Chapter 11: Traffic

From the passenger seat, Abigail Whistler watched her partner negotiate the country road using only his thumb and first two fingers on his left hand. His chocolate brown eyes, though fixed on the road, were relaxed. Just by looking at them, you would get this feeling of trust. He seemed like he was laughing in his mind. Abigail laughed softly.

"Hey, ice-queen," Hannibal King asked glancing over, "just what are you laughing at?"

"You"

"Well, that's a relief. For a moment there I thought you were laughing at me…Tell me what I was doing that was so funny, I might want to write it down so I could use it for those special occasions when you wanna fry my ass."

"Not funny," she told him. "Just nice. It makes me happy that your happy. There's this peacefulness in you. I haven't seen you like that for days"

He flashed a smile that had always been reserved for her alone.

"What?"

"Nothing."

"No. You're thinking of something. What is it?"

"Nothing. Just wondering what your hobbies were"

"Why do you want to know?" She asked curiously.

"Just wondering"

She leaned back in her chair and folded her arms against her chest. She bit her lower lip in frustration and thought about the question as they drove in silence.

She was sure she had heard him snicker. "What?"

"Name at least three hobbies in five seconds"

"What?"

"Five..."

"Um," she said wistfully, "I like to…listen to music"

"Four..."

"Reading books and…" a smile played upon her lips, "I like to kick some vampire ass"

"Ding! Ding! Ding!" King yelled, "Bobby, please give this woman her prize"

She couldn't help but giggle.

King cleared his throat noisily, "So…"

"So"

"Does sneaking around, peeking in the bathroom with naked people in it include as one of your hobbies?" he asked.
Her eyes widened and she turned to him with surprise, her throat suddenly dry. How could he have known? She recalled the little accident this morning and felt a rush of awkwardness. She had 'accidentally' walked into the bathroom while he was taking a shower. Needless to say, she would've stayed there and enjoyed the 'view' if it wasn't for his vampire
reflexes catching her.

"Oh no. I was…I heard the phone"

"And…you thought you would find it in the bathroom?"

"Can we please drop it? I thought nobody was there"

"Okay." King said finally. "So, you heard the shower and you still came in..?"

"King!"

"Sorry. I really am. The devil made me do it"

She sighed and hesitated to bring up the subject. He would ask it sooner or later anyway…
"So. Who called?"

"Pardon?"

"While I was in the shower." King turned to her and watched her face turn from frustration to nervousness.

"Oh…it was nothing, really. Just Caulder. Let's talk about it later"
She had wanted to choose carefully the moment to discuss the man's call.

"Oh?" he asked. "How is ape boy?"

"He's fine. I wish you would stop calling him that, King. He's been very nice to us. It sounds so demeaning." And it was.

"It's not demeaning. Honestly. I mean, you can't understand what the hell an ape is saying to you…same as him. See the similarities?" He lifted his foot from the accelerator and stomped the other one to the brake. This caused many shouts from the drivers as tires screeched to a stop. "And when you mean 'us', you mean 'you'. Plus, when you look at his face..--"

"King!"

That was the second time she'd shouted at him. King and Caulder hadn't really had the best relationship… And as much as Abby prayed, it wouldn't change. Oh god, why?

"Anyway…what did he want?"

"Later?" She tried one last time.

The light turned green but King just switched off the ignition. The mood of the morning shattered like dropped crystal. She forced her eyes to make and maintain contact with his. "Since we haven't been getting along that much for a few weeks…he asked me if I wanted to join his group. He said it might do us good"

King tried his hardest not to swear. "And...?"

"And I think you know already what comes next"

Deep inside her, Kate felt sparks of anger begin to replace the tension.

"Try me," King said completely ignoring all the noise and shouts of many angry drivers. Fuck them. If they even get their ass out of their fucking cars. I swear I will break their necks.

Abigail sighed, "He said he might have found the location of where The Talos' relocated to. He told me not to tell you because we still needed information. Their security is much more harder to get through, now."

"And you thanked him very much, but punched him in the face as a reply to his question because you and your partner agreed a few years ago to never leave each other's side and to always be there. You told him you possibly couldn't because you couldn't stand to be away from me, from us- right?"

"Wrong!" the snap in her voice was reflex. She cursed herself for losing control so easily, and took several seconds to calm down before continuing. "I told him I would think about it"

King's face hardened. She was going to think about it? Fuck. He glanced at his watch and then restarted the engine. He turned to her. There was composure in his face, but an intensity- perhaps even fear.

"To be continued," he said, as much to himself as to her.

"Fine," she said. Numbly, she sank back in her seat and stared unseeing out the window.
There was a sound and King fumbled in his jacket pockets, his eyes kept on the road. He pulled out a cell phone.

Fuck, he thought, this fucking ring tone. I'm gonna kill Angelo…

"King here." King said, annoyed.

"We found him"

King nodded even though Spence didn't see. He still hadn't forgotten about what happened earlier on.
Karen, he kept thinking about the name.

"We'll be right there"

"Sure." Spence said simply, "But we have a problem…"