[ussbansheec] "Chasing Shadows"
- From: ejbethell@xxxxxxxxxxx
- To: ussbansheec@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
- Date: Fri, 20 Feb 2009 14:34:26 +0000 (GMT)
Chasing Shadows
William Worthington and Maggie Saunders with Eis Sidhe
Very large wings made space travel rather uncomfortable at the best of times
but right then William was also wound up and irritated. He'd employed a PI to
find Jenny for him but the guy had tracked her to this station and refused to
go further without a face-to-face meeting. Apparently there were difficulties
that the guy hadn't planned for and he wasn't willing to go further without
discussion. Besides, if Jenny was here, William wanted to see her.
He had his cases sent to one of the high-level quarters on DSVP. Most of the
station was emptying, what with the retrieval of Banshee, so there was plenty
of space for him to stretch out in nice, expensive cabins. With his wings
tightly tucked to his back, he left the barely liveable cabin he'd been in for
the last few days to get out to the station.
"Stay by mommy, sweetie," Maggie said as she fussed with their bags. Arthur
sighed dramatically, inspecting the floor. She smirked to herself, her hands
lost in the huge overnight bag she'd packed to get from Earth. The rest of
their things would be sent over by transport later, assuming she took the
assignment. Right that minute, she wasn't even sure she wanted to be anywhere
near DSVP but she'd agreed to at least look at the civilian medical facility so
there she was, digging out her PADD so she'd be able to find the place.
"Okay..." As she stood up, she was bowled over by the biggest man she'd ever
seen. "And OUCH. Watch where you're going, mister."
William opened his mouth for the smart remark, caught sight of the woman and
her kid, then froze. "Damnit," he sighed, rubbing his hand over his
hair-feathers. "I'm sorry. I'm not thinking right today."
Maggie straightened, gathering up her bags and son, then glared. "No shit,
first step is not to walk into women in hallways." She glared again, yanked on
her son's arm and marched off.
Arthur stared behind him, his mouth open, as he was pulled away. That guy was
totally huge and weren't those wings under his coat?
William sighed again. "Not a good start," he grumbled, trudging out. Ever
since Jenny, he'd done his best to cut back on the smart-assed prick routine
and was trying the whole 'be nice' thing. It wasn't working out so well. Not
only wasn't it him, it was also really damn annoying.
The station was furiously busy, people shoving back and forth. He'd seen
Banshee docked from the transport. It made his heart warm knowing all those
folks would be safe now, but they weren't why he was there. William had his
first meeting with his PI, he'd made sure it was close in from when the ship
docked. No way was he waiting around.
They were to meet in the arboretum. The guy was green so he'd be hard to miss.
William called up a map on his PADD then followed instructions. Most people
stayed out of his way, either seeing the wings and staring, or assuming he was
as big as the coat made him look. He knew there were other races out here that
had wings but he didn't have any of the other features that would denote him as
those, he looked really human, plus all the feathering over his body. He
looked just as much the mutant that he was.
Entering the pretty gardens, William saw Sidhe instantly. Big Orion, really
hard to miss even in his sharp business suit and sunglasses. "You know, you
look like a PI," William snorted.
"Good thing too, since I am one," Eis chuckled. He offered his hand and shook
William's in return, noting the unusual feet of tiny feathers under his
fingers. All the hairs on the guy's body really were feathers - interesting.
"So what' the hold up?"
Eis tilted his head. "Not one for the small talk, are ya?"
"You're on my buck," William shrugged.
"The hold up, Mr Worthington, is that she's not here," Eis told him simply.
"Okay..." William frowned. "Aren't I paying you to find her?"
"Well, yes, but my point is that I've tracked her to here and here the trail
ends. I can't find anything else on her." Eis shrugged and offered out his
own PADD with all of his research on it. "She arrived ten days ago and she
hasn't left by any means that I can see but I can't find her."
"You said it was a hitch not the end of the damn road," William growled. He
flicked on the PADD and started reading. The guy was thorough but if he'd
stopped then he can't be all that good.
"Not the end of the road but a small hold-up. I want you to meet some people
I've contacted, see if their descriptions of Jenny are how you remember her,"
Eis offered. "It's okay for me to go looking with pictures and all but you
know her, you'll be able to tell me if I'm on the track of the right girl."
"Couldn't you have just done this over the comm?"
"Some but not all," Eis told him. "There're people here who're very
mistrustful of anything to do with technology, especially comms."
William barked in laughter. "You're kidding me. They're on a damn space
station."
Eis just shrugged. "People are people and can't be quantified."
"Great." William glowered. "Fine. Set up the meetings for tomorrow. Right
now, I'm gonna stretch my wings and relax. I've been on a damn ship for three
days. I'm in no mood to deal with crazy people."
"I'll do that," Eis said. He glanced up at the high ceiling of the arboretum.
"Taking a flight?"
"Might do," William said. "My first flight was in a place like this. They're
not so bad. Not as good as real fresh air, but a good substitute."
"Well, enjoy," Eis smiled. "I'll call you with the details of the first
meeting."
"Thanks." William nodded to the man and waited for him to leave. As much as
he was sure he was curious, the guy was curteous and left him to it.
William stripped off his coat, dropping it with a certain amount of disgust on
the ground. He was in his own sharp business suit but it had holes in the back
tailored to let his wings stretch. He'd never been ashamed of his wings like
his father so he prefered them on display even in business dealings. It was
only to move through the station that he'd hidden them away. That many people,
who knew how they'd react.
Letting his wings expend out, he sighed gratefully, flapping once and twice,
letting the gusts of air flow past him. His hair feathers ruffled with the
breeze.
"Mommy, LOOK!" Arthur yelled, pointing at the guy from the transport, his wings
on full display. "I TOLD you he had wings."
"Now Arthur John Sanders, stop telling f..." Maggie's eyes lifted and she
almost fell over. "Oh... my..."
"HA!" Arthur cheered.
William turned slightly and grinned.
"Now, stop staring, it's rude," Maggie snapped, flushing even as she realised
she'd been staring just as much. Those really were magnificent.
"Hey, no problem," William chuckled. He padded over, being carefuly not to hit
them with his wings. "It's cool. At least I didn't scare ya, eh?"
"They are so awesome," Arthur said, beaming ear from ear.
Maggie smiled and ran a hand through her short blonde hair. "I'm really sorry
about earlier."
"What for? I was the jackass that knocked you over," William snorted.
"With those, I doubt you could've done anything else," she sighed.
"You kidding me? I've had 'em in smaller spaces than that transport and got on
just fine. I'm just a clumsy son of a b..." he caught himself just in time and
coughed. "'Scuse me."
"Son of a scuse me?" Maggie said innocently. "That's a new one on me."
William blushed and shrugged his wings. "I might be rude but I try not to
swear in front of kids."
"After being around my brothers for his 8 years, he's picked up more swear
words that even I knew about," she chuckled.
"Never know, I might have more," William snorted. She was pretty, in that
homey sort of way. Plain but there was a sparkle to her that William just
couldn't shake. "Wanna join me?" he said suddenly, holding out a hand to her.
Maggie opened her mouth, closed it and opened it again. "Um... Fly?"
"Yeah, why not? Then the kid can have a go."
"DO IT!" Arthur cheered. "I wanna FLY! Go FLY Mom!"
"Stop shouting," Maggie said automatically, her eyes still on William's hand.
Before he could pull it away though, she grabbed it and nodded. "Okay."
"Afraid of heights?" William asked as he pulled her close and held her gently
to his chest.
"Not so far," she said with a nervous laugh.
William gave her a winning smile, flapped his wings a few times then launched
himself into the air.
Maggie let out a yelp and held onto him tightly. Then she relaxed, realising
that he was actually really strong, stronger than she'd thought. She looked
over her shoulder and saw Arthur grinning, waving up at them. "Oh my god..."
William breathed in and caught a scent of her. She smelled amazing, like clean
linen and fresh soap. "Like it?" he asked softly. He raised them as high as
he could, flapping gently to hold them in place.
"It's... amazing!" She met his eyes and grinned. Suddenly, for no real
reason, she kissed him.
If he hadn't been holding her so tightly, he'd have dropped her. As it was, he
felt his cheeks flush and he grinned shyly.
"Ohmygod... I didn't mean to..." she stammered when she leaned back and saw his
colour. "It just... I mean I don't normally... it just..."
"Feels right," he offered. Then he kissed her softly, smiling the whole time.
"Have dinner with me!"
She grinned and realised she was blushing too. "Um..."
"You and the kid," he added. "Please."
She glanced down at where Arthur was grinning at them then back at William.
"Sure."
With that, he laughed and hugged her to him tightly before kissing her. He
felt her curl into him and for the first time in months he finally forgot all
about Jenny.
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