Part 4
His wristwatch went off at 0500 on the dot, as usual, but Burt didn't wake instantly, which was not usual.
When he finally woke, slowly, he felt good, surprisingly good. He stretched his legs and squeezed the pillow he held clutched to his side--
And realized, it wasn't a pillow.
His eyes flew open and he flinched. Slowly, he looked down at the girl in his arms, just in time to see her eyes drift open and focus on him. "Oh... Uh..." He tried to push himself away from her, but he was lying crammed up against the wall and she was sprawled half on top of him, her arm around his waist and one leg nestled between his.
When full conciousness hit her, she pushed once on his chest and started to slide off the narrow bed. His arm was already around her shoulder, and he caught her, pulling her up hard against his chest. "Slowly," he admonished brusquely, trying not to notice how she felt against him with only the thin material of the two t-shirts between them.
She rolled carefully into a sitting position while he moved with her, keeping her from falling off the bed. Only when she was sitting up and steady did he release her.
"Are you all right?" He seemed to keep asking that question.
"Sort of," she whined, fingertips first, until she remembered her injuries, then the back of her hands to her temples.
Then Burt heard what had finally woke him. "Come in Burt, this is Jodi." A beat. "Burt? Are you there? Come in Burt." It sounded urgent.
He looked at his watch as he left the safe room and headed for the radio. Almost 0630! How did he sleep so late?
"Come in Jodi. This is Burt."
"Where have you been Burt? I've been calling for almost twenty minutes."
He opened his mouth, realized there was no reply he wanted to give, and closed it with a snap. "What's the problem, Jodi?" he finally asked.
"We've lost someone," Jodi's voice came.
He groaned. Not another one for the list. El Blanco had had a busy night. "What happened this time?" he asked.
"Nancy's friend from LA was supposed to arrive last night. Her friends on the other end heard from her about eight. She was in Las Vegas. But she never arrived here, Burt. Nancy waited up all night."
Burt turned, slowly, toward the safe room. Kylie leaned against the door. Smiling weakly, she raised her hand and waved.
He rolled his eyes and turned back to the radio. "I've got her, Jodi."
"What do you mean, 'you've got her,' Burt?"
"She's here. El Blanco was up to his tricks last-- He got her SUV."
"Is she all right?" Nancy's worried voice this time.
"She's fine. Slightly injured, but her truck got it worse than she did."
Kylie gasped. "My Rover!"
Burt glanced back to her and waved her quiet. Jodi was speaking. "Look, I'll bring her into town, you sit tight."
Kylie was limping across the room. "We have to get my Rover. It's got everything in it."
"And wake up Tyler," he said to the radio. "We've got an SUV to fetch."
"That Rover had everything I own in the world!" Kylie said, staring up at Burt. "Do you think it's still there? Do you think somebody stole everything out of it?"
He nodded, hands on her shoulders. "It's probably right where we left it. I'll get Tyler and we'll bring it back to town."
"Probably empty," she muttered.
He sighed. "This isn't the city," he pointed out. "You're probably the only person that's used that road this week."
"Oh. So there's a chance my stuff is still there?"
"Isn't that what I just said?"
"Good! I don't think I could stand to lose what's left." She turned away. "Let's go get my truck."
"No, you are going into town. I will get your truck."
"I can--"
He pointedly looked down at her bruised and battered leg.
"Fine, fine, fine. I get it."
He watched her disappear into the safe room. His t-shirt hit her about mid-thigh, but was just tight enough to fuel the imagination. "First though, we'll get you some clothes." He headed for his indoor range.
He came into his bedroom/kitchen/storage room just as she'd finished looting his bathroom. "Hey, I stole your comb, okay? I need to get over this terminally bad hair thing I've got going on."
"Fine, fine."
"I was looking for some Ibuprofen or something. That drink did its pain thing last night but it's sure time to pay up this morning." She rubbed her temples, trying to look pathetic.
He reached into the drawer in the nearby table and found a bottle of pills. He shook out two and gave them to her.
She smiled. "Now if I just had a toothbrush..."
Burt reached up to one of the top shelves and instantly produced a toothbrush in its original wrapper. "Sink in there," he said, pointing to the bathroom.
"Hey, I'm impressed!" She looked up but couldn't see much of the shelf contents since they were at least two feet above her head. "Any chance of some moisturizer up there?"
He shook his head. "Negative. Just the essentials."
"Well, I think it's essential," she muttered. "I'll be dry as a stick but at least I'll have minty fresh breath and a clear head!" She limped back into the bathroom and looked around for a sink. There wasn't one in any configuration she was accustomed to, but in this place, that didn't mean there wasn't one in plain sight. Maybe she could guess...
He gave in and helped her out by leaning over her to flip up a cover that revealed a small sink in the same console as the toilet. "This whole place is like a giant puzzle ring!" she giggled, delighted.
That had him almost smiling. "I'll leave your jeans out here," he called from the other room.
She whirled, almost knocking herself to the floor. "No! I don't want--"
"It's all right," he soothed. "They're clean and dry. I have a sort of laundry system here. Built it from my own design."
She regarded them suspiciously as he put them on the bed. They didn't look slimy.
He put his hands on his hips. "It's these or go as you are - nothing I have will fit."
She considered. The t-shirt - obviously his - was long enough to be decent, as far as she was concerned. Though it did make him decidedly uncomfortable. She shrugged. "Point to you." She turned back to her teeth. "My Rover better be there," she muttered.
He'd left when she began struggling into her jeans. She peeked out into the main room and saw him on the opposite side, fiddling with some equipment he had over there.
"What a strange man," she muttered, watching him work. This guy had a story, and she wanted to hear it. She reviewed the little Nancy had mentioned about Perfection when they'd met at the retreat last year. She'd mentioned a Burt, but Kylie had the impression that guy was some kind of homicidal maniac with delusions of grandeur. A real nut case. Could there be two Burts in Perfection? She hadn't said, and from what Nancy had reluctantly let slip, there couldn't be two of much of anything in this town. But Nancy definitely hadn't mentioned a secret military base, either. And she hadn't mentioned monsters. She could have at least mentioned the monsters. "But noooo..."
Kylie picked up her boots - which would not fit over her now swollen ankle - and trailed out to the main room.
"Ready?" he asked when he heard her approach.
She looked him up and down. Mostly up. He really was tall. "I am. You look like you've slept in your clothes. Is that going to be a problem?"
As she expected, he looked uncomfortable. So he didn't want everyone knowing about their singularly unromantic night together, huh? "You can change," she suggested. "I'll wait." She parked herself in the chair he'd put her in last night and tried to look patient.
"I'll only be a minute." He hurried into the next room and hit some control that closed the door behind him. Locked too, by the sound of it.
"No fair," she said with a grin. "You saw my underwear."
She got up and limped around the room, examining the equipment. "Don't know what that is. Don't know what that is. Don't want to know what that thing is... Ah, Mister Computer. What are you doing in this crowd of strangers?" She moved the mouse and the Guns & Ammo screensaver shut down. An official-looking box appeared and said: SECURITY SYSTEM ENGAGED. ENTER PASSWORD.
She frowned, backing away from the computer. "Didn't want to play solitaire that bad." She looked around for cameras or maybe gun barrels pointed at her but didn't spot any. "Doesn't mean they're not there, Kylie. Move along, move along. These are not the droids you're looking for."
She finally spotted something else she recognized. "Well say hello to my little friend!" she quoted in a bad Cuban accent. She picked up her athame and hugged it. "We'll take you home and bless you and purify you and call you George," she cooed to the knife. Then she looked around for cameras again. "Be just like him to watch. Stop acting weird, Kylie. He'll think you're a flake." Then she paused. "As if there was any doubt after last night." She shook her head. "Then you molest the guy in his sleep." She sighed. And here she promised to make everyone in Perfection think she was normal.
She continued her tour of the room until one step landed wrong and suddenly her injured leg was on fire. "Okay, tour's over folks, back on the bus!" She sat where she was, on the floor, and rubbed her ankle and the aching muscles up her leg. "In the definite lack of any effective - though illegal - drugs, perhaps some meditation will help." Carefully, she crossed her legs - "Okay, I give up, just one" - and laid her knife in her lap. She closed her eyes and took a few deep breaths.
Just as she felt herself drifting into a light trance, the door slid aside and he came out. Her eyes flew open. He looked fresh as a new minted penny. Couldn't have been ten minutes. "What are you, the Flash?"
"Come again?" He'd been giving her strange looks even before she opened her mouth.
She shook her head. "Never mind. Ready?"
He nodded, strapping on a gun, a very large knife, and stuffing various items into the pockets of his vest.
"Are we... going into battle?" she asked wondering if she should ask for one of the guns on the very impressive - though strangely unoccupied - gun display across the room.
He shot her a glance. "Never hurts to be prepared."
"So is that El Grabon coming back? Shouldn't you, like, have a bigger gun? Like, maybe a cannon? Or an F-16?"
He gave her that dubious look again. Such a serious man. "El Blanco's not on the monitor. And if he's nearby, this will alert me." He held up his wrist with the funny watch. "He's probably gone. For now."
She nodded and tried to get to her feet. The right leg worked fine. The left... "I think... Maybe I'm stuck down here."
He gave in and asked the question that had obviously been on his mind since he came out. "What are you doing down there in the first place? Why didn't you just sit on one of the chairs?"
"Ah..." She looked around the room for inspiration. Didn't find any. "Seemed like the thing to do at the time..."
He shook his head and reached for her, pulling her to her feet easily. Then the left leg gave out again when he let go. He steadied her and frowned at her leg. "I thought it was better."
"It was." Her voice sounded defensive. He suspected he was going to scold about the floor again. He seemed like the scolding type. "But now it's worse." She shrugged at his glare. "These things happen."
He released her, a little at a time, but it was no use. She must have wrenched it again when she fell. "I'll have to carry you."
He stooped to pick her up but she stopped him with a hand on his arm. "Burt..."
"What?" he said when she didn't speak right away.
She took a deep breath. What to say... How to say it... "I just wanted to say thank you. For saving my life and fixing me up and... everything." She frowned. "Actually, that seems kinda lame for such a big thing. But I really do mean it. If there's anything I can do, and I do mean anything, to make up for--"
He waved off her words. "I monitor my geo-phone 24/7. If something goes on in the Valley, I know about it. This kind of thing happens all the time"
"Still, I--"
He waved her off again and bent to retrieve her.
Her eyes narrowed. Okay, big guy. Ignore me, will ya... "Oh, and..." He paused, looked at her expectantly. "I just wanted you to know..." Now she had his full attention. "I don't usually sleep with guys I've only just met."
He carried her to the truck over his shoulder like a sack of potatoes. Highly undignified.