Part 34
Dean was pointing to a small crack in one corner of the windshield but Shane completely disregarded it as he went on about the paint job. It wasn't like anything he'd ever seen and he hadn't shut up about it since he'd switched from the topic of what a great find the old bus was no matter its condition. For half an hour he had been ogling the vehicle, practically drooling over it and trying to come up with a way to make it his. All their lives his buddy had harbored champagne tastes and caviar dreams, but realistically lived in the realm of beer and pretzels. He had a collection of these old buses, all of them in various states of disrepair that he lovingly restored at a pace that worked for him and his wallet.
His attention was drawn away from the bus when he caught movement from the corner of his eye and his mouth dropped open when he saw three girls in the shop. Shane turned to follow his friend's gaping stare and his own gaze bounced from one girl to the next in surprise. Dean moved to turn the music off before leading the way over to the people cluttering up his shop. He had been expecting Kyle and his friends, but the guy hadn't said anything about bringing along three pretty girls. His hands were clean but he wiped them on a shop towel out of habit as he greeted them, shaking Kyle's hand as they exchanged introductions.
"So, you folks own this beauty?" Shane asked, his eyes once more turning back to the bus.
"Haven't yet met a girl that's kept his attention when one of these things was in the same vicinity," Dean said with a chuckle.
"You managed to get your computer back online?" Max asked, his tone low-key and expressing nothing more than curiosity.
"Nope, 'fraid not. It's Christmastime so everyone's either gone or up to their eyeballs in work." He shrugged one shoulder. "Heck, not much of a point in entering a work order until we know if we're gonna do any work on it." He reached up to scratch the back of his head. "I made some calls, but the cheapest engine I could find's gonna run you about three and a half grand plus shipping and labor.
"You got any idea what you're gonna do with the bus since the engine's shot?" Shane asked, trying not to sound too eager and failing miserably.
Kyle sensed a potential deal in the works but before he had the opportunity to speak up, Maria took front and center. He was left standing with Max and Michael when Liz and Isabel moved to flank her and he rolled his eyes when they flashed their dazzling smiles at the other two men. Oh, Buddha help us, he thought.
"Well, we've been talking about that," Maria said, leveling that smile at Shane. "Right now our only option looks like investing in a new engine." Her gaze darted to the van and back to Shane. "That is unless we can find another vehicle. We've discussed that too." She looked at the other two girls.
"We have talked about it," Liz agreed.
Isabel nodded and glanced around the shop. "Yeah, but it doesn't look like you have anything here – "
"Oh, wait!" Shane hurried to speak up. "Wait, did you happen to notice that Ford Windstar parked out front?"
"Uh, I thought you said you didn't have the title for that thing?" Dean spoke up.
No title? Kyle, Michael, and Max exchanged a look.
"Right," Shane said, one corner of his mouth pulling down in a frown. "That's right." He grinned sheepishly. "Guess I kinda forgot about that."
"What, uh, what kinda condition's that puppy in?" Kyle asked, earning a look from all three girls.
Maria waved at the guys, an insistent motion that demanded silence. "Is it reliable?"
"It belonged to my aunt," he started.
"Bet she only drove it to church on Sundays and never over 30 mph," Max muttered under his breath.
Maria shot a warning glare at him when his voice carried enough for her to hear him. "Anyway, about your van," she said, turning her sweetest smile on Shane again. "You were saying…?"
Shane smiled back at her. "Well, she's got a little over a hundred thousand miles on her, got some cosmetic issues, and could probably do with a bit of work, but I use 'er pretty regularly." His eyes drifted back to the bus and he gnawed on one side of his bottom lip as the wheels in his mind started turning.
"You know, my mom would be so happy to know her van had been retired to a good home." She walked over to the van, running her fingertips over the edge of the open window. She pinched her lips between her teeth for a moment. "She's had this thing so long and there's just no way of knowing where the title is. Probably gone for good by now…"
Max could feel Michael tensing up next to him and he glanced at him, seeing a familiar look on his face. It was toned down, but it was the expression he'd worn last New Year's Eve as he'd watched Maria flirting with Dave Lambert in an attempt to glean information about the next clue to Enigma. He had been ready to inflict some damage when Lambert had copped a feel but he had respected the boundaries she had set limiting their relationship to that of friends, and he had taken off to deal with his feelings in another manner. "Hey, it's not the same thing."
"Doesn't mean I have to like it." His eyes followed every move she made, his agitation spiking when the man moved towards her. "He tries to cop a feel, he loses a hand."
Max placed a calming hand on Michael's shoulder when Shane's movements took him closer to the bus so he could run his right hand over the front of it lovingly.
"Sure would be a shame to have to retire this little beauty someplace that wasn't fit," Shane said, following her lead. "These old classics should definitely be with folks who appreciate them."
"You're so right." She paused a moment, her expression one of deep thought, and suddenly she looked up at him with wide eyes. "Do you think we could just make a trade? I mean, we don't have a title, you don't have a title…"
Kyle's left forearm was resting against his chest, his right elbow braced on the wrist as he watched the girls work the room. He covered the lower half of his face as he waited for the man to answer.
"I'd be okay with that," Shane agreed before anyone could speak up and interrupt the conversation. "I mean, your bus is worth more than my van, even with the engine outta commission."
"Hmm…"
"Maybe if there're any smaller repairs to get it roadworthy, they could be included in the trade," Isabel suggested. "Kyle's a mechanic and I'm sure he could do any work it needed if he could use the shop."
"Thanks, honey," he muttered as he dropped his hand. "Maybe I could take a look at the van before we make a deal. Throw it up on the rack and check the steering, tranny, and the exhaust system, give the belts and hoses a check? If everything looks okay, we can shake on it… How's that?"
Shane looked at his friend. "C'mon, Dean, whaddaya say?"
"You still don't have a title," Dean reminded him.
"And technically it wouldn't be a sale."
"Interesting way of lookin' at it," Dean said and shrugged with a smile. "Sure, I'm not busy this mornin'." He waved at the door. "Go get that hunk of junk started and I'll open up the bay door for you."
Shane paused long enough to shoot a quick look at Dean before he glanced at the others. "He's got a really, really bad sense of humor. It's a perfectly good vehicle."
"You girls wanna wait in the office?" Dean asked as he walked over to the bay doors a couple of minutes later. "It gets cold in here quick once these doors go up and you probably don't wanna wait around out here while your men take a look under the hood."
"That would be wonderful," Liz agreed enthusiastically when Max nudged her and gave the slightest nod of his head. As soon as the mechanic gave them directions to the office and told them to help themselves to the coffee he turned his attention to the padlock on the door. "Why do you want us in the office?"
"Get rid of the paperwork on the van. He had everything on the desk last time we were here, and based on the filing system he seems to favor, it's probably still there."
"This won't take long will it?" Isabel asked, glancing between the three guys.
"It'll take as long as it takes, sugar muffin," Kyle said with a devilish grin.
She was gritting her teeth as she turned to go to the office, just barely beating the blast of icy air that whipped through the opening as Dean raised the bay door. Sugar muffin. He would pay for that one.
"Sugar muffin?" Max echoed, trying hard not to laugh because there was always the chance that his sister would hear him and there would be hell to pay for that.
"I'd hate to be you tonight," Michael muttered under his breath.
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Maria was turning away from the door when Isabel grabbed her arm and turned her back to face it. "Um… what're we doing?"
"Keep an eye out."
She rolled her eyes at the tall blonde. "I think you and Michael have been spending too much time together."
Isabel stuck her tongue out at her. "At least in here you can't put the car in reverse."
Maria snorted at the memory of the day they had tailed the suit that had led them to exposing Topolsky. "What're we doing?" she asked when the other two girls started sifting through the messy stacks of paperwork on the desk.
"We're getting rid of the paperwork for the van," Liz said, glancing at Isabel when she sat down at the computer and started messing with it. "I don't know what Max did to it but it looks pretty fried," she said when the screen remained blue. She reached for another stack of loose papers and picked through them, jumping up and down a couple of times and waving a paper in the air. "Oh, I've got it!" She turned the work order around and looked over it. "Now what?"
Isabel held one hand out expectantly. "Let me see it." She turned it over and frowned at it. "Is this all of it?"
Liz flipped through more papers before nodding. "Looks that way."
Isabel sat down in the worn leather chair behind the desk, leaning back and wincing at the high-pitched squeal it gave in protest at the movement. "That's nice," she muttered, shaking her head.
"What should we do with it? Alter it? Sneak it out of here?" Maria's mind was going over their options while she thought out loud. "Oooh, I know!"
"I don't even want to know what you're thinking," Isabel said when she caught the look in Maria's eyes. "Whatever it is, no." She held the work order by one corner and concentrated on it for a moment before it began to disintegrate into a fine dust.
"Oh," Liz said softly, "perfect."
"Awesome trick, you're gonna have to teach me how to do that one day," Maria decided with a smile. "You do know we could be stuck here for hours now that the guys get to take their toys out and play."
"Yeah, sugar muffin," Liz said and started to laugh, which only flipped the switch on Maria's humor and before long they were both laughing while Isabel sat there staring at them, fingernails drumming on the single clear spot on the worn surface of the desk.
"I'm guessing Kyle's in trouble for that little endearment," Maria speculated as she glanced at the man in question. He was going on about something, his arms stretched wide as he watched the van being raised up on the hydraulic lift.
"He'll be suitably punished," Isabel decided as she studied her nails. A devious smile lifted the corners of her lips as she began to hatch her plan to exact retribution.
"I'd hate to be on the receiving end of whatever you're coming up with," Liz mused as she watched her sister-in-law.
The tall blonde made a quiet huffing sound of agreement as her eyes moved to the window in the door. "Yes, you would." She shifted, ignoring the chair's protest, and craned her neck to look out into the shop where Kyle was busy doing whatever it was he did underneath cars. One perfect eyebrow arched when she saw him stretch to reach something and she shook her head. Surely that lift thingy could be adjusted for shorter mechanics. She rolled her eyes as she glanced at the man next to him, head tipped back as he stared at whatever Kyle was pointing at. There wasn't much difference in their height, so unless Dean kept a stepstool around the thing had to be adjustable.
"In a minute he's gonna start jumping to get at whatever he's trying to reach," Liz said with a laugh. She turned her head to look at her husband when he and Shane migrated back to the bus, wandering around it and happily avoiding anything that had to do with mechanics.
Maria was watching Michael as he moved around the van on the lift, his eyes constantly scanning over the shop, making sure he knew where everyone was at all times. She smiled when he paused momentarily to look at the Jetta, feeling her heart somersault in her chest when he turned his head to look at her and she saw the slight smile cross his face.
Before long though he was on the move again, reaching into the upright toolbox and picking up a ratchet with a socket attached to it. He started to turn the socket and she was glad she wasn't close enough to hear the sound it was making because it would drive her crazy. She knew waiting for Kyle's diagnosis was sure to be driving him insane. If this worked out it solved a big problem, but in the meantime, patience was not one of his better qualities.
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Michael's mind was active as he waited impatiently for their Buddhist to hopefully pull a rabbit out of his hat. The trade would solve multiple problems: it would provide them with hopefully reliable transportation, it would prevent him from having to steal from people who had been good to them, and it would give them a way out if it came to that. His mind shifted tracks, thinking about what he had told the others recently about splitting up. He looked over at the Jetta, remembering the way her eyes had filled with tears as she looked at it.
He sighed and wished he had something to occupy his hands. He knew she missed her mom, she missed home, and those were two things he may never be able to give her. Maybe he could give her a home, but it would never be the one she had given up to be with him. How could he insist on splitting up when he knew how much it would hurt her to give up another piece of what little stability existed in her life? She was smart, she would understand the necessity for such a decision, but would she eventually resent him for everything she had given up to be with him? He turned, knowing before he moved that she was watching him, and he gave her a small smile. It was too soon to obsess over that problem. They might have to split up, but it wasn't like they could just split up into three groups when they only had one vehicle. There were other things that had to happen first. And while they had talked, they hadn't exactly had the talk, so things were better, but he still didn't know where they stood.
He started prowling again, passing the upright toolbox several times before he reached into the open top to retrieve a ratchet with a deep well socket attached to it. He turned the socket over and over, the ratcheting sound somehow soothing his nerves while Kyle did his best to stretch them to the point of breaking. He appreciated the guy's calm manner most of the time – not that he'd ever tell him that, but at times like this appreciation was not on his list. He glanced at the office door again, one eyebrow lifting when he noticed Isabel sitting in the chair behind the desk, about to fall out of it as she leaned to one side to look out into the shop.
Crap, Isabel was expecting all of them to participate in her fun-fest of Christmas costume fittings when they were finished here. He made another round of the shop. How was he going to get out of that? His gaze landed on Kyle and he smirked. Sugar muffin, he thought victoriously. All I've gotta do is remind her of what dumbass called her and she'll forget all about me and that fat elf suit. His satisfaction lasted for all of two seconds before reality crashed down on him. Yeah, because she'll ever let anything make her forget about her Christmas insanity.
He muttered a curse under his breath and moved over to the van, resting one hand on the wheel well as he ducked down to look at Kyle. "So? What's the verdict?"
Kyle lowered the flashlight he held and glanced at Michael. He recognized the signs of agitation rising in his friend and he shrugged one shoulder. "Well, she cranked right up before we put 'er on the lift." He cleared his throat and hurried to continue when he saw the impatience in the other man's features. He turned the light to the undercarriage again. "So far I haven't found any major problems. A thing or two that'll need fixin' but nothin'… Ah, wait a sec. Hey, Dean, would you hand me a shop rag?"
"Sure." Dean moved to snatch up one of the blue cloths and handed it over, peering up to see what Kyle had noticed.
Michael was watching them and his anxiety was spiking with every passing second that Kyle spent trying to reach up under the oil pan. He finally just reached out and took the rag from him. "Where d'you want me to put it?" he barked.
Kyle's eyes danced with laughter as he dropped his weight on his heels and looked at Michael. "Is that really the way you wanna phrase that question?"
"Valenti," he growled, "tell me or I'll just use my imagination."
He grinned and directed Michael, taking the rag back from him after he wiped just under the oil pan. The blue cloth was smeared with black oily smudges. "That could be a problem."
Dean laughed. "Shane gave 'er an oil change last month. He got to talkin' about this girl he met next town over." He rolled his eyes. "She told him she had a thing for these classics too. Anyway, he got to goin' on about her and forgot to tighten the screw under the pan. Next thing you know oil's all over the floor and all over Shane," he laughed.
"Hope things worked out with the girl."
"Nah, he found out she was just pretending to like VW buses so she'd have an opening…" he glanced over his shoulder at Shane, shaking his head fondly at the way his friend was pawing the van. "Just one of many short-lived relationships in my buddy's life."
The guys turned to follow his gaze, watching Max as he and Shane moved around the bus. Max did a good job of looking interested even though he had no interest whatsoever in whatever the other man was going on about. Michael shifted to meet Kyle's gaze and he lifted an eyebrow. "Verdict," he insisted.
Kyle rolled his shoulders and gave the undercarriage one more look. "Well, the good news is she started right up, like I said. I'll need to take a better look at the steering brackets since I'm seeing what might be a crack. The rear axle's a miracle," he said as he moved forward a few feet and shined the flashlight up at the axle in question. "Rusted halfway through. Tires are in good shape, so that's a good thing. Put a little work in it to keep 'er operational for the short term and she's a steal."
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"How's it going out there?" Liz asked. She was sitting in a chair in front of the desk, the leather old, cracked, and pinching her right thigh no matter how she rearranged her position.
Maria pulled her attention from the guys to look at Liz. She was leaning forward, one elbow braced on the desk, chin in hand as she scratched something out on a piece of paper. "I have no idea what they're doing now." She shifted to the side, trying to see what Liz was doing. "Are you writing something?"
"No," she mused absent-mindedly, "just trying to figure out if it's possible to go first at tic tac toe and lose."
Isabel rolled her eyes. "It's not." She froze and looked up from the list she was writing in an effort to ease her boredom. "Common sense says if you go first you pick a corner… if you pick the center it's impossible to lose." Kyle had proven that over and over one night at one of the campgrounds they had stayed at when neither of them wanted to sleep. Not that she was going to admit that to anyone. She cleared her throat when they exchanged a look before leveling their disbelieving expressions on her. "Anyway, we should get out there and move things along. It can't possibly take this long to check out the…" her eyes moved to the window, "whatever it is he's checking out. We have things to do this afternoon."
"Um, Isabel," Liz said as she started drawing lines to connect the tic tac toe frame, "about what we're doing this afternoon…"
"Are you trying to back out?" she asked with narrowed eyes.
"No, no, of course not. I was just wondering what exactly you have in mind for Max. He's a little concerned that you really had tights in mind."
Maria actually snorted at that, trying very hard not to picture it so she wouldn't laugh at him next time they came face to face.
"What do elves wear, Liz?" Isabel drummed her fingers on the desktop as she studied her sister-in-law.
"His opinion is that a reindeer wrangler isn't actually an elf."
"His opinion would be grossly incorrect," she interrupted. "Santa only employs elves; everyone knows this, and that includes my brother. He's not getting out of this."
"He doesn't know anything about reindeer and he was telling me he thinks you're planning on finding a way to bring a whole herd in for him to babysit." Liz shook her head slowly as she watched Isabel. "You're not, right?"
"Well, that would be ridiculous, wouldn't it? Santa only had the eight plus Rudolph. Well," she corrected herself, "okay, he obviously had more, but during Christmas we only saw the main cast, so that's all Max will have to worry about. If you're concerned about it I'm sure I can find a way to work it so you're helping him. Oh, I know!" she said, eyes widening along with her smile. "You could have matching costumes! How great would that be?"
"Um… no, I think I'll be fine without that." Sorry, Max. I love you, but you're on your own with the reindeer. She pointed at the door when she realized Isabel was actually considering this new potential development. "Didn't you say we needed to get out there? We should probably do that… now."
Maria tried very hard not to laugh but when Liz nearly tore the door off of its hinges to get out of the office she lost it, doubling over as she laughed hard enough to make her eyes water.
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Max looked up when Liz hurried across the shop and he knew as soon as he caught a glimpse of his sister and Maria that Isabel was up to something. He looked down at his wife and quirked an eyebrow in question.
"Nothing," she assured him. "Matter of fact, don't even ask her about it. If we leave it alone she might forget about it."
"So, what's the deal?" Isabel asked, sending an ultra sweet smile at Liz and Max before turning her attention to the van that was being lowered to the ground. She winced when the tires touched the floor and the vehicle shifted as it settled into place, the frame giving a creaking groan. She looked at Kyle. "That's something you can fix, right?"
"Your faith in my abilities humbles me." He gave her a smile and held one finger up. "Check this out." He leaned inside the open window of the drivers' side door, reaching in to poke the little hula dancer stuck to the dashboard. "Huh?" He poked it again, making it dance in place. "Whatcha think about that? Convinced Shane to throw it in as part of the deal."
She tried to control her features to prevent her disgust from expressing itself so openly. That would have to go at the first available opportunity. "Oh. How… special." Her tone said it was anything but.
"So," Shane said as he joined them, "do we have a deal?" He patted the van and grinned. "We can make the switch right now…" he added to sweeten the pot. He glanced at Dean. "Um, you can gimme a ride back to the house, right?"
Dean laughed and slapped him on the back. "Hey, if you can unload this thing I'll make sure you get home."
"Well?" Maria asked, her gaze bouncing between Michael and Kyle.
Kyle nodded. "I say we go for it. It solves our transportation problem for the moment and Dean said I could use the shop to work on some of the repairs to get it ready for distance traveling."
"Sounds like we have a deal," Maria said with a smile.
Shane stepped forward and was reaching for Maria's hand when Michael moved and intercepted the handshake. He grinned as he met the man's gaze, recognizing the territorial gleam in his eyes and nodding in acknowledgement.
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An hour later, after sorting things out and making sure they had everything out of the bus, Max made one more walk around it before joining the others where they had gathered around the van that had been moved outside. Michael was barking out the seating assignments and he knew it was because Shane had been talking Maria's ear off since she was the one who had made it possible for him to obtain the VW bus.
As they left the dealership in the rearview mirror Michael's thumb was smacking the steering wheel in a rhythm that indicated he was annoyed. He had insisted he and Maria would take their procured vehicle and give it a test run on the open road, instructing Kyle to drive Julia's car so that Max and Isabel would be free to protect them if anything happened. No one had bothered to argue with him, letting him have his say and climbing into their respective vehicles.
"What do you think Max will look like in green tights?" Maria mused aloud in an effort to calm him down.
He shook his head. "He'll escape elf hell because now that we've got a working vehicle we can get outta here."
"No, Michael, we can't just up and leave."
He didn't look at her. "Why not?"
"Um… Maggie?" She was met with silence and after a couple of minutes she had to resist the urge to ball up her fists. "Oooh, you're so stubborn! Fine, I don't know, how about 'cause you told that little girl that you knew Santa. Or maybe because she gave you that little picture of the dog she wants for Christmas. Or maybe because Kyle's got a place to work on the van and he'll have the necessary equipment to do it. That's not something we have access to on a regular basis." She rolled her eyes and shook her head before looking over at him, taking in the steady gaze that was locked on the road ahead of them. It took a moment, but she suddenly realized that he was doing his best to start an argument just to irritate her. But why? Last Christmas, she realized. It had been especially painful for him. The ghost of Christmas Past rears its ugly head once again. She squeezed her eyes shut at the memory and took a deep breath. "Michael, it'd crush Maggie if Santa didn't show up. Besides, if you think Edward's protective of his family now, I wouldn't wanna be around when he finds out we just up and left."
His hand tightened on the steering wheel, torn between running and putting as much distance between them and the people hunting them, and staying and making Christmas special not only for Maggie, but for Maria as well. But in the end that's what it all came down to, wasn't it? He shot a sideways glance at her and saw her features sober as she accepted that she may not be able to change his mind. While his concern for their safety was always at the forefront of his mind, a large part of it was he just didn't want to deal with Christmas and the memories it would bring up. He sighed quietly and reached over to take her hand, feeling her relax as she linked her fingers through his.