Chapter 3: Capture the Flag
The sensation of hardwood underneath her woke her up first. She could tell it was light outside because the sun was blinding her through the sheet that was hovering some 3 feet above her head.
"A sheet?" She thought to herself.
She propped herself up on her elbows to look around. Indeed, a sheet, she was laying on Bobby's floor under what appeared to be a roof made of linens.
It was quite the elaborate set up in the living room. Furniture being used in unconventional ways as building blocks for the structure that surrounded Eames.
"Bobby?" she said softly, unsure of exactly where he was in this mess. No answer. She crawled out of an opening she found next to the coffee table.
"There you are." She said more to herself then to the sleeping Goren.
He was slumped over in a recliner, left hand supporting his head, hair a mess, with a distinct outlines of a palm print on his right cheek, while his right hand held an umbrella tightly. On his head he wore what appeared to be a make shift headdress. An assortment of latex gloves for sad, floppy feathers, a magic marker as a center piece, and the whole thing held together by limp, red yarn.
She couldn't help but break into laughter at the sight of her disheveled partner. This of course woke our sleeping chief.
"Good morning." He croaked. "Or is it? What time is it?" he tried to stand but fell back to the reclining position.
Noticing the umbrella in his hand he set it on the floor.
"Did it rain last night or something?" he obviously had forgotten the night before.
After seeing her partner like that each piece began to come back to Alex.
"The fax." She finished crawling out from under the now collapsing tent and sat on the couch.
He didn't say anything but continued to zone out, adjusting to the sudden consciousness.
"We got the fax; we started to…practice making a tent. That's it! Remember?" a big smile came over her face. She continued now standing and gesturing to his attire as she went.
"That umbrella was your 'magic shaman staff'," she picked up the umbrella and took a primitive warrior stance then set it down.
"And that thing on your head." She pointed to his head.
"What thing on my head?" he moved his hand to feel his head and pulled off the scary latex headdress of drunkenness.
"Oh god." He threw it on the floor in embarrassment.
"So I'm the only one who made an ass of myself?" he stood up this time successfully and stared at the tent.
"It's not that bad actually, if you look at it a certain way." He tilted his head just so and smiled. "Yeah, see, it looks like that ancient Mayan temple I showed you in that book."
"If you say so. Come here Bobby, you're a mess." He walked towards her; she licked part of her palm and started to reach for his face.
"Whoa! Stop right there." He grabbed a hold of her wrist to stop her.
"What do you think you are doing huh?" he dropped her hand and stepped back a little.
"You have something on your face Bobby. Here look…" he turned around, dug around a little through the sheets and found her purse. She took out her compact mirror and handed it to him.
He raised the mirror to his face and saw the small black outline of someone's hand. It looked like Alex's hand.
"Did you get a little carried away with the makeup there?" he handed her mirror back to her.
"It's just a little eyeliner, it will wash off."
"You never answered my question." He started to rub at his face vigorously.
"What question is that?" she reached up to try and help him and he playfully slapped her hand away.
"What time is it?"
"Holy crap! What time do we have to be at that bus pickup?"
"Answer the question." He looked down at his palm covered in black smudges.
"It's 12:38."
"Then we would have to be there in no less than one and a half hours."
"Let's get moving then. Don't just stand there and stare at me." She headed for the door, purse slung over the arm, slipping her shoes on as she sprinted along.
"Eames?" he sat back down in the recliner, his hand brushed up against something foreign. He pulled out a black lacey bra. "Do you want this back?" he tossed it towards her and she caught it with one hand but didn't look nearly as surprised as he did at what had just been thrown.
"Well then you might want these back." She dug through her purse and threw a red pair of boxers at Goren.
He was too shocked to catch them so instead they fell to the floor in front of his feet. And he had just got done feeling all smug for having touched her bra. He didn't care he couldn't remember how it got in his chair.
"But how? What?" he sat back down.
"We played capture the flag. I won." She tucked the bra into her bag and opened the front door.
"If you won then how come…"
"I just hid my flag better than you. See you in an hour or so." She was just about out the door when she called back, "Don't forget to pack clean underwear Bobby!"