“I’ve just been thinking about the end of everything,” she said quietly, projectŹing a vague note of melancholy. “This will all be over sooner than we think.”
“I keep trying not to consider it,” Terry said honestly. “I’ve enjoyed myself.”
“We certainly have been through a lot together.”
“I think about it all the time,” Will added. “Where everything could’ve gone, what’s next.”
“Do you really? I’m going to miss the entire company,” Brenna said, biting into a sandwich. “We’ve done something special here.”
“It’s just a job, especially now,” Will countered. “Certainly the writers have squandered the real possibilities.”
“What possibilities?”
“Storylines that matter to the social conscience or the science conscience. For crying out loud, we’re a science fiction program. Where’s the ‘out there’ stories? Instead we get”
“We have social commentaries,” Brenna interrupted. “That’s the whole premise behind changing history.”
“Today’s issues are so much more personal cultural but impacting on the individual,” Will insisted.
“What are you talking about?”
“Situational ethics; conservative, liberal; inclusion, exclusion; love’s many forms.”
Brenna frowned. “We’re not West Wing”
“No. With our science-fiction setting, we could be a lot less threatening than something like that.”
“Is that what you would suggest to Cameron or Victor?”
Will shook his head. “No, I didn’t suggest a political storyline.”
“What did you suggest?” she prodded pointedly.
“Some changes.”
“What would piss Cameron off so much?” Brenna asked. “I…overheard him talking with Victor.”
Terry looked askance at Will.
“I thought a scene we’re doing could use a little emotional punch.”
“That doesn’t sound so bad,” Brenna said.
“Cameron didn’t like it. But don’t worry, I have other ideas.” He tapped her
plate. “You should get back to eating. Don’t you have more shooting?”
Realizing he wasn’t going to share anything further, Brenna returned her attenŹtion to her meal. She only vaguely heard the cafeteria doors open. A prickling sensaŹtion caused her to straighten and rub the back of her neck, drawing her gaze toward the doors.
Stepping in with Cameron at her side and out of costume, Cassidy entered the cafeteria. The blonde’s hair was loose against her sweatshirt-covered shoulders. Brenna noted the college logo University of Missouri. Light eyes swept the room and found hers, the smooth chin dipping in acknowledgment. She nodded in return greeting. Terry turned to observe where she was looking.
Cassidy took a couple of steps toward them before Cameron’s hand on her arm stopped her. The two then turned into the buffet line, collecting up trays and utenŹsils.
“Looks like she’s done for the day,” Will observed.
“It’ll give her a chance to get home and see Ryan before bed,” Brenna comŹmented idly. She lifted a hand and gestured the two toward the table as the cashier handed them their change. Her gaze continued to follow the tall woman as Cassidy smiled and sat down in the chair to her left. “Going home?” Brenna asked.
“After this.” Cassidy nodded to both men across the table. “Terry. Will.” CamŹeron settled next to her. She shifted toward Brenna to make room at the table that normally seated only four. Their hips touched. Brenna inhaled sharply, drawing Cassidy’s eyes to her face. “How much longer do you have?”
“I should make it out of here by nine,” Brenna guessed, “if everything goes according to schedule.”
Cameron leaned forward, looking around Cassidy toward Brenna. “Shooting going well?” He directed his inquiry to Brenna as well as Terry and Will.
Terry replied with a brief nod, “The usual.”
“That’s great.” He looked at his food, then up at Cassidy for a moment.
Cassidy addressed Terry. “Aren’t you going to the Vegas convention this weekŹend?”
“Yes. So’s Brenna.”
Brenna met Cassidy’s questioning look. “We’re flying out together. Friday night.”
“What are you planning to do with Thomas and James?”
Brenna shrugged. “I’m going to give them a chance to spend the weekend alone. They asked for it.”
“Did you set down the rules yet?” Cassidy teased.
“That’s planned for tomorrow.” Brenna chuckled. The two women shared an understanding grin that excluded the men, something they knew strictly one mother to another.
In the brief silence that saw everyone return to eating, Will and Terry exchanged nods that made Brenna uneasy. “Well,” she said, standing and briefly dropping her hand over Cassidy’s to draw the other woman’s attention. “I have to get back. Have a good night.”
“Take care,” Cassidy replied.
The look they exchanged warmed Brenna, reminding her of Cassidy’s concern in her trailer earlier. She nodded at the others, then discarded her tray and left the cafeteria, very aware of blue eyes on her back.
Chapter 17
Adventurously, Ryan hauled himself around a wood-and-steel frame jungle gym on the north side of Constance Park. Ranger leaped beneath him, barking enthusiastically.
“So, things are going well?”
Cassidy tore her watchful gaze from her son to meet the hazel green eyes of her ex-husband. “Yeah.” They sat together on a gray steel bench set in the sand nearby. Her eyes swept his frame, realizing he had not changed much in the year since their divorce. He was still the physical fitness hound she had met at a beach bar when she first arrived in Los Angeles. Most people would never think he was a paper-pusher for one of the largest investment firms on the West Coast. His eyes settled on her, as if questioning her answer. “And Ryan likes the neighborhood,” she added.
Mitch nodded and pressed his hands against the seat, flexing his arms. He released the tension and sat back again. “You and that writer fellow still getting along?”
Cassidy hesitated, surprised to hear her ex-husband talk of Cameron when he had been adamant that the man’s name never be mentioned in his presence. Trying to hide her hesitation and cover her surprise, she added quickly, “It’s been busy lately, with lots of stuff to do as the series closes down.”
“Really? Not seeing much of each other?” Mitch crossed his arms over his chest and nodded toward the playground. “So when you do get together, you get sideŹtracked? Is that how you lost track of Ryan in the store?”
“Cameron was not at the store.” Cassidy shook her head and set her jaw. Okay, so we’re finally going to get to it. The few pleasantries they had exchanged on the walk out from the car had just been a lull. She squared her shoulders and wished Brenna was there. She envisioned the compact woman as she had confronted the nosy reporter at Sports Warehouse. She smiled at the memory and then asked the quesŹtion that had been bothering her. “How did you hear about it?”
“You remember Booker?” Cassidy nodded, recalling Mitch’s college roommate. He had spent a lot of time in their home while Cassidy and Mitch were married. “He caught the newscast. Thought I should know.” He flexed his shoulders, and Cassidy moved a few inches away on the bench. He grasped her right wrist. “I should’ve heard it from you.”
Cassidy shook her hand from his grasp. “Nothing happened!”
“A hell of a lot could’ve happened. What if he’d been kidnapped or really fallen down that compactor?”
Cassidy winced. She had envisioned many horrifying scenarios, only holding the inner demons at bay with Brenna’s help. Brenna had been so convincing that it was just a minor mishap; her faith had held Cassidy’s world together. She nodded toward the play equipment. “Ryan is fine. He’s the first thing I think about every day.”
The green eyes searched her face. “Are you going to
take up another project when you finish Time Trails?”
“Something will come up.”
“Can you really provide for him the way he deserves?”
“We settled this in the court hearing. I’m not giving Ryan to you. He needs his
mother, not a nanny.”
Mitch shook his head. “When you don’t know where your next gig is? So what happens in a year when you’re yesterday’s news?”
Cassidy exploded. “If there’s anything useful I learned from you, it was investŹing. I’m doing fine. Better now that I don’t have to deal with hospital bills,” she replied scornfully.
Mitch’s eyes darkened dangerously. She eased away a cautious foot or so but held his gaze.
“I’ll take you to court again. Ryan is mine”
Cassidy wasn’t cowed. “I won’t give him up.”
His voice dropped as he stood up. “I intend to get him eventually.”
Over my dead body, she thought, but she wisely didn’t say it. She had once. The results had been three weeks on crutches. Cassidy felt his big frame towering over her five-feet-eight inches like a boom about to fall from set rigging. She watched his eyes go dark and started to take a step backward, then realized that was exactly what he wanted he was feeding on her fear. “I won’t come back to you, Mitch. It’s over. Resolutely she shook herself and started to her feet.
He grabbed her arm, coming to his feet as well. “It’s never going to be over. We will always have Ryan,” he shot back. “I will always have a place in your life. The minute you’re nobody, you’re both mine again,” Mitch challenged. “All I gotta do is wait, and you’ll crawl back.” He stepped back, relaxing out of the menacing stance and chuckling at her wide eyes. “I see I’ve made my point.”
Cassidy swallowed, consciously slowed her heart rate, and licked her suddenly dry lips. “You’ve made your point.”
She caught movement out of the corner of her eye and looked toward a jogger moving past their location. The line of Mitch’s shoulders softened further as the jogŹger gave them a curious glance. Gaining several steps away from her ex-husband, Cassidy crossed the path and searched the jungle gym. “Ryan!” she called, finding him hanging upside down on the monkey bars, knees bent around the crossbeam. “Hey, buddy, are you ready for some lunch?”
“Is Daddy coming with us?” Ryan asked. He rolled himself over and, while his mother reached out to spot him, dropped to the ground.
Mitch strode up behind Cassidy as she dusted Ryan’s pants free of sand. “AbsoŹlutely, wouldn’t think to miss it. Do you want hot dogs and ice cream?”
“Ice cream! Yay!” Ryan sprang past his mother and leaped into his father’s outŹstretched arms. Green eyes shot her an unmistakable message over Ryan’s head: I got him.
With a shaky hand, she patted Ryan’s back and encouraged him to get down and walk between them. Ryan reached out and grasped one parent’s hand in each of his own, looking up at them as they exchanged looks with him and with each other.
“Lunch!” he yelled happily, skipping briskly and gleefully dragging his parents along.
Cassidy’s heart skipped several beats. She held on as firmly as she dared withŹout hurting Ryan or letting Mitch’s grip take him from her.
The cacophony that met their entrance made Brenna jump a little as she and Terry Brown were announced onto the stage at the Vegas convention. The two were in street clothes. Terry wore a black tee shirt with the show’s tagline, “All time stops here”, and a pair of blue denim pants. Brenna had opted for black slacks and a hunter
green silk blouse, very different from the black jumpsuit uniform with purple armŹbands she regularly wore on the set. The convention hall was packed, standing room only, and the two actors were the center of attention.
Terry took the microphone from the emcee and passed it to Brenna. She grinned as a bouquet of roses was thrust up from the foot of the stage, and she bent over to accept them. On the other side of the bouquet, she found the face of a boy who looked to be about twelve. He flushed bright red when she passed a kiss to his cheek with her fingers before taking the roses with a mic-enhanced, “Thank you.” She straightened to more cheers and stepped back, handing over the microphone to let Terry speak first.
“It’s great to be here,” he said. “Just caught a vortex for a short stay. You know how much our commander likes tunnel travel.”
That raised a laugh, and Brenna grinned, then put her hands on her hips in her favorite Jakes pose and gave Terry a glare. “Creighton should be careful. He might just find himself dropped in The Lost World instead of the tunnel home,” she joked to applause.
They hugged, and Terry gave her a kiss on the cheek. He stepped back and gesŹtured at the audience. The emcee waved at them from what was now the front of the question line, a queue of hopefuls who had questions at the ready for them. “Looks like it’s time for questions.”
First up was a girl with a round face, big blue eyes, and tied-back blond hair. She asked Commander Jakes if she missed her mom because she traveled so much.
With a reassuring smile, Brenna said, “Someday I hope to get everything just right and see her again.” She nodded to the mother who patted her daughter on the shoulder before drawing her away from the line. For the benefit of the rest of the audience, Brenna added, “Changing official time has left me very little personal time.” There was a roll of knowing laughter, and she stepped back, watching the next questioner come forward.
Terry answered a question about why he didn’t take the second spot when Chapman’s character Raycreek had mutinied in an episode two years earlier. “You want me to face off with her?” He hooked a thumb toward Brenna. “I don’t have a death wish. She’s tough.”
“Is Commander Jakes going to find a new romance?”
Brenna answered lightly. “Isn’t she still smarting over Raycreek?” she asked. Two years ago while she was briefly involved with Chapman, they had taken it onŹscreen for a few episodes. The storyline had sizzled, then fizzled. The arc that brought Cassidy in, in the spring of 1999, had fractured the team, ending the relaŹtionship both on-and off-screen. Brenna had married Kevin just four months later.
Turning more serious, she asked, “Besides, who else is there?”
A cacophony of suggestions rose up. She heard several people suggest she give Raycreek another chance. Nope, she thought. That boat has sailed. She raised her eyebrow in shock at Terry when his character, Creighton, was suggested. “But he’s married!”
“So what?” someone shouted back. “Maybe you’d rather she get with Hanssen?”
That rattled Brenna. Where would they get that idea? Susan in love with Chris? What will these fans think of next?
“I think maybe Jakes is just a little busy running from crisis to crisis to settle down,” she responded finally. How about that? She covered her eyes. Factions of the audience began arguing among themselves.
Searching for serenity, she pictured Cassidy, out of costume, the blonde’s hair
loose around her cheeks, and her face filled with the concerned expression she’d worn when she Inadvertently overheard Brenna’s conversation with her husband.
That brought to mind Mitch, Cassidy’s ex-husband. She wondered how the woman’s meeting in the park had gone. Distracted, Brenna did not focus on the next scvcral questions addressed to her. She only hoped the answers she gave made some kind of sense.
Finally the organizers brought the audience under control. There were more questions asking for spoilers. They didn’t have information themselves, so Terry and Brenna truthfully shrugged. “Your guess is as good as ours. Maybe better.” Before long, Brenna and Terry were taking their last questions to repeated standing ovalions.
When they were motioned off, Terry and Brenna stepped into the wings. InhalŹing and exhaling to dispel her tensions, Brenna looked up at a pat on the shoulder from Liza Garnet. She played one of the big-wig types on the show, returning from lime to time with dire pronouncements about th
e future of the Time Squad. The dark eyes smiled back. “Don’t let ‘em shake you. Remember, it’s just a role.”
Terry’s hand on her shoulder drew Brenna’s attention away as Liza walked out on stage to thunderous applause. “What did I say?” Brenna asked him. “Was it bad?” Maybe I was more disconnected than I thought.
“Not bad at all,” Terry said without elaborating. “Come on. Let me take you to dinner.”
Brenna frowned but nodded. “All right.”
They entered the elevator and slipped up to their adjoining rooms. Brenna washed up but decided against changing. Terry knocked a few minutes later and preŹsented himself in a black leather jacket pulled over a yellow polo shirt and black slacks. She reached over and grabbed her own soft black leather jacket and stepped into the corridor, locking her door behind herself and tucking the key card into her purse. “Ready?”
“Ready,” he said, offering her an elbow. “What are you interested in?”
Brenna considered that. “How about something fun? Fondue?”
He laughed. “Messy. I like it.”
Contemplating the cheese melts and the bits of beef, an indulgence she rarely allowed herself, Brenna led the way out to the curb and hailed a cab.
“I’ve never seen anything like it,” Brenna praised, lifting a forkful of sizzling steak from the boiling oil. Dipping it in a bowl of spicy steak sauce, she let the excess drip before popping it in her mouth. She regarded Terry across the table. “You can do scary really well. Cassidy was shaking.”
“I had a chance to play Jack the Ripper on stage two years ago during the hiaŹtus. Enjoyed it,” he said with a smile, dipping a chicken strip in a bechamel sauce. “You’ve got a theater background, too, but you haven’t done anything on the breaks. Why not?”
“Between spending time here and in Mount Clemens, my boys’ schedules, and trying to hold it all together, who has time?”
“Would you be interested if there was, say, a local playhouse production to do?”
“How local?”
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