Chapter Twenty-One:



Claire smiled bonnily as she studied an Anne Geddes picture of a baby sitting in a water bucket with a yellow daisy head ornament perched on top of it's cranium. How the photographer got the babies to smile brightly each and every time was a mystery to her. For the spring issue of Kute Kids (which they were already working on despite the fact that winter was around the corner) the company had a new recruit of models. In the group were two babies, a boy and girl, twins actually.
Once she got home, Claire had spent nearly an hour pouring over pictures of babies and what would be the best way to capture their fresh radiance. With older children it was easy, talk about videogames and Pokemon with the boys, Barbies and flowers witht he girls. With babies, it was different; they couldn't cooperate much and if they weren't people persons, watch out. Glancing up at the clock, Claire gasped. It was nearly six-thirty and Leon hadn't eaten yet. Jumping up from her seat, Claire headed for the kitchen to fix him his supper. Opening the cabinet, she scanned the rows of canned foods and picked out a can of chicken and stars soup. After setting it on the stove, she pulled some cold cuts, vegetables and condiments out from the fridge to make him a sandwich. Five minutes later, she had arranged the sandwich and soup on a tray with a glass of hot chocolate and a flower placed at the side for a pick-me-up message.
Carrying the tray into her room, she set it down on the table beside the bed. Leon was sleeping deeply, his body wrapped tightly in a thick comforter stuffed to the gills with down feathers. Folding her arms in front of her, Claire smiled. For nearly a whole minute she was content to just watch his sleeping process before she slid beside him on the bed. Her head rested on his shoulder while her hand ran over his chest, stroking up and down until her hand was seized by his own.
The movement was so sudden that she gasped out loud and was rewarded by a deep chuckle from beside her ear. Turning her head up, she saw Leon staring down at her, his eyes blurry from sleep.
"Is it morning already?" Leon asked, stretching his arms.
Claire sat up and shook her head. "No, it's almost seven o' clock. I made you something to eat."
"Great. I'm starved." Leon replied, sitting up also and inspecting the tray. "Chicken and Stars! I love that soup! You didn't need to cook for me."
"You're still recooperating." she said. "Besides, the doctor said for you not to do any strenuous labor for at least a week."
Leon scoffed. "Making myself a sandwich is hardly strenuous labor--but I appreciate it from you."
Claire smiled and reached over to get the remote from the foot of the bed. The day Leon was released from the hospital, she had moved the portable TV and VCR into her room so that Leon could watch some shows while she was gone.
"Anything interesting on today?" she inquired as she flipped through the channel.
Speaking through a mouth full of salami, Leon replied, "I slept most of the day, but Chris lent me some really cool morning shows on tape. Want to watch them?"
Claire nodded and Leon started to get up.
"Not so fast, there, Big Boy." she said, pushing him back down. "You just wait there and I'll get it for you."
Getting the blank tape from off the VCR, she popped it into the machine and pressed the rewind button. The soft buzz of the tape as it ran on the wheels faster and faster held her captivated before she turned around abruptly and saw Leon studying her with an almost solemn expression.
"What?" she asked as she pressed play, for the tape had stopped.
Leon's head snapped up and he shook his head. "Nothing."
Lifting an eyebrow, she crossed over to him and sat down. "All right."
The tape was full of typical Chris shows. Mostly reruns of the sitcoms on USAM: Working, Wings, Ned and Stacey, etc... But to her surprise, at the end there was a recording of the movie, 'The Last of the Mohicans'. She and Leon watched until the bloodshed got too gruesome to bear and she turned it off.
Flipping through the channels, she finally settled on a made-for-TV-movie on Lifetime.
"Is this all right?" she asked.
Leon nodded. "This is fine." he replied.
They watched it for a little while but soon a bedroom scene arose and the two were locked in an embrace just as heated, if not more, than the one on screen. Skin pressed to skin, mouth pressed to mouth, breath rising and falling...
Claire had pulled off her shirt when Leon broke away from her, resting his head on his knees.
"Leon? What is it?" Claire asked breathlessly, sitting up and rubbing his shoulders. "Is something wrong?"
Leon shook his head. "No. Nothing's wrong."
Claire felt a little uneasy at his distance but she brushed it off and kissed him. "I'll be gentle if that's what you're worried about."
Leon let out a laugh that seemed forced before he turned away. "Nah, I'm fine...I just...uh, I thinking I'm going to go take a...a shower...yeah..."
Puzzled, Claire checked the clock. It was almost midnight. Why on earth would Leon want to take a shower now? Taking a deep breath, she watched as he disappeared into the bathroom and she fell back onto the bed. Looking down at herself, she felt more than a little embarrassed that she had been so forceful but why was she feeling so dirty all of a sudden? Putting her shirt back on, she told herself not to think too much about it, Leon was probably just tired and didn't want her to worry about it.
Getting up, she took the tape out of the machine and put it back in it's case. Turning around, she noticed for the first time, a thick fold of paper underneath Leon's pillow...


Hot water rolled down Leon's body but he hardly felt it. Thick, choking steam rose around him as he rinsed off the remainder of soaps suds and just stood with his forehead pressed against the heated tile. His heart was pounding with guilt and grief. What he wouldn't have given to have one last night with Claire, but he knew that it wouldn't be right. Not when he was planning on leaving her, planning to break all those promises he made to her all those nights when they laid panting and kissing on the floor after hours of fervent love-making. When he put it like that, he sounded like such an asshole. A lewd, pathetic weasel who loved then left without the slightest feeling of remorse.
Punching the wall with his fist, he groaned out loud. He didn't want to be compared to those kind of men. He didn't even want to leave Claire. But she needed time away from him, to figure out what she wanted and how much she wanted from herself before she could have any more of her dreams crushed. Turning of the water, he dressed in a robe and got out of the bathroom. The room was deathly quiet when he entered it. It was a few degrees colder than when he left, too, or was that just his imagination.
Claire was sitting on his bed, facing away from him, her head bent as if examining something.
"Claire?" he spoke, causing her to spin around.
"Oh, Leon..."
Leon grinned and wiped his hair off with a towel. "Whatcha got there?"
"Oh, this? Oh, um, just something that I found under your pillow." she said, holding up a map and a piece of paper with an address and phone number written on it. "Are you planning a trip?"
Leon froze, feeling his heart sink to his feet and his stomach completely disappearing. "Uh, kind of."
"Really?" Claire asked, a strange smile on her face. "Great. When do we leave?"
The tone was unconvincing. As if she were trying to play innocent but knowing better.
"Um...it's not really...US exactly..." Leon said, not able to look her in the eye.
"Oh...I see..." Claire said, her tone dead on arrival. When she spoke next, her words were bitter. "Would you mind telling me who the hell Laina Edwards is?"
At this, Leon looked up, at least this he could tell the truth about. "She's my sister in Chicago."
"Oh, please." Claire replied, throwing the map down on the bed and starting out. "Your sister?"
"Yes, my sister." Leon said. "She married a guy named Peter Edwards a while ago. I swear to you, Claire, she really is."
Claire stared at him hard, as trying to detect perjury but was satified when she saw he was being truthful. "And...when, exactly, did you plan on telling me this?"
"I--"
"In a note that you left on the pillow before you took off?" Claire demanded, her gaze piercing his own.
Leon choked a little on his reply, but he managed a short, abrupt sentence before Claire cut him off once again. "So, you were just planning to leave after all we've been through?" The hurt in her voice was painful. "Just pick up and go after you got all the screws you could get out of me?"
"That's not true, Claire!" He declared.
"Then what IS true, Leon?" She said, her voice surprisingly calm. "Why, after all that's happened, do you want to leave?"
"I don't want to leave, Claire." He choked out. "I just...I just have to."
Claire stared at him for a long time before shaking her head and turning around. "Why do you have to lie?"
"Excuse me? What did you say?" Leon asked, crossing the length of the room in two strides and attaching himself to her side.
"I said, 'why do you have to lie?'." She replied. "You wouldn't be leaving if you didn't want to."
"I don't want to..." he insisted.
Claire glared angrily at him and jerked away.
"At least with Steve it was different. He never promised he wouldn't hurt me."
Leon's nerves pinched at this comment. He knew it was out of blind pain that she was replying, but the thought of her comparing him and Steve was something he couldn't bear.
"If you are trying to make me feel that I'm worse than Steve, don't, Claire. Just don't." Leon said in a warning voice. "I won't have it."
Her mouth dropped open in mock surprise. "YOU won't have it?" she asked, then repeated, "YOU won't have it? Okay, fine. You won't have yourself compared to Steve. Great. But I won't have myself being compared to some whore off the streets."
"I don't think of you that way! Damn it, Claire, I think the world of you!"
"Well, you aren't showing it!" she exclaimed tearfully. "We slept together, Leon! I gave you something that I haven't been able to give to anyone, not even Steve, so completely. I trusted you with my heart and you just...oh God! a man wouldn't treat a slut like that..."
Leon stammered as Claire whipped away furiously.
"Claire, I...let me explain--listen to me."
Claire looked at him venomously before shaking her head. "No. I think I've heard about all I need to." She wrenched herself away and opened the door, then in a completely ironical voice said, "Good bye, Leon. It's been fun."
The door slammed hard just as a clap of thunder rolled outside.