Page 15 of Waylon

By the time the room was cleaned out but for the six of them, the night seemed to have been ruined. They were, however, going to go on a nice run through woods and climb a few trees while they were at it. It was, after all the things that had happened in the last few weeks, nice to be able to just be their other selves for a change. He knew that it was for him.

It was nearly midnight when he made it back to his place. The courier was there waiting for him to sign for the thick envelope, and he felt bad about that. Taking it into the house, he didn’t bother opening it up because he knew that he’d get involved in it, and that would be the end of his good night’s sleep.

As soon as he got into bed, Booth knew that it was a lost cause. He lay there tossing and turning, wondering what the papers said. Getting up and taking another shower to get himself in the mood, he was sitting at his desk looking over the first few sheets of paper and realized that it was a recipe. One for baked brie. He hoped that the rest of the papers were that easy but he knew better than to think that. As soon as he got to the second page, it was written out how the allies, the United States, were sending troops to the fort to fight on night maneuvers.

At six in the morning, he was picking up his phone when it rang before he could touch it. It was Jamie again. He wanted to know when he was going to start working on them, and he also wanted him to keep track of his hours. After telling him what the first page was about, he told him what a wonderful find the paperwork had been about the Civil War and some of the maneuvers that had been launched in order to get their freedom.

“It reads like someone was just jotting down their thoughts. There are also references to how much money was being spent and on what sort of goods. This is wonderful so far, and I’m really enjoying myself.” After telling him how far he’d gotten and the things that he’d found out, Jamie wanted him to come to DC to read it to him. He was also a history buff and wanted to hear the accountings as he was reading them. “There is a whole passage on how the person writing this met Lincoln. He said that he was a good man but tall. He mentions that several times in the first couple of pages.” He asked him where the papers were found.

“It’s a long-dead relative of Edwin Staton. He was a former U.S. Attorney General back then, and he had some far distant cousins that he might have stayed with while in the DC area. The house had been abandoned for some time, and when it went on the market, the new owners were doing some remodeling, bringing it up to code. I was told when they tore open a wall and found this little roomwith things like that you’re reading in it. There are books as well that are going to be donated to the library.” He asked him what the people who owned the house thought about that. “The realtor told them that the house was just old enough that it might have national treasures in it that they had to turn over to the government. I don’t think that it was legal him telling them that but they were more than pleased to be able to impart some history with their home.”

They talked for another thirty minutes when Jamie had to go to some meetings. After talking to him about the papers, he went back to the first page and began taking notes on what was being said. He was especially excited about the recipe then, to know that it was a part of the history of an old house in DC.

~*~

Lydia, Dee, to her friends, didn’t like driving in DC. It was difficult to get around and she was sure that every other street was named something to do with a senator or something. And there were so many round abouts that she never knew where to get off. Give her an old-fashioned stoplight, and she’d be just as happy.

The man behind her in traffic had been tailing her for the last hour. After pulling out into traffic a few streets back, he’d been screaming obscenities at her at every stop sign and light. She wasn’t going fast enough, he kept telling her, but she wouldn’t speed up for anyone. It was against the law and she couldn’t afford a ticket right now.

Stopped at a light with him behind her, she kept both her hands on the wheel when he continued to yell and rev up his engines. Like that would be something that would frighten her into speeding through a red light. Then she started moving.

He was pushing her into the oncoming traffic, and she was suddenly afraid. Once she was in the middle of the road, barely missing several cars coming toward her, she was hit in the side. After the airbags were deployed, she felt herself being tossed around like a ball in a dryer and couldn’t make heads or tails of where she was or what was going on.

“Miss? Can you hear me?” She tried to open her eyes to look to where the voice was coming from and she couldn’t make them work. “Do you know your name, miss? Can you tell me who you are?”

“Lydia Townhouse. My friends call me Dee.” She was starting to get her bearings then and asked the man where she was. “That man, the one behind me, he pushed me into oncoming traffic. I want to press charges against him.”

“The police will want to talk to you about that, I guess. I’m here to try and get you out of your car.” She said that she could unlock it. “I’m afraid we’re well beyond that point, honey. You’re penned in and upside down. You took quite a beating with your car.”

By the time they were able to get the doors off her car and were pulling her out, she began to take inventory of her body, and nothing seemed to be in pain. Even them helping her out with a gurney to the awaiting ambulance had her wondering how it was that she’d been in an accident. She was trying her best to be nice. It wasn’t their fault that she’d been hurt. She was ready to throw up or be knocked out. Her head was hurting her so bad that she was surprised that she could even think, much less answer their questions. Almost as soon as she was in the back of the ambulance, there was a pinch to her arm and she was feeling better. She did, however, get a good look at the intersection she’d been at the light at.

There were cars everywhere, it seemed. Right there in the middle of it was a large helicopter. She didn’t know if it was any bigger than any other one, but it looked huge to her when they were. They were telling her that she’d be life-flighted to the hospital and that they were ready for her.

She kept floating in and out of consciousness. Dee knew that she had on a neck brace but they kept asking her if she could feel her toes. Trying hard again not to scream at them, she told them that all she felt was pain in her head and that she thought that she was sick with it. Even being drugged up didn’t help at all when it came to her being able to answer questions. But the one that kept coming around was the one about her legs.

Closing her eyes once she felt the stabilization of herself, she saw the lights and people in increments of too much light in her eyes. They didn’t ask her any more questions, but they did talk around her. At some point, someone did ask her if she had any next of kin and all she could think about was her friend Cullen Dixon. He’d been her best friend since they’d met about ten or so years ago and hadn’t been able to be anything more than friends. The date had turned into several over the next few years, and she was forever happy to drop whatever she was doing just to be around the nicest man she’d ever met.

Cullen had been there for her when her dad died. When her cat, older than any other feline that she knew, had passed away in her sleep at the ripe old age of seventeen, he’d seen her through that. She’d been there for him too when he’d come home from being out of the country—all she ever knew about his job and that he might need someone to hang out with and was his sounding board when he would open up about how things were messed up everywhere and that he didn’t much care for people, with the exception of her.

He never told her about his big family. She knew that he had one. It had been in all the papers when they’d first met about how this unsung hero was one of six children to his parents and grandparents as well. There was more about him when Amy, sister of Jamie, the president, was found, and since then, there had been plenty of articles about his family that she felt like she could point each of them out and be correct about them.

She wasn’t entirely sure if anyone had been able to get in touch with him, but she hoped that he’d not mind that she’d put him as her next of kin, the only person that she truly trusted when she was hurt. Knowing him the way that she did, he’d more than likely tell them to pull the plug, if there had been one, so that she’d not be a bother. Not that she ever was to him, or so he told her, but she loved the big man more than she’d thought possible and not have any sexual thoughts about him.

Waking up once more, just before they were taking her to surgery, she saw him there. He was her knight in shining armor again and she wanted to sob out her relief. Instead, he leaned over her and kissed her on the cheek. She was never so relived to have a friend with her than she was this friend. He was, and would be forever, her one true friend for life.

“Behave yourself. I don’t want to have to go in there and kick your butt simply because you have a break in your spine.” She nodded, not entirely sure what he was talking about. “I love you, Dee-Dee.”

He was the only person that called her that. The only man who had seen her naked, too. It had been a date, their first one, when she’d spilled wine all over her dress too close to a flame, and both she and the dress caught fire. He jerked her clothing off so quickly that she didn’t think a thing about it until later. He took off his jacket and helped her put it on before anyone was the wiser on what had just happened. Dee couldn’t believe how many times he’d come to her rescue and never once held it over her head.

Dee swam up from the deep water to be able to see. Someone was talking, not to her, she realized, but talking in the room. Not sure what was going on, only just remembering that she’d been hurt, she tried to pull the things off her face so that she could see, but she couldn’t lift her hands up no matter how hard she tried. The hand on face pulled the mask on her face gently but firmly away, and she knew better on some level not to fight.

“You’re going to be fine. I have you.” She didn’t know the voice. Or she didn’t know if she knew the voice. Almost as soon as she was told again to behave, she was exhausted and in pain in her head again. “They’re giving you something for it now, baby girl. Just let it take you under, and we’ll talk when you’re awake and feeling better.”

Floating away again, she tried to focus on the voice, but it kept fleeting away. Letting the pain medication or whatever it was take effect, she was down again before she could find out if Cullen had left her again.

~*~

“Just how sure are you?” His brother just looked at him with a cocked brow. “I don’t mean to question your word, but we’ve been friends since what seems like forever. And you never mentioned it before.”