Chapter 13
The ocean was cold this day, and the waves were crashing up on the beach. Jill found herself wandering in the bright sand. It was windy and chilly, but she had gotten used to the European rain and cold, and anything compared to that was worm enough. Especially the Californian sun. She loved her life, which mostly took place in Europe, but just in these two years she'd been gone, she'd seen the world. She'd been to Spain, France and Italy mostly, but she had driven in Brazil, in Canada, Australia and so many other places. But it was here, in Los Angeles, that she felt like she was home.
She took a bit of her apple and thought of Steve. Oh she missed him so much, she never wanted to be apart from him. Everything had moved so fast with him, but yet, it felt so right. They were just perfect for each other. She had never thought she'd feel that way about a man, the only other man in the world she ever missed was Bosley, but she missed Steve in a completely different way than she missed Bosley. Bos was her comfort, her teddy bear, her uncle. Steve was the love of her life.
"Jill?"
Jill suddenly turned around when she heard her name being mentioned, and she smiled happily when she was face to face with her kid sister.
"JILL!"
The sisters happily ran up to each other and shared a hug, dancing around each other in a circle. They hadn't seen each other in more than two years.
"I've missed you!" Jill exclaimed happily as she hugged Kris again. "How are you?"
"I'm terrific, now!"
"Working for Charlie agrees with you?" Jill smiled as she looked her sister up and down. Kris was wearing a blue pattern skirt and a blue armless blouse on top. The white high heels were maybe not the best for the beach. Jill couldn't help but smile. Her sister had grown up so fast. She was not the youngster Jill had grown up with. Kris was an adult.
"I love it! But I wanna hear about you, I wanna hear about Europe, you've been racing cars, came in third..!"
"I came in third!" Jill laughed. She was so proud of that third place, because the competition had been so hard, and it was one of her first races. She had called Kris that evening, and Kris had been even more proud.
"Fabulous! Oh, oh, I gotta to tell'ya, I think Bosley's keeping a scrapbook, but he won't admit it."
"Naw, that's so sweet!" Jill smiled, and the sisters shared another hug.
"Oh, Bri and Kelly are gonna be so excited to see you!"
"Will you slow down?" Jill laughed.
"Oh oh oh OH! Tell me about the French baron!"
Jill hesitated for a second. The French baron. Oh. She had told Kris about him in a letter about two months ago, he had taken Jill out to his mansion, where they had ate a fantastic dinner, before wandering his garden by the evening, and then shared a wonderful night. That was something Jill wouldn't forget in a while. But she had Steve now, and he meant more to her than the baron would ever do.
"Let's go swimming!" Jill smiled, grabbing Kris' hand.
"JILL!" Kris screamed, burying her heels into the sand, pulling Jill back to the beach. Jill was amazed of how strong her kid sister was, she definitely had built muscles since last time they met.
"You are crazy!" Kris laughed. "Come on now, is it the French baron or is it the ski instructor?"
"Was." Jill said, proudly tossing her apple in the air.
"Huh?"
"Yeah." Jill smiled, nodding to her sister. "It's one man now."
"Jill? Are you sure?"
"I'm betting the rest of my life on him."
"Naw, who is he?"
"Let me tell you about him, he's in Europe, he's gonna be racing in Le Mans. He was so upset when I had to come back here. What's this stupid emergency anyway?"
"What?"
"What do you mean what?" Jill asked as she pulled up the cablegram from her purse. "The cable you sent. Top urgent, come back, matter of life and death."
"I didn't send you any cable. There's no emergency."
"Someone says there is. Life or death."
"But who could have sent it?"
"I don't know, I was sure it was you."
"You know what? Let's get inside and call Charlie."
Jill nodded. "Good idea."
Kris smiled and put an arm around her sister's shoulders.
"It's nice to have you back."
"I've missed this place. And I've missed you! You look great."
"So do you!" Kris smiled, slightly pushing Jill.
Jill stumbled, before she pushed Kris back. Suddenly they were all up in the sisterly wrestling on the beach, rolling around in the sand. Kris sat down on top of Jill's stomach, holding her hands down, smiling proudly.
"Yey, and lil'sister wins again!"
"You're cheating!" Jill laughed as she struggled to get out of the grip.
"I'm not! Give up!" Kris laughed as she began to tickle Jill.
"I give up! Stop it, I give up!" Jill laughed, and Kris rose to her feet, giving Jill a helpful hand. Jill took it and rose to her feet. Kris began to walk up to the house, in the same time as Jill took a handful of sand and grabbed the neck of Kris' blouse, pouring down the sand inside of it.
"JILL!"
Jill grabbed her purse and ran up to the house, giggling, Kris running after her. Jill went into the house, grabbing a new apple from the table, sitting down by it while dialing the phone. A minute later, Kris came into the kitchen, wearing nothing but her skirt and a bra. She was shaking her blouse, looking angry at Jill.
"That was so unnecessary!" She laughed, trying to fake her anger, but failing miserably.
Jill laughed at her, while waiting for Charlie to pick up the phone.
"I'll take a quick shower."
Jill nodded, in the same time as she heard Charlie's voice in the other line.
"Townsend."
"Hi, Charlie, it's Jill."
"Jill! How are you?"
"Confused."
"What?"
"I got a cablegram the other day, which I thought was from Kris, but she tells me no. It says urgent, come back, matter of life and death."
"That's weird. I'll check it out. To where was it sent?"
"To my apartment in Le Mans."
"I'll see what I can find out. Can I reach you there then?"
"No, try the office instead, Kris and I will go down there as soon as we've changed clothes and lil'sis is out of the shower."
"You're in LA?"
"Yeah! Arrived about an hour ago." Jill smiled.
"How wonderful! Well, I'll check in on this, and then I'll get back to you."
"Thank you Charlie."
Jill hung up the phone and went into the guestroom where she'd put her bag. She changed clothes into a long skirt, white with big flowers on it, with two long slits in the front, making her fabulous legs show. She grabbed a blue blouse to it, inspired by Kris. She was fixer her hair when Kris came out of the shower.
"What did Charlie say?"
"He's going look into it and get back to us at the office. Why aren't you at work anyway?"
"I have the day off." Kris smiled.
"But the others don't?"
"I did all the paperwork on the last case so they let me have an extra day off."
"Nice."
Kris smiled.
"They'll be so happy to see you."
"I hope so." Jill smiled back.
Kris disappeared into her bedroom to get dressed, but the rooms were close to each other, and they both had their doors open, so they kept talking.
"The last case, was that the one in Las Vegas?"*
"Yes." Kris answered, slipping into a white dress. "It was. It was quite fun actually, at least parts of it."
"You mean singing with Marty Cole?" Jill smiled.
"Yeah! Too bad he was the bad guy." Kris sighed, still upset that one of her idols were the one killing people. She had truly hoped it was someone else. And she knew the case had taken its toll on Sabrina too. She had been through an emotional rollercoaster during that case. She had really fallen for Frank Howell, and she had pretty much crashed in the end. She had been quiet the entire way home, but when Kris and Kelly took her for lunch the following day, she had opened up. She would be very happy that Jill was here, and she could think about something else.
Suddenly everything switched. Jill found herself in a different place in different clothes. Kris, Sabrina and Kelly were standing next to her on the race track.
"What the hell is going on here?!" They heard from behind, and they all watched Paul Ferrino come running towards them. "Who is that?"
"Steve Carmody." Sabrina answered calmly, all of the looking towards Steve, driving Paul's car.
"What's he doing in my car?!"
A light bulb was suddenly lit above Jill's head, and she felt her heart melt a little.
"I know what he's doing… He's testing it for me." She said, nervously tugging her straps on the dress. Jill felt relieved, she had known all along that Steve wasn't a bad guy, he was no the one who wanted to blow up the car. He only wanted Jill's best. The big stone that had been stuck in her throat finally let go.
"He's bringing it in." Jill said relieved, wanting to hug her fiancé close, thank him for being the man she wanted him to be.
Then everything happened in slow motion. While he was slowing down the speed, an explosion shocks the track. Flames came out of the car, and Jill watched the man of her dreams being burned to nothing but ashes.
"Come on now, stay here Jill, don't look, don't look. Come on."
Jill could not control her body. She could hear Kris talking in the distance, but her focus was on the flames. Kris grabbed her firmly and pulled her aside, forcing her to sit down by the edge of the track, back against Steve. Kris pulled Jill into a hug, feeling her tears begun to fall as Jill began crying. Jill was trying to get away from Kris, she wanted to run to her fiancé, she wanted him to be okay; she wanted to see for herself. But Kris held her in a deathgrip; there was no way Jill could get out from the hug.
"No, no, no, no, no! Kris!"
* Angels in Vegas part 1 & 2.
Yees, both real parts and missing parts from "Angel Come Home" :) Hope you liked it ;)
