The Next Ten: Beginnings Series Books 11 - 20

by Jacqueline Druga

  Ellen snarled, “Tattle tale.” She returned to her work.

  ^^^^

  “Oh, this is really looking good.” Henry ran his forearm over his face as he stood side by side with Jess in an area just off the Security training area.

  “I’m actually really looking forward to the Neville competition now.” Jess nodded looking at what would be the Olympic ‘street’ scene site for the next round of competition. “I think Joe’s right. It will really take people’s mind off of things.”

  “Danny knows how to set things in motion. Of course, he pawns the work off on everyone.”

  “Hey, it’s exhausting having a great mind.” Jess smiled. “This set up is coming along.”

  “We just have to finish the gun.” Henry glanced at his watch. “We’d better head back to the Security area. Robbie is waiting to drive us to the big strategy meeting.”

  Jess started to walk with Henry. “Any idea of what it’s about?”

  “Savages and killer babies.”

  “Swell,” Jess commented. “Two issues that deal with messy deaths, the Slagel brother’s favorite topic.”

  “You’re learning them.”

  “I’ve learned Robbie.” Jess slowed in his walk. “Not to be taken the wrong way.”

  “Not taken that way.” Henry smiled. “I bet he’s looking forward to the competition.”

  “Oh, yeah, he is, especially with how nervous he is with the release of this ‘Letters’ book.”

  Henry whistled. “How’s he handling that?”

  “He’s not. Well, he is, nervously and with understanding. He idolizes Frank. He’s worried about it even if the letters were written in fun. How’s Frank gonna handle it?”

  “You mean when he realizes they are about Robbie and Ellen? Not well. Hopefully no one will tell him Bobby and Helen are Robbie and Ellen.”

  “How does he not know that?”

  “It’s Frank.” Henry shrugged.

  “Valid point. Anyhow . . . I want to talk to Robbie about all this, but he’s been so busy lately.”

  “Tell me about it,” Henry said. “Both he and Frank. I have to have my son all week. Not that I mind. I love my son but we have this Neville thing happening in less than a week. I have things to do too. I have this gun to rebuild for the competition.”

  “I’ll take a chance being stuck with your kid again.” Jess paused to snicker. “I can help you out. I’m off tonight. Bring Nick by and I’ll help you with him and the gun.”

  “Really?”

  “Sure.” They neared the main training area.

  “Jess, that would be great. I wanted to get Danny’s help, but we’ve been avoiding conflict, you know, with this trial happening. I should finish up with Mechanics about . . . eight?”

  “Sounds good.” Jess slowed down in his walking. He smiled brightly when he saw Robbie by the Jeep.

  Henry shook his head when he saw Jess’ expression. “Really, Jess, you couldn’t be more obvious?”

  “What do you mean?”

  “You look like a teenage girl with that expression on your face.”

  Jess swiped his hand down over his face, removing the smile. “Better?”

  “Much.”

  “Tonight then.” Jess cleared his throat as they drew closer Robbie. “Do you want me to make food?”

  “If you can hold off eating, food will work for me.”

  “Sounds good.”

  Robbie looked up. “What sounds good?”

  “Oh.” Jess climbed in the Jeep. “Henry’s coming by We’re gonna work on the gun for the Neville competition and grab something to eat.”

  Robbie grinned as he started the Jeep. “A date.”

  “Ha-Ha-Ha.” Henry got in the back of the jeep. “Jealous?”

  Robbie shifted gears with a quick joking smile to Jess. “Very.” He jerked the Jeep as he drove. “But you know, one person’s heart belongs to someone whose heart belongs to another. In Beginnings it’s a never ending circle of unrequited wishful thinking.” He looked at Jess then in the mirror to Henry. “Hey, that was pretty good. I should be writer.”

  “Uh, Robbie.” Henry leaned forward between the front two seats. “Your book comes out in three days.”

  “Scratch that writer thought. We have a strategy meeting.” Robbie shifted gears. “If I ever suggest writing anything again, someone shoot me.” After grumbling slightly, Robbie silently drove. The nervous feeling Robbie got every time the impending book was brought up had returned again.

  ^^^^

  The smell of the Clinic hit them when Danny and Trish walked in. It brought forth a forbidden excitement as they moved sneaky-like down the hall.

  “Dean is going to have a fit,” Trish commented,

  “Dean’s a nobody when it comes to patients. Trust me,” Danny stated. “Nor does he want to be. In fact, we’re doing this for Andrea. If we don’t get her off on the treason charge, Dean will have to run the patient end of the clinic.”

  “There goes standard bedside compassion.”

  “True.”

  “But is this right?” Trish asked as they turned the bend.

  “Trish, he’s perfect. He’s the beginning man in the George Beginnings saga. If anyone knows, he does.”

  “But he just woke up from a coma.”

  “What better time to talk to him? He may be a little foggy but we have to find out what he knows. I meet with Judge Grace in a couple days for our first trial meeting.”

  “Oh boy, I saw her.” Trish stopped outside of John Matoose’s room, “She looks tough.”

  “I’ll charm the moo-moo right off of her.”

  “If anyone can, Danny Rather Hoi, you can.”

  “Thanks.”

  “You’re welcome.”

  “Let’s go,” Danny motioned his hand and walked into John’s room first. “John, my man. Hey.”

  “Hi, John.” Trish waved and immediately grabbed a chair.

  John’s glassy eyes shifted. A respirator tube was in his mouth and his breathing was controlled by machine. He looked so pale and still swollen.

  “My,” Trish exhaled. “You are looking well, much better than Jeff. He doesn’t have a face, you know. Well, he has half, but Dean and Ellen have been experimenting with that. I haven’t seen him. He broke up with me, you know.”

  Again panicked, John shifted his eyes.

  Danny laid his hand on John’s arm. “So, buddy, how you feeling?”

  A gurgle came from John.

  “Good.” Danny tapped. “O.K., here’s the scoop. A circle of people have been busted in the working for George ring here in Beginnings. Most of these people, including . . . John open your eyes.”

  John did.

  “Good. Don’t fall asleep on us. This is important. As I was saying, most of these people, including Rev. Bob, named Andrea as working for George. The first trial ever is happening to prove her innocence and I’m . . . John, the eyes.”

  John woke up again.

  “I’m the defense attorney. That’s where you come in. We want to know what you know and if you know what we hope you know, we want to know if you will testify.”

  John murmured, his words raspy and thick.

  Trish leaned one ear into him. “I’m sorry, John. You’ll have to speak clearer. It’s hard to hear with that respirator thing happening.”

  John tried again.

  Trish shrugged. “Danny, I can’t understand him. It’s useless.”

  Danny looked around the room. “Jiggle it out of his mouth for a second, I don’t think it would hurt.”

  “O.K.” Trish reached for the respirator at the same time John’s eyes grew horrified and wide.

  ^^^^

  “Actually he looks pretty cute,” Frank commented to Dean as he walked side by side with him toward Joe’s office.

  “Yeah, there is something about it. I felt kind of bad chaining him up.”

  “He’s a killer baby, Dean.”

  “Yeah. Bub laughed.” Dean smiled. />
  “Bub thought it was funny.”

  “Shit, it’s cold.” Dean placed his hands in the pockets of his coat and shivered.

  “If you’d wear normal fuckin coat you wouldn’t be cold. Be stylish, like me.” Frank patted his black leather jacket.

  “I couldn’t even dream of being like you.”

  “Tough when even fantasies are hard to live up to.”

  Dean chuckled. “So, I hate to beat a dead horse but are you positive about the letter?”

  “Positive.”

  “You’re sure you’re not leaving details out to spare my feelings?”

  Frank stopped and looked down at Dean. “Think about what you just said. I’m fuckin surprised I didn’t exaggerate. No, Dean . . .” Frank walked again. Joe’s office was in sight. “It was a simple boring letter. He likes talking, I’m sorry, conversing with her.”

  “Risking total mental retribution at this moment, I’m gonna ask you something. Give me your honest opinion, Frank.”

  “When am I not?”

  “Always.”

  “True. What is it?” Frank asked.

  “Am I going overboard about this? Ellen is making me feel like I am.”

  “Truthfully?” Frank watched Dean nod. “I’ve never seen you so possessive with her, ever. Not in all these years. I mean, let’s face it, you’re still with her, aside from the hoax marriage, you’re still with her because someone allotted you an understanding.”

  “True.”

  “You refuse to have one with anyone else and that’s fucked up in a world where it’s not only common, but courtesy. Would that be right?”

  “You can put it that way, yes. And . . . I guess I will . . . in time. I am being possessive. I know this. I can’t control it.” Dean stopped before Joe’s door. “Why am I talking to you like this?”

  “I know Ellen better than anyone and because I know her, maybe you’re looking to justify how you’re acting.”

  “Lord knows you won’t do that.”

  Frank paused before opening the door. “Dean, I’m gonna take myself out of Frank mode here, all right. Pretend I’m not Frank and pretend I never said any of this to you. If this gets back to her, I will kill you.”

  “It won’t. What?”

  “I think you have every reason to not only be jealous, but possessive. History proves it. Ellen, she strays, plan and simple. I haven’t helped matters. I take advantage of that, I know but I love her. I can’t help it either. Fact is, she strayed on Pete, she strayed on you, and she strayed on me. This is the perfect fuckin relationship world for Ellen now a place where it’s perfectly all right to have her cake and eat it too. But . . . you’re human. You just don’t want it to be that way.”

  Dean was astounded. “Oh my God.”

  “What?”

  “Thank you.” Dean nodded. “Thank you for saying that. Not that I feel better about the way I’m acting but . . . I feel less wrong.”

  “Yeah, and I understand why you’re like this. The fear of losing her again has to be lurking, especially knowing some strapping, hunky, head of Security guy named Frank, whose actually a sexual stallion, is chasing after her.”

  Dean laughed, “You had to do it.”

  “I had to. I love to irk you.”

  “Meeting.” Dean pointed to the door.

  “Meeting.” Frank opened it and they walked into Joe’s office.

  ^^^^

  Ellen giggled.

  “Ellen, come on.” Richie followed her from the Skills Room in a determined pursuit.

  “Richie, no.”

  “You have to let me out of here.”

  “Oh, I beg to differ. See, this is my domain.” She turned into her office.

  “It’s also Robbie’s domain.”

  “Robbie fears me.” Ellen dropped some file folders on her desk. “Now if you’ll excuse me, I have to get back to the Clinic. I have work.”

  “I cannot believe you’re doing this to me,” Richie said with irritation. “I’m your brother.”

  “You are also a former Society worker. Not a defector, mind you, a worker. Worker!”

  “So.”

  “So really, Richie, you can’t be trusted. I have to go.” She hurried from her office.

  “I’m stuck in here. You’re leaving me stuck in here forever.”

  “Don’t be silly. Of course I’m not. As soon as I know you can live in society, you’ll be free. Besides, you have to pass the test. You have yet to pass any of the tests I have given you.”

  “Ellen, I hardly think that ‘what’s the atomic weight of the following elements’ has anything to do with living civilized.”

  Ellen gasped.,“Do you second guess our tests? I’ll have you know Leroy in there got six out of ten right.”

  “Bullshit.”

  “This attitude, Richie, will not help get you out.” She moved to the main door and reached for the key pad.

  “Then I want to leave Beginnings.”

  “O.K.”

  “Just like that. You’ll toss your brother out just like that?”

  “Richie, have patience,” Ellen spoke pacifying. “Really. I give you so much freedom, don’t I? I let you out.”

  “To watch your kids.”

  “You’re still getting out for air. And don’t I put you in charge at night.”

  “Big deal.”

  “You have a television in my office.”

  “To watch Perry Mason episodes and the O.J. Simpson trial.”

  “You are so ungrateful, Richie.” Ellen punched in her code. “Really, I’m trying here. I’ll speak to Joe again. He keeps saying ‘No’.” The door buzzed and Ellen opened it. “If it was up to me I’d let you out, even though you still owe me twenty-seven hundred dollars from the old world, which by the way with accrued interest is sixteen thousand. See ya.” Ellen slipped out.

  Richie turned away from the secured door. He tossed his hands up. “My God, I’m paying interest.”

  Ellen liked the feeling of bickering with her brother. The innocent fighting and irritating her younger sibling filled her with the giddiness of her childhood days.

  That feel was the ‘up’ Ellen needed and it stayed with her in her walk to the Clinic. However, it quickly left when she walked into the lab. “Bev,” Ellen spoke coldly when she walked in.

  “Hi, Ellen.”

  Ellen rolled her eyes and walked across the lab. “I need you to leave,”

  “Where’s Dean?”

  “Haven’t a clue.”

  “He wanted me to meet him at the cryo-lab. I did and he never showed.”

  “Oh bull.” Ellen spun around and slammed her hand on the counter that Bev stood near. “He did not.”

  “Really.” Bev held up the note Dean had left Johnny. “It says meet me in the cryo-lab in one hour. Recognize the handwriting?”

  Ellen snatched the note from her hand, crumbled it, and shoved it in her lab coat pocket. “Leave.”

  “Ellen, we really need to talk.” Bev pulled up a stool, sat down, and got comfortable.

  “I don’t think so.”

  “I do. You really have such a delusional problem believing what I’m saying. It’s projecting all this hostility at me . . .”

  “Bev.”

  “You really are coming off pathetic.”

  “Why would you even begin to call me pathetic?”

  “You don’t believe what I’m saying.”

  “I believe my husband,” Ellen said.

  “Then, Ellen, you are a fool.”

  “Bev, you run around saying you are pregnant by my husband. You say you’re fooling around with him. This is what you say. It’s your word against his. I have to take Dean’s.”

  “I have proof.”

  “What proof can you possibly have aside from this baby’s paternity which will prove not to be Dean’s? Right now, you have none.”

  “Ha.” Bev stood up.

  “Ha?” Ellen laughed. “Oh, good comeback. I applaud your quick wit.”
/>
  “What do you want to know? Huh, Ellen? What? You want the painful truth?” Bev stepped to her. “I have painful truth on me and I’m not just talking about this baby. There’s more. But you know what, you can’t handle it. You don’t want to handle it.”

  “There is nothing to handle but your lies.”

  “Try me. It started after you gave birth to Henry’s kid. Remember? Dean and I began to flirt but you never saw it. It was there. Then you two started fighting, fighting because you were hanging out with Frank when Dean needed you. He needed you because he was going blind.” Bev nodded. “We sat one night after you two fought in the street outside the Social Hall. One thing led to another and that was the start of it all. I was the comfort he sought and trust me Ellen, he went from your bed to mine because you are nothing to him.”

  Ellen stayed cold. The last thing she wanted was for Bev to see any reaction.

  “How many times?” Bev said. “There are too many to keep track but not as often anymore, because of this marriage thing. You have him so strapped down. But he does love when you go to Bowman, or rather New Bowman. With the kids tucked away and you gone, Dean plays . . . with me.” Bev giggled. “Hell, Ellen, Dean slept with me an hour before he married you.”

  “Bullshit.”

  “Believe what you want. And about that marriage . . . why did he marry you? I can tell you what he told me. One word. Frank. He hates Frank. He hates Frank so much that he would do anything to pay him back for all he did to him. So Dean married you, the ultimate payback. He said to me once . . .”

  “Bev, get out of my lab or I will call Security.”

  “You mean Frank. Call him. It’s the only chance you two ever have to be together. Dean said he’ll lay the guilt on you for thinking about Frank. He basks in the fact that he has you away from him. Really, Ellen, you should just go back to Frank. He’s your one true love anyhow.”

  “Bev, instead of angering me with these words, you’re annoying me. Little girl rambling is what you’re doing, so leave because you really know nothing. You have no so-called proof.” Ellen started to walk back to the computer station.