Chapter 11
After being awakened from a deep sleep to an invasion of their home, seeing her husband bleeding profusely from being shot, and hearing his cries as Sam performed some backwoods surgery to repair the wound, Leesa was a nervous wreck. It was something a little sedative could take care of, so Fiona sent her off to an oblivious state thanks to a med kit she found on board the plane, and Jackie helped her put Leesa to bed. Ian lay bandaged and wrapped in warm blankets, riding a similar wave of unconsciousness. Jesse and Tony boarded up the window, and as they worked they tried to keep the noise to a minimum, but it didn't matter. The couple was out for awhile. Neither of them awoke until early afternoon, but they didn't know what time it was because the window was completely blocked off and the room was dark.
Ian carefully unwrapped himself from the coverings and sat up, swung his legs off the bed, and cautiously stood. His side felt as if it were on fire, but otherwise, he was doing pretty good for having been shot. It was something he'd never experienced before and hoped he never would again. He'd stick to guns filled with blanks if he had anything to say about it.
Leesa still slept, so he left her alone, put on clean clothes and went downstairs. The house was deathly quiet. He looked around at the places where he remembered the bodies lay, but they were gone. Even the blood stains were cleaned up, and if it weren't for the faint smell of bleach, no one would ever know that anyone had bled out on his living room floor. The broken panes in the French doors were covered with small pieces of plywood. Only a few bullet holes in the dining room wall were evidence that a firefight had taken place at the house. He never liked the finish on that wall anyway. A little drywall mud and paint, and it would look good as new. He crossed the room into the kitchen, saw the tea kettle on the stove, and checked it to find it was still hot. He poured himself a cup and dunked a tea bag in it, dribbled a little honey into the cup and swirled it around before taking it outside to the deck. He was pleased that the air warmed up considerably from the day before and, for someone used to the climate, a jacket wasn't necessary. Maybe it was a sign of things to come.
From where he stood, he had a clear view of the valley. The bodies were gone. He suspected that Michael and his friends took them to the plane crash. If he were a spy, that's what he would do, and then make it look like they were the victims of a mid-air firefight that led to a crash. Perfect plan, and the real spies could just go off-grid without any questions. Then he and Leesa could have some relative peace and quiet back, and maybe the rest of the shoot would be a bit less dramatic. David came up the incline, saw Ian standing on the deck and smiled and waved at him. Ian returned the gesture, momentarily forgetting about his wound, and he winced as he raised his left hand.
"Nice to see you up and around," David said as he took in Ian from head to toe. "Feeling any better?"
"If you mean, am I ready to shoot? Not today, Dave." A massive breath escaped him and he leaned his elbows on the deck rail. "I think we've had enough excitement for 24 hours, don't you?"
"Yeah." He followed Ian's lead and leaned on the rail. "We, uh...we took the bodies to the crash site."
"I figured that." Ian shook his head. "After doing this show for six, now going on seven, years, I'm starting to think like a spy. It's kinda scary."
"I was thinking the same thing. I'm just glad that what we do is nowhere near as hairy as last night. I thought we were all done for."
"Kind of makes you think that maybe Michael Westen and his friends need a vacation...on the show. Maybe you can write that script and we'll shoot it up here."
David shook his head. "Too much like real life. And anything without what happened last night would be boring. You know it's true."
Ian sipped his tea, swallowed, and replied with a disappointed tone. "Yeah, I guess you're right."
Michael, Fi, Sam and Jesse walked two by two up the path from the valley and approached the two men on the deck. "Ian, I just want to say how sorry I am that you all got mixed up in this. We should have left..."
"No," Ian turned to Michael and held up a hand. "I was the one who invited you to stay despite the risk. It was inevitable that the guys who wanted you dead would show up here. It's just that none of us every really understood just how dangerous it could be."
"Still, I shouldn't have let you take that risk. We should have kept going, finish our trip to Seattle."
"At least now you won't have your enemies breathing down your necks," David reasoned.
"They might send another team when the first one doesn't respond. You could still be in danger." Michael's intense eyes bored into them. "If I were you, I'd go back to Miami for awhile. Dealing with a union would be a walk in the park compared to who they send after the first team."
"We'll take our chances," Ian replied. "And we're going to report the plane crash now that there are some victims. Did you make it look convincing?"
"Yeah." Michael smiled. He liked the way Ian thought. "Fi surprised me. She had a little bit of C4 on the plane, and once it detonates, that plane and everything on it will be..."
An explosion interrupted Michael, and they watched a fireball curl up into the sky. It quickly burned up the plane, and Ian worried about the surrounding trees, but the fire remained confined to the fuselage. "Nice work, Fi."
"I've had a little bit of experience." She grinned.
"Once it's burned out, we'll let it sit another day maybe, and then I'll call the authorities, say we were looking for a location to shoot and found the plane."
"What about the kids, Ian?"
"They were so stoned, they probably don't remember a thing. And that kid with the bottle, well, I'll just have to have a little conversation with him, make sure his story matches ours." He smiled at Michael. "Don't worry, we'll take care of it. It'll probably make the national news and reach whoever tried to kill you guys."
"I would get the house fixed up before you call the cops," Jesse suggested as he took in the broken window in Ian and Leesa's room.
David nodded. "No problem, Jesse, we've got it covered."
"No. Before we leave, we fix everything. We're responsible for what happened. If we hadn't stayed here, they wouldn't have come after everyone else too." Fiona was insistent as she said, "Michael, Sam, Jesse. Let's get to work!"
Sam and Jesse borrowed the truck to go into town to get panes of glass to replace what was broken. When someone asked what they needed them for, they explained that they had a little accident on the set and needed to fix a few things. No one looked at them with suspicion, although more than one local gave Sam a second look. They knew Ian Benton, and for some reason, he didn't quite look like himself.
That night they had a goodbye dinner for Michael and his friends, and in the morning they would be gone. No one knew if they would ever see each other again, but if Burned started up production in Miami again, it was a distinct possibility. Despite the short time they spent together, they all felt that they'd forged a bond, so it was a bittersweet goodbye. Ian offered to take them to the airport, but they declined the offer and crammed into a cab. The sun shone brightly on them and the air was balmy as they headed out on the vacation they deserved.