Disclaimer: See Chapter One
Leo
remembered Margaret talking about her father. Leo wasn't sure but
he
thought that he might have meant him once before he was shipped
home
from the war. Out side of that conversation about that he
didn't know
much about him.
He walked down the path looking
on each side. He didn't see her at
first and then a shadow caught
his eye. He walked over and sat down on
the bench next to
her.
"Margaret, what are you doing here?"
"I couldn't calm back to work." She replied softly.
"Margaret,
we need to talk." Leo stated with concern. "Come on."
Leo
held out his hand and helped her to stand. She fell down on to
the
bench. "Margaret, are you drunk?"
"Might be. What do you care?"
"I do care! Come on let's get
you home." He helped her up again and
supported her as they
walked to his car.
The ride back to Margaret's house was spent
in absolute silence. Leo
thought about what Zoey, Anisely, and
Jolie had told him. "Do you want
to talk?" Leo asked
finally breaking the silence that had overcome
them.
"No."
"Margaret, I can't have you
working for me if you won't talk to me and
tell me what's going
on."
"Are you firing me?" Margaret asked, getting defensive.
"No, but I will if I have to. So, talk to me."
"There's nothing to talk about."
"Like
hell there isn't! Margaret, it's ten o'clock at night. You left
work
for lunch today and never came back and I just found you."
Leo
pulled into her driveway and came to a stop. Margaret tried
disparately
to get out of the car before the conversation went any
further.
Leo put a hand on her arm to stop her. "Listen
you don't want to talk to
me that's fine. Just talk to someone and
call Jolie. She's worried sick
about you. I'll be back in the
morning to pick you up."
"I would prefer if you didn't do that."
"Too bad. I need you at work and I'm coming to get you."
"Fine, if I'm not here don't try and find me."
"What does that mean?"
"What
do you think it means." Margaret spat angrily. She got out of
the
car and slammed the door.
--
As Leo headed home
several thoughts were running through his head. 'Her
actions at
work and just now, her attitude, how she was at Arlington.'
Leo
didn't need anyone to tell him what was wrong with her. He knew
and
all he had to do know was get her to see it.
--
Margaret
was still trying to calm down from her confrontation with Leo.
She
tried a cold shower; it didn't help, so went down stairs and got
a
bottle of scotch out of the cabinet. She sat down and started to
drink
once again.
When Leo got back to his apartment he
called Josh. A groggy voice
answered the phone.
"Josh, I'm sorry I didn't mean to wake you."
"It's alright. Did you find her?"
"Yeah, she still wouldn't talk to
me. I still learned a lot more about
her though."
"What do you mean?"
"Let's just say she reminds me of someone I used to know very well."
TBC...