Rings of Fire Ch. 05

"And you, child, need to stop and smell the roses. So, why don't you do like I suggested and see this week as a holiday? Relax and enjoy. Live in the moment for once. Think about it. What if Brent is right? What if the world as we know it is coming to an end? Where do you want to be? Busy working away, building your career that might not even matter soon? Or here with your daughters, me, and the man you love?"

Lauren forced her eyes away from the pleading look in her grandmother's face. "I'm here now, aren't I?" she replied defensively before she stood up, taking her plate to the table of dishes on the side. She came back to the table long enough to hug and kiss Elise. "I'll see you both later."

***

Brent and Monique had no problem locating Samuel and Daniel. They were in the emergency bunker buried over twenty feet underground. It housed not only the stocks of essential items such as flour and grain but an impressive arsenal of weapons. The likes of which made even Brent, who had learned to shoot a gun by the time he was five, more than a bit uncomfortable.

But Brent truly had lost his innocence. He had seen too many disaster zones. And he knew that if the toll Mother Nature could exact upon her pitiful creations were not enough, then the atrocities that men could enact upon one another were far worse.

While he was prepared to help any that were willing to work together to help themselves, he was not ready to leave his family or those he cared about open to attack from predators...animal or man. So, alongside bags of sugar, flour, coffee, and other sundries were grenades, rocket launchers, and fully automatic machine guns. Obtained on the black market and if that bothered his conscious, not as much as the thought of what might happen to his girls without such necessities.

"Hey, you two, how are things coming?" he asked the two best friends that had together become the heads of his security team. He never forgot to thank Fate that years ago in a bid to win some stupid Department of Defense contract his father had generously replaced his standard security team with undercover Navy SEALs.

The dark-skinned man with the natural smile and wicked sense of humor was the first to respond, "Hey, Doc, you find time to come up for air with the Missus?"

Daniel playfully slapped his friend on the side of his head, "Leave the man alone, Samuel. It ain't like you don't find time for some afternoon delight with Simone." The man turned to Monique with a smile, "Sorry, Ma'am."

Monique only laughed, "Don't worry, mon cheri. I said the same thing. Not that I would not enjoy burying my face between her tits and motorboating."

Samuel and Monique laughed and high-fived as Brent and Daniel blushed. Brent cleared his throat after a moment, "Can we please get back to business, you two?"

"Sure, Doc, whatever you say. You're the boss," Samuel joked.

Brent shook his head and turned towards Daniel, "How are things coming? Are all the planes in position? Fueled and ready to go when we give the word?"

Daniel nodded his head, "Yes, Sir. Of course, those in Europe are our biggest concern right now. Declan is channeling as much Intel as he can without breaking any laws or endangering his position, of course. But it looks like you got your family out just in time. Of course, trains, buses, and boats are still able to keep most of Europe connected."

He sighed, "But if you are right. If this is it. If other volcanos begin to erupt, especially Etna and Vesuvius, then all bets are off. No telling what chaos destruction on that scale might cause. The EU is no better prepared for such a wide-scale natural disaster than the US or anywhere else for that matter."

Brent nodded his head. It was the pitiful reality, but as omnipotent as man liked to think himself, in the end, Mother Nature held the ultimate power, to annihilate the whole species if she wished. And what few remained would be more than glad to finish the job for her if left to their own devices.

"We still don't have a clear enough timeframe to raise the alarm. But I'm hoping that once Lauren has a go at the data, we will have a better idea of what we are dealing with here."

"Smart as she is pretty then?"

Daniel punched Samuel in the ribs, "That's the man's wife, buddy."

"I'm sorry, Doc. It's just so much fun having someone to tease besides the old man here. Not that I don't enjoy his switchy ass, but damn...fresh meat," he laughed. "You have to give Simone all your birth information and hers so that she can do your charts. Though she's already decided that..."

"De stars be wif you," Daniel and Samuel keeled over laughing, and even Brent had to chuckle.

Until he looked over at Monique, he noticed her brushing her eyes with the back of her hand as she forced that fake smile wider. "Any word from Dwayne on that other matter?" he quizzed.

Samuel stopped laughing as he shook his head, "Last we heard was yesterday, right after you took off. He said that he had a lead he following up in Rosarita, but we ordered him to get Chloe, the kids, and as many of the non-essential personnel as he could to the staging area in West Virginia."

Daniel broke in, "I'm sorry, Doc. I know we may have overstepped, but those are our family. And we figured that if you were concerned enough to kidnap yours, then we needed to give ours the best chance possible."

Brent smiled in reassurance, "No, that's why I chose you two. If anything happens to me, or I am not around, you have the capability of making decisions on your own. The right ones too. As you said, I barely got Lauren and girls out of England. And when La Palma goes..."

The potential consequences of that one did not even bear thinking about. The worst destruction he had ever seen had come not from a towering volcano but normally calm, clear, warm waters. But if an earthquake had churned those waters enough to destroy whole villages, killing hundreds of thousands of people, and sweep life as they knew it away, then he did not want even to consider what a mega-tsunami might do to all those around the Atlantic Ocean.

He drew his mind away from those dark days that had become the seeds of his new world view and Regenesis. "Once they get to the cabins at the bug out zone, please have him see if he can find out anything more. Have you heard from Travis either? He was supposed to be surfing somewhere around there in Baja California."

"No, Doc, afraid not," answered Daniel.

"We tried tracing his cell phone but turned off or something. The last signal we got from it was in Rosarita too," added Samuel.

"Damned irresponsible little brat," Brent cursed as he ran his fingers through his hair.

"Do not worry, mon cheri. Travis is a big boy. I am sure he will be fine. Even if he misses the plane, he knows where we are. I am sure he will find some way of getting here," Monique put a reassuring hand on his shoulder and gave a gentle squeeze.

He shook his head as he covered her hand with his, "Thanks, Monique. I don't know what I would have done without you these past few years."

Samuel shook his head, "Doc, might I suggest you don't do that shit around your missus."

Brent tossed him a glare, "What? Lauren knows that Monique and I are friends. Have been for years. I'm sure..."

Monique broke out in giggles, "Oh, yes, my sweet naïve friend. Samuel is perfectly right, mon ami. Your wife always sees green when it comes to me."

"But..." he stammered as he shook her head.

His friend only smiled, "Oui, but Lauren does not know."

He could not hold back laughter at an oversight that explained so much of the animosity between his wife and friend. Monique had been honest with him from the beginning, so it just never occurred to him that Lauren had not figured out the score for herself. How could such an intelligent woman not have figured out the truth that was so blatantly staring her in the face?

He would, of course, have to straighten out the oversight in his own sweet time. Until then, perhaps a bit of the green-eyed monster might serve his purposes. The idea of Lauren being jealous of Monique while preposterous was more than a bit reassuring as well. After all, you were not jealous of a man you no longer cared for...someone you were using for sex. Now he just had to make his wife see the truth for herself.

Not that he had ever been any good at that.

***

The water felt refreshing as it sluiced down Lauren's body. It washed not only the dirt and dust from her skin but the bone-deep tiredness of jetlag from her mind.

But what replaced that tiredness were vivid memories of him. Brent. The way he felt when he touched her. When she touched him, all soft and hard at the same time. How he felt inside her, as if something that had been missing for years was suddenly found again. The way he smelled like coffee, sunshine, and man; and how he tasted of pure sin and salvation. His little growls of hunger and satisfaction as she touched him.

Lauren moaned as the rough washcloth brushed across her sensitive nipples. Looking down at them, she realized that her breasts were still slightly pink. She shook her head at the memory of Brent's slightly roughened face rubbing against her skin as he suckled at her. He had not shaven since hopping the plane to England and the two-day-old stubble made for a delicious addition to the symphony of sensations that he was playing on her untuned body, bringing forth music that had long been smothered, hidden beneath the cold façade of a scientist.

But there was nothing cold about Lauren at that moment. Even as the warm water washed away the remnants of their morning sex-scapade and brought a measure of relief to sore, aching muscles, her body betrayed her; calling out for more. Calling out for Brent...again.

With a grunt of displeasure and self-loathing, she turned off the water and stepped from the shower. She grabbed a towel and began drying herself. But that sensation too, the rough material against her soft skin, elicited another moan.

In some odd way, it reminded her of the feel of his calloused hands moving over her breasts, down her stomach, over her hips and thighs. She had ached for more. Hell, she had pleaded for his caress where she needed it most, between her legs.

Lauren blushed and cursed at the memory of how easily she had succumbed to Brent's touch. Then again, he had not been immune to hers either. Had he not growled and demanded her compliance at every turn? 'Don't do that...Not yet...Please.' Theirs had been a war of wants and needs with no rules of engagement. The battlefield was rife with casualties, the biggest of which was her sanity.

Stepping into the small alcove that served as a bedroom for her daughters, Lauren reached for the green duffle bag that had once been her 'go' bag. How many times had she and Brent grabbed it as they raced out the door to another natural disaster; volcanoes, earthquake, and tsunamis? These past seven years it had lain hidden in the corner of her closet. Just as her feelings for her husband had lain hidden somewhere deep inside her calculating mind.

Opening the bag, Lauren found a pair of well-loved jeans and the almost threadbare t-shirt from her final science camp. That year had not been the same. Without Brent, who was already at Cal Tech, she had found the work tedious. Exciting and challenging but annoying. There was nothing to stretch the boundaries; no one to challenge the accepted theory. It became another round of digesting and regurgitating facts.

Her fingers traced the worn emblem on the material. Even though she and Brent had remained in touch those five years when they were thousands of miles apart in distance, it had been almost lifeless mostly via email. 'As lifeless as the past seven?' Her mind betrayed her. She shook her head and refused to examine that question any further.

Reaching back into the bag, she searched for underwear. What she found brought a smile to her lips. Her grandmother's meddling crystallized as she pulled forth a frothy, convection of pink lace and silk. She had forgotten her collection of erotic underwear at the back of her dresser. For most of these past few years, there had been no reason to wear it; no one to wear it for. Digging deeper, Lauren found nothing but the same. Her simple, utilitarian garments were nowhere to be found.

But Lauren did find something else that she was looking for. Her fingers caressed the well-worn leather of her journal. Drawing it from the bag, she toyed with it on her lap for several moments. She knew that she needed to open it; confirm her scientific calculations, and relieve any remaining doubts.

But? But what if she were wrong? The thought did not bear considering.

Determination outlined in every movement of her small hands, Lauren thumbed through the crisp pages. Towards the end of the book, she found what she was looking for. Reading and re-reading it again several times, she closed the book with a sigh.

Her mind had been right. Her calculations were accurate. She was far enough past her last period that she should have ovulated days ago. There was little chance of their rash behavior that morning having any lasting consequences.

So why did she feel almost disappointed? The last thing that she needed, that they needed, was an unplanned pregnancy. This was only for a week after all. Complications like that did not bear thinking about given the divorce and this crazy, confusing situation.

And while she loved her daughters, she was too old to start over again with breastfeeding, diapers, and everything that went with it. Still, she supposed that some dreams died harder than others. How many times after Elise's birth, had she dreamt of another baby? A little boy with blonde hair and cerulean eyes.

She slammed the book shut as surely as she slammed her mind closed on that image. Picking up the scraps of lace, she donned what her grandmother thought passed as underwear. She pulled the jeans up her legs and the t-shirt over her head, tucking it into the waistband before buttoning and zipping them. Lauren found a pair of comfortable trainers in the bag and put those on as well.

There was no mirror in the room so she could not check out her appearance. She would have to assume that everything was fine. Remembering her grandmother's comment about the hickie, she fumbled inside the bag, hoping to find one of the scarfs she favored when teaching. But there was nothing even faintly resembling her work attire in the bag. Sexy lingerie, comfortable t-shirts, and jeans were the uniforms of the day for the next week it seemed.

With a shake of her wet head, she just hoped that her grandmother had been right; that the mark was virtually unnoticeable. She ran a brush through her hair, then sectioned it and braided its long lengths, securing it at the end with a Hello Kitty rubber band that she found on the dresser.

It was probably a good thing that there were no mirrors in the room, she thought as she imagined what she must look like. Sexy lace push-up bra straining thin skin-tight cotton shirt and jeans that hugged her round hips. No make-up, her hair plaited like it was when she was a schoolgirl Megan's age and a child's barrette to secure it no less. But since there did not seem to be a Wal-Mart around this place, she supposed it would have to do. It was only for a week anyway.