Zimmerman lives now in Nunez' body. Megan and Angelique left town, and Angelique made sure that they cannot be contacted for a while, and then only for an emergency, as Megan wants to get off the grid, fearful of Julia's wrath as she does not know that Zimmerman survived. Quentin found Adam, and they used the Hand of Count Petofi to disguise themselves. Unfortunately they ended up looking liken the Three Stooges. Tammy finally married Joe, and Megan transferred ownership of the agency to them.
HAND OF FLAMES
Chapter 1
"You look a lot better." Frances said.
"I feel a lot better. I am a lot better." Richard grinned widely "Actually, I should not be here at all."
"We know that." Frances grinned back. "But it will not do to release a patient so soon after an apparent recovery. There is still paperwork that needs to be filled... And why deprive us of the pleasure of your company?
"You find me pleasant then?"
"Pleasant and attractive."
Julia smiled beatifically. She was due at any time, but she was no longer impatient nor worried. It would turn out all right, she knew. Didn't she have Richard back? Why couldn't this be easy too?
Kenneth was happy to see her this way. She had been under a lot of strain, with that business of Richard. Well, that was solved.
But still, there were concerns, when a woman her age got pregnant. They knew that their daughter was healthy, and that was a relief.
The one worry left is what it would mean to become parents at their age...
"Have you thought of any names?" Julia asked.
"Names?"
"For the baby."
"What about Julia Jr.?"
"Boring."
"What do you want?"
"I want to name her for my parents. My mother's name was Gretchen. My father's, Albrecht... Gretchen Alberta..."
"Hmmm... Gretchen Alberta Anderson... It has a certain ring to it."
"So we cannot contact either Megan nor Angelique. " Barnabas commented..
"I can contact Angelique if we need to." George reminded him.
"She told me that as a condition she did not want any contact with us for at least three months. She figures out that by then Megan will have forgotten about Richard, or at least put it in perspective. "
"Well, it does not matter... You know, there is more to life than Collinsport...
George understood. "You want to go too?"
"I would like to see more of the world... but..."
"But it also scares you. You are quite comfortable here. You don't have to lie. They know what you are, and accept it, even grudgingly, at times. While somewhere else...
"I know that I will leave, sooner or later. But not now... Not yet."
"If you want to go, you have to start making plans. It will be harder outside... You'd be cut off from your support system... But you can build a new one, and with less trouble than you did... Remember when you went to Parallel Time, that first time? You could manage all right."
"And you'd come with me?"
George took a deep breath. It had to come out.
"I know on what conditions we'd go together. I could tell you about losing my position here, about how much I love to be the sheriff. But you deserve the truth."
"And what is the truth?"
"That while I am tempted, I have a good reason not to. I asked Megan about it. She told me point blank that if I let you transform me, I risked being left alone for a very long time."
"I would not leave you."
"Barnabas how long was that Laura lay a trap for you, to sacrifice in the fire?"
"What does it have to do..."
"And how long before that I was thinking that I had to shoot you because your hunger got out of control thanks to Yolanda Overton? And before that, Quentin tried to kill you, didn't he? And before that I had to rescue you from Trask and the others.? And then how many times you were almost killed when you faced Laura? And then you risked getting killed by Zeb, didn't you? And before that, Sabrina sent you to Parallel Time... And before that, Roger tried to stake you. And before that, Tom Jennings came to your house and took hostages. And before that there was the riot incited by Sister Kira. And before that, you faced the firing squad of Old Munsungan... Do you see where I am going?"
"That I have risked getting killed too often?"
"I have a dangerous job. I have been shot at more than once. But still I have not had as many scrapes in my entire career as you have had in this time... Barnabas, you attract trouble. You have a target pinned to your back and one to your chest... I do not know why it is, but at this moment I do not think that you will make it to the next millennium... That if things keep going as they are, you will never visit Willie's nor Julia's grave. They will probably visit yours. And if I let you transform me, you'll get killed for some reason or another, and I'll be left all alone... I do not want that."
"It may not happen."
"Barnabas, be realistic. It has happened before, it can happen again. Unless you convince me that you have stopped asking for trouble, and that no phantoms of the past are gunning for you, I have to think that I will not have you for long."
Barnabas this time said nothing. He did not like it, but George was right Trouble seemed to have a way of finding him.
"All I can say is that if some time passes and I can stay out of trouble, you'll reconsider?"
"If that happens, if I can be reasonably certain that you are not in a hit list, I will certainly will."
The wheel rolled downhill, leaving Adam staring at it with a stunned expression.
Quentin's reaction was quick. He kicked Adam in the shin, then for good measure, turned around and poked Sebastian in the eyes.
"Ow! Ow! Why did you do that?" I didn't do nothing."
"I didn't do anything, you nitwit." Quentin corrected Sebastian, as he slapped him again.
This could not go on like this for long, Sebastian thought. He was getting tired of being hit. He was getting tired of all the mishaps that happened to them, in their duct taped car,.
The hand of Petofi had as much of a perverted sense of humor as the original owner. Not only they looked like the Stooges, behaved like the Stooges, but their adventures seemed to follow the rule of funny. They never ran out of money, because it was funnier if they could keep going on the road. Their car could fall apart, and could be put together with duct tape, because that was funny. One more accident, and one more... They could try the most outlandish things and as long as they were funny, they worked...
Like when the car had gotten stuck in a ditch, and they could not make it move. They had tied a rocket to the roof, and while the results had been spectacular and painful, they had gotten the car out. A bit more of duct tape, and it was ready to go...
For a few blocks at least...
Quentin figured out the same thing. Why had he gotten himself involved with Petofi in the first place? And why couldn't Adam have left well enough alone?
They had to get to Collinsport. The sooner the better.
Irritated, he slapped Adam again. "Go pick up that wheel, you dummy!"
Tammy had trouble believing yet that she was married, That she would go home with Joe every day. That her home had suddenly become "our home"... that she was going to have children and raise them...
That she was going to raise mixed race children...
Never mind that she had at least one white ancestor, Barnabas. Probably more than one. And as Barnabas had said, he was not sure about Joe's ancestry either..
But the fact was the she had been raised as black and Joe had been raised as white, no matter what story their genetic material told.. And there was a gulf between the two. A gulf that only now was beginning to be bridged...
And she was one of the brave pioneers who bridged it.
"Lots of luck!" she told herself.
She recognized Jake's voice in that sardonic comment. He could not get Jake out of her head, even if he had disappeared. Barnabas had only said that he was given a choice of leaving or going to jail for his part in setting Violet Upton free, and that he had chosen to leave.
She felt a twinge of guilt when he thought of him... Another unemployed black man sleeping under bridges and eating in soup kitchens... Although Barnabas had told her that it was not the case, that he had a different job...
And to tell the truth, when she recalled Violet's knife at her throat, her sympathy for Jake disappeared..
