Made Of Steel
Chp 14
If You Forget Me
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In that book I mentioned, The Hell With Love, there is this poem (below), by Pablo Neruda, that I really liked and also helped me with writing for Trevor and his emotions, and ( if he wasn't such a psycho) I would feel sorry for him.
I want you to know
one thing:
You know how this is
If I look
at the crystal moon, at the red branch
of the slow autumn at my window,
If I touch near the fire
the impalpable ash
or the wrinkled body of the log,
everything carries me tot you,
as if everything that exists,
aromas, light, metals,
were little boats that sail
toward those isles of yours that wait for me.
Well, now,
if little by little you forget me
I shall forget you little by little.
If suddenly
you forget me
do not look for me,
for I shall already have forgotten you.
If you think it long and mad,
the wind of banners
that passes through my life,
and you decide
to leave m me at the shore
of the heart where I have roots,
remember,
that on the day,
at that hour,
I shall left my arms
and my roots will set off
to seek another land.
But
if each day,
each other,
you feel that you are destined for me
with implacable sweetness,
if each day a flower
climbs up to your lips to seek me,
ah my love, ah my own,
in me all that fire is repeated,
in me nothing is extinguished or forgotten,
my love feeds on your love, beloved,
and as long as you live it will be in your arms
without leaving mine.
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She saw a flash of Terry's eyes and her mother yelling for her get up before she'll be late.
The sleep started to wear away. She felt warm, on her bare legs and back. Maxine's eyes slowly opened and focused. There was a gun barrel pointed at her. She quickly jerked back. A hand came around her waist, she felt someone kiss the back of her neck. " Did you know you talked in your sleep."
Max looked behind her, Trevor lay sleepily looking at her. Max slide, half fall out of the bed, quickly stood up and started backing up, staring around the room in confusion. Past events began to roll back in her head. She looked down, she was only wearing a crimson button down, it barley passed her thighs. Her eyes snapped up to the shirtless Trevor, who sat up in bed.
"Where are my cloths?" She asked in total disdain.
"They were soaked. I had them dry cleaned." Trevor tossed the covers off him put his legs over the side, yawned and dragged his hands through his hair. Maxine's eyes stayed on the gun on the night stand next to him. Trevor looked to her, than followed her eyes. He picked it up by the barrel, " It's just until I can trust you." He said setting it back down and getting off the bed.
Maxine turned around to face the patio doors. The view of rainy Gotham at sunset met her eyes. She wanted to be anywhere but here right now. The collar of the shirt aggravated the burning skin on her neck, Her hand gently touched there making her hiss in pain. She felt Trevor standing behind her. He reached barley touching her arm. Maxine hit his hand away, unlocked the balcony door and went out. Trevor watched her walk outside, but didn't follow. He foresaw her reaction to the situation. The bruises on her neck made him feel even worse about treating her the way he had, but she would come around eventually. She just had to learn that he knew best for the both of them.
The bedroom door clicked open behind him. Todd stepped in looking rather tired, tossed his jacket on the other bed on the opposite side. Trevor walked over to the sitting chair and grabbed his pants.
Todd looked behind his brother to see Maxine standing on the balcony. " She finally woke up, huh?" He dryly asked, sitting on the bed, unlacing his shoes. Trevor walked over to the dresser, to select something to wear.
"Is it ready?" He changed the subject.
Todd fall back to the bed " No." He said covering his face with a pillow.
Trevor turned around, walked to the bed and knocked the pillow off. " We only have enough sacc to last until to night. What the hell is taking so long?" Todd jumped up and got in his brothers face.
" If you would put your dick on hold long enough to help me distill the shit, We'd have nothing to worry about." He stated, glaring "himself" in the face. Trevor turned around and started getting dressed. Todd looked at his watch, "I got to be at the airport in 20 minutes and ain't baby-sitting." He informed him, went into the bathroom slamming the door. The noise caused Max to turn around. Trevor walked over to the balcony door.
" Come with me." He instructed. Maxine walked back into the room, saw Trevor slip the gun into the band of his khakis, toss a pair of sweat pants on the foot of the bed. She snatched them up and put them on. Trevor stood watching, behind her waiting by the door his hand on the knob. He watched her walk towards him to go out the door. He opened it, let her out into the sitting area of the room. With his hand on her elbow they walked down the hall to another door.
Fix was posted in front. Maxine looked up at the South African than remembered to close her mouth. Fix disappeared inside the door, Trevor turned to her.
"The man you're about to meet is Dr. Parson. I work for him."
Fix opened the door and let them in. The hotel room was much like the other she just left, plus a mini grand piano. The door was shut behind them. Trevor pulled her motioned her to sit down. He then walked into the back room.
She sat quietly, her mind racing a thousand miles per hour on what to do. Whatever they had planned, she would not make it easy, she needed to fill in the blank after NOW and before RUN LIKE HELL.
" Maxine."
At the mention of her name, she looked up to see an over sized man in a pair of gray slacks, white shirt and light blue tie walking towards her.
" It is a pleasure to finally meet you." He finished, offering a hand. Max stood up, took the gesture. She plastered a fake smile to go with it.
"Dr. Parson." She greeted and sat back down.
Parson walked over to Fix , who helped him into his suit jacket." Has Trevor explained we will be leaving Gotham tonight?"
Maxine sat straight, her hands folded in her lap. She fronted her interest in the conversation.
" No. Has Trevor explained what he is doing is kidnaping?" She asked.
Parson walked around the couch in front of her and spoke. " I apologize for you treatment. I completely understand your ill emotions towards this situation, but you must understand that Trevor has my complete support in anything that he shows so much passion for." He went and sat in the arm chair.
"Passion?" She repeated dryly. " I thought it psycho."
"His methods are a bit unorthodox, but its passion that drives him." He reassured her in his normal dictatorial manner.
" Tomato, Tomata." She said looking away discussed.
Parson's mouth curved down in disapproval. "Smart mouth."It sounded like a threat to her.
She looked back at him with a glare. " I get it from my mother."
Trevor emerged, a small tube with a familiar yellowish liquid inside. He gave it to the doctor. Parson dipped the tube back and forth a few times, handed back to Trevor.
"That's pure enough. Make sure the it is properly packed for the trip." He said
" Already done. Fix you take them now." Trevor instructed. Fix went in to the room Trevor exited a second before and came out with a set of suitcases. He stopped, unlocked one and held it in front of Trevor. Maxine glanced over and saw the inside of the case lined in soft gray foam with full tubes of distilled Sacc and injection guns protectively embedded within. Trevor set the last tube in it's place and shut the case. "Maxine, have you told the Doctor that you're this years valedictorian?"
" Impressive goal." Parson said and then addressed Fix walking out the door. " Make sure Todd personally escorts them safely onto our flight."
Fix nodded his understanding.
Trevor signaled her they were leaving. She stood up and followed Fix out the door. Before Trevor could close the door Parson stopped him.
"Trevor... watch her."
Todd was coming out the room as, Fix and Maxine walked towards him. He nodded to Fix that he would meet him downstairs. Todd held the door open for her. As she was walking in she heard him say " Your cloths are hanging up."
She half ignored him. He softy grabbed her arm to stop her. " I'm sorry." He said. The utter surprise and confusions written on her face was the only reaction he got. He turned and walked down the hall. Sorry? Sorry he couldn't help her? Sorry for what he did to Cree?
"What?" she mouthed. Her mind switched to what he said first. Her cloths were hanging up.
Trevor walked up motioned her inside with a hand on the small of her back. She quickly walked away from his touch. Trevor sighed and softly shut the door. He would have break the ice between them. He pulled a familiar injection gun from his pocket and offered to her.
Her first thought was to spit in his face but if she didn't take, he would force it on her anyway. She than realized he didn't know she didn't need that anymore.
" We have a couple of hours." He started " I know you didn't eat lunch, I could order something." He said picking up the phone. Maxine faced him and smiled lightly.
" I'd like that."
He noticed her slight change and soaked it up like a sponge. She calmly walked over to the bed room door.
He approached her before she went in. " What do want?" He asked.
Maxine looked up into his hazel eyes that pleaded for expectance. She wavered , but brought her hand up and caressed his cheek than slide down his chest to his arm and took the hit from his hand. " You know what I like." She softly answered. A slight smile played on Trevor's face.
" I'm going to change." She told him walking into the room and closing the door.
Maxine stayed near the door long enough to hear the beep of the buttons on the phone and him talking. She rushed over to the closet, yanked the hanger holding her jeans down and snatched the plastic rap off, stuffed her hand in the pocket and pulled out the ear piece. The back of it fall off and the rubber padding had torn.
" Damn it." She put her pants under her arm as she tired to fit it back together.
The door knob made a sound. Maxine grabbed her top and jacket from the closet and ran into the bathroom. Trevor came into the room looked around. " Max?" he called
She locked the bathroom door, dropped her cloths to the floor and stumbled to the face bowl, turned on the water. "Yes." She answered innocently. There was a long silence.
He knocked on the door, scaring the hell out of her. " You ok?" He asked from behind the door.
" um, yeah just..." She pushed around in the pile of cloths on the ground found the injection gun. " I'm just..." She fired the liquid into the running water, jumped back to the door, unlocked and cracked it open. " Just curing a sweet tooth." She smiled and handed him the empty gun.
He looked down at it in his hand and nodded. " I got you a BLT, fries, vanilla coke."
" mmmmm." She expressed. She could feel heart pounding in her chest. " I'll be out as soon as I'm done."
"Ok." he said happily. She slowly closed the door and locked it back. She opened the palm of her hand and resumed fixing the parts. She put it in her ear pressed the back until she heard the snap.
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Terry sat at the Batcave computer, trying anything he thought would help find her. He replayed the 13 second recorded call Bruce had gotten earlier over and over. He couldn't recognize anything, it was just static and mumbles. They needed a live signal to trace. In the back of his mind he reassured himself that Max was still in Gotham to find. The signals only went so far.
He should have been with her. He should have seen this coming.
She's smart, He repeated to himself, she just needs time to make her move.
Bruce came down the stairs, cane in hand. He saw Terry frozen, staring at the computer screen or more like past like. "Anything?" He said loudly to snap him out of it.
Terry looked up. " No. It's trash." He expressed pushing away and getting up.
Bruce nodded, than instructed with a point of his cane, for him to go get suited up. Terry did just that. Bruce sat down in the chair and took over. "She's smart," Bruce mentioned. " She'll find a way."
From inside the changing room Terry, heard what was said. He stripped and pulled on the suit. He appreciated Bruce saying that. Terry zipped up the suit felt the seam fade. He stepped out, squeeze his fist to tighten the grip on his gloves.
Bruce focused the audio line going across the screen. A tremor sent a set of vibrations along the once straight line. " Is that live?" He asked.
Bruce moved a hand over and turned up the feed volume. The sound of static echoed into the cave for seconds, then thinned out to, "I ju..." and went back to static.
Terry's hand shoot over and uped the signal strength. Bruce started a trace and begin filtering it out to a map of the city. The screen showed a red detailed top view of Gotham city. In a minimized screen on the bottom, the computer converted the audio signal into numbers. A red circle targeted a part of the city, bring it into close view.
"Send the feed to the jet, I'm going." Terry informed running over the landing pad and getting into the jet. He pulled his mask on, powered up and took off. Bruce was busy doing just that.
The glimpse he got before he left said, north of downtown. The airport district. Gotham international airport was center this side of town, around it hotels, restaurants, clubs, casinos, shops, and the metro station sucked up every penny they could from tourist, and that's where he was going.
In front of Bruce's eyes the screen blinked warnings of losing the weak signal. This meant that the signal was close enough to trace but the sources was failing.
" Terry, I'm going to bust the signal up as high as it will go, you need to disconnect from the computer or it can overload."
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Standing in the bathroom, hoping Terry knew what had happened and was looking, her hand pressed to her ear holding everything in place Maxine, shut the water off, backed up to the toilet dropped the seat and sat down.
She heard nothing but dead air. "Hello?" she whispered. "Terry, If you can hear this I'm at..." She snatched embroidered towel from the rack behind her head. " I'm at the Hilton Grande in room..."
A high pitched squill shot in to her ear. She stifled a yell and snatched the piece out her ear. It fall to the floor in twice as many piece as before. She sat very still in an attempt to calm whatever anxiety she felt looking at the junk on the floor.
Fine, she thought, if he can't get to me I'll get to him. Maxine got up yanked Trevor's cloths of and slipped into her own. She walked out the bathroom as she put on her jean jacket. Trevor was sitting on the bed , pulling a pair of passports and plane tickets from a bag on the floor next to him. She pasted her fake smile in place and sat on the bed next to him and put on her boots.
" Where are we going?" She asked
Trevor handed her her ticket. " We have a connection at JFK but after that we're going to Japan. Parson was offered a job there."
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::THE GOTHAM INTERNATIONAL AIRPORT IS A SMOKE FREE ZONE, THANK YOU::
Todd took the last drag from his cigarette and flicked it away. He stood in the airport parking terminal taking the Sacc cases from the limo driver. Todd walked quickly through the busy airport. Once he found his gate he approached the counter.
The woman standing behind greeted him. " Can I help you with anything sir?"
Todd set the cases to his sides and pulled out his ticket and passport. "Yes, I would like to change the destination of my ticket. " He handed her his information.
The woman began typing into her computer. " From JFK to where?" She asked.
"What flights do you have going out within the next 30 minutes
****** And then there was three! Thanks for reading, plz review.*****
