I have no idea where this story came from but once it hit, I have to say that the idea of sending Syd and Gage to couple's counseling – even if they are only undercover – was too good to pass up. This chapter is an effort to set things up but I'm hoping hilarity will ensue in further installments. We'll see where the muse takes me. Also, as always, I don't own any of these characters and am not profiting from this complete and utter manipulation of them in any way, shape, or form. Too bad – I could use the money…
The sound carried all the way up the hall and into the office of Company B, causing the Texas Rangers working inside to stop what they were doing, look up, and listen.
"Uh-oh," Ranger James Trivette commented, looking up from his paperwork to glance over at his partner, Cordell Walker.
"Third time this week," Walker remarked with a frown.
The sound got closer and closer, peaking as the door opened to reveal another pair of Texas Rangers – Sydney Cooke and Francis Gage - the source of the noise. Both Rangers were red-faced and arguing loudly, neither paying attention to the stares their behavior was eliciting from their coworkers.
"He wouldn't have gotten away in the first place if you'd been there to back me up!" Sydney yelled.
"I was backing you up!" Gage protested.
"Checking out his girlfriend is not backing me up!" she retorted. "And what's more, I had no idea where you were – I turned around and you were gone!"
"I was not checking out his girlfriend," Gage argued. "She was a suspect and I was keeping an eye on her so that she couldn't come after you from behind. If that's not back-up, I don't know what is!"
The Rangers had reached their desks but showed no signs of stopping anytime soon. Sydney stood on one side, facing her partner with her hands on her hips in a confrontational stance and Gage occupied the other, arms crossed defiantly across his chest.
"Back-up, by definition," Sydney countered, "requires that you be in the same room as me so that you can watch my back."
"I could see your back from where I was!" Gage cried.
"You mean maybe you could have seen my back – if you hadn't been so occupied with hers!" Sydney yelled back. "I can't believe you would leave me in that type of situation!"
"I didn't leave you anywhere!"
"Well if you didn't, then explain to me how Martinez made it out the door without us catching him."
"He didn't go out the door – he crawled out a window!"
"And you didn't stop him!"
"I was arresting his girlfriend!"
"You were distracted!"
"I was not!"
Trivette shot Walker a look that clearly asked, "How long are you going to let this continue?" A bit dismayed at having to step into the middle of what was clearly a matter between Sydney and Gage and no one else, Walker finally nodded at his own partner, then stood.
"Enough!" he boomed, his voice echoing in the room.
Sydney and Gage's eyes grew wide as they suddenly realized that the entire room was staring at them and an embarrassed flush climbed up Gage's neck. Two red spots were visible on Sydney's cheeks and she turned to face Walker, breathing hard. Both Rangers looked surprised at their own behavior and genuinely guilty.
Walker paused a moment to let the peace and quiet sink in, his eyes locked on the Rangers' faces, and watched as they squirmed beneath his gaze. Finally, he said, "Sydney, Gage – Captain Briscoe's office right now."
Sheepishly, the pair followed him into the office where he closed the door behind them. The captain looked up from his paperwork and asked, "What is it, Walker?"
"Captain, I think I've found the right couple of Rangers for that new assignment we were discussing earlier," Walker told him. He gestured to the Rangers standing beside him. "Rangers Gage and Cooke seem to be in the middle of quite a disagreement at the moment and I think they'll benefit from this case."
"It was just a little argument," Gage put in quietly, looking furtively between Walker and the captain, his eyes nervous.
"It's nothing, really," Sydney agreed with a small smile that was meant to smooth the situation.
"Fourth time this week, isn't it?" the captain asked mildly, ignoring their attempt to brush Walker's suggestion off.
"The third," all three corrected him in unison.
"Mm-hmm," Briscoe responded. He pursed his lips thoughtfully, then asked, "Walker, are you sure they can handle the task at hand without letting their personal problems take over? Catching criminals has to be their first priority."
"Oh I'm sure they can handle it," Walker assured him, "In fact, I think a trip to Arroyo Grande is just what the doctor ordered for these two…"
*
"I can't believe they're making us go to couple's counseling!" Gage protested for the fifth time that afternoon as he steered his car through the busy streets of Dallas.
Sydney, in the passenger seat, frowned and said, "I said it five minutes ago and I'll say it again: it's a work assignment, not a punishment."
"But it's counseling!" he whined.
Sydney rolled her eyes. "We're going to catch whoever it is inside Arroyo Grande that's tracking these couples after they stay there and attacking them months later to steal their internal organs and sell them on the black market."
Gage sighed but he wasn't done complaining. "But why does it have to be couple's counseling? That's for married people and we are most definitely not married."
"Thank you for noticing," Sydney remarked dryly.
"I mean," Gage went on, "just last week Trivette mentioned that you and I sound like an old married couple, but I didn't think it would lead to this!"
"Look, can we just go in and get this over with?" Sydney snapped suddenly. "I'm not exactly thrilled to be going here with you either, you know."
Gage was taken back by her tone. "Sure, Syd. Sorry."
He parked in front of the low, sweeping adobe building that was the Arroyo Grande Couples Counseling Resort main office and cut the engine. In tense silence, the two partners got out of the car, grabbed their bags from the backseat, and entered the building.
"Checking in?" asked a perky blonde woman behind the front desk.
"Yeah," Gage nodded.
"John and Elena Parker," Sydney gave her their undercover names and tried not to bite the words of as she did so, even though she was still upset with her partner.
The woman was obviously used to greeting people who were tense and rude, however, because she paid no mind to the obvious animosity between the pair, but simply told them, "You'll be staying in the River Cabin – it's the third building down on your right. Your first session with Dr. Ehrlich is at 4:00 in the Serenity Room, which is down this hall and to your left. That means you have a half an hour to settle in before you need to be back here. Any questions?"
"None that I can think of," Gage told her.
"We'll be fine," Sydney hoisted her duffel bag to her shoulder and spun on her heel, headed for the door and the "River Cabin."
She kept such a pace that Gage had to jog to catch up with her once they were outside. In an effort to smooth things between them, he asked conversationally, "So what do you think of the place?"
"Gage, they have a 'Serenity Room,'" Sydney reminded him, annoyed. "I have a feeling we're in for a week of pure hell."
"Come on, Syd," he chided her, "it can't be that bad."
"You were just complaining ten minutes ago that you didn't think we needed to be here in the first place!" Sydney stopped and threw up her hands in exasperation.
"Yeah, but it's…nice," he gestured at the well-landscaped scenery around them. "Don't you think so?"
Her only response was to quirk a disagreeing eyebrow in his direction as they reached the River Cabin (which turned out to be situated between the Valley Cabin and the Mountain Cabin) and unlocked the door. Stepping inside, they took in their sparse surroundings with critical eyes. The décor was rustic and definitely minimalist – the only furniture present was a bed, couch, coffee table, and a table with two upright chairs on either side of the room. A tiny bathroom was situated in the back on the left. The few pictures on the pale adobe walls were of calm desert scenes and mountain landscapes and there were no technological devices to be found anywhere.
Sydney shot Gage a look that clearly said, "I told you so" and dropped her duffel to the floor, asking, "Couch or bed?"
"I'll take the couch," Gage bit back the humorous comments that came into his mind when she had asked that question, knowing that to venture any of them would be to risk his own internal organs before they could even begin to figure out who here was involved in selling them.
Sydney nodded and proceeded to open her bag and pull out all of the surveillance equipment they would be utilizing during their stay. Walker had told them that the most likely place to begin looking for the organ thieves would be in the resort's records room and she and Gage would be breaking into the room after dinner to see what they could find out.
She had just stowed the last of the camera and phone bugging equipment under the bed when a knock at the door sounded. She and her partner exchanged a confused look and Sydney shrugged to indicate that he should open the door and find out who it was. He did so and opened the door to reveal a striking middle-aged couple with smiling faces.
"Hi," the woman, a petite brunette with gleaming white teeth, beamed. "We're Bob and Mary Tyler from Houston and we're staying next door. Did you just arrive today?"
"Um, yeah," Gage faltered a bit at the speed and cheerfulness of her delivery, then recovered. "I'm John Parker and this is my wife Elena."
Sydney plastered a smile on her face and went over to shake hands. "Nice to meet you."
"Well let me assure you that you'll love it here," Mary gushed. "We've been here two weeks and we've never felt more connected to one another."
"That's great," Sydney tried not to sound disgusted.
"We were on the verge of divorce two months ago," Mary continued, oblivious to Sydney's tone of voice. "But now look at us – happy as clams."
Bob Tyler smiled then as though to emphasize his wife's point but still remained silent. He didn't have time to say anything anyway, though, because Mary jumped in again with, "I hope you're not in such dire straits – you're such an attractive couple."
Sydney and Gage exchanged a quick glance and Gage quickly dropped an arm around Sydney and said, "Oh no. Elena and I have just been working so hard lately that we've stopped communicating as well as we used to. Right, sweetie?"
Sydney fought the urge to elbow him for calling her sweetie. To Mary, she said, "Right. We're just hoping to use a week here to reconnect."
"Oh good," Mary wrung her hands happily. "Well, I suppose you have things to do, so we won't bother you anymore at the moment. Will we see you at dinner tonight?"
"Absolutely," Sydney assured her, trying to sound enthusiastic.
"Great," Mary beamed again. "We'll see you then."
"Thanks for stopping," Gage told them as he closed the door, leaning up against it
as though to put up a barricade to keep the Tylers out.
"Wow," Sydney breathed. Gage's wide eyes showed he agreed with her sentiment.
*
The Rangers were still a bit annoyed with each other as they sat down in the Serenity Room in the main lodge, however, and it showed in their proximity to one another. Sydney assumed a spot on one side of the couch and Gage sat on the opposite end, acting as though he was afraid to get too close to her. They didn't speak, even after their counselor, Dr. Ehrlich, had entered the room and introduced himself to them. He was a wiry man in his late fifties with gold-rimmed glasses and a pencil-thin mustache of a silvery-white that matched his thick hair.
"Mr. and Mrs. Parker," the doctor looked at them from his chair opposite the sofa they shared, "it's a pleasure to meet you. I've been waiting to speak with you all day – the registration information you supplied us with has been an interesting read. I understand that you, Mr. Parker, are in business and you, Mrs. Parker, are a dance instructor. How fascinating! I also read, however, that you've had some problems relating to each other recently. Is this true?"
Sydney shot Gage a sideways glance, which he returned, he said all too truthfully, "We've been arguing more lately, that's all."
"And from what I read, I see it's been effecting your work," the doctor said in a sickeningly sympathetic tone, which Gage immediately bristled at. Syrup seemed to drip from his words and he was attempting to tell them, "I would like to be your friend" even though his only reason for doing so was because it was his job. It was purely false and, had Gage not been working undercover, he would have shut down the conversation immediately. Still, he was too professional for that.
Sydney apparently wasn't fond of the tone either because Gage could feel her stiffen beside him. He wasn't surprised – if it was one thing that his partner hated, it was false overtures of goodwill. He supposed it was her cop instincts, considering that believing that the sort of thing that could get either one of them killed on undercover missions like this one. Gage almost smiled, glad that they shared the same feeling and almost feeling sorry for the doctor. Sydney wouldn't come right out and confront Ehrlich, but she would undoubtedly make his life difficult. The poor man had no idea what he was in for.
They had agreed when deciding what characters they would play on this mission that Gage would be the half of the couple who was against counseling and Sydney would be the one in favor. Gage decided to put on his role at that moment and run with it.
"Look, Dr. Ehrlich," he began, "when you don't spend enough time with a person, you're bound to have disagreements whenever you're together. Elena and I had been working a lot lately and we're going through a rough patch because of it. We'll be fine."
"Mm-hmm," was the only response from the older man. He never missed a beat, but instead turned Gage's statement around. "You say you don't spend as much time together as you used to. Would you mind telling me a little more about the things you used to do before you were working so much so I can get a better feel for where your problems may lie. How much time do you spend together a week?"
Sydney looked at Gage, who was surprised to see a bit of coldness in her eyes, before she answered. Yet when the words came, her tone was matter-of-fact and almost friendly. "Well, when we were first married we used to spend time together every night. We'd have dinner and watch movies together on the couch – and we'd talk about everything that was going on in our lives. I miss that."
Gage gave a half-smile – Syd was describing what a typical Friday night was like for them now. Somewhere along the line, meeting at one of their apartments with a pizza and a Steven Segal movie had become their routine. The habit had stopped recently, though, thanks to the caseload they'd been dealing with and Gage had to agree with his "wife" – he missed it.
"Mm," Ehrlich nodded. "And now how do you spend time together?"
Gage said, "We mostly just pass each other in the hall on our way to do something or sit down to dinner and eat without talking because we're so hungry and tired."
"So would you say that you've lost tough?" the doctor wanted to know.
The Rangers glanced at each other again before Sydney answered for them both. "Yeah, I guess that's a fair assessment."
"What about dating?" Ehrlich continued.
"Each other?" the pair asked in surprised unison.
The doctor's eyebrows lifted at this as though confused by their sudden shocked response and he said, "I was referring to dating in the way that you did before you were married. Have you tried dating each other again since this losing touch has begun?"
"Um, no," Sydney responded.
"Never thought of it," Gage added, glancing sidelong at Sydney.
"Mm," Ehrlich mused.
"So are you suggesting that I ask Elena out on a date, Dr. Ehrlich?" Gage asked, slightly confused.
"It certainly couldn't hurt," the doctor replied. "It's one way I've found that busy couples can rejuvenate their relationships when they hit rough patches like the one you're in right now."
Sydney and Gage remained silent upon receiving this suggestion, though their reaction didn't seem to bother Ehrlich, who asked, "How long have you been married again? I read it in your file but the date has slipped my mind."
"Two and a half years," Sydney told him, using the time period of their partnership as Rangers for the length of their "marriage."
"Ah yes," Ehrlich nodded. "You're very newly married; I remember now."
He suddenly stood, causing the Rangers to jump to their feet as well. "I think this is enough for our first session. Tomorrow morning you will join the group session in the Bliss Room at nine o'clock and then you will spend the afternoons in different sessions; one is for husbands only and the other for wives. Then in the evening we have another group session after dinner."
He gave them a bright smile and ushered them out the door. Before they exited, however, he stopped them to impart one more thing: "Oh, and if you could please leave any cell phones or laptops you might have brought with you at the front desk, that would be most helpful. We find that couples have an easier time connecting with one another without distractions from the outside."
Gage flinched inwardly, but didn't allow his feelings to show on his face. Instead, he nodded, as did Sydney and they departed.
At the front desk, they followed orders and left their cell phones with the woman there. The surveillance gear they'd brought included a separate cell phone so they would still have a connection to Walker when they needed it. Still, Gage couldn't help but feel a bit sad as he relinquished his – not that he knew who he would call anyway since Sydney was with him. Still, they weren't exactly on good footing at the moment so a lifeline to the outside would have been appreciated.
The Rangers were heading for the dining hall when they encountered the Tylers again. Mary gushed a hello and grabbed Sydney's hand to drag her along, jabbering as she did so. Sydney glanced back over her shoulder at Gage with a pained and desperate expression on her face. Her eyes clearly said, "Help me, please!" but Gage couldn't bear to miss the golden opportunity he'd been handed. She had been riding him all week ever since the Martinez bust and she'd been rude all day since they'd arrived at Arroyo Grande, yet here was his opportunity to get even.
"My wife's a talker," Bob Tyler sidled up to Gage as the women pulled ahead, Mary still pulling Sydney along.
"Oh mine too," Gage nodded and sent a sickeningly sweet smile in Sydney's direction, giving her a waggle of his fingers that clearly indicated his disinterest in assisting her. The gesture obviously made his point because her eyes widened with horror, then anger. Gage knew he'd be in for it later, but at that moment, his decision left him completely satisfied.
Next chapter – group therapy! (Insert maniacal laughter here.)