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"I have a face I cannot show
I make the rules up as I go
Just try and love me if you can
Are you strong enough to be my man?" Sheryl Crow - "Strong Enough"
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Conrad pulled up outside Shana's apartment not more than an hour later. He had flown down to New York City immediately, unable to suppress the cold hand of fear. He was in an army jeep and he left it parked illegally in front of her apartment as he flew up the stairs and rang her apartment. Not surprisingly, she did not answer. He rang the manager and was greeted by a portly man.
"Hello sir. I'm First Sergeant Conrad Hauser and I need to get into the apartments of one of your residents, Shana O'Hara." Duke was firm and left little room for argument.
The smaller man eyed Conrad warily, "Why do you need to do that? I'm not supposed to let people in like that. You got a warrant?"
He resisted the urge to punch the man and kick down Shana's door, instead trying to be as patient as possible, "She is a former operative for the government, we have reasonable intelligence that she is being targeted and she has disappeared. I need to get into her apartment to make sure she isn't inside and injured and see if there are any clues to her whereabouts." He was lying a bit, but not a lot. All of what he was saying could be true.
The manager looked alarmed and after checking Duke's credentials, let him in and unlocked Shana's apartment. Conrad swept through quickly; no sign of her. He picked up her phone and hit the redial button to see if he was the last person she had called. After four rings, an answering machine picked up. "Hello, this is Nan and Gertie," there was an obligatory bark of a dog in the background. "We're not here right now. Please leave your name, number and a message after the tone." Duke's mind raced. Who in the hell was Nan? The manager was still looking at him expectantly and he hung up the line without leaving a message, calling Flint's cell quickly.
"Hello?" Allie's voice was worried as she answered. She likely saw the caller ID information and knew what was going on.
"Tell Flint that I am in her apartment, she's not here, but no indication that she's been harmed or injured. There's a hold on the team until I figure out what's going on. I'll call back later." Duke hung up the phone, trying to stay calm and not jump to conclusions. Her last call had been to a friend most likely. So, maybe she was in trouble and had called the other woman when she couldn't get a hold of him, or it could be innocent and she was fine and she was out with a friend.
The apartment manager looked at him expectantly, "Maybe you could ask Mrs. Cadwell. She lives in the front apartment and sees a lot."
Duke looked over at the man and nodded. "Good. Thank you." He locked the door behind him and followed the other man to the first door after the security entrance to the building. He knocked and soon the door opened as far as a security chain would allow and an elderly woman peered out. "Hello, we're looking for one of your neighbors, she may be in trouble. Named Shana O'Hara, bright red hair and always has a dog. She's blind," he added, almost as an afterthought.
Mrs. Cardwell sized Conrad up and recognized true concern in his eyes. "She went out maybe an hour or two ago with her blind friend, her name is..." the woman furrowed her already wrinkled brow in thought, "Nancy, that's it. Poor dears, I don't know how they manage, both of them being blind and only having those dogs to help them in the city. We talked a little when they got back."
"Got back?" The fear reared its ugly head. If they returned, where were they now?
"Yes, they were stopping back before heading to the park. Is Shana ok? She's really is such a dear."
Duke relaxed greatly with the information he received. She was ok, just out for a day with a friend. He had totally overreacted to her not leaving a message. He wondered what was wrong with him; normally he wouldn't be so paranoid and impulsive about this. 'You are jumpy because you love her,' a little voice in his head whispered. He pushed the voice away and spoke aloud, "I think so. It appears as if we had faulty intelligence. Thank you both for your cooperation. I am going to go try and find her and give her an update on the situation." Tell her that he was being a paranoid, overprotective ass was more the case. He knew she would lay into him for it, but he couldn't help it. He knew she'd hear about it and he couldn't lie to her.
After finishing in her apartment building he called Flint to tell the team to stand down and then he jogged to Central Park to look for Shana and her friend.
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Shana and her friend Nancy sat on a bench in Central Park, enjoying the early evening fall temperatures. Shana was embarrassed to admit that most of the conversation had centered on Conrad. Nan thought that Shana should go for it and give Conrad a chance, but she still wasn't convinced. She didn't want to just be the pity date and her fear was that Conrad was interested merely out of pity and guilt. What kind of woman would she be to accept pity dates?
"It's up to you, Shana," Nan's voice held a touch of reproach as they walked a circuit in the park. They both had ice cream to enjoy as they walked and let the dogs get some exercise. Neither dog was on lead or duty, they were strictly caning, being so familiar with this area of the park. "But he, from your own description, seems to be a decent guy who actually likes you. There are far too few men like that, for blind or sighted women. I know I've sure as hell not found one." Both of them chuckled. Nan's loss of sight was a lot less scarring emotionally and she dated frequently. She had had more than her share of men who had only asked her out from pity or trying to be seen as noble; she was pretty good at sniffing out the motives of people. Sometimes she went on the dates still just to mess with their minds out of a perverse sense of humor. Shana liked those stories the most.
"I know you are right." She popped the last of the cone into her mouth, her next words a bit muffled, "but it's just risky."
Nan nudged her friend, "You know they say that all good things are risky."
Shana sighed with a smile, "You're right. Ok. We get back, I'll call him and actually leave a message. Happy?"
"Very." Nan's voice held a great deal of satisfaction at the agreement.
They walked around, chatting about more banal topics as night fell. "We probably should call the dogs back and get going," Shana said, feeling the difference in temperature most acutely as she listened to their surroundings; someone was approaching.
"Freeze." A gravelly voice spoke to them from the approaching footsteps. "Give me your purses," There was a pause as the man surveyed the women in front of him, "And jewelry."
Nan snorted out laughter as she spoke, "You are kidding me. This is New York, but you're going to try and rob a couple of blind chicks? Whatever would your mother say?" Nan didn't take the threat too seriously, most people had enough morals to leave them alone and she knew Shana could probably take care of the rest.
She felt the air move as the man came closer and felt the cold, round end of a gun pressed to her ribs, "Yeah, because who's gonna stop me? Come on, just shut up and give me what you have, I don't have much time."
Nan inhaled deeply with the gun being touched to her, it was suddenly more serious. She could smell when she inhaled the tell-tale scent of meth. The scent of cat piss was hard to miss and if this guy was high, that made him a hell of a lot more dangerous. "He's got a gun and is on something," she hissed to Shana.
"SHUT UP!" Now she felt the barrel at her head and although the hand holding it seemed fairly shaky, she didn't think he would miss at this range.
"Be quiet Nan," Shana repeated quietly, knowing the woman would listen to her. She listened to the air around her, trying to determine exactly how much space was in between her and their attacker. "I'm sure this nice gentleman wouldn't actually use that gun, not on two helpless blind women."
The words had the intended effect, now there was a cold piece of metal pressed to Shana's cheek, "I wouldn't, huh? Since when do you know me, bitch? Give me your shit before I lose my patience and prove to you how serious I am about using this gun."
Shana nodded, trying to appear meek as she slowly removed her purse from her shoulder. The gun lowered from her cheek as she held it out and that was just the opportunity she was waiting for.
Quickly, she found his gun arm, grabbing the wrist, twisting it under she heard a 'crack' of breaking bone and the clatter as the weapon fell to the floor. "Now we're on even footing," her voice was soft and dangerous as she kicked the stunned man, sweeping his feet from him. He let out another cry of pain and she could hear him trying to find his gun on the ground. She kicked him again in the ribs, hearing another sickening crack and thump as he fell on his side. She pushed him over, none too gently, and placed her foot on his neck. "You move again, I break it," still in that soft whisper. More loudly, she called to Nan, "Get your cell out. Call the police." The man swore and cried under her foot, but he did not attempt to escape, he could hear the deadly intent when she spoke to him.
"No need. I just did." Conrad's voice came as such a shock that she let the pressure from her foot slacken and her assailant tried to squirm away before she reapplied a painful amount of pressure.
"Conrad?" She was puzzled, what in the hell was he doing here?
She thought she could hear amusement in his voice, "Yeah. Mind if I take your prisoner before you kill him? You'll have to deal with a shitstorm if that happens; blind or not, you're still a lethal weapon." Shana reluctantly removed her foot when she felt Conrad touch her calf to tell her that he had control of the prisoner.
"What the hell?" Nan was in shock at the events that had just occurred. She knew Shana knew martial arts, but a lethal weapon? And was this the same Conrad that they had been gossiping about?
"Conrad, what are you doing here? Were you following me?" Her voice was accusatory.
He grunted as he lifted the mugger and put a zip strip on him to the bench, "No. I was looking for you. You called before, didn't leave a message, I thought you were in trouble and so I thought I could come down and help you." There was clear amusement in his voice, "Obviously, you do not need any help in the trouble department. You can still kick some major ass," he said appreciatively.
"You just watched us get attacked and didn't do anything?" she said angrily.
"No. I walked up as you were being threatened and then you start to beat him down. I figured it would be better if I stayed back; you were doing fine on your own. Hell, we both know you've always been better at hand to hand, even without your eyes." He was matter-of-fact as he spoke and then he suddenly said, "Hi, I'm Conrad, an old friend of Shana's. You must be Nancy."
Nancy's was shocked as she stuck her hand out and said, "Uh. Yeah." They shook hands and then the girls called their dogs back and waited for the police to arrive.
The police questioning was grueling, especially for Shana. None of them could believe that she had caused all the injuries on the druggie. She was getting annoyed with their certainty that she was either lying about being blind or being the one who took the man down. Conrad laughed as she popped out her eyes to demonstrate that they were indeed false. When he heard her say loudly, "If you don't believe that I did this, why don't you try me? Come on, too pussy for a fight?" he walked over, and she could hear the grin in his voice, "Officers, I can assure you that Master Sergeant O'Hara is more than capable of taking down all of us if she so desired. I wouldn't push her." She couldn't help but grin and blush as he said that.
Nan decided to allow the police to escort her home, "I think the guy offering sounds pretty cute, plus you need some time alone with Conrad." Shana pushed her playfully before kissing her friend's cheek and returning to Conrad. They waited until the police had all left and he offered his arm to walk her home.
"So why did you come down here again?" She smiled as she held his arm, walking slowly back to her apartment.
"I was worried about you. Worry that was grossly misplaced, as I can now see." He stopped, so she did as well, and he turned to face her, "Why did you call me in the first place and not leave a message?"
"Honestly?" She grinned as he took her hand and placed it on his face to feel him nodding, "I wanted to talk to you but chickened out."
He laughed, "You chickened out? I find that hard to believe. You're one of the most fearless people I've ever known."
She shook her head. "No, because I've been too afraid to do this." She used her hand on his face to draw him closer to her, kissing him gently. He responded, circling her in his arms and holding her tightly. When the kiss finally ended, she smiled up at him, "I've wanted to do that for a while."
They laughed together and she laid her head on his arm as they started walking back to her apartment. She didn't know where this was going to go, but she was finally ready to take the chance to find out.
"I have a face I cannot show
I make the rules up as I go
Just try and love me if you can
Are you strong enough to be my man?" Sheryl Crow - "Strong Enough"
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Conrad pulled up outside Shana's apartment not more than an hour later. He had flown down to New York City immediately, unable to suppress the cold hand of fear. He was in an army jeep and he left it parked illegally in front of her apartment as he flew up the stairs and rang her apartment. Not surprisingly, she did not answer. He rang the manager and was greeted by a portly man.
"Hello sir. I'm First Sergeant Conrad Hauser and I need to get into the apartments of one of your residents, Shana O'Hara." Duke was firm and left little room for argument.
The smaller man eyed Conrad warily, "Why do you need to do that? I'm not supposed to let people in like that. You got a warrant?"
He resisted the urge to punch the man and kick down Shana's door, instead trying to be as patient as possible, "She is a former operative for the government, we have reasonable intelligence that she is being targeted and she has disappeared. I need to get into her apartment to make sure she isn't inside and injured and see if there are any clues to her whereabouts." He was lying a bit, but not a lot. All of what he was saying could be true.
The manager looked alarmed and after checking Duke's credentials, let him in and unlocked Shana's apartment. Conrad swept through quickly; no sign of her. He picked up her phone and hit the redial button to see if he was the last person she had called. After four rings, an answering machine picked up. "Hello, this is Nan and Gertie," there was an obligatory bark of a dog in the background. "We're not here right now. Please leave your name, number and a message after the tone." Duke's mind raced. Who in the hell was Nan? The manager was still looking at him expectantly and he hung up the line without leaving a message, calling Flint's cell quickly.
"Hello?" Allie's voice was worried as she answered. She likely saw the caller ID information and knew what was going on.
"Tell Flint that I am in her apartment, she's not here, but no indication that she's been harmed or injured. There's a hold on the team until I figure out what's going on. I'll call back later." Duke hung up the phone, trying to stay calm and not jump to conclusions. Her last call had been to a friend most likely. So, maybe she was in trouble and had called the other woman when she couldn't get a hold of him, or it could be innocent and she was fine and she was out with a friend.
The apartment manager looked at him expectantly, "Maybe you could ask Mrs. Cadwell. She lives in the front apartment and sees a lot."
Duke looked over at the man and nodded. "Good. Thank you." He locked the door behind him and followed the other man to the first door after the security entrance to the building. He knocked and soon the door opened as far as a security chain would allow and an elderly woman peered out. "Hello, we're looking for one of your neighbors, she may be in trouble. Named Shana O'Hara, bright red hair and always has a dog. She's blind," he added, almost as an afterthought.
Mrs. Cardwell sized Conrad up and recognized true concern in his eyes. "She went out maybe an hour or two ago with her blind friend, her name is..." the woman furrowed her already wrinkled brow in thought, "Nancy, that's it. Poor dears, I don't know how they manage, both of them being blind and only having those dogs to help them in the city. We talked a little when they got back."
"Got back?" The fear reared its ugly head. If they returned, where were they now?
"Yes, they were stopping back before heading to the park. Is Shana ok? She's really is such a dear."
Duke relaxed greatly with the information he received. She was ok, just out for a day with a friend. He had totally overreacted to her not leaving a message. He wondered what was wrong with him; normally he wouldn't be so paranoid and impulsive about this. 'You are jumpy because you love her,' a little voice in his head whispered. He pushed the voice away and spoke aloud, "I think so. It appears as if we had faulty intelligence. Thank you both for your cooperation. I am going to go try and find her and give her an update on the situation." Tell her that he was being a paranoid, overprotective ass was more the case. He knew she would lay into him for it, but he couldn't help it. He knew she'd hear about it and he couldn't lie to her.
After finishing in her apartment building he called Flint to tell the team to stand down and then he jogged to Central Park to look for Shana and her friend.
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Shana and her friend Nancy sat on a bench in Central Park, enjoying the early evening fall temperatures. Shana was embarrassed to admit that most of the conversation had centered on Conrad. Nan thought that Shana should go for it and give Conrad a chance, but she still wasn't convinced. She didn't want to just be the pity date and her fear was that Conrad was interested merely out of pity and guilt. What kind of woman would she be to accept pity dates?
"It's up to you, Shana," Nan's voice held a touch of reproach as they walked a circuit in the park. They both had ice cream to enjoy as they walked and let the dogs get some exercise. Neither dog was on lead or duty, they were strictly caning, being so familiar with this area of the park. "But he, from your own description, seems to be a decent guy who actually likes you. There are far too few men like that, for blind or sighted women. I know I've sure as hell not found one." Both of them chuckled. Nan's loss of sight was a lot less scarring emotionally and she dated frequently. She had had more than her share of men who had only asked her out from pity or trying to be seen as noble; she was pretty good at sniffing out the motives of people. Sometimes she went on the dates still just to mess with their minds out of a perverse sense of humor. Shana liked those stories the most.
"I know you are right." She popped the last of the cone into her mouth, her next words a bit muffled, "but it's just risky."
Nan nudged her friend, "You know they say that all good things are risky."
Shana sighed with a smile, "You're right. Ok. We get back, I'll call him and actually leave a message. Happy?"
"Very." Nan's voice held a great deal of satisfaction at the agreement.
They walked around, chatting about more banal topics as night fell. "We probably should call the dogs back and get going," Shana said, feeling the difference in temperature most acutely as she listened to their surroundings; someone was approaching.
"Freeze." A gravelly voice spoke to them from the approaching footsteps. "Give me your purses," There was a pause as the man surveyed the women in front of him, "And jewelry."
Nan snorted out laughter as she spoke, "You are kidding me. This is New York, but you're going to try and rob a couple of blind chicks? Whatever would your mother say?" Nan didn't take the threat too seriously, most people had enough morals to leave them alone and she knew Shana could probably take care of the rest.
She felt the air move as the man came closer and felt the cold, round end of a gun pressed to her ribs, "Yeah, because who's gonna stop me? Come on, just shut up and give me what you have, I don't have much time."
Nan inhaled deeply with the gun being touched to her, it was suddenly more serious. She could smell when she inhaled the tell-tale scent of meth. The scent of cat piss was hard to miss and if this guy was high, that made him a hell of a lot more dangerous. "He's got a gun and is on something," she hissed to Shana.
"SHUT UP!" Now she felt the barrel at her head and although the hand holding it seemed fairly shaky, she didn't think he would miss at this range.
"Be quiet Nan," Shana repeated quietly, knowing the woman would listen to her. She listened to the air around her, trying to determine exactly how much space was in between her and their attacker. "I'm sure this nice gentleman wouldn't actually use that gun, not on two helpless blind women."
The words had the intended effect, now there was a cold piece of metal pressed to Shana's cheek, "I wouldn't, huh? Since when do you know me, bitch? Give me your shit before I lose my patience and prove to you how serious I am about using this gun."
Shana nodded, trying to appear meek as she slowly removed her purse from her shoulder. The gun lowered from her cheek as she held it out and that was just the opportunity she was waiting for.
Quickly, she found his gun arm, grabbing the wrist, twisting it under she heard a 'crack' of breaking bone and the clatter as the weapon fell to the floor. "Now we're on even footing," her voice was soft and dangerous as she kicked the stunned man, sweeping his feet from him. He let out another cry of pain and she could hear him trying to find his gun on the ground. She kicked him again in the ribs, hearing another sickening crack and thump as he fell on his side. She pushed him over, none too gently, and placed her foot on his neck. "You move again, I break it," still in that soft whisper. More loudly, she called to Nan, "Get your cell out. Call the police." The man swore and cried under her foot, but he did not attempt to escape, he could hear the deadly intent when she spoke to him.
"No need. I just did." Conrad's voice came as such a shock that she let the pressure from her foot slacken and her assailant tried to squirm away before she reapplied a painful amount of pressure.
"Conrad?" She was puzzled, what in the hell was he doing here?
She thought she could hear amusement in his voice, "Yeah. Mind if I take your prisoner before you kill him? You'll have to deal with a shitstorm if that happens; blind or not, you're still a lethal weapon." Shana reluctantly removed her foot when she felt Conrad touch her calf to tell her that he had control of the prisoner.
"What the hell?" Nan was in shock at the events that had just occurred. She knew Shana knew martial arts, but a lethal weapon? And was this the same Conrad that they had been gossiping about?
"Conrad, what are you doing here? Were you following me?" Her voice was accusatory.
He grunted as he lifted the mugger and put a zip strip on him to the bench, "No. I was looking for you. You called before, didn't leave a message, I thought you were in trouble and so I thought I could come down and help you." There was clear amusement in his voice, "Obviously, you do not need any help in the trouble department. You can still kick some major ass," he said appreciatively.
"You just watched us get attacked and didn't do anything?" she said angrily.
"No. I walked up as you were being threatened and then you start to beat him down. I figured it would be better if I stayed back; you were doing fine on your own. Hell, we both know you've always been better at hand to hand, even without your eyes." He was matter-of-fact as he spoke and then he suddenly said, "Hi, I'm Conrad, an old friend of Shana's. You must be Nancy."
Nancy's was shocked as she stuck her hand out and said, "Uh. Yeah." They shook hands and then the girls called their dogs back and waited for the police to arrive.
The police questioning was grueling, especially for Shana. None of them could believe that she had caused all the injuries on the druggie. She was getting annoyed with their certainty that she was either lying about being blind or being the one who took the man down. Conrad laughed as she popped out her eyes to demonstrate that they were indeed false. When he heard her say loudly, "If you don't believe that I did this, why don't you try me? Come on, too pussy for a fight?" he walked over, and she could hear the grin in his voice, "Officers, I can assure you that Master Sergeant O'Hara is more than capable of taking down all of us if she so desired. I wouldn't push her." She couldn't help but grin and blush as he said that.
Nan decided to allow the police to escort her home, "I think the guy offering sounds pretty cute, plus you need some time alone with Conrad." Shana pushed her playfully before kissing her friend's cheek and returning to Conrad. They waited until the police had all left and he offered his arm to walk her home.
"So why did you come down here again?" She smiled as she held his arm, walking slowly back to her apartment.
"I was worried about you. Worry that was grossly misplaced, as I can now see." He stopped, so she did as well, and he turned to face her, "Why did you call me in the first place and not leave a message?"
"Honestly?" She grinned as he took her hand and placed it on his face to feel him nodding, "I wanted to talk to you but chickened out."
He laughed, "You chickened out? I find that hard to believe. You're one of the most fearless people I've ever known."
She shook her head. "No, because I've been too afraid to do this." She used her hand on his face to draw him closer to her, kissing him gently. He responded, circling her in his arms and holding her tightly. When the kiss finally ended, she smiled up at him, "I've wanted to do that for a while."
They laughed together and she laid her head on his arm as they started walking back to her apartment. She didn't know where this was going to go, but she was finally ready to take the chance to find out.