Disclaimer: Any dialogue or characters you recognise were created by the superbly talented Martha Williamson.
Also the words of the song in italics do not belong to me and can be listen to in Something Good performed by the talented Adam DiMarco
My sincere thanks go to my dear friend Rhonda Leighton Wronski for her constant support and input.
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Something good… Something strong
On a crisp fall Saturday morning, Oliver sat on his porch swing with a steaming cup of coffee in hand. It had been a good long summer and fall. Gazing out at his back yard, it was clear to him his yard needed some serious attention to get it ready for the winter. He loved this time of the year! The beautiful colours of autumn always made him appreciate the beauty of God's creations. He decided he was going to spend the morning working in the garden, as he needed an outlet for his frustrations! Sweating them out over some physical labour seemed to be a good challenge to take that on. Thinking about frustrations and challenges, the last 5 months had been really good for both… sigh… Ms. McInerney! She had made sure of that by testing every ounce of his patience. She sashayed into the DLO and into his life with no subtlety of waiting for an invitation and now there was just no getting rid of her. No matter how hard he tried to stop thinking about her, she made herself more and more comfortable inside his head and... dare he say, his heart? He laughed just thinking about her, as he had to admit she was a delight. She made the DLO lively with her ideas and brought an element of fun to an otherwise rather serious environment. He worked quickly and the physical exercise invigorated him. He looked forward to attending a Colorado Rockies baseball game later that afternoon with Norman. He enjoyed spending time with his colleagues outside of the office, but he was sort of disappointed he didn't think to include the girls. He wondered if Sh... ummm... Ms. McInerney and Rita would enjoy a baseball game. He suspected Rita would have jumped at the opportunity because Norman would be there. He smiled at how clueless Norman was to Rita's obvious feelings towards him. The guy had to be blind, he thought. Ms. McInerney had picked up on that within her first half hour in the DLO. He wondered if he was clueless as well when it came to the women in his own life. He had to admit that he was… sadly!
Anyway, he refused to be sad on such a beautiful day, he was going to enjoy it and be thankful. He decided that on the following weekend he was going to find a fun activity all 4 of them could enjoy, he didn't know why he hadn't thought about that before. He just didn't know what it was yet. With that decided he finished up in the garden and got ready for the game. It was indeed great fun and he enjoyed spending time with Norman tremendously. He was such a good friend and a very wise man, not to mention funny! Norman talked about Rita and Sh… ah… Ms. McInerney almost the whole time. It was obvious he also wished they had been there. Oliver sighed…
Apart from that small annoyance, the weekend had been good and productive. On Monday, he received the monthly USPS newsletter. It was emailed to all department heads... well almost all... Oliver was the one exception. To him, it was delivered in person. He didn't normally pay much attention to the newsletter as it was not relevant to them. It usually included an interview with a high profile postal executive from DC, someone nobody knew or cared much about. This issue was no different with lots of advertising material and happy customer testimonials, but again nothing about dead letters. However, he was looking for something special to do with his colleagues, a team building activity, preferably fun to do in the weekend and he found it on page 3. Mr. Graham McBride was touring the country with a seminar on home mail delivery and he'd be in Denver this coming Saturday. Oliver, wasting no time, immediately called the number listed to reserve 4 seats for them. He was extremely excited as he told his colleagues about the seminar coming up on Saturday afternoon; how educational and a great deal of fun it would be. Rita and Norman nodded un-enthusiastically but didn't say anything negative. Shane, on the other hand, could not let this pass without pointing out the absurdity "of spending a perfect Saturday afternoon listening to some big wig drone on about the future of home delivery." But... she was not done... She continued on and said "casually" the dance lessons she shared with Oliver were her idea of fun and she had been disappointed when he saw the need to end them. It was not lost on Oliver how she stressed the word "disappointment" as a fact of life. He caught a little glimpse of her heart and silently agreed "I was very disappointed too, Ms. McInerney… if you only knew…"
That week brought a surprise visit from Rebecca Starkwell, Shane's only friend from DC. Becky had been promoted to the head of a new department with the mission to improve awareness, goodwill and increase reliance on the work of the post office. After Becky had been in a meeting with the heads of departments, she met with Shane for lunch for a much needed chat at the Mailbox Grille. They were so happy to see each other; their squeals were heard throughout the restaurant by most diners. They had a heart to heart catch-up. Becky wanted to know how Shane ended up in the DLO in the first place. Becky had transferred Shane to Direct Line Operations, not the Dead Letter Office. Becky was baffled as the staff in the DLO didn't seem to be the kind of people that Shane normally hung out with. Soon, it became obvious to Becky that Shane loved her new friends. She spoke of them most affectionately and how much she was enjoying working with them all. When it came to Oliver, Shane stopped and put on a dreamy look as she started talking about her boss. Shane described him in glowing terms. It quickly became very apparent that Shane was "more than just a little" interested in Oliver. Becky couldn't help it but put a dampener on Shane's enthusiasm for her boss. She wouldn't consider herself a true friend if she let Shane carry on. She reminded Shane of Steve and how that had ended. "Didn't you learn your lesson, Shanie? It seems not, as you seem to be ready to do it all over again with Oliver even though you know he is married." Shane tried to dismiss it and flatly denied it, although her words and her tone didn't seem to be in concert.
Unbeknownst to Becky and Shane, Oliver was sitting right behind them trying to focus on a book about how to recapture the fun in life. Needless to say, he was unable to pay any attention to the book, despite it being open right under his nose. Oliver heard every word the women said and he started to feel the pinch as if strangled by his own tie. He grew more and more uncomfortable being stuck in an untenable situation. Oliver was fascinated by the conversation but realised how ungentlemanly of him to stay... but he couldn't go either... he wanted to listen to what Shane had to say... but he knew this was wrong... most of all, he didn't want to embarrass her. He felt terrible. What a quandary!
Back at the DLO after lunch, through an efficient investigation from his co-workers, they found Billy James, the singer who had been involved in a motorcycle accident and lost all his memory from the past year. His unattached item, a CD, led them to him. His song was beautiful and touched Shane and Rita especially.
Tell me there's a reason life can be so hard.
Maybe there's a why for all those sorrows.
Sometimes I can leave behind the days that broke my spirit when I tell myself you're waiting there tomorrow.
Don't you know, don't you know
I wake up every morning cause you believe in me.
Something good
Something strong
Something tells me that I belong with you,
With you
Don't you know
You're the only reason for the show
You're the only reason… for the show.
They reunited Billy and Jennifer. Jennifer brought Billy not only his guitar back, but his memory and the love they had temporarily lost. As Oliver and Shane stood by Billy and Jennifer, listening to Billy's beautiful voice singing to the love of his life, Oliver looked piercingly at Shane. He pinned her to the spot with his eyes. She looked back at him, touched by the moment, also unable to take her eyes off him. Their gaze was full to the brim of unspoken feelings. It seemed the moment stretched to forever.
They made some small talk on their way back to the DLO, but once there, neither one of them could concentrate on their work. They continued to look longingly at each other until Oliver decided enough was enough and called it a day. Shane almost ran out of the office as if she was being chased by a pack of hungry dogs. She hardly made it through her front door before she burst into tears. Once inside, she threw herself on the couch and continued to sob; heart wrenching sobs. How had she been so blind? Becky had seen through her in minutes. She was not falling for Oliver... she had already fallen, utterly and completely. In fact, she was madly in love with him. She cried for what felt like hours. What was she going to do? Could she really continue to work with him? How would she act in his presence from now on? "Why, why, why me?" She cried in desperation. She remembered the way he looked at her this afternoon. Did he know? Why did he look at her like that? Could it be possible that he was falling for her too? What would they do? What a disaster! She thought about asking Becky to transfer her to Seattle after all. The idea almost made her sick. Denver was her home now, for better or worse and she was never going to throw in the towel. She couldn't run, she had to stay and face the music.
Oliver got home and felt like punching something. In fact the desire for physical activity was too strong to be ignored. He yanked his tie and jacket off as if they were a straight jacket and he needed freedom, liberation! He threw them on his bed without caring whether they lay in a heap or not. He quickly found his gym bag and changed into his work-out gear. He almost ran out of the house. Within 15 minutes he arrived at the gym. Impatiently, he jumped on the treadmill to warm up, but there would be no starting off slowly like he usually did. He went straight into a fast pace run and kept it up until his lungs were burning. He then moved to the boxing punching bag. Tying his boxing gloves on, he attacked it with gusto. His personal trainer, Leo saw him from a distance and raised his eyebrows. He stopped writing the programs for his clients, setting them aside he turned to attend to Oliver. He walked over to Oliver who seemed determined to destroy the bag with his fists. Leo got behind the bag to hold it in place for him. "Hi buddy, how're you doing?" Oliver, who was in no mood to talk, just grunted. Leo had never seen Oliver so out of sorts like this. The usually polished, mild mannered man Leo knew was nowhere to be seen at this moment. "You know, it's a bit unsporting to the bag, it can't hit you back." He tried to lighten the mood but Oliver was having none of it. "Listen, Oliver, would you like to go a round or two in the ring? I can help you get out of this foul mood if you like. I think you need a better challenge than the punching bag." Oliver stopped, looked at Leo and said gritting his teeth, "Ok, let's do it." Oliver grabbed his mouth guard and boxing helmet from his bag and stepped into the ring. Leo was a tall and muscular man. He towered over Oliver by a good 4 or 5". Leo was a professional, so his job at this moment was to help Oliver work his way out of his current mood. He had nothing to prove, but he was not going to let Oliver know that. They circled each other a couple of times. Leo threw the first punch that landed squarely on Oliver's nose. Oliver shook his head and tried to regroup. He threw a couple of punches which missed Leo altogether. Leo then threw an uppercut that landed Oliver on his backside on the floor. Oliver looked up at Leo with half a smile on, "I think I prefer the punching bag." Leo reached down and offered him his hand. Oliver grabbed it and stood up. "Thanks, Leo, I really needed that." They shook hands and Leo asked, "Do you feel better now?" "I sure do." Oliver looked at him and pretended to put his nose in place. They both laughed. Leo then said, "For what's worth, an angry man is easily beaten. You're normally better than this." Oliver nodded, "Thanks." "Would you like to tell me what's eating you?" Leo asked. Oliver looked at him and said flatly "Love!"
The following week passed without any further incidents. Oliver decided to cancel their reservations for the Saturday home delivery seminar after all. Once he thought more about it, he had to agree with Ms. McInerney, it certainly did not sound very exciting. Also sitting next to her for 2 or 3 hours was probably not the best idea under their current circumstances.
On Monday, Becky informed Shane that Oliver heard their entire conversation the week before at the Mailbox Grille. Shane was mortified! What had she said? She was stressing about it when Oliver turned up with a new assignment. It turned out to be one of the most horrendous, heartbreaking stories they had ever heard. Shane and Rita were moved to tears. The ugliness of rape… it's a most demeaning thing that could happen to a woman and she often carries the burden of it alone; feeling like an animal, with her humanity stripped away. The letter recipient was found quickly, but Shane could not forget the family affected by that horrible event. Through some excellent hacking by the talented and determined Shane, they uncovered some pretty awful new circumstances that would affect the family in a most profound way. They wouldn't give up though and by the end of the week they had saved not one life, but two. As a result of their success with this case, the POstables were born! Becky promoted the group of 4 to a special task force with high clearance that would answer only to her division in DC. If that wasn't enough, they all received the highest award granted to a postal worker - The Dark of Night Award! Oliver was speechless! He never thought he'd ever receive one of those. Shane was just over the moon for him. She knew how long he had been dreaming about that cup and now he had his own, together with his entire team. Oliver was recognised twice; as a postal worker and a section leader. He deserved every accolade that came his way.
To celebrate their success, they all went out that weekend to a nice fancy restaurant with Becky. Shane looked stunning and Oliver couldn't take his eyes off her, no matter how hard he tried. But they had a tremendously fun time. They even danced. Shane and Oliver were inseparable. He danced with her more times than he should have, but neither of them was counting, and the others didn't seem to care.
Shane smiled into Oliver's eyes and finally said "Now, this is fun!"