Author's Note: Tissue Alert

It's Ok Til it's Not

Morning came – the start of summer. Lou woke up to smell of frying bacon. He got out of bed and showered, ready to face a new day. He gathered his stuff, left a short note of thanks in Italian for Mum S. "Mille grazie, Momma" and signed it with a smiley face.

He left his holdall on the living room floor and went straight to the kitchen to help himself to coffee. He wasn't a guest anymore, more like part of the furniture. Momma beamed upon seeing him, held his face, they kissed cheek-to-cheek.

"Hey, that's my Mum, stop molesting her."

Lou turned around, "When you stop molesting mine."

"Touché." They hugged each other.

Mum S readied the table knowing Lou had to go soon. "Mikey, go get your Pa."

"Did you enjoy your holiday?"

"Yup, did so. It was amazing…. Oh, ah… we bump into an old high school friend of Mike. Bridget."

Mrs Scarlatti lit up, "Bridget. I know her. Good Italian girl." Uh, oh.

At the table, Mum S asked Spike pointedly about Bridge, Dad S perked up. "I know her, bella ragazza Italiana. Are you goin to see her again?" At last, he thought hopefully.

Spike looked across to Lou who mouthed "Sorry" looking sheepish. "Ma, Pa… siamo solo di amici. We're just friends," he translated. Lou's eyebrows went up so he kicked him under the table.

It was a pleasant morning meal but they couldn't linger any longer. It was time to go. Dad S walked Lewis to the door, "Grazie… for looking after him. He can be a bit frivolo," he paused as if trying to remember what it was in English he was trying to say. Lewis helped him out, "Silly?" The older Italian nodded. "I'm silly, too. We look out for each other."

Lewis reached home just in time to Skype with Cheryl. He hoped she was in the office. If she was in the field doctoring then it would be impossible. He would have to wait another week; synching their schedule so they were free at the same time was always a nightmare. He silently thanked God that at least he could leave her a message on Facebook or email her if she wasn't available. But today he wanted to hear her voice.

He urgently logged on, Cheryl was at the office. "Hey, big sis, how are ya doin?" The elegant olive-skinned Cheryl Young smiled back, "I'm good… and you? Heard you went to Ocho Rios with Spike."

"That I did but actually I only saw him for two out of five days. He found someone," he said feeling a justifiable guilty pleasure to be outing Spike to his sister.

"Wow. And you? Did you find anyone?"

"Nah, you've always known where my heart is."

"That I know. Have you made a decision yet?"

"Yeah, well close. You know, sis… I think Bridget… that's the lady… walked into Spike's life so he wouldn't be alone. The guy deserves someone who can make him happy." She got the drift. He wanted to make sure his friend didn't hang out to dry by himself.

They chatted for a good while, uninterrupted. Cheryl said a certain doctor had proposed but she hadn't accepted although they were very much in love. "Why not?" he said.

"I don't know. I have a feeling I've got to return to Toronto," she sighed.

"That would be great. I want you close to us."

They both heard someone call, "Dr Young…"

She turned around. He couldn't see who it was but he knew she had to go. She turned back to face the screen to apologise, "No need. I've gotta go too. Love ya, big sis." She was momentarily speechless. He was always sweet. Lovable. Adorable. But he hadn't said "I love you" to her since they were kids. It was just always implied.

She responded back with moist eyes, "Love ya, little brother." She touched the screen with her two fingers, he did the same. She captured that moment on camera to be preserved in time forever. She just had to. They hung up. Dr Young closed the laptop, got up to attend to the medical emergency and accidentally swiped a glass of water off the table. The glass shattered in a hundred pieces. She exhaled and felt uneasy. She said a prayer, it was all that she could do.

Nine in the morning. Lou called his parents' home. "Hey, Mum." Cecilia squealed, "Hello, I was wondering when you'd call."

"Sorry, we arrived kinda late last night I didn't want to wake you up. I spoke to Cheryl…"

They talked about her and the nice young doctor they had all heard about. "Hope we meet him soon," she said.

"Where's Dad?"

"He's gone to help the neighbours, do you want me to call him?"

"No, I'll speak to him later. I gotta go. Ah Mum… love ya…always."

"Love you, too, son. Always."

They ended the call. She felt heaviness in her heart that she couldn't explain rationally. She said a prayer; it was all she could do. She was being ridiculous she said to herself. I'll go walk it off later. She was out walking and praying near the beach when the call from Lou came that fateful afternoon.

Lou hurried out of the apartment with two USB sticks and his holdall. His first stop was the local camera shop to develop the films. It took a good hour. Next, he went to the Community Centre to see Bro Joseph.

It was nearly lunch time so he invited the Jesuit to a restaurant for a change of scenery. The conversation was happy, very happy. Peppered with laughter and punctuated with a swear word or two. The hour flew fast: it was time again to head to work.

"Thank you for lunch," Bro Joseph said gratefully. "And, yeah… I hate to ask… are you closer to the truth you seek?"

"I am," he said confidently. He didn't know why he said it, but he added, "Love will find a way." It was non-sequitor but it felt good to say it. He left Bro Joseph in haste. The Jesuit followed him with his eyes, "Love will find a way," he repeated to himself. Maybe that's a song?

Spike was already at the Barn, telling one and all stories of their great adventure, conveniently forgetting to tell them anything about Bridget.

Jules was majorly sceptical, "No way. Our Lou?"

Spike replied, "I know eh, but put him on the dance floor you'd think..." Lou walked in just at that moment, the Techie excitedly exclaimed, "Hey! Happy feet!"

Lou smiled knowingly, "Hey. What's up?" he said feigning ignorance.

"You got the pictures?"

"Yeah."

Spike couldn't wait. He made a beeline for Lou and took the pictures from his hands. Veteran Constable Kevin 'Wordy' Wordsworth who was following behind said the obvious, "Jamaica!"

"110 degrees in the shade, check out our man here he got a bit of a tan," he said as he rifled through the set of pictures. Lou outed him, "This guy is fast forwarding to Bridget."

The only female in the Team was quick to the draw, she asked excitedly, "Who's Bridget? Who's Bridget?" Lou grabbed a picture of the Italian beauty and showed it to her and Sam and Wordy who commented, "She's hot."

"I hadn't seen her since high school."

Then came the bombshell from Lewis, "And then I don't see this guy for three days." They all laughed out loud.

Jules teased, "Really? You think it's the real deal?"

And Mike or rather Spike, in a rare moment of maturity said rather poetically, "Destiny speaks I don't ask questions."

The day couldn't have started better. Then the first VoIP call came, a warning about a bomb. Team One deployed expecting to deal with one bomb, allegedly planted in a construction site, the future HQ of an environmental corporate criminal. Little did they know the extent by which the disgruntled, dying eco-terrorist would go to send a message. It would have far-reaching consequences.

Spike and Lou drove together, as always. "Have you caught up with Bridg yet?"

The Italian's face softened with dimpled cheeks, "Yeah, I called her this morning. She hasn't changed. She still liked the same things we liked when we were kids. Baseball. Science. Cross-word puzzle. She's as geeky as me."

"No!" Lou replied. "It's never a good thing when two geeks come together. Have you been watching 'Big Bang Theory'?" Spike laughed, "I do. We both love that show. Do you know…?" Lewis stopped him before he could start his litany of 'Do you knows..'

"Spike, I don't wanna know."

They arrived on site just as an almighty bang happened. A call came when they were knee-deep investigating the explosion. Another bomb was going to go off in an hour in the office of an accused environmental killer. There were a number of potential corporate targets so Wordy suggested, "We'll take Sam to help handle the bomb sweeps, split the targets with the bomb techs from Team Two and Team Five."

As it turned out, the bomb was in the building where Babycakes, the bomb sniffing robot, and Spike were. The bomb was sophisticated, motion very sensitive and to top it all off, the wires were not colour-coded. They were seriously running short of time. Lou offered to help him, "I'm gonna come out there and give you a hand."

Spike was quick to dissuade his understudy, "Forget it. Rule number one of diffusion?"

Lou replied, "Don't blow stuff up?" Spike chuckled, "Never more than one man down range. You know that."

While he was disarming the second bomb, a third call came. A bomb was planted and scheduled to blow up in an hour at Halliwell College. It was by and large a strange target til Sargent Greg Parker explained that the College had signed a funding deal with a Think Tank with a reputation for being "global-warming deniers," according to Jules.

The Boss made a decision to go ahead to the new target with Lou, leaving the bomb tech to deal with the current situation. The second bomb was taking ages to diffuse and time was ticking. At one point, he had almost given up. Spike said he would simply have to leave it and let it explode. But other Team One members found the schematics, it gave him a chance to give diffusion a go.

With time ticking and many students yet to be evacuated, Lou asked to be sent in to deal with the third bomb. Spike heard him, "No, no" he said, "I'll nearly done here."

Lou insisted, "I can handle a pair of cutters. I've seen you do it." He added quite rightly that the job was about "saving lives." Reluctantly, the Boss sent him in. Then the unimaginable happened. They heard Lou's steady voice come through loud and clear over the Comm link, "Guys." Spike wasn't fooled, "What is it? Lou?"

"I think I just stepped on a land mine."

Spike was momentarily frozen in fear. His best friend was standing on a land mine, hell no. He told him not to move, "Don't shift your weight." Lou told him he knew that. And just in case there was any doubt, he said, "Lou, I'm nearly done there. I'm coming for you." The Boss told Spike to "focus. We've got this."

He kicked himself mentally. He should have just let the bloody building go. He should have. He tried to pull himself together, pushed the distraction out of his mind and focused on the job at hand. With the help of the schematics and sheer good luck he diffused the second bomb.

With time running short, Lou asked Spike to help him the diffuse the third bomb. The bomb tech agreed reluctantly. By the time he got to the scene there was just two more wires to cut. Then, it was done. Or so they hoped.

Now, there was only one thing left to do: Get Lou out of there. Bring Lou home. We're all going home tonight.

"Lou you feel that trigger under your foot?"

"Yeah."

"Ok. What does it feel like, flat, a spike, or a bunch of spikes?"

"It's a bunch of spikes."

"Gotcha." He went to the truck to retrieve a Ground Penetrating Radar. The Fearless Leader, Ed Lane asked him, "What are you doin'?"

"These mines are plastic, a metal detector won't work. I'm gonna use a Ground Penetrating Radar."

Sam Braddock, former JTF2 Commando, was horrified at the very idea, "Spike GPR is not gonna..."

Spike was annoyed. "You got something better in your backpack?" He was singularly determined, "Coming out there, Lou."

"No, you can't have two men downrange, Spike."

He continued to walk towards Lou, "Oh, what's our fifth rule, Lou? Fifth rule is break the rules when you have to." The boss concurred, "He's not wrong."

Spike said for the benefit of everyone, "The Job's about what? Yeah. Saving lives."

Lou knew that there was no stopping Spike now. He could be stubborn. Belligerent. Petulant. Determined. He hoped it didn't take both of them. They bantered to take their minds off the immediate danger. As it turned out there were several landmines, spaced about a foot apart. When Spike reached Lou, he jokingly asked what took so long.

"Traffic," Spike replied.

He dug around under Lou's foot to see what it was he was standing on. Sgt Parker asked, "Spike, what do you see?" He didn't answer. He was gripped with uncertainty. It was bad news. The Boss called out to him again, "Spike?"

"It's a bounding mine. It's a CR-38." CR-38: Russian-made anti-tank. What the hell?

Lewis was alarmed, "I think you should just get outta here Spike."

"Doesn't change a thing man, not a single thing."

Ed Lane spoke firmly, "Spike we gotta strategise here."

"Nothin' to strategize, I'm gonna diffuse the landmine and Lou's gonna walk away."

"Diffuse it, how?" The Boss was concerned, he was starting to fear the worse.

"I'm gonna excavate around the mine and then I'm gonna render it safe."

Then he thought he could re-pin it. He explained to Lou that land mine came with a safety. He dug around some more only to discover that the eco-terrorist had glued the hole.

Lewis tried to dissuade his friend again, "Spike?"

"Shut up. I'm gettin' you outta here, we're all goin' home today." He wasn't going home without Lou. "I know there's a way, there's always a way," he said more to himself.

His time was up, Lou knew. He must say this now. "Spike," he said, "You know what you should do? Take Bridget to baseball. There's a game tonight." Then he reminisced about Ocho Rios, how felt as he floated on the water, "like a baby." And he talked "coming full circle." He wasn't making any sense. Why are you talking about Bridget, and Ocho Rios, and being like a baby and coming full circle.

"Water." He said. That's it, water. He could do a weight transfer. He could try that but Lou knew it wasn't viable. It would take them both down. Sam knew it couldn't be done. Jules knew it couldn't be done. They were all hanging by a thread.

"Spike?" he tried again to reach his friend. But his eyes, his eyes conveyed only one thing. "I'm not leaving you here."

"Ok," he said. What else was there to say? He reminded Spike to take the bomb with him.

"No, it's diffused. You diffused it."

"Spike, if the landmine goes off, the bomb would go off and it would take the whole building."

"That's a thought," said the bomb tech.

"I have my moments."

Spike lifted the bomb to take it to the disposal truck, "Don't go anywhere," he said to his bosom friend.

His friend gone, he had one more thing to do. He called home. His Dad answered.

"Dad. Mom there?"

"She's out walking. She said she's been feelin uneasy lately."

"Oh, yeah?"

"Son, is there anything wrong."

"No. Just want to say I love you guys."

"Son, there's something wrong. I know it."

"No, no... Everything's good. I'm just, uh... I'm just at work."

Spike secured the bomb in the disposal truck and urged his team mates to get shields, none moved. "Why are you all just standing there? Let's go, I said we need a shield, we need water okay. We're going to do a weight transfer!"

Then he heard his friend's voice again, "Spike."

"Yeah buddy? Lou?"

"It's gonna be okay."

"Lou?"

He had to do it. Lewis Young lifted his foot off the landmine.

The explosion was deafening. Spike fell on his knees, collapsed in a heap of despair. They stood around helplessly, unable to fully absorb what they had just witnessed. Sam left in utter, utter frustration. Fuck, he kept thinking over and over again.

Cecilia stopped walking, she looked at the horizon. It was red. Bright red, like it was splashed with blood. She clutched her chest and prayed for mercy.