The Hands

by Andrea Speed, A. B. Gayle, Jessie Blackwood, J. J Levesque, Katisha Moreish

  “It’s fine; nothing some comfrey or arnica can’t fix. I was going to go and check out the herbalists anyway”.

  “Oh, alternative therapy kinda guy, hm ? Well, if the herbal stuff doesn’t fix it and it starts to bother you, call in to see Doc Sutherland, okay?”

  “I can’t come see you then ?” He was teasing now, sounding Gil out.

  “I’m not a doctor...but I do get to make house calls...if you need me, call 911”. He grinned back, hoping he hadn’t wrong-footed it with the man, he was another Brit and suddenly Gil didn’t feel so far from home. It might be nice to meet up, if for nothing more than a chat with a recognisable accent. “I’ll see you round,” Gil continued, “it’s a small place. If you fancy a drink sometime, let me know, you know where you can leave a message. And I promise to look the other way when I get to an intersection again.”

  “Well, I’ve yet to find the hospital, but it can’t be hard to spot, I’m guessing. Are you okay ? Not in shock or anything ?”

  “I’m fine. Thank you for asking. The hospital isn’t hard to find. Go down Alberen Street; when Alberen turns into Booker Trail you’ll find the high school and the hospital, Haven Hill, is straight across from there.

  “Well, I’ll see you round then. I’m going to have to get going now if I’m to get to the funeral home while they’re still open”. Lyle looked at his watch, to emphasise his words. He would have loved to talk a bit more, but time wasn’t on his side today. They’d have other opportunities to talk, he was sure.

  Gil got back on his bike and pulled his helmet on. He decided against the beach. Not now; he wanted to get home, get these damned leathers off and shower. He really needed a date with Reggie from driver’s ed.

  Haven Falls #35: Give Them A Hand

  Carter ‘Gil’ Gillespie, Miles Sutherland, & Flynn Archer

  _____________________________________

  The early morning dew on the grass squelched under his joggers as Miles entered Haven Falls Park. He’d only been running for ten minutes and already he had a bloody stitch.

  Miles glanced across at his companion. Gil hadn’t even raised a sweat. Still looked as fresh as he had when he came to collect him at six a.m. Six bloody a.m. who was awake at that godforsaken hour?

  The slow run up Alberen Street hadn’t been too bad. All the businesses were closed of course, but he’d seen a few joggers in the distance and a couple of guys out walking their dogs.

  “Miles, you okay?” Gil was concerned they didn’t over-do it. Damn it, but he didn’t want Miles to pretend he could manage when he couldn’t just because he was too damn proud.

  “I’m fine, and watch out for that dog shit there.”

  “Oh, thanks.” Gil avoided the mess. “You’d get fined for that where I come from.”

  Miles just grunted. His paramedic had kept up a non-stop commentary all the way, chatting about all the differences he’d noticed from Manchester.

  Miles hadn’t needed to say a word, not that he could, he was having enough trouble breathing as it was.

  “There’s quite a few dogs around town, have you noticed? Most are pedigrees. There was an Akita at Glenda’s yesterday, did you see it?” There, if he really tried, he could talk and run at the same time.

  “Yeah, didn’t like the look it gave me.”

  Miles glanced sideways at his running partner; he was watching him again instead of watching where he was going.

  Gil decided to call a halt. He was concerned for the doctor. “Let’s take a break.” He stopped and took a look at Miles, trying to assess his condition.

  “What for? We only just got started.” Miles tried to catch his breath without being too obvious about it. Once he could have run this smartass into the ground.

  “Look, Doc, I don’t want to come over all heavy handed, but we need to build up slow here. You can’t expect to turn into an eighteen year old overnight.” Gil turned on his grin again. “But if you pace yourself, you’ll be turning the eighteen year olds on again for sure.”

  “Spare me the flattery, mate. I know I look like a crock of shit. Still, nice to know someone is concerned for the elderly citizens of this town.” Miles stretched his hamstrings. It wasn’t so much his lungs that were giving him grief, his muscles had tightened as soon as he started.

  Over in the distance, he spied yet another dog. This one looked more like a mongrel - patchy fur and half an ear seemed to have been bitten off in a fight. It was rooting around in the ground. “Gil, can you see what that dog’s got in his mouth? I thought I saw something flash.”

  “Maybe the dog’s got a collar on?” Gil tried to see what it was the dog had found.

  “No, I can see it’s attached to something. Let’s go over and take a look.”

  Miles followed Gil. The dog looked up when it saw them coming and snarled. The corner of its mouth turning up exposing sharp teeth.

  “Shit, it’s an arm. Hey, Gil see if you can catch the little mutt.”

  Gil sighed. He didn’t have a great history where dogs were concerned. He approached the animal with caution. He really didn’t want to come into contact with those teeth. He was having visions of rabies shots.

  Miles watched Gil’s cautious approach. The dog was poised ready to flee, every muscle taut ready to spring. “Hey, I’ll circle around so we can co-ordinate our approach.” Miles tried to work his way around, but the dog circled warily, switching his gaze from one to the other, “Here, boy.” Miles stretched out a hand toward the dog, but it took off in the other direction. “Shit.”

  * * * * *

  Now who the hell scheduled a uniform fitting this early in the morning? And what the hell did a bouncer need with a uniform anyways? Some research turned up that his boss was some big noise in the fashion industry, so maybe that explained it, but it still felt weird. Flynn had no idea how long he was going to last at this job. His knowledge of fashion was minuscule - all he knew was you didn’t mix patterns, and you didn’t wear a kilt with no underwear in an updraft. As soon as Rose found out about his lack of fashion sense, he might just fire him.

  Flynn decided to cut through the park, take the long way back to his place, mainly because he was still thinking about his date with Aiden. There were things that could have gone better, but what went right went brilliant. Flynn wondered who was calling whom next though. Ah, fuck it, he’d give Little Red Riding Hood a little breathing room, see if he wanted to touch base again or not. God knew there were enough hot guys in this town. You could probably see a different one every night for a couple of months and never have to repeat.

  Flynn was lost in thought, walking along the grass, when he looked up and saw a mangy dog with something kind of bulky and weird in its mouth. What the hell was that? He thought it was a branch at first, but it seemed rather pale for a branch ...

  A couple of joggers were headed towards the dog, and so was he. He felt suddenly compelled to see if the dog had what he thought he had. He sincerely hoped not.

  The two joggers tried to surround the dog, but it was small and quick, and darted past them, coming straight for him. Holy shit - that was a body part in its mouth. A hand? Was it really carrying a hand and part of an arm? Jesus, where had it come up with that?

  As the mongrel came towards him, he dived for it, assuming it was going to try and squirt through his legs. If he was a little dog, he would. He felt some fur, and felt it slip past his fingers as he hit the grass chin first. Goddamn!

  * * * * *

  Gil saw the efforts the stranger made to stop the dog, failing in his attempt to grab it. It swerved round the guy’s legs, he missed it by inches and Gil was suddenly facing a racing furball with an attitude and no intention of giving up its prize. He made a lunge for it, his fingers closing on a hind leg but it evaded him, twisted in his grasp with a snarl and dashed away again.

  Oh, fuck. Did he have to do everything? Miles launched himself through the air and relived for a second one of the best try-saving tackles from his rugby days. His arms
wrapped around the mutt’s body as his face ploughed a shallow ditch through the dirt. He only just managed to hold onto the dog as it wriggled frantically in his grasp.

  Flynn was back on his feet, and ready to stomp on that damn dog’s head, except the out of shape guy grabbed it first. Too bad. Hey, did out of shape guy look familiar?

  Gil recovered his balance and went to help, grabbing the animal by its scruff and holding it still. It struggled, snapped at him and dropped the hand as it did so.

  Seeing the hand hit the ground, Flynn quickly shucked off his coat and threw it over the limb, using the fabric to pick up the hand without touching it. Goddamn it, this was disgusting.

  “Don’t touch it.” Gil ordered. “It’s evidence.”

  “No shit, Sherlock. I wasn’t saving it for my scrapbook.” At least he could get rid of this raggedy camouflage coat. He just got it at a thrift store, and it was too big for him anyways.

  Gil wasn’t surprised at the attitude but he wasn’t about to back down. “At least you used your coat...” The dog was still not backing down either. “Hey, a little help here? No, you don’t, buddy!” He renewed his grip on the coarse fur as the dog made a bid for freedom.

  Miles struggled to his feet. While he’d been temporarily winded, the two young guys seemed to have solved the problem of catching the dog, but their snarls as they argued put the dog to shame. “Well, guys, what do we have here?” He reached over to the animal twisting around in Gil’s arms, trying to break away from his grip. “Easy, fella, you look half-starved.”

  “If we could muzzle him, we’d all be a lot safer.”

  While Flynn didn’t really care about the dumpy guy - although that was a hell of a nice tackle - or the damn dog, it was a shame the brunette guy wasn’t giving him more attention. He would have been a nice back up if Little Red Riding Hood didn’t work out. Holy shit, why was he thinking about this now? He was holding a severed hand! Jesus Christ, when he was thinking of hand jobs, he didn’t think of something like this. He moved closer.

  The dog took one look, snapped at the newcomer and wriggled around trying to bite Gil who promptly dropped him. “Damn...” Gil wasn’t really concerned for the dog, but he could be a menace if allowed to go free.

  Now the dog didn’t present him with a problem anymore, Gil turned his attention to the stranger. He had hit the ground pretty hard. His chin was bleeding. He approached him with almost as much caution as he’ used with the dog; he had no desire to be bitten by this one either. “Let me see that” he said, reaching to the small pouch he wore at his waist and snapped on a pair of latex gloves. “You don’t want my hand pawing at you without these on, God knows where that dog has been.” He reached out his glove-covered hand.

  “What do you think you’re doing?”

  “You’re bleeding, you took quite a dive there.”

  “Oh.” Well, his chin was throbbing, but Flynn assumed that was just from hitting the ground. Faceplants generally weren’t painless. Reluctantly, he held still, and let Doctor Feelgood move in.

  “You can relax, I’m the new paramedic, I do know what I’m doing.” Gil inspected the damage. “It’s not too bad.”

  Miles watched in amusement as his paramedic patched up the young Asian looking bloke. Fancy carrying around all that gear as he went jogging. But the way he’d been acting it was amazing he hadn’t brought a defibrillator with him. He moved closer. “I don’t know, Gil, that cut looks pretty deep, we don’t want that handsome face disfigured by an ugly scar, maybe he needs stitches?”

  Gil glanced up, aware he had been ignoring the doctor’s presence. “Sorry, Miles, I’m too used to working by myself.”

  So, he ran into another Brit, as Feelgood sounded an awful lot like the librarian. But the other guy was what, Scottish? No - Australian. Wow, what a diverse town. Flynn smirked at the guy, who still looked incredibly familiar to him, and held out his coat. “Need a hand?”

  Haven Falls #39: English Department Meeting

  Aiden Parker and Angel Torres

  ________________________________

  Even though Aiden wasn’t technically a first year teacher, it was his first year at Haven Falls, and he had been assigned a mentor. Angel Torres might have been younger than him, but he knew the staff, he knew the students, and he knew the curriculum. And Aiden was grateful as hell that he had been paired with him. He found it difficult to make friends, but with Angel it was a lot easier than with most.

  Despite it being a holiday, they had agreed to meet up at Angel’s house to finish planning out the year. So with that in mind, Aiden grabbed his bag, made sure his planbook and everything else was in it, locked Dante in his crate with an apology, and took off for the other man’s house.

  Angel smiled as he opened the door to find Aiden behind it. Even though it had seemed odd to mentor someone older than himself at the beginning of the year, he’d found the age difference didn’t show. Angel had worked at Haven Falls High since he’d started teaching and even though he’d yet to let anyone close, it was easy to work with Aiden. Where Angel was loud and cocky, Aiden provided a balance that evened out the department well.

  And it didn’t hurt that he wasn’t bad to look at. If he didn’t have to work with the man, Angel would have made a move a long time ago. As it was, Angel had fun teasing him when he could.

  “Hey. Exciting weekend?” Angel held open the door for Aiden to enter and led the way to the living room.

  Aiden laughed, a little uneasily, and nodded. “Yeah, you could say that. Yesterday was pretty busy. What about you?”

  “Nothing too exciting. Met up with family. It’s been a while, so it’s always nice to see them, you know?” Angel gave Aiden a closer look as they settled on the couch. “Yesterday was busy, huh? Something other than playing at home with the dog?”

  “Yeah, I took Dante out for a walk and we ran into Evan. From the math department.” Aiden dropped his bag at his feet and pulled out his plan book and a pencil. “Got a cup of coffee at Glenda’s. That sort of thing.”

  “Evan, huh? He must have his own list of students to worry about. I’ve only got a couple that might fail, but it’s more than I’d like.” Angel held out his hand and took the plan book from Aiden. It was more of a formality than a necessity to glance over Aiden’s plans by now, so his mind hit on the last part of the statement. “You got a cup of coffee or you met someone for coffee?”

  Aiden rubbed his red cheeks. “Umm... I got a cup of coffee with someone Dante knocked over after he got loose....”

  Angel laughed. Maybe he shouldn’t, but he couldn’t help it as Aiden blushed and looked away. “Really? Maybe I should borrow this dog. Does Dante have good taste?”

  “It seems like he does....” Was it really that much fun to tease him, Aiden wondered. But he would live through it. Angel was his friend. It wasn’t like Flynn’s teasing. Not at all. At the thought of Flynn he felt his face betray him once again and heat. He really had to get that under control.

  “Anyone I might know?” Angel held the smirk on his face, but he knew the worry slipped out a bit in his voice. Aiden might be older, but he’d never mentioned many dates before. Angel wasn’t exactly planning to take him along when he hit up the new night club for a hook up. Not because Aiden wasn’t his friend, but because he couldn’t imagine Aiden patrolling for a guy. And now the older man was already blushing over some new guy?

  “No, he’s new in town.” Aiden hesitated, wondering how much he should tell him, then figured what the hell. Town this small he’d find out anyway. “His name’s Flynn Archer. He’s a bouncer at the new club. After coffee we uh... we met up later that night. I showed him around the town a bit.”

  “Flynn Archer?” Angel made a mental note to check the guy out a bit. Sure, Aiden wasn’t his little sister or anything, but Angel didn’t want to see the man hurt. He was a nice guy and Angel had plenty of practice from screening Margarita’s dates. “So almost two dates already? He ask you out again yet?”

&nb
sp; “Not officially or anything. But... I have a feeling I’ll see him again.” Aiden stared at the table and a small smile slipped through. “But the coffee thing wasn’t a date. Not really.”

  “You sat together? Just you and him? Sounds like a date.” Angel elbowed Aiden’s side. “But fine, if it wasn’t, then you still have to admit meeting up later was a date. So, I have to know...does Aiden Parker kiss on the first date?”

  “Dante was there too,” he grumbled lightly and nudged Angel right back. “And if two people sitting together makes a date, then I guess that means we’re on a date, huh? I’ll admit, yes, the later part... was a date.” At the question he looked at his planbook, very interested in it, but couldn’t hide a small smile. “I don’t kiss and tell.”

  “Technically, this is a Department Meeting. Trust me, my dates know they’re on dates. And you know I’m assuming you kissed him now, right? Or scratch that. He kissed you.” Angel watched Aiden’s face for a tell-tale reaction and chuckled. “Yeah. He kissed you.”

  “Maybe you should go into psychology rather than English,” Aiden suggested with a laugh. “You’re good. What else do you want to tell me?”

  “I’m not sure. I think I have to meet this guy first. You maybe shouldn’t have told me where he was working.” Angel winked. It wasn’t like he’d even be going out of his way. He’d already been planning to hit up the club as soon as it opened. When Aiden was getting more action than him, he needed to get back in the game.

  “I think it’ll be in interesting to hear what you have to say after you meet him.” And that was the truth. Flynn was flirty and funny, but he did wonder if there was something else to him. Angel would probably pick up on it. If there was anything, anyway.

  “Well, I’m planning to hit the club opening night. I was going to go by myself, but you should come with me if your boy’s working. Don’t worry. I’ll make sure he knows we’re just friends. Maybe we’ll even go a little early before he’s too busy.”