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"Sir..."
"Yes, Candice, what is it?"
A young dark haired woman stood in the doorway to Selleck's small office, looking on rather timidly as he practiced his long putts.
"I'm sorry to bother you sir.. but Sarah is on line two.."
Selleck grumbled and motioned her away with his hand as he walked over to sit behind his desk and reached his phone receiver.
"Alright, Sarah, what is it now?"
"We ran into a problem.. rather.. Valli caused one.."
"Don't worry about it, you're relieved of your duties on this project. Return to headquarters to wait for reassignment."
"But sir! it wasn't my fault!"
"I don't care who's fault it is, it honestly doesn't matter, someone else will be taking care of this. Now take the next flight back to Regieren."
"Good day." Selleck quickly hung up the receiver to avoid hearing Sarah's incessant grumbling.. She'd keep him tied up on the phone moaning all day if he let her.
"Time to get back to work." he said as he grasped the handle of his putter and walked back over to his golf balls.
Jessie sat on the edge of the lumpy bed and massaged her right foot. Butch and Cassidy had taken to their normal habits. Butch sat on a short hotel chair leafing through a sports Illustrated he'd picked up earlier. Cassidy sat on the other bed, her back leaning against the headboard as she finished up her short novel, Through the Looking Glass..
In a Wonderland they lie,
Dreaming as the days go by,
Dreaming as the summers die:
Ever drifting down the stream --
Lingering in the golden gleam --
Life, what is it but a dream?
Cassidy set the book down on the small stand between the twin beds and sighed. She often sighed after finishing a book.. Finishing a good story leaves one feeling much like finishing a delicious meal.. sad that there's no more left to taste..
She thought about the last few lines.. dreams.. She floated off into a sort of dazed fantasy, what it'd be like to leave team rocket.. to start a regular life.. have her own children, a normal job.. She tried to picture Butch as a father.. 'he'd be such a pushover' she thought to herself as she pictured him giving in to the children's every whim.
"Hey Cass, what're you so happy about?" James said teasingly as he stood in front of the bed and toweled his hair with a mischievous smile.
She realized how she'd been smiling and felt embarrassed, even though there really was no reason to be.
"Er.. I was just thinking of a joke I saw on TV.." she said as she reached her hand down to her pocket.
Jessie and Butch had turned their attention to her as well, and she felt like she wanted to just disappear..
She looked at Jessie, then James, then over to Butch, who had a kind smile as he looked back.
"I'll go get cleaned up now.." she said as she got up off the bed and took her suitcase to the bathroom. She sighed as she closed the door and pulled her hand out of her pocket.. She was still holding onto the ring, though she didn't really know why.
She studied it on the palm of her hand for a few moments, then thought with a smile, "they'll never realize if I come right back.."
She slipped the golden band around her finger and disappeared.
She was standing in a dusty crowded room.. the slanted ceiling was just above her head and slanted lower still as it receded to her right.. boxes were stacked two and three high, dust covered trunks sat secured by corroded padlocks.
Cassidy lifted the lid off one of the cardboard boxes and took a sharp breath as her heart beat took a small increase..
There was a black team rocket dress lying at the top, it looked just like her own one time uniform, but there was no R on it.. She pulled it out to look at it, and noticed a male's uniform under it..
She wondered what two team rocket uniforms would be doing here of all places..
A chill ran down her spine and she quickly replaced the dress and put the lid back on the box.. She'd realized she was standing in the attic of a house, but who's house was the question..
She made her way through the maze of boxes and finally found a removable panel in the board work that made up the walkway. Opening it up she dropped down to the varnished wooden floor below..
The floors were clean and polished, and every wall was a flawlessly pure white. She walked down the bright narrow hall, stepping over a few wooden toys as she stopped in front of a bathroom.
The floor was a spotless black and white checkerboard tile, the towels were all neatly arranged, the bathtub was completely clean- no hint of lime or bathtub rings, and the toilet seat was even down..
"Does anyone even live here?" She muttered to herself as she turned around and stepped on a silver toy robot.. She cringed with the loud crack and stopped in her tracks. There was a certain irrational fear in her.. She was in a strange house sure.. but she'd been in many strange houses with team rocket.. such is the life of a thief.
"Mom?"
Cassidy jumped at the sound of the small voice as her wide eyes turned to see a little boy with green hair standing in a doorway back down the hall. He looked to be about five years old and was wearing pajamas, carrying a teddy-bear in his right hand.
The boy began to approach her with a cute smile and his hands outstretched. Cassidy looked around wondering what he was doing..
He walked right up to her and put his arms around her thighs, hugging onto her. In her sudden panic and confusion she tried to back away, but tripped and fell backwards instead, making a loud crash as she met the floor.
The boy fell with her and didn't hesitate to begin crying as he had sustained some minor discomfort..
A voice called from the stairs down the hall, "Eric?!"
Cassidy looked around for the source of the familiar voice. Offering no consolement to the child next to her, she pushed herself back away from him and stood up. She could hear footsteps hurrying up the stairs and she dashed towards the nearest door not wanting to be caught. It was a closet, and she quickly and quietly shut the door after herself..
The footsteps proceeded up the hall, and the child finally stopped crying.. She held her breath as she groped her hand over the shelves behind her in the dark, looking for anything she might use as a weapon, but instead knocked over a canister. Panic shot through her veins as she heard the footsteps get closer, and she remembered the ring, she brought her hand up to pull it off as the door in front of her opened.
Cassidy blinked her eyes a few times from the bright light of the hotel bathroom.. The small room was full of steam, as she'd started the water in the shower running before she left.
She sighed and quickly undressed.
The warm water felt comforting, but still, the image haunted her mind..
Just as she pulled the ring off her finger she thought she'd seen Butch's face as the closet door opened.. She lowered her head under the stream of water and sighed.
By the time she was finished and left the out of the bathroom, her three companions had fallen asleep..
She looked down at Butch, lying by the side of the narrow bed with a blanket an a pillow. Looking over at Jessie lying alone on the far bed she let out a short giggle, she'd apparently decided to make James spend his night on the floor as well, and Cassidy got a certain devious satisfaction out of knowing she wouldn't be the only one sleeping alone tonight.
She quietly slid onto the narrow bed and nestled under the blankets. She was still thinking about what she'd seen earlier, her mind turning and twisting it around.. she felt like it was someplace familiar to her.. it was like deja vu..
She tossed and turned for what seemed like hours before she finally started to drift into an uneasy sleep.. but just as she was nodding away, her eyes popped open and she jerked up to a sitting position in her bed..
She had seen that place before.. but not in any "real" sense.. the house she'd been in.. the child with green hair, it was all identical to the daydream she'd had just before she went into the bathroom and put the ring on..
"James.." Cassidy whispered down towards him. She knew he was probably awake.. he was always the first to wake up if anything happened.. and although she'd taken great pain to be quiet, she knew that he was probably already awake anyway.
"James!" she whispered in a more forceful tone as he didn't respond to her first efforts. After a few moments she sighed and laid back again.
"Yeah?"
Cassidy grit her teeth for a moment for ignoring her before she rolled to look over the edge of the bed at him. He was lying on his back, a blanket between himself and the carpet and his eyelids were deceptively closed.
She thought about telling him what had happened, but a wave of self consciousness rushed over her, and she felt she'd be too embarrassed if she told him.. So she thought up something else to say instead..
"Why are you sleeping on the floor?"
James sighed, "Jessie said the bed was too narrow for two.. guess that's what I get for kidding around.."
Cassidy thought about Butch lying on the other side of her bed.. 'the narrower the better..'
"What?"
"I was just thinking of something.."
"Alright.."
She laid there for a few moments, James was still silent, most people would have thought him asleep.. but Cassidy knew better.
"Have you had any dreams tonight?"
She was a little startled when James opened his eyes and looked up at her.
"Yeah.. I had a dream.."
".. what was it like?"
James' eyes were still open, and he took a little while, staring up at the ceiling before he answered.
"Well.. we were in some sort of temple.. all of us were there.. it wasn't a temple though, because there was no ceiling.. but the floors were a puzzle of interlaid stones.. not just little stones, I mean big stones.. huge stones.. and the walls were the same, massive carved stones.. It was high in the mountains.."
James paused and after a few moments Cassidy asked if that was all..
"No.. that's not all.." he paused for a few more moments before he continued.
"We were all there, and we were running.. I don't know what we were running from.. but when we reached the portal out of the temple.. it was a precipice.."
The darkness fell silent again as James shut his eyes and slowly let out a deep breath.
"What happened then?"
James smiled and answered without opening his eyes back up, "what happened then? Then I woke up, that's what happened."
"Oh.."
James seemed content to doze back off, but Cassidy was still wide awake with the discussion.
"Do you think dreams have any meaning?"
"Hmm... I know they do.."
"How?"
"It's pretty widely accepted that dreams are a manifestation of your subconscious mind.. revealing a person's subconscious fears and desires.."
Cassidy nodded to herself. "Thanks James.. sleep tight.."
James nodded as he let his eyelids slide closed one last time, and Cassidy rolled back from the side of the bed.
She stared up at the dark ridges from the textured spackling on the ceiling. No easy sleep would come this night..
She opened her tired eyes just before Jessie gave her another poke.
"Ugh, what's the big deal?"
"It's time to get up, that's what's the big deal."
Jessie sat back down on her bed with a small mirror and her small makeup bag.. Cassidy sometimes wondered why she bothered to wear makeup, she was already so perfect..
She sighed as she shoved the sheets and blanket aside and sat for several minutes facing Jessie on the edge of the bed.
Her head ached, the pain shot from the back of her eye-sockets to the sides of her head and on down the back of her spine..
James sat at the small circular table behind her checking out their sidearms. They'd have to leave their ammunition behind as they did with every airliner trip.. their guns were made completely of plastic, and didn't show up in x-ray or metal detector scans, however, bullets were metal, and couldn't be brought along..
Cassidy stood up and stretched, walking towards the open bathroom door as James extracted the last bullet from his present clip and picked up the next one. She yawned, and closed her eyes a little as she came to the open bathroom door and walked in.
"Huh? Ouch!!"
"Oh! I'm sorry!" Cassidy said as she jumped back.
Butch was standing in front of the sink, naked if it weren't for his pair of boxer shorts, shaving when she'd stumbled into him.
"Oh, it's ok, I'll be done in a minute.."
As he turned to her she could see the white shaving cream tinge with the red of his blood.
"Did you cut yourself?" she said stepping close to him and reaching up to his face.
"Wha-? Oh.. yeah.." he said as he stumbled back and caught himself against the sink..
'Guess I got too close..' Cassidy thought to herself as she looked down.
"I'm sorry about that.. I'll be out here.."
Cassidy turned around and walked back out to the bed without looking back up.
Butch sighed and went back to painfully shaving around the fairly large cut he'd sustained..
"Because the Jeep got stolen.."
"Why couldn't we just get another Jeep then?!"
James cowered away from Jessie, not wanting to bear any load of what could quickly become a violent wrath..
Cassidy offered a little help with a chuckle, "Hey Jessie, look on the bright side, that cabbie was checking you out."
"Of course he was checking me out! Who wouldn't check me out?! Those guys over there are checking me out too!"
Jessie was starting to cause a scene and everyone except her was starting to turn a little red and cover their face up out of shame.
"Hey, wait a minute.."
Butch held out his hand, signaling everyone to stop.
The group let out a collective, "huh?"
"Those guys back there.."
"What about them?" Jessie said looking back.
"No! don't look back! They're team rocket!"
"What?!"
The others all turned around and Butch sighed as he slapped his hand against the side of his face in a motion of hopelessness.
"Uh oh.."
Butch turned around to see what Cassidy's "Uh oh" was about just as the others took off past him, James grabbing his shoulder and spinning him back around to follow as he dashed past. Butch barely had time to realize that the team rocket agent he'd seen was now running towards him, gun drawn.
Butch took off after the others, a few yards behind, as he reached down to his hip and of course found nothing.. They were all defenseless as they ran through the wide open airport lobby, and they all were pulling luggage with them..
As they ran farther into the airport Butch looked back and didn't see anyone chasing them anymore.. 'maybe security got him' he thought to himself, then began to wonder how they got their guns past the metal detectors.. unless they were empty and had no ammunition..
He turned back to look forwards just as he crashed into the other three from behind.
James stood up rubbing his bottom, "Damn, watch out next time..."
"Sorry about that.."
"It's alright, Butch.." Cassidy reassured him as she stood up as well.
"Where'd that guy go? And who was that, Butch?"
"I've always called him Cologne.. I don't know his real name.."
Jessie laughed, "Cologne?"
"Yeah.. cause he always wore way too much of it.."
Everyone had a quick laugh as it seemed they were back out of danger.
"Come on.." James said motioning with his finger as he walked towards the escalator that was just to their north.
Everyone followed, and just as they reached the base of it, a security guard approached James from his right..
"Sir.. I need you to come with me about something that just happened.."
"Uh..."
"The rest of you also, just follow me.."
Everyone nodded and walked after the neatly uniformed woman, and into a side hall..
"Hey, where are we going anyway?"
"Securi-"
As the woman turned her face to answer she was met by Cassidy's fist, square in the Jaw.
"Very nice, Cass.." James said as he looked down at the unconscious woman and nodded in appreciation.
"Come on, lets get to the plane quick!" Cassidy said as she turned the way they'd come, walking rather hurriedly.
"Was that another agent?" Jessie asked as they followed her.
"I dunno, but either way, we were going to be in trouble if they opened up our bags.."
Jessie nodded and they made their way past the gift shops, crowds of people, and Jehovah's witnesses to the boarding terminal, encountering no more security or TR obstacles..
"I just don't know about this flying stuff.. Butch said as the four handed their tickets to the stewardess and walked down the long narrow hall they'd become much too accustomed to traveling.
Cassidy craned her neck to try to see over the seats.. she could tell they were facing towards him.. 'maybe they're just talking to each other.. past him..' she thought.. She sighed as she looked back at the old woman, who had a look on her face that resembled a smile.. or so it seemed.
"Would you mind trading seats with me?" the old woman asked as she tapped Cassidy on the shoulder.
"No. Sorry.. I like the aisle seats."
"Well in that case, get up, I need to go to the bathroom!"
Cassidy sighed as she stood up and the old woman slowly got up and hobbled into the aisle..