The Let's Get Reacquainted Syndrome
Chapter 2
By Dalliann
X pulled up to the curb at 234 South Fitzgerald Court and looked up at the house he had seen earlier that morning on the holo-screen. It was several stories tall, with a light blue, shingled facade and white shutters at the sides of every window. The long, curving driveway was packed with vehicles and more were pulling up behind the SUV. He glanced at Elle who was crouched down low in her seat.
"We're heeeere!" X projected. He grabbed her hand and tried to pull her up but she yanked it back, presenting him with an angry stare.
"You want me to get fired, don't you?"
X shrugged. "Some days more than others. Come on, Zed won't find out because there won't be anything to find out."
"I'm staying right here," Elle told him crossly as she folded her arms and hunched back down.
"Suit yourself. I'm going to check out the buffet table they were setting up this morning." He jumped out of the car and left Elle sitting alone. She stared at him disbelievingly as he made his way across the grass and disappeared into the backyard. She shook her head. X can get himself out of this one. I'm not jeopardizing my position- I've worked too long and hard to get this far and he is not ruining it for me.
She had resolved to stay glued to the seat but after fifteen minutes of confinement, paranoia was starting to set in. What if he talks to my mother? Or my father? What if he lets the whole thing spill and people start leaving before he can neuralize them and Zed blames the leak on me because I should have known better than to let that cowboy go ANYWHERE by himself?!
She grimaced as she carefully unbuckled her seatbelt and opened the door. She stood behind it for a moment, like a protective barricade, and contemplated a plan of action. Okay, just rush in there and find X. If he refuses to come along quietly, hit him in the head with a blunt object, drag him to the car, and speed back to New York. No problem. Yeah right.
She closed the door and hurried up the lawn. She edged around the corners of the house and peaked over the back yard gate. Roughly two hundred people were milling around the yard; some admired the garden, others inspected the buffet table, many sat on the gazebo steps swatting at mosquitos. The largest crowd was at the reception stage, where the most daring (or the most sloshed) members of the party were singing karaoke.
On tiptoes, she strained to see more clearly over the fence, trying to find her partner in the confusion. A familiar head of wild, auburn hair caught her attention. She watched as the figure walked around the scene, finally exiting to the kitchen. Elle sighed and carefully nudged the gate open, hoping it hadn't developed a tell-all squeak since she had been here last. It swung open, noiseless, and she hurried to the kitchen, dodging behind caterers and ushers when possible.
She dashed up the cobblestone steps and slivered open the door. She squinted an eye, peering through the tiny crack to make sure no one else was inside. Finding the room empty she entered and bolted the door behind her.
The last thing she needed was an untimely visitor.
"X?" she hissed. She ducked her head into the pantry, not really expecting to find him there, and made her way to the dining room. She reached out to tug on the rolling door but it was suddenly flung open before her hand had even grasped the handle.
White haired and pale skinned, the woman who stood on the other side of the entryway seemed to grow even chalkier as she recognized the young agent. Elle gulped down the panic that was quickly taking over and tried to smile.
"Laurel? Sweetheart?" Mrs. Weaver gasped, bringing a quivering hand to her lips. Elle shrugged and smiled nervously.
"Hi Mom," she said with a small wave. "Long time, huh?" Mrs. Weaver's eyes grew round and white as she fell back on the checkered linoleum. "Mom?" Elle knelt down beside her mother and struggled to pull her up from the floor.
"We've been here less than twenty minutes and you've already killed someone. This may be a little harder to cover up than our original plan," X said blandly as he came into the dining room. Elle looked up and frowned.
"She fainted. Would you help me get her to the sofa?" X grimaced but bent down and hoisted the woman over his shoulder. Elle guided him into the living room.
"Why did you come in here in the first place?" she asked him as he gently placed her mother against an uncomfortable looking couch.
He smiled and pointed to the photos above the fireplace. "Wanted to see if human mothers take joy in displaying embarrassing pictures of their offspring the same way Jee'Dangian mothers do. What are those weird silver things on your teeth in the one on the right?"
Elle scowled at him and turned each of her school pictures towards the wall. "They're called braces- and if you ever mention them to Jay..."
On the divan, Mrs. Weaver moved slightly. Elle sighed and squeazed her eyes shut. "We have to leave- right now. Hopefully, she'll wake up and think it was just a dream, caused by the stress of putting the wedding together or something."
"So you're going to leave her here? With a possible concussion?"
"She doesn't have a concussion! And even if she does, my dad's a brain surgeon. That would sort of fall under his field of expertise, right?"
"Speaking of Dad, that's him, isn't it?" X asked, the amusement in his voice rich.
Elle spun around to see the disbelieving face of her father, clutching the stair railing for support. "Laurie?" his voice creaked uncertainly.
"Hi, Daddy."
With even less warning than Mrs. Weaver had given, Mr. Weaver fell back and landed with a hollow thud on the carpet.
"Does narcolepsy run in your family or something? I've never seen so many people faint at the word 'hi.' And you know those landings can't be good for them- not at this age."
"Will you shut up and help me get him off the floor?"
X narrowed his eyes at her unpleasantly and helped pull the elderly man into a recliner. "So now you have two concussion victims and no brain surgeon to treat them. I think we better stay. At least until they wake up."
"You'd just love that. First humiliate me in front of my friends and family and then neuralize me right out of my job."
"Sounds like fun to me."
"You are such a creep."
"And you're too uptight. I haven't even met Gabe, yet, and already I like him more than you. In fact, I think I'll go find him and introduce myself."
"If you set one foot in that yard I will shoot you."
"With what? The only weapons we're packing in the SUV right now are carbonizers. As I'm sure you recall, they make a quite a mess. How would you go about explaining the slushy, green mass all over the yard to the guests? And you'd definitely have to call a clean-up crew. But if you did that, Zed would know where you've been all day."
Elle's face darkened with anger as X winked at her and entered the kitchen. He unlocked the door, waved, and strode out to mingle with the other guests.
"Fine!" Elle shouted, although she doubted anyone outside could hear her. "If that's the way he wants to play it, let him find his own ride back to New York," she grumbled and headed for the front door. She refused to even glance at her parents as she passed them; that part of her life no longer existed. She pulled the door open roughly and, finding the entrance blocked by a tower of finely wrapped gifts, stepped back in surprise.
"Would you mind carrying a few?" a female voice asked from behind the stacked boxes. Before Elle could reply, several packages were pushed into her hands and she was motioned back into the living room.
The woman looked back over her shoulder in irritation and yelled out the door, "John! Will you get off that cellphone and help me!"
Elle's eyes grew wide. John? She shook her head in frustration and looked for a place to set the gifts. John was a common name. There were probably twenty Johns in the backyard. The probability that this woman's husband was her brother was slim.
The woman, still perched in the doorway with her massive packages, glared at her escort. "Why'd I ever marry a lawyer? Phone glued to his ear and pen tied to his hand. At least doctors take their wives on vacations, ocassionally," she muttered.
Elle tensed at her words. Lawyer? Panicky, she didn't even waste time trying to rationalize that there were bound to be some lawyers at this wedding, and some of them might even be named John. She dropped the presents carelessly on the hallway boot chest and rushed through the living room to the kitchen. But just as she reached the swinging door it was suddenly thrown open, Agent X's hand on the latch.
"There you are!" she breathed in belief. She reached out to push him into the kitchen but he turned slightly and glanced over his shoulder.
"She's in the living room!" he shouted. Elle's jaw dropped. She grabbed one of his ears and pulled him towards her roughly.
"What do you think you're doing?" she hissed.
"Putting together a spur-of-the-moment family reunion. Your Nanna is quite the character," he said, his calm smile on the verge of driving her to violent insanity.
Before she could make up her mind whether to slap him or kick him, the woman from the hallway came huffing into the room. "There was crystal in those boxes! You can't just drop them any which way you please!" she berated.
"Get her driver's license I.D. and her social security number, Katherine," John instructed his wife as he joined her in the living room. He was just tucking his phone into his waist band when he caught sight of Elle. He squinted for a moment and pointed at her questioningly. "Laurel?"
"Don't say 'hi' this time," X told her, "We're running out of furniture to lay them on."
Elle opened her mouth to speak but wasn't sure what to say; apparently, neither was John. They stood facing each other, each opening and closing their mouths as various bits of dialougue came and left their minds in seconds. After a moment, John's eyes flitted to something behind her and he seemed to regain his sense of speech.
"It's Laurel. You guys, it's Laurel!" he shouted happily.
Elle spun around to find the rest of her family- her brothers, sisters, and grandmother- crowded in at X's shoulder and all staring at her with expressions of joyful disbelief.
X grinned at her, thoroughly enjoying himself. "I believe this is the part where it starts to get interesting."