Elizabeth Bolling reclined in a hammock between two palm trees, reading, as Thomas Magnum checked the perimeter again and called Tanaka for an update. She'd been right that the officers at the front gate had tried to call when the lights went out, but were unable because of the power outage. Magnum, however, wanted to know if Tanaka's people had found out anything more about her stalker or the shooter.
"Excuse me, ma'am," an accented voice called to her. "Are you the woman of the house?"
Startled, she put her book down and sat up. "Uh, no. I can direct you to the Main House to Mr. Higgins."
"Ms. Bolling?"
She frowned and looked more closely at the man standing in front of her, wearing a uniform that declared "Oahu's Premiere Electical Co". Her memory stirred something, the face was something familiar, but her memory couldn't pull up a name. "Yes?"
"What are you doing in Hawaii? Do you remember me?"
Standing, she looked carefully at him and fought for the memory. "Julio?"
His dark eyes wrinkled at the corners as his mouth smiled. "I can't believe this! When did you come to Hawaii?"
Relaxing, she took a step toward him. "Six or eight months ago. What month is it? I guess it's been seven? You?"
"Four months." His smiled dissolved and his eyes hardened. "It took time to find you."
She frowned, then, and stopped moving. "What?"
"Why did you leave Miami?" His features portrayed anger.
Confused, Liz frowned at him. Wary, she looked around the estate, hoping to see Magnum. "I had to. "
"No, you didn't! I would have protected you!" He took a step toward her.
Stepping backward with her hand raised, she asked. "Protect me from what?"
"From those men who were trying to take advantage of you."
She blinked. "Trying…" She frowned. "Were you the one who hurt Manny Diego?"
Julio frowned. "Everyone knew he flirted with everyone. He wasn't good enough for you. He would never respect you like you deserve."
Tears sprang to her eyes. "There was nothing going on between us, Julio! He was my friend! That's all!"
Julio shook his head. "He wanted more! Who wouldn't? That guy at the club is a perfect example! He flirted with every skirt that walked in but wanted more with you."
"What about me?"
Julio and Liz turned to see Thomas Magnum standing near a tree with his hands in his pockets.
"You must have an opinion of me," Magnum said.
Julio straightened. "You," he said, bitterly. "You're good." The statement dripped with sarcasm. "You put on a protective show to get her to fall for you. But you'll see: she doesn't fall for that kind of thing. She needs someone who knows what is good for her. Someone who has her best interests in mind for her."
"And you're that person?" Magnum asked.
"I'd be better than you!"
"Julio!" Liz's tone suddenly turned from fearful to angry. "What the hell, dude? Have you ever known me to stand down to a student?!"
Julio turned to her. "But you ran…"
"Do you really think I am going to stay around and bring danger to my students or coworkers?"
Julio smiled. "That's the fierce woman I knew. You inspired me."
Liz frowned. "To do what? Take lives? How is that something for me to be proud of?"
Julio shook his head. "Not take lives. I never, intentionally, killed anyone. Why did you quit teaching? Don't you know how important you are?"
"People I care about were getting hurt!"
Julio shook his head. "Only people who wanted more from you than they deserved. They all thought they could have you, but they had no real chance, did they?"
"No, Julio, they didn't. They were my friends, nothing more! You went after my friends! Why?" Liz waved her arms in exasperation.
"Because of our connection. We had something. I felt it. It took me a while to realize what it meant."
Taking a deep breath, Liz put a shaking hand to her forehead. "Julio, you graduated, what, five years ago? Why now?"
Julio nodded, smiling. "I knew you'd remember." He seemed to relax a bit and came closer to her. When she stepped back, she came into contact with the hammock she'd been reclining on only moments earlier, preventing her from moving any further. "Yeah. And I went to college, like you wanted me to. But when I was there, I realized no woman… no professor… no one inspired me like you! I knew it meant there was something more than just a student-teacher thing between us."
Liz looked at Magnum with wide eyes. He nodded, reassuringly, at her, as he eased closer, holding up a hand in a 'stay calm' motion.
Looking back at the dark-haired, dark-eyed, young man in front of her, she said. "Oh, Julio. There's never been anything other than a student-teacher relationship between me and any of my students. You all were my kids, like as if I adopted you as my children. I care about you – about all my students! – but not that way. You misunderstood."
"That's why I'm here! To show you. I'm not a child. I'm a man. I'm making a good living. I can support you like a queen. You don't have to rely on a teacher's salary or work for that club. You can teach for fun! If anyone tries to tell you how to teach, you can quit and go somewhere else. You could open your own school!"
Liz shook her head, her eyes wide. "I like working at the club. I don't want to teach anymore. I loved it when I did it, but I don't want to be cooped up indoors all the time in a place like this. I like the freedom I have being an entertainer who mostly works lunch and dinner with an occasional evening event."
"But people in those places will try to take advantage of you! You don't have to worry about hours anymore. If you don't want to work," Julio shouted, grabbing her arm. "I'll take care of you!"
Trying to pull her arm away, Liz insisted. "Julio! You're scaring me."
Julio shook his head, tightening his grasp on her. "But why? I would never hurt you!"
"Julio!" Magnum called out. "If you love Ms. Bolling, why are you scaring her? Why poison her suntan lotion? Why shoot at her?"
"I wouldn't hurt her! But you and your flashy car - " Julio shouted at Magnum, then looked at Liz again, shaking her slightly, as she struggled to get out of his hand. "It's not even his, you know?! He doesn't own this place! From what I can tell, he barely owns the clothes on his back!"
"I know all about the car and the house," Liz said, through gritted teeth. "That's not how I choose my friends. Thomas is successful because he's the kind of person that people are happy to be loyal to. He's rich because he has really good friendships. I am happy to count him as a friend because I know he cares about my well-being more than anything else about me."
Julio scoffed. "Ha! I've seen the way he looks at you. He pretends to be your friend, Ms. Bolling, to get close to you!"
"Well, it's more effective than shooting at me!" Liz shouted, her voice cracking.
Magnum used Julio surprise at Liz's reaction to leap forward, grab Julio's right hand with his left pulling the younger man toward him while his right swung to connect with Julio's face, cracking his knuckle against the younger man's cheekbone, causing him to release Liz, roughly, sending her sprawling across the hammock, over it and onto the ground below.
Julio blocked Magnum's second blow and kicked Magnum in the gut. Magnum leaped backward to lessen the power of the kick and grabbed Julio's leg, punching his thigh with his elbow, then dropped the leg and swung at Julio's face again, landing a hard blow to the other man's nose, causing him to stagger backwards.
Shakily standing, Liz cried out. "STOP!"
The officer that had been behind Julio arrived at a sprint and tackled Julio as another officer arrive with his gun drawn.
Magnum staggered over to Liz put his arms protectively around her shoulders. She was trembling and clutched his shirt as if it were a lifeline. He turned her away from Julio and walked her back to the house, passing Higgins with his hunting rifle, complete with scope, on the way.
Instead of the main house, he took her to the guesthouse and led her to the couch, where he set her down. He went to his kitchen grabbed the bottle of rum left from the night before, poured a shot into a glass and took it down to her. He sat next to her. "Drink."
Liz was still shaking as she put the glass to her lips and sipped.
Magnum took a moment to really look at her, red marks on just above her wrist, bandage on her leg from the day before, a fresh scrape on her other knee from her rough landing over the hammock. He went for the first aid kit and, sitting next to her again, pulled her leg into his lap and put a bandage on the new scrape.
Then, without words, he took the drink from her hand and placed it on the coffee table. Drawing her into his arms, he sat back on the couch and held her, softly whispering words to calm her.
Not much time had passed by the time Higgins brought Tanaka to the guesthouse to question her. Liz explained that Julio had been her student in Miami during his junior year. They'd had, what Liz termed, a "normal teacher-student relationship" – he neither requested nor required any special attention from her in the classroom and they never saw each other outside the classroom – except while passing in the hallways or at official school events like football games. She was at a loss as to why he would do what he'd done.
Tanaka took her statement and assured her that Julio would not bother her anymore. Higgins assured her that Robin Masters would be pressing charges for the damages to the circuit breaker and the back-up generator as well as the harassment of his guests and staff.
Liz nodded, grateful, to both of them. Magnum escorted them out of the guesthouse.
Once on the porch, Magnum pulled the door closed behind him, then turned to Tanaka. "Has he said anything about the suntan lotion or the shooting? Have your people found a gun?"
Tanaka shook his head. "He's just carrying on about how he's trying to protect her and he would never hurt her." He leaned forward. "He's a real crackpot." He frowned. "By the way, if she needs to talk to someone, I can have the police shrink come out and talk to her."
Nodding, Magnum said. "I think she just needs some time, right now."
Higgins nodded. "Quite right. And tell her, of course, to not worry about dinner. We will bring something in."
Magnum nodded. "Could you send over another bottle of the rum she likes. The other bottle is almost empty and she might want some more."
Higgins nodded. "Certainly."
After thanking Tanaka and saying goodbye, Magnum move back into the guesthouse. He looked over the railing to see she was no longer on the couch. His long legs moved easily down the stairs through the main room into the bedroom, where she stood looking out the window, with her arms wrapped around herself.
"Liz?" he called softly. He approached her and gently put his hands her shoulders.
Her hand went to her mouth, then, but she said nothing.
He stood there with her for a time, watching the ocean in the distance.
"Come on," he said, gently, after a time. Instead, she turned in his arms and clung to him, causing him to wrap his arms around her and pull her close. His hand went to the back of her head and stroked her hair.
Sometime later, she pulled away from him and sniffed. "I need to sit down."
His eyebrows were furrowed together and his lips were pressed together in concern as he looked down at her. "Okay." He led her to the couch in the other room and sat with her. He relaxed on the couch, while she sat forward and picked up the drink he'd poured her earlier. She took a small sip, then stared down into the glass.
She swallowed. "If you don't mind me staying one more night, I'll go back to my place tomorrow."
He sat forward and moved her hair off her shoulders to look at her face. "Hey," he said, gently. "Why don't you stay a few more days? It'll be better for you to be around people." He smiled, looking at the TV. "Besides, the Tigers play the Cubs again tonight and you can't leave when my team is going to beat yours. You had too much fun at my expense last night. I need to get you back."
When he looked at her again, she was looking at him with a strange look on her face.
He smiled a closed mouth smile that crinkled his eyes in the corners and emphasized his dimples.
Tears sprung to her eyes and she let out a short laugh, then buried her face in her hands, weeping. He gathered her in his arms, sitting back on the couch again and simply held her until long after she was cried out. He looked down a couple times to see if she was sleeping, but she wasn't.
"You know the Cubs are going to win again, don't you?" she said, finally, her voice low and hoarse.
"Never!" he pronounced, with a smile.
There was a knock on the door. "Who is it?" Magnum called while looking upward.
Higgins voice filtered. "Magnum."
Magnum looked down at her and grinned. "Magnum, who?"
She laughed and sat up, wiping her face, as Higgins opened the door and walked in.
Higgins was carrying a bottle of rum. "I thought I might order something from that Mexican place you frequent. While getting your usual order would be easy enough, I wasn't sure if Elizabeth even cared for that type of food."
"But I was supposed to cook for you tonight!" Liz frowned. "I completely forgot!"
Higgins nodded. "I'm afraid, in all the excitement, I was unable to make it to the market to get your groceries. I hope you'll forgive me and perhaps we can enjoy your burgers tomorrow?"
Liz's smile was that of deep endearment. She nodded and took a deep breath, clearing her throat. "Which Mexican place?"
"Kamekono's Taco Emporium," Magnum grinned.
"Ooo! Good choice. Horrible name, great food. I could go for their loaded nachos."
Higgins nodded. "And your usual, Magnum?"
"Sure, Higgins, thanks!"
"What will you have, Jonathan?" Liz asked. "I can't imagine you eating Mexican food."
"Actually, their skirt steak is quite palatable," he responded kindly. He handed the bottle to Magnum. "I'll let you know when the food arrives."
"Thanks, Higgins," Magnum smiled.
"Thank you, Jonathan," Liz said. "Would you care to join us for the baseball game while we eat?"
Magnum looked shocked, then shook his head at her, stopping when Higgins looked at him.
"While it is a gracious offer and I appreciate the invitation, I'm afraid I have too much work to do this evening to join you. Thank you just the same."
Liz nodded.
Magnum walked Higgins out.
"How is she?" Higgins asked just outside the door.
"She's coping. I've told her she can stay a few more days. I don't want her to be alone if she has bad dreams."
Higgins nodded. "Of course. Just be aware that she may be falling in love with you, Magnum."
Thomas Magnum looked back at the door they'd just emerged from and then to Higgins. He nodded. "Thanks, Higgins."
Higgins nodded and walked away.
When he walked back in, Liz was getting ice and putting it into a towel as well as her glass. He frowned. "Liz?"
"Let me see your hand," she said very matter-of-factly.
He'd forgotten about his knuckles of his right hand which were now bruised and slightly swollen. He sat down at the table and held out his hand. She took a wet cloth and wiped it, inspecting it for cuts. She had a small jar of Vicks Vap-o-rub, which she unscrewed and dipped a dry paper towel into it. She smeared a small amount on to the tip of his knuckle, then, with her fingers, gently rubbed the menthol paste onto his hand. Finally, she gathered up the towel of ice and placed it gingerly on his hand, over the paste.
"I don't know how well it will work since it's been a couple of hours. I should have done it as soon as we got in here."
He smiled. "I never heard of this remedy before."
"I learned it in Miami." She smiled. "If done right after an injury, the bruising goes away incredibly fast."
He looked impressed. "How long do I have to keep the ice on my hand?"
"About twenty minutes should do the trick."
"It's cold." He smiled at her, then looked down at her bruised forearm. "What about you?"
"I've already put some on my arm, but it probably won't bruise like your knuckles." Liz chuckled as she put the ingredients away. "And your Mexican food should be here the time you remove it and it'll warm you up nicely."
Magnum reached out and grabbed her uninjured wrist. "I can think of something better than Mexican food for warming up." He pulled her over to sit on his knee. Moving her hair away from her face, he inspected her face, tearstained and make up smudged. His thumb traced her cheekbone. He had pulled her to him with every intention of kissing her, but he didn't try now. "None of it was your fault, Liz," he murmured.
She looked at him and nuzzled his hand with her cheek. Then she looked over his head. "My brain tells me that. I know for a fact that I never did anything to encourage that boy to think we could be more than teacher and student. His break from reality had nothing to do with me other than giving him a point to focus on." She looked back down at him, with tears gathering in her eyes. "But another part of me can't escape the fact that one good man died and six more could have because they were friends with me!"
She stood and moved back to the couch, but didn't sit down. "How am I supposed to reconcile myself to that? How do I make or maintain friendships in the future knowing that is a very real possibility?!"
He stood and moved to her, balancing the ice on his hand. "He's going to jail, Liz. He's no threat to anyone anymore. You don't need to change who you are or anything about you." He placed the ice on the coffee table and reached for her.
She pulled away and picked up the ice, placing it back on his hand. "Twenty minutes!"
Magnum's eyebrows rose, surprised. "Yes, ma'am!" He pouted. After a moment, he amended. "Come to think of it, you may want to tone down the pushiness when it comes to bedside manner."
Her eyes widened and her eyebrows rose. She started shaking, laughter bubbling up from deep inside of her. She looked up at him, laughing through wet eyes and wrapped her arms around his ribs in a hug.
He put the arm that wasn't balancing ice around her and held her tight. After some time, she pulled away and looked up at him. He bent down and kissed her softly.
When they parted, she looked up at him, licking her bottom lip. She took his good hand and led him to the stairs going back to the kitchen table – stopping and turning around to face him after only two steps. When she met his eyes, her eyes were only slightly above his eye level, she released his hand and put her hands on his shoulders, pulling him closer. Then she tilted her head and touched the hair at the nape of his neck, allowing one of curls to wrap around her finger. Then, with her other hand, she used her fingers to trace his cheekbone to his dimpled cheek, then to his lip. Smiling, she pulled his injured hand by the wrist and rested it on the rail next to them. "Twenty minutes," she whispered.
By the time she was finished with her examination of his face, his laughter was gone and his good arm went around her waist. Magnum narrowed his eyes. "Keep looking at me like that and it won't make ten."
She tilted her head and her eyebrows raised. "Good behavior gets rewarded," she said in a very instructional tone, her lips tilting up at one corner.
His eyebrows rose and a gentle smile touched his lips as his gaze went to her mouth. "Really?"
She nodded. "Really." She leaned into him and pressed her lips to his, cupping his cheek with one hand as the other moved through his hair.
He pulled her tight against him and kissed her back, encouraging her to deepen the kiss. He was rewarded by her lips parting and her tongue dancing out to touch his lip, sending tremors into his gut and lower.
When they parted, she smiled as she pushed him slightly back, keeping an eye on his injured hand so that it wouldn't move. Then she stepped down to the first step and smiled up at him as she moved his collar and leaned into him to kiss his neck, using her tongue to trace circles on his carotid and moving to nibble on his earlobe. He growled and, weaving his good hand into her hair, gently pulled her away from his neck to recaptured her lips, moving his arm down to pull her tightly against him.
The knock on the door seemed very far away until Higgins voice filtered through the door. "Magnum!"
She pulled away with a smiled, licking her bottom lip. "Time flies…" Then she moved away, taking the ice pack off his hand and climbed up to the sink while Magnum cleared his throat, throwing his head back.
"Yes, Higgins?!"
"Your food has arrived."
Magnum grumbled and Liz laughed as he climbed the stairs to the door.
