by Jet MacLeod
She didn’t stop to look up. She knew that if she did she would see the fire in Angie’s eyes and she would lose all control of her brain. She needed to be focused on the job and not Angie. It didn’t matter that Angie was the job.
“Del?”
“Yeah?” she asked, still not looking up.
“You going to eat something?” Angie asked her.
“Sure,” she replied automatically.
Angie realized then that Del wasn’t really there with her. She was trying to focus on the map, but she was failing. Angie could see it. She could the sniper’s brain working hard at trying to find something, anything, but neither of them were sure what it was.
Finally, Angie moved her hand across the table and pointed to the map. It was enough to get Del’s full attention. She looked up. Her eyes were almost black as she met the lightened sapphire facing her. She looked back down at the map and the alabaster finger pointing at it.
“I told you that we weren’t going camping,” Del stated.
“Then, we are staying here until I decide to leave,” Angie remarked, still not moving her finger.
Del could see the defiance in her eyes. She knew that Angie wasn’t bluffing. She could only help but wonder what Angie might do if she forced her into the car and headed to Seattle without her consent. She knew that Angie would fight her and misbehave, but she wondered for how long as she mentally calculated their drive from Redding to Seattle. The drive would be Hell and she would never hear the end of it, from anyone involved.
She grabbed her cell phone and scrolled through the numbers. She needed to talk to Cole. He could get her calmed down. She needed to talk to someone besides Angie or she was going to go crazy. She needed to be grounded and the sergeant was one of the few that could still do that.
She jumped up out of the chair. She left the table and went out of the restaurant. She hit the send button as she exited through the doors. Angie didn’t say a word as she watched her pace in front of the big windows just passed their table. She just waited for her to come back.
“What’s wrong?” Cole asked her.
“I can’t handle her. She is impossible. She keeps contradicting herself. She told me that she doesn’t want to go to Seattle now,” Del told him.
“What did you do?” Cole asked.
“ME! I didn’t do anything. She just up and decided while we were driving that she doesn’t want to go to Seattle anymore. We were just coming up on Redding and she doesn’t want to go to Seattle anymore. After everything that we have done for her, she doesn’t want to go!”
“Lieutenant!”
“What?”
“Calm down.”
“I am calm,” Del hissed into her phone.
“And that is why you are calling me about her?”
“Damn it, Cole. What the Hell am I supposed to do with her? I’ve been thinking of throwing her over my shoulder and into the car. I wonder what she’d do if I did that,” Del told him.
“Run away from you at the first chance,” Cole replied.
“I know.”
“So, what did you say to her that set her off?” Cole asked.
“I didn’t say anything!”
“Okay, then what were y’all talking about?” he probed.
“We were talking about not going camping at Six Rivers. It is near here. It would be a rough ride and a hard hike. I don’t think that she is built for that. She said that she wanted to go, but Cole, she isn’t made like we are. I don’t know what I would do with her on the side of a mountain for a week or so. You know that I wouldn’t just go camping to go camping. I go there to relax and get back to what I know, to find simplicity. She will complicate that.”
“Will she?”
“Cole, you’re not helping. What am I supposed to do with her? I am stuck with her until her court date. It isn’t like I can just go drop her off somewhere, go camping and then come back and pick her up. She is not going to go for that. I am not going to go for that. I can’t leave her, Cole. I just can’t. But, I can’t go with her, either,” Del told him.
“That’s what a woman will do to you, Kid. You love her and she loves you. You are going to drive each other nuts. It’s called a relationship. I know that you’ve been in one before. Of course that one didn’t work out in the end, but you can’t keep hiding from her, Del. You need to man up and go in there and talk to her. And, don’t even tell me that you have, because I know you. Right now, you are pacing with a worried look on your face because for once in your strange life things are not going as planned and you don’t have a contingency plan in place to compensate for it. You are scared shitless by her. Admit that to yourself. You can’t keep dancing around her and what you are feeling. You need to admit it and you need to confront it.”
“I have.”
“To who?” Cole asked quickly.
“To her,” Del responded.
“Then why are you talking to me and not her? She is the one that can help you through this, Lieutenant, not me. She is the one that cares about you. She is the one that you are having issues with because you are too chicken shit to fight for what she is willing to give you.”
“I am not chicken shit,” Del replied.
“Then, prove it. Go back inside whatever little dive of a restaurant you are in and talk to her. Make plans for the trip in Seattle. If you don’t want to horse hike and camp at Six Rivers, give her an alternate choice. She is trying to help you. Let her. Let her in and embrace it. You aren’t alone anymore, Del. There are people out here that care about you and want you to be happy. You’ve been lucky enough to be assigned to one of them. Now, hang up the phone and go in there and talk to her,” Cole instructed.
“Okay,” Del stated as she pouted.
“Don’t even do that. Just go, Delia. Embrace what she is willing to give you. Be the knight to her princess. You might find that is something that you need,” Cole told her and hung up before she could reply to his strange idioms and advice.
She closed the phone and paced for a little while longer. Finally building up enough courage, she walked back into the restaurant and sat down. Angie looked up from the atlas and the menu expectantly, but Del didn’t make a sound. Instead she just stared into Angie’s brilliant cobalt eyes and thought about everything that Cole had said.
Be the knight to her princess, she mused. A slow grin came across her mouth as she studied the blonde across from her. She grabbed the atlas from her and turned it to read it. She looked over it and her smile got bigger and bigger.
Angie gave her a curious look, but decided to stay quiet. She knew that Del had gone outside to talk to Cole and she was thankful that he took the time to actually talk to her. Whatever he said put a new light, a new fire in Delia and she hoped that they would come to terms with an agreeable outcome for their further trip northward. She looked down at the atlas and watched as she traced the interstate as it passed several National Parks. She furrowed her eyebrows in question as Del’s smile finally broke through and her teeth were showing.
“I’ve figured it out,” Del told her, not looking up.
“Figured what out?”
“How to make you happy?”
“Give me what I want?” Angie asked.
“No, that would be too easy,” Del teased.
“Then what is it?” Angie inquired, very curious as to what Delia was thinking in that moment.
“Giving you partially what you want,” Del told her. “That way you always come back looking for more. So, you’ll demand to be satisfied in the future. Give you enough to tide you over, but never enough to keep you fully satiated.”
“And, what, pray tell, are you giving me now?” Angie questioned her with a sparkle in her eye.
“Something that you want…”
Chapter 49
They got in the Suburban and got back on the highway. Del didn’t elaborate anymore. And, for once Angie didn’t argue with her. She thought that she had won the argument and now she was just wondering wh
at Del was going to do about it. She just watched the exits fly by and it didn’t seem like Del was going to slow down anytime soon.
But just when she thought that Del wasn’t going to stop until she crossed the California-Oregon border, she pulled off the Interstate. She took a left onto California highway 96 and just smiled as they continued down the road. When she did take the chance to glance at Angie, a smile crept across her face at Angie’s total surprise. She was heading to Happy Camp. There were some old friends that had a camp ground just outside of town.
She knew that Angie was completely lost and she didn’t care. She wanted to camp so she was going to take her camping. Angie was going to get what she wanted. They were going to camp out in the middle of nowhere. She was going to give Angie exactly what she wanted without the horses that she wanted, but they were going camping. It would be enough. It would have to be enough for Del to get out her frustration.
Just before they made it into the great town of Happy Camp, California, Del took a right on a service road. Angie’s eyes lit up. She was heading deep into the California wilderness with Del and she didn’t know where they were going or for how long. The service road ended and Angie could see a small creek. She knew that it must have been feeding the river that had been running along the highway on the way in.
Del pulled the Suburban up under some trees and she made sure that she could get away if they needed to run away. She put the vehicle in park. Once the gear shift was in position, Del turned to look at Angie. Angie turned in her seat to look at Del, wondering where the in the Hell they were. When Del didn’t give her any ideas, Angie just gave her a questioning look. Instead of answering, Del got out of the car.
She didn’t say anything. She walked to the hatch and opened it. A sly grin on her face, she pulled out the tent from its hidden compartment. She walked over to a clearing and started laying out a ground cloth. Once the ground cloth was situated how she wanted it, she began to put up the tent on top of it. She made sure to stake it down and put the rain flap on it. She knew how quickly rain storms formed in Northwest and she wasn’t going to take any chances with Angie being out in it.
She went back to the Suburban and grabbed some packs. Angie was still sitting in the front passenger seat. Del still didn’t say anything. She went back to the tent and started unrolling the sleeping bags. She set the tent up completely before Angie ever thought about getting out of the vehicle. Del was busy setting up a hastily built, lashed table just off from the tent. She was lashing some sticks together when Angie finally made her way over.
“You wanted camping, we’re camping,” Del told her as she continued to work on the table.
Angie just grinned at her. She leaned against one of the trees that Del was lashing the table to. She looked around the camp and realized that there was no running water besides the creek. Del happened to look up at Angie when she realized that they really were in the backwoods with no bathroom. Del just smiled as she continued to prep the camp for their stay, however long it may be. Angie just stared at her playful brown eyes in wonder.
“Um…where’s the bathroom?” Angie asked her.
“It’ll be that tree over there,” Del told her pointing to a tree downstream from their campsite.
“Uh huh,” Angie replied staring at said tree in disbelief.
“Something wrong?”
“Nope, nothing at all,” Angie quipped quickly.
“Did you need to use the bathroom? Cause I can set it up for you real quick. I have all the gear right over there,” Del told her pointing at a small bag and box. “It’ll only take a second.”
“No, I am good.”
Del just smiled as she continued to lash the table together. Once she completed the table, she went back to the truck and pulled out two stowed camp chairs. She set them up near the table and then went down the creek. Angie followed her, wondering what she was doing. Del stopped at the edge of the creek and kneeled down.
“What are you doing?” Angie asked her.
“Getting stones to make a fire circle,” Del told her as she reached into the water and grabbed a few stones.
She stood up and headed back to the camping area. She moved quickly and eyeballed the distance between where she wanted to put the fire ring and the tent. Angie watched as she turned her head back and forth. She finally set the stones down and started arranging them how she wanted it. Once those stones were placed, Del stood up and went back to the creek for more.
Angie pulled up one of the chairs and watched Del as she continued to move around the campsite setting it up. Del finished the fire ring and then went back to the Suburban. She pulled out some more boxes and some collapsible containers. She went back down the creek with some of them. When she came back up, the containers were full of water. She then treated it.
“What’s that for?” Angie asked her.
“Well, I am assuming that you want to be able to drink the water. I don’t know how potable the water is. I treated it so we won’t get sick. It’ll taste a little funny, but it still does the job.”
“What about food?” Angie asked, just then realizing that they hadn’t really stopped for major supplies before they came out to the camp site.
“It’s in those boxes,” Del said pointing.
“Do I want to know?”
“They are rations. They aren’t that bad. Trust me, I’ve lived off worse.”
“I’m sure that you have.”
“Are you okay?” Del asked her, grabbing the other chair and sitting down next to her.
“Yeah, I am fine.”
Del just watched her. She could tell that there was something off about Angie, but she wasn’t sure what it was. She’d demanded to go camping and that is what they were doing, but now she seemed unsure about it all. Del thought that she had explained it to her well enough when they had talked about camping with horses at Six Rivers. This was no different. They just didn’t have horses.
“No, really, what’s bothering you?” Del questioned.
“We are in the middle of the woods in the middle of nowhere,” Angie replied.
“You wanted to go camping,” Del stated with an exaggerated lilt.
Angie just stared at her. She couldn’t believe that Del actually had taken them camping. She looked around their surroundings. She had asked for this. She’d thrown the fit and now they were in the woods, alone, deeply away from civilization with no running water and no true toilet. She’d asked to go camping and now Del had them camping.
Del just kept smiling. She was waiting for Angie to break, but she knew that the Princess in her wasn’t going to let that happen. She stared at the ground for a minute before standing up and heading into the woods. Angie watched her go until she disappeared. She wasn’t sure if she should follow her or even be worried. She decided to wait where she was until Del came back.
It didn’t take long for Del to come back. When she did, her arms were full of branches and sticks. She began arranging them in the fire ring. Once she was happy with their placement, she went back to the Suburban for a second. She came back with some small bits of dried leaves and small twigs, too. She hunched over the sticks and started the fire. Angie just watched her in awe.
It was in that moment that she realized again, that she didn’t know everything than Del was capable of. She knew that she was a survivor. She knew that she was a soldier, a fighter, and a spy. But, this person before her was still a mystery. This Del was adept and caring.
“Lighting it early, aren’t you?” Angie asked.
“Not unless you don’t want to be eaten alive by bugs, I didn’t.” Del replied with a laugh.
She didn’t apologize for their conditions. She just continued moving through the area setting up the campsite like a normal sporty, primitive camp. She just kept moving around the area. Angie couldn’t keep up with her. She didn’t understand everything that Del was doing, but she knew that if Del thought it was important, it needed to happen.
Del finally sto
pped and sat back down next to her. She stared at the fire and the back down towards the creek. Angie watched her, but she couldn’t figure out what she was thinking. She wasn’t sure if she should say something to Del or let her just have her time.
“I’m fine,” Del said without turning her head.
“I never doubted it,” Angie answered.
“You don’t have to lie, Princess. I know that you are upset about something. Did you think that I wouldn’t notice? I know that you said that you wanted to campout, but I don’t think that you really meant like this, did you?” Del asked her.
Angie didn’t reply. She sat there in silence, unsure of what to really say. She loved camping, but this didn’t seem like fun. This was more of a punishment that Del had devised because of her outburst earlier. She didn’t think that Del would be that petty about this, but then again, she had been. She turned to look at Del and wondering what the look in her eyes really was. Was it mischief or was it something else? She’d never really seen Del be playful. Was this whole adventure in the woods a way for her to prank Angie?
“Are you happy here?”
“What?” Del questioned, turning to face Angie more fully.
“Does being here like this make you happy?”
Del looked around the camp. She wasn’t sure what Angie was truly asking her. Did she really want to know if she was honestly more comfortable in the woods alone then in a town full of people? Then, the answer was yes. She was calm there. She was at peace. She could think without all the honors of what she had done in uniform and as agent coming back to haunt, because in the woods, a primitive side came out. She was feral and a survivor. Life was the only thing that mattered.
“Am I happy? Yes, I like camping. There is peace here.”
“This isn’t some big elaborate joke to get back at me?”
