9- I Got This

9

I got this

Leonard had never really been in a fight before, not really.

He had plenty of scrapes and scuff ups in high school with other kids, of course.  Those had a tendency to end fast, someone broke it up or someone got hit and started crying… that was about it.  With that in mind it would be hard for Leonard to really say he had been in a true fight, one where someone was trying to hurt you, possibly even kill you, with their hands and feet.

Until now.  He also found it hard to believe that his body would ever let him forget it.  He ached from head to toe.  He was bruised and peppered with small glass cuts.  His only solace was in the fact that he had definitively won the fight, in that he was still alive.  Leo’s opponent, who he suspected might have been the bad guy in Rocky IV, was not so lucky.

Nevertheless as Leo crawled through the glass of the deck and back into the hotel room to his wife, he couldn’t help apologizing each time he touched the dead body.

“He can’t hear you.”  Jo said, using the sarcasm to contain her tears.

“Force of habit.”  Leo muttered as he reached her chair and began to undo the tape that held her to the chair.

“Habit?” She choked.  “How many people have you fought to the death before?”

“I think he should count as five.”  Leo mocked as he freed her.  “So, five.”

She dropped out of the chair and the two embraced desperately, like two people who honestly thought they would never get to touch the other again.

Like two people who loved each other.

****

The 2^nd Date was the winner…

Josephine wondered why she was giving him a second chance.

The first date had been awful and awkward and nothing special.  He had shown up in his ‘best’ outfit which had involved sandals.

A best outfit should never involve sandals.

He had taken her out on a Monday, which was pretty bad in itself but she had let that go because he seemed so eager.  He took her to a movie and then to a small, not so good restaurant in downtown Kent and the conversation had been less than special.  He had picked her up in his junker of a car, which made her wonder the whole time if this was the first date she would have to walk home from.

She had gone to high school with Leonard Deveruax so it had been nearly ten years since she had seen him.   She barely remembered him since they had run in very different circles but, through the endless magic of social media, he had found her.  He asked her out, proclaiming that he had always had a crush on her in high school which seemed more than a little crazy to Jo.

Almost like a stalker.

Jo had decided to give him a chance based on a piece of parental advice to ‘never turn down a free meal’, which was just about all she had gotten out of it.  So, she found herself wondering why she was giving him a second chance now.  As bad as the date was there had been something about him, something that gnawed at the pit of her stomach, something she could not quite put her finger on.

Her curiosity had always been her downfall, this was no different, and she had to get to the bottom of it. What was it about him that had made her say yes to a second date?  She would find out tonight and be done with it.

The doorbell rang and her big, yellow lab began barking like the cranky roommate she was.  Jo made her way to the door and yelled at her dog to stop barking which received a questioning look in return, one that said, “Really a second date?”

She opened the door and Leo smiled, his hand behind his back.  “I hope you don’t mind, I got you something.”

Jo had a momentary flash of man rushing forward, knife in hand, to kill her, skin her, and wear her like a coat.

She shook that off.  “What is it?”

He revealed a big purple potted orchid.

Josephine couldn’t help her smile.  “Wow, how did you know?”

Orchids where one of Jo’s favorite flowers but it wasn’t common knowledge.  She didn’t talk about flowers much.

He shrugged.  “When we were in high school you sat behind me in English.  You mentioned it once to one of your friends who sat next to you and I just…  Well, I hope you still like them.”

Josephine had always been very observant.  She could put the dots together like no one else and was very rarely wrong when she did.  Like some many times before, this one gesture was the piece of the puzzle she needed to put it all together and she understood the feeling in her stomach.  It was a voice telling her that he loved her.

Maybe he was a stalker, maybe it wasn’t a good idea, but she realized right then and there that Leonard Devearuax was different.

****

Barkley looked shocked.  That surprised Liz since Barkley had been on the job for over ten years and had to have seen it all but apparently there was still one thing he had no experience with.  That one thing was the Deveruaxs.

More to the point, what the Deveruaxs had done.  Somehow this chubby married couple who had originally nothing to do with the flash drive or the killing in the lobby had managed to take down a group of highly trained Russian wet work specialists.

Barkley and Liz headed to the wrecked van first and found three of the dead ‘software designers’ inside. They had called it in and made a bee-line for the hotel to find the other two Russians dead inside.  One was filled full of holes, the other impaled on a piece of glass.

“How in the hell,” was all he could mutter to himself.

It was at this point that Leonard, beaten half to a pulp and hugging Josephine noticed to two agents staring at the chaos.  “I got this…” He muttered and Jo turned to see them.

Jo had stifled her tears.  There was concern on her face for how the agents would interpret the scene.  “They held me hostage and tried to kill us.”

“Didn’t work out very well for them, did it?”  Barkley couldn’t help but mutter and Liz gave him a dirty look.

She then turned back to the couple.  “We understand.  It’s over.  There is nothing left to worry about.”

Jo was calmed by Liz’s gentle tone.  Liz could tell they were both suffering shock.  It was to be expected after such a situation.  Liz continued, “I’m going to take a look at Leo, okay?  Let’s get you both into the living room, alright?”

Liz and Jo helped Leo into the other room and onto the couch.  It was about that time that the sheriff’s department arrived in full tilt, at least half the force showed up to the reports of gunfire and violence, the likes of which the city had never seen.

****

Meet the parents…

“You can’t wear that shirt.”  She said as Leo put on a green T-Shirt that said ‘If I tell you I’m Irish will you kiss me?’ In bold letters on the front.

This caused him to stop, mid action with it only over his head.  “I can’t?”

Jo shook her head.  “No, you can’t.”

It was the first meeting of Leo and Jo’s parents and the encounter had significance.  Her family was like any other, they would smile and be nice to Leo and then inform Jo later how terrible he had been.  She needed him to make a good impression and although she had come to terms with his quirkiness, even began to fancy it, her family would not.

“I thought you loved me for who I am?”  Leo countered playfully.

Jo nodded.  “Indeed I do, but my parents just need to love you in general.”  She said as she looked for one of the nicer waffle-knit shirts he kept for rare, special occasions.

“So, when do I get to wear my shirts?” He asked, baiting her.

“How about this, when the occasion is one that you plan, with your friends you can where whatever you want, but when it’s my friends or family you have to leave the novelty shirts at home.”  She laid out the bargain and he took her in his arms and kissed her.

When they parted, she shook her head.  “You’re not kissing your way out of this.  Do we have a deal?”

Leo smirked at her. “Fair enough, but I’m going to wear you down, mark my words.”

Josephine sat in a chair in the corner of the room watching as the EMTs checked Leo out.  They were calling on their radios for a stretcher and a backboard to be brought in to transport him to the local hospital.  Jo thought that was probably a little overkill, seeing as how he was up walking around.  The officer from the Sherriff’s department and the male federal officer were standing over her asking her questions regarding the events that had led up to the gruesome scene that was laid out before them.  She didn’t even know what they were saying.  All she could think about was her husband and how close they had come to losing each other.  She answered the questions in a haze with short, quick answers while her history with Leo played through her mind like a movie.

TO BE CONTINUED.

****