Two Lonely Souls
Chapter 14
Colby climbed into bed, several beers and a scotch later. Isabella was sound asleep and Colby passed out quickly. When Isabella woke up later that night only to find Colby asleep smelling of alcohol, she cried. She wasn't sure when things had gone so wrong, or if they had even gone wrong since it was really the first time he'd acted this way. Maybe it was his way of dealing with the miscarriage, the stress of the case, the extremely high level of testosterone in the Penthouse. Who knows? Colby probably didn't even know why he would act this way himself. Isabella got up from their bed, tears still streaming down her face and left the room to get a fresh glass of water.
The Penthouse was actually silent other than the occasional snore or cough. It was three in the morning so it isn't like she expected to find anyone awake to cry on their shoulder. She shouldn't be doing that anyway… she didn't want to expose her and Colby's problems to anyone else. She got her fresh ice water and started up the staircase again.
"Bella." A soft whisper crossed the distance from the balcony to the staircase.
She recognized the voice, and turned towards him. "Hey Tommy. What are you doing up?" He could hear the tiredness in her voice, and the sadness that overwhelmed her, even through the whisper she answered him with.
"I heard you. Why are you crying?"
"I'm sorry I woke you. Don't worry Tommy, I'll be fine baby. Go back to bed. Good night."
"Bella, you can talk to me baby. I am always here."
"I know I can talk to you Tommy. But this isn't about you and me, and it isn't fair to Colby to talk to you. And Tommy, in a few days you will be gone. You are always here for the next few days maybe, but otherwise on the other side of the country, or on the other side of the world." Her voice dropped to an almost impossible to hear whisper. "I miss you Tommy. You are my rock and you can't be anymore. Good night." She turned and rushed up the stairs, softly closing the bedroom door behind her. She quietly climbed back into bed and cried herself to sleep stuffing her sobs into her pillow.
The next morning the strained couple woke up at the same time. Colby tried to talk to Isabella, but she wasn't listening. She silently got showered and dressed. Today she wore black stretch tights and a black lace fitted tank top. She wore no jewelry, but did put on makeup. When she woke up her eyes were red and swollen but after the shower and makeup, she looked basically good, a little tired maybe but certainly not like she had cried half the night.
After breakfast the teams deployed to the "rented" houses to get things started. Colby was on one of those teams. He gave her a quick kiss, but his eyes screamed the pain he was in. She smiled at him softly, "Stay safe."
Charlie, Amita, and Isabella started working on the clues from the letter yesterday. Charlie wrote them up on the white board.
bodies of water,
the roundness of the sun at sunset,
the thumping of the drums,
the thrill of the masses ,
the pollution of the air if the crack of the rifles does not stop it.
Using a brainstorming approach, the three brainstormed what could possibly be meant by each clue. After a while they had a huge list, but nothing seemed any closer. They decided to take a break and Isabella grabbed a soda and went to watch some TV in the pool room. She was surprised to find Tommy lying on the couch watching a basketball game.
"Look at this! I don't think I ever have seen you this relaxed, baby. What are you doing slacking off like this?"
"Just enjoying the quiet, it is so loud when the house is full. If something comes up I got the head phones and com. Don went to the FBI for a while. You guys seem to have it under control out there, so here I am actually wasting time for the first time in a very long time. The teams for the night are resting in their rooms."
"Can I lay down with you? I promise my intentions are purely platonic."
"Yours may be but I assure you Bella, mine are not."
"I'll risk it. I think I'm safe enough with you Tommy." She set her soda on the table and lay alongside his long muscular body. He wrapped his arm around her waist and it felt like home to both of them. They lay there enjoying the feel of each other.
"Why were you crying last night Bella?" Tommy asked quietly.
"Oh, Tommy, I don't want to talk about it. Maybe it's nothing, maybe it's everything. I just don't know, and YOU are not the person to talk with about it."
"I will not allow him to hurt you."
"And Tommy how can you prevent it? This is something he and I will work out coming to a conclusion where we decide to stay together or not."
"He's a fool."
"Yes."
They lay there silently for a while, Isabella almost drifting asleep. She could feel Tommy's hand casually stroking her arm. At one point his hand twisted her hair up in his hand and he gently lifted her head to face his face. "Bella, you know I love you."
"I know baby. Remember Afghanistan and how freezing cold it would be? And you would zip our sleeping bags together so we were able to sleep wrapped around each other to stay warm. It was so hard for us to do that, and not have sex. I know some nights or days, whenever we got to sleep, I never slept. I could feel your body, the inevitable hard-on, impressive by the way, and would just have to wait to fall asleep from exhaustion. And you would always make sure you were next to me because I couldn't sleep without you. Then you would always take a later shift on point, all so I could sleep a little bit more."
"And to think I hated you when the whole op started. You earned my respect quickly, and when we finally left I had never been so proud of an individual in my life, or as proud of a team before. I still laugh at how we were in that awful place for months and slept together practically every night and never even kissed."
"Shows a lot of self-control Lt. Col." He released her hair, but kept his hand tangled in it.
"It would have destroyed the team, you never wanted it because you always wanted to be clean, and to sneak off for sex was just too dangerous. Besides I never wanted to just have sex with you, I wanted to make love to you. That can't be done surrounded by a bunch of Special Forces who wanted the same thing, no beds, no champagne, nothing but shrubbery and dirty bodies. That isn't what I wanted, and I know it wasn't what you wanted."
Isabella laid her head back down against Tommy's body. "Why didn't we do anything about this when got back? Beds, champagne, showers? And like you said, we have never even kissed. It would be nice to think this was a brother sister thing, but it's not and we both know it. Sounds like someone as strategic as a Lt. Col. in the Special Forces could have come up with a plan." Her voice was teasing, although she was genuinely curious.
Tommy stayed silent for a while. Isabella just absently watched the basketball game on the TV.
"I didn't do anything for two reasons. I knew from all our conversations in Afghanistan that you did not want the life that came with a fast track military officer. From your experience with your father, you had sort of 'been there, done that.' And I either wanted you for good or take a pass altogether. I didn't think I could have just a few nights and then let you go. So, the second reason is that I was scared. I love you too much to have you say no. I'd rather die than lose you, but here I am losing you to Granger. He's a great guy. I can't even tell you not to marry him. But he made you cry for hours last night. I know he did. You have to know I would never do that."
Isabella turned to face Tommy. She lifted her hand and put two fingers on his lips. "Shhh. Let's talk about this later. We'll talk for real, privately, maybe over dinner. Maybe we can figure something out. I don't know if I can be in love with two people, Tommy. But I do love you. I have for a long time. Now let's not try to figure it out right now. It's too much."
She turned back to the TV watching the screen, the orange ball, the name Lakers splashed across the floor. "Tommy! Basketball game. That is what he is trying to tell us!!" She rushed out of the room with Tommy closely following. "Amita, Charlie! Lakers basketball game. The clues…"
She went to the whiteboard and erased everything except his original clues:
bodies of water, (Lakes, Lakers)
the roundness of the sun at sunset, (The orange basketball)
the thumping of the drums, (pounding of the feet at the stadium)
the thrill of the masses , (crowds, lots of people)
the pollution of the air if the crack of the rifles does not stop it. (poisoning, poison gas through the air unless a sniper kills the person)
"Am I crazy? Does this make sense? He's going to set off poison gas at the Laker's game?"
Don had come in while she was with Tommy. Everyone knew they were in there together and intentionally left them alone. "That sounds pretty promising to me. We got another letter Isa. Maybe it will confirm this idea and tell us which game? " He handed the plastic covered pages to Isabella, with a curious look at her and Tommy.