The Rescuer Ch. 01

Once they both checked each other a bit more closely, a few tugs here and there were needed before they could nod confidently. Hopefully the breeze would help hide how excited she had gotten, and still was. He seemed to understand her concern, but shook his head sadly.

"Believe me, I'd like to do that, more than almost anything else. But I still have responsibilities tonight. The kind that only I can do. If you're right, more than one group, including my boss, has decided to start weighing in early on the whole Trust issue. So many people want to try and influence its outcome! Or just outright destroy it! But they're doing it months sooner than I ever figured they would dare! Desperate people do desperate things, including me. I'm glad we finally met! It's been nice being around someone who truly understands the real situation, all the personal details, and what's at stake in the bigger picture. Not to mention finally talking, and playing, with someone that can keep up with me! Mentally, when it's not in French, that is! I certainly didn't mean that sexually! I know I'm still just learning about all kinds of stuff! You are, and would be, a good teacher for me! I'd be honored to be your student!"

Shelly decided to show a little bit of her normally expected indignation upon receiving such a remark.

"The only reason I'm not my normal three steps ahead, of someone even like you, is that I'm a lot drunker than I normally am at work. But don't you dare underestimate Keeley! With as much time as she has been spending with her new 'friend', its been rubbing off on her! So much so it's almost frightening! These days she doesn't even need incremental steps to figure puzzles out! She just seems to leap right over any obstacles, and land on the right answer, with the most illogical and annoying timing."

He took a discrete look back at the woman in the shining green silk dress, now about halfway back to their table. The champagne bottle was easy enough for him to grab, along with her own glass. It took a lot out of his personal sense of responsibility and protectiveness, to pour her even half a glass, but he did. But he only went so far as to deliberately set them on the table they had used as a backstop, instead of handing them to her directly.

The dark eyes accepted her last warning... but it was clear to Shelly that unless something drastic happened to his plans in the next few hours... the person she was going use to break her months long sexual drought wouldn't appreciate it near as much as the simple appearing Porter would.

Nor would she truly enjoy being with any other man, at least for tonight, except for him.

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Keeley got to her chair first, but decided to keep standing up. Snagging another cookie from her abandoned plate, she looked at her blonde roommate's back, then over the shapely shoulder. She did that just in time to see the cute porter disappearing down the steps.

The gate he had just used might, or might not, have been locked behind him. Soon, she would need to find a bathroom, and she had just lost her best chance to privately ask him where the closest one was. Her boyfriend pulled out his own chair, and had sat down with a frustrated sigh, right before he thought to ask where the champagne bottle had disappeared to.

Shelly still had her back turned to them, but on their walk to their table, Keeley had seen her down whatever had been in her glass before completely refilling it. The blonde didn't even have to be asked a second time, or even turn around. She just held out the bottle, without even having to see her hand reaching for it.

Only a single drinks worth was left inside, so to keep the peace, most of it went into her Seth's glass, as Shelly finally broke her silence.

"He'll be right back. Some mishap in the kitchen, I think. My souffle didn't turn out right, or something like that. They had to remake it, a few times. You two certainly took a long time down there. Did you do or find anything interesting?"

The calm tone of Shelly's voice was at complete odds with both her stance and the set of her shoulders, but her boyfriend was too busy getting ready to grouse to notice.

"Not really. We probably should skip eating the desserts, if he's not back in a minute or so! We're almost out of time! The opening act of the blues club is something we all wanted to see. You both know that they close and lock the old opera house doors, once the music starts!"

The blonde's shoulder's shook oddly for a second, in either a sob or a barely stifled shiver of anger. Knowing Shelly's complex moods lately, Keeley decided that it could have been both simultaneously. The sharp response that they couldn't help but hear her bark out clearly, even from behind, made her sure that those two emotions had been mixed in with a myriad of others as well.

"We have at least a half hour before we have to be in the cab! But it will be a wasted trip, for you, if Walter isn't outside the front doors to greet us! Keeley told you the same thing, right before we left our apartment! Even on a busy night, the drive that direction should be quick! There is no need, yet, to rush us off again! That museum would have been nice to relax in, for at least a few more minutes! And I certainly don't really trust that you somehow made up with Walter, after that horrible scene you made at the VIP bar at work! You were banned for almost a month! Even from just coming into the parking lot, to pick Keeley up after her shifts!"

The incident had been bad enough that Keeley had found herself almost getting fired from the strip club over it. Seth still wasn't allowed inside on some nights, depending on who was the manager on duty. There were few subjects, connecting all three of them together, that could have shut him up so effectively.

Keeley eased a bit closer to her roommate, and actually managed to see the side of Shelly's face, and watch her wipe away a tear. Once caught, the blonde didn't bother to hide her hurt anymore.

Only once before had Keeley seen her so upset. Was it really only a year ago now? A couple she'd spent an entire evening teasing in the VIP room, had suddenly gotten cold feet at last call? Something about the pair had really attracted Shelly, and to have them reject her offer to come straight home with them after her shift? That was the last time Keeley had actually seen her crying.

Even when Shelly had showed up unexpectedly at her front door a few months ago... bruised and battered after two weeks of being mysteriously missing from work... not a single tear had been shed.

The young dark haired porter, that had made Shelly laugh so easily? And had tried to so desperately to keep up and flirt right back with her? He'd somehow had found the inner strength to reject an offer of taking her home, too?

Not trusting herself to pick out the right words, a soft hidden squeeze of the blonde's hand seemed the right way to use the sudden silence on the bridge. Right before she tried to let go, Shelly gripped her fingers so tight they almost hurt! The cute porter was carrying a huge tray up the steps, and would soon be having a world of trouble getting the gate open without dropping it.

Assuming that Shelly wouldn't want to get too close to the man that had just spurned her advances, and to give the blonde some more privacy to pull herself together, Keeley rushed over to the original gate.

The huge tray was overflowing with items, all balanced out precariously near disaster as well. By the time she had gotten to the fantastically wrought metal gate, she could see the key trembling in the fingers of his right hand. When he twisted his body around, she was just barely able to grab it, and then work it thru the artwork of a raven's outstretched wings.

When she put it in the lock, but didn't turn it, Keeley definitely got his full attention with the angry tone in her voice.

"Was there a really good reason for you to hurt my friend like that? Shelly has been thru an awful lot lately. We all have. If she said that she wanted to sleep with you, trust me, she meant it. Shelly certainly wouldn't joke about that! Especially not tonight!"

The pale face went even whiter, in sudden doubt and worry, but was absolutely speechless when it came to a response. The dark eyes were still honest though, making Keeley's decision to go ahead and turn the key much easier. He backed up and let her push the gate open for him. After he stepped thru, he nodded to her gratefully, when she closed it.

Again Keeley put the key in the lock, but when she failed to turn it right away, he finally spoke again.

"I don't think that Shelly would have told you that I refused her offer. You must know her very well, to have picked up on that. I have a girlfriend, well, someone I hope will be my girlfriend someday. Our relationship is long distance, really complicated, and very special to me. Then last month, I had two friends start teasing me, as if I was some sort of prize at a sexual carnival! I told Shelly all of that, but in the end, I think that my honest confession just made her decide to want to take me to bed even more. I guess she's not used to that? Being refused, I mean. Is she? Especially given the club she works at? Don't you worry? About being so close to her every day? I mean, given her reputation for unwise sexual escapades? What about her hanging around your boyfriend? Or spending too much time with her, yourself?"

This time it was Keeley's turn to go white in the face.

"If you already know that much? Then you must have guessed that we share both the same apartment, profession and workplace? Are you assuming that we share a bed and a boyfriend, too? Bastard! What else did you two talk about, while I was gone? You honestly seemed interested in her, walking up the stairs, so I decided to give you both some time alone. And you decided to repay me by hurting her instead? And then insult me, too?"

Holding up the priceless key... rather carelessly in front of his eyes... seemed to reset his ability to speak properly.

"I'm s-sorry. I didn't mean anything like what you're saying I did. Believe me, if I could have agreed to take her home, I would have! I'm working here, all night, until almost sun up! You should have some idea of what lengths she would go, to convince a guy to go home with her! She tried! She really tried! Could you finally give me a hand with this thing? I'll get fired if I drop it! I sent the other two employees back downstairs, along with the second tray. I didn't want them to see Shelly upset. One of the kitchen staff is a horrible gossip! I just wanted all three of you to have some privacy! Help me! Please? Ok? The key can go into the right hand pocket of my vest. Then can you please, please, take the little platter with ceramic warmer for the chocolate ganache, and the bags of extra cookies? All right?"

Some men lied just as easily as breathing. A few, like her own boyfriend, could get away with it most of the time. Only a rare man could do that to her, convincingly, all the time.

The porter clearly wasn't any of those kinds.

But to make sure, Keeley reached between his shaking arms, and opened up his vest. As the first key went easily into his pocket, at the same time she drew out the second one, from the left hand side of his uniform.

"I just knew there was a second key! I think that I'll keep a hold of this one, for a little bit, at least until you can explain yourself better? Just hold onto the tray tight, while I adjust things a little. You've certainly made a mess, trying to combine everything onto one tray! But I have to do this first!"

Either deliberately, or not, Keeley found herself hiking up the front edge of her skirt a little higher than she needed to. Then she slipped the tip of the warm metal key into the top of her stockings. Twisting the garter strap itself around the handle would make sure that it didn't fall out, or slip further down her rarely worn and costly feminine accessory.

The porter certainly looked at the bottom edge of her panties, and maybe down the front of her dress, too. But when she raised back up, his eyes were following the red welt on the inner edge of her right arm. They exchanged looks, and she knew what he was thinking. The dark eyes grew fierce and vindictive, but only for a second, before he mastered his anger.

But a further study of his whole face let her know, it was still there, and that he had only hidden his outrage and determination to do something about what he believed had happened.

"Did your boyfriend do that to you, while you were over the gate for so long?"

This time it was her that fumbled her words.

"No! It wasn't l-like that at all! Seth's not always that k-kind, with his talk, and he's getting w-worse. But if he ever touched me like that? Believe me, I can take care of myself! Very, very well! Especially against both of my roommates! Shelly knows what I would do to her, if she ever decided to sleep with my boyfriend! Or seriously hit on me! I have a reputation of my own, as if you didn't already know that! I scraped my arm when I reached thru the gate, to flip the light switch on. That's all! I just really wanted to figure out why this place is so damn familiar to me! I'd say it was just from an old dream, but it's not. I absolutely REMEMBER this place! Deep down inside, I just know it!"

They both got quiet for a few seconds, searching for the right things to say. Or more importantly what not to say. The silence dragged out for a few more seconds. Neither one of them could manage either of those impossibilities, without accidently hurting one another any more than they already just had.

The smaller heavy platter underneath the still hot stoneware pot, presumably full of the chocolate ganache, was the first thing she chose to remove. Keeley was able to rest one edge of it on her slim hip, and keep the three souffles sliding off on to the floor. The three not so small bags of cookies were next, and she managed to slip all of the folded edges underneath her fingers struggling with the heavy tray. After that, it was easy to use her free hand to slide things around on his burden. After he nodded at the new balance, it was simple for her to grab the bottle of already chilled champagne, out of the center.

It would have been easier to just gone over to the nearest of the wrought iron tables, and use it for the shuffling around, but then they might have been overheard.

Keeley decided to make sort of an apology first.

"It's pretty well known that Shelly really 'enjoys' herself sometimes at work. Most women can fake that sort of thing, and she certainly can, too. But I saw the look in her eyes a few minutes ago. Whatever you two were doing, she really loved it. I'm glad. It's been rough on her, trying to sleep in the bedroom right next to ours, as noisy as Seth and I get most nights. But I saw what was in your eyes a second ago. I have a friend who looks like that, sometimes. I actually introduced him to a woman who needed that kind of help. He didn't seem to mind, but it wasn't a fair thing to have done to him. I know that now, but it probably doesn't matter anymore. Not at least for me. He helped her, despite the pain it obviously cost him. In the end, that's all that matters, isn't it? Helping the right people... the right way... I mean! Now, that poor girl is gone, and completely out of both of our lives. But Shelly's not the first woman who you've helped, to get over the kind of thing, that brought her low enough to beg to come to live with us. Is she?"

The dark eyed man, not a boy in her mind any longer, shifted the tray gratefully off of his sore fingers, to use the palms of both of his hands to hold it. The delay gave him a few extra seconds of intense appraisal of her motives, and that in the end was all he needed to decide to open up to her.

"Some girls look for the perfect guy to get their first kiss from. Or to lose their virginity to. Or be the first guy to rebound off of, after a bad breakup. I used to tell my friend's in high school, then college, about what seemed to keep happening to me. They just all thought I was crazy. I don't know how it all started. It's just something that happens. I can kind of sense when someone has been hurt like that, and know what to do. Doesn't make any real sense. But I can't deny any more that women, scarred that way, keep dropping into my life unexpectedly. I don't know why they do, I just try to help them the best I can. Either with a shoulder to cry on, an ear that will listen, or for some? What Shelly tried to do to me, right here on the bridge."

His dark eyes didn't shy away from her this time... and Keeley made sure that her green eyes met his intense stare as calmly as she could make them... and finally they managed awkward knowing smiles at each other at the exact same time.

He blushed then coughed a bit uncomfortably, before he nodded towards the table with her impatient roommates, and that neatly avoided the need for any more explaining.

After a few trial steps, it was obvious that her heavy tray of desserts would be much easier to carry held out high and directly in front of her. When Keeley juggled the champagne bottle to get a better grip on it, and lifted it up, she just happened to catch another glimpse of the animal at the top of the right hand gate. Even though the porter had already begun to walk to the center of the bridge, she just couldn't stop staring at it.

Old pain... maybe the oldest she could ever remember... began flooding thru her body.

Her eyes closed all by themselves, as she tried to shut those horrible memories out, wishing that she had truly safe place to run and get away from it.

A soft voice, but not the one she was hoping to hear again at the club this Sunday night, whispered in her ear gently. Knowingly. Apologetically. Sincerely. His voice quickly became the kind of anchor that her favorite customer always provided her each week for the last six months.

"I'm sorry. I really am. All I can do to help you, at the moment, is to make getting thru tonight a bit easier. Ok? Just follow me. Whatever bad memories this place is bringing back, there must be some good ones, too. That means it's important for you to calm down, and truly believe that there is a very beneficial reason for it all getting stirred back up. Let the painful part of it go. Please? Only then can the good part come back to you. When it's ready, and you are. I promise that will happen for you tonight. Now come along. One foot after the other. There you go. See? It'll all get better. Eventually. It always does."

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Shelly had just barely pulled herself together, in time to sit down as their desserts finally arrived, and along with her roommates hear the porter's explanation for the delay.

"We have a huge event that all of our restaurants are teaming up to help cater tonight, in just an hour or so. The chef for the dining cars was away, checking on the other kitchens, and the person responsible for making the souffles had some trouble. The first one got burned on top, and the second looked ok but was actually so underdone in the middle it would have been inedible. Our chef got back, just in time to catch the mistake, right as it was going out. She evidently raised a huge fuss! To make up for the delay, and prove that it could be done, the chef made three souffles, one right after another. All by herself, doing a half dozen other things, with the entire kitchen staff watching her. Since all three of her souffles turned out perfectly, while she was multi-tasking, she arranged for you to have all three. Then she added some extra treats to take with you. With her apologies."

Clearing the table of the old dishes happened very fast, as did opening up the new bottle and pouring three very full glasses of champagne. Then Keeley got some relief, and the stoneware crock was placed directly in the center of their table, using two of the extra napkins as pot holders. Then a souffle was placed in front of each seat, with the correct silverware for them. The lemon tarts went in front of the redhead just as she took her place, and the rather mundane choice of strawberry cheesecake went in front of the fuming Seth.