Author's Note – Sorry for the delay, folks, but I've been on a much-needed spring break. Hope this chapter makes up for it!
Lunch was uneventful. The "Parkers" managed to successfully avoid the Tylers and ate quietly at a small table for two near one of the cafeteria windows. The afternoon session would begin at 2:00 and husbands were assigned to be back in the "Unity Room" while wives would assemble in Sydney's personal favorite place, the "Serenity Room." Aware of the opportunity the split sessions provided, both Sydney and Gage looked forward to getting some real detective work done on their case and used their isolation at lunch to organize a strategy.
"From what we've seen so far," Sydney began, "I think Dr. Ehrlich is our most likely suspect. He's the one with the most access to and knowledge of all of the couples who come through here."
"You're probably right," Gage agreed. "But I don't think we can rule out any members of his staff at this point – not until we've viewed the tapes from the file room anyway."
"True," Sydney nodded. "I want to bug his phone this afternoon, though – just to be safe."
"Right," Gage glanced furtively around to make sure that their conversation wasn't being listened to. The other couples seemed engrossed in their meals and in chatting with each other, paying no notice to the Rangers.
He looked back at Sydney. "I think our best chance to plant the bug will be after lunch on our way to our sessions. Ehrlich will be directing traffic like he always seems to do with these things, so we can be sure he'll be out of the way. Do you have the bug with you?"
Sydney nodded and her brown eyes instantly told Gage that someone was approaching. He snapped his mouth shut as Sydney began to say, "So I told Fernando that if he didn't learn to step down on the two instead of the one, I was going to break his leg."
"My but you have a unique teaching style!" Dr. Ehrlich commented, stopping in front of the couple's table, his cheesy grin firmly in place. Gage noted, however, that his eyes were glittering in an almost reptilian fashion as he peered down at them. Suspicion took a firm hold in the Ranger's mind but he kept his face neutral.
"Fernando is one of my clumsier students," Sydney's tone took on its charming quality, "but he seems to do better with a bit of a push."
"I see," the doctor demurred. "And your husband, here, is he a good dancer or is he clumsy like Fernando?"
Sydney and Gage exchanged a quick, "What the heck is he talking about?" look, but it passed quickly as Gage answered for them. "I'm pretty quick on my feet."
"Good," Ehrlich nodded. "If that's the case, the two of you should consider favoring us with a little bit of a dance exhibition at our end-of-session ball."
"There's an end-of-session ball?" Sydney's voice was more pained than interested.
"Oh yes," he replied quickly. "We find that it's a nice send-off for our couples before they take what they've learned here home with them. It tends to be a night of romance and fun."
"Well in that case we can't possibly refuse your request," Gage told him graciously, wincing in pain as Sydney's foot connected with his knee under the table, though the doctor didn't seem to notice.
"Wonderful!" Ehrlich clapped his hands together. Then he glanced at his watch and said, "Oh my! We'll have to discuss the details later – I have to get all of you moving on to your afternoon sessions."
When he'd gone, Sydney hissed, "What did you just get us into?"
"Relax, Syd," Gage assured her in his easiest tone. "I fully intend to have the case wrapped up and for us to be back in Dallas by the time the end-of-session ball rolls around."
"We'd better," she told him grimly, "or it won't be Fernando who ends up with a broken leg – it'll be you."
"Come on," he protested lightly. "It's not like it's a big deal anyway - I'm a good dancer and so are you. We could pull it off if we had to."
"You mean I'm a good dancer," she corrected him wryly, the teasing twinkle creeping back into her eyes.
"What's that supposed to mean?" he demanded. "I'm a great dancer!"
"Great is a stretch," she responded. "I mean, you're quick on your feet and all like you told Dr. Ehrlich, but dancing isn't really your thing. If I were you, I'd stick with the martial arts."
"I disagree!" Gage bridled.
Sydney's response was to chuckle and say, "Whatever you say, Gage."
The other couples were getting up to leave the cafeteria and the Rangers stood to join them. Gage was still arguing as they did so.
"You're wrong, Syd," he kept his voice low so as not to draw any attention to his use of her real name.
She laughed again. "Okay, you're right and I'm wrong. Whatever!" She tossed her hair back and headed for the door. "I don't want to argue about this, Gage."
"Fine," he drew himself up, "But whether or not you agree with me about my dancing abilities, there's one thing you can't disagree with me about when it comes to dancing in general."
Sydney crooked an eyebrow at him, awaiting his conclusion with a challenging expression on her face. "Oh yeah?"
With a nearly evil tone, he told her, "You and me, Syd - we move well together."
He waited for the comment to register on her face, enjoyed the surprised and offended reaction that appeared, then brushed past, grinning slyly to himself. She may have thought she'd won that battle, but he'd had one more weapon up his sleeve that she hadn't known about. If all else failed, he knew that an innuendo was an ace in the hole – things like that always made Sydney uncomfortable and were guaranteed to stop her in her tracks. It wasn't the nicest thing to do, he knew, but he was competitive and hated to lose their verbal sparring matches. Sure he'd pay for it later, but the moment was rather sweet while it lasted.
*
True to form, Sydney was still miffed fifteen minutes later when she emerged stealthily from Dr. Ehrlich's office, having successfully bugged his phone while Gage kept watch in the hallway for anyone who might interrupt her. She stepped out and looked both ways to double check that no one was around before giving Gage a disapproving frown to let him know she was still unhappy, followed by an affirmative nod to show she'd been successful.
Gage ignored the frown and glanced at his watch. "We'd better get to our sessions before we're missed."
"Right," Sydney nodded and both strode off down the hallway, though Gage noticed that she kept herself a bit apart from him, her demeanor still aloof. His comment had stung a bit more than he'd intended, he supposed. He'd have to apologize later for it – it was a game with them, after all.
When they reached the hallway that led in opposite directions to their assigned session rooms, the pair parted with a perfunctory nod and Gage's off-handed, "See you for dinner."
He didn't, however, realize how far away in time dinner actually was until he read the chalkboard in the "Unity Room" that told the husbands what the topic for the session would be. To make matters worse, the words were enough to make him almost believe in karma. They read: "Today's Topic: Are You Too Competitive with Your Mate?"
"You have got to be kidding me," he muttered emphatically under his breath, not noticing Dr. Ehrlich stepping up behind him as he entered the room.
"What's that, Mr. Parker?" Ehrlich wanted to know.
"I, uh," Gage faltered, then settled on, "I said: 'Finally we're getting free.' You know, free of the wives so we can say things that are on our minds without worrying about offending them…"
He trailed off but Ehrlich seemed surprisingly appeased by the answer and moved quickly to the front of the room, leaving Gage to take a seat next to his put upon comrade, Mr. Tyler.
"How's it going?" Gage tried to act as though he hadn't just said something completely stupid and gave the man a nod of greeting.
"My first two hours of peace all day," was the response as Tyler moved to take his seat.
"Okay then," Gage swung his chair around to face the front of the room, noticing that Ehrlich looked ready to begin his lecture.
"Welcome to our session for husbands only," the doctor began, flashing another meaningless smile. "Today we're going to discuss competition in the household between husbands and wives. Competition is bad for a healthy marriage because you're supposed to be playing on the same team. It's supposed to be the two of you versus the world when you're married and you can't very well do so if you're too busy battling each other, now can you?" He clasped his hands together in what appeared to be rapture as he continued. "I'd like to begin with a question for all of you that will get to what is often the primary reason for competition between two partners. How many of you husbands make more than your wives?"
Gage put his hand in the air, albeit a bit nervously because he didn't know what to expect from the men around him. He knew for a fact that he made slightly more than Sydney did for the sole reason that he had more seniority as a Ranger than she did, however. Around him, only four other hands went up – and Gage was shocked to see that one of them belonged to Mr. Tyler.
"I see," Ehrlich nodded, taking a silent count. "And that means that out of the sixteen of you present here, only slightly more than one quarter makes more than their wives. Welcome to the twenty-first century, gentlemen. Today's women are a different generation from your mothers and grandmothers and they work hard for what they earn. What's more, they're proud of it and themselves. This is an issue all husbands should know to tread lightly around, as by competing with your wife over salary issues, you're stepping on her delicate pride. And competition, my friends, always leads to confrontation."
Gage stifled a snicker at the doctor's use of the term "delicate pride" and thought of his partner. Sydney had pride all right – there was no disputing that. But delicate? Delicate and Sydney Cooke were not words that were ever found in the same sentence together. Sydney wasn't delicate, Gage mused. She was tough; she was strong; she was fearless. Yet she was also extremely feminine at the same time so if there was anything delicate about her, he concluded, it would have to be that line she walked between extreme toughness and femininity. It certainly made her attractive – albeit frightening at times.
Ehrlich stepped closer to the group, as though he was a father about to impart sage wisdom to his sons. "Let me ask another question of you now that isn't related to money: How many of you are intimidated by your wives in one way or another?"
Gage felt his face begin to turn a bit red and he looked at the floor as he half raised his hand slowly into the air. Silence filled the room and, upon inspection, he was shocked to see fifteen other hands in the air as well. (Beside him, Mr. Tyler's hand was raised the highest of anyone's.)
"Ah," Ehrlich mused. "Interesting. Let's investigate this further, shall we? Put your hands down if you are intimidated by your wife because she makes more money than you do."
Three hands went down at this and he continued, "Put your hands down if you don't like entering into conflicts with her. She has, as many of your male friends might say, made you 'whipped.'"
Eleven hands went slowly down while Mr. Tyler was quick to return his to his lap. Gage looked around and realized that his was the only hand still in the air.
"Mr. Parker," Ehrlich singled the burly Ranger out, "would you care to share with us your particular reason for being intimidated by your wife?"
"Well," Gage swallowed and looked nervously around before giving his answer, "she…well – she could kick my butt, doctor."
Chuckles erupted around Gage, though most were muted as though no one wanted to be caught laughing. He felt his ears turn redder but didn't add anything. He had, after all, told the truth – Sydney could break him in half if she was in the right mood to do so and he knew it.
"I see," Dr. Ehrlich did not seem to see the humor in Gage's response, nor did he appear to believe him – which was made apparent by his follow-up question: "Let me get this straight, Mr. Parker – you are afraid of physical harm from your wife?"
The tone with which the question was delivered was not sincere, but rather implied what the chuckles of Gage's fellow "husbands" had – it asked how a man of Gage's stature could possibly be afraid of someone as diminutive as Sydney. But, Gage reminded himself, they hadn't seen her knock out two enormous bikers with a broken pool cue either. Still, Gage figured since he'd already told the truth, he might as well stick with it.
Emphatically, he replied, "Sometimes I am." The words didn't seem like enough, though, so he added with a shrug, "She has a mean roundhouse kick."
More chuckles followed this remark but Gage kept his eyes leveled on Ehrlich's face. The doctor stared straight back, as though sizing Gage up to see if he was telling the truth. Finally, he seemed to realize the sincerity of the remark and a slow smile split his face. Yet there was something else there, Gage realized. He didn't know what, but it made the Ranger part of him suspicious.
"Well then, Mr. Parker," Ehrlich said flatly to brush the line of questioning away, "I suggest you stay out of range."
Gage snorted at that and the other men smiled, but the doctor didn't allow them any time to dwell on what Gage was certain he considered an interruption to his very serious session. Instead, he pushed forward, saying, "The idea here, then, is for all of you to figure out why you are intimidated by your wives and how you can remedy this. As long as you are intimidated, you can't be an equal partner in the relationship and if you're not an equal partner, you're marriage isn't truly healthy."
Beside Gage, Mr. Tyler let out an enormous sigh and the Ranger glanced sideways at him to see if he was all right. The little man was sitting somewhat slumped in the chair but he seemed to be completely absorbed in the lecture, so Gage paid him no more attention.
"So what can we do to improve our situations, gentlemen?" Ehrlich was asking from his position at the front of the room. "What can we do to become less intimidated by our wives?"
The husbands were silent so the doctor pressed them. "Come on – someone must have an idea!"
Finally someone spoke up – and it took Gage a full ten seconds to realize that the voice he was hearing belonged to none other than Mr. Tyler.
"I know that I'm intimidated by my wife because I don't always understand why she does the things she does," the man ventured. "She gets confrontational and we end up arguing."
Gage fought the urge to stare directly at him, shocked at hearing so many words come out of his mouth at once.
"Excellent, Mr. Tyler!" Ehrlich exclaimed. "Wonderful! Gentlemen, Mr. Tyler had just hit the nail on the head with this one! The most common reason for husbands being intimidated by their wives – roundhouse kicks excluded" (the doctor glared at Gage as he said this) "is because they don't understand their motivation and they don't know what to do when she confronts them. This is crucial information, men. Today's woman is expected to be outspoken and tough if she's going to be successful in the working world and we've already established that most of your wives have jobs where they make a good living and more money than you do. They're successful – successful because they are tough at work. They compete to get ahead there and when they come home to you, it's difficult for them to shut that competitiveness off and you become the recipients of their working demeanors. Does everyone understand this?"
Everyone nodded, including Gage, who was thinking about his partner. He'd acknowledged her toughness earlier and surprised himself by agreeing with Ehrlich's assessment – it was at least true for Sydney. In defense of her, Gage realized full well that she had to be that way in order to be a good Ranger otherwise her coworkers (most of whom were male) would look at her differently, as someone who wasn't an equal. And her attitude worked – Gage had never entered a situation with her where he'd been worried that she couldn't handle herself. In fact, the few times that he had been worried hadn't been while she was beside him entering everyday situations, but rather had been when she'd been undercover and acting like a poor defenseless waitress or showgirl (her typical undercover assignments). Still, he often found himself wishing that she could step out of her Ranger persona when they were off duty – he felt like he'd end up with fewer bruises that way, both physical and mental.
"So what can we do to remedy this?" Ehrlich continued. "What can we do to show our wives that it is okay for them to be less confrontational with us so we can be less competitive?"
Silence ensued again – and again it was Mr. Tyler who bailed the other husbands out. "It seems to me that we should be more supportive."
"And how would we do that?" Ehrlich pressed him.
"Well," Tyler began, "what if we become less confrontational ourselves?"
"Terrific!" Ehrlich clapped his hands together. "Mr. Tyler, you are certainly on a roll today. Gentlemen, what Mr. Tyler said is absolutely correct. Confrontation breeds confrontation – it's the proverbial snowball effect. Likewise, non-confrontation results in non-confrontation. Therefore, the next time your wife says something that could begin something negative, instead of taking the bait, let it go and see what happens. I'll be she backs down in return."
Gage stifled a snort as he pictured Sydney "backing down" from a chance to argue with him. They enjoyed their verbal sparring matches far too much for her to give in to him – besides, giving in would be to cede the competition and both hated to lose. Still, Gage recalled how upset Sydney had been when he'd pulled the innuendo card after lunch – he'd not played fair and it had upset her. Maybe there was something to this backing down from confrontation after all.
Gage mulled the idea over in his head for the rest of the session and was still thinking about it when he exited the room and headed down the hall to meet up with his partner and return to their cabin. She met him outside the door to the "Serenity Room" looking quite introspective herself and he was confused as to why – until he read the title of the women's afternoon session on their chalkboard. It read: "Topic for the Day – Your Husband and Other Women – When Jealousy is Justified."
It's going to be a long night, Gage's inner voice told him as he swung into step beside her. It's going to be a very long night.
I suppose you'd all like to know exactly what happened in Sydney's session, wouldn't you? Stay tuned…