Patience Pt. 05

Author's Note: This will be a slow burn type of romance/drama with more emphasis on the love rather than sexy times. If you're looking for more of the sexy times this may not be your cup of tea.

End of Part IV

When I got back into bed and up to the point where I fell asleep Belle and I were on separate sides of the bed with a decent gap between us. Deeper into the night I woke up and found she was right beside me with her head on my shoulder and one of her arms draped over me on top of the blankets. I wondered whether she had done this in her sleep or had done it on purpose after I had fallen asleep. Either way it was a nice spot to be in in my book. I shut my eyes and soon drifted back off to sleep.

Part V

I woke up a few hours later still before dawn and found myself on my right side, Belle spooned in beside me, and my arm draped over her holding her close. I would have been content to stay like this for a bit, but I had to take a leak and didn't want it to be awkward when she woke up, so I slowly and gingerly got out of bed. As I detached myself from Belle she moaned and rolled over burrowing herself deeper into the covers.

I grabbed a quick shower and went about my usual morning routine that I had gotten used to since being on leave. I made a pot of coffee and listened to the super early news show on low volume. I was determining what I needed to get finished realizing that I only had 4 days of leave left. It was then a Thursday, and I was due to be back at work Monday morning. In a strange way I was going to miss the easier routine I had grown accustomed to over the past couple of weeks with Belle.

As I was going through what I wanted and needed to get done before Monday my stomach rumbled and that gave me another idea. Back during our college days, I learned that Belle loved biscuits and gravy and had even learned to make for her. I did a quick search of my food stocks and was happy to see I had the necessary ingredients.

I spent the next hour or so getting a full spread breakfast together of eggs, sausage, and the aforementioned biscuits and gravy. I made a fresh pot of coffee and laid a full plate and cup of coffee on the tray table Belle had used to serve me on the night before. I carried the tray table into the bedroom where small streams of sunlight were beginning to stream through the windows. I set the tray down on my dresser and opened the blinds a little more to let in a bit more light.

Turning to the bed I noticed Belle had rolled completely to my side of the bed. She was laying on my pillow on her left side. I almost didn't want to wake her up, but also didn't want the food to get cold. In a mirror gesture of how she had woken me up less than 24 hours before I rubbed my hand on her exposed cheek. The move only half worked initially as she murmured/moaned under my touch and nuzzled into my hand. After a few seconds of this she finally opened her eyes and looked up at me.

I grinned at her and said, "Hi Love, I've got something for you."

Still a bit groggy she said, "What is it?"

"Sit up and I'll get it for you." I told her.

She pushed herself up into a sitting position while I turned and grabbed the tray and set it down in front of her. She took a second to get the sleep out of her eyes and then the looked at what I had put in front of her. Her eyes grew bigger than saucers as she saw exactly what I gave her.

"Oh my god biscuits and gravy! It's been so long since I've had that. You remembered! Oh my god thank you thank you!" she almost screamed in excitement eyeing the plate in front of her.

I grinned back at her and said, "Well it's not meant to be stared at Love."

She gave me a mock scowl before saying, "Don't be cute." but quickly grabbed a fork and dug in. After she dug in, I grabbed my own plate and sat down on the bed facing her and dug in myself. It had been years since I had sausage gravy and I was glad to know I hadn't lost my touch.

"Is it good?" I asked her as she continued to eat.

After another mouthful and a swallow of coffee she answered with a big smile, "Oh my god yes. I haven't had this in so long. Probably the last time you made it for me. Thank you!"

"It's been years since I've made it. It's good to know I haven't lost my touch." I told her.

Once we finished, I put all the dishes on the tray table she was using and cleared it off the bed. As I did Belle looked at me with a big smile and said, "Oh my god that was too good. Thank you."

I returned the smile and said, "Hey it's the least I can do since you nursed me yesterday. If not for you insisting I rest I'd probably still be coughing and sneezing."

"Oh, I had almost forgotten about that." she said a little surprised. "So, you're feeling better?"

"Still a touch nasally but overall, in pretty good shape thanks to you." I replied.

***

A couple of hours later I was in back in the lab working when the phone rang. I looked down and saw it was the Admiral calling.

I picked up the phone saying, "Admiral. What can I do for you sir?"

The Admiral's deep baritone voice filtered through the phone, "Well Lad I've got some news you might like. Whether by luck or divine design my accounting manager put in his two week notice yesterday. I have to post the job and interview all applicants to be fair, but if your friend is as good as you say she is and can put her current situation to bed I don't see how she wouldn't be a perfect fit for us here."

"Oh wow, that's definitely good news. What do we do now?" I asked.

"The job will be posted on indeed and the Institue website within the next 24 hours. She'll need to apply and submit a copy of her resume for HR and I to look at. After that we'll schedule an interview." the Admiral told me.

"I'll get her on it today." I said.

"What exactly is her experience with accounting?" the Admiral asked next.

"I'm not entirely sure to be honest with you. She has an undergraduate degree in accounting from the same school I went to. We graduated the same year, and she began working the same year I joined the Navy. Hold on a second she can tell you better than I can." I replied.

I set the phone down on the desk and called out, "Hey Belle, can you come in here Love."

A few seconds later she appeared in the doorway saying, "What's up Robbie?"

"Good news Love, the Admiral says they're going to need an accounting manager at the Institute soon. He wants to know a little more about your accounting experience."

"Oh ok." she replied.

I picked up the phone and put it on speaker before saying, "Admiral, you're on speaker. Belle is here now, and she can answer your questions."

The Admiral's voice piped through the loudspeaker, "Well my dear if you could give me a quick rundown of your accounting work that would be a great help to me. We can get more information from your resume and interview, but a brief glimpse now would really help."

Belle took the phone in her hand and sat down on the sofa before giving the Admiral a cliff notes version of her accounting work for the past decade or so. She initially sounded a little nervous but quickly loosened up under the Admiral's gentle questioning.

After his questions were answered the Admiral said, "Well my dear you sound like an excellent candidate. Like I told Robert the job will be posted within the next 24 hours. Submit an application and copy of your resume and we'll schedule a formal interview. While I can't make any promises, I know Robert wouldn't recommend just any old body."

"We'll get that to you ASAP Admiral." I said.

"Yes sir, thank you for considering me." Belle said right after.

"Of course, my dear. I look forward to talking with you again soon." the Admiral replied. "Robert if I could steal a few more minutes of your time, I would appreciate it. A couple of other things I'd like to discuss."

"Of course, Admiral." I said while indicating to Belle she could leave. Once she had stepped out of the lab, I turned the speaker phone off and put it back to my ear before saying, "What can I do for you sir?"

"It sounds like I've got an accounting manager lined up, but I still need a good person to run my intelligence analysis department. Have you given any thought to joining me yourself?" the Admiral said.

"I have sir. If I can make it work with my responsibilities at SBI I'd love to be a consultant for you. I'll have to talk to the chief when I got back to work on Monday. Full time I'm not sure about at this time. As you said you're still getting off the ground good, so I'm not sure if I'm ready to gamble a state job on a brand new Insititute." I replied.

"I can understand that Lad." the Admiral said. "Any help you can give us will be appreciated, and if you change your mind later, I'm sure we could figure something out."

"Of course, sir, thank you." I said.

"One more thing." the Admiral said his voice going a little softer. "How are things going with you and Belle?"

Lowering my voice to make sure it didn't carry outside the lab I said, "I think you might be right. Something is changing between us. I can only speak for myself, but I definitely think there's getting to be a romantic tension between us that was never there before."

"Sounds like she's coming around Lad." the Admiral replied. "Just keep doing what you've already been doing, and I wouldn't be surprised if things don't turn out great for both of you."

"I think you're right Admiral, thank you." I told him.

"Of course, Lad." the Admiral said. "Well, I'd love to keep chatting, but I've got other calls to make and other things to handle but keep me informed. And if you ever need to talk, you know I'm available."

"Thanks Admiral I appreciate it. I'm going to get Belle on that application today and we'll let you know when its in." I said.

The Admiral and I said our goodbyes and I hung the phone up. I stood up and stretched and before I could finish the stretch my phone started to ring again. I looked down and saw that it was Joe.

I picked it up and said, "Hey Joe, what's up?"

Joe's sarcasm came through the line, "Geez man I've been trying to call you for about 30 minutes now! What are you doing? On second thought never mind I don't want to know."

"Very funny." I said. "Contrary to what you seem to think I haven't been sitting around here just waiting for you to call. I've got other things going on besides trying to sort through all this junk you sent me. I was talking to the Admiral if you must know. He was telling me about a potential job for Belle at the Institute."

"Don't tell me you're thinking of defecting too." Joe said.

"Keep giving me hell like this and I'll consider it." I shot back.

"Speaking of what I sent you have you been able to make anything out of it?" Joe asked.

"Yeah, a little bit. I'm a bit behind though I've really got to double down today and probably tomorrow to get it done by the weekend. I wasn't feeling good yesterday afternoon, so I ended up not getting much done." I told him.

"I thought you sounded a little nasally." Joe said. "What happened?"

"Well Belle and I were working outside yesterday morning, and we got into a bit of a water fight washing the Denali. Coming into air-conditioned air wet from being outside in the heat was apparently too much for me. I ended up with a bit of a cold. Belle insisted I rest when I told her I wasn't feeling good and was kind enough to take care of me." I told Joe.

The sarcasm was back in Joe's voice as he said, "Oh so that's what you two have been up to."

"Shut up Joe." I shot back but couldn't help but chuckle a little.

"Hey, all jokes aside it sounds like you two are getting quite cozy together." Joe said.

"Yeah, we've gotten into a good routine here. I have to admit I almost don't want to go back to work on Monday." I told him.

"How's she doing after her bender the other day?" Joe asked.

"Thankfully a good night's sleep, a few bottles of Gatorade, and the massage skills I learned in the far east pulled her through it pretty quick." I replied.

"Massage?" Joe asked.

"Yeah, I was working in my lab the afternoon after her bender, and she surprised me with a cup of coffee." I told Joe. "I asked her how she was feeling, and she said just a bit sore. It was strange, because I hadn't thought about Suki or what she had taught me in years, but all of a sudden it came back to me and instinctively I had her sit still and worked the pain out of her neck, back, and shoulders."

With a chuckle Joe said, "Damn man you're spoiling her."

"I think we're spoiling each other." I replied.

Changing the subject Joe asked, "Hey I wanted to ask you if you were going to be at the kickball game on Saturday?"

"Oh, damn I had forgotten about that. I'd glad you reminded me. I definitely want to be there." I replied.

Pulling his sarcasm out again Joe said, "Hey you better check with the wife about that. She may have other plans for you."

"Ha ha very funny." I said. "She'd probably get a kick out of me trying to be athletic."

Joe chucked at my self-deprecation and added, "Hey you're better than Cramer, that dude is slower than pondwater."

I laughed before saying, "You're right about that."

"Well, I've got to get off here. A got a couple of site visits this afternoon. I mainly wanted to see how you were coming with that stuff I sent and how you and Belle were." Joe then said.

"I'm going to try to get through the first half by the end of today and get the rest done tomorrow and get it all sent back to you." I told him.

"Ok sounds good," Joe said. "Alright man I hope to see you Saturday or if not definitely Monday morning."

"Take it easy Joe." I said and we both hung up.

***

After getting off the phone with Joe I spent the afternoon going back and forth between helping Belle getting her resume updated and polished a bit and the work I needed to get done for SBI.

After 5:00 it was time to call it a day and we left the lab and ended up on my back deck since heat had simmered down a bit from the prior couple of days. It was then that I remembered the kickball game.

"Oh, I almost forgot. SBI staff is having a kickball game Saturday morning. If you're interested, you can come watch me try to be an athlete."

"Oh ok." she said. "That sounds like fun."

"It's always a bit amusing trying to watch a bunch of desk jockeys and nerds try to be athletic." I said with a chuckle. "But it also helps build team comradery and helps blow off steam. We try do it several times a year during the warm seasons."

We shared a collective giggle before Belle said, "You go back to work Monday, right?"

"Yeah."

"What will we do if I have to go interview at the Institute? You'll need the Denali, right?" Belle asked.

"We'll worry about that when the time comes." I told her. "I might be able to requisition a Bureau car, or I can get Joe to give me a ride. That does remind me though, I need to call Pete tomorrow and see if he's had any luck finding a good used engine for the Denali. I'd rather you not have to drive that thing any real distance being in the shape that it is."

"Where is the Institute exactly?" Belle asked curiously.

"In the outskirts of Portsmouth, a little over an hour from here." I told her. "I don't think the Admiral wanted to be too far from the water. He's still a sailor after all."

"I really hope I get this job." Belle said a bit pensively. "It'll really help me to start rebuilding my life and put some of the bad choices I've made behind me."

"I don't think you'll have a problem." I told her. "The Admiral said you're just about a shoe in for it."

"I hope you're right." she said. "It would be nice for something to go right for me for once. The last couple of years have been nothing but bad turns."

Sensing the time was right I decided to say what had been on my mind for the better part of 15 years. "You're about as smart as they come and when you put your mind to something you're just about guaranteed to succeed. Your problem is you get with the wrong people who either use and abuse you or drag you down."

A thoughtful yet sad look crossed Belle's face as she took in what I said. She sat still for a moment before saying, "I know. I don't know what my problem is. I always end up latching myself to the wrong people. You're probably the only person outside my family that's never used me or gotten me into some kind of mess or both. And even my family keeps me at arm's length for the most part now. I think they've gotten tired my situation. Last time I talked to my sister she said I had horrible taste in men."

"Well, I won't disagree with her on that." I said plainly.

"You could have a little." Belle said sulkily.

"Hey, come on now don't beat yourself up." I told her. "Yeah, you've had some bad turns of recent, but the key is what you've learned from them and what you're going to do not to be back in that same boat." When she didn't say anything right away, I decided to go for the jugular and said, "Your biggest problem is you're drawn to bad boys who are just that. Hell, a lot of the girls you befriended weren't much better. You've got to look beyond they're rugged looks and against the grain attitude and see what they're really up to."

Clearly a bit taken aback by my bluntness she said with irritation, "That's easy for you say. You're a freaking spy."

I thought about telling her the difference between a spy and an intelligence analyst but figured that was an argument for another time. I settled for something a bit more relevant to the case I was trying to make. "You don't need to be a spy to know when someone is only using you and is using seductive charm to get what they want out of you. Some people are blessed with good looks and learn to use them to their advantage. Look back at the guys you've been with. Don't say it out loud if you don't want, but how many of those relationships ended up being just about completely one sided?"

She sighed before saying, "Just about all of them. My problem is I don't realize it until it's too late and by then they're gone leaving me holding the bag. They always start off great though. Then before I know it it's gone to hell."

"They're acting and showing their best side to lure you in. Again, they have the looks and ability to charm." I told her. "Then once you're hooked, they can get what they want from you because you believe in them. And once they have it, they're off to their next little adventure."

"There was one guy a few years ago that I was really into, and I think he really liked me too. It was great until I found out I was one of three girls he was seeing. It was devastating. For once I didn't even let him try to convince me what I had found out was wrong. I left that afternoon and stayed with Jenn until I was able to move my stuff out of his place." she said still sounding quite somber.

"I don't remember that one." I said. "I guess I was already deployed?"

"Yeah, you had been gone." she said. "You probably would have seen through him. Looking back now I know why you never really had much to say about the guys I was dating when we were in school or wanted to deal with them that much."

"The old saying goes if you have nothing good to say don't say anything at all." I said.

"I can't argue with that." Belle replied.

"Hey, we all have blind spots in certain areas." I said.

"Oh, really what are yours? And why have you never found a nice girl to settle down with?" Belle asked suddenly curious instead of somber.

I wanted to tell her the truth and say the answer to both was sitting next to me. I settled for a vague, "Years of Naval deployments and law enforcement have left me little time to try to find a partner. One of the reasons I'm so good at my job is I'm practically a workaholic." As I finished my answer, she eyed me giving me a look that told me she didn't entirely buy it. But thankfully she seemed to decide to let the matter drop for the time being.