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Chapter Twenty-One: Iced Tea
**Carol**
The heavily tree laden driveway into the plantation was beautiful under the sunlight, as the Spanish moss in the limbs of the oaks cast lacy light onto the dirt trail, the specks of light rolling over the dull hood off the old truck.
It was truly a beautiful place, despite knowing the past and even Cash's eyes seemed to light up at the sight of the farmyard as they rolled to a stop in the middle of it.
"Have you ever seen anyplace so beautiful?" Carol asked Grace as the two women moved to stand in front of the truck.
"Aside from my convent?" Grace teased. "Hm, yes, I grew up in a place like this."
At Carol's shocked look, Grace chuckled softly. "I had four brothers, we needed a big house or we'd all go insane. We moved," she added as they got started, heading for some thick, tall grass that edged the farmyard, "when my father died. My biological father."
"How'd he pass? May I ask?" Carol inquired as they began plucking the tall grass, gathering some for food for the pigs as Cash moved to the well across the yard to draw water for them.
"Car accident," Grace paused long enough to draw her tight under sleeve over the bell-like over sleeve of her tunic.
It amazed Carol how easily the woman did it, before the remembered that Grace had spent most of her adult life in a habit and had gotten used to the little tricks and tips of wearing one.
She followed suit with Grace, tucking the sleeves up and away from her hands, giving her more mobility.
"I'm sorry."
Grace shrugged. "I look at it like a life lesson. Never forget to tell the one you love that you do love them."
"Except for the Lieutenant, when it's encouragement," Carol teased.
The other woman's work faltered and she glanced over and up at Carol. For a moment, Carol saw a strange, almost frightened look flutter across the woman's face, before it relaxed again and Grace returned to their work.
"Do you think I'm too hard on him?" Grace asked after a few minutes of silence.
"I think," Carol began slowly, forming the words properly before just jumping in, "you keep him grounded, but I also think…well, you're not used to relationships like the one you have with the Lieutenant."
"I am hard on him, aren't I?" Grace insisted.
"Maybe a little more affection?"
Grace shrugged. "I'll let the swamp giant paw me more, maybe," she teased.
Gathering up the large pile that was accumulating to keep it neat, Carol cleared her throat. "Grace?" She asked tentatively.
"Hm?"
"I heard…Sasha said once that…about tall men and their proportions…?"
Grace straightened her spine and eyed Carol with a small, cat-like grin. "You mean, about the size of their feet?"
"Yes," Carol breathed, grateful she didn't have to spell it out for the woman.
"Ten," Grace murmured, bending back to her work.
"Inches?" Carol demanded.
Grace straightened again, frowning. "What?"
"What?" Carol returned.
"His boot size is a ten," Grace quirked a brow at her. "What were you thinking I was talking about?"
"Nothing," Carol bent to their work, with an embarrassed grin hidden beneath her lowered face.
"Carol!" Grace declared suddenly after a few minutes of quiet work.
"I just heard things around the convent!" She protested.
Grace reached out and playfully slapped her on the arm. "You're horrible! What kind of dirty things have people been discussing at my convent?" She covered her mouth with shocked hands and stared long and hard at Carol, pink dusting her cheeks. "I'll tell you mine if you tell me yours," she said after a moment.
"Grace!"
"You started it!"
The two women ducked their heads back to work as Cash approached.
"I didn't know rhubarb was a perennial," Grace covered quickly.
"Hm, yes, ah, you can stew it and throw a little sugar on top, make it into a simple dessert."
Cash eyed them quickly. "I watered the pigs. Think I'll take a peek in the woods for signs of threats, maybe Christian a tree." He eyed first Carol, then Grace, before smirking. "Six, in case you're curious."
"You'd better be talking about your IQ, Mr. Cash, I swear to the good Lord," Grace scolded. "Go on, now!" She dismissed him like a harried mother shooing her child.
Cash beamed and sauntered off.
The two women worked in silence for several minutes, before gathering up their grass into their arms.
"Does he hold you, Daryl?" Grace asked as they moved towards the barn. "I mean, afterwards?"
"He's actually pretty good at that," Carol said. "Does the Lieutenant?"
"You mean the one night we've had?"
"You haven't…since he came back, I mean?"
"No."
"So? Just the once?"
"Just the one night, yes."
"How many times that night?"
"Intercourse or finishing the race?" Grace inquired, unloading her burden into the pen with the pigs.
"Intercourse?"
The woman shyly held up three fingers.
"And orgasms?"
Grace added her pinkie and thumb to the three already up.
"Five?!" Carol demanded, lowering her voice when she realized how loud that declaration was.
"Isn't that normal?"
"If you're in marathon."
Grace flushed brightly. "Is that dirty? I mean, wicked?"
"No," Carol pointed out. "That's pretty good, actually."
"Well, no, it wasn't. I was sore as hell in the morning and bred like a mare in season."
"You probably got treated like a mare in season," Carol murmured.
"Carol! Your mouth!" Grace protested.
"I'm not the one who finished five races in one night," Carol argued with a laugh.
They walked back out into the yard for more grass.
"How many times in one night have you…with Daryl? I mean, the most?"
"Three."
"See? Five's not so bad. Was it good? I mean, I know he's a little inexperienced, but I always imagined him to be a little rough and manhandle you a bit? Is he like that?"
"Grace, I'm shocked," Carol stated with a sly grin.
The other woman blushed.
"He is rough," Carol admitted as they stooped to pick more grass. "But…in a good way. With Daryl you never forget that he's a man. He's rough all over, chest hair and callouses, but he's mindful about hurting me, which I kind of like. Rough, but gentle, if that makes sense?"
"It's sound delightful," Grace whispered.
"What about the Lieutenant?"
"Oh, he's…well, because I'm so tiny and he's a swamp giant, I guess he manhandles me quite a bit, but…I like it. He tosses me onto the bed like he means it. And he's definitely a force, you feel that power, but he's like a stallion restrained by a leather tether."
"Hm," Carol mused, ducking her head to their work. "I wonder what he'd be like if that tether ever broke?"
"Carol, don't think about him like that!" Grace giggled like a schoolgirl.
Carol laughed jovially. "I'm just saying…wonder what that tether's holding back."
"I'm not sure I'm the woman to find out," Grace admitted. "Don't know if I'm ready."
"Hm, maybe that's why he's tethered it," Carol pointed out. "He'll spring it on you when you're ready."
"Oh God…could it be something weird?" Grace asked. "Like…dirty?"
"I don't think you need to worry about it being anything nasty," Carol pointed out, trying to calm Grace. "Maybe it's just that he's not using his full force and might be restraining his strength with you."
"Oh Lord, what if he's a sodomite? What if he wants to sodomize me?"
"Grace!" Carol declared. She felt she could declare that loud enough.
"I'm just saying…what if it's bad, bad?"
Covering her face to contain the laughter she felt might be mocking towards the ex-nun, Carol huffed and puffed to get it under control. It amazed her that the woman was older than her by three years and still so innocent when it came to sex.
"The Lieutenant is not a sodomite, Grace," Carol said finally.
"Well, now you don't know that," Grace argued lightly, smirking a little.
The two women laughed.
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They were driving up Delgado's drive with the blue rag fluttering on their antenna.
Carol figured he might know where some soldiers could be found, seemed Delgado's people were good at keeping their ears to the ground.
As they pulled down the trail leading to Delgado's doorstep, they passed Sid who sat in the saddle of one of his beautiful white horses, watching them drive by with his rifle resting over his shoulder like it was a shovel.
Grace waved to him as they passed and he nodded back.
"That man is fine as a motherfucker," Cash murmured.
When both Carol and Grace looked at him, he smiled and asked, "what? We're not doing the girl talk thing anymore?"
"He's your type, Cash?" Carol asked, pulling the truck to a stop.
"Sure, if I were gay, I'd be all over that pretty boy."
"You're a strange man," Grace teased, hopping out of the truck.
"I'm okay with that, keeps people on their feet," Cash returned, following her out of the truck as Delgado emerged from where he was standing guard in the barn.
"Well," he greeted with a broad grin. "The Queens of the Convent, we never get blessed with you here."
"It's a special occasion," Carol said, hugging the large man back as he swept her up into his arms.
He gave Grace the same warm hug and clapped a friendly hand on Cash's shoulder.
"Come inside, we'll feed you."
"You're really too kind, Delgado, but we're not here to eat your food."
"Business, hm? Come inside," he urged. "At least let us pour coffee and tea down your throats."
The three of them followed Delgado into the house, passing Mrs. Hollander who gave them all a hug. Her husband had passed away just a month before from natural causes and Grace and the other nuns had gone to clean and prepare his body, Carol had gone with them and the old woman had since been eternally grateful to them for it.
"How are you?" She asked them as they entered the farmhouse.
"We've been better," Grace admitted.
"You run into some military?" Delgado asked as they settled.
"That's what we came to ask you?"
"Eve and Pace came across a couple one day, trapped in our minefield, told them if they didn't move on they'd put some lead in their asses. Seems they're recruiting," Delgado said.
"We know," Carol said. "They're after Daryl and the Lieutenant."
"After as in…?"
"They didn't say exactly about the Lieutenant, but they want Daryl dead."
Delgado sat back in his chair and sighed. "Why?"
"Think our boys caused a little mischief for them," Grace pointed out.
Delgado grinned. "Yeah, I believe that. Okay, so what can we do for you?"
"We were just hoping you knew where they could be found. We want to negotiate with their leader." Carol said.
"We don't go too far from home anymore," Delgado said, quirking a brow. "Sorry."
"It's fine," she assured him. "We weren't expecting you to know, we were just hopeful."
"Look," Delgado said. "It's going to be dark soon, why don't you three stay the night here and at least let us do that for you."
"I hear angels," Charon cooed from the doorway, wandering in on his old, shaky legs. "Must come from a holy place."
"Mr. Reed," Carol greeted warmly, standing up for him to take her chair as it was nearest the door. "How are you?"
"Fine, just fine, any better and I'd be dead," he grinned. "Don't give up your chair, I'm fine standing."
"Please?" Carol insisted, helping him to sit.
"I get treated better by angels then Marines," the old man stated.
"You said you didn't want special treatment, old man," Delgado said with something of adoration in his eyes for the man.
"Well, a little now and then doesn't spoil a man," Charon said with a wink. "How's my Adele and her girl?"
"They're just fine," Grace said, moving to sit close to the old man.
"I hear extra rustling, whatcha girls wearing?" Charon demanded.
"Habits," Grace explained.
"Yeah? Why are you decked out like a couple of penguins for, girl?"
"People hesitate to shoot nuns," Carol explained.
"Fair enough."
"Where's the other women?" Cash asked from where he sat near the door.
"In the garden, picking weeds, want to help out, young man?"
"Sorry, bodyguard duty," Cash returned.
"Um-hm," Charon frowned a little. "So? What brings here?"
"Trouble."
"For who?"
"Our men."
"All of them? Or just your boys?"
"Our boys," Carol pointed out politely.
Charon nodded. "Never really met them. They troublemakers?"
"Not intentionally," Carol explained.
"The Cajun is," Grace added. "But not in this instance."
"Hm," Charon grunted. "That Cajun boy sounds about right, this other boy, what's his name?"
"Daryl," Carol said.
"Um, Daryl, is he quiet?"
"Yes. How'd you guess?"
"It's always the quiet ones that are troublemakers," Charon teased. "Is he scrappy?"
Carol smiled. "I guess you could say that."
"Um, sounds like my kind of person, I should like to meet him. You bring him by when you get things settled, yeah?"
Carol nodded. "I will."
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"I don't care of it rains or freezes, as long as I got my plastic Jesus, sitting on the dashboard of my car. Comes in colours pink and pleasant, glows in the dark 'cuz it's iridescent…"
They were sitting out on the front porch of the Hollander's house, sipping iced tea and watching the growing twilight, listening to Cash sing softly to the children of Delgado's group, idly strumming away at a guitar someone had produced from the attic.
"Take it with you, when you travel far," he went on. "Get yourself a sweet Madonna, dressed in rhinestones sitting on a pedestal of abalone shell. Going ninety, ah, ain't scary, 'cuz I got the Virgin Mary assuring me that I won't go to hell."
Eve's two girls started singing along, but broke off at the sound of a vehicle pulling up the drive, out of the growing darkness and the sound of hooves flying over the grass.
Carol and Grace stood up, reaching for their rifles, as a heavy looking SUV ground to a halt in the middle of the barnyard, spraying gravel and dust up over the ass end of it.
Sid rode up hard to the steps on his horse. "D! We have visitors! Get some damned bandages!"
Two people hopped out of the front of the SUV and approached the back in a rush, pulling what looked like a limp body from within it.
Carol and Grace approached curiously, thinking it was Delgado's people.
As they drew nearer and the figures approached them in a hurry, they found they didn't recognize the man nor the woman with him, but they did recognize the limp form they were dragging. At least under the heavy bruises and bloodied features, they recognized him.
"Kowalski," Carol breathed as the man and woman paraded by them, leaving her and Grace standing there in shock.
"Which one of you is Delgado?" The man hauling Kowalski barked in a funny accent as he approached the porch.
Delgado emerged from the house and upon laying eyes on Kowalski, said, "I am," and moved forward to help them with their burden.
"We've been looking all over for you, that boy only pointed in a bloodied circle on the damned map we showed him," the man said.
Carol and Grace finally snapped out of their shock, moving to help Kowalski into the house as well. Seemed everywhere Carol touched the poor boy, her hand came away with blood.
"Who did this to him?" She demanded of the two carrying him.
The woman blinked, but said nothing, instead looking nervously at the man.
He quirked and brow as he eased Kowalski onto the sofa, but said nothing.
"Who are you?" Mrs. Hollander demanded, pushing them aside to get at Kowalski.
"Sergeant Graves," the man said.
"Military?" Carol asked, reaching for her rifle.
The man looked her up and down, before calmly reaching into his pocket and producing a pack of cigarettes. "Ah, you've met us before, have you?"
"This boys jaw is broken!" Mrs. Hollander shouted. "He's beaten up bad."
"Yeah, we found him like this."
"Where?" Carol asked.
"Just outside the fence to a little army camp in Tennessee," the woman finally said, holding out her hand politely. "Private Katz."
Carol and Grace eyed the hand, only Delgado stepped forward and took it.
"I'll run back to the convent," Carol said. "Bring back St. James."
"I'll go," Grace said. "I'll take Cash with me, just in case."
The former nun gripped her hand gently on her way by and Carol didn't miss how even Grace had blood on her hand from Kowalski.
The poor young man looked like ground beef lying on the sofa, his chest heaving, his breathing wild and her heart sank for him, she eased down by his head and gently touched his forehead.
He flinched, unable to see out of his swollen eyes and she felt tears sting her eyes.
Kneeling at his head, Carol continued to gently stroke his temple, hoping to calm him. He must be terrified, she figured, unable to hear or see.
What she didn't know was that he recognized her scent, all she knew was that he soon calmed his trembling and eased his terrified heart.
Mrs. Hollander and Dolly did what they could for him, gently bandaging the wounds they could, stitching the rest.
"Who did this?" Delgado demanded, gripping the military man hard.
"We used to belong to a group," Katz began.
"Your people?" Carol asked. "The military group from Tennessee?"
Both Katz and Graves looked over at her.
"We left them," Katz admitted almost remorsefully. "I didn't sign up for this."
"Is this what they do to people they capture?" Carol asked. "Beat them up and leave them to die?"
"No," Graves said. "They hang them, this little fellow got lucky."
"You call this lucky?" Mrs. Hollander snapped.
"He's alive, ain't he?"
"Barely."
"Charlie!" Someone shouted from the doorway.
Mae breezed into the room, avoiding Delgado who made to reach for her and stop her approach to the Marine on the sofa. She skidded onto her knees beside the sofa with wide, worried eyes. "Charlie?" She breathed against his battered face.
"Grace went for St. James," Carol assured the girl. "Kowalski will be just fine."
"Poor little bastard," Graves murmured, "he put up a hell of a fight."
"He's not gone yet!" Dolly snapped.
"Mae, you're going to have to move, honey," Mrs. Hollander said. "So we can help him."
Mae frowned and Carol could see how hard it was for the girl to leave, but eventually she leaned down and kissed Kowalski on the one spot on his face that wasn't bloodied or bruised and moved back, kneeling beside Carol at the top of his head.
Carol reached over with her free arm and pulled Mae against her comfortingly. She looked over at the two strangers, trying to read them, but got nothing but a slightly fearful look from the woman and a shaken look from the man.
Slowly they backed away from the sofa and she spied them heading for the door.
Releasing Mae, Carol stood up and followed them, hoping to catch up with them. She caught them on the porch and stopped the woman with a polite hand on her arm.
"Wait!"
The two turned to face her.
"Where's this base?" She asked.
"Why?" The woman asked.
"I need to talk to your leader, uh, the leader."
"Why?" The man asked.
"Because she's after two of our people, I don't want them ending up this way."
The man looked to the woman, who shifted on her feet.
"You mean Lieutenant Vancoughnett and Daryl?" The woman asked.
"Yes."
Again the two soldiers looked at each other.
"Look," the woman began, "none of the military personnel wants to hurt either of them. They have a lot of respect from a lot of us, but…they have their orders."
"Don't let them get caught," the man said.
"I want to talk to your leader," she said.
"Yeah? I wouldn't, she's nasty."
"And she wouldn't listen anyways, she wants them dead," Katz pointed out.
"Find yourself Rhoades," Graves suggested. "He can help you better than her. He likes your boys and the men listen to him"
"Where can I find him?"
Neither one seemed to know, both shrugged.
"But if you can find him, he's the one I'd trust best," Katz stated.
"Good luck," Graves added. "I hope that boy pulls through."
"Wait," Carol repeated. "Where are you going?"
"Oh," Graves said. "I thought we'd hit up to Canada, maybe."
Katz looked at him curiously.
"It's like a rugged England with more moose and maple syrup, you'll like it."
Carol frowned. "Is there anything else I should know? About this leader of yours?"
"She's on very thin ice with the men," Graves said. "If you can talk to Rhoades, if you can get the men behind you, behind your boys, you might have a better chance against her. But watch out for any officer who isn't Rhoades, they're not your friends."
Carol stepped back from them and nodded.
"You see those boys, tell them we said 'hi'," Katz said. "They're nice men."
"Good luck," Carol said, letting the two of them move off into the darkness, heading for their SUV.
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DarylDixon'sLover - Me too!
georgiapeachs - Yeah, that many husbands would drive a normal woman insane (I don't know how certain religions do it with wives).
vickih - I know, right? How can people even stand being married to one spouse, never mind seven?
Merle's Right Hand - Oh, babes, you make me laugh.
Brazen Hussy - Ehehe.
itsi3 - Or maybe the ladies can hunt down the husbands? ^_^
Pam - Right, my friend, but who wouldn't want a Fay of their own?
Claire Randall Fraser - I kind of want to see the fight that'll come from those two women butting heads.
Ashley - Well, hello! Thanks for the review! It was so sweet! You must be a wonderful and beautiful person! ^_^ I'm glad you enjoy this series so much, people like you are the only reason I keep writing it!
Lilone1776 - I don't think even Merle would want that woman, he'd probably outright call her something nasty and storm off like a true Dixon.
Yazzy x - I agree. Grace would put her vow of peace aside and kick some serious ass. Her and Carol can tag team.
Surplus Imagination - Even though you reviewed a chapter behind, I'll put this right here, because I know you keep up with my updates anyways. HOLY HELL DD'S?! How did you stay upright? I would have been stooped over like an old man carrying that kind of weight around! Kudos!