Age of Monsters by John Schneider (books to read for self improvement .TXT) 📗

the ground they walk on.”

Lucas was shaking his head.

“But why?  There's nothing there.  That's why we picked it.”  He cleared his voice.  “That's why I sent her there... that's... why...”

He stopped.

Rhodes put his heavy, calloused hand on Lucas' shoulder.

“I'm sorry, son,” he said.  He nodded again to Rosa.  “See to your civilians, and report back.”

“Yes, sir.”

Rhodes waved back to his boat, but before he climbed aboard, he stopped, looking over his shoulder.

“If it's any consolation, son,” he said, “we're about to start fighting back.”

The PT pulled away from the dock, turning towards the waiting fleet.

Lucas stood on the dock, looking down at the water, saying nothing.

Rosa turned to where Sergeant Farrell stood attentively.

“Could you please give us a minute,” she said.

Farrell nodded, stepping discreetly back, waiting by the jeep.

Rosa touched a tentative hand to Lucas' shoulder.

“You don't know she was there,” she said.

Lucas turned slowly.  And for just that moment, Rosa saw the ashen expression – a man utterly gut-kicked.

Then he deliberately cracked into the easy, wry smile.

“She better not be,” he said.  “Or else, I'm REALLY in trouble.  I'll never hear the end of it.  Eureka was my idea.

“No,” he said, shaking his head affirmatively, “if she saw things going south, she'd have skedaddled right out of there.”

The ashen-face was gone – there was no doubt in his mind.

“Yeah, she'll be holed-up somewhere,” he said.  “Just got to trust her to look after herself a little while longer.”

Now the smile faded, but the determined, stoic soldier remained.  “Always seems like there's something more to do.”

Rosa wondered how much he was even talking to her rather than himself.

“Where are they taking you?” she asked.

Lucas pointed off-shore, out to the largest of the carriers, surrounded by the others – the flagship of the fleet.

“Right there,” he said.  “See?  Not so far.”

Now he was falling into his reassuring role.  But this time Rosa wasn't even sure he was aware of it.

“You'll be alright,” he said, nodding to the jeep.  “The boys'll set you up.”

“Just handing us off?” Rosa said.

He held up his hands.  “I've got a job to do.”

“So, that's all it is?  Doing your job?”

“Well,” he said, “you do choose the job.  Don't you 'Doctor' Holland.”

Rosa realized she'd heard this conversation before too – the grateful parent or spouse of someone she had saved.  She always responded just like this – professional, polite – not overly accepting of praise – just doing her job.

Because you had to inoculate yourself from all of it.  You couldn't accept the good either because that awakened deliberately cauterized emotions.

Today she was on the other end – and those emotions were not as cauterized as she had believed.

She looked up at Lucas and realized she may very well never see him again.

“I don't know what I'd have done without you,” she said.

And then, abruptly – ridiculously – for the first time she'd known him – for the first time in this entire crisis... or even since she could actually remember – Rosa broke into tears.

She buried her face in her hands, utterly humiliated by her own sobs.

“I'm scared,” she said.  “I don't think I can handle this.”

Then she felt his hands on her shoulders, and she looked up through blurry eyes to see him frowning at her scornfully.

“You know,” he said, “that's the dumbest thing a smart woman ever said to me.  And my wife says some pretty stupid shit.”  Lucas shook his head in wonder.  “I always try to tell her, too.  Just pisses her off.  You'd think she'd want to know.”

And despite his flip tone, he looked at her seriously.

“Doctor Holland.  You are one of the toughest people I've ever met.”

He smiled.  “I even still have faith that you're smart.  I mean, I still haven't seen any evidence of it yet, but I do have faith.”

Amazingly, with tears still wet on her cheeks, Rosa felt the impulse to punch him right in his wise-ass mouth.  Clearly as he intended.

And so instead, she pulled him close, and she kissed him.

It was her first kiss in how long?  And a married man, no less.

The genteel knight took her in his arms, and she felt him kiss her back – an experienced kisser, for sure – letting her finish on her own, until she finally pulled back, looking up at him, breathless, with blinking eyes.

“A man could do no better than you, Doctor Holland,” he said, smiling gently.

He set his hands on her shoulders.

“But my lady's still out there somewhere,” he said.  “And I can't go around making-out with hot doctors.”

Rosa blushed.

“She's not stupid,” he said.  “She would have gone to ground.”

Rosa saw him telling himself that – self-hypnosis.

It would be a long time before he would let himself believe otherwise.

Still, she couldn't help herself.

“Don't forget us,” she said.  And then whispered.  “I'M here too.”

His hand dropped from her shoulder to her hands.

“That's another reason why I've got to go,” he said.  “If I don't, there won't be anything left at all.”  He shrugged.  “This is what I do.”

Rosa nodded, tears still running down her cheeks, as he turned to walk her back where Sergeant Farrell waited by the jeep.

She squeezed his hands.

“Just don't get killed,” she said.

Chapter 22

Jonah and Naomi had not yet, in fact, arrived in Eureka, but they were making good time.

Lured by the possibility of food and lodging, and having no better destination, Ariel had agreed to drive.  Jonah wouldn't have figured it, but Naomi seemed to hit it off with the hippie-chick.

Of course, that also gave her the front passenger seat, while he was stuck in the back with the