Deep End

Chapter Two

Lost in the fine art of chopping onions for omelets Eliot barley heard the creak of the floor board near the back door. It was nearly five in the morning and deliveries didn't start till seven. He was pretty sure Hardison didn't have any of his secret shipments coming in at this hour either. He switched the knives position in his hand and took a step back from the cutting board.

"Still working things out with a knife I see." The woman turned her head just as the blade whizzed past her and was firmly planted into the wall, inches from being imbedded into her skull.

"I couldda killed you Charlotte." Eliot said, his eyes burning with anger.

"Yeah, well you didn't." Reaching up, she pulled the knife out of the wall and threw it on the counter. Charlotte Rourke was one part gypsy, one part princess and all bitch on a good day. By the looks of her the other two just let the bitch take over. From her cowboy boots to her leather biker jacket Eliot figured no man in his right mind would try anything with her. Her hair was golden blond today with a hot pink streak on the right side and she looked like she just might of walked from Texas.

"Have a seat. I'll make you something to eat." He knew her well enough to know she wouldn't fight him on her need to eat. She looked tired and he thought along with lack of sleep she hadn't eaten in a good while, either. She sat on the stool on the far side of the island and he went back to his chopping. Setting her bag on the counter she watched him intently at first but in predictable Charlie style, she grew board. She slid off the stool and slowly looked around the Mirco Brew's kitchen.

"You haven't been here long." It was a statement not a question. "It suits you." She stated. Charlie held nothing back. If she was anything, it was brutally honest. "I'm hurt you kept in touch with Shelly and Vance and not me."

"Shelly was in town for a couple of days and we connected. Vance was out of necessity."

"I heard you saved the world, yet again, without the pleasure of a ticker tape parade." She smiled and sat back down. "What does that make now…three or is it four times."

"Five but who's counting." He stopped chopping and looked at her. "You didn't want me to call you ever again. Remember."

"I remember Greece." She popped a piece of tomato into her mouth. "I remember Texarkana." Looking into his eyes, hers softened. "And I remember my jeep spread all across Texarkana."

"Shelly told me he would disarm the bomb." His mouth twitched.

"Shelly was born with his head up his ass." Charlie sat back and looked at him, really looked at him for the first time since she entered the bar. "You were supposed to disarm the bomb." Eliot couldn't help himself from smiling this time.

"In my defense, I was a little busy."

(Texarkana, Texas 2003)

"Eliot...what the hell are you doing?" Charlie looked at Eliot sprawled out on the overstuffed sofa.

"We have the day off." He smiled at her. "I thought we could do something."

"You do know that Greece….Greece was just a onetime thing. We're home now Eliot and we can't do…what we did…there." He stood.

"What exactly did we do there, that's got you all tongue tied Charlotte?" She couldn't help but smile.

"I don't get tongue tied Eliot Spencer. You of all people should know that." This was true. He had been on the wrong side of more tongue lashings than he cared to admit to.

"I didn't hear any complaints on our side trip to Greece." He took a step closer to her.

"I have no complaints, just a promise that we would forget about it once we set foot on American soil." His hand reached out and pushed the green lock of hair behind her ear.

"Can you forget what happened Charlotte? 'Cause I can't." He leaned in and kissed her. He almost had her convinced that they could continue what they started in Greece when the explosion rocked the foundation of the ranch house. Charlie pushed him away and turned to look out the front door.

"You didn't check my jeep?" She turned back to him.

"We did, when we got here. I just got a little distracted." He looked at the burning ruminants that were once her beloved Jeep Wrangler.

"When were you gonna tell me it was rigged?" She glared at him. "Before or after I was scattered around a hundred acres?" By the look in her eyes she was beyond pissed.

"Calm down Charlie." He reached for her.

"Calm down. Did you see what just happened Spencer? Five minutes from now I was going to get into that Jeep."

"Well, maybe not in five minutes but I wouldn't of let you get in it 'till I checked it again." He knew he had lost whatever connection they had. She loved that jeep and he left its safety and hers to someone else.

(Present)

He looked at Charlie.

"For what it's worth, I'm sorry."

"I know." She reached into her bag and pulled out a three inch thick file.

"When you said you'd have it here by daybreak I didn't expect you to hand deliver it."

"I was in the neighborhood." He turned and lit the burner on the grill. It was best he set his mind on something other than Charlotte Rourke. Taking the eggs out of the carton on the counter he expertly cracked them one handed into the bowl.

"Give me the thumb nail version of what's going on." Eliot kept cooking, not turning around to look at her.

"Dad died, left everything to the foundation. The ranch was paid off and there was enough money to keep it going for at least ten years…with the right investments indefinitely. Collin Pierce was and had always been out finance go to. He was good with investments and knew when to keep things and when to sell. He made my father a lot of money over the years."

"What happened?"

"Last year he retired. No one questioned his son Gavin taking over our portfolio. He had the same limits his father had which were basically not to lose over ten present on one investment. As far as anyone knew he was keeping it simple and above board. Until last week when we got the papers about the delinquent loan we didn't know that the financial end of the ranch was in any kind of trouble. The papers said dad put up the ranch to cover a three hundred thousand dollar loan six months before he died."

"Six months before he died he was in South Africa. Do you think that has anything to do with it?"

"He was there on a relief mission with some of the rehab crew. It was a planned trip with expenses paid by the relief foundation. How do you know where he was?"

"I ran into him there." Eliot knew that Trevor had been sick. He also knew that the man wouldn't ever put the ranch in finical dept for any reason, especially for a loan a mere ten percent of the lands worth. The older man seemed well when he had seen him in Africa, mind, body and spirt.

"He never said anything."

"I wasn't there on vacation Charlie." Eliot plated the omelet he cooked and turned to hand it to her. If it was possible, she looked more tired than when she walked through the door. "Eat, go up to my place and lay down before you fall down. Me and my team will look over the stuff you brought and figure out what's going on."

"They're good?" He lead against the counter, looked into the brown eyes he thought he would never see again in his life time.

"They're the best." She smiled a small smile and he knew he had to help her, had to pull another card out of his deck so Nate could understand why they had to take this job. He had been doing that a lot lately, letting little things slip about his past to get them all to pull together. Charlie was a big part of that past. She had been there through thick and thin, even when Uncle Sam hadn't. "Eat, sleep and we'll get to the bottom of this before it's too late."

"Thanks Eliot…I know that we didn't leave things…" He shook his head.

"Whatever happened back then…it's in the past. Your dad built that ranch so people like us could come home and get well before we faced our old lives head on, mentally and physically. We won't lose it without a fight."

"I knew, even after everything that happened, you were the one I needed to turn to. The one who would understand it isn't just a Veteran's rehab, for some, it's all they have to come home to." He nodded.

"Eat." He turned back to the stove. Maybe someday he would tell her about his home coming. How alone and betrayed he felt. Trevor had been a big help back then and he hoped he could help his daughter now. He finished cooking his own omelet and turned back to find Charlie gone, her plate nearly empty and the file sitting on the counter. She was jitterier than he'd ever seen her and that didn't sit well with him. Charlie was brave, loyal and one of the smartest women he knew. Something else was bothering her. Once he fixed the ranch problem he hoped he could help her with whatever it was making her so skittish. Taking a deep breath he dug into his omelet.

"One crisis at a time Spencer." He told himself. Let's see if he could arrange that.