| Subject: Dangerous Chapter 5 |
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Becca
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Date Posted: 18:21:20 11/13/02 Wed
In reply to:
Becca
's message, "Dangerous" on 13:16:20 09/27/02 Fri
Dangerous 5
January 2000
**Mexico**
“Wrong answer,” Julia declared from the passenger seat. She and Lucky had a month off and were using it to drive cross-country in his father’s Cadillac. Of course, Lucky wanted to take the motorcycle, but Julia easily persuaded him from that suggestion.
“No way, I’m totally right,” he said, glancing over at her.
Her hair was flowing in the wind, and her eyes peaked out above her sunglasses that she wore despite the fact it was nearly dark. It was enough to almost make Lucky swerve off the road.
“I stand by my answer, the best movie ever was East of Eden. You just have a sick crush on John Cusack that prevents you from seeing this,” Lucky teased.
“Say Anything is classic, Lucky, classic. But, because I’m so nice, I’ll give you once chance to redeem yourself,” she snickered. “Sexiest love scene.”
Lucky glanced over at her, a smiling knowingly. “You, me, this Caddy, last night.”
She punched him in the arm, laughing. “In a movie.”
“That’s hard,” he scratched his head and thought. “I plead the fifth.”
“Come on, Lucky, you have to answer,” Julia insisted. “I’ll tell you mine.”
“I’m listening.”
“It is easy, everyone my age would probably give you this answer,” she began. “Johnny and Baby in Dirty Dancing. Nothing hotter than that.”
Lucky made a face and pretended to ignore her reaction. “That’s interesting.”
“Now, you have to choose. I want an answer, Spencer,” she demanded.
“Sorry, Jules, I just don’t have one,” he sighed. “Maybe because, for me, nothing in any movie can even come close to being sexy after I’ve been with the sexiest.”
Julia felt her self blush as she looked at Lucky in disbelief. He had to be the perfect boyfriend; he just had to be. There was nobody quite like him. He said the perfect things, at the perfect time, with the purest intent.
“You’re unreal,” she told him, leaning over to kiss his cheek. Resting her head on his shoulder, she looked at the road and realized how familiar it all was. “Lucky, where are we?”
“Marado Ranch,” Lucky stated.
“That I can see, but why?” she wondered. As they got closer to the property she could see that the house was strung with lights, creating a surreal setting. “Lucky, why’d we come back here?”
“Patience, they tell me, is a virtue,” he whispered. Pulling the car to a stop he jumped out and ran over to open her door. He held out his hand, which she took instinctively. “May I show you to your, well, not table—step?”
“Ok,” she said softly, following Lucky’s lead wherever it took her.
“You know,” Lucky began. “I really like Mexico. Don’t you?”
“It’s great,” she muttered.
“Some of the most amazing sunsets I’ve ever seen have taken place right here,” Lucky explained. “Right in this spot.” He paused, looked down at her; “Maybe it isn’t Mexico. Come to think of it, I don’t actually remember watching that many of the sunsets.”
“You haven’t?”
He shook his head slowly. “No, I’ve watched something more beautiful,” his voice was soft and light. It didn’t sound real. “I’ve watched you. I’ve watched you’re eyes—they still look gold in this light, you know.”
Sitting there, looking up at Lucky, Julia felt a wave of complete joy wash over her. By the time she realized he was on one knee, smiling, her head was so filled with that joy that she couldn’t possibly think to be nervous.
“I drove all the way across country, to take you back here to Mexico, to this ranch, because it is where we kissed for the first time. And, I figure, if I’m going to do this right, I might as well come back to the scene of the original crime, right?” Lucky asked, his voice shaking a bit. He had tried to fight off becoming too emotional. It was a fight he was losing.
“You know I love you. And I’m going to love you as long as you let me. But I’m an old fashioned kind of guy.” Lucky pulled out a tiny box, opening it to reveal a simple, beautiful sapphire ring. “Julia Mitchell, will you marry me?”
“Yes,” she said simply. She wanted to say more, to tell him exactly how happy he made her, but she was too happy to say anything. So, instead of speaking, she kissed him, knowing it was the beginning of everything she wanted yet never thought she’d get.
“You said yes,” he let out a sigh of relief. He never thought she’d say no, but he had no idea what it would feel like to hear her say yes. “Wait, wait,” he held up a finger before sliding the ring on her finger. “There’s a story about the ring.”
“Gosh, it is beautiful—the color,” she gasped. It was the most perfect blue in the world—likes his eyes.
“The center stone, the blue sapphire, they say—those who say things—that it represents sincerity and faithfulness. And the diamonds around the sapphire represent love. I wanted this ring because it says everything I want you to know. I will be true in my word; I will love you with all my heart. And I will be faithful, so long as you are in my life you will be my life . . . until of course we have little yous, and then they will be my life too,” Lucky paused, noticing he had probably rambled a bit too much. “Not that we’re about to have babies soon. I mean, we may, but I don’t think right now is the time to make that decision--.”
“Lucky, shut up,” Julia said lovingly, placing her fingers against his lips. “I love you, and I want to have your children, and I want to be your wife.”
“I didn’t say too much?” Lucky asked nervously.
Julia smiled. Sometimes she forgot that despite all Lucky had been through in his life, he was still fairly young, only 19. There was such wisdom in his eyes, he an old soul. But, as she looked at him for that moment, a goofy grin on his face, she saw his idealism and youth. Her boyfriend, her lover, her husband.
**October 2006—Soho, London**
“What the hell is that?” Elizabeth asked as she looked outside the restaurant.
“Huh?” Lucky turned in his chair to follow Elizabeth’s gaze outside the window. “Oh my God, what the?”
Five seconds later Emily and Zander stormed into the restaurant and began to argue with the hostess.
“Uh, I got to go!” Lucky and Elizabeth said in unison.
“Why do you have to leave?” Elizabeth asked him suspiciously.
In the background, Emily shouted, “There they are!”
“It—I, oh crap,” Lucky muttered as Zander and Emily managed their way through the restaurant and to their table.
“We’ve got a problem,” Zander declared as he held his and Emily’s hands in the air.
Elizabeth shook her head at Emily disapprovingly. “Em, I’m the wild one—how’d you end up handcuffed to a guy on the first date?”
“That is a question I’ve been asking myself all day,” Emily muttered.
“Partner, we’ve got a problem,” Zander repeated, looking directly at Lucky.
“What?” Lucky looked around, trying to keep up the act.
“Oh cut it out, Agent Spencer,” Emily demanded. “I know everything. Agent Idiot had a plan that backfired.”
Elizabeth looked at Emily and Zander then at Lucky before settling back on Emily. “What are you talking about, Em?”
“This isn’t the best place to have this conversation,” Zander suggested. “Maybe we should leave.”
“Fine, let’s go back to our place,” Elizabeth suggested. She looked at Lucky, “Em and I keep a place here, just a small flat.”
“Is it far?” he asked, concerned over what exactly his partner did, temporarily forgetting he knew exactly where it was.
“No,” she said, motioning for everyone to follow them. She stopped, ran back to the table, and threw a few bills down to pay for their barely eaten breakfast.
A few minutes later the group was congregated in the small living room of Emily and Elizabeth’s apartment.
“Explain,” Elizabeth said, pointing at the handcuffs. “Wait, I recall—.” She turned to Lucky, “AGENT Spencer?”
“I have no idea what that means. She’s clearly insane and handcuffed to a man I do not know,” Lucky rambled, forcing an uneasy smile.
“Oh, don’t lie,” Emily commanded. “Or I’ll hit you—with both our hands,” she threatened, holding up her right hand, and Zander’s left.
“I’ll explain,” Zander finally said. “Lucky and I are WSB agents, we came to London to intercede before you gave the Ice Prince to Helena, which we know you were going to steal. I had an idea where I’d let Emily in on the plan ahead of time. Of course, it didn’t go so well.”
“Ya think, partner?” Lucky asked, shaking his head at the situation. “Did you ever think to tell me your plan?”
Zander winced, “It was sort of spur of the moment.”
“Yeah, I can tell.”
“What? What? Why?” Elizabeth stammered. “How did you…why…are you going to arrest us?”
“Oh, no, that wasn’t the plan,” Lucky said with a heavy sigh.
“Yeah,” Emily added. “They just handcuff themselves to you if you don’t agree with their plan.”
Zander blushed.
“That’s not WSB protocol, that’s all Zander,” Lucky informed them. “My bosses want you two on our team. You give us the diamond before Helena can get her hands on it and you will be given amnesty. And an offer to join us.”
“You two in particular?” Elizabeth asked, not sure what to make of the situation.
“At this point, thanks to that,” he pointed at Emily and Zander’s situation. “I’d say no. They’ll probably want to keep those two apart for some time.”
“I may regret this later, but I think we can consider something like that,” Elizabeth said. Emily looked at her angrily. “Em, face it, they are on to us. We have to consider the offer, seriously. Cause I’m not really too big on prison.”
“Yeah, because we’ll send you in a HEARTBEAT,” Zander hissed in Emily’s ear.
Emily inched closer to Elizabeth, “But what about the other offer.”
“Other offer?” Lucky questioned.
“Helena’s grandson, some Prince Nikolas guy, really stuffy, offered us a similar deal. We steal the diamond for him and he keeps us safe. I think he had an ulterior motive, though,” Elizabeth explained.
“I thought he was cute, and sane—he didn’t result to bondage to get what we wanted,” Emily said pointedly looking at Zander.
“I cannot wait until these cuffs are off.”
Lucky tapped Zander on the shoulder, “Hey, man, why ARE the cuffs still on?”
“I lost the key, can’t find it,” he said quickly. “We’re stuck.”
With a deep breath Lucky tried to imagine how this very simple case went so horribly wrong. ‘What do I do now, Jules?’ he thought.
“This is really bad,” Elizabeth informed.
“I know, the cuffs are indestructible. The only way they come off is with a key,” Lucky explained.
“No, we have to do the job tonight. Tonight is our only window of opportunity to get into the mansion and get the diamond. We’ll have 24 hours before Helena thinks we’re doing the job—you know, a cushion—but we have to do it tonight,” Elizabeth explained.
Lucky scratched his head thoughtfully. “Well, I’ve got an idea,” he began. He spun his wedding ring around his finger. “We’ll spend all day looking for the key, and I’ll contact a friend of mine who can hopefully defy nature and bust that lock on the cuffs open. But if we don’t find it, I’ll do the job with Elizabeth.”
“What?” the other three asked.
“Lucky, that’s not the plan,” Zander informed him.
“Neither was handcuffing yourself to one of the marks,” Lucky pointed out.
Zander clenched his jaw. “I’m never going to live this one down.”
“That’s a stupid plan,” Emily jumped in. “Liz and I are a team, we can do this job in our sleep. You’re just going to mess it up.”
“Fine, I won’t do it. You can do the job, Miss Quartermaine. But you may have my partner chained to you,” he told her, not really liking her attitude. “I can do it. I’m a professional.”
“A professional WSB agent, what we do is a little different,” Elizabeth told him.
Lucky laughed. “You’ve got no idea what I do. Long ago, when I first started with the WSB I did stuff very similar to what you guys do. My partner and I were probably better than you two. A well oiled machine,” Lucky said fondly.
“I can hardly believe that one,” Emily said, glancing at Zander.
“It wasn’t me, sweetheart,” he informed her. “He’s talking about Julia, his wife.”
“Oh,” Emily said quietly. “Sorry.”
“That’s alright. But I can do this. It’ll be no problem,” Lucky informed them. “Let’s cross our fingers we find the key, but if not . . .”
“Ok, let’s do it,” Elizabeth said with a smile. “First, I have to get together the stuff we’ll need to get in tonight. Then we’ll go back to your place to find the key.”
“I’ll help,” Lucky said, following Elizabeth out of the living room.
“Listen,” Elizabeth said, her voice low. “You lied to me. You let me think you were some ordinary guy and that you bumped into me by accident. But all the while I was your mark.”
“You lied to me too,” Lucky claimed, not sure why they were even having this conversation.
“Yeah, but I didn’t follow you around, spy on you, all the while pretending to be flirting. Let’s just say that whatever was happening between us has been destroyed,” she informed him, bitterness in her voice.
“Happening between us? What the hell are you talking about?” Lucky asked. Now he was really confused. “We had breakfast and talked. Did I miss something?”
“You mean you weren’t flirting? Putting the moves on me? Give me a break, Spencer. I can tell when I’m being charmed. I know all about seduction—I was working you,” she hissed.
“No, that is not what I was doing,” he insisted. “I was just being friendly, casual—I swear. I don’t…I don’t flirt anymore.”
“You don’t flirt anymore?” Elizabeth asked. She was putting objects into a bag, shaking her head the entire time. “How do you not flirt anymore? What does that even mean?”
“It means I just don’t. I’ve been married and I still love my wife, I just don’t think about that sort of stuff anymore,” Lucky admitted softly. “I—I know I should be doing that sort of stuff. I mean it has been three years and all but . . . I just can’t let go. I’m still in love with Julia.”
Elizabeth looked at Lucky, looked at the anguish and deep love on his face as he mentioned his wife, and could feel herself soften towards him. She hated being lied to, but Lucky’s eyes wouldn’t let her hold a grudge.
But if he hadn’t been flirting with her, what was Lucky Spencer like when he turned on the charm?
“Lucky, I’m—I’m sorry, I didn’t mean . . .”
“It is a relief to get that off my chest. My friends and family never question why I haven’t dated since Julia died. But this is the first time I’ve had to explain why. It feels good. So thanks, Elizabeth. You may hate me, but you gave me something today,” Lucky told her. “You let me think about how much I love Jules.”
Lucky smiled at Elizabeth and she could honestly say she was jealous. Jealous of Lucky’s dead wife and all the more curious. Lucky Spencer was more than just a cute guy who would probably be fun in bed. He was sweet, and funny, and honest, and a complete mystery. A man who stayed faithful to his wife three years after she died. He was one of a kind.
**
Emily and Zander sat on the floor. The living room of Lucky and Zander’s suite looked as though a tornado had walked through the room, took everything out of drawers and closets and threw it on the floor. Nothing was really broken, just scattered.
“Stop that, please,” Emily ordered Zander. They were still chained together.
He slowly turned his head and looked at her in complete bewilderment.
“Excuse me?”
“Did I stutter?”
“I’m not doing anything.”
Emily glared.
Zander threw his free hand in the air and groaned. “I’m not!”
“That jaw thing . . . you keep, I don’t know, clenching it. It’s annoying. Stop, please,” Emily pleaded. She was at her wit's end. They hadn’t found the key despite looking everywhere for it. They’d probably be stuck together for another few hours until someone from the WSB could get a spare key to them. They had to actually make a duplicate key from the serial number on the handcuffs that was on file back in Washington. It gave Emily a headache just to think about it.
“How can that . . .” Zander sighed. “Fine, I’ll stop. On one condition—you cut me a little slack. Really, get off my case.”
“I wouldn’t be on your case if I wasn’t attached to you, Zander,” Emily informed him. “But, since it looks like we’ll be stuck like this for a bit longer, I’ll try to be nice.”
“It shouldn’t be that hard,” he mused. “After all, we were having a great time this morning until, well, you know.”
“We were,” Emily admitted. “But that is all erased. I wasn’t a breakfast date, I was your mark, and now I’m your hostage.”
“You’re not my hostage. You’re my…my…unfortunate accident,” Zander quipped. “This wasn’t supposed to happen, but now that it has, we have to make the best of it.”
Emily looked at Zander and for a second saw why she had gone to breakfast with him in the first place. He was handsome and had a rough around the edges charm to him. She had no idea he was so short tempered and unthinking, though. They’d have to work on that.
No, wait, that wouldn’t happen. Even though she and Elizabeth were “considering” the offer, she wasn’t going to see Zander ever again. Elizabeth and Lucky would return with the diamond, Helena would be arrested, and Emily would head off with her partner to wherever the WSB trained thieves to become spies.
“Does the WSB have a Christmas party?” Emily asked, out of the blue.
“Uh…I wouldn’t know. I’m new, but I think so. I mean, I can see how they might have one back in DC but don’t take my word for it,” Zander explained. “Why?”
“I was just thinking that would be the next time I’d see you,” she said. “You know, after this is over and Liz and I go off to become badge toting automatons.”
Zander smirked. “So you’re going to take the deal?”
“It’s either that or prison, right?”
Zander shrugged. “They never told me what they’d do to you guys if you didn’t agree. I don’t think my bosses thought you’d turn it down.”
They fell into silence. Zander looked down at the cuffs and couldn’t help but think he could be in a worse situation. Being handcuffed to a beautiful and interesting, if not extremely irritating, woman wasn’t a totally bad thing.
“Badge toting automatons?” Zander repeated with a laugh. “Do you have authority issues?”
Emily looked at Zander squarely. “No, that’s Liz’s thing. Damn the man and all that.”
“But she was receptive of the offer while you stalled. You’ve got authority issues, Miss Quartermaine,” Zander teased.
“I do not,” Emily defended herself, poking Zander in the side. “I’ve taken a psychology class or two and I think you are the one with issues. I don’t know what they are yet, but you are a messed up guy.”
“Me? Hardly, I’m perfectly normal,” Zander claimed. He was now facing Emily. They stared at each other as if having a staring contest.
“That’s the thing. You pretend to be normal and then you act all irrational. You’re like a boil waiting to pop.”
“That’s a pretty image,” he mused.
“No, I’m serious. I think our current predicament is evidence that you do not think before you act, and that when you do act irrationally it is usually side affect of your temper. If only you could focus that energy in a positive light,” Emily suggested. “You can be impulsive without being irrational.”
“Really?”
Emily nodded.
“Ok,” Zander nodded. He looked at her and decided to be impulsive. Before she could object, or hit him, Zander leaned forward and placed a quick, impulsive kiss on her lips.
“Zander,” Emily gasped when he broke the lip lock.
“That’s different,” Zander muttered.
“Not bad different,” she added.
“No, not at all,” he smiled. “But we can’t--.”
“No, not again.”
They sat in an uncomfortable silence, both really wanting to take that tiny kiss a step forward. They have been annoying each other all day, but there was definitely a physical attraction there.
“I think Friends is on,” Zander said. “Want to watch TV?”
January 2000
**Mexico**
Lucky and Julia lay snuggled together in the back of the Caddy. They were wrapped in a big blanket and just gazed up at the moon and the stars.
“This is nice,” she sighed. “Oh, I had a dream the other night.”
Lucky kissed her head softly, “Tell me about it.”
“It was odd,” Julia began. She laced her fingers through Lucky’s and gazed at their hands, perfectly interlocking. “We were in this place, I couldn’t really recognize it. But you were standing on one end of the room with all these other people, again, who I didn’t really recognize. At first you looked happy but then someone came up to you and your face fell. You turned, looked across the room at where I was standing. Your eyes lit up and you ran to me. You kissed me, but it wasn’t a normal kiss. It was like we had been apart for years and were just finding each other again. It was . . . I woke up feeling so sad.”
Lucky ran his hand down her arm and placed it on her perfectly smooth stomach. “Sounds like a happy ending to me.”
“It was, but you were so sad, like you missed me so much. Your heart was broken, because of me,” Julia confessed. “I won’t do that to you, I swear.”
“Oh, Julia, I know,” he hugged her closer to his body. “Last night I had a pretty strange dream too. Want to hear it?”
“Always.”
“Well, for one, it was strange because you weren’t in it. I met this girl, who was really amazing. The only thing wrong with her, really, was she wasn’t you,” Lucky began. “We fell in love, deeply, but then I was kidnapped by some enemy of my father’s. They threatened the girl’s life. I had to stay locked up or they’d kill her. A year later the person who kidnapped me and made my family think I was dead sent a fake me to friends and family. And I remember thinking how this impostor didn’t even look like me. He had blonde spiky hair and yelled a lot. He fooled everyone, even my girlfriend. It was a nightmare, really.”
“That sounds terrible,” Julia said softly. “How could your family not know he wasn’t you?”
“Mass brainwashing?” Lucky joked.
“Hey,” Julia said quickly. “Did the real you ever get out and reclaim his life?”
Lucky stared up at the sky. “I don’t know. I’d hope so. He really loved her, you know? I mean I really loved the girl. I loved her so much that I sacrificed my own freedom for her safety.”
“I’d do that for you,” Julia said impulsively. “I’d do anything for you. To save you, to keep you alive, I’d give up my own freedom.”
“Me too,” Lucky told her. “But luckily we won’t have that problem. I’m not letting you leave my side.”
“Promise?” she turned so that she could look in his eyes.
Lucky’s lips met hers gently. “On the stars in the sky, I promise.”
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