Chapter 1: Preparing To Depart
Ruby Gray, nee Moriarty, was stitching up a wound on an assassin's arm when Dr. Blair came in to check her work. She put down her scissors, tied the last knot and stood back from her patient.
"Beautiful stitching job!" Dr. Blair nudged her in the upper arm. "I don't need to check your work anymore." she taped a bandage on the sutures and told the assassin that he could go.
"You never needed it in the first place," she scolded lightheartedly, dumping the scissors in the used tools bin so they could be sterilized. "worrywart."
"Sometimes the staff here can get a little nasty." Dr. Blair rather feebly defended himself as Ruby closed the curtains in the exam section of the big room. "Do you hear anything on that baby you carried?"
"On Arthur?" it had been a solid year since she had seen the little baby or his mom and dad.
"That's right."
"Nope. The last thing Jim or I heard about them was that Bill had gotten a job offer from a company in the USA so they were going to move over there in New York I think."
"Good for them." Dr. Blair and Ruby glanced over to the entranceway to their floor, seeing one of the female assassins with a wound in her side. Both of them rushed over to help her.
It was a cold day for early April, Jim thought as he parked the car in the garage and unlocked the side door. Ruby was late coming home as she had a surgery with Dr. Blair on one of Jim's assassins.
"Why don't I cook for her tonight?" Jim rarely cooked in the kitchen, as Ruby preferred to do it all herself. She had seen the results of Jim messing about in the kitchen and always had to intervene before the dish became inedible.
Jim tossed a kitchen towel over one shoulder like he'd seen Ruby do all the time. He pulled out a package of pork chops, olive oil, oregano, and several small potatoes. Jim set to work, chopping, peeling, boiling, smashing. He knew how to make mashed potatoes at least, having watched Ruby do it several times. It was one of her favorite sides; the potato being her favorite vegetable.
About 14 minutes later, Ruby walked up the front walk, smelling something like smoke wafting out the door and hearing a screeching sound from the smoke alarm. She opened it up, dumping her purse on the end table and walking into the kitchen.
The kitchen had smoke issuing from the frying pan on the stove, a pot was boiling over, so Ruby darted in, turned down the heat on both burners, then turned to look at Jim. He was putting on the oven mitts on both hands, his face flushed with the heat from the pan as he began turning down the heat.
"I thought you were still in surgery." surprised, Jim took off one of the oven mitts and hung it up.
Ruby looked at him with a half smile on her face. "Is that a thank you or a what the hell?" she stood on a chair to disconnect the smoke detector, silencing the kitchen.
"Both?" he stood up and glanced into the frying pan. "Ugh, charcoal!"
"Don't be stupid!" Ruby picked up the oven mitt, grasped the cast iron handle on the pan and rotated it. "There's a little bit of a burn on the edges. Did you put olive oil in to prevent this?"
"No," he admitted. "you know me."
"Got to oil the pan, Jim. Cast iron is very unforgiving." she shook out some olive oil into the pan and turned the chops over. It was plain that Jim hadn't seasoned the meat so Ruby reached for an old favorite-a can of cream of mushroom soup. She opened it up, ignoring Cassidy's meows for a taste, then dumped the can into the pan. Lowering the pan temperature and covering it with a lid, she set it to simmer for ten minutes.
"What can I do?"
"Nuke us a veg, would you?"
"Sure." he chose another one of Ruby's favorites, green beans. Ruby made Jim stand at the stovetop and began to quiz him on cooking potatoes.
He stabbed a potato piece with a fork and when it went through easily he knew they were done. Taking a colander, he drained the potatoes, reached for the masher tool, then began to smash the potatoes. Both of them liked the vegetable slightly lumpy, so he didn't put too much effort into it.
"I thought you were in surgery," Jim mentioned as he pounded the potatoes. "she didn't die, right?"
Ruby laughed. "No. Blair found a slug lodged near her liver and we were able to cauterize the bleeding and dig it out. She will be OK and ready to assassinate again in a few weeks."
"Good. She's one of my best." not that he would have it become public knowledge of course. Seb was on a much deserved vacation with his son and girlfriend so the second best assassin was temporarily promoted to the first best.
"Well then," Jim announced after they sat down to supper. "everything is all set for our trip to Italy."
"When do we go?"
"Tomorrow." Jim speared a piece of pork chop and chewed. He'd never heard of cream of mushroom soup with chops before but he rather enjoyed it. It was comfort food to Ruby as it was something that her mother used to make when she was a child.
"Good thing I've been brushing up on my Italian." Ruby remarked. Jim eyed her from across the table. She'd recovered from childbirth very well, her belly deflated, she was hitting the company gym on her days off so she was looking better than ever. The couple who adopted Arthur had moved to America and they knew nothing after that.
They'd discussed children for themselves many times and were on the same viewpoint. They were sure that they wanted children now the question was just the timing. Neither one of them were particularly eager for children at the moment, but both of them knew the time came when it came. Ruby and Jim had decided that after a year they could start trying.
"You know some Italian?"
"A tiny bit. My grandfather was stationed in Italy and he taught me a few phrases."
"Nice." Jim had been fantasizing recently about having sex with his wife in an Italian villa, much like they had done when in St. Croix. He hoped Ruby didn't want sex tonight as he was tired and he bet she was too.
Not that they hadn't had sex since the delivery. Jim was careful to use rubbers until they had both agreed to start trying for a baby. The first unprotected sex since before the birth had to be special to Jim so he was going to put out all the romance he had in him; hoping to surprise his wife.
After supper Jim cleaned up, Ruby began her evening yoga session in front of the TV with a mat underneath her. Clad in her pajama pants and a t-shirt, she began the warrior pose when Jim came in. When he'd first seen her doing yoga he'd wondered if she'd lost her mind, but when she told him about it, he decided to try it as well.
It was working for him too. Jim was athletic and well built, though now he had some real core strength. A bonus side effect was that both of them could last longer when they had sex as well.
So it was no surprise to Ruby when Jim joined in on her session. Together they spent half an hour strengthening their muscles.
"We will want to hit the sack early tonight," Ruby mentioned. "what time do we get to the gate?"
"We need to be there by ten AM." Jim answered, dropping his hands to his sides.
"We should head to bed now." it was 9:30.
"Righto." Ruby rolled up her mat and stashed it beside the couch. Jim did likewise as Ruby picked up her cat, marching upstairs. Cassidy, still full of kitten energy, leapt out of her owner's grip and streaked downstairs. The now 3-year-old cat was going to stay with Dr. Blair while the couple was out of town. "Get back here, you!"
Jim laughed as Ruby turned around, ready to give chase. He turned her back and marched her up into their room.
Collapsing into bed, Ruby kissed her husband as he kissed her back. The night was still cold so they brought out the big fleece blanket that they used during the winter. Ruby was always cold so Jim was used to her hogging it all the time. Tonight she was generous with sharing it for some reason. Jim seized a corner of the blanket and yanked it in his direction playfully. Ruby played his tug-of-war for a few minutes before smacking him on his butt and pretending to abscond with the blanket.
"Hey!" he protested as Cassidy jumped on him, grinning with the blanket in her hands.