[NRPG : Okay folks, here's the second collaboration between Sydnie and myself. Time to take a break from the mess Rebecca Cross wreaked.
- Sydnie McElroy (how does she juggle all those RPG personas?) Jeff Uribe (I should start another character here.)
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[Zenya's apartment, morning]
Zenya woke suddenly, trying desperately to cling to the fading images of a bizarre nightmare in which she had been a helpless observer of a life-or-death chess match being played by two invisible opposing forces. As the pieces, nondescript at first, disappeared one by one from the board, she had recognized them. An early sacrifice of the black queen which had represented her mother - there must be some sort of symbolism in that, she thought - had left the other side vulnerable and in short order, two little pawns - Boris and Irya - vanished. The black knight, her father, was the next to fall. And then others, some she recognized, others just images her mind made up to torment her. Vanessa's fiancee was among them, as was Jim's young friend Barney and Leo's wife and daughter. Finally, there were just a handful of pieces left and a disembodied voice taunting her for her inability to do anything about it. As she woke up, the white knight was about to vanish. She didn't need to see a face to know who it was.
It was just an irrational nightmare, but it left her with an uneasy feeling that was not going to go away quickly. Her first thought upon waking was to call Leo, just to make sure he was all right. The phone was already in her hand and half-dialed before she remembered that his apartment had been destroyed. She tried his cell phone number and got a busy signal, which was just as well, because what would she have said if he answered? "I had a bad dream and you were in it."?
She laughed quietly at herself, turned on the radio next to the bed and fell back against the pillows. She had been awake most of the night, reading to try to keep her mind off everything that had happened. It had seemed like a good strategy, but her subconscious had made her pay for it. That was all it was. Just a silly dream that didn't mean anything.
Closing her eyes, she decided to try to get a few more minutes of sleep. As soon as she did, a picture flashed in front of her eyes - the one from the bookshelf in Leo's apartment. She wondered if anything had survived the fire or if he'd lost that link to the past, too.
Damn that little bitch Rebecca, she thought. And Docker, too, for that matter. Wouldn't they make a cute couple? Zenya sat up and burst out laughing, although she wasn't sure why it was so funny. They would probably wind up killing each other, which would be a cause for celebration on many fronts. Either that or they would rule the world and throw civilization into utter chaos. It was probably one of the signs of impending apocalypse.
With a sigh, she got up. Might as well get the day started.
*****
[Leo's Apartment, later]
Zenya slowly made her way to what was left of Leo's old apartment, her mind whirled over the events of the past few days. As she got closer, she saw that his door was slightly open and there were noises coming from within. Drawing her weapon from her purse, she stepped silently to the semi-open door, being extremely cautious since the noises within had stopped. Slowly nudging the door open with her gun, she looked into the charred remnants of Leo's old apartment, as well as Leo in a crouched position with his gun pointed directly at her.
Zenya gave a little laugh as she put her gun away. "Leo, didn't expect to find you here."
"Same here." Leo replied, reholstering his automatic. "I came back to see if there was anything I could salvage."
"Where'd you sleep last night?" Zenya asked as she made her way into what was left of Leo's kitchen.
Leo moved the burnt remains of his sofa and looked what was behind it. "I kept the old apartment where Jenn and I first lived in on lease all this time. I crashed there last night. My friend at Ops has already found me another place to live a few blocks away from JEH." he said as he lifted up the one picture of himself and his former family that somehow survived the inferno that raged through his apartment.
Zenya stepped up behind and looked at the picture over Leo's shoulder. "Looks like that was the only thing that survived."
"Yeah." Leo said in a faraway voice. "I guess it is."
After a moment of silence, Leo turned towards Zenya with a mischievous smile on his face.
"What?" Zenya asked, taking a step away from Leo.
Leo laughed at Zenya's reaction and shook his head. "Don't worry, I haven't gone insane. I was just going to ask if you wanted to join me on an overnight trip at my former trainer's ranch."
Zenya pondered this for a moment, "Former trainer? Who did you have at Station X?"
"Richard Corrigan." Leo answered. "We became close friends during my stint there and, well, I promised his children that I'd visit and go horseback riding with them after this fiasco with Rebecca Cross was over."
"Mmmm... I don't know." Zenya pondered.
"It'll be quiet, peaceful, no city sounds." Leo coaxed. "Fireplace, 2 guest bedrooms, horses ..." his voice trailed off as he started to run out of ideas. After thinking for a while, Leo frowned, suddenly remembering about Valery. "I'm sorry. I forgot all about Valery, he could come along as well."
"Don't worry about Valery, Leo." Zenya said as she touched his arm. "We broke up last night."
"I'm sorry." Leo said, "Was it because of my shooting him?"
Zenya shook her head, "No, not really. Don't worry about it. It was a long time coming, trust me. And you got me sold, I'd love to go to the Ranch."
Leo smiled, "I'll pick you up at 2. Pack warm, it gets awful cold out there in the country."
[Richard Corrigan's Ranch, 3:15 pm]
As Leo drove up the driveway towards Richard's ranch, Zenya looked out of the window, marvelling at the serenity that surrounded them. Looking around in all four directions, hardly any traces of a city could be found. There was nothing but wide open spaces, occasionally interrupted by a fenceline or two.
"How did he manage to buy such a beautiful place on a trainer's salary?" Zenya asked as she saw the sprawling house approaching.
Leo chuckled and said, "He didn't. He inherited it from his parents. It's been in his family for close to 6 generations. Well, here we are."
Leo pulled to a stop and got out of the car and stretched. Zenya did likewise as Leo walked around the front towards where she was standing, trying to see if the treehouse that Richard and he built was still standing. He was no more than 5 steps away from where Zenya was standing when he detected the sudden movement from the front door. Zenya swerved around just in time to see two small blurs come racing out of the front door and down the steps to where Leo was standing.
"Uncle Leooooooo!!!!!" said two voices in unison as Leo turned to face his pint-sized adversaries rushing towards him. The boy, who was in the lead, came and gave Leo a hug around his waist while the girl, who wasn't too far behind, launched herself up into Leo's arms. Now, ordinarily, Leo wouldn't have minded this onslaught, but he remembered his bullet wound and thus, tried to catch the girl one-armed. The only trouble with this was, the boy was still firmly attached to his leg, so when the force of the girl hit him, he had no where to go but backwards. Leo tried to pinwheel his available arm to keep his balance but still felt himself falling backwards, that is, until he felt Zenya's hands prop him up.
"Good catch, Leo." Zenya said with a smile, looking at the two children who were hugging him.
At the sound of the stranger's voice, the two children stopped their hugs and looked at Zenya.
"Zenya, this here's Scott Corrigan, age 7." Leo said, "and this angel here is his sister Janet Corrigan, age 5. Kids, this is Zenya Gorky....."
Before he could say anything else, Scott asked, "Is she your girlfriend?"
Janet then whispered loudly, as most kids that age do, "She's very pretty."
Leo glanced at Zenya with his "kids-will-be-kids" look and said, "No. She's not my girlfriend, and yes, she's very pretty. Why don't you two run off and get mom while Zenya and I unpack?"
It took a split-second before Leo realized his mistake, but it was a split-second too late before Janet and Scott yelled, "MOOOOOOOOMMMMMMMM!!!!!" in unison, with Janet being a few millimeters from his ear. Leo closed his eyes and tried to get the ringing out of his ears before opening them again and seeing Zenya laughing hard, leaning against the car and holding her sides. Leo set Janet down and she ran off to drag her mother back to where they were standing.
"Mommy, this is Miss Zenya." Janet said, pointed to where Zenya was standing and wiping away her tears.
"She's Uncle Leo's girlfriend." Scott said, grinning widely.
At this, Leo picked Scott up and started to tickle him mercilessly. Theresa Corrigan shook her head and smiled at the sight before her.
"Welcome, Zenya. I'm Theresa Corrigan, mother,wife, and zookeeper of this place." Theresa said as she extended her hand. "C'mon let's leave the kids be and get your stuff inside. I'm sure they'll want to get some riding in before dark."
"Gladly." Zenya said as they started unpacking the trunk.
*****
Zenya was a city girl through and through, Washington being the smallest of the cities she had lived in. Her experience with horses was limited to occasional glimpses of them on television and one afternoon of riding at a youth camp in Archangel when she was about six years old. It seemed to be one of those cosmic constants. Summer camps, where ever they were in the world and whether they were trying to fill young minds with pointless arts and crafts lessons or even more pointless Marxist theory, seemed to view riding horses as a vital experience in a healthy and well-rounded upbringing. Considering the experience she'd had that day, though, Zenya had a slightly different opinion. The riding had been fine. Too bad the argument she'd gotten into with the camp counselors had tainted the memory.
"You must always approach the horse from the right side," they had told the group of children. Forty-nine good little future card-carrying Party members unquestioningly took the words as gospel. Zenya asked why. "The horses don't like it if you try to mount them from the left side," was the answer.
"But what if the horse is left handed," she'd asked, genuinely concerned for the animals' comfort. It had escalated from there and culminated in a report to her father stating that she was being 'corrupted by exposure to questionable influences' and a recommendation that she be placed with relatives in Moscow so she could get a 'proper education.' Thank God he hadn't listened.
"You ever ridden before," Leo asked. He had slipped up behind her while she was staring at the bay mare she was supposed to ride. She patted the horse's neck and smiled.
"It's been a while," she said, putting the best spin on the truth she could come up with. As long as she could get through the afternoon without making a complete fool of herself, she would be fine. "But I think I remember the basics."
She put her foot in the stirrup, determined to prove her point to herself if not to Leo and the two other little sets of eyes she spotted watching them from nearby. She pushed herself up and managed to hold her balance for a second until the horse decided to take a couple steps forward. Zenya felt herself slipping, then Leo's arm around her waist stopped her fall, pinning her against the horse while he reached for the reigns with his free hand. Giggling in the distance added an infectious element of absurdity to the scene, and Zenya couldn't help laughing.
"What," Leo asked, managing to both frown and grin at her.
"I can see why you like it here," she said. "It's like a little island of domestic tranquillity."
Leo nodded. "Ready to try this again?"
"I think so." This time, with Leo holding the reigns, Zenya managed to get onto the horse's back, not with the grace of a practiced rider, perhaps, but without giving anyone anything else to laugh at. "See," she said with a self-depreciating smile, "no problem at all."