Ch. 51

Nelly had decided to leave for California on Monday, and Laurie wasn't surprised. Sunday went by relatively quickly, and soon Laurie was sitting in the back seat of Nelly's car with Walter. Nelly was driving, and Dan was on the passenger's side. Barely an hour had gone by since they left early that morning, and Laurie was already excited. She couldn't wait to get to California, but the prospect of going through numerous states to get there was a pretty thrilling idea on its own.

Smiling to herself, Laurie turned to look at Walter. He was gazing out the window into the distance. He seemed morose, somehow. Laurie wondered why -- they were going to California where Agent Orange was, and Walter had been so set on catching the man. Laurie was so sure that he would have been pleased by the prospect of going there. She frowned but said nothing. They drove for a few hours before they stopped at a cafe for lunch. Afterwards, Laurie got out to stretch her legs, then went to the small general store next door. She picked some items to buy, then came out to join Walter in the back seat again. Nelly switched places with Dan so that Dan could drive for a while.

Laurie tried to catch Walter's eye, but he seemed miles away. She rifled through the paper bag full of things she bought from the store and pulled out a notepad and a pen. She wrote in it:

"Walter, what's the matter?"

Laurie put the notepad on the seat with the pen and slid it towards Walter until it touched his hand. He looked down, then at her, then took the notepad and read it. He smiled. He looked at her again, then wrote something down and passed it to her. Laurie took it and read it:

"Thinking about Agent Orange. About how unfortunate it would be if I missed the opportunity to capture him after all of this."

Laurie gave Walter a sympathetic look, then wrote her response below his words and gave him back the notepad.

"Don't worry about it, Walter. I'm sure you'll catch him eventually. If not, someone else will. Just think about it as a vacation with the possibility of catching a criminal on top of it."

Laurie passed the notepad back to Walter. He took it and seemed to laugh silently in a bitter manner. He was just starting to write back when Dan spoke up.

"So guys, since we're all stuck in here together, why don't I tell you all about my exciting adventures of bird watching?" he suggested.

Laurie stared at Dan, eyes wide. Then Dan laughed.

"Just kidding," he said. "I got you, didn't I?"

Laurie laughed weakly. She felt something on her thigh and looked down to find the notepad by her side. She gave Walter a smile before she picked it up and looked at it.

At first, Laurie thought it was a drawing of Dan in his Nite Owl costume. Then she realized it was Dan as an owl. Dan the owl's beak was open and a speech bubble came out of it. In the speech bubble it said, 'Blah blah blah' and so on. The words ran out of the speech bubble and into the open space, covering everything above it, even the words that Walter and Laurie had written previously. Laurie giggled. She drew Ozymandias dressed as the Twilight Lady next to Dan-Owl and gave it to Walter.

Walter smiled and gave Laurie a sly look before he added something and passed the notepad back. Laurie looked at it -- there was a new speech bubble for Dan, and it said, 'I went for pie and got sausages instead.' Laurie stared for a moment, then gasped.

"Walter," she whispered to him in astonishment.

Walter stared straight ahead and said nothing, though he seemed to be shaking with mirth and his cheeks were pink. Laurie giggled. She added a speech bubble next to Ozymandias and in it wrote, 'Just think of it as your punishment, Dan.'

She passed it back to Walter, who took it and smiled. He started to write in it and Laurie peered at the notepad eagerly. Walter glanced at her and turned away a little to block her view. Laurie folded her arms but smiled and waited patiently. He returned the notepad after a moment. In it was written, 'No peeking', and to Laurie's surprise, a small heart. Laurie smiled and blushed. She took her pen and wrote:

"I love you Walter."

Three hearts. She passed it back to Walter, who looked at the note, then at her. His eyes were warm. He wrote into the notepad and gave it to her. It read:

"I love you, Laurie. Do you want to know how much?"

Laurie read the note, then looked at Walter and gave him back the notepad expectantly without writing in it. Walter gave her a tight-lipped smile and took the pad. He proceeded to write something that was long and apparently several pages. Laurie sat and waited impatiently, getting increasingly nervous as Walter took forever to write, it seemed. Finally, Walter handed her the notepad back. She quickly grabbed it from him to read what he had to say and realized he hadn't written anything in it at all. When Laurie looked up, Walter was laughing silently. Laurie threw the notepad at him, but she found herself laughing, regardless. Dan looked back at them to see what they were doing and they both froze and pretended that nothing had happened. When Dan looked away, they started laughing silently between themselves again.

"Hey," said Dan, "Did you guys go out patrolling last night?"

"Just a little," Laurie admitted. They had ended up spending most of the evening kissing in bed, but she wasn't about to tell Dan that.

"I stayed out for most of the night," Dan told them. "You wouldn't believe who I saw."

Laurie had to bite her tongue to keep from asking if it was Ozymandias.

"Who did you see, Dan?" Laurie asked, while struggling to keep from bursting out laughing.

"Captain Carnage."

"Oh." Laurie frowned. "What happened?"

"Well, you wouldn't believe it," Dan laughed. "It's kind of embarrassing to say, actually."

Laurie sat up in her seat.

"What?" she asked.

"I was making my rounds as per usual," said Dan, looking quite eager to be talking, "And who do I see but Captain Carnage? He looked like he was loitering, but not doing anything wrong in particular. So I was staring at him and him at me until he finally asked me, 'So what are you waiting for? Shouldn't you give me a beating?' And I asked him, 'Why -- have you done something wrong?' and he said, 'Yes, I've been naughty, oh so naughty. You should punish me.' Now at this point I was getting weirded out by this, I mean, especially the way he was looking at me. So I said no thanks and left. Can you believe it, he started following me down the street, saying 'Punish me', so I started walking faster, and he was chasing after me, screaming, 'Punish me, punish me!' I was so mortified, I called it a night after that."

Nelly laughed. Laurie tried to, but her own memory of Captain Carnage was all too fresh in her mind.

"That happened to me too," Laurie sighed. "I mean, not exactly like that, but similar."

"What's up with that guy," laughed Dan. "Some kind of masochist?"

"I guess so," Laurie said. She glanced at Walter, who was looking at her. She looked down to realize he had written in the notepad. She picked it up and read it:

"There aren't enough words to describe it."

For a moment Laurie didn't know what Walter meant, until she remembered what they had been discussing last through their little mode of communication. She looked up and smiled at Walter. She wrote down, 'You're sweet' and handed it back to him. Walter took it, and gave it back to her with a drawing of a piece of candy. Laurie smiled again and drew a bag of sugar and passed it back. Walter added a little jar marked 'Honey' and handed her the notepad. Laurie drew a few strands of sugar cane and returned the notepad to him. Walter raised an eyebrow and wrote something and gave it back:

"Ozymandias?"

Laurie gave Walter a mock glare, then giggled. She drew a sausage and passed the notepad back. Walter gave her a look of false indignation, as if he hadn't thought of the idea to begin with. He added some eggs and a platter to make the drawing less suggestive. Laurie felt sad when she saw the eggs, reminded of her father. She wrote down her feelings on the notepad:

"I miss my Dad. I got a letter from him and he sounded so sad."

Walter took the notepad and read it. He paused, then wrote something down and gave it back.

"I miss him too. I wish your mother could have gone to war instead."

Laurie read the note and smiled. She wrote in it and gave it back to Walter:

"She would have caused more wars if that was the case."

Walter read it, then turned and nodded to her. He was smiling. Laurie was glad to see him looking better again. She reached out her hand and he took it. They sat in silence for a while, just enjoying the simple connection of their palms.

-----

To be continued...

-----

AN: Thank you, Vaudeville, for the wonderful notepad idea. I forgot to thank her also for the idea of Blake writing to Laurie. :)