By Sinking815
August 13th, 2006
A/N: We get to the chapter that explains the title! Yay! Finally! But it's 1:15 AM and as much as I'd like to keep going (believe me, we're almost to the good part!) I'm going to have to give up the hopes of a double-post. My eyes keep drooping and I'm losing focus staring at this glaring white screen. I definitely will post tomorrow and promise to try my hardest to make it a gigantic long one which shouldn't be too hard considering what's coming up next. Was that enough of a tease? ;) As always, please read and review!
Chapter 15: Sailors Take Warning
Bea stood silently, fastidiously, surveying the waking grounds barely visible in the early grey dawn. To the casual observer, she may have seemed frozen in time amidst the hustle and bustle of her comrades, a dark silhouette against an ever reddening horizon, but her eyes were constantly in motion. They followed a slowly moving Jack and Tom across the empty yard, the doctor's slow progress due to a limp. She could see the determination in his set jaw to not let it become more than that as he passed, his hazel eyes locked with her own indifferent stare, pained and angry, but defiant despite the sizeable bruise across his skin. She offered his emotion and the person who joined her no acknowledgement.
"Ahhh," he interrupted, and somehow she'd known he'd break the serenity of the moment anyway. "I see someone finally tried our security. Didn't make it too far, did he?"
He was smiling. He always smiled, she mused, never turning her head to confirm his expression. One day, sooner or later, he wouldn't be as quick to allow the luxury of power to cloud his focus.
"He didn't try," Bea replied, her voice betraying nothing but the words she needed to say. Her eyes drifted casually away from where the two men had disappeared to another hut closer toward the creek. Alex's head poked out from the thatched wall, her eyes darting about to confirm that the coast was clear.
"Then why…" Henry started, an annoyed tone replacing where arrogant amusement had been.
"Tom and Pickett thought it necessary to avenge the suffering of their boss."
He was staring at her now, but she only nodded a silent greeting as Alex passed before them, one hand on her prisoner's elbow. Kate stared at her feet as she walked, ignoring herself and her boss. Bea watched her intently and was rewarded with the slight movement of the woman's green eyes, keeping a nonchalant lock on where they stood. So she was only pretending.
When they were well out of ear-shot, Henry continued, barely containing the rage at such blatant insubordination in check.
"I told them not…"
"You did," she confirmed. Feeling his frustration radiating off him like waves of heat, she offered him a little more. "You are our leader; he is theirs."
He straightened a little, cleared his throat and turned his blue eyes to the backs of the two headed towards the nearby stream.
"No, that's good," he said, nodding. "If she gives us trouble today, we'll use him."
Bea did not feel it necessary to reply.
Strange, Kate thought as she stared at her worn boots, that she had almost been looking forward to the morning walk to the stream. The beginnings of claustrophobia had settled around her frayed nerves and she knew fresh air and a few minutes away from the memories would steady herself a bit after the rough night.
The dull thud of rubber soles against compacted dirt gradually transitioned to the crunch of pebbles before she paused at the edge of the gurgling water, not really feeling her hands being untied, as her mind drifted backwards until the water faded out of sight entirely.
"Kate?" Alex questioned softly.
Only then did she blink rapidly, rubbing away the remnants of water and exhaustion that clung to her dark eyelashes. Focus, Kate told herself, squatting awkwardly on the bank. Wake up!
The water bit into the palms of her hands and cheeks, and she splashed her face repeatedly, wallowing in its refreshing chilliness. Taking a deep breath, she watched the drops fall from the tip of her nose back to the rushing stream. Kate stared hard into the shallows, mesmerized by the swirl of her reflection as the heavy drops rippled along her face. Tearing her gaze away from the water, Kate rocked back on her heels and tried to distract herself from her wayward thoughts by focusing on the horizon.
It was going to be a beautiful sunrise. She could see that even now. The edges of the sky were tinged salmon pink and were brightening in intensity with every passing minute. The few clouds in the sky darkened from a misty blue to deep purples, adding to the contrast of the violent reds peaking over the profile of the highest peaks on the island. Somewhere, she mused, just on the other side of this mountains was home.
No, that wasn't right. Kate frowned, her eyebrows scrunching at her mistake. Home would always be Iowa, would always be that huge oak tree in the middle of Mr. Brennon's pasture where she and Tom had often watched the sunrise over the never-ending fields. Sometimes, in the summer, they'd return at twilight, and scramble into the branches to watch the sunset, balancing ice cream in their hands. They'd sit for hours afterwards, pointing out constellations and chocolate smears at the corners of each other's mouths, laughing about the events of the day.
She remembered once, before college had stolen him away, climbing into that oak and sitting in comfortable silence as the sky started its colorful show, the sun sinking into a brilliant spectacle of crimsons and violets. He had said something, softly, as if whispering a secret to the horizon, and her mind seemed to recite the words with him now as she watched the sun ascend over the island.
"Red in the morning,
Sailors take warning.
Red at night,
Sailors delight."
She remembered laughing at the rhyme, and teasing him about its silliness. Here he was, sitting in a tree, on the brink of manhood, on the precipice of his future, and all he could say was an old sailor's superstition.
"It made you laugh, Katie."
He had paused, staring at her intently, and she remembered squirming under his scrutiny. She knew what he was thinking, what he was seeing, and wondered how he knew. Somehow he had always known.
But Tom was never one for confrontation and let it slide as he had done so many times before. He had trusted that when she was good and ready, she'd confide what troubled her, what made her want to put Cedar Rapids to her bumper and never look back. He had learned too late that she would never trust back. That ability had been destroyed long before he had even suspected something amiss.
"Kate? We have to go back now," Alex said softly, as if she knew she were cutting in on something she had no business interrupting.
Gritting her teeth around the tightness in her chest, Kate nodded her silent understanding and turned her back to the sunrise. She pressed away the excess moisture with the back of her still-cold hand, blaming it on staring too long into the harsh morning light. She took a determined step away from the bank, but turned back with one last glance toward the sky.
The sun was almost all the way up now. It hung low in the sky, but already the vivid reds where dulling in intensity, easing up the burning glare that threatened her watering eyes. Kate swallowed angrily around the knot in her throat, and looked away. Enough was enough, she scolded herself, spinning on her heel.
No more looking back. Even though her eyes were on the path before her, she could still hear his voice echoing inside her head.
"Red in the morning,
Sailors take warning…"