A/N: Hi guys! Sorry this took a little long to get up, but I just wasn't in the mood to write, and you know how that is. Ciao!
Chapter 5
Pete opened the door to his apartment and found Laura Chen waiting on his front doorstep.
"Good morning, Pete," she said, smiling too broadly, "let's go inside." Without waiting for a reply, she pushed past him and strode into his apartment, grabbing his wrist and pulling him in after her.
Pete gulped and closed the door after them, knowing what was coming. Laura had been leaving messages on his answering machine for weeks, hinting, then asking, then demanding to know where Josh was.
Laura nodded towards the couch. "Sit."
"What am I, a dog? You can't come into my place and tell me what to do!"
Laura looked at him with narrowed eyes. "Watch me."
"Look," Pete tried again, "we're friends! We can have a nice, civil conversation without you bossing me around!"
"I tried that," Laura said, fixing him with a cold glare, "should we check the answering machine and see how many messages from me are on there?"
"It's broken," Pete answered lamely.
Laura rolled her eyes in response. "Do you want me to look at it for you?"
"No," Pete muttered, resignedly sitting down on the couch.
Laura sighed seeing the look on Pete's face. "Pete," she said softly, "I just want to know where Josh is. What's the big deal? If he's avoiding me, just say so. At least I'll know he's alive somewhere!"
Pete flinched inwardly at her choice of words. That seemed to be what everyone wanted to know these days.
"He went on a research trip with his physics class. Somewhere in Alaska. No phones."
"There's two things wrong with that explanation," Laura started.
Crap, Pete thought.
"First of all, I called Josh's dad last week, and he said Josh was on a publicity tour. I didn't know they had publicity tours in Alaska. Second of all, I'M IN HIS PHYSICS CLASS AND THIRD OF ALL WHY WOULD A COLLEGE PSYCHICS CLASS BE GOING TO ALASKA?!"
"Um, that's…three reasons."
"PETE!!!!!!!"
"WHAT?!"
Laura stood and stared at him for a few seconds, then pulled out a scrap of paper with something scribbled on it from her pocket. She showed Pete what was written on it, holding it just out of his reach.
Pete squinted at the paper, and then paled as he saw what was on it.
"Recognize this phone number, Pete?"
"You wouldn't," he gasped.
"I would," she said menacingly. "Now, either you tell me where Josh is, or I will call Lori and tell her how you've been drooling over her since high school."
"No!!!!" Pete leaped up from the couch and made a swipe for the paper, but missed, lost his balance, and ended up on the floor.
"Four-five-eight…" Laura said the numbers aloud as she slowly dialed them into her cell phone."
"All right! Fine! Jeez! You're gonna get me in so much trouble!!!" Pete moaned as he clambered back onto the couch.
Laura stopped dialing. "You gonna tell me?"
Pete nodded his head miserably. "Uh-huh."
"You swear?"
"I swear."
Laura shut off the phone and stared down at him expectedly. "Well?"
"All right, you can't get mad at anyone for this, including me. Especially me. In fact, just don't get mad at me, I don't care who else you get mad at."
"Pete," Laura warned through gritted teeth, waving the cell phone through the air.
"All right, well you know how Josh is always going missing at weird times?"
"No," she answered, voice dripping with sarcasm.
"Well the company Josh's dad owns doesn't just do sporting equipment. There's another side to it…"
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In Rachel Leeds's office back at N'Tek, Eleanor abruptly dropped the stack of files she had been organizing and stood up. "Rachel, this is ridiculous."
"I don't have the faintest idea as to what you're talking about," Rachel answered, not looking up from her work.
"Bullshit."
Rachel looked up, startled. "Eleanor!" She never cursed, and was astounded to hear her clone use such language.
Eleanor sighed. "If that's what I have to do to get you to snap out of it, then so be it. I'm your clone, not your mother. We think the same way, so I know we both have the same solution in our minds. The only thing that puzzles me is why you won't voice it."
"That's an interesting question. Why don't we go ask Dr. Yevshenko?"
"No. We're going to talk about this now. He's had Max for far too long, and no one else has been able to do anything about it."
"Eleanor, I've worked very hard to keep the relationship between myself and John Dread secret!"
"And this isn't a desperate enough time to finally just let it out in the open?"
"I don't want them to treat me differently just because…"
"They'll get over it! Would you listen to yourself? Which is more important, a tiny little secret, or the return of Max and Berto?"
"You don't even know if it will work."
"Yes, I do."
"How?"
"Because we both know that John has never gotten over Veronica's death. Neither have we, or really you, rather. That's already one thing in common. Second of all, I seriously doubt he's making progress, or he would be flaunting it shamelessly by now. Third of all, he's our brother-in-law. Whether you'd like to admit it or not, John Dread is family."
