Chapter 8

CHAPTER 8


“You are one cocky son of a bitch! Did you know that?” Kate was fuming.
“I really don’t think my cockiness should enter into anything! What about the guns that were loaded with actual bullets? Who fell down on that job?”
Kate and Jon were in Jon’s front room arguing over the events of the last hour. They were both pacing back and forth in the small open square in the center of the room surrounded by a couch, 2 chairs, and a piano.
“The kid was carrying a loaded weapon! She was a split second away from blowing her head off!”
“And who was it that stopped that? Hmm. Who was that? I’m curious? “
“You may have stopped that! You are correct!”
“May have stopped that? May have stopped that?”
“But you didn’t follow directions, did you? It’s quite possible that that situation wouldn’t have happened if you would have just followed the goddamn directions that I gave you!”
“Oh, you gave me directions?”
“Yes, I gave you directions! I said that at some point in the meeting to slip in the part about secrecy. At some point! At some point, Jon!” As Kate was repeating herself, Jon started repeating the words ‘at some point’ along with her. “I did not say to just go in there and be a cocky little asshole like you had all the answers in the world and accuse him outright!”
“What does it matter how I did it? It was a training mission, Kate! It was a training mission! It was all an act anyway until real bullets were brought in!”
“You didn’t even know about the real bullets until after it was all over!”
Jon shook his head and threw his hands up in the air. “Who cares if I knew about them right away or not? I thought they were live bullets from the beginning! I didn’t know they were blanks until after I found out that it was a training exercise, and then I found out that they were real! Kind’ve like a large vicious circle!”
“Well, who cares about your vicious circle? Cynthia had an earpiece and could hear that you were already accusing her husband so she hurried faster than she probably should have to get back out to the table! If you hadn’t played Mister Big Cock Cowboy, maybe the incident wouldn’t have been so bad!”
“Look, we’re going around in circles here!”
“Are they vicious circles?” Kate mocked.
“May I just get a few words in edgewise?”
Jon could tell Kate was biting her cheek and pursing her lips just waiting for him to say the wrong thing.
“I have two major questions, here. May I ask them?” Jon asked, angry, but cautious, knowing that Kate was ready to pounce.
“Shoot.”
“Try not to use that phrase, please.” Kate glowered at him. Jon held up his hands as if in apology. “Sorry.” Kate backed off and sat on the couch.
“First,” Jon continued, “what was up with the guns?” Jon paused. He realized that Kate was ready for him to just tear into a rampage. “That was not rhetorical.”
“Those were guns that came out of The Agency’s gun cabinet. They all have a little piece of blue tape on them indicating that they should all be blank cartridges. Whoever filled them last is the one responsible.”
“Shouldn’t that be something to look into?”
“Walter assured me that he would.”
“Is he a paperwork kind of a guy? Will he research it?”
“Yes he will. Next question?”
“What is up Richard and Judith’s-“
“Cynthia’s.” Kate corrected.
“-Cynthia’s parenting skills? Why would you let your seven year old daughter watch you tape a gun to a toilet bowl and then leave her alone in the restroom whether the gun was filled with blanks or not? Doesn’t that seem just a little on this side of child endangerment to you?”
“I’m sure she thought that Alex was right behind her.”
“I’m sure she might have at one point! But what was she doing letting her daughter see that she had a gun in the first place? Doesn’t this strike you as bad parenting? Why is there even a husband and wife team working together at the Agency? Let alone on the same assignment? Let alone with their own kid?”
“Married couples comprise a very important kind of team at the Agency. There is a certain level of trust there that is more than ever comes with just arbitrarily assigned partners!”
“Okay, so they can trust and rely on each other more than just partners can, but why drag the kids into it? Was she even supposed to be there or was that another screwing of the pooch by The Agency today?”
“She was supposed to be there today, Jon. It was supposed to be a nice, happy family setting to show that he had gone and become a family man!”
“So, do all married couples bring their kids along on assignments?”
“Are you kidding me, Jon? Of course not! Just in this situation-“
“Where the kid almost got killed!”
“Okay, so that was a mistake! Are you happy? I’m admitting that it was a mistake!” Kate stood up again to defend her position.
“So, this wife of a married couple of Agents brings their kid along, right? It’s supposed to be a training mission. She lets her daughter watch her bring a gun to a restaurant and leave it in the restroom and then leaves without her daughter? Come on, Kate! She sat down! She didn’t just walk out of the bathroom without her daughter; she went to the table and sat down! Wouldn’t you think that after a few moments of sitting at the table she would realize that her daughter was missing?”
“Here’s where we go back to you being a cocky son of a bitch!”
“Fine! Let’s hear it!”
“If you hadn’t have accused Richard so damn soon, she wouldn’t have had to go into her role quite as quickly!”
“And now, here we go to another one of my points!”
“Shoot!”
“That’s exactly it! If the scenario had played out like it was supposed to, I would be shot, killed and dead at this precise moment! Richard would have come out of the bathroom, Godfathered me, if he was following the film precisely, shot me in the head with very little chance of my survival and been shocked as hell when I was dead and started bleeding! Jesus Christ, Kate, don’t you get it? The situation was very close to being deadly on so many accounts; it’s not funny! And this was a set up training situation? Maybe someone should look into the training program because right now- it sucks! It’s a wonder you have any Agents at all! I’m surprised anybody makes it through a year as an Agent, let alone training, without being wheeled out in a body bag!”
Kate took Jon’s last point like a punch in the stomach. She almost visibly winced and sat down in one of the recliners this time. It took a moment for her to get her voice back. “Okay, so the last couple of days have been rough,” Kate acquiesced.
“Rough? I’ve been kidnapped by a couple of goons from school, shot by a tranquilizer dart, almost shot and killed, stopped a seven year old from blowing her brains out and you call that a little rough?”
“Does challenging work better for your semantical argument?”
“Challenging? I don’t care about the semantics of it! I want to know that if I join the Agency that I won’t be killed by any stupid goof ups at the office! I need to know that I have a team that will back me up, and go to great lengths from making sure that I don’t get killed! That’s what I want!”
Kate was silent. Jon could see her eyes welling up. He took a step over to her.
“We made mistakes, okay?” She lashed out. Jon went back to his standing position. “We made mistakes. Nobody’s perfect! You have taken shit situations and turned them into sunny days! You made one real mistake. You shot Chad Peterson, but he’s doing fine. He was more of collateral damage than a mistake, truth be told. You’ve saved many lives. What do you want me to say? I’m sorry? That doesn’t quite seem to do it, Jon. You’ve only known about the Agency for a little over 24 hours and you’ve already saved at least thirty lives, probably more! Who knows what would have happened if the Suicide Squad of Stanley’s had made it up those stairs? Your life, probably several of the Agency’s diner’s agents lives.
“You have done great! We wanted you because we knew that you didn’t give in to authority figures easily. Hell, your feud with Mrs. Perry proves that. We wanted you because you think fast on your feet. We wanted you because you are a cocky little son of a bitch, in the best possible way. We wanted you because you don’t let fear get in your way. You let it help you and push you through the situation. You’re going to do great here, but you gotta trust us. You have to trust us that we will be there for you. You have to trust us, even if we haven’t done a good job yet, that we are here to protect you, the nation, the citizens, everyone! You don’t know us very well, so if it’s hard trusting us because of our mistakes at the beginning, maybe it’ll help if you know that we trust you.”
“I’m sure that you trust me, and I’m sure that you all try hard, but what assurance do I have that I will be safe?”
“We will not allow you to fail. We have recruited you so that you will succeed.” She paused. “ I won’t allow you to die. If I would have known that there was a problem today, I would’ve forced you to get back and I would have handled the disarming of Alex. I won’t allow you to fail.”
Jon shrugged off her sincerity. “But what assurance do I have?”
Kate looked up at him and looked deep into his eyes. “My word. You have my word.”
With the solemnity and determination in her voice, Jon knew that that was going to be enough. He nodded. “You got me, Kate. You got me. How do I sign up to be the next Agent?”
Kate stood up and walked over to him. She threw her arms around him and gave him a big hug. “Welcome to the Agency, Jon Mills!”
This was a different type of hug than she had given him in the stairwell. Jon had never been hugged this tightly by someone who was not directly related to him, so he was a little taken aback. He was amazed at how good her hair smelled, even after being in a diner for an hour this morning. He could feel a little wetness on his neck. He assumed it was from the tears that were now surely falling out of her blue eyes. Kate’s breath was warm and moist on the back of his neck. Jon got the chills and his hairs stood up on the back of his neck. He could feel her chest rising and falling as she cried silently. As her chest moved, he was able to feel her breasts against his body. It was a strange feeling. Not at all like he had imagined them to feel. Just this thought caused his face to get hot and red with embarrassment.
Jon had no idea of how to respond to this display. If he hugged her back, would she get the wrong impression? If he didn’t hug her, would she think that he was being an asshole? If he hugged her, did it mean that the teacher student relationship would take on a new meaning? If he didn’t hug her, would she think that he thought she was repulsive and weak for crying?
Should he kiss her? Is a kiss alright just to help someone calm down? Is a kiss always romantic? No, it's not always romantic, Jon reasoned. Parents kiss their kids and if it's romantic they get arrested. Or should. Is a romantic kiss different than an unromantic kiss? Is an unromantic kiss different than a kiss used for comfort? No, he decided. There were way too many problems with the kissing scenario, but the hugging- that was something he could do.
His arms went up to her back and he gave her a quick squeeze. He needed a way out of this awkward predicament. He tried humor. .“Where are the forms to fill out?”
Kate gave a small laugh and then sniffed. Jon was right. She had been crying. He dropped his arms to her waist. She still had a tight hold around his waist, but she leaned back to look at him again. Her eyes were very red and puffy. Her smiling lips still quivered with the end of her crying. Jon instantly regretted how hard he had been on her. “Kate-“ he started.
Just then, they heard a key in the front door. Kate stepped away from Jon and Jon used this chance to get as far away from Kate’s body as he could. The front door opened and Stan and Greg walked in. They started up the stairs of the split-level house and grabbed onto the black wrought iron railing as they looked into the front room. Kate and Jon were separated, but Jon’s friends had already noticed that there was still a sort of an interrupted intimate feeling that was hanging in the room. Their eyes fell immediately upon the major oddity in the room. A girl- a woman, actually, alone in the house with Jon as his parents were out of town.
“Jon?” Stan asked.
“Hi, guys! What’s up?” Jon asked non-chalantly.
“Let me guess, bud,” Greg quipped, “the dream is always the same?”
“We should ask you the same thing!” Stan said.
“I bet I know what’s up, Jon!” Greg continued his mini stand up routine.
Kate wiped her eyes with the back of her hand. “Thanks, Jon. I need to get going. I knew you would feel my pain at the fact that they actually made Howard the Duck.”
Stan was standing at the top of the stairs with Greg behind right behind him. “Aleisha wanted to come with us, Jon,” Stan warned. “Good thing she didn’t, huh?” Stan shook his head as he blocked Kate’s exit. “You move pretty fast. One moment you know nothing about women, the next day you get a date with Aleisha and have a little make out session with an older woman while your parents are away.”
Jon could feel his temper raise. “How dare you make those accusations, Stan? How dare you? You know nothing about what has happened the last two days!”
“I may not know exactly, but I know that she-“ he said the word she harshly and spit just slightly on Kate’s face, “has something to do with it.”
“Let her go, Stan. Let her walk down the stairs and leave. She has nothing to do with whatever you are angry at.”
Greg, after spending the last twenty seconds like a deer in headlights, came back to his senses and touched Stan’s arm to move it away from the railing. Stan shook him off.
“Stan, come on.” Greg was trying to talk his friend down.
“What are you doing, Stan?” Jon asked. “I’ve known you since we were in second grade. I have never known you to act like this.”
“Me? Act like this? I’ve known you to throw attitude, Mr. Mills! Now it’s my turn!”
“Don’t do this, Stan.” Jon warned. “Walk away. I can’t explain it, but you have to trust me.”
Stan advanced on Kate. “You were driven out of the school parking lot yesterday, Jon! We were scared to death for you! You disappeared and we had no explanation! You come to school this morning with some dumbass story that you were at the police station and got attacked by some guy who was embezzling funds from the drama club or something? What the hell kind of a story is that?”
Stan was slowly backing Kate into the kitchen. Greg was still back on the stairs. Jon was keeping a safe distance but watching every movement made and listening to every word and sound. Jon could tell that Stan was getting angrier, and he could tell that Kate was feeling threatened and was getting ready to take Stan out the equation.
“Kate!” Jon warned.
She looked over. Jon was patting the air and shaking his head as if to say to let it go. Kate arched her eyebrows. ‘Are you sure?’ she seemed to ask. Jon nodded.
“You didn’t go to the police station for that, did you, Jon?” Stan was talking to Jon but was staring at Kate.
“You’re right, Stan. I didn’t go to the police station for that.”
“This morning, you were obviously not in your right mind as you play that piece of music in one minute flat. It was pretty amazing, but something wasn’t right. I assumed you were thinking about Aleisha. Then, we see you being pulled out of school again for the second day in a row by her!”
“Actually, I didn’t meet her until an hour or so after I got taken out of school yesterday.”
“It doesn’t matter! I’ve been your friend for ten years and I won’t let you throw your life away on her! You’ve had a crush on Aleisha for far too long! Your parents trust you way too much! You’re too good of a guy to let her seduce you away from your friends and family who care about you!”
Kate couldn’t hold back any longer. “Seduce?”
Jon motioned again for her to cool off.
“Seduce?” Kate repeated. “I can’t tell you what’s been going on the last two days, Stan, but I can tell you it’s not what you’re thinking.”
“Then what is it?”
Kate narrowed her eyes and moved her face toward Stan. “Are you deaf? I just said that I couldn’t tell you.”
“If you’re not taking advantage of my friend, then what did we just interrupt? Why does it need to be kept secret?”
“There are things other than sex that need to be kept quiet.”
“Are you a thief of some sort?”
Kate snorted at the accusation. “Nope.”
“A private instructor? Aikido? Feng Shui? Line dancing?”
“Not even close.”
“Then what? What are you doing to my friend? He showed up hurt today! If you had anything to do with that, you’ll wish you had never met him!” He raised his hands up.
Jon could tell that he was not threatening her just talking with his hands, like Jon was very apt to do. But Stan had put Kate into a corner. Kate gave one last tilted head glance at Jon. Jon shook his head. Kate nodded and Jon knew that was the end of the discussion.
Kate grabbed both of Stan’s hands by the wrists. She brought her knee up into Stan’s groin and then crossed her own hands, which tied up Stan’s arms. She pulled as hard as she could on Stan’s wrists and bent him in half. Kate’s knee then connected with his face. She then whipped his arms apart and flung him to the ground on his back while doing so. She dropped to one knee and hit Stan in the chest with her elbow. He didn’t move.
Jon and Greg stood silently, barely breathing.
“Don’t worry,” Kate assured them as she stood up. “He’s knocked unconscious, not dead. He’ll be hurting when he wakes up in about twenty minutes, but he’ll be okay. Just remind him never to try that with me again.”
Jon walked over to Kate. “He didn’t mean to, Kate. He was just scared.”
Kate smiled. “I know. He’s a good friend. He was just protecting you, but I was just protecting myself. I can’t wait around any longer. I need to go back to the office. Apologize to him for me when he wakes up, will you?”
Kate patted Jon on the shoulder, limped down the stairs as if nothing had happened and out the door. Greg had given her plenty of leeway.
Jon felt as if his life had just been hit by a whirlwind for the millionth time in two days.
“Who was that woman?” Greg finally asked.
Jon smiled. “That was Kate Thompson. She’s a friend.” He recognized Greg’s incredulous look. “She’s a friend. Trust me.”
It took almost an hour for Stan to regain consciousness. In the intervening time, Jon and Greg had talked very unspecifically about the last two days while playing a game of 9- tile Scrabble. Greg had won by thirty-three points. Jon was slightly upset because Greg had built up from an ‘S’ on the outermost line of the board to hit the triple word score with the word excavate. As they were cleaning up the mess, Stan started moaning and moving. Jon left the rest of the game cleanup to Greg while he went and got a bag of ice for Stan.
Stan sat up in the middle of the kitchen and held his head with his right hand His left hand went down to his groin.
“Hey, man,” Jon sat next to him on the floor. ”How you feeling?”
Stan opened and closed his mouth several times. His right hand went to his jaw and then to his chest. “Been better.” Jon and Greg exchanged slightly amused grins. “What happened?”
Jon gave his friend the icepack. “You picked the wrong woman to mess with.”
Stan winced as the ice touched his jaw. “Obviously.”
The only sound for a while was Greg putting the game box back into its place in the game closet. He then joined his other two friends.
Jon broke the silence. “I honestly want to thank you, Stan. You stuck up for me. I appreciate that. I really do. You tried to stop me from making a big mistake.” He tenderly put his hand on Stan’s shoulder. “You were right. It probably didn’t look very good when you guys came in. And I know you’ve been worried and concerned about me. I know my cover story for yesterday sucked. But I promise. Everything is okay. I did get hurt yesterday and today has already been a hell of a day, but, all things considered, I’m okay.”
Stan looked at Jon. “Has she hurt you?”
Jon smiled and shook his head. “No.”
“Have you and she, you know-?”
Jon smiled bigger and shook his head more vigorously. “No, we haven’t had sexual relations if that’s what you’re asking. I will say that we have been very closely involved while working on things that she needed my help on, but nothing quite that close.” Jon emphasized the word ‘that’. “I will admit that she is a very striking woman, to put it mildly, but that I will be true to Aleisha, who I have yet to date. Can you still be monogamous to someone you haven’t dated yet?”
Greg piped in with his two cents. “I think so. As long as you do what you feel is right, I think the rest is just words.”
Another silence while Stan nursed his wounds. Again, Jon took the initiative. “I really wish I could tell you guys what’s going on, but just trust me that it’s nothing bad or illegal. Kate is a good, honorable person. In her line of work, she asked for my help and I have obliged.”
Stan again looked at Jon with slightly narrowed eyes. “She’s not an escort, is she?”
Jon gave a grinning glower and gave Stan a friendly tap on the shoulder. Stan winced. “Sorry.”
Greg stood up and went to the phone. “It’s just past noon. Anybody want pizza?”
Jon stood up. “Count me in. My parents are buying!”
“Right on!” Stan said from the floor as he slouched back down into a prone position and put the icebag on his crotch.
“Get two extra large combo pizzas, Greg!” Jon called out from his parent’s room as he retrieved the seventy dollars from his dad’s drawer.
“No, no, no!” Greg countered. “I don’t like green peppers! They give me heartburn!”
Jon re-entered the kitchen. “You old man!” he chided. “Fine. One extra large combo, one extra large carnivore combo.”
“That works!” Greg smiled as he dialed the number.
Stan stood up slowly and wobbled slightly as he gripped the kitchen counter for support. “Why do you get heartburn from green peppers and not from sausage, bacon, and pepperoni?”
“My stomach doesn’t like rabbit food?” Greg answered as his attention went to the other end, which had clearly been picked up.
Jon walked over to Stan. “You sure you’re okay?”
“She walloped me good.”
Jon grinned. “Yes, she most certainly did.”
“Are you sure you’re okay?” Stan asked Jon.
Jon thought for a minute and slowly nodded his head. “Yes. I’ve never been better in my life.” He looked at Stan. “Not when I have such good friends who look out for me”
Jon knew that Stan would regret his encounter with Kate when he had to go to basketball practice in just a few short hours.