Story Market Day

ComCamGuy

Remote Paramedical pain in the ass
Everyone was standing around in the kitchen. Correction, almost everyone. Kara and Heidi weren’t here. There was fresh coffee and a note however. Bekka looked at the note and back at everyone.

“Allyson, Heidi and Kara already went down to the training building. Could you and Angelique and Emelia go lend them a hand for a bit? We will be right down to join you.”

Allyson looked at Bekka. Something sounded off in what she was saying. Maybe it had to do with the note left on the counter. She didn’t get a chance to read it before Bekka scooped it up. She looked at Bekka. Bekka gave her a subtle nod as if asking her to just do it please. “Sure, but that means you guys better be bringing lunch down when you come.”

Allyson turned to Emilia and Angelique. “OK, guys, let’s get down there before all that’s left to do is all the scut work like sweeping and mopping.” She shooed the other two along, leaving Doug, Garen and Bekka in the kitchen.

As Allyson went down the hallway, from behind her she heard Garen’s voice. “Alright, Doug, why don’t you refill your coffee? We need to talk”
 

ComCamGuy

Remote Paramedical pain in the ass
Doug was a little worried when Garen said they needed to talk. Both Bekka and Garen had serious faces.

“So,” Doug said tentatively. “What’s up?”

Bekka started. “We know the original idea was Angelique coming to live with you in the cabin this fall while she tried to figure out what she was going to do with her life…”

Garen continued. “Then everything went to shit. She got shot, you went missing, she came here and has been moving forward with the assumption you were gone. Now you’re here.”

“So what do you think she wants to do? Are you looking or expecting her to move to the cabin with you and Heidi and Emilia or have you even thought that far?” Bekka asked.

Doug was getting whiplash looking back and forth between the two of them as they both spoke. In truth, he hadn’t given it a whole lot of thought since he had been so focused on finding her and knowing she was safe. This blind spot in his thinking must have been because he was used to only having her around for a few weeks at a time and he had fallen back into the old pattern of thinking. He knew that was part of the reason he didn’t come here earlier; she was somewhere else, in a safe bubble so he could set his worry aside until now, when he came looking for her.

What was next? He could rearrange things and get the last room cleared at the cabin, but did she want that anymore? What would it do to the relationship and dynamics at the cabin bringing Angelique there? They had worked so hard to develop the comfortable yet professional atmosphere there. Shoot! What about everything Angelique built here?!

Angelique was eighteen years old, the same age many teens go off to college, academies and the military. This was the traditional coming of age window. This was also the exact time the whole world went to shit.

She had come here and thrived. Doug wasn’t sure how and towards what, but he knew Bekka and Garen tolerated no bullshit and would have brought the hammer down on Angelique and put her in a corner, either figuratively or literally by now if Angelique hadn’t measured up. Shoot, Allyson had shown him the scenario sheet and notes from the medical exercise they put her through. Garen wasn’t kidding! She had it much tougher than he did when he went through the course here, and she did it solo! If knowledge and wilderness and medicine was what she wanted to learn, this place was a graduate degree from Yale!

Doug looked up at them. They were just silently waiting for him to process their question. “I hadn’t thought on it. It seems she has made something for herself here with you guys, something unexpected for sure, but I could think of nowhere else I would have wanted her to be. Is she happy here? Is she welcome to stay here?” He saw faint smiles on both Garen and Bekka’s face as they glanced at one another, tears rimming their eyes.
 

ComCamGuy

Remote Paramedical pain in the ass
“She is more than welcome, Doug. So much more. That’s what we wanted to talk to you about and we needed to do it soon.” Bekka started again.

“You see, Doug, Bekka and I don’t have nor can we ever have kids and the one person we have in our will to leave this wonderful place to, our oasis, is Kara. Kara can’t have kids either. The three of us have discussed it at length, and depending on Angelique’s plans moving forward, we were going to make her and Allyson our benefactors. They would inherit this place as long as they help us maintain it.”

“The problem is, we didn’t want to present it to her or them as a present and put you in an awkward position. This is the sort of thing that gets passed down in families and since we don’t have one…..” Bekka paused “But we didn’t want it to look like we were stealing or buying yours. We won’t do it if you are uncomfortable with it or don’t want us to.” She looked over at Garen.

“There are two families you have in the world, Doug. The one you are born with, you don’t get a choice. The second is the one you chose. Will you let her be a part of our family as well as yours?”

Doug was dumbstruck by such an offer. They were basically asking his permission to give her a huge estate with house and grounds and everything, directly adjoining the woods he loved and was duty-bound to protect and guard. This was way more than he could have ever given her, and from Garen and Bekka’s expression, done purely out of love. Love for his Angelique! How could he say no?
 
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Griz3752

Retired, practising Curmudgeon
I've been up since 0100, been teaching TCCC since 0700, short 4 instructors today and I have to work tomorrow as well. I'm dropping these little titdbits so I don't lose them.
Good planning: feed the hounds and save your self some added pressure. Works for me & I doubt you'll hear many complaints.

What you can, as you can is fine and thank you.
G.
 

ComCamGuy

Remote Paramedical pain in the ass
Garen, Bekka and Doug were quite busy in the garage making room for the trailer. When Garen originally designed the garage, he set it up with all the connections to hook up the power, water and sewer, making it fully operational. His thought was mainly being able to work on all the systems there at the house more than having it as a spare apartment. It wasn’t until they were working on Kara’s in the garage the spare apartment idea came to be. Now she reminded them about doing it for their impending guests.

While moving and shifting things, Bekka was working Doug over with Garen’s help.

“So, have you figured out how to explain your relationship with Heidi to Angelique or are you just going to keep acting like there is nothing there?” she said as she pushed some of the motorcycles in their wheeled cradles over to one of the other bays.

Doug turned red and sputtered a few moments as he tried to organizes his thoughts.

“Not that I blame you for getting with her! She is smart, funny and got supermodel looks!” Bekka continued before Doug could speak.

“I don’t know, Bekka, she seems a little soft-spoken and almost too shy for Doug. She is a looker though; I have to admit.” Garen joined in.

“Guys, it’s not like that! I’m her supervisor! We are just friends! She isn’t as shy as she seems, it’s just we all know one another and she is just getting to know you guys. Yes, she and her daughter are living in the cabin with me. They both have their own rooms!” Doug was getting very animated now.

Bekka started to speak but Doug kept going.

“What kind of manipulative bastard would I be to hit on her! ‘Gee, I’ll let you stay here as long as I can bang you?’ Shit! What kind of a creep do you think I am?!”

“Doug, we don’t think that of you. We know you aren’t like that!” Garen tried to calm him down some. Maybe Bekka went too far.

Bekka wasn’t letting it go now. They had transitioned from good natured teasing to her ‘wake-the-****-up!’ mode. “Doug, there is no ‘supervisor/worker now. The country has come apart. There is no government anymore! It will be years before any of this comes back together! If you are attracted to her, you should tell her. If she feels the same, you guys would be wonderful together. If she doesn’t, at least then it’s out there and not being tiptoed around.” Bekka’s temper was ignited in response to Doug getting pissed.

“Doug,” Garen had to defuse this, and quickly. “Bekka and I don’t think your one of ‘those’ guys. You guys are somewhere between co-workers and friends, probably both. Going farther wouldn’t be a bad thing for you and I don’t think it would be bad for her either. We aren’t saying be a jackass, we are just saying don’t be blind if it develops.”

Doug just stood there, breathing. He didn’t like being called out like this. Sure, he thought Heidi was wonderful, beautiful, strong, intelligent, just about everything he could ever want. He also had a bad track record for relationships, including a marriage that didn’t work. He would love to be in a relationship with Heidi, but….... what did he have to offer her that wouldn’t sound like extortion?

“OK, guys, let’s just cool it on trying to get me and Heidi together. If it happens at some point, I’ll look at it then, just don’t make things weird right now.”

“We won’t. Right Bekka?”

“Right”
 

ComCamGuy

Remote Paramedical pain in the ass
Allyson, Angelique and Emilia arrived at the training building to find it still all locked up and no sign of Heidi or Kara.

“Alright, where are they?” Emilia was the first to voice the question.

”Probably off checking the route in or something.” Allyson mused hiding her concern. “That shouldn’t stop us from doing the stuff we need to do. All the stuff needs rolled or moved out from in front of the trailer so Garen can hook up his truck and take it to the house. That means we need to check the air pressure in the tires as well as make sure everything inside is strapped down and won’t fall when it moves.”

Allyson figured focusing on the task might quiet the twitchiness everyone was feeling with Kara and Heidi not being here.

“Maybe, but them not being here still doesn’t jibe with the note they left us. Shouldn’t we check on them?” Emilia sounded anxious not knowing where her mother was and both of them being alone with a bunch of people they just met.

Divide and conquer?

An idea was forming in Angelique’s head. “Guys, I might know where they went. It isn’t far. I can pop over there and check real quickly. It would eliminate our worry if they are there.”

The part she left unsaid? If they weren’t there, they should definitely worry and get the others involved.
 
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Texican

Live Free & Die Free.... God Freedom Country....
“OK, guys, let’s just cool it on trying to get me and Heidi together. If it happens at some point, I’ll look at it then, just don’t make things weird right now.”

“We won’t. Right Bekka?”

"Right”


Now will Bekka be having a woman to woman discussion with Heidi?

Probably, but only CCG knows.

Doug is running scared about Heidi.

Thanks CCG for the story.

Texican....
 

Griz3752

Retired, practising Curmudgeon
I think CCG is writing this in his head, faster than he can get it down as text so there's all sorts of character interactions on the boil in there which we won't see until he gets time to interface w/ his computer for more than a few moments.

Then, of late, he reviews everything on the fly and often edits/rewrites the most recent posts. Unless he wins a lottery and can just quit working, I think that's his new normal. Oh darn! we're doomed to constantly rereading as he goes! :hmm:

Way worse things will happen to us collectively than that. :)
 

ComCamGuy

Remote Paramedical pain in the ass
I think CCG is writing this in his head, faster than he can get it down as text so there's all sorts of character interactions on the boil in there which we won't see until he gets time to interface w/ his computer for more than a few moments.

Then, of late, he reviews everything on the fly and often edits/rewrites the most recent posts. Unless he wins a lottery and can just quit working, I think that's his new normal. Oh darn! we're doomed to constantly rereading as he goes! :hmm:

Way worse things will happen to us collectively than that. :)


True, true , and true. Another element is when the wife gets her edits done within the edit window, I go back and put in the better cut. It also lets me see the first blush from you guys in case I am way off base.

Teaching PHTLS, NREMT Refresher and administering a Subject Matter Expert test today. Hoping a little more time is avalible tomorrow. I usually write on my lunch break. When I don't get one, it gets sparse.

A lot of the writing is in my head on the 45 minute commute each way each day
 

ComCamGuy

Remote Paramedical pain in the ass
Heidi was frustrated. The walk Kara was leading her on, while pretty, wasn’t what her mind was focused on. She wanted to know where she got the tattoo. It was such a specialized, unique, combination and variant of symbol elements, and happenchance wouldn’t explain it. Each time she tried to get Kara talking as they walked, Kara seemed preoccupied and told her to wait. This left Heidi irritated and chasing after Kara, three strides for every one of Kara’s.

Kara was in a quandary. She wasn’t sure what or how much to explain and not come off like a crazy person. The image was bold in her head when she woke up one morning. She drew it meticulously. Once she had the drawing right after several attempts, she sat and stared at it for hours. She didn’t know what it meant or why she had to draw it.

She sat with her feet in the ocean, staring alternately at the waves and the drawing. She could feel it. It was like a longing or a yearning. It felt like it needed to be a part of her. She didn’t understand but she knew what she felt. Once she knew it needed to be a part of her, she had to figure out where.

Kara looked at her body as a canvas, then as a landscape. She was a patchwork of scars and she knew it would limit where the design would be correct and whole, without compromise or diminishment. Her right shoulder blade seemed to be the best, whole and undamaged location it could be its proper size and prominence.

Kara spent almost a month researching the right tattoo artist to do the job. It had to be right, clean, perfect and not rushed. She finally found one. He was an older gentleman who was known for his intricate works and amazing artistry. This project was far too simple for him in his youth, but now, he was moving backwards and trying many of the older traditional methods. No electric guns any more for him. The handcrafted precision and dedicated focus of such a master was exactly what Kara was looking for.

How much of this could she make someone else understand? Weeks and weeks spent building a dream image and having it permanently made a part of your body? If you asked her about it before it happened, she would have said she was crazy.

Kara didn’t know why Heidi was so insistent about her tattoo. Most people usually would have let it go with her answer in the kitchen.
 
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ComCamGuy

Remote Paramedical pain in the ass
“Beautiful, great, I love it!” Heidi paused. Her comments were only half sarcasm. It WAS beautiful here by the pond, but why the hell wouldn’t Kara talk to her before they got here?

Kara was standing on the huge slab of granite beside the pond. She was still puzzling out how to approach it. She knew she had irritated Heidi. She didn’t do it intentionally, but……..

Kara stared at the water rippling on the pond a moment. She was listening to the voice in her head. Sometimes it sounded like Garen, sometimes Bekka. There were other voices in her head as well. Some of them only came out when she was frustrated and tempted to lash out or do wrong things, self-destructive things. This time, the voice she heard was the one she longed to hear again, even if only one more time for real. It was Christian’s strangely timbered voice, soft and comforting, yet powerful and insistent.

“I will be without fear in the face of my enemies

I will stand brave and upright that the Lord may love me

I will speak the truth always even if it means my death

I will protect the helpless and do no wrong”



Heidi wasn’t sure what was going on with Kara. It was like she didn’t even hear her talking. She was still staring at Kara’s back when she turned around. Kara was wearing a sad smile, a few tears on her cheek.

“Heidi, I can’t tell you where it came from. I don’t know. I woke up and drew it. It was burned into my brain. It kept burning and burning until I could draw it right. It kept burning until I found an artist who could do it justice. It only calmed once I had it on me, a part of me.” Kara faltered a bit. “It sounds crazy when I say it, even to myself. That’s why I didn’t want to tell you. I don’t want you to think I’m crazy.”

This was in no way what Heidi was expecting. She had dealt with enough delusional people and Kara didn’t seem to be one of those. Kara was telling the truth, or at least the truth as she knew and believed it. But the design! Each part so intricate! Each precisely skewed in just the right ways from their norms! Why?

Kara could see Heidi believed her, but she could see some other things going on behind her eyes. Those eyes! A small part of her saw the uniqueness of her eyes when they first met. She could see in those eyes so much depth! Right now what she saw in them was confusion.

“Why does it mean so much to you to know the source of my tattoo? Is it tattoos in general you have an issue with or is it something special about mine?” Kara asked gently.

This broke the spell. Heidi started chuckling.

“No, I have no problem with tattoos in general.”

She reached down and slid her pants leg up, revealing her calf and the list of names emblazoned there.

“It was the very rare, very particular configuration of your particular tattoo that has me in knots.”

“Why?”

“Do you know the symbolisms meaning? Of the particulars of your drawing?”

“It’s a combination of a symbol for the Valkyrie and a Nordic compass. What is so unusual? I have looked and seen them apart several times.”

Heidi took a deep breath. Where to start. Her neckless. She pulled it out from under her shirt so Kara could see it.

“Kara, come look at this.”

Kara moved closer. The emblem on the medallion Heidi was holding matched exactly the one on her shoulder. She didn’t have to look very hard. When she saw it, she knew it to the core of her being.

“So you have the same symbol. So mine isn’t that unusual? What’s the issue?”

Heidi tucked it back away.

“It was given to me by someone I knew who was an actual believer of the Norse religion. It isn’t some internet stamping, pressed ten for a dollar in Hong Kong. He ordered it especially for me. It is, for his religion, a true holy symbol, made and blessed for its message. The wings, you were right, they stand for the Valkyrie, Odin’s chooser of the slain, the collector of the most valiant and true warriors on the battlefield. They were also Odin’s messengers and warriors. They were for Odin like God’s Angels are for him.” At that, Heidi took a deep breath.

“The other is a combined variation of the sigils for the Helm of Awe and the Compass. Each emblem around the edge has meaning. How the sigil is oriented within the encompassing wings of the Valkyrie have meaning. As he explained it to me, when combined and orientated as such, it has the following meaning. With the compass, as long as your heart is true to itself, you will never get lost even if you cannot see your way, with the power of the Helm of Awe, you will defeat your enemies, and the wings ensure the other Valkyrie will protect you and always bring you home to Valhalla.”

Kara could hear how choked up Heidi was towards the end of what she said. Wait. What was that last part? The other Valkyrie? So this symbol means she is ………?

Heidi started talking again. “He called me his Valkyrie and he meant it. I was always around with him when people were dying. It was much more polite than the others who just looked at me like I was a death sentence or a harbinger of doom on their trips.”

Heidi shook herself a bit before she continued. “It is just such a rare and specific combination. I haven’t seen anyone else with it, either in person or the internet, and believe me, I’ve looked! I don’t know why you have it, but it must mean something.”

Heidi was quiet now, just staring out past Kara to the pond.

A few moments of silence followed, broken by Heidi answering Kara's unspoken question.


“I got him home, escorted him all the way. That’s a Valkyrie’s job.”

They stood there by the water for some time, both lost within their own heads and their hearts, the water soothing the pain.
 
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Griz3752

Retired, practising Curmudgeon
See what happens when you wait patiently?
I've been waiting & waiting for these Nordic tattoos to have some convergence!
Who wants to start a pool on how this tiny interlude will play out going forward??

I think it'll be big -- maybe not the most significant thread, but one of two or three; just a feeling....
G.
 
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Griz3752

Retired, practising Curmudgeon
Patiently? We've been waiting patiently? Well, we've been waiting.
Thank you. I also think this will play into the story later.
I'm an old hunter; I guess patience is relative. Please note: "I've been waiting & waiting" :)

There might even be a true warrior Nilfheim; did I spell that right CCG?
 
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ComCamGuy

Remote Paramedical pain in the ass
I'm an old hunter; I guess patience is relative. Please note: "I've been waiting & waiting" :)

There might even be a true warrior Nilfheim; did I spell that right CCG?


Oh, I hope not. It would not bode well for any involved if we had any of our intrepid crew considered dishonored dead

Niflheim ("Land of Mists") is the realm of ice and cold in Norse mythology, whose frigid environs provide a final resting place for the dishonored dead. Hel, the grim giantess whose rules over the deceased, also makes her home here. This dreary description can be fruitfully contrasted with the glorious atmosphere of camaraderie and revelry awaiting warriors in Valhalla.

In a cosmological context, Niflheim is important for two reasons: first, it provides a site for one of the world tree's roots (Yggdrasill) to be anchored; second, the icy realm is seen as one of the primordial sources of creation, as its frigid mists were thought to have combined with fiery gusts from nearby Muspellheim to congeal into the first living beings.
 

Griz3752

Retired, practising Curmudgeon
Niflheim ("Land of Mists") is the realm of ice and cold in Norse mythology, whose frigid environs provide a final resting place for the dishonored dead.
Thanks for the clarification; that's what I get for speed reading at 0330.

Waiting, as I said is relative but Aug 8, 2019 does seem to be a while to me. Never the less, lead on; you have an intrigued audience in tow.
G.
 

ComCamGuy

Remote Paramedical pain in the ass
Angelique was headed over to the pond to check for Kara and Heidi when she saw them walking down the trail towards her. She couldn’t hear what they were saying since they were speaking softly. When they saw her, their demeanor changed.

“Hey, kid. What’s up?” Kara said as a greeting.

“Out here looking for you two! You left a note you were going to the training building. We got there and you weren’t there yet. I know we slept in, and we were worried aliens had swooped down and kidnaped you.” Angelique was getting less animated as they got closer.

As Kara pulled even with Angelique, she slipped an arm across her shoulder as she turned her back towards the training building. “We were just getting the lay of the land. I needed to think some so I was going to the pond. Heidi was already up so she tagged along.”

Kara’s voice was all happy and jovial, but Angelique wasn’t fooled. There was something more going on here.

Heidi was taking the opportunity to watch Angelique while she was preoccupied with Kara. She liked the kid, but she knew Angelique might see her as competition for her father’s attention. It was one aspect she knew was going to be there whether there was anything romantic going between Doug and her or not. They did appear like a pseudo family. She might feel like she was replaced.

Heidi remembered the psychological tug of war with her mother-in-law over her husband . How she couldn’t let go of her son and kept trying to control him, dominate him, refusing to accept Heidi’s place in his life until it came to ahead on afternoon. It ended up in screaming match where Heidi’s hot temper pointed out she was in her son’s life at his invitation and did not need her approval. She in no uncertain terms told her while it would make everyone’s life easier and better, it was not mandatory and life would go on without her approval. Heidi followed it up with a broad proclamation of her lifespan moving forward being much longer than her mother-in-law’s and how Heidi would be with her son long after she was dead.

Things changed after that day. She stood up for their relationship and proved strong enough for her son. They got along famously from then on. Sadly she died just a year or so before her son. Heidi didn’t want to have a knock-down screaming match with this teenage Amazon. She liked her and would have to hurt her too bad to win if she could. She wasn’t she how much the kid knew. Even if she won she would lose.

Besides, there wasn’t anything but friendship going on between her and Doug anyway.
 
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ComCamGuy

Remote Paramedical pain in the ass
“It’s about time you slackers show up!” Allyson quipped as she was rolling a large container across the bay. “If I run off with Doug’s girlfriend, can I skip out of work too?”

Heidi was somewhere between blushing and irritated. Why was everyone assuming she was boinking Doug? The next comment caught her completely off guard and caused her to almost stumble, both because of what it was and who it came from.

“Better Heidi than my mother!” was Angelique’s comment from the doorway.

Emilia just shook her head. She knew there wasn’t anything outwardly romantic going on between Doug and her mother. She saw the huge roadblocks both her mother and Doug kept erected to prevent such things, all the way back to the tense conversation the morning after their first night at the cabin. Since then, it has been a deep and meaningful friendship they desperately are defending against casual escalation to romantic nature.

Emilia had talked with each of them separately about it over these last months. Each had deep feelings for the other. Neither wanted to wreck it by making it weird if they tried to push forward.

Emilia really liked Doug. She knew he was the best thing to happen to them in a really long time. Emilia knew her mom was really gun-shy about office romances, having seen firsthand the ruin they caused at the units she was at. She remembered what her mother said not long ago on the topic vividly.

“Emilia, only one in about a thousand of those work at all and so few of even those lucky few last. I know you love Doug, I do too, but I don’t know if I love him ‘that’ way. I don’t want to destroy it all on a maybe. I beat those odds once with your father. I don’t know if it would even be right to be so greedy to challenge those odds again.”

Emilia knew in that moment, during that very conversation, her mother had resigned herself to being alone for the rest of her life romantically. She wished her mother would reconsider. She knew Mom had been tempted to start something with Noah and kept putting it off and putting it off until Emilia confronted her, extracting a promise to consider it after she got back from FLETC.

This was one of the reasons her mom was so skittish. It seemed to her, everyone she gets attached to emotionally end up dying and her mother couldn’t do that to Doug.

However, it didn’t mean Emilia couldn’t pick on her mom since she knew the truth about them being only friends.

“You guys need to stop! I am not sleeping with Doug!” Heidi said a little too loudly and a little too adamantly.

She was out of practice at the militarized level of good-natured friendly girl talk and harassment she realized after she spoke. She just hung her head. Now it was on. It was play or get pummeled.

The next shot was also out of left field and elicited a reply before Heidi could stop herself.

“Well, I know it’s not about ‘equipment insufficiency’!” Emilia entered the fray.

“Emilia Rapheala!” came Heidi’s harsh ‘Mom’ tone, far too quickly.

“You’re the one who answered my question about it compared to the one in my health class books!” Emilia countered with all the snark a fourteen-year-old could bring, as well as a smirk and a protruding tongue.

Heidi was now well and truly embarrassed. “You shouldn’t be discussing his equipment, especially in front of his daughter!”

Angelique was sideways, laughing so hard at all the jovial nature and kidding.

Things had been so serious around here for too long! “That’s OK, Emilia. We can get together and compare notes. I’ll tell you if it’s bigger or smaller than Garen’s!”

Allyson was worried about how far in the gutter this had gone and how fast it happened. She looked over at Kara when Angelique mentioned comparing notes on Garen.

“Aren’t you going to say something?”

Kara shook her head. “Nope! I’m staying out of it otherwise we might get around to comparing cup size and I know I’m the biggest loser if we go there. Besides, this way I can say I was no part of it incase Bekka catches you guys discussing Garen’s private parts!”

That thought seemed to sober the rest up real quick.

Once everyone was calmed down, Allyson pointed out what still needed done. The trailer was aired up and prepared by the time Garen showed up with the truck to tow the trailer. Garen didn’t understand why everyone broke out in giggles when he came into the bay.
 
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ComCamGuy

Remote Paramedical pain in the ass
Late morning found Doug and Angelique heading out to meet up with Zed and Jesse. There was some quiet conversation but mostly quiet and sure movement through the woods. Doug was oh so impressed by what his daughter has become in the few short months. Gone was the frantic excitement from when they first got to Garen’s

Angelique seemed to have so much confidence and surety about her now where before she was seeming to be without direction, lost looking for a ‘next’. He didn’t know what she had been looking for but it seems she has found it here. Finally he had to tell her.

“I am so proud of the woman you have become. I don’t know if there could have been any better place for you to end up, especially after what happened. I don’t think even the military would have made such a drastic growth in you as you have done here.”

“It wasn’t easy. It wasn’t like I had that many choices. It came down to adapt, learn, succeed, quit or die.” There was a bit of a bitter tone to Angelique’s speech now as they waited for Zed and Jesse to arrive.

“Sure you did. All of them would have been worse choices though.”

Doug thought for a moment about her, helpless, maybe scooped up by those bastard, sold off and shipped away to somewhere. It was those very thoughts driving him to attack the lower camp. It was those worries keeping him away until he knew he wouldn’t be leading trouble to her.

“I had no real choices but the ones I made. I am your daughter. I wouldn’t let myself fail.” There was pride and determination in her tone now.

“Are you happy with Garen and Bekka?”

The question caught her off guard some, but not as much as it would have before her talk with Allyson last night. She thought a moment.

“Yes, I think I am. I really wanted to move out here with you and Grandpa to see what I could do and become. I think I have learned a lot of that right here. If they will let me stay, now that we know you are alive, I want to stay here longer and learn as much as I can. I don’t want to stay away from you, but…..” She paused, trying to find the words.

“It’s a lot closer than the east coast. Skis or bike or walk even. It’s closer to your place from here than from the store was.”

She looked at her father. There were tears in his eyes.

“Don’t be sad! I’ll be right here!”

“I’m not sad. I’m happy for you. Many people look for years, trying to find someplace where they feel they need to be, where they belong. It took me thirty years to find here. You found yours, right next door to mine and at the age of eighteen to boot!” Doug wrapped her up in a tight embrace, holding her for a long time before letting her go.

Angelique was the first to speak next. “Does Heidi make you happy?”

Doug sputtered. “What is it about all of you guys wanting me and Heidi to hook up?” He shook his head. Maybe a different tack might make it stick.

“Are you sleeping with Garen?”

“What!!” Angelique’s eyes got real big! “No!, I am not sleeping with Garen!”

“He is just your friend, right?”

“Yeah, Just my friend, and Bekka’s husband!” Angelique replied quickly.

“Right. Now, Heidi is just MY friend, so is her daughter Emilia. Let’s not go all junior high school drama bullshit on this.” He smiled.

“OK, dad,” Angelique grinned, looking for a moment like his little girl in his mind. she continued. “I like her. I wouldn’t mind seeing the two of you together eventually. I think she would be good for you, much better than mom was.”

Doug’s smile was small but sincere. “As much as your mother and I had our problems, I can’t hate her. It’s because of her I have you.”

Angelique’s reply was lost with the crackle of the small radio.

“Bear, Crayon. At checkpoint woodpecker.” Angelique looked at Doug.

“Better answer him, we got work to do.”
 
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