4 Feet-Part 2
Author's Note: I've decided to continue with this one for a bit.
Let me know your thoughts.
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"I've been workin' on the railroad, all the live long day…" Ressler sang as he stood next to Liz and the bucket.
"That's the song you chose?" Liz asked him through the darkness.
"It's the first one that came to mind," he offered. "It's not good peeing music?"
"I can't do this," Liz said as he heard material shuffle.
"You'll get a UTI," Ressler said. "Want me to pee first?"
"It's different for men," Liz sighed. "You pee in front of each other daily, in bushes, in the street…you just whip it out whenever the mood strikes. Women have stalls, and doors, and everything from the waist down gets removed…you just unzip and you're good."
"Give me the bucket and I'll pee first," he said, slightly annoyed they had been standing there waiting for her to pee and he'd even sang to make it less awkward for her.
"No, I'll…uh, just pick a better song and maybe louder?" Liz asked.
He heard material shuffle again and sighed, thinking of a song appropriate for peeing in a bucket, chained to your partner, stuck in the dark.
"I get up in the evenin, and I ain't got nothing to say, I come home in the mornin' and I go to bed feeling the same way, I ain't nothin' but tired, man, I'm tired and bored with myself. Hey there baby I could use a little help…"
He heard her mumble something under her breath and he went into the next part of the song a little louder and with more energy.
"You can't start a fire, you can't start a fire without a spark…"
She finally started to pee.
"This guns for hire, even if we're just peeing in the dark…"
She burst out laughing and he laughed along with her as he started the next set of lyrics.
"Messages keep getting' clearer, radio's on and I'm movin' round my place, I check my look in the mirror, I wanna change my clothes, my hair, my face…"
He tuned in to the sound and noted that she was still peeing.
"Man I ain't getting nowhere, I'm just living in a dump like this. There's something happening somewhere, baby I just know that there is," he said as he heard her start to shuffle with clothing.
"You can't start a fire, you can't start a fire without a spark, this gun's for hire, even if we're just peeing in the dark…"
He finished on a louder, higher, longer note and she was laughing again.
"Thank you for that," Liz said; he could tell she was smiling as she did.
"Feel better?" He asked.
"One thousand times," Liz sighed. "Although some toilet paper, would have been a bonus."
"Can't have everything, Keen," he chuckled. "I think we need to be grateful for the bucket."
She snorted as she laughed, and he leaned down to find the bucket near her feet.
"Move over, so I can pee," he said as he shuffled her to the side and she heard pants unzip and felt him crouch slightly.
"Why are you getting down?" She asked.
"If I can't see it, I can't aim for it," he said logically. "I need to be right on top of it or we're going to have a mess on our lovely cement and dirt floor."
"Oh, yeah, right," she nodded in the dark.
"You need a song?" Liz asked.
"No, I'm good," he said as she heard him shuffle some more.
She smiled to herself and as soon as she heard him start to pee she started to sing.
"I'm too sexy for my shirt, too sexy for my shirt, so sexy it hurts…" she sang.
He burst out laughing as he peed.
"I'm too sexy for Milan, too sexy for Milan, New York and Japan. And I'm too sexy for your party, too sexy for your party…"
She heard the stream stop and him shuffling and zipping as she continued.
"No way I'm disco dancing," Liz wiggled as she sang. "I'm a model, you know what I mean, and I do my little turn on the catwalk…"
"I'm good Keen," he chuckled. She ignored him and continued.
"Yeah, on the catwalk, on the catwalk yeah, I do my little turn on the catwalk…"
She heard him scraping at something.
"What are you doing?"
"There's dirt on the floor," he said. "I'm putting some in the bucket to soak up some of the pee and the odor."
"Good idea," she said, impressed.
"I haven't watched Homeland for years and not learned a thing about being kept captive," Ressler chuckled as he picked up the bucket with pee and dirt in it and walked it with Liz following to the corner farthest from the cots they were sleeping on.
"There, we're both in a better place," he smiled at her in the darkness. "I certainly feel better."
"How long would you estimate we've been here?" Liz asked.
"Since we woke up in this place?" Ressler asked. "8 hours? It's hard to tell. While you were asleep, I counted seconds for ten minutes before I gave up because it was putting me to sleep."
She chuckled.
"Ressler, I still don't know why or who…I mean, no one has even walked past that door…"
"It is weird," Ressler noted as he yawned. "Usually, I'd think, they would interrogate us, or make a ransom video or…"
"You must be exhausted," Liz said. "You should sleep, and I'll keep watch."
"I'm…"
"Not fine," Liz said. "You're tripping over your own feet."
"It is completely dark," Ressler said.
"Sleep," Liz said. "I feel like I got about 4 hours…maybe more? You should get at least that, especially if they do interrogate us."
He sighed and she knew she'd won. They carefully walked back toward the cots and she sat down and leaned her back against the wall as she heard him sit on the other cot.
"Uh, we learned that doesn't work," Liz said.
"You don't want me laying across your lap," Ressler scoffed. "This will be…"
"Annoying and hurt my arm," Liz offered. "Please don't argue with me."
He sighed and after a minute of thought she felt the cot she was sitting on give with his weight and his head fall onto her lap with their cuffed hands resting around his shoulder.
"Comfortable?" She asked, thinking this was the most bizarre situation she and Ressler may have ever been in.
"Yeah, fine," he sighed and yawned.
Liz Keen felt this intense urge to softly run her hands through his hair until he fell asleep. But she didn't, of course, they were friends and not lovers. Friends who seemed to have chemistry. He was the friend she thought about a little too much since Tom died. The friend she had the occasional very nice dream about. But no, Liz Keen could not, would not, run her hands through his hair as he drifted off to sleep.
"Tell me a story about the worst date you've ever been on," Ressler said moments later.
Liz smiled. He obviously needed some help, as tired as he was, drifting off to la la land.
"Did you know there's a Dinosaur Festival in Nebraska?" Liz asked him as she chuckled.
"No," he snickered.
"Neither did I, until I found myself at it while home for spring break in my second year of college," Liz snickered.
"This promises to be good," he said as he shifted a little and settled in some more.
"You're supposed to go to sleep," Liz admonished him. "I will retell it when you wake up if you miss anything, I promise."
She heard him yawn and mumble a response.
"So, anyways," Liz smirked. "My friend Margie, her cousin Dwight…"
"His name was Dwight?" Ressler asked.
"Yes, Donald," Liz chuckled.
He snickered.
"Anyways," Liz continued. "Her cousin Dwight was a U of Kansas student who was from Florida and his parents were going through an ugly divorce that he wanted to avoid, so he came to Nebraska for spring break with Margie. And that's how I met the man what would take me to the Dinosaur Festival filled with paleontological facts and figures, people dressed as T-Rex's and other dinosaurs walking around, a ridiculous amount of booths about dinosaurs as well as weird conspiracy theorists. Oh, you'll like this, some of these dinosaur conspiracy people think dinosaurs were never made extinct and still exist on Jurassic Park-like islands in the Pacific…"
Liz listened and his breathing started to get slower.
"Did I mention that Dwight was basically allergic to everything on earth?" Liz asked. "He sneezed and wheezed his way through our date, using inhalers a ridiculous amount of the time and wearing gloves and a mask…"
She heard some soft snores, but still continued, in case he was just drifting.
"Now that I look back, I think, how desperate was I for a date? I mean, I was never Miss Popularity, but I had dates, and why…anyways…it's the only time I've had to epi-pen my date when he ate a dino-dog that he specifically asked for the ingredients list of but failed to discover that the bun…"
Ressler was all out snoring now. So, Liz stopped her story. She still had the urge to run her fingers through his hair but decided it was not worth the risk because that action may just wake him up. She dropped her head back against the cold cement wall and thought about their circumstance. She was happy, if she was stuck with anyone, it was Ressler. Samar would have been all commando and Aram would have been a panicked mess. Ressler was…Ressler. Normal, thoughtful, protective but not trying to scale the walls or having panic attacks. Then she thought about Agnes and hoped her little four year old wasn't scared and worried about her missing mummy.
Liz sighed and looked at the sliver of light coming into their cell and hoped, whoever had them made themselves known soon.
To be continued…
