Aurora - Blood Moon Epilogue

Watson felt a presence loom over him. Looking up, he found a stunning young woman on the far side of the table, a total stranger, sizing him up with a challenging eye. His startled gaze settled on a snippet of scarring "Jeeee-sus Christ!" he exclaimed, clutching his heart. "Penny? Penny where are you? Come and get a load of this little hornbag."

Penny stifled a bashful smile. "What do you think?"

Gone were the baggy-assed jeans and the formless fawn shirt. In their place a short, two-layer floral-print skirt, red flowers on black. And a white, midriff, button-up cardigan, with a single button secured over her breastbone, the sternal scar visible above and below. And underneath, just a glimpse of lacy, violet, half-cup bra. Watson pointed. "I can... I can... I can see your bellybutton."

"Do you like it?" she asked, tucking her hair behind an ear.

Now he looked, the old man saw she was wearing a lick of red lipstick. "Like it? Seriously, Pen. You look frikken' sensational."

"Honestly?"

"Want me to swear on it?"

Penny sat. "The girl in the shop said I looked gorgeous. A sweet little Pakky. She said don't go near the road or I might go stopping the traffic."

"Well, that young lady knows what she's talking about." His eyes settled on the 2 paper shopping bags beside her. "Is that the stuff from home depot?"

"I bought some shorts and stuff." she said, handing one bag over. "And this is my old clobber. I won't be needing these."

Watson looked inside, to find her Bee Happy undies bundled up with the rest of the castoffs. "For me?" he cried, ferreting the briefs from the bag and balling them in his fist. "Penny, you shouldn't have."

Penny craned her neck to see. "My knickers? Seriously?"

"Can I?"

"What?"

"Keep them of course."

Penny turned up her nose. "What for?"

'So I can add them to the collection.' Watson thought. "As a memento."

Penny's cheeks pinked. "There's some dried up... you know what... in the crotch."

Watson buried his nose in the fabric. "Mmmm... MM! They smell like you."

"Stop it!" Penny scolded, loving every minute. She looked around. "Wanna bounce? I can take my sushi with me. This place is giving me the creeps."

Watson fondled his lap, rearranging the uprising in his shorts. "Once the swelling goes down."

"Oh." Penny frowned, then arched her eyebrows with a smile. "Oh? Really?"

"You're a bad influence."

She winked. "When we get back to the car, I'll show you my new knickers."

Watson grit his teeth. "Yeah... nahh... that's not helping."

Penny fell silent, looking around. "Next stop home." she sighed, eying the escape route.

The old man's blood pressure slumped. "Well that did the trick."

"What did?"

"Never mind. Shall we go?"

******************************************************************************************

They pulled into a picturesque village near Lincoln. The phone rang several times during the journey, Penny's parents, but she couldn't bring herself to pick up, sick with dread about what lay in store. Watson held his tongue while Penny messaged instead, blaming poor reception but saying she was on her way. Turning into her street, they idled between rows of red brick bungalows, past green lawns and well-kept gardens. As they drew near to one of the cookie cutter dwellings, they found it festooned with heart-shaped balloons and a foil helium unicorn. Penny cursed. "Fuck!"

"Hey. Is that your old-"

"Drive!" she snapped, slumped low in her seat. "Drive!"

Heaving a sigh, Watson, carried on past a 60-something year old man, and his frumpy wife, waiting expectantly on the driveway by the road. "You get one practice run." he said, picking up speed.

"I can't do it." Penny cried, face in her hands.

"Million bucks says you can."

"Can't."

"Can. And will." Carrying on around the crescent, he finished the lap and entered her street. "Deep breath, Penny."

"Oh, Damon."

"Come on, Pen. Let's rip that bloody bandaid off. Ready?"

Penny's parents exchanged a puzzled glance as the big flash car pulled up outside the house. Shutting down, an old geezer climbed out and walked purposefully around to the passenger door. "Sweetheart?" he said, taking Penny's hand, "You're home."

Penny's knees buckled when she tried to stand. Supporting her weight, Watson turned at the sound of running footsteps and she was torn from his arms, into the embrace of her crying parents. A neighbour appeared, making a cautious approach, and Watson set off to intercept. "Is that young Penny?" an elderly gentleman asked. Watson nodded and the neighbour wiped his eyes. "Well, I better leave them be. God bless you mate. Just tell her we're so happy to have her back home."

A door opened in the neighbouring bungalow. Two faces appeared, one above the other, and with a quick thumb's up just as quickly withdrew. Coming up for air, Penny's mother pushed her back. "Darling girl," she cried, hand to her mouth, "what have they done to you?"

Penny followed her mother's horrified gaze to the scars on her legs. "Oh, Mum! It's just a few scratches."

"Oh my god! They're everywhere!"

"Mum. That's not what's important."

"Don't badger the girl." Penny's father said, wiping his eyes. "She's home. That's all that counts." Pocketing the handkerchief, he looked at Watson as if seeing him for the very first time. "And who might you be?"

Penny cut in before Watson could answer. "Mum. Dad. This is Damon. He's the man who saved me."

"Well," Watson demurred as Penny's father treated him to a two-handed shake, "I was really just part of a team."

"Damon." Penny said. "My mum and dad, Dale and Betty."

"SAS?" Penny's father asked and Watson tilted his head.

"Pardon?"

"Ex-SAS are you? Hostage rescue?"

"Me? No. I'm an unemployed writer. And scaly old yachtie."

"Then what does Penny mean you saved her?"

"Mum." Penny said wearily, "Dad. It's a long story."

Dale pulled his daughter in for a hug. "You have got some explaining to do young lady. Let's go inside. Mum has something she wants to show you."

Watson hung back, hoping to be forgotten while the trio set off, until Penny doubled back, taking his hand. "Damon? Please."

Penny's father led the way, into a living room as neat as a pin, down a short hallway, where Penny's mother opened a door and stood aside. "Your bedrooms exactly the way you left it." her father said, once again dabbing his eyes. Dragging Watson behind her, Penny stepped into the beloved space, her room from early childhood, and the last bed she slept in before Ab Aldafra. She turned on the spot, inundated by memories, while Watson took in the essence of her younger self.

"Daisies." her mother said reverently, nodding at the pillows on Penny's double bed. Penny picked up a ring of bright-yellow flowers, each stem threaded through the other.

"Remember how you used to make those bloody daisy chains?" her father carped. "And leave 'em all over the house? Dropping their petals everywhere. And guess who had to go round with the vacuum?"

Tears coursing her cheeks, Penny lifted a garland from the pillow and looped it over her head.

"There's everything you need." her mother said, "Right where you left it."

"Steven's on his way back from Norway." her father said, then looked at Watson. "Penny's little brother. The company's flying him back. Said he'd swim back if he had to, when we told him. And Katerina's on her way back from Spain."

"And some of the neighbours want to drop by." her mother cut in.

Penny's face fell and her father picked up the vibe. "Not right away, lass. When you've got your feet back under you. And you, Mister..."

Watson cleared his throat. "Damon. Just call me Damon."

"Damon. Will you be staying? For just a day or two? We can make up a bed in the study."

"No, no." Watson said, raising his hands. "I don't want to put you to any trouble."

"Oh, it's no trouble." Penny's mother said, a requisite courtesy but nothing more. They needed time with their daughter, alone, to start the healing, and everyone knew it.

"I'd love to, really." Watson said, "but I've got half a dozen balls in the air. There's still lots to do."

Penny took his hands, her eyes beseeching. "You're not going are you?"

"Swee... Sorry, Pen, I'd love to hang round. But with all the ... you know... the stuff I have to do. With the... umm... admin and stuff."

"You sure?" Penny's father asked, desperately hoping he'd go.

"At least stay for dinner." Betty pitched in.

"No, really," Watson said, backing out. "I might push on. I thought I might hook up to Scotland for a while. See if I can't catch Nessie. There's an aquarium back home offering a reward."

Penny gave his hands a plaintive shake. "Please, Damon..."

"Pen? Let's go and grab your stuff. Dale." he nodded. "Betty."

"Mum?" Penny said, "Dad? Can you give me a moment?"

Her parents stood aside, looking stricken, watching Penny walk out clutching Watson's arm. Bad enough she'd turned up with somebody's granddad, but she seemed somehow attached to the strange old man.

"Please don't abandon me." Penny pleaded the second they were out of earshot.

"I'm the one who DIDN'T abandon you, if you recall."

"I mean don't make me do this on my own."

"Do what?" Watson asked, non-plussed. "We've already done it. You're home."

"But I've still go to tell them."

"Tell them what?" he frowned, lifting the Range Rover's tailgate.

"What I did."

"The Russian?" Watson said and Penny gave a nod. "Why tell them?"

"Why? They're my parents, Damon, that's why. I owe them."

"I thought we'd been through this. You owe them, sure, but you don't have to tell them."

"You want me to lie?"

Watson dragged her meagre luggage to the edge. "No. Just omit."

"That's exactly the same thing."

Watson shook his head. "No. It's not."

Penny stood wringing her hands. "What if they find out? What I did?"

"Bah!" Watson scoffed. "Who's gonna tell them?"

"The truth always gets out."

"Is that so? So what did they get up to, when they were your age? Hmm? And your dad was in the military? I bet he was a scallywag when he went overseas. There are things they did that you'll never, ever know about. And nor should you."

"What do I do? Just make shit up?"

Watson bundled the bag in her arms. "You don't have to. Eat, drink and be merry, while you keep 'em on the edge of their seats. I mean, what a ripping yarn you've got, Sweetheart. A little feral Aussies, busting you out in a stolen helicopter. Blasting out of Ab Aldafra in a hijacked jet. Dog-fighting a murderous prince. Let's face it. It's hardly your usual old travelogue"

Penny dropped her baggage and pulled the old man into a crushing embrace. "I don't want to let you go."

Movement caught his eye, and Watson glimpsed her parents, watching the exchange through the living room window. "No-one's letting anyone go." he said, gently breaking away. "To the contrary. You're back home, safe and sound in your parents' loving arms. Something, according to Ally, you swore black and blue was totally impossible."

Defeated, assuaged, resigned, reassured- it changed from instant to instant- Penny bent to pick up her luggage. Watson looked down the front of her pretty white cardigan, at her sweet, little, down-hanging breasts, quivering in their cradles of sheer violet lace. And the scar, running down the midline of her sternum, little bumps visible over the surgical repairs. A wave of adoration crashed over him, then withdrew, leaving the jetsam of unrequited desire strewn all over the beach. Tossing her hair back, Penny looked him in the eye. "And If I need you?"

Watson looked around uncomfortably. Truth be known, against his better judgment, he had fallen for the girl. But then he always did. "It's a small world, Pennykins, though I wouldn't want to paint it. Don't worry, Sweetheart. I won't be far."

******************************************************************************************

The phone rang and with unprecedented haste, Watson snatched it off the bedside bureau. "Moosh?"

"Dommy?"

The old man fell back, hand on his forehead, heart pounding with relief. "So you are still talking to me?"

"'Sup?"

"I've been ringing you for ages. Don't they have phones on the planet you were on?"

"Sorry, Dommy, it's been a frantic few days."

"Seriously. I figured some handsome prince must have swept you off your feet."

"Prince?" Beck said and threw off a shudder. "Brrr.... I've sort of gone off princes all of a sudden."

"Well, where have you been? I must have called you twenty bloody times. I've been so worried I almost look sixty."

"You ARE almost sixty."

"That's not the point. And what about Tan? Is she not talking to me either?"

"Tan's not talking to anyone, Dommy. It was horrible, you should have seen it. Her mum dying. And the hospital wanting to cut her up, as if weapons-grade dementia wasn't enough to kill her. Not to mention a broken hip. And all that alcohol on top of her meds."

"Why were they so determined?"

"Money, what do you think? Posh private hospital. The longer they had her, the more they would make. So Roger hired some goons and turned up with a court order. And Ally. Well, you can just imagine how she handled it."

"Or you for that matter."

"Not me. I had to leave. Drag the Global out and get it up and running."

"The Global? But you're not rated to fly it."

"Pffft! Rated-schmated. Private operation. Who's gonna check?"

Watson palmed his forehead. "And just when I thought things could get any weirder."

"Really, Dommy, you ought to know better. I mean, there I was, minding my own business, sitting in a stolen billionaire's jet. And up roars a van with four or five big burly blokes, and they open up the doors and drag out this coffin. But it won't fit through the Global's door and the cops have just turned up. And that nice Mister Worthington is trying to hold them off, while Roger's on the phone to the prime minister or someone. Then some guy pulls out a Leatherman and off come all the handles, and the coffin just fits, stood on one end and turned on its edge with Tanya's poor old mum rattling around inside. And there's Ally in the right-hand seat, all hot and bothered after a punch up at the hospital, furiously trying to read the expanded checklist. Meanwhile Aisha's on the warpath, asking for her gun, saying she can sort this out in two minutes flat. And the girls are out there haranguing the poor old cops, one in Spanish, one in Vietnamese, like two stroppy chipmunks fighting over a nut. Then Roger weighs in, trying to settle things down, while Tanya drags the girls away before they both get arrested. And tower's in our ear, threatening to cancel our clearance, and we nearly run over the cops taxying out. And we're still trying to work out how to fly this thing, all the way to Paris, and when we got there, that's when things really got weird."

Watson lay back, propped up on a bolster of pillows, racked with laughter, tears in his eyes. "There's not too many people who could say that"

The old man could almost picture Beck, studying her nails. "Tell me about it. Really, Dommy, you couldn't make this shit up. Just lucky Suong is so fluent in French or we'd still be there. Anyway, I'm sorry, Dommy, I just didn't have the headspace. Let alone the time to call, or even message. It felt like Ab Aldafra all over again, Ab Aldafra with coffee and croissants. Do you hate me now?"

"Oh, Moosh. You sirry irriot. Of course not."

They fell silent for a moment, listening to the sound of the ether, neither wanting to broach the matter. "So," Beck asked, "where are you now?"

"The Cairngorms." Watson grated, stretching. "In a hiking lodge."

"The what's?"

"Cairngorms. A bunch of hills in a national park. I've been doing some bushwalks."

"Oh..." Beck said and paused, as if steeling herself. "With Penny?"

"Penny's gone home." Watson said blithely, relishing the big reveal.

Beck sucked a breath. "Home?"

"To her mum and dad."

"Penny?"

"Penny."

"The same Penny who said she'd rather die than ever face her parents?"

"Let me check." Watson said, looking around. "Yep. That one."

Beck exhaled down the phone. "Damon bloody Watson."

"Rebekah, Queen of Ab Aldafra bloody Watson."

"You've done it again you dirty old man. You just wait till I tell the others."

"Mmmm... yeah... well. I'd rather you didn't."

"Why not? It was my idea. I damned-well own it."

Watson's jaw dropped. "Yours? I thought Tan..."

"No. It was me. I mean, Tan might have thought of it, true, but I gave it a voice and that's what counts. So there, I'll tell who I like. But just how the fuck did you manage to pull it off, pun intended."

"Well, there's not much to tell to be honest." Watson lied. "She just needed a little bit of a breather, some space to sit back and reset. And the farmhouse was lovely, tell Tan. We had everything we could have asked for. Champers, weed, a fridge full of gourmet food. It even came with its own headless ghost."

"Goat?"

"Ghost. Plus storms laid-on and the coast was just superb."

"Riiiiight." Beck said, utterly unconvinced. "But you bonked her?"

"A gentleman never tells."

"I'll take that as a 'yes'. So. Now you've worked your magic with ANOTHER damsel in distress, are you coming home?"

"Home? Where?"

"To me."

"Well, if I had any idea where you were."

"We've all moved into a lovely place in the country. A mate of Byron Bragg's, I'll text the address. Mister Worthington said our paperwork should be ready next a week. Then we can all go home, back to Australia. You know Caddy and Maya are here?"

Watson rolled his eyes. Beck, Ally, Cassandra and Suong. Tanya, Caddy and Maya. He'd be lucky to escape with his life. "Is Roger there?"

"He's gone to Rome... something about owls... and Vicky's gone with him. Come back, Dommy, we need you. That poor old double dildo has his tongue hanging out."

"Gee.." Watson said dryly, while his blood pressure took a sudden surge south, "if that's not an offer too good to refuse."

"As long as I'm first."

"You'll always be first, Moosh. In everything. I was gonna do a day-walk, but bugger that. Give me a minute to pack and I'm on my way."

No sooner had he cut the call than the phone rang again. Beck calling back, he figured. She'd obviously forgotten something. "Moosh?"

A breathy voice said, "Damon?"

"Penny?"

"Damon. I... You... How are you?"

"Penny? What's up?"

"I was just wondering where you were?"

"Me?" Watson looked around. "Umm... I'm up in the Cairngorms. It's a national park up in Scot..."

"I know where it is." Penny said a tad petulantly. There followed a pause, as if she were weighing her options. "Look. Feel free to say 'no', but is there any chance of picking me up?"

Watson shook his head in fleeting confusion. "Pick you up? Where from?"

"Mum and Dad's."

"But... you only just got there."

"Three days ago, Damon."

"After five years away?"

"Look. Damon. I... they... My poor parents are pretty cut up. About what happened, Dad especially. He's blaming himself for not saving me."

"But... three days, Pen."

"Pleeeease, Damon? Just to give them some space. A week or two, that's all I need."

Watson sensed an ulterior motive heavy breathing down an extension. "Well... look... I'm actually about to head back to London."

"London? What for?"

"To meet up with the others."

"Well... can I go with you?"

"To London?"

"Just to see the gang. And to kneel down in front of Alana. And kiss her feet. You know, the more I think about what she did..."

"I wouldn't if I were you." Watson warned. "She's likely to snot you."

"Seriously, Damon. Can I?"

Standing naked before a full-length mirror, Watson ran a hand over his scalp. He was in good nick, no doubt about it, but things were starting to sag in spite of his efforts. Muscles wasting, skin turning to parchment. In a few short years this chapter would be over, done and dusted, his autumn years consigned to memory. "Just to give them some space?"