Copyright 7/14 by Kirby's Cowgirl
This is fan fic and not for profit, no copyright infringement intended
Cat and Mouse
McCall groaned. "Not again." Colonel Patterson's wife was headed his way with her daughter in tow. When he'd made it clear he wasn't up for any hanky panky with his CO's wife, she'd decided that he'd do for a son in law.
It hadn't been that long ago that the sight of he, Caje, and Kirby would have had the mothers pulling all their daughters off the dance floor. And some of them would have even taken them straight home. How in the world had he become the most eligible bachelor on the base?
He was so tired of women chasing him. He had almost written Alex a letter last month, and asked her for ideas on how to dissuade the fairer sex. But he knew if he had, Alex would have been on the first ship over, ready to defend his honor, like he had any left. He had, at least, managed to grit his teeth and stay out of Alex and Kirby's relationship. But if he'd met her first - and if he didn't have unfinished business in Africa to take care of -
"Let's dance, soldier." a voice said from behind him, and a woman caught his arm.
From the snickers coming from some of the guys, he knew it was that really unattractive WAC that had been assigned to the base a couple days ago. He sat his beer down on the table. "Yes, ma'am."
Took her in his arms and twirled her expertly out on the dance floor.
Mrs. Patterson was very unhappy with him, but he'd dodged her for the moment. He whisked the WAC out into the atrium among the potted plants, where some of the couples had been going to play kissy face. Maybe he could pay her to pretend to be his girl friend. If he offered that, she'd be offended, she'd think he didn't like women - his life had been a hell of a lot simpler when all he had to worry about was being shot by Krauts, and keeping his hands off of Kirby's wife.
Sally had felt sorry for McCall when she saw that old battleax dragging her daughter toward him. McCall had just looked like he wanted to run. He hadn't even looked at her, just grabbed the lifeline she threw him.
For some reason, Alex thought he was smart. He was dumb as a stump. Just like the rest of them. But he was so damn good looking, and lord, the man could dance!
"Okay, something's wrong here." McCall thought. His radar was telling him that this was a very attractive woman. Why in the world had she made herself up to look like she was frumpy and middle aged? She was up to something. Maybe he should call an MP. And tell him what?
"Ma'am?" McCall said, and looked down into her face. He brushed his lips against her ear, hoping he hadn't looked as shocked as he felt. "Sally Tavish, I don't know what you're up to, but if you're trying to get me shot, I think you owe me an explanation."
"Okay." Sally thought reassessing. Not only did he know who she was, he remembered her name. He had written her a very nice thank you note for the cookies she and Alex had sent him, so long ago, and that had impressed her. He was the second person ever to see thru her disguise. She'd known he was a connoisseur of women, but she thought she'd fooled him. Gorgeous, intelligent, and he could dance. And she felt absolutely nothing. "Damn you, Hanley." she thought. If she saw the man right now, she would shoot him. No, she would drag him behind that tall potted plant and have her way with him, then she would shoot him.
"You alright?" McCall asked. She had almost smiled for a few seconds, then he thought she was going to start crying. He knew she wanted to be dancing with somebody else.
"I'm supposed to be working." Sally told herself. "I can not keep thinking about that infernal man. I thought he would go right home and marry some society woman from old money. But no, he wanted an army career." He would never be promoted beyond Lieutenant though. She'd seen to that. She would have posted him to Timbuktu if she could. Africa was the best she'd been able to manage. Sweet Uncle Bob had had no idea what one of his rainy day games to amuse she and Alex would become.
"McCall," Sally said in his ear. "Do you think you could pretend to be my lover?"
"Well," McCall said, nuzzling her ear again, "I seem to have fooled that man over there by the drinks table. He's looking at me like I'm crazy."
"Good." Sally said. "Would you mind shooting him for me?"
"I don't have a gun on me. Can I just beat him up?" McCall said, chuckling.
"Not right now. Later."
"If you can get me out of Mrs. Patterson's clutches, sure."
"Have you got a car?"
He nodded. "And I have a gun in my car. Should I get an MP to walk us outside?" half kiddingly.
"Take me home and I'll tell you what I need you to do. You can still say no. Alex will kill me if I let you get hurt."
McCall actually laughed at that. A few months back, halfway thru a bottle of good bourbon, he'd realized that the reason he cared so much about Alex was that she reminded him of his wife. He hoped the poor woman thought he was dead and that she'd remarried.
If he ever actually remembered more than bits and pieces of the two years of his life he'd lost, maybe he could go and try and make things right. But it had been so long now, surely she'd remarried. He just wanted the poor woman to be happy. But something told him she was just like Alex, and he didn't think Alex could live without Kirby.
After he'd driven Sally home, she gave him some fatigues. "The pants may be too long, but I think they'll do. You can't climb over the fence in your dress uniform and fruit salad. I have to change too." and she went into her bedroom.
So she was still in love with that intelligence man. man he'd almost shot for yelling at Alex. Well, it hadn't been just him. Littlejohn had been seriously considering ripping both the man's arms off, Caje had gone all dark the way he did when he was angry, Doc was ready to jump right in, and even Saunders had been ready to defend Alex. Kirby had been too busy puking his guts out in the ditch to know any of it was happening.
Sally had hopped out of the truck she was driving and plopped down in Hanley's lap in his jeep. Lord, she had loved to needle the Lieutenant. And poor Alex, who hadn't seen Kirby in months, had cried. Because Kirby was so hung over he didn't even realize she was there.
"You decent, McCall?" Sally called.
"Yes, ma'am."
"I go by Sadie Tate now." she told him, grinning. "Can you remember that?"
"Probably not." She'd lost all the padding, but she hadn't washed the make up off.
"Why the disguise?"
"Nobody notices me when I look like this." She shrugged. "You're the second person ever to catch me."
"Alex was the first?" he guessed.
"One of the women in her command. They were all too smart for their own good." A shadow crossed her face.
"Ahh, shit." McCall thought. That meant they were dead. "So what are we doing?" he asked.
"I'm going to steal something. And make sure the person I stole it from knows that I took it. And we're going to come back here and get comfy" she winked at him, "And when he comes after me, you're going to shoot him. Okay?"
"How comfy are we going to get?" McCall asked, eyes twinkling.
"Well," she suddenly looked really unhappy. "You're gorgeous. But I'm in love with somebody else. And Alex meant it when she said you were "hands off"."
Had Alex really said that? He knew that she wanted to fix him up with one of her WAC friends that she had lost touch with. Surely she wouldn't mind if he had a fling with somebody else in the meantime? But now he remembered that Caje had been adamant that Sally was "Hanley's woman." It wasn't any of his business, he supposed.
"You may have to help me over the fence." Sally said unhappily. "My arm didn't heal right." The arm she'd broken when the girls convoy had been attacked by the Germans. The squad, minus McCall, who had been wounded on an earlier assignment, had been sent to rescue them.
"Why don't you just let me go over the fence and get what you want?"
"Sorry, sweetie." she patted his cheek. "You're just the muscle this time. I can't tell you."
McCall didn't know why he thought it was funny, but he did. She wanted him to shoot a man and she wouldn't tell him the reason. He knew she worked in S2 and he wondered if she was actually a spy.
"Sally, if I shoot this guy, you and I are in kind of a compromising situation -"
"I thought you wanted away from Mrs. Patterson."
"But you're the one who'll -" he shrugged, looked at her.
"I'm Sleeparound Sally, remember?" she shrugged, but he saw the pain in her eyes.
"Who calls you that?" he demanded, instantly furious.
"Doesn't matter." She hadn't known that he had a hair trigger temper like Alex.
"I think we both did some things during the War that we aren't particularly proud of. But in your case, you saved a HELL of a lot of lives."
Why hadn't Hanley seen it like that, instead of just deciding that she was a tramp? She swallowed hard, "We can be out of here in two days. If you don't want to help me, I can manage by myself." She didn't think she could, that's why she was behind her schedule already.
"We can be out of here?"
"I need a partner who is smart and doesn't ask a lot of questions."
"Like why you don't just shoot the guy yourself?"
"It's complicated, McCall." she sighed. "I wish I could tell you. I will get you a promotion and some more pay, I promise. And we could get shot if we get caught." Then more to herself, "Maybe this isn't such a good idea. Alex will kill me if I get you hurt."
"Oh, hell." he laughed at her. " I'm a big boy, I can take care of us. It's just like being out on patrol, not having a clue."
They drove back to the base, McCall parked the car a few blocks away, and they strolled casually arm and arm down in the street. Sally pulled McCall into a storefront, and put her arms around his neck. "I timed the guard last night." he heard a faint click, figured she had a stopwatch in her hand. She snuggled into his neck, and he chuckled.
"McCall, I'm supposed to be having my way with you! You're not supposed to be laughing." she chided.
"Your nose is cold." he told her. Actually, he had been thinking this would have been a lot more fun to do with Alex.
She clicked the stopwatch again. "We've got three and a half minutes to get over the fence and into the bushes. Hopefully, if they catch us, they won't shoot first."
"I certainly hope not." McCall said.
Sally looked at him, realizing he was teasing her. "You really are a nice man. Why aren't you married?"
"It's complicated."
"You're a rat."
"I've been called a lot worse."
She punched him in the arm. "Let's go!"
He boosted her up to the top of the fence, swung himself over, caught her, and dragged her into the bushes seconds before the guard came by. It would have been a hell of a lot easier to do by himself. Sally had tears sliding down her face, and she brushed them away angrily.
"Stay here." She hissed at him. "If I'm not back in ten minutes, get out of here. You don't know me, you don't know anything about this. I mean it, McCall. I am not getting you killed!"
McCall clicked the stopwatch she thrust into his hand. She'd hurt herself trying to get over the fence. Alex had told him that Sally's arm was permanently damaged, but he hadn't thought much about it, other than it was a shame a pretty lady like her had gone thru so much. She was in pain now, but she wasn't going to let it stop her from finishing what she'd set out to do.
Twelve minutes later, McCall shut the stopwatch off. He was not leaving her. The guard should be coming by any second, and as soon as he passed, he was going looking for Sally. He heard the kid long before he came into sight, and he smelled smoke. Surely the guard was not - the glow of the cigarette in his hand made him a perfect target in the dark. Saunders would have yelled at the kid until he wet his pants, if he hadn't decked him first. True, there really wasn't anything to guard here, but McCall thought the young soldier should have taken his job more seriously.
Then the kid just stopped, and McCall froze. He was not going to let him shoot Sally. He didn't realize his pistol was in his hand. He breathed a sigh of relief when the kid stuck his smoke back in his mouth, reached in his coat pocket and pulled out a flask. Smoking and drinking on guard duty. Saunders would have had him court martialed. The other guys in the squad would have beaten him half to death.
He heard Sally, or someone coming down the stairs. The fool kid took a long chug, wiped his mouth on his sleeve, and stuffed the flask back in his pocket. McCall was on him instantly, choking him. Part of him realized that the person on the stairs was frozen, listening, and he really hoped it was Sally. He dragged the guard behind the bushes and poured the rest of the flask contents on him and his coat. He'd come to in a few minutes and wonder what the hell had happened. But there was no way he was getting all that whiskey stench off of him. He'd have some pretty heavy duty explaining to do.
"I told you to leave." Sally hissed. "Did you kill him?" Then she smelled the liquor, and McCall thought she was going to kick the guard.
McCall simply picked Sally up, and boosted her to the top of the fence. "Stay there." He said, when she started to try and climb down. He vaulted up and over and held out his arms for her to drop down into.
"Did you get it?" he asked, once they were safely inside his car.
She nodded. "Did you kill the guard?"
McCall shook his head. "He'll probably just think he tripped and passed out when he wakes up. I wasn't letting you get shot."
"Thanks." Sally said absently, rubbing her arm.
"How bad did you hurt yourself?"
"I'm ok."
He couldn't see her face in the dark, but he'd heard her voice catch. "You had no business going over that fence at all. If I hadn't come along, were you planning on trying to do it by yourself?"
"I manage, McCall. I'm not as good as before I got hurt, but I'm still -" her voice broke. "Dammit."
"I'll let you out in front, and park the car." McCall said as they neared her apartment. "Can you walk?"
"You need to -"
"I am well aware of how to handle a discreet rendezvous with a lady, Sally." He shot another look at her. "Can you walk? Are you going to be sick?"
"Anybody that sees me will just think I'm drunk. I have a pistol. I'll manage."
McCall parked the car several blocks away and by the time he got to the apartment, Sally had a pot of coffee started. She was sitting at the table with her head in her hands.
"Let me see your arm." McCall said, as he shrugged out of his coat.
She choked back a sob. "The Doctor told me I was just going to go home and have babies, it didn't matter that it didn't heal right. If I had anybody to have babies with, I still couldn't hold them."
"Jesus, Sally! What kind of idiot did they send you to?" McCall caught her arm at the shoulder and very gently started feeling down it. "Shit." He said when he got down to her wrist. "Three places?"
"I rolled a deuce and a half." She looked at him thru her tears.
"You were in the front when –"
" I rolled it. The driver got shot." She looked like she was going to be sick. "We were running from the Krauts and I couldn't hold it." She swiped at her face. "I'm sorry, McCall. He'll be coming. We need to –"
Jackson was dead. Had Hanley turned his back on her because of her arm? Or because of the other? Well if he saw the man again, the two of them would be having some pretty serious words. "I have a friend who might be able to help you. He put a lot of guys back together after the War."
"Is he a surgeon?' There was just a faint tinge of hope in her voice.
"He's a boxer. And it won't be easy, but I think he can get you some use out of your arm."
"Really?"
They sat and listened to the coffee perk, and they both heard someone coming down the hall. McCall pulled his pistol from his back and gestured Sally away from the door seconds before someone kicked it in. The man had a gun in his hand and McCall shot him. He was so damn used to killing people he hadn't thought to ask Sally if she wanted him to only wound the man.
He kicked the gun out of the man's hand, glanced over at Sally to make sure she was alright. "Is he dead?' she whispered.
"Yeah." McCall shrugged. "I forgot to ask -"
"It's ok."
"What's goin' on?" they heard a voice call from the next door apartment. "Miss Sadie, are you alright?"
"Jeff, could you get an MP please?" Sally answered shakily, and McCall wondered if it was pretense or real. She gestured to McCall and he hurriedly took his shirt off and draped it over a chair. When the neighbor, who McCall presumed to be Jeff, burst thru the doorway with his own gun, Sally had unbuttoned the top three buttons of her shirt and was holding onto the wall looking like she might faint.
"Honey, it's ok." McCall said. "Why don't you go lie down?"
Jeff looked from Sally/Sadie to McCall, turned a furious red, and asked again, "Are you alright, Miss Sadie?"
She nodded. "I'm ok, Jeff, thanks. Could you call an MP?"
"What about him?" Jeff gestured to McCall.
"He's my boyfriend." Sally said, cursing the fact that she was dizzy. She'd wrenched her arm badly and if McCall hadn't yanked her off the fence the guard probably would have shot her. "Oh shit." She said, and stumbled to the bathroom.
"Want me to go call an MP?" McCall asked, since Jeff seemed uncertain what to do. "Can you keep an eye on her for me?"
"I'll go." Jeff said suddenly. "You and Sadie are -"
"Lovers." McCall said, giving him an icy stare.
"Yes sir." Jeff said, backing out the door.
Later McCall figured that the fact that Sally had spent most of the interview with the MP's in the bathroom throwing up was what gotten him off without even a warning. The man that he had killed had kicked in a ladies door in the middle of the night. Weeks later, Sally would finally tell him that the man had been a Nazi sympathizer that her superiors wanted removed.