PARTNERS

Angela stared out the window of Dingo's trailer, bored. There wasn't much to do on the surface in terms of entertainment. When Dingo was around he played on his guitar, sang some. She was trying to learn to like it, in part because he enjoyed it so much, and in part because there was nothing else to do. She still didn't get what he meant by "feeling music in your bones," but every once in a while she thought the sounds stirred something in her – something not unpleasant. And Dingo's voice was nice. Comforting.

She sighed and looked around the small space for something useful to do. She tried to keep it tidy when Dingo was out. Dingo was a neat man by nature, though it seemed somewhat at odds with his lazy personality, and she didn't have any other way to contribute. She didn't know how to cook or make anything. She didn't know how to clean either, but, really, how hard could it be? Dingo had showed her the basics after she demanded to be allowed to help. That was two days after she'd been expelled from DEVA, and she'd thought she'd go mad if she didn't do something.

The trailer was already spotless, which made sense since she'd cleaned up after breakfast and hadn't done anything since.

She sighed and moved to the cupboards. In one of them Dingo had a meager collection of books. She'd read most of them already, but since there was nothing else to do . . .

"Hey, Angela!"

She nearly bumped her head on a shelf as Dingo threw open the door.

"Oh, there you are." He grinned at her like a moron.

"What?" she snapped. She immediately regretted it –he'd done a lot for her– but she refused to relinquish her scowl now.

His easy grin never faltered. "I've got a job I think is right up your alley. You wanna come with?"

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She should have known better. She really, really should have. He'd had that look in his eye – all mischief and madness, and she should have known it was going to be crazy.

Right up her alley? How was herding these, these things even in her neighborhood? Hell, it wasn't even in her town. Maybe if she'd had her Arhan, but they'd sold that for scrap metal as soon as they'd returned from the ruins of Frontier Setter's base.

"Angela." Dingo waved at her from across the herd of horse-like beasts.

She said horse-like, but that was only because they resembled the basic body type of the ancient animal. These things were used for riding, sometimes, but they had wicked horns across their foreheads and down their noses, and the sharp teeth of a flesh-eater. God, had everything evolved to be carnivorous after the Nano Disaster?

Looking around at the barren desert she realized all the herbivores had probably died out. There wasn't a hint of natural vegetation on the whole damn planet.

"Angela," he jogged up beside her. "I think if we bribe them this might go quicker."

"Bribe them?" she echoed.

He grinned. "Yeah. You know, with a treat. You draw more flies with honey, right? And more hornsteed with meat."

When blinked at him. "And do you have any meat?"

He shrugged. "Not at the moment, but I've got an idea about that."

"Idiot," she muttered under her breath.

"What was that?"

She shook her head.

"Anyway, I need you to stay here and hold down the fort for a few minutes, okay?"

Angela looked out at the teeming mass of beasts and wondered what, exactly, he thought she was going to do if they got out of hand.

He didn't wait for her to answer. "Okay. Great. I'll be back in a few."

He jogged away, headed toward the old, beat up jeep they'd bought with some of the money from selling her stolen Arhan. In another moment he'd driven away and she could do nothing but gape after him.

Seriously? He'd just left her here?

She eyed the go cart they'd towed here with them. What would happen if she just drove away?

She dismissed the thought almost as she had it. No, she couldn't do that. Dingo's reputation was on the line here, she couldn't let him down. Besides, she'd wanted something to do, right?

She didn't know how long Dingo was gone. He'd bought her a watch, and she was wearing it, but she'd forgotten to check it when he left. It'd been at least twenty minutes though.

A rising cloud of dust signaled his approach at long last and the jeep skidded to a stop beside her. He hopped out, pulling one of his huge fifty gallon jugs with him. Usually they were empty, he used them to stir up sandworms, but now he appeared to be struggling with it, like it was full.

"Here," he panted a bit, "help me get this to the cart."

"Um, okay." She was surprised at how heavy the jug was. "What do you have in here?" she asked, already huffing for breath a little herself.

Dingo grinned at her. "A treat." They pushed the jug onto the back of the cart and Dingo climbed up after it. "You drive."

"Where are we going?" she asked as she dutifully climbed into the driver's seat.

"Head for the corral."

She kicked the vehicle into gear and began driving toward the large steel-girder corral their client had set up for the beasts.

"You might want to go faster," Dingo shouted over the noise of the engine and the wind.

"Why?"

Two things happened nearly simultaneously then: Dingo popped the lid off the metal storage container and the entire herd of hornsteed reared on their hind legs with a deafening roar. The smell hit her a moment later and Angela realized what he'd done. There was blood in the jug. She wasn't sure what desert animal he'd killed for it, probably the first one he'd found, but it was enough to drive the hornsteed into a feeding frenzy.

She slammed on the gas. "Damn it, Dingo! Are you insane?"

It was a silly question. She already knew Dingo was insane.

"What was that?"

"You're crazy!" she shouted.

Dingo laughed.

She could see the corral now and she really wished she'd asked more questions before this mad dash began, because she didn't know what she was supposed to do when they got there. Drive in? The last thing she wanted was to be trapped in a cage with a hundred hungry carnivores.

"Dingo?" she shouted back.

"Give it a few dozen meters," he said.

"And then what?"

"Get ready to take a hard right, on my mark."

"What?"

"Mark!" he shouted, just as the welded seams that joined the girders became visible. Angela jerked hard; the cart skidded and titled over onto the left-side wheels, but they made the turn and kept going. She didn't even scrape along the corral rails. Behind her there was a heavy thump and the distinct sounds of metal rolling along sand. She looked back to see the herd of hornsteed trampling over one another in their haste to get to the blood now seeping into the ground of the corral. Dingo must have thrown the jug in as they made the turn, used it's momentum to increase his throwing distance.

Dingo climbed un into the front beside her. "Turn us around, we have to close the gate."

She did as he instructed automatically, almost numb with shock at what he'd done. A moment later his foot came down on hers over the gas, causing the cart to regain the speed she'd had to sacrifice to make the hairpin turn. He slammed on the brake as they reached the gate, lunging out the side of the cart to catch the gate and swing it closed. Their momentum threw Angela out into the sand and she was suddenly very grateful for the rough denim jeans covering her legs – they had been uncomfortable the first few days, but she could see Dingo's point now. Human skin was ridiculously fragile; even through the heavy fabric she could feel she'd earned a few new scrapes.

She pushed herself up, gingerly testing her limbs and joints, and was relieved they'd suffered no significant damage. She then turned her attention to Dingo and saw he had managed to bolt the gate shut and locked and was now loping toward her.

He offered her his hand. At least it still worked – he was lucky he hadn't wrenched his arms from his sockets pulling a stunt like that.

She took his hand. "What is wrong with you?" she demanded, tone scathing.

Dingo chuckled as he hauled her upright. "It worked didn't it?"

She shook her head. "You're gonna get us both killed," she muttered.

"What was that?"

"Nothing."

Dingo propped his hands on his hips and looked back at the corral with satisfaction. "See, what'd I tell you? Easy as pie." He checked the lock one last time and then turned back to where she was still batting dirt off her butt. "Come on."

As he walked past her he let his hand fall on her head, ruffling her hair slightly. She hated it when he did that, like she was a little kid. At the same time, she kind of liked it. There was something about the weight of his hand, the warmth of it. She didn't quite know what that something was though.

"Let's go home," he said.

That froze her to the spot. Home? Was that what his trailer was to her now? When she'd been stranded here, on the surface in this physical body, three weeks ago –three weeks that felt like a lifetime already– she'd made the comment to him that if she was stuck here at least she had a reliable guy, but she'd been at least half teasing. Trying to get a reaction out of him. He hadn't protested, but . . . She couldn't really impose on him like that, could she? She was an adult, even if this body wasn't; she had to make her own way in the world.

"Hey, Angela." He had righted the go cart and now stood beside it expectantly. "You coming?"

Time enough to think about that later, she supposed as she hurried to catch up. Hurrying was easier now that she owned practical shoes instead of those ridiculous heels that were a part of her DEVA flight suit. Another item she was glad she'd let Dingo convince her to purchase, even if practicality hadn't been his sole –or even primary– concern at the time.

It was a short trip back to the Jeep and in another few minutes Dingo had the cart hitched to the tow rig and they were on their way home. They drove in silence for a long time, and Angela let her thoughts wander back to the dilemma that was the rest of her life. She hadn't really had time to make a plan before abandoning DEVA, or even rejecting Frontier Setter's offer to join him on his journey to the stars. Looking down at this planet she just hadn't been able to say goodbye. It had seemed adventure enough for her. But, honestly, she hadn't known enough about life on the surface to know what she was getting herself into.

Now she thought about the dull routine that had become her day to day life and knew she couldn't continue like that for much longer. So the question was: what was she going to do with this new life of hers? She hadn't lost her DEVA skill set, but most of them were fairly useless here. Unless she wanted to be a bodyguard. She could do what Dingo did, she supposed, but somehow it didn't seem fair to set herself up as competition for the man who'd risked his life to save hers.

"Hey," Dingo said, casually interrupting her fretting. "How'd you like to be my partner? Officially, I mean. You're pretty useful when you're not complaining."

The last part was an obvious tease and she ignored it, focusing instead on his sudden and unexpected offer. How did he do that? It was like he could read her mind.

"We work well together, don't we? I've been thinking about getting a partner for a while now anyway. This would save me the trouble of placing an ad."

And now he'd given her the perfect excuse to say yes without seeming needy or vulnerable. Made it seem like she was doing him the favor. She saw right through him, but she was grateful for it. She had too much pride to ask for help; if he'd offered out of charity she would have turned him down on principle. It was unexpectedly kind, something she was beginning to learn to, well, expect from Dingo. It did something funny to her insides when he did things like that.

As usual, when she felt vulnerable she put on a haughty air.

"Hmph." She twisted her head away, nose in the air, and sniffed. "I guess I could. You are pretty hopeless on your own."

Dingo, predictably, just smiled lazily. "Yeah, you're probably right. So, partners?"

He offered his hand and she shook it. An odd feeling of heaviness settled in her chest as their hands clasped. On the surface, a handshake was as good as a contract. She was committed to this life now.

"Great." Dingo grinned, like the idea of working with her really did make him happy.

The weight eased. As far as partners went, Dingo wasn't so bad. He really was a reliable guy, for all he was a bundle of paradox and contradictions. She would always be able to count on him. Besides, it wasn't like she knew anyone else in this world.

She studied his profile as they drove, contemplating what she knew of him: his moral code, his intelligence, his easy humor; the way he accommodated her, tried to make things easier for her, but didn't lie to her. She thought about his reckless lifestyle and his unorthodox "problem solving", which she was still pretty sure would someday get them both killed.

But until then, every day would be an adventure. And wasn't that what she'd decided she wanted?

She smiled to herself as she admitted, yes, it was.

Dingo glanced at her and did a double take. "What?" he asked. "Why are you smiling like that?"

"Nothing."

"You say that an awful lot," he mused.

Her smile widened. "It's true an awful lot."

Dingo chuckled and adjusted the red baseball cap on his head. "Whatever you say, partner." He winked at her.

Angela relaxed back into her seat with a contented smile.

Yeah, this new life might not be so terrible after all.

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A/N: So . . . so far these have all been fairly long. I warn you there are some short ones in here too. Most are set after Dingo and Angela become a "couple", but a few (like this one) are earlier. Hope you enjoy.

reenas-as