Title: The Ranger Next Door
Author: Lady Bethia
Series: Left Hand
E-Mail: lady-bethia@yahoo.com
Home Page:
Pairings: None yet.
Ratings: PG
Warnings:
Disclaimers: The X-Men are not mine. I am making no profit from this
story. Teresa Larraine is my original character.
Summary: Two Hills Park next door to the Xavier Institute has gotten a new
Park Ranger. She is trying to rebuild her life away from Memphis and its
various problems.
The Ranger Next Door
Diary May 30th:
After I finish my contract at Mesa Verde National Park, I really don't have any place to go. It finally hit me two weeks after I got here. I can't go home. They banished me. I was not on vacation like I planned when I started my park ranger training a year ago.
I was tired, and that was how it all began. I had been training and fighting since I was thirteen. Now, I was twenty-two and I needed some down time. But that wasn't going to happen if I stayed home. They simply wouldn't let me go willing though. They even warned me that if I left at the beginning of May for this park ranger job, I should just keep going. I had no choice. I stole away on May 5th in hopes that I would not loose my mind because of all the pressure I was under. Now, I am on my own for the first time with no home, family or responsibilities.
Thank God for Elizabeth, she told me how most of the park rangers live from one contract to the next, season after season. That gave me the heads up I needed to start looking for another job right away. I looked up several states and started to apply for different parks for the winter season.
Elizabeth and I had become fast friends here at Mesa Verde. This was my first Law Enforcement Park Ranger job and I loved it. Elizabeth was one of three other women Rangers that lived with me in a house on the mountain. We had the best quarters; it was a great new prefab house. The other Rangers lived in some pretty beat up old trailers. Elizabeth was a veteran Interpretive Park Ranger. She was the kind that gave talks and took people through the sites at the Park. I was a Law Enforcement Park Ranger that meant that I was the police/fire/medical personnel for the Park. Normally, the two different types of Rangers don't get along all that well due to differences in philosophy. A gun makes a big difference in people's views, your own as well as others around you. But Elizabeth and I got along great. What was even funnier was that we could pass as sisters. We had almost the same hair color and cut and physical build. The only difference was height. Once a visitor even got us mixed up with each other and thought that I was the one that had given a talk the night before at camp grounds.
Diary June 5th:
Boy, this is going to take a while to get all these letters written and sent out. I hope I am able to get a job before this contract runs out. I don't want to have to use my trust money to live on.
Diary July 29th:
A letter came from the state of New York! I always swore as a kid that I would never live in California or New York. That will teach me to say something like that in the future.
******
She opened the letter, and began to read the contact list. There was one possible contact park that sounded like what she was looking and one that would be a good last resort.
1. Wanted a Law Enforcement Park Ranger for a small one-man park in
Westchester, New York. Experience necessary. Contact Ranger
Johnson.
Wanted a Law Enforcement Park Ranger for a National Monument in
New York. Experience necessary. Contact Ranger Peter Mac Milan. .
******
Ring Ring. "Hello, Teresa speaking."
"Hello, this is Park Ranger Johnson from Two Hills Park in Westchester NY. I am trying to get in touch with a Miss Teresa Larraine."
"That's me." Teresa replied cheerfully.
"Good, can we talk for a few minutes then?" He asked. "I would like to conduct phone interview if you're not busy.
"Yes of course, today is one of my days off. And I would be glad to answer any questions you might have," she answered.
"To get to the point, we need a Park Ranger for the Two Hills site as soon as possible and your resume was the best one to come through. Two Hills has been without a full time ranger for about two years now and we need to get someone in there that will stay."
"I am very flattered sir." She started to say.
"No flattery to it. I checked on your references at the Memphis Police Department and at Memphis State University and I was very impressed. I also know that you are a mutant and that will be considered a boon on this job." He told her in a sincere voice.
"It's a boon?" She let her question hang in the air because she'd never heard that before. "How's that sir?"
"Please call me John. It's a good thing you're a mutant because the reason we haven't been able to get anyone to stay at Two Hills is because it is right next to a school for mutants. And strange sounds and things happen there all the time. Furthermore, a mutant who lives there purposefully chases off the rangers. He is a feral animalistic kind of mutant, more animal than man." Johnson added.
"Why don't you just have him arrested?" She questioned Johnson.
"We could never prove that he was doing anything wrong. So, we wanted to try a new approach. We want to put a female Park Ranger with Law Enforcement training in there. If he gives you any problems, you will have the power to arrest him and the Sheriff will back you up. No matter how it works out, you would solve our problem and get our park back in order. Does that sound like something you would be interested in doing?" He asked.
"Hum. Obnoxious neighbors but a park all to my self, I think that just might work." Teresa said with a laugh. "The only thing is; what does the housing situation look like? I will not live in an old, drafty decrepit trailer in the middle of New York with winter coming on. I hate the cold. I have been in and seen the way a lot of Park Rangers' quarters are maintained and I think it is disgraceful." Teresa stated in all seriousness.
"I will look into getting a new trailer for you. It wasn't worth replacing when we couldn't keep a Ranger there longer than a couple of months." Johnson replied.
"If I have a nice clean well maintained trailer to live in I will most definitely take the job." Teresa said as she smiled to herself.
"Good, I will send you all the forms you need to fill out. And after I get the housing situation fixed I will send you some pictures of it and the park."
"Thanks that's great. What is your phone number? So, I can call you if I need something explained. Got it. Bye."
After getting all the information she needed from Johnson, she danced around the house happy for the first time in a long time.
"I couldn't wait to tell Elizabeth. Now, I really do hope she gets a monument job near by. It would be great if we could still get together and be friends in NY. Right now she is the only friend I've got." Teresa said to herself.
Diary September 1st:
Everything is set I will leave for New York on September 5th to start my new Ranger job. I am so excited about all this. Elizabeth got a job as well in New York at Staten Island, so, we will be able to visit with each other and stay friends.
Diary September 12th
The drive from Colorado to New York went a lot better than even I expected. Usually trouble has a way of finding me but the week I spent on the road was great.
******
Once into town finding Greymalkin Lane was easy. The scenery along the lane was so beautiful. All of the trees were in a full riot of color for fall. And the mansions and some of the houses were just gorgeous. It simply took your breath away. Teresa couldn't believe that such a beautiful place existed in the state of New York. Seeing the sign for the park, she pulled off the main road and on to the gravel road of the park. About a quarter mile down the road she found the turn off that Johnson said would lead to her new home. And there it was the new trailer and Ranger Johnson.
"Hi, Johnson!" She yelled and waved to the tall black man that was waiting and smiling at her arrival. "I'm Teresa. I am so glad to finally be here." They met each other half way and shook hands.
"How was your trip young lady? I hope you didn't run into any trouble on the way out." Johnson said as he led her up the trailer.
"It was great. I didn't get lost once; which is a real accomplishment for me, since I tend to get a little bit turned around going to places I have never been to before." Teresa replied while shrugging her shoulders.
"Good, welcome to your new home." Johnson said with all the bravo of a showman. He opened the front door and ushered her in. "Well, what do you think my dear?" He handed her the keys to her new home.
"Wow this is great except the furniture leaves something to be desired but it will do until I figure out how I want to decorate." She said as she looked at Johnson from under her eyebrows as she inspected the 'frat boy reject furniture'.
"Well let's get your stuff out of your truck and into the house. And then, I will take you on a tour of your new park." Johnson told Teresa as he rubbed his hands together.
"That sounds good to me. After the tour can you give me directions to all the basic places I need to know about, like the grocery store, drugstore, Movie Theater and the mall?" She counted off on her fingers. "I will need to go to the grocery today so I can stock this place with food and other essentials."
"Of course, you will also need to know where the Sheriff's station is and the hardware store. Tomorrow we will go into town and I will introduce you to Sheriff Donaldson. He's really looking forward to meeting you." Johnson said as he looked like he was trying not to say something.
"OK, when are you going to drop the other shoe?" She stated. She was very good at reading people and he was worried about something.
"There is one addition to your duties that I have not told you about. You are to be a Deputy Sheriff as well as a Park Ranger. Donaldson is very short handed. And since the Memphis police spoke so highly of you, he is willing to have you on the force even though you're a mutant. In fact, I pointed out to him that you would be invaluable when dealing with mutant situations. He talked to your foster father and found out that that is what they used you for back home." Johnson waited for her reaction to his bomb shell.
"Well, I see. What else did he say?" She stated with a straight face and no emotions in her voice, poker face plain and simple.
Johnson did not miss this change in the young woman in front of him. "He said that you've been trained by the police and martial artists to fight and control rogue mutants and in helping the frightened ones whose powers had just turned on. He also stated that you have helped control non- mutant trouble makers as well."
"Yes, I have. But the reason I became a park ranger was to get away from all that. I have been fighting and living on the edge since I was thirteen. I am tired." Her poker face slipping a little bit.
"It won't be like it was in Memphis I promise you. We don't usually have too much trouble around here. The Sheriff is short handed so what you would be doing is mainly normal police work. Your foster father is worried about you though and asks that you call him." Johnson said seriously and meaning no harm to her.
"Yes, I will call him tonight that is if you have the phone hooked up for me?" She asked.
"Everything is all ready, including the phone being hooked up. I have set up an appointment for the phone company to come out the day after tomorrow and install another phone line for your computer." He said with a pleased smile on him friendly dark features.
"Thanks. I am sorry. I've just been hiding that part of my life for so long that I'm not use to strangers knowing this much about me. Even the people you would consider my friends back home didn't know everything that happened to me or what I was doing." She glanced around the living room of her new home and came to a decision. "Will the Sheriff allow me to work my own way when dealing with mutants? Will he work with me in developing a plan to educate the kids at the high schools and junior highs in town? If he will do that I will work for him. Kids have to be told about mutations and mutants not just the hate crap and misinformation that The Right and Senator Kelly spout out."
"You will have to ask him yourself. But I know he is a good man and a good friend. I will give you all the support that I can too. You see my daughter is a mutant. She makes things grow. She became a ranger and moved out west to get away from all the problems in New York City caused by and about mutants." He was being sincere. She felt concern coming off of him in waves.
"All right, I will try. But as I said before, I left Memphis because I was over worked and emotionally exhausted. I don't want to fight any more for a while. I want to try to have a real life. I want to date, make friends and live like a normal person. I have always been training or fighting or saving someone's life." She admitted.
"I will talk to Donaldson and make sure he understands your situation. But you will have to tell him some of this yourself. If you need any help just let me know alright?" Johnson said as he placed his hand on her shoulder.
Teresa stiffened and then relaxed and smiled in answer to him.
The Ranger Next Door
Diary May 30th:
After I finish my contract at Mesa Verde National Park, I really don't have any place to go. It finally hit me two weeks after I got here. I can't go home. They banished me. I was not on vacation like I planned when I started my park ranger training a year ago.
I was tired, and that was how it all began. I had been training and fighting since I was thirteen. Now, I was twenty-two and I needed some down time. But that wasn't going to happen if I stayed home. They simply wouldn't let me go willing though. They even warned me that if I left at the beginning of May for this park ranger job, I should just keep going. I had no choice. I stole away on May 5th in hopes that I would not loose my mind because of all the pressure I was under. Now, I am on my own for the first time with no home, family or responsibilities.
Thank God for Elizabeth, she told me how most of the park rangers live from one contract to the next, season after season. That gave me the heads up I needed to start looking for another job right away. I looked up several states and started to apply for different parks for the winter season.
Elizabeth and I had become fast friends here at Mesa Verde. This was my first Law Enforcement Park Ranger job and I loved it. Elizabeth was one of three other women Rangers that lived with me in a house on the mountain. We had the best quarters; it was a great new prefab house. The other Rangers lived in some pretty beat up old trailers. Elizabeth was a veteran Interpretive Park Ranger. She was the kind that gave talks and took people through the sites at the Park. I was a Law Enforcement Park Ranger that meant that I was the police/fire/medical personnel for the Park. Normally, the two different types of Rangers don't get along all that well due to differences in philosophy. A gun makes a big difference in people's views, your own as well as others around you. But Elizabeth and I got along great. What was even funnier was that we could pass as sisters. We had almost the same hair color and cut and physical build. The only difference was height. Once a visitor even got us mixed up with each other and thought that I was the one that had given a talk the night before at camp grounds.
Diary June 5th:
Boy, this is going to take a while to get all these letters written and sent out. I hope I am able to get a job before this contract runs out. I don't want to have to use my trust money to live on.
Diary July 29th:
A letter came from the state of New York! I always swore as a kid that I would never live in California or New York. That will teach me to say something like that in the future.
******
She opened the letter, and began to read the contact list. There was one possible contact park that sounded like what she was looking and one that would be a good last resort.
1. Wanted a Law Enforcement Park Ranger for a small one-man park in
Westchester, New York. Experience necessary. Contact Ranger
Johnson.
Wanted a Law Enforcement Park Ranger for a National Monument in
New York. Experience necessary. Contact Ranger Peter Mac Milan. .
******
Ring Ring. "Hello, Teresa speaking."
"Hello, this is Park Ranger Johnson from Two Hills Park in Westchester NY. I am trying to get in touch with a Miss Teresa Larraine."
"That's me." Teresa replied cheerfully.
"Good, can we talk for a few minutes then?" He asked. "I would like to conduct phone interview if you're not busy.
"Yes of course, today is one of my days off. And I would be glad to answer any questions you might have," she answered.
"To get to the point, we need a Park Ranger for the Two Hills site as soon as possible and your resume was the best one to come through. Two Hills has been without a full time ranger for about two years now and we need to get someone in there that will stay."
"I am very flattered sir." She started to say.
"No flattery to it. I checked on your references at the Memphis Police Department and at Memphis State University and I was very impressed. I also know that you are a mutant and that will be considered a boon on this job." He told her in a sincere voice.
"It's a boon?" She let her question hang in the air because she'd never heard that before. "How's that sir?"
"Please call me John. It's a good thing you're a mutant because the reason we haven't been able to get anyone to stay at Two Hills is because it is right next to a school for mutants. And strange sounds and things happen there all the time. Furthermore, a mutant who lives there purposefully chases off the rangers. He is a feral animalistic kind of mutant, more animal than man." Johnson added.
"Why don't you just have him arrested?" She questioned Johnson.
"We could never prove that he was doing anything wrong. So, we wanted to try a new approach. We want to put a female Park Ranger with Law Enforcement training in there. If he gives you any problems, you will have the power to arrest him and the Sheriff will back you up. No matter how it works out, you would solve our problem and get our park back in order. Does that sound like something you would be interested in doing?" He asked.
"Hum. Obnoxious neighbors but a park all to my self, I think that just might work." Teresa said with a laugh. "The only thing is; what does the housing situation look like? I will not live in an old, drafty decrepit trailer in the middle of New York with winter coming on. I hate the cold. I have been in and seen the way a lot of Park Rangers' quarters are maintained and I think it is disgraceful." Teresa stated in all seriousness.
"I will look into getting a new trailer for you. It wasn't worth replacing when we couldn't keep a Ranger there longer than a couple of months." Johnson replied.
"If I have a nice clean well maintained trailer to live in I will most definitely take the job." Teresa said as she smiled to herself.
"Good, I will send you all the forms you need to fill out. And after I get the housing situation fixed I will send you some pictures of it and the park."
"Thanks that's great. What is your phone number? So, I can call you if I need something explained. Got it. Bye."
After getting all the information she needed from Johnson, she danced around the house happy for the first time in a long time.
"I couldn't wait to tell Elizabeth. Now, I really do hope she gets a monument job near by. It would be great if we could still get together and be friends in NY. Right now she is the only friend I've got." Teresa said to herself.
Diary September 1st:
Everything is set I will leave for New York on September 5th to start my new Ranger job. I am so excited about all this. Elizabeth got a job as well in New York at Staten Island, so, we will be able to visit with each other and stay friends.
Diary September 12th
The drive from Colorado to New York went a lot better than even I expected. Usually trouble has a way of finding me but the week I spent on the road was great.
******
Once into town finding Greymalkin Lane was easy. The scenery along the lane was so beautiful. All of the trees were in a full riot of color for fall. And the mansions and some of the houses were just gorgeous. It simply took your breath away. Teresa couldn't believe that such a beautiful place existed in the state of New York. Seeing the sign for the park, she pulled off the main road and on to the gravel road of the park. About a quarter mile down the road she found the turn off that Johnson said would lead to her new home. And there it was the new trailer and Ranger Johnson.
"Hi, Johnson!" She yelled and waved to the tall black man that was waiting and smiling at her arrival. "I'm Teresa. I am so glad to finally be here." They met each other half way and shook hands.
"How was your trip young lady? I hope you didn't run into any trouble on the way out." Johnson said as he led her up the trailer.
"It was great. I didn't get lost once; which is a real accomplishment for me, since I tend to get a little bit turned around going to places I have never been to before." Teresa replied while shrugging her shoulders.
"Good, welcome to your new home." Johnson said with all the bravo of a showman. He opened the front door and ushered her in. "Well, what do you think my dear?" He handed her the keys to her new home.
"Wow this is great except the furniture leaves something to be desired but it will do until I figure out how I want to decorate." She said as she looked at Johnson from under her eyebrows as she inspected the 'frat boy reject furniture'.
"Well let's get your stuff out of your truck and into the house. And then, I will take you on a tour of your new park." Johnson told Teresa as he rubbed his hands together.
"That sounds good to me. After the tour can you give me directions to all the basic places I need to know about, like the grocery store, drugstore, Movie Theater and the mall?" She counted off on her fingers. "I will need to go to the grocery today so I can stock this place with food and other essentials."
"Of course, you will also need to know where the Sheriff's station is and the hardware store. Tomorrow we will go into town and I will introduce you to Sheriff Donaldson. He's really looking forward to meeting you." Johnson said as he looked like he was trying not to say something.
"OK, when are you going to drop the other shoe?" She stated. She was very good at reading people and he was worried about something.
"There is one addition to your duties that I have not told you about. You are to be a Deputy Sheriff as well as a Park Ranger. Donaldson is very short handed. And since the Memphis police spoke so highly of you, he is willing to have you on the force even though you're a mutant. In fact, I pointed out to him that you would be invaluable when dealing with mutant situations. He talked to your foster father and found out that that is what they used you for back home." Johnson waited for her reaction to his bomb shell.
"Well, I see. What else did he say?" She stated with a straight face and no emotions in her voice, poker face plain and simple.
Johnson did not miss this change in the young woman in front of him. "He said that you've been trained by the police and martial artists to fight and control rogue mutants and in helping the frightened ones whose powers had just turned on. He also stated that you have helped control non- mutant trouble makers as well."
"Yes, I have. But the reason I became a park ranger was to get away from all that. I have been fighting and living on the edge since I was thirteen. I am tired." Her poker face slipping a little bit.
"It won't be like it was in Memphis I promise you. We don't usually have too much trouble around here. The Sheriff is short handed so what you would be doing is mainly normal police work. Your foster father is worried about you though and asks that you call him." Johnson said seriously and meaning no harm to her.
"Yes, I will call him tonight that is if you have the phone hooked up for me?" She asked.
"Everything is all ready, including the phone being hooked up. I have set up an appointment for the phone company to come out the day after tomorrow and install another phone line for your computer." He said with a pleased smile on him friendly dark features.
"Thanks. I am sorry. I've just been hiding that part of my life for so long that I'm not use to strangers knowing this much about me. Even the people you would consider my friends back home didn't know everything that happened to me or what I was doing." She glanced around the living room of her new home and came to a decision. "Will the Sheriff allow me to work my own way when dealing with mutants? Will he work with me in developing a plan to educate the kids at the high schools and junior highs in town? If he will do that I will work for him. Kids have to be told about mutations and mutants not just the hate crap and misinformation that The Right and Senator Kelly spout out."
"You will have to ask him yourself. But I know he is a good man and a good friend. I will give you all the support that I can too. You see my daughter is a mutant. She makes things grow. She became a ranger and moved out west to get away from all the problems in New York City caused by and about mutants." He was being sincere. She felt concern coming off of him in waves.
"All right, I will try. But as I said before, I left Memphis because I was over worked and emotionally exhausted. I don't want to fight any more for a while. I want to try to have a real life. I want to date, make friends and live like a normal person. I have always been training or fighting or saving someone's life." She admitted.
"I will talk to Donaldson and make sure he understands your situation. But you will have to tell him some of this yourself. If you need any help just let me know alright?" Johnson said as he placed his hand on her shoulder.
Teresa stiffened and then relaxed and smiled in answer to him.