Disclaimer: Yeah, I wish.
Rating: M for Mature
Content: Violence, language and sexual situations.
Summary: She began to find that his too blue eyes hurt her more than his hands ever could. JacksonOC
---
Beautiful Liar
---
Chapter 1: Queuing
---
"Trust me, Marie, you really need this cruise," She leaned back in her chair, running a hand through her red hair.
"I don't know, Jared, I have a lot of patients next week," Her brown eyes fell to her appointment book. Next week was conveniently empty. What a fat lie. She could hear him snort on the other end.
"Like it's really that hard for you to clear it up," Marie shrugged, despite the fact that he couldn't see her. "Besides, you need to get out of Seattle, if only for a week," She sighed, almost relenting.
"And why can't you go again?"
"Because," his voice was comically exasperated, "Ricky doesn't like boats,"
"Ships," she corrected him absently. "Cruises happen on ships," She heard him scoff in an almost effeminate manner,
"Same thing, just bigger. Anyways, he doesn't like them, so I can't go, but I already paid and made reservations. It'll be easy to change them under your name. And," Marie could almost taste his hesitation, "it'll be a good place for you to meet people," She paused, twirling a lock of hair around her finger and rubbing the strands against the pad of her thumb. His allusion to her singleness didn't go unnoticed. It had been, what, five months since she found out why Charlie couldn't spend weekends at her apartment? Marie chewed her lower lip. She should be over him by now, really. With an intake of breath, she said,
"How much would I have to pay you?"
"Aw, thanks, baby!" he cried, completely ignoring her question. "Don't worry about the money; think of it as a birthday present for all the years I've missed!" Marie furrowed her brow.
"But you always buy me a birthday present,"
"No, Ricky does. He just puts my name next to his," She chuckled; it was classically Jared.
"Are you sure? Because-"
"Na-ah, no way, honey. I don't care how much your loonies pay you, my loonies pay me more," Marie laughed again, if only because the 'loonies' that Jared referred to were the fashion victims he helped recover.
"Alright then, what about Boots?"
"Your cat? Don't worry about him, Ricky and I have it covered,"
---
She stared into the mirror as she sat at her bureau. Her fingers ran through her hair, more red than the typical orange or blonde, and then traced the circles under her brown eyes that she had so lovingly concealed with make-up. Does she look like this now? Marie wondered. Or is her hair longer than mine? Shorter? It had been three years since her disappearance, but it was to be expected. Marie brushed the feelings and thoughts aside. It's not like I'm ever going to see her again…
Breaking away from her gloomy thoughts, Marie stood and slipped on the jacket lying on her bed. She tugged on her low heels before pulling her suitcase out of the bedroom and shutting off the lights. Her Calico cat flopped down in front of her feet. He stared up at her, rolling onto his back as if to pitifully say, "Why are you leaving me?"
"I'll be back in a week. Ricky and Jared will be over, dropping off the mail and feeding you, so behave," Marie chastised him. Great, her inner voice was bitter. I've been reduced to talking to my cat. She locked her apartment, wheeling her luggage down to the elevator and pushing the button that lowered her down to the garage. It was a nice apartment, a little expensive, but she liked it for the quiet neighborhood. She threw her bags into the backseat of her car and slid into the driver's seat. As she exited the garage, she noticed that the silver BMW 5 series was gone. The car had been parked outside of the opposite apartment complex for a while and she had never seen it move. Marie shrugged it off and made her way to Seattle Pier 30.
The drive was uneventful and she bypassed the Starbucks drive-throughs with a determined, yet passive-aggressive animosity. If there was one thing that irked Marie Jeanette Keller, it was the overrated coffee franchise that was the Devil's spawn. Her loathing for Starbucks was a little juvenile, she would admit as an avid tea drinker, yet she had witnessed many of her favorite, small coffee and tea shops go out of business in downtown Seattle. With the disappearance of her beloved shops came the subservient hatred of the consumer. She found solace in her displeasure with every sip of steaming tea.
Marie made her way down the piers to the gated parking lot. She relinquished the twenty-five dollar fee, a price she couldn't argue with as she was going on this cruise for free. She walked down the pavement, luggage in tow until a bored middle-aged, balding man in a vest depicting the cruise's logo directed her to her appropriate line. Waiting in the queue, she slipped her Blackberry Curve out of her pocket and pressed two. Marie held the phone up to her ear, shifting slightly forward to follow the minimal budge in the line. After several rings, the phone picked up.
"Hello?" She smiled at the rough greeting.
"Hi, Dad,"
"Oh, Marie," His voice brightened considerably. "Honey, Marie's on the phone!" she heard him call. His volume lowered to speak to her again. "How are you doing? Are you on the ship yet?"
"I'm doing fine. Just standing in line to board. How are things at home?"
"Oh, things are fine; your mother keeps ordering tea online. I personally think it's a bit ridiculous," Marie chuckled lightly. After she had introduced her adopted mother to Peet's Coffee and Tea, the woman couldn't go back to the Safeway purchased tea in little cardboard boxes.
"How's everything going at the university?" she heard him huff as she peered around the man in front of her
"They want me to be head of the department," Marie's eyebrows lifted in brief surprise,
"But, Dad, that's great!"
"I have enough trouble with my own students," He grumbled good-naturedly, "I don't want to babysit the rest of the History department,"
"Henry!" She could hear Anna's distant voice on the other line. "Henry, let me talk to Marie!" From behind her, a woman picked up her own phone.
"Where are you?" was her greeting. A pause, then, "What do you mean where am I? I'm at Pier 30!" Marie threw a quick glance over her shoulder. She was bleach blonde with carefully concealed, minor wrinkles. Marie guessed she was in her mid thirties. The young man in back of her made eye contact with Marie. He surreptitiously tilted his head at the blonde and cocked an eyebrow with a quick grin. She turned away, hoping he hadn't seen her small smile.
"Marie, sweetie? Mom wants to talk to you,"
"Okay Dad," She wheeled her luggage as the line lurched forward. She heard the beach blonde say,
"Pier 28? You said Pier 30 last night!" And then in a more polite voice, she asked, "I'm sorry, is this the twenty day cruise to Mexico?"
"Ah, I'm afraid not. We're actually going up north to Alaska,"
"Hi, honey!" her mother's cheerful voice broke into the speaker. Marie wondered what took so long. "How's everything at work? Are any of your patients feeling better?" Anna had switched to French. Appropriately switching to the same language, Marie replied,
"Some, but there are others I still need to work with. Mom, really, you know my French is good,"
"How is your German holding up?" Anna's merry voice indicated how amusing she thought their language game was.
"I thought we stopped doing this when I graduated college," But Marie smiled fondly. Being the daughter of an evolutionary linguistics professor who spoke twelve languages fluently had its perks.
"Alright, alright. Just making sure you haven't forgotten everything I've taught you," Anna had resumed their conversation in English. "I'll let you go; I know that standing in line can be awfully boring dear, but it is rather rude to be on the phone in a queue,"
"Okay. I'll call you when I get to Ketchikan. Tell Dad I say bye,"
"Okay, buh-bye," And Marie clicked off the phone. She cast another furtive glance over her shoulder to see the beach blonde gone, making her way back to the entrance. The man now stood behind her and she found her eyes level with his collarbone. The first two buttons of his collared shirt were undone and she could see a small, round scar peeking out from behind the pale fabric.
"Hi," She quickly averted her eyes, just realizing that he had been staring. He smiled and she suspected it was genuine, but simply threw up a polite smile in return.
"I'm sorry, I-"
"Don't worry about it. Happens all the time," From the slight rasp in his voice and the placement of the scar, she guessed that he had recently experienced a tracheotomy. Marie nodded and ambled forward in line. Her second bag slid from it's resting point on top of her suitcase. Damn it. She reached down but the man had already picked up her fallen luggage, "I got it,"
"Oh, um, thanks," She accepted his assistance and tucked a lock of red hair behind her ear. Marie could feel him studying her and so she looked him in the face. His eyes bled all sorts of thoughts, nothing below a superior intelligence or above wicked, carnal promises. He was flirting with her physically, as far as she could tell, and although she was a little flattered, she was still wary of strange men with breath taking, mesmerizing, almost painfully beautiful eyes. Shut up. She told herself lightly as she refocused her attention to moving ahead.
"So, is this your first cruise?" Great. Now he was trying to converse with her. She pursed her lips before turning back and offering a polite, albeit fake smile.
"Yeah, my friend guilt tripped me into going," It wasn't far from the truth but Marie didn't feel the need to let him know anything personal.
"Ah. I'm actually here by choice; vacation," He supplied. She nodded again and angled her body to face the front of the line. They were closer and Marie could see that people split off to walk to individual booths. Her escape made itself clear. She felt her pant's pocket vibrate and Marie pulled out her Blackberry. Jared's face beamed up at her next to his phone number. Licking her lips, she feigned importance,
"This is Dr. Keller speaking,"
"MJ?" Jared's voice was quizzical and rightfully so. "You have my number, honey. Is it blocked again? RICKY! DID YOU BLOCK OUR NUMBER AGAIN?" She winced,
"I see. Well, I'm not available until next week. I'm taking a vacation,"
"What? Marie, I know that. I sent you on the vacation," She swallowed, hoping that Jared would remember the code from their college days.
"I was hoping we could reschedule and meet at the Blue Peacock," Which translated into, I've been preoccupied by a guy. Help me. Jared let out a gasp.
"RICKY! RICKY!" Marie deftly moved her thumb to lower the volume, lest the surrounding people could hear her friend. "Ricky she's already talking to a guy and she isn't even on the ship yet!"
"Excellent. I'll see you then," And she abruptly hung up the phone. I'll get him for that later. But her thought was affectionate and not as ill-willed as she intended. Marie didn't dare to turn back to the man behind her.
She didn't glance at him when she was at her booth, displaying her passport and boarding pass. Nor did she look at him when she wheeled up the ramp and smiled at the security that helped her with her bags and handed her the room key. Marie felt his eyes boring into the spot between her shoulder blades and refused to look back.
---
And yes: Jared is gay. Very gay. And his partner Ricky is actually manlier than he is. And to clarify, since I know I might get flack for Jared's portrayal, I have nothing against gay people. One of my best friends is gay.
That aside, I'll give a cameo to whoever caught the references I made.
Reviews are Love.