International Rescue: The Next Phase


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Re: The Call Goes Out [message #17 is a reply to message #16] Tue, 17 July 2012 21:10 Go to previous messageGo to previous message
Tikatu is currently offline  Tikatu
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Registered: April 2012
Location: South Carolina
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Field Commander
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"An apology?" Jeff asked loudly, amazed. "An admission that I was wrong? What if I wasn't wrong, Kyrano?"

"Mr. Tracy, you must admit that keeping International Rescue a secret from her for as long as you did was impolite at the least," Kyrano said quietly. "This is something that affects not only her own work here, but also the lives of her children. And it is that which upsets her the most."

"If she had known about it from the start, would she still have come?" Jeff asked his retainer.

"I believe she would have, Mr. Tracy. And with excitement, knowing that she was aiding the worlds greatest rescue organization. Now, she is disillusioned, not so much with International Rescue as she is with you as a person. Her uncle had painted a picture of an honest man. She feels you weren't honest with her."

"I know. She's told me. More than once."

"Then apologize for that, if nothing else."

And so Jeff attempted to apologize. He summoned Dianne to his office and sat behind his desk while she stood before him.

"Doctor, I want to apologize for not being honest with you."

She stood there silently, looking at him. He fidgeted in his seat. Then she turned to leave.

"Wait."

She stopped.

"Aren't you going to accept my apology?"

She turned back to him.

"What apology? You said you wanted to apologize. But Ah didn't hear 'Ah'm sorry'. And it would have been insincere anyway. Look at you. Sittin' behind your desk. Hidin' behind it is more like it." She turned to go again. "When you're ready to apologize sincerely, you know where to find me."

Jeff felt his face flush with anger. How dare she! Walk away from me, judging my apology as insincere! But even so, a small part of him agreed with her. You were doing this to regain the peace, it said, not because you sincerely believe you were wrong.

The angry part of him thought, But I wasn't wrong....

The small niggling voice returned, You were wrong to let it go on as long as you did. Face it, Tracy; you saw early on that she was a trustworthy person. She's a doctor and used to keeping confidences. Now, if you want more than "keeping the peace", you know what you have to do.

He got up from behind his desk and ran across the room. Just as she began to mount the steps to the study, he grabbed her by a wrist and turned her around.

"Doctor!"

She gazed at him coolly, one eyebrow raised. He looked down, then took a deep breath and met her gaze.

"I am sorry, truly sorry, for not being honest with you about International Rescue. I used our security and secrecy as an excuse to lie to you about it, and I drew my whole family into the deception. I may have been justified in doing that for a little while, until I took your measure, but I did it for far longer than was necessary. Please accept my sincere apologies for lying to you for so long."

Dianne regarded him coolly for a moment more, and then smiled.

"I accept your apology, Mr. Tracy." She glanced down at her hand, where Jeff still had a firm grip on her wrist. He followed her gaze and hurriedly let go of her.

"I'm sorry, I forgot I had grabbed...."

She held up a hand to stop him, and then used that hand to massage her wrist.

"You have quite a grip there, Mr. Tracy."

He chuckled and she smiled again. Then she turned to leave.

"Uh, Doctor?"

"Yes, Mr. Tracy?"

He held out his hand. "Friends?"

She turned again and looked him in the eye. Jeff swore he could see the twinkle in it as she glanced down briefly at his hand.

"I wouldn't go that far, Mr. Tracy." Then she turned and was gone.

Jeff watched her go, then turned back to his desk. He felt better, as if the air had been cleared between them. And he realized that friendship, if it was meant to be, would come along in its own time.

Flashback ended.

A warm pair of arms wrapped around Jeff from behind and a warm pair of lips nuzzled his ear. He turned and those lips met his in a sweet kiss. He turned and made room for her on one knee.

"Busy, dearest?"

"Yes. Trying to discover which of these candidates will be trustworthy, which will be the best fit for IR. I do not want a repeat of our rocky start."

"Heavens, no!"

"So, love, how do I pick the most trustworthy? The best fit? Any ideas?"

Dianne sighed, looking over his data padds. "I think you've got to focus on what you need first. Pick that one, and then go on to the next. All these are clamoring for your attention, I know, but we need to go slowly about bringing in our new people. We're going to have to trust in their recommendations in some instances." She straightened up, scootching her behind around on his leg in ways that made him feel warm, and picked up a pad. "Now, here's that astronaut and chemical engineer you were looking at: Callie Spencer."

"Yes," Jeff said, pulling the clipboard over so they both could look at it. "She's been working on a flora problem at Canaveral after the wake of our last rescue there. We used dicetyline and it seems to have had an effect on the surrounding plant life. Brains is certain that the dicetyline isn't the problem. We have an agent on the scene who is trying to frustrate the Professor's efforts until Brains and Tin-Tin can determine what the real problem is." Jeff chuckled. "She must be getting pretty hot under the collar by now."

"Then maybe it's time to alleviate the woman's frustration and clue her in to what's going on," Dianne suggested.

"Let me talk with Brains and see how close he is to an answer. Then we can go from there." Jeff activated his watch, and called on his chief engineer for a progress report.

*********

Later that day, an email arrived in the secure mailbox of one of Callie Spencer's assistants. He looked at it, smiled, then printed it out and erased it. Using gloves, he put the printout in an envelope, wrote Callie's name and base address on it in block letters with a felt tip pen and put it in the base mail system.

Post by Tikatu on 31/05/2004

Jeff heartbeat Dianne plain My IR:TNP OTP!

[Updated on: Tue, 17 July 2012 21:11]

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