A/N: Yeah, yeah, yeah. I know it's been a pretty long time since I updated. What can I say? I've been busy. I went to see movies, plays, performed in school shit and 'homework'. Anyways, on with the story!
14: Now See, Where The Hell Are You And Where Have You Been? And Why Do You Smell Like Shampoo?
It was 7:30 A.M. when the phone rang. There was only one person in the house and there was only one option: answer it. There was a reason as to why answer the phone at 7:39 A.M. when every other sane man would let the answering machine get it: since none of his patients would call so early, it had to be Johnny or one of his thugs.
"Hello?" The sleepy man answered the phone.
"Get the SeeD over here pronto." The voice on the end of the line ordered harshly into the receiver with a tone of superiority.
The line was cut before the good doctor could reply.
Fisher quickly dashed to his Old Chap's room and knocked on the door. To his surprise, there was no reply within the guest chamber; not even a snore or the sound of a man turning in response to the noise... Not even a groan.
Curious, Fisher opened the door cautiously and poked his head through the space between the door and the frame. To his surprise, the bed was made and the room was unoccupied. The brown haired, blue-eyed SeeD was nowhere to be seen.
Panicked, he ran out of the room, ran out the front door, locking the door hastily and sprinted down the stairs, looking down the street both ways, expecting to see the brown-haired man walking towards him; but he was nowhere to be seen. He ran down towards the street towards the hotel, passing a park. To what did his eyes did see but a tall brown haired man! If anyone could say that they knew how happy Fisher was at that precise moment they would be lying.
"SQUALL!!" The old man called urgently across the park, causing the the bystanders in the park to look up from what they were doing and observe the scene before going back to their previous affair.
Squall, however, did not notice. He continued on his merry way and walked in the direction of Fisher's home.
Annoyed, Fisher tried again, "SQUALL! I SWEAR TO GOD! IF YOU IGNORE ME AGAIN AND CONTINUE TO WALK ON, I WON'T HELP YOU AND I WILL KICK YOU OUT OF THE HOUSE! MEMORY OR NONE!!!!" Fisher threatened and this time, Squall did turn around and looked in Fisher's direction, astonished to see the man up at this early hour.
Squall knew very well that Fisher was the type of person that valued his sleep and could sleep in until two in the afternoon if he didn't have his patients to take care of. He also knew that if Fisher was woken up at a very early hour, the grizzly of a man deep down would take the opportunity to lash out at the unsuspecting man who had woken him up. It was a fate that was one would not unleash on even one's worst enemy.
Seeing the worried man walk over to him, Squall quickened his pace and power-walked towards the man through the crowd that he was once walking with. He ignored the stares the people gave him for dressing completely in black and the fact that the dark material was absorbing the sunlight.
"Squall," Fisher panted. He was clearly out of shape and desperately needed to get rid of the belly that he had developed. "Where have the Hell have yo been?" The doctor interrogated as he stood on his tiptoes and barely an inch away from the young man's face to give him a more imposing look and added, as if in an afterthought, "And why do you smell like shampoo?"
"Hey! Calm down buddy. You'll have heart attack; you said it yourself that you have five out of ten." Squall put his hands on the inquiring man's shoulders and pushed him back to his regular height.
"You still didn't answer my questions." Fisher replied, annoyed at Old Chap's antics and attempt to change the subject.
"Well, um... Is there a reason why you're up so early?" Squall asked tentatively.
"Yes. Johnny called. He wants us over there ASAP. Now answer my question." Fisher was feeling very irritated at that precise moment and told himself that it was way to early in the morning to feel like killing someone.
"Why does he want to see us this early?" Squall square-danced around the question. He knew that at any moment the doctor's patience would give way soon but when he did not know.
But he didn't have to wait too long for it.
"HOW SHOULD I KNOW?!! NOW ANSWER MY QUESTION!!!"
"Alright. All right. Why don't we start to walk towards that crap place to meet and I'll tell you the details on the way there?" Squall suggested timidly.
"I'd say that that was one of the best ideas you ever had in your current state of memory." Fisher seethed through clenched teeth.
"Okay. Good. So, which way is the factory in?" Squall asked innocently. To say that he was pushing his luck was an understatement. He was hanging by a thread off a cliff and he knew it.
"That way." Fisher said, pointing in the opposite direction of the house.
"Hmm… Looks like a good start. Have a good night last night?"
"Yes. I slept and slept and slept until I got a call from a thug this morning. Now, will you please answer my questions?" Fisher replied, thinking of the various ways to kill the man beside him with his bare hands.
"Um... Refresh my memory: which ones again?" Squall acted like he could not remember anymore.
"WHERE THE HELL WERE YOU? WHY DO YOU," he shouted then added the rest just barely above a whisper, "smell like shampoo?"
"What's that doc? I didn't get that last part." Squall acted all innocent, but really, on the inside, he was laughing so hard that he was having trouble making sure that he didn't walk into any poles or street lamps.
"Why do you smell like shampoo?" the doctor asked irritated beyond belief. He was beginning to think it a curse that those two fishermen had brought this idiot of a man in from sea.
"Oh. Um, we-ll," he stretched the word for full use as Fisher stared at him anxiously as they waited for the street light to allow them to walk, "I spent the night in the park so as to not disturb your sleep raise suspicion." Squall answered the first question. He had thought the story that he was going to recite to Fisher carefully when he had woken up that morning.
"Oh. How considerate of you. And for the second..." Fisher pushed.
"Well, I was sent to kill a girl, you know that, and well, she had woken up and it got complicated. I, uh, bound her and gagged her and she fell in my arms... and that's when I did her in..." Squall was amazed at his ability to invent semi-decent stories on the spot.
"Uh huh... Sure. I get it." Fisher said opening the door to the abandoned factory.
In the time that Squall had taken to tell his story, they had walked all the way to the factory, passing the repulsive houses with their broken windows and the dingy storefronts around it. They passed the deserted alleyways that were pilled with garbage. Of all neighborhoods in Dollet, Johnny had to have picked the one that was given the shorter end of the stick. To Fisher, this choice of Johnny's made it seem ever more suspicious than if he had chosen a condo in the upper-end of the city.
"Oh. You're back. Didn't you die last night?" Gibson (one of the thugs that were in MacFarley's league) commented stupidly.
"Apparently not." Squall replied passively.
"Did you just speak back to me, punk?" Gibson demanded.
"No." Squall left it short and to the point.
"Are you trying to be a smartass?"
"No."
"You're starting to piss me off here with that obnoxious attitude of yours." Gibson sneered as he stepped in front of Squall, blocking his access to the hallway that led to the meeting room.
"Excuse me?"
"You heard me, punk. You walk in here with that high and mighty attitude of yours when you know very well that we could have killed you yesterday for what you had done. Oh, that right, poor little punkass doesn't remember a single thing from his shitty little life." Gibson taunted then clicked his tongue and said, "Sorry." with a smirk, never once moving from his post, blocking the amnesiac.
"You better move it, buddy." Squall said quietly.
"Or what? You're gunna try to kill me? With what? Your gunblade? What a joke! Like we'd actually let you keep that!" Gibson guffawed.
"No, but come to think of it, where is it?" Squall asked rhetorically, attempting to squeeze his way through between the doorman and the doorframe but failing miserably.
"On the fourth floor, in the vault, behind the big chair behind the boss's desk." Gibson stupidly gave away, only realizing it after Squall had tried again and succeeded and waved "Thanks".
A/N: And this is where you write me a review, scrutinizing my tardiness and lack of commitment and for constructing the image that I had completely abandoned the story. In fact, my dear friends, I had lost time (to what, I'm not too sure of,) doing stuff that I wanted, had to and didn't want to do. Right. So I'm lying. But um… I did update. You can't attack me or burn down my house. Anyways, do the nice thing and write me a nice review. At this point, I know that I deserve flames due to tardiness and for my shitty writing… THAT'S WHY I'M TAKING A CREATIVE WRITING COURSE!!!!!!!!! Anyways, push the little mauve button that says 'Go'!
