lee wasn't following, he turned around, frowning.
“Lee, are you
coming?”
Caught off guard
by what he was seeing as he glanced into Serena’s room, Lee could only nod
distractedly. “Yeah, sure. On my way,” he mumbled and turned around, still puzzled.
Serena Harrison
sighed deeply in her sleep, the stuffed Pink Panther that Chip had rescued
still clutched tightly in her arms.
End.
srh
1 NEXRAD (NEXt-Generation RADar) is a network of high-resolution Doppler weather radars operated by the National Weather Service
2 Company of Shadows
3 Doppelganger
4 Doppelganger
5 Friendly Fire
6 Doppelganger
7 Company of Shadows
8 Eavesdropper
9 The Pink Panther is produced by Mirisch Films and DePatie-Freleng Enterprises. Used here by the author without permission, so please don’t sue me. At the time of this writing, I am but poor unemployed college student who still uses Word 2000.
10 Company of Shadows
11 Journey with Fear. Season 4 Vol.1—Disk1: Side A
12 For those who might not get this reference, in 1906 a massive earthquake hit San Francisco, California. The actual strength of the quake isn’t known but estimates range from 7.0 to 8.25 on the Richter scale, making it one of the largest quakes in United States history. The quake virtually destroyed the city and was felt as far north as the state of Oregon, as far south as Los Angeles, and as far inland as central Nevada. This concludes today’s geography history. J