Part 5: Just A Ghost of Man Without A Single Memory
Echo was sitting at her desk on her computer looking into Clarence Our's finances when Walt come into the office with Mathias in tow. Once she saw him, she just immediately looked back at her computer, wanting to ignore the aggravating man as much as possible.
"Alright guys, we've found out that Linda may have paid someone to kill her husband. Word is that they're supposed to meet up tonight on the Rez to exchange the money. We've got a couple different spots that I want us to stake out tonight to catch them. Vic, you'll be with me. Ferg, we're gonna have you staking out the Our's mansion, make sure it's not going down there. Echo, you're with Mathias."
"Excuse me?!" Mathias and Echo exclaimed at the same time.
"Get over whatever you two have going on, I need you two to work together on this tonight. We have one chance to catch them in the act, don't mess it up."
Mathias rolled his eyes and crossed his arms, Echo just got up and grabbed her coat off the back of her chair. "Well I guess I'll see you here later, I'm going to go get some supplies for tonight." With that she stormed from the office, making sure the door slammed shut behind her.
A few hours later she met everybody back in town to get ready to head out to their spots for the night. Vic walked over to Echo while she was slamming her bag of supplies into Mathias car, "So, I know I don't like Mathias either, but what's the deal with you two?"
Echo shot her a dirty looked, "I have no idea, but the man is a total ass."
Vic just giggled, "Well you have a good night. Hopefully it won't be a long one. Good luck, Echo."
Mathias walks over from where he was talking to Walt and doesn't even look at her before jumping into his car. With one last deep breath she jumped into the passenger seat.
The entire drive to the spot was in silence, which Echo was thankful for. Last thing she wanted was to hear him talk shit to her the entire night, because they may be finding another body the next morning too.
Once they were parked, Mathias turned the car off and radioed to Walt to let them know we were in position.
After 5 minutes of silence, Mathias finally spoke up. "You know, I'm not too pleased about being stuck with you either, but the least you could do, is not sit here and sigh so much you steam up the windows."
"So are you always this much of an ass, or is it only because I'm a woman?"
Mathias threw his head back and laughed, "You really are something else, you know that?"
"I could say the same about you."
A few more minutes went by in silence.
"So what kind of name is Echo anyway? Your parents love Greek Mythology that much?"
Echo rolled her eyes, "For starters, I'm surprised you even know anything about greek mythology. Second, I wouldn't know, my parents are dead."
Mathias immediately felt bad and just turned to look back out the window.
"Look, I apologize. We're probably going to be in here for awhile, so the least we can do it not kill each other."
"Apology accepted, I guess."
Mathias turned to look at her, she was still looking out her passenger window with arms crossed over her chest. He could tell by her posture that she was still pissed off, and he couldn't figure out why in the world he cared enough to want to fix it.
"I'm going to get out and walk around." With that she jumped from the car and shut the door quietly.
Mathias waited a few minutes and got out to join her.
"I don't need you to watch over me, Officer."
"Trust me, Deputy, I'm not watching you. Just want to enjoy the fresh air myself."
Echo grunted at him and then went back to staring at the clearing below them. "Wait, Officer, do you hear that?"
Mathias didn't speak, just nodded his head. With one look at each other, they sprung into action and started sneaking down the hillside as quietly as possible. Once they were at the bottom, they crawled up behind a bush and started listening to the footsteps get closer.
"Mrs. Ours sends her regards that she could not be present, but heres your money." A man said as he turned on a spotlight. He was young, Echo was pretty sure she saw him working in the garden at the Ours mansion.
The other man reached down and opened the bag he had thrown between them, checking to make sure the money was all there he stood and Echo could finally see his face. Older white man, black hair and beard, prison tattoos. With one look at Mathias, she started crawling off to go around and get to the other side of the clearing.
Mathias wanted to stop her, he didn't like her going off in the dark by herself, but he knew she wouldn't have stayed. She finally crawled far enough that he could no longer see her, so he went back to watching the two men in the clearing.
"This isn't the amount we agreed on, and you know it. That old bitch owes me much more."
The young guy stammered, "Now Eric, thats a lie. Thats the amount she agreed on, no point in sitting here and starting a fight."
Eric pulled a gun and pointed it at the young man, at the same time Mathias went to move, slipped, and made a ton of noise.
"What the fuck was that?" Eric said, pointing the gun towards the woods where Mathias laid. The young man shined his spotlight over and started slowly making their way over to the woods.
Mathias was laying there cussing himself for being so stupid, and now he's going to get shot. He wondered where Echo was, or if Walt and Vic had made their way down either.
"Stand up now and walk out slowly, or we're filling you full of bullets!"
Mathias laid his gun down and slowly stood up, putting his hands up in the air he walked out into the clearing. "Oh what the fuck?! What are you doing out here? How did you know about this?" Eric said waving his gun around at him.
"Just out for a walk. Why don't you put the guns down so we can talk about it?"
"Oh no, fuck this! John, you said no one would find out about this, and now look!" Eric yelled at the young guy. "No, now you're gonna have to die, buddy. I'm sorry, but it was the wrong night to be out for a walk."
He pointed the gun straight at Mathias. Mathias just stared at him down the barrel and knew this was going to be it. Next thing he knew he was being tackled to the ground right as the gun went off. The impact knocked the air out of him and he hit his head hard enough to be slightly stunned.
Guns were going off all around him, tons of yelling, but the body on top of him continued to hold onto him tightly while the fire fight was going on.
After what felt like an eternity, everything goes silent. He finally gets it together enough to lift his head to look at who was on top of him, but then he couldn't catch his breath all over again. Echo was looking down at him, the look on her face was something he couldn't entirely read. "Mathias, have you been shot?!" she started running her hands around his chest and arms looking for a wound.
Walt and Vic come running at this point to help, Walt lifts Echo off of him while Vic starts checking him.
"Echo, what were you thinking running into that gun fire like that?" Walt was yelling at her, but her eyes were staying on Mathias. "Echo, do you hear me?"
The ringing in his ears was finally subsiding, and was now replaced with a pounding headache. "Walt, he's not been shot, but I think he may have a slight concussion. We need to get him to the hospital."
When Vic said that, Echo collapsed in Walt's arms. "Get the car, Vic!"
While Vic ran off Echo got her feet under herself again and stood up, wiped her jacket sleeve across her face, and walked off. When Walt tried to stop her, she grumbled back that she'd meet them at the hospital with Mathias car and just like that she was gone.
Later at the hospital, Walt stayed out in the waiting room while they ran the tests on Mathias. Once they determined that he just had a minor concussion and could go home he made his way out to Walt.
"So is she ok?" he asked while they walked out into the parking lot.
"Yeah, Vic took her on home, but she's ok." Mathias nodded as they walked to his car.
"I'll drive you home, we'll bring your car back to you first thing in the morning. I want to thank you for your help on this case."
"Yeah, I'll let you know how I feel about it in the morning." Walt and him both chuckled as they got into the car and took off towards the Rez.
The next night Mathias walked into The Red Pony for the first time since it had opened not on duty. As soon as he walked in several people from the Rez turned to look at him suspicously, but then noticing he wasn't in his uniform all turned back to their drinks. Henry had already walked to the end of the bar to greet him when he walked up.
"Mathias, what a surprise. Is there something I can do for you?" Henry said.
Mathias was scanning the bar for her as he finally turned to look at Henry watching him. "I'm looking for Deputy Aven, Longmire said she would be here."
Henry looked a little surprised to hear that Walt sent him, "And what do you want from Deputy Aven?"
"I wanted to thank her for saving my life last night, she took off before I could."
"Ah yes, I heard about that," He nodded his head towards the end of the bar, "good luck."
Mathias looked down and there she sat, she had her long red hair hanging freely down her back, dressed in a long sleeved black shirt and jeans. He nodded his head in thanks to Henry and headed her way.
She was facing the stage watching the open mic night when he walked up, "Care if I join?"
Echo turned to look at him, her eyes widened slightly when she realized who it was. There stood Mathias in a red flannel and jeans, his hair hanging over his shoulders, nervously wringing his hands together waiting on her to answer.
"I suppose you can." she said as she took the shot glass she was holding in her hand and tossed it back.
Mathias sat on the stool beside of her as she placed the empty glass onto the bar and looked at him. "I just wanted to come and thank you..ya know, for saving my life yesterday. You didn't have to do that, but I appreciate it all the same."
Echo chuckled as she grabbed her beer bottle and took a long gulp from it and turned back towards the stage.
"Can I atleast buy you a drink?"
Echo looked at him curiously, "I'll never turn down free alcohol, Officer."
Mathias turned to Henry and tossed his hand up to signal for drinks, then turned back to her. "You saved my life, I think you can just call me Mathias now."
Echo just shrugged at him as Henry sat down a beer in front of them both, and another glass of tequila for her. Mathias took the hint she wasn't into talking tonight and instead turned to listen to the music with her. He watched her out of the corner of his eye, how she tapped her boot along with the beat of the music and quietly sang along. The way she'd take a shot of tequila like it was water, just to have it refilled as soon as she sat it back on the bar.
"Today is my anniversary, Mathias. So, drink with me, you'll probably be more tolerable if you did. What's your poison, tequila or whiskey?"
Mathias smiled at her, "I prefer whiskey." After she ordered the shots and turned back around, Mathias looked at her. "So what anniversary are we celebrating?"
"It's my anniversary of being discharged. It's been two years now, but every year I sit and drink tequila, get drunk, and try to sleep peacefully."
Mathias quirked an eyebrow up at her, "So you were a soldier?"
"Army, served 12 years." she answered as she held his shot out to him.
He took it from her and watched as she clinked her glass against his and threw her shot back. He followed behind and then watched the emotions pass over her face so fast it was like he blinked, and they were gone.
He wondered how many shots of tequila she'd had, because for someone to be so closed off, she opened up out of nowhere. He also didn't know what to say, afraid that he would cause her to clam back up, so instead he just waited on her.
The person playing on stage started up a slow song, several couples getting up and going to the dance floor. Echo watched them go, "Do you dance, Officer Mathias?"
Mathias chuckled, "Not well, I'm sure."
He watched as her face fell at that answer and instantly felt bad for telling her the truth. "I haven't danced in years," she muttered while turning to take a drink of her beer.
Mathias stood and held out his hand, "Well, then we can both be bad together."
Echo's face lit up and she took his hand and let him lead her to the dance floor, where he placed one hand on her hip and with the other took her hand in his and started swaying to the music with her.
Henry watched from the bar in shocked amusement. He had never seen Mathias dance, but there he was. Henry smiled as he watched Echo throw her head back to laugh when one of them would stumble, watched the smile light up Mathias face when she did. Henry started shaking his head, he wasn't real sure what was going to come of this, but after knowing Echo for a couple months now, he knew the girl needed something to help keep her demons at bay.
When the song ended, Echo looked up into Mathias eyes and stopped moving. He was still holding onto her, he was staring at her too with a smile lingering on his face. Echo hadn't noticed how damn good looking he was earlier, she had actually avoided looking at him at all until now.
At that moment someone dropped a beer bottle and brought her out of the trance she was in. She jerked away from him and took a couple steps back, "Thanks for the dance, Officer, I should really be getting home though." She then turned and started hurrying through the bar.
Mathias followed her, but she was moving too quickly. She snatched her leather jacket from the stool, threw money down onto the bar and headed for the door. Mathias managed to catch her as she was walking across the parking lot to her truck, Henry coming out the door behind him.
"Echo, you know you can not drive like this. Either Mathias or I will take you home, or you can sleep it off in your cold truck." Henry called out to her, "I have your keys, so make a decision."
Echo finally stopped in her tracks and turned around to glare at them both. "For shit's sake, just give him the damn keys."
Henry tossed the keys to Mathias and watched as Mathias walked behind her to the truck.
Echo gave pretty good directions to be as drunk as she was, and he finally pulled up outside of her little cabin. She jumped out and immediately stormed into the house, he slowly followed behind her.
Once inside the heat from the wood stove welcomed him. Echo was crouched in front of the stove placing more wood inside. When she was done she stood and walked into the kitchen, "What can I get you? Water, coffee, tea, more beer?"
"Water is fine, thank you."
She grabbed two bottles of water, handed one to him and walked past him to go into what he assumed was her bedroom. He walked over to the couch and sat down, looking around at the bookshelves that filled the tiny room, overflowing with books.
Then from her room he heard a crash, he immediately jumped up and ran in there. As he turned the corner he found her standing in the bathroom with her back to him, looking down at what she had accidentally knocked over. It wasn't until he realized she was not harmed, he then noticed she didn't have a shirt on. Then slowly he realized what he was looking at, the massive scars all across her back.
Once Echo realized he was standing there, she stopped what she was doing and just wrapped her arms around herself. "I uh, lost my entire unit in Iraq, I was the only survivor."
She took a shaky breath and continued, "We were out on our regular patrol and were ambushed. Three of us were taken hostage, I was the only woman. For two weeks we were beaten and tortured for information that we didn't have. They were harder on me because they thought if they tortured me in front of the men, they would talk. By the time help arrived, I was the only one still alive, barely. I was flown to Germany where they nursed me back to health, and here I am."
Mathias just sat and listened, not really understanding why he was so angry. Mathias continued to stare at the big angry scars that riddled her back. She had gone completely still, and Mathias knew that how he responded in that moment was very important to her.
Gingerly he reached up and began to trace one of the scars, he felt her tense up at the touch, but continued doing it. He traced every scar with his finger, counting 39 in all. Once he traced the very last one, he laid his hand flat against her back.
Abruptly she turned to face him, "Let me get you a blanket and some pillows, I know you must be exhausted." With that she pushed past him and disappeared back out into the living room.
He followed her out as she dug a couple spare pillows and a blanket from a closet. She sat them on the end of the couch and turned to go back into her room, "Good night, Officer Mathias."
"Goodnight Deputy Echo."
"And thank you...you'll never understand what that meant to me." She said before she immediately turned and pushed her door almost shut, leaving it open enough for the heat from the stove to still enter.
Mathias pulled his boots off and laid back on the couch, staring at the wooden beams in the ceiling, trying to figure out exactly what he was doing.