Temperance

              A person cannot truly begin to understand the effects of insomnia on one’s psyche until he or she has experienced it firsthand.  Constantly walking the ever thinning line between utter exhaustion and wakefulness a person is at once hyper aware of one’s surroundings and yet oblivious, as if emerging from a waking dream.  A dream whose nuances blur further with each moment of attempted remembrance.

          Temperance O’Keefe walked this line often, and for her it was a waking nightmare.  The endless hours of terrible awareness left her vulnerable to all of her demons.  The sleepless nights were her own personal hell where she relived every atrocity she had ever experienced…..or committed.  The agency assured her that she was a patriot, an asset to her country.  But she was no fool.  Temperance knew exactly what she was; a highly trained, well paid monster.

         She looked up into a pewter sky, cold rain striking her upturned face.  The chill seemed to permeate the fog that had enveloped her mind and she shook herself lightly.  When had it begun to rain?  A clap of thunder snapped her mind back to the present and left her with the impression that someone had been calling her name for quite some time.  At last her eyes focused on the drenched, dark haired man standing on the other side of her father’s headstone.  She frowned at her partner.  “What are you doing here Frank?”

         “I’ve been calling for days.  Where in the hell have you been?”  He ran a hand through his dripping hair.  Christ she looked bad.  She was pale and drawn, and he knew that if her clothes weren’t plastered to her from the rain that they’d be hanging off of her.  How in the hell did debriefings always seem to have such an adverse affect on her?

         “I had some loose ends to take care of.”  She shrugged and turned her face to the sky.  The cold rain made her feel more alert.  When had it started raining?  “Why do you need to get hold of me so badly?”

         He rose on eyebrow in inquiry.  “Anyone I know?”

         She rolled her eyes.  “Not that kind of loose end.  I am supposed to be on vacation after all.”

         “I know.  But you never actually take your vacation.  When an entire week went by and you hadn’t called me up or shown up at my door to drag me off to some other god forsaken place I was worried that you’d been abducted by aliens or something.”  He tossed her an umbrella.  “You look like hell.  Come on, I’ll buy you a drink.”

         She shook her head.  “I’ve got to get out of these wet clothes.  Let’s go back to my place, we can drink for free.”

         “Tightwad.  Wait a minute, your place?  We’ve been working together for six years and you’ve never mentioned having a place here in West Virginia.”

         “My parent’s old cabin.  I hope you drove, otherwise we’re in for a pretty soggy walk.  It’s about fifteen  miles.”

         “Of course I drove, how in the hell else do you think I got out here in the middle of BFE…..wait.  Where’s your car?  You walked fifteen miles, in the rain?”

         “It wasn’t raining when I started out.  Besides, I run seven miles almost every morning anyway.”  She turned, searching for his car.  “Come on, let’s get out of here.  These places are so goddamned depressing.”  She headed in the direction of his used Mercedes, umbrella hanging forgotten in her hand.

         “Christ Temperance,” he muttered under his breath.  What in the hell was he going to do with the woman.  She would be the death of him.  How could someone so good at this job be so affected by it?  He’d never seen anything like it.  “You actually have food there right?”  He’d never met a woman with a kitchen as utterly empty as hers had a tendency to be.  She lived on yogurt, protein shakes, and energy bars.

         She looked sheepish for a moment.  “I only just got here yesterday Frank, give me a break.  I’ll call the girl I pay to look after the place to get it stocked this afternoon.”  She slumped into the seat, suddenly feeling very exhausted.

         “Great.  After you’ve taken a nap you can cook me a fabulous home cooked back woods Virginia dinner.”  He grinned at the dirty look that she shot him.  “Come on, I know you can cook.”

         “I know you know I can cook.  You also know that I hate it when you pull this damn mother hen bullshit.  I don’t need you tracking me down to tell me that I need to take a fucking nap.”  She felt wide awake again, although the shivering had worsened.

         “How long has it been this time?” he kept his eyes on the road now.  He knew how much she hated being vulnerable.  The downward spiral that usually occurred during their down time rarely lasted more than a few days unless the insomnia took hold.  She insisted that it was simply a side effect of some new vaccine that was still in its clinical trial period and that it was perfectly normal.  He didn’t agree.  “How long?” he asked again in response to her stony silence.

         She let out an explosive breath and  ran a hand through her wet tangled hair.  “Four days…I think.  Shit I don’t know.  What day is it?”

         “Thursday.”

         Temperance let her head fall back and looked up at the overhead interior light.  “Damn….I’m losing time.  It’ll be six days now.”

         He took his eyes off the road to stare at her in disbelief.  She had been four days without sleep once and it hadn’t been pretty.  He hadn’t thought she, or anyone for that matter, could survive much more than that without suffering serious consequences.  Temperance was practically homicidal on a good day.  “Six days?”

         She laid her hand on his arm.  “Watch this curve up ahead, you need to slow down.  We’re getting close now.” 

         “You’ve got to get to a doctor.  This is getting out of control.”  He kept his eye on the road even though he felt like glaring at her.  It was times like these that he realized exactly why he was probably her only friend.  “I thought you were supposed to be having a girls weekend away with that Macy chick you met at that club last summer.”

         She looked confused for a minute.  “Oh, that.  Something came up at the last minute and she had to bail.”  She waved a hand in dismissal.  “Take this right up ahead.”

         He slowed down.  “You mean you called her up and gave her some bullshit reason and cancelled on her.”

         “What business is it of yours how I spend my vacation Frank?  Shouldn’t you be out with your buddies picking up chicks or something?  You’re always complaining about how this job has destroyed your sex life, well here’s your chance to get back in the saddle.  Drop me at my place and get out there.  You have my blessing.”

         He turned onto the dirt road that led to her parents old cabin and glanced at her out of the corner of his eye.  “I was thinking fried chicken for dinner.  What do you think?”

         “I think you’re an asshole.”  She pulled out her cell to call the young woman she’d hired to keep the place up and have her pick up enough groceries to stock the kitchen for a few weeks.

         “Christ.  This place reminds me of that movie Wrong Turn.  Are you sure it’s safe out here?”

         “You’re such an idiot.  I can’t believe that I actually depend upon you to keep me alive.”  She rolled down her window and lit a cigarette, reveling in the damp air that brushed her face.

         “No, sure go ahead.  I don’t mind if you smoke in here.”  He rolled his eyes and slowed down as the tires lost their traction on a slick spot.  “How much further?”

         “About half a mile.”  She continued to smoke despite his thoroughly disgusted sigh.  “Did you happen to bring any of your equipment with you?”

         “Why?  I thought we were on vacation.”  He glanced at her again out of the corner of her eye but she was facing the window.

         “Well if you’re going to be up my ass the entire time we might as well make it a working vacation.”  She flicked the half smoked cigarette out the window and turned to face him.  “I’ve received some interesting information about my father and I need to check it out.”

         Frank slowed down as the cabin came into view.  It was a lot bigger than he had always pictured it, and in much better condition.  “What kind of information are we talking about?”

         She was silent for several minutes and she could feel his eyes on her as he put the car in park and cut the ignition.  She supposed there was no point in keeping anything from him.  He was certainly no idiot, if he were, she wouldn’t have hired him.  “I’ve heard that my father was an agent before he met my mother.“

         “I thought your dad was a mill worker.”

         “Yeah, well, so did I.  He also claimed that he never graduated high school.”

         “So wait a minute.  If he was an agent, then what in the hell where you doing living out here in hillbilly haven?”

         “Apparently he went AWOL shortly after meeting my mother.  I guess that’s why we lived so far out.  We were pretty much off the grid.  In fact, I remember our power ran on a generator for a long time, and after that, all the utilities were in my mother’s name.”

         “Why not just retire?”  He felt dread begin to unfurl in the pit of his stomach as he watched her expression darken.  There were more than one kind of agent and sometimes walking away wasn’t an option.  He thought of some of things that he’d seen Temperance do in the past, of the things she was capable of and braced himself for her answer.

         “He didn’t specialize only in intelligence.”  She opened the car door and glanced at him over her shoulder.  “So, did you bring your equipment or not?”

         “I always come prepared when I’m going to be anywhere near you.  How else have I survived this partnership for the last six years?”

         “Good.  We’ll talk more after dinner.  I’m gonna grab a quick shower and get into some dry clothes.  Melanie will be here with the groceries soon, just have her dump the stuff in the kitchen and you can do the honors of putting everything away since you’ve invited yourself along.”

         Frank dropped his luggage beside the couch as Temperance disappeared down a dim hallway.  The interior of the cabin was nothing like he’d expected.  The design and décor were rustic but the architecture and craftsmanship were unmistakable.  Either she had made major renovations since her father’s death or Temperance hadn’t grown up nearly as poor as her father had led her to believe.

         He wandered into the kitchen to raid the fridge and wasn’t surprised to find that while there was little in the way of food, there was a nice selection of imported beer.  He grabbed a Heineken and kicked his shoes off next to the door on his way back to the den.  Thank God she had a decent TV and theatre system, not that she probably ever used it.  He plopped down on the plush sofa and snatched the remote from the end table as he settled into place.  He hoped to hell she had satellite.  He could hear the distant thrumming of the shower as he found a ridiculously horrible B rated zombie flick.

         A sound in the kitchen roused him a short time later.  He rose and crept silently into the kitchen.  A petite blonde woman was rummaging through a cabinet.  “How did you get in here?”  She let out a startled squeak and dropped a can, which bounced off the counter and landed on her foot.

         “Shit!”  Melanie rounded on him, heart racing.  “How in the hell did you get in here?”  She  reached for the can of mace clipped to her belt.

         “Through the front door,” he said easily, taking a drink of his beer.  “You must be Melanie.  Tempy’s going to be pissed that I didn’t help put the groceries away.”

         “You’re Temperance’s friend?”  She looked him up and down appraisingly.  “Not bad.  I was beginning to think she was a dyke.  Or maybe asexual.  The ice queen’s never brought a guy up here before.”

         Frank frowned at her and opened his mouth to put the girl in her place but his partner beat him to it.  “Why bring one with me when you bring more than enough for the both of us?”  Temperance stood on the far side of the kitchen, tying her dark wet hair up in a loose knot.

         The blonde rolled her eyes.  “One time.  One time I bring a guy over to keep me company and you never let me live it down.”

         “Yeah, yeah.  Did you wash the sheets Mata Hari?”

         Melanie rolled her eyes again and flipped her the bird as Frank choked on his beer.  “Yes.  They’re fresh and ready for you to do all sorts of filthy things on them.  Just do me a favor and wash them before you leave.  You don’t pay me that much.”  She tossed a set of keys to Temperance and slapped a credit card and receipt on the counter.  “I assume I won’t be needing these for a few weeks.”  She hefted her oversized purse over her shoulder.  “Try not to do anything I wouldn’t do.”  She winked and slipped out the sliding glass door.

         Frank drained his beer and tossed the empty bottle into the recycle bin.  “Now that was interesting.”  He caught himself eyeing the curve of her backside as she leaned into the fridge to inspect what her ‘house sitter’ had brought.  He averted his gaze as she turned, a package of chicken in hand.

         “What was interesting?”

         “You really do have other friends.  At least one anyway.  And you’re almost as mean to her as you are to me.  I guess that means that you like me more.”

         “If I’m so mean then why do you put up with me?”  She had turned away again, rummaging through the fridge some more and then the cupboard.

         He watched her arrange her ingredients and dishes that she would need to prepare their meal on the oak counter and lay everything out with military precision.  He’d always thought she was a little OCD.  “I suppose you grow on a person after awhile.  Kinda like cancer.”  He grinned at the dirty look she shot him.  “So, what’s for dinner?”

         “Fried chicken, corn on the cob, mashed potatoes, gravy, and biscuits.  That back country West Virginia enough for you?”

         “What, no peas?”

         She rolled her eyes.  “And peas.”  She seasoned her flour and began cracking eggs for her wash.

         “How about dessert?”  started rummaging through one of her cabinets.

         “Don’t push your luck.”  She reached over and shut the cabinet.  “You had better hope that Melanie’s got some cookies stashed around here somewhere.  You know I don’t do sweets.”

         He sighed a martyrs sigh.  “I know.  And I have to tell you, I think that may be the root of all your problems.”

         “You being an expert on such matters.”  She shook her head as she turned the heat on under a large pan of water and then began peeling and dicing potatoes.  “Make yourself useful and go out onto the back porch and light the citronella candles or we’ll be eaten alive.”

         He wandered out onto the screened in back porch and was amazed at how loud the woods were.  It was nearly sunset and everything was all green and gold.  He took a deep breath.  Christ, even the air smelled green.  Crickets had begun their racket and he could hear a frog croaking in the distance.  Amazing that someone who had grown up in a place like this could seem so at home in a place like New York.  He made his way around the large deck, lighting the citronella candles, wrinkling his nose against the waxy, citrus scent that filled the space when he was done.  Why didn’t Temperance stay here more often?  He’d only been here for a few hours and already dreaded having to go back to the concrete jungle.

         When he reentered the cabin The Rolling Stones were playing as oil heated in a cast iron skillet on the stove and Temperance began coating the chicken for frying.  He could smell the corn boiling on the stove and the starchy scent of the potatoes as they began to boil.  He helped himself to a glass of tea, noting the streak of flower on her cheek as she worked.  He resisted the urge to reach over and wipe it away.

         “So…..”  He looked around the kitchen, at a total loss.  “Anything I can do to help?”

         “Yeah.  Park your ass someplace and stay out of my way.”  She placed the chicken in the hot oil and drained the potatoes, ignoring him as she cooked. 

         Frank sat at the counter watching her work.  As with everything she did, she was quick, neat, and precise, even washing the dishes as she went.  They had eaten together hundreds of times over the last six years but he had never actually seen her prepare a meal.  Seeing her doing such a domestic task, especially one that she seemed so at ease performing seemed entirely alien to him.  He wondered when the last time she had prepared a meal like this; probably not since her father had still been alive.  He felt a sudden pang of guilt.  Was she thinking of her father even now as she mashed the potatoes and prepared a pitcher of iced sweet tea?  He looked up from his reverie to see her balancing two plates topped with silverware and two glasses on one hand and her snapping her tongs in his direction to get his attention.

         “Grab something and help me get the table set so we can eat.”  She laid the tongs on the platter of chicken and scooped it up as she turned and headed for the door that led out onto the back porch.

         He jumped up guiltily and grabbed several dishes of steaming food.  It smelled delicious.  A few minutes later they were seated at the sturdy wooden patio table filling their plates.  His was piled twice as high as hers as usual.  He bit into the chicken and closed his eyes as he chewed.  It was the best damn chicken he’d had in his life.

         She watched him shoving food in his mouth and shook her head as she took a bit of mashed potatoes.  He always ate like such a pig.  She’d never seen anyone in her entire life that enjoyed food as much as Frank that didn’t way half a ton.

         “Oh my god.  I think I’m going to have to marry you Temperance.  Where’s the nearest courthouse?”

         “You’re such a jackass.  Just eat your food.”  She lifted her glass for a drink but paused.  “And don’t get used to this.  I’m not going to cook like this every night while we’re here.  You can fend for yourself after tonight.”

         “Please tell me you don’t mean it,” he pleaded, holding a half eaten biscuit, still steaming, in his hand.  “Things can never go back to the way they were before after this.”

         She laughed at his melodrama and dug into her own food, finding that for once lately she had regained her appetite.  It had been a long time since she’d eaten a meal like this.  When you lived alone and worked the kind of hours they did, there was never any opportunity or point in fixing anything so elaborate.  They ate mostly in silence after that, listening to the racket of an early West Virginia summer evening.  Once he’d finally finished shoveling food into his mouth she sat back, replete at last,  and lit a cigarette.  She was bone weary but much less on edge now that Frank was with her; a fact that irritated her to no end.  “Now you can go put away the leftovers and clean up the kitchen.”

         “What?  But I’m a guest.  It’s really rude to expect a guest to clean up after dinner you know?”

         “What can I say?  I guess I’m just a rude bitch.  Now get your butt in gear.”

         He sighed and rose, gathering up the dishes.  She could hear him in the kitchen making a small racket as he scraped dishes and loaded the washer.  Stubbing out her cigarette she rose as well, gathering up the leftovers and carrying them inside.  He had already abandoned his chore and was rooting through her CD collection.  She put the rest of the food away and finished loading the dishwasher herself, giving up any allusions of help from him as a lost cause.

         She grabbed an Irish Red from the fridge and headed into the den where he was already lounging in her favorite chair.  She frowned at him and plopped down onto the sofa.  “Thanks for the help.”

         “Oh, no problem.  Anytime.”  He grinned and took a drink of his beer.  “So, are we ready to get down to business or what?”  He leaned forward, ready to get to work.

         She sighed.  “No.  Not tonight.  It can wait until morning.  My brain hurts every time I try and make any sense of the whole situation.  I don’t want to deal with it anymore today.”

         “Right.  So, let’s get to the bottom of this whole insomnia issue.”  He leaned back again.  “I assume you’ve tried sleeping pills, herbal supplements, and we both know you get more exercise than half the population of the world,” he waited for her exasperated nod.  “Right.  So, the only thing left for you to do is to get laid.”

         Temperance regarded her partner in silence, beer hovering halfway to her lips.  His face was only slightly flushed from the humid West Virginia night air and he was only on his second beer of the evening so she knew he wasn’t intoxicated.  She arched one eyebrow, more as a gesture of sarcasm than inquiry.  There was no way that he was actually propositioning her.  But if he had been, she’d certainly have to admit that she’d had much less appealing offers.  And it wasn’t like she’d never thought about it before even though it was never going to happen.

         “You can stop with the thousand yard stare already.  It’s not like I’m offering to do the job for you.”  He took a swig of beer and eyed her appraisingly.  “You are smoking hot but I prefer to sleep with women who won’t bite my head off once they’ve had their filthy way with me.”  He flinched, barely dodging a beer cap that she winged at him.

         “The female mantis wouldn’t have to bite the male’s head off if he were capable of getting the job done on his own.  He can’t ejaculate unless she bites his head off jackass.”

         “Somebody’s been watching way too much Animal Planet.”  He sat up and grabbed a fistful of cashews from the dish on the coffee table between them.  “It’ll work.  I’ve got some buddies that were dealing with insomnia right after they came back from Afghanistan.  They saw doctors and shrinks, took meds, the whole nine yards.  Then, one night they get laid and bam!  Sleeping like a baby.”

         “I think your pals just put too much stock in getting a piece of tail.  Probably because it doesn’t happen that often.”

         It was his turn now to lift an inky black eyebrow.  “Really?  And how long has it been since you’ve gotten a piece cupcake?  I’m telling you, it would work.  You’ve tried everything else, why not do something you’ll actually enjoy?  It’s not like you’ll mind much if it doesn’t do the trick.”

         “Right, I’ll just pick up the phone and call the local escort service and have them send someone right over.”  She rolled her eyes, irritated that the conversation had come back to this.  And that she had actually been sitting there contemplating it.

         “Don’t be such a smartass.  Besides, it would have to be someone you trust, you can’t have good sex with someone you’re not comfortable with.  Hey, what about that last guy you dated?  Mark…or Mike?”

         “Matt.  And no.  Calling up an ex for a booty call has too much potential for serious drama.”  She drained the rest of her beer and sat back, lighting a cigarette.  “Besides, he was highly offended that I was really only interested in keeping him around for sex anyway.”

         “I thought you quit?”  He frowned at her for a moment.  “Come on, think.  There’s got to be somebody you can call up and say ‘hey, congratulations, I’ve decided that I’m going to screw your brains out tonight.’  A friend, someone you totally trust.  I know you’ve got friends, otherwise that’s jus totally pathetic.”

         She picked up her phone and scrolled through the contacts then hit send.  She managed to keep a straight face as his phone started ringing.  He picked it up, not bothering to check the id.  “Hi,” she said when he answered.  “Congratulations, I’ve decided to screw your brains out.”

         He flipped the phone shut.  “Ha ha.” he said wryly.

         “See how disconcerting that was?”  She took another drag off the cigarette before jamming it into her beer bottle.  “Besides, you’re the only guy I know that I actually trust, so unless you want to do the honors I guess I’m screwed.  Metaphorically speaking of course.”

         He gave her a dirty look of his own.  “Maybe I should choke you just a little, you know, cut off the blood flow to your brain.  Just until you lose consciousness of course.”

         “Frank, I didn’t know you were into BDSM and necrophilia.  That’s kinky….well, okay, creepy actually if I’m being honest.”

         He shot a rubber band at her across the room.  He stared in disbelief as her hand shot out and snatched it out of the air as it was whizzing past her ear.  Unbelievable.  She was nearly demented from lack of sleep but her reflexes were amazing.  “What in the hell is in this vaccine they’ve been giving you?”

         “Super mutant spider venom?”  Temperance shrugged.  “Shit, I don’t know.”  She rose and gathered up their beer bottles.  “I’m going to bed to stare at my ceiling for the next few hours.”  She dumped the bottles in the trash bin.  “You can crash here on the couch or you can have the guest room down the hall.”

         “Great.”  He watched her thoughtfully as she stretched and the edge of her tank top inched up to reveal smooth, tan skin.  No, he told himself firmly.  Absolutely no thinking about sleeping with his partner.  She was practically his boss.  And she could probably kill him with her pinky if she were so inclined.

         “Night,” she called over her shoulder as she headed down the hall toward her room.  Maybe she should have a party tomorrow night.  To hell with trust, ingest enough alcohol and anyone could be ‘the one’.  She shook her head.  No, she would be asleep by morning.  There was no way in hell this could go on much longer.

         She stripped and threw her clothes in the corner, in no mood to be tidy, and crawled into bed.  Grabbing her mp3 player, she slipped the ear buds in, hit play and turned the volume up as loud as she could stand and squeezed her eyes shut as if she could put herself to sleep by sheer force of will.  Her second play list had played half way through when she felt a slight breeze from the direction of the door.  Someone was in the bedroom with her.  She turned the volume down on her mp3 player so she could track their movements and reached for the knife she kept under the edge of the mattress.  Damn, why hadn’t she thought to put her gun under the pillow?  She felt the mattress dip under his weight and she threw back the cover, swinging the knife as the lamp clicked on.

         “What the fuck?”  Frank jerked back, pulling her with him since he’d managed to grab her wrist after she sliced his chest.

         Temperance dropped the knife.  “I could have fucking killed you, you stupid jackass.  What in the hell are you doing in here?”

         “You said the room down the hall, I thought this was the guest room.”  He glanced down at the ragged cut across his chest as blood oozed down his stomach.  “You sleep with a goddamn knife?  Who in the fuck are you, Lara Croft?”

         Her gaze traveled down his bare chest and stomach, tracking the thick flow of blood.  “Christ, I think you’re going to need stitches.”  She reached behind her and snatched up her discarded t-shirt.  “How deep did I get you?”  She glanced back up to find him staring at her.

         “You’re not nearly as thin as I thought you were,” he said hoarsely.

         “What?” she snapped, jerking the shirt on over her head, face flushed with irritation and embarrassment.

         “Nothing…I mean.  No, it’s not that deep.  We could probably just tape it up.”  He glanced down at the knife wound, frowning dubiously.

         “Shit.  Come on, follow me.”  She led him into the adjoining bathroom, heart still thundering in her chest.  “Sit,” she waved him toward the counter and shoved him back before turning to rifle through a cabinet.  “Had a tetanus shot lately?” she inquired over her shoulder as she found alcohol, butterfly band aids, gauze and tape.

         “Yeah, I get pretty much the same vaccines and boosters as you.”  He tilted his head, admiring the curve of her ass as she bent further into the cupboard for something.  He was way out of line thinking the way that he was, but who could blame him?  He had spent most of the last six years of his life in company with this woman.  He trusted her with his life, and she trusted him with hers.  They had become best friends, or damn close.  And she really was smoking hot.  He started to get up.  “You know, I think I can get myself cleaned up if you just want to hand that stuff over.”

         She dumped her burden on the counter and pushed him back.  “Just sit your ass down.”  She brushed his hands out of her way and used a damp rag to wipe up the blood that had run down his stomach.  His muscles quivered convulsively and he could feel gooseflesh ripple across his abdomen.  “Ticklish?” she asked, glancing up.

         He grabbed her wrist, ignoring her startled exclamation as he jerked her forward.  His free hand seized the nape of her neck and he kissed her, taking advantage of her slightly parted  lips.  He ignored her muffled sound of protest, releasing her wrist and wrapping his arm around her waist to drag her up against him.  The stinging cut on his chest was forgotten as she dug her short nails into his shoulders.  He silenced her offended grunt as he slanted his mouth over hers and slid one hand lower to cup her bare ass.

         Temperance finally managed to push him away.  “What in the hell is wrong with you?” she demanded breathlessly.  She felt dizzy and swayed away from him, trying to get some space.  “You know damn well that this can’t happen.”          

         “Says who?” he asked, grabbing the front of her shirt and tugging her back towards him again.  “Do you really think the agency gives a goddamn who either of us is sleeping with?”

         “I’m not talking about the agency.  We work together, this shit will only complicate things.”

         “Like you or your life could get any more complicated than it already is.  And if you really don’t want to do this I think you’d have come up with a hell of a lot better excuse than ‘it could hurt our working relationship’.”

         “What a person wants and what they should do are two entirely different things.  An adult knows the difference.”  She pulled free.  “Get yourself cleaned up and get some sleep.  You can head back to New York first thing in the morning.”  She turned away.

         He caught her in two strides and pinned her against the door frame.  “You’re not kicking me out.”

         She stared up at him, blood pounding so heavily in her head her vision blurred.  What in the hell had gotten into him.  He never argued with her, much less got physical.  “You’re drunk.”

         He cocked his head and looked down at her thoughtfully.  “You’re probably right.  But that’s beside the point.”  He wrapped one hand loosely around her throat.  “I’m going to do us both a favor and take you to bed Temperance because the truth is, you could have already put me on my ass a half dozen times by now.  You’ve never allowed anyone to man handle you before and I don’t see any reason why I would be the exception to the rule.”

         “Frank….” she started to argue.  Of course she should put him on his ass and then send him on his way.  The idea of them having sex was ludicrous.  They worked too closely together and this was bound to end in disaster.  But she couldn’t deny the fact that she had thought about it more than once.  And when you threw in the added bonus of the possibility of a good nights sleep afterwards…..she swallowed convulsively.  “Okay, look.  If we do this thing you have to understand that it’s a one time thing.  It can’t happen again, ever.”

         “Even when you come begging for more?” he asked with a wink.

         “You assho-” her insult was cut off abruptly by another kiss, this one even more enthusiastic than the first.  She reached between them and unfastened his pants, giving them a tug so that they pooled around his ankles.

         He kicked free of the jeans and grabbed her thighs, lifting her and wrapping her legs around his waist as he headed for the bed.  He jerked her shirt up and over her head, tossing it over his shoulder as he lowered them both to the mattress.  He seized her wrists and raised them over her head, nuzzling her neck and inhaling.  “God, you always smell so good.”  Encouraged by the shiver that ran through her, he lowered his head and starting at her collarbone, alternately nibbled and sucked his way up her neck.

         Temperance craned her neck to give him better access.  She was unable to control the subtle tremors running through her limbs as he worked his way down the other side of her neck and traced her collar bone with the tip of his tongue.  “Frank, this has got to be the worst idea in the history of bad ideas.”

         “Temperance?”  He placed a lingering kiss over her heart and then moved on to her breast.

         “Mm?”  She closed her eyes and arched her back as he laved his tongue over her nipple and then blew lightly, sending chills across her chest and stomach.

         “Shut up.”

         They spoke out loud no more after that.  Each touch or kiss a question and each sigh or moan an answer.  Temperance felt a moment of panic as he placed a kiss on the sensitive skin of her inner thigh and tensed, prepared to put a stop to this madness but he parted her thighs firmly and set to work and she thought no more.

         A while later he slid back up her body and placed a kiss on her shoulder and the side of her neck.  “If you still think this is a bad idea I can always go to guest room,” he murmured in her ear.

         “Frank?”

         “Mm?” he asked, imitating her earlier response.  In a flurry of movement she had flipped him onto his back and was straddling his hips.

         “Shut up,” she whispered in his ear before tracing the outer shell with her tongue.

         He couldn’t control the shudder that passed through him as her warm breath blew in his ear.  She leaned down and kissed him hungrily, catching his lower lip between her teeth.  He wound his hand in her hair, it was still damp from being tied up and was cool to the touch.  She worked her way down his neck to his chest and he drew in his breath sharply when she sank her teeth in and slowly increased the pressure.  “Ah,” he protested just as he thought she was going to take a  piece with her.  She released him and blew on the tender spot, making his shudder again.  “Christ Temperance.”

         He silenced her laugh as he flipped her onto her back and took her mouth again.  He hooked his arm behind her knee and entered her, eliciting a satisfying moan.  She raked her nails down his back and held on for dear life, letting him take them both over the edge.

         Awhile later she heard him murmur, “I told you it would work.”  And then she knew no more.

         Frank threw his empty beer bottles into the recycle bin inside the kitchen door, grabbed his duffel bag and headed down the dark hall.  He paused outside the room Temperance had disappeared into, listening to her shift in her bed and moan.  He gripped the door handle and eased it open slowly.  The first thing that he noticed was that she slept naked.  The moonlight bleached the color from her skin, leaving it pale against the dark sheets.  Even from the doorway he could make out a faint sheen of sweat on her skin.  He started to back out of the room and shut the door when she murmured his name.  He froze, thinking he’d been caught peeping in on her like some pervert but realized as she settled on her side with a sigh that she was sound asleep.  He stood in the doorway a moment longer, wondering just what in the hell she’d been dreaming about and what role he’d played and then shut the door silently and headed further down the hall to the guest room trying to push the site of her bare skin from his mind



         Temperance stretched languidly as the late morning breeze ruffled the sheet over her bare skin.  She could hear Winners and Losers by Social Distortion blaring in the kitchen and smelled strong coffee brewing.  She glanced at the clock on the bedside table.  Shit, it was nearly 10.  She never slept that late.  She stretched once more, deliciously sore in nearly every muscle.

         She crawled out of bed and headed into the bathroom to get cleaned up.  She frowned.  She distinctly remembered having great sex last night, but other than sore muscles, there was no other indication it had actually happened.  She didn’t remember showering again last night.  She was braiding her hair when she realized that the mess she had expected to find on the counter from the night before wasn’t there.  Where were the bandages, the bloody rag, the peroxide?  Had he cleaned it up?  When she finally made her way into the kitchen she found Frank helping himself to some fruit and bagels and drinking her Jamaican blend coffee.  He glanced up from the laptop he’d set up on her kitchen table.

         “It’s about time your dead ass rolled out of bed.”  He raised his coffee mug.  “I just brewed the coffee fresh.”

         “Thanks.”  She made a B-line for the coffeemaker, avoiding looking at the bruise on his bare chest where she had bitten him the night before.  She ignored him as she fixed her coffee and toasted a bagel.  Finally, after changing the CD she sat down across from him, snagging a strawberry from his plate.  “So, what are you working on and how many laws have you broken this morning?” she asked as Tom Petty started singing about how he won’t back down.

         “I’m mostly doing some homework on your parents.  It’ll probably take me a couple of days to come up with a decent file.  I want to be sure and cover my tracks in case there’s a reason the agency never told you the truth about your father.”  He watched her over the top of his computer screen, satisfied to see that while she still had smudges under her eyes, she no longer looked so drawn and exhausted.  He wondered again just exactly what she had dreamt last night and what role he had played in the scenario.  He shook his head, dismissing the thoughts, it was best not to dwell on any fantasies about his partner because he knew that they could never come to fruition.

         “Yeah.  Like maybe they killed him.”  She took a bite of her bagel, her expression unchanging.

         He choked on the piece of cantaloupe he was eating.  “Don’t even say shit like that.”  He took another drink of coffee to sooth his irritated throat.  “He was living out here, practically totally off the grid.  They wouldn’t have had any reason to view him as a threat to national security.  In fact, they probably knew where he was all along.”

         She sighed and snagged more fruit from his plate and chanced a glance at his chest realizing with a start that there was no cut, no bruise.  Shit, had she managed to finally fall asleep on her own and dreamt the whole thing?  He certainly wasn’t acting any differently this morning.  “You’re probably right.  But I really don’t believe that his death actually had anything to do with drugs.  The agents that took me into custody after he was killed weren’t DEA.”

         Frank sat his coffee down with a thump, heedless of any that splashed on her spotless table, and fixed her with a level stare.  “Look, if you want me in on this then you’re going to have to read me in Tempy.  I know pretty much nothing about you or your life before the agency other than the fact that you were orphaned.”  He closed the laptop and sat back.  “If you want my help on this I’m going to need to know everything, including the truth about how your dad was killed and how the agency found you.”

         The pregnant silence drew out as they stared at one another.  Finally she pushed her plate away, took one last drink of her coffee and reached for the pack of cigarettes she’d left on the table the night before.  She lit up and pushed her chair back.  “Let’s take a walk.”  She could see that he wanted to argue but the look she gave him kept him silent.  He nodded his consent and stood, heading for the guest room to finish dressing.

         Fifteen minutes later they were heading through the dense wood surrounding the cabin at a pretty good clip.  “I’ll tell you the truth….as I know it.  Apparently I really don’t know much about my parents after all.”  She led him deeper into the underbrush until they finally came to a small outcropping overlooking a little waterfall.  She motioned for him to sit and they plopped down on the cool rock, backs against a huge oak tree.

         “According to my parents, they met in a diner near UV where my mother was working on her bachelors in education.  It was love at first sight I guess.  They dated hot and heavy all through her college career and as soon as she graduated they married and moved out here.  My father worked at the mill and my mother worked part time as a substitute for a few a years before she was finally able to get a full time position.  My brother came along about four years after they married.”

         “You have a brother?” he interrupted, surprised.

         Temperance shook her head.  “Had a brother.”  She lit another cigarette and continued.  “Their income was always pretty modest but they did alright I guess.  At least until I cam along a few years later.  I was a surprise.”  She shrugged.  “Anyway, my dad would pick up a few odd jobs here and there and my mother would go to the farmers market on weekends and sell any excess stuff from our garden.  We lived like any other lower middle class family.  Sometimes money would get tight, things would get hairy, but my dad always managed to find an extra bit of work here and there to supplement our income.  When my brother and I got older he taught us to fish and hunt, plus we had the garden.  No matter how tight money was we never worried about not having food on the table.”

         “You realize that this whole thing sounds like something out of Tom Sawyer, right?” he looked at her skeptically.

         “Hey, you wanted to know the truth.  Take it or leave it.  My parents worked like any other parents, we went to school like any other kids.  My dad just believed in self reliance.  Besides, this is West Virginia Frank.  Lots of kids, boys and girls learn how to hunt and fish at an early age.  And lots of families in smaller towns keep gardens and even a few livestock to make sure they’re covered.  It’s not unusual in these parts.”  She twisted the cherry and remaining tobacco from her cigarette and put the filter in her pocket.

         “Anyway, like I said, we were pretty much a normal family until my mom and brother were killed in a car accident when I was fifteen.  After that my dad wasn’t the same.  He was even more insistent that I be able to support myself no matter what.  He taught me how to use almost any gun I could get my hands on, made me learn CPR and first aid, had me gutting and cleaning all my kills, teaching me how to preserve the meat.  It was weird, but I just thought that was my dad’s way of coping with the loss.  I would be alone if anything ever happened to him.  I had never heard him or my mother talk about any other family and I just assumed that there wasn’t anyone else.”

         “You said the mill shut down, how did you two get by after that?”  He chanced a sideward glance in her direction but she was looking off towards the falls.

         “He would do work for local farmers, odd jobs around town.  When I turned sixteen and could drive I picked up some work at a diner after school and on weekends I would do some farm work too.  And I’d sell our produce at the farmers market.  With just two of us we always had plenty left over to sell.”  She paused to light another cigarette and reached into the satchel she’d brought, bringing out two bottles of water.  “It was just a few weeks before my seventeenth birthday when my dad was murdered.”

         “Murdered?  You always said it was a hunting accident.”  He took a drink of the water and turned to face her.  She was staring at a patch of moss between her booted feet, her expression pensive.

         “We were out hunting deer.  There hadn’t been much work for about a month and we were running low on meat.  The truck needed some work done so we were going to try and bag a good sized buck or two so we could put the money in the truck.  Anyway, we had split up and were working opposite sides of the holler.  I was pretty far down and had a good sized doe in my sights when I heard my dad call out.  He fired two shots and I knew he was in trouble.  That was our signal.”  She pushed a strand of hair that had worked loose from her braid out of her eyes and took a long drink of the water.

         “I worked my way back up and around the holler.  I could see my dad a few hundred feet away.  He stepped into a bear trap that shouldn’t have been there.  It was new, the sun was glinting off the metal and fresh blood.  I could smell it from where I was.  The woods were even more dense then and he couldn’t see me, but I could see him and that he wasn’t alone.  At first I thought it was another hunter that had come to help.  I started to walk towards them when the guy took out a hunting knife and slit my dad’s throat.”

         “Jesus Temperance.”  He started to put a hand on her knee but she held up a hand to stop him.