CHAPTER 1
String sat alone in the dark hangar. Only a single light above was on. "Why did I volunteer for this?" he asked aloud. He knew why though; Dom had been grumbling about the amount of paperwork there was to be done and filed for taxes. Having been in the hospital for seven weeks and under Caitlin's orders resting and recuperating at the cabin for another week, he hadn't been at the hangar to help with much of anything lately. He felt that he owed Dom for the tireless hours he spent at the hospital with him, that was why he was sitting here at 7:30 in the evening, but only sitting. He had done every possible other thing before coming in here, and he still wasn't getting anything done. True, taxes and paperwork weren't his strongpoint, but he'd done absolutely nothing.
A sudden thought occurred to him. Seven thirty wasn't too late, and he needed to talk to her. It'd been about three years. Wow, three years already? He really needed to keep in touch better. Picking up the phone, he dialed her number.
"Hello?" a tired sounding answered.
"Ellie, it's String," he started. It had been so long; what did he say?
"Hey, what's up?"
"I, uh, just wanted to talk."
"Oh, ok. What do you want to talk about?"
He thought for a topic, raking his brain for any brilliant ideas, or something that might interest her somewhat. "Saint John."
A long sigh came from the other end. "Look, I'm sorry, but Arthur isn't home yet, and I gotta go; I'll talk to you later."
He had thought the topic would interest her. "Ellie, wait."
"He's gone. Forget it. Accept it. Don't torture yourself after all these years."
"Ellie, he's not…" but the line was already dead.
He hung up the receiver harder than necessary. That hadn't gone well. He looked at the enormous pile in front of him then back down at his watch. He had better get started if he was ever going to get home.
\A/
Caitlin tucked Chance into a bed an made herself a cup of coffee. Sitting on the hearth, she grabbed her book and flipped to her page. String had been putting off that work all day, but she planned to wait up for him, if he ever came home. He had promised he would do some of the paperwork, and being honest to a fault, he would, but he'd never said anything about doing it quickly.
She had started to doze, long since having finishing her coffee, when String slipped in the door silently. He had started up the stairs when he saw his wife leaned against the stone fireplace, and went back down to gently wake her.
"You're gonna be sore if you sleep there."
She blinked a few times. "Yeah," she said stretching her cramping muscles, "I think you're right."
"Come on, let's get to bed." He silently padded up the stairs followed by Caitlin.
\A/
Saint John stepped into the bathroom to take a shower; towels littered the ground. Afterwards, he went to fix breakfast, only to find every single dish was dirty. He let out a long breath. Somebody was going to have to start doing a couple chores around here. Le appeared in the doorway looking for breakfast.
"You do the dishes, and I'll fix breakfast after I take care of the towels."
Le mumbled an 'ok.' He didn't want to do the dishes, but this early he didn't want to do anything, and obviously the dishes weren't going to clean themselves. He'd sure hoped, but they still sat in the sink just as dirty as when he had left them. He grabbed the soap and sponge and set to work.
Twenty minutes later there was a noticeable difference in the apartment. It wasn't clean, but it sure was a lot better. What would be ideal, would be to have someone to stay home and take care of the house, but Saint John had work and Le had school so things would just stay the same.
\A/
At the hangar, Dom was pleasantly surprised to find all the paperwork in order and everyone else already there.
He reached for the ringing phone, the first call of the day. "Santini Air," he said into the receiver. Only a few minutes later, he was adding work to their schedule. He answered the phone once more on his way out. "String, there's some lady on the phone, and you best not keep her waiting; she sounds upset."
He rolled his eyes in disgust. Why did they want him? He wasn't exactly known for his tactfulness, so why did all the problem customers want to speak to him? Interrupting his conversation, he walked back inside the hangar to pick up the phone.
"Hello?"
"It's Ellie," the tearful voice sobbed on the other end.
"Ellie, are you alright?"
She didn't answer his question, but instead proceeded with her own. "Do you still work for the FIRM?"
No answer.
"Come on String, we all knew you did."
"Why?" he asked without actually answering her question.
"Because I was hoping maybe you knew some of the higher ups." Emotion flooded into her voice again. "Arthur's dead."
Arthur was dead? Why would anyone want him dead? The only reasonable explanation was some accident like a car wreck, something like that, but that wouldn't involve the FIRM though.
"He was killed in his office last night," she sniffed, "All the cops think it was suicide, and the only fingerprints are his, but he wouldn't kill himself. He seemed perfectly fine yesterday; I got worried when he wasn't home on time, but you know how downtown traffic is sometimes. Then this…" her voice trailed off into hiccupping sobs.
"I'll see what I can do," he promised.
"Thanks String, I don't want whoever did this to get away clean."
"I'll find something. Talk to you later." He hung of the phone as Dominc reentered.
"So? Any business?'
"Yeah, but I'm thinking more the Lady kind of business."