The Rescuer Ch. 02

Lowell was a true wild card, though, he had to admit.

That Ellie and Carissa both decided to pursue him, even knowing of his already well established affections for one of the French stars from their newest division? That had surprised everyone. But completely trusting his little triumvirate, equally, was his only hope of rooting out the very worst of the internal cancer threatening to devour his life's work from within.

Or was a second source of the most recent string of dramatic financial disasters coming from without, too?

A soft touch on his shoulder brought his focus back. He found that while his mind had been busy, he had been staring at the young French girl that looked so much like Alissa, Lowell's rumored lesbian girlfriend. Shelly certainly eclipsed her, but not by much, and the recognition of that fact finally let him speak freely again.

"If you promise not to tell anyone? Maybe even your other two Watchers? I actually had no idea that Shelly was going to be here! None! I was just as shocked as everyone else when I got the call from my cousin, acting as our doorman again tonight! That she would even dare to step out of one of those damn special tour cabs? Ludicrous! Just ludicrous! I honestly don't think that even Shelly knew that she was going to end up here! But you know what is worse, or even more lucky? They had just come from the private early showing at the art museum! Her and her old boyfriend just missed each other by only a few minutes! One short cab ride? That's all that prevented their first public meeting, from being the ONLY thing that would be written about us in the social columns on Sunday! After all the time, money and effort we've all put into tonight's extravaganza!"

Ellie seemed truly stunned! Both by the accidental nature of the near disaster, and that he had just admitted to her it's unexpected success had been no masterstroke of his own business and social maneuverings! His dark haired assistant took a deep breath of her own before speaking.

"Shelly certainly is as beautiful as they said, and seems nice enough, even talking with those two catty French women. I wonder if all those rumors about her breakup are true? Seeing her like this, in a huge crowd, I just can't imagine any of the gossipy tales being the real story."

Even as his special assistant spoke those words, the infamous blonde turned and discretely pointed across the room and at the spiral staircase entrance. Lowell and Keeley had just gotten to the little red ropes, and the two dark haired French women giggled and began whispering conspiratorially, even as Shelly abruptly took her leave of them to head towards the elevator.

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Ellie hadn't believed that the two French women who had caused such a stir all week could have possibly looked even more bitchy... but after the blonde proved that her rumored appetite for causing mayhem was real... she worriedly revised her yardstick for such behavior.

Having either Alissa or Carissa to compete with for Lowell's attentions was bad enough, she certainly didn't need any more entrants into the struggle that already meant so much to her! Especially with how good the thin redhead looked holding onto Lowell's arm. The taller woman was simply uniquely gorgeous, in the kind of way that Ellie despaired of ever being able to pull off one day.

As her fellow Watcher leaned away from that elegantly thin body, to remove the dividing rope and stood back up, a soft meaningful kiss was planted on his cheek as a farewell.

While not a sexual gesture at all, it was clearly so honest and personally heartfelt that Ellie felt herself wishing it had been merely lustful instead.

The redhead, whoever she really was, had certainly made a strong impression on the man that she desired above all others. Ellie knew that her own nature demanded that all things be catalogued and evaluated, so she tried to get a little more information about yet another potential rival for Lowell from her boss.

"Your notes on the other three of the planned VIP groups tonight was just as cryptic as usual. But your earliest dinner trio? You called one of them your own personal guest, to be given every consideration, with two anonymous friends tagging along for the ride? A young red haired woman, who you wanted all of us to give the highest level of red carpet treatment we offer? That no one was supposed to approach them during their tour? At all? Your other instructions were causing it's own unique sort of buzz, to the talk earlier, until everyone saw Shelly walk in the hotel front door! But more than a few of your employees saw how you were treating that girl, that's still leaning on Lowell's arm, when she was leaving the dining car. What should I tell my beloved co-workers, when they ask me who she really is? If I don't give them a satisfactory answer, they will just go running to Carissa later tonight! You know that they will!"

Her boss laughed, a bit nervously, before he spoke.

"Just tell them that she is the granddaughter of a distant American cousin of mine. I certainly have enough of those! The rumor mill will quickly get lost again, like they did on the last girl, trying to figure out how we're related! In a way, that's true enough, at least on the surface. I don't want that particular young woman bothered, in any way though! Any way at all! I mean that! There is too much at stake still riding on tonight! I put Lowell in charge of learning everything he could about her, just last week. I hated to add to his burdens, but it had to be handled discretely. If you hear of someone that is determinedly nosing around about the redhead, especially after the furor of having Shelly visit the buildings finally? Let me know! Right away!"

Just as she was going to ask for more details herself... an odd moment occurred... and luckily for the most part the entire crowd of people in the Market Place seemed oblivious to it.

After the redhead stepped around the rope, she froze and looked hard at the elevator doors. The third member and only male of the earliest VIP party was already inside, trying to hold open the door for Shelly, who had turned around to look back at the spiral staircase.

The three guests who had arrived to the dining cars together... were not about to leave the same way... nor at this moment did it look like they could imagine wanting to.

Even from so far away, the redhead had clearly just made a decision, and the vengeful look on the man in the elevator's face seemed to change drastically. Shelly's cruel little smile, as she stopped moving towards the angry male visitor, only made it worse. It was almost like they were at a fancy masquerade ball, and well before midnight, all three imperfect disguises had been dropped too early by accident.

The redhead was about to turn away, towards the service stairwell on that side of the room, when Lowell spoke a few words into her ear. Their impact on her was instant, and profound. Both of her hands left her sides, were clenched into fists, and then pressed tight against the narrow hips. The green eyes flashed as they bore first into the man at the elevator, and then at the startled blonde. Shelly actually flinched to see so much anger directed at her. The two French tarts balked next, actually staggered backwards at being the focus of such insatiable fury, even though it lasted only a few seconds for them.

Next, the green eyes unerringly turned and found the little perch she and her boss had chosen to occupy.

The stare the conductor received wasn't able to keep it's anger for very long, and turned sad rather quickly. By the time Ellie felt the intense gaze fix on her, she felt herself stop worrying about her own problems. They seemed like almost nothing, at least when compared with the tremendous burden the redhead was now obviously carrying.

With a final regretful nod towards her boss, the vision in the green silk dress turned and spoke a single word to Lowell. Then she walked a few steps away, before she vanished thru the simple maintenance door, that led to the back stairwell to go to the lower levels.

Lowell's own anger was frightening to behold... and the man in the elevator immediately stepped fully inside so the doors would close... so he could quickly escape the obvious rage building up in her fellow Watcher.

Shelly braved her turn as the object of Lowell's fury much better, but even her usual falsely innocent smile eventually turned into an honest one. The blonde's display of real complex emotions softened Lowell's anger, even as their infamous visitor turned and walked away, to wait for her turn to go downstairs.

The two talented French tarts had stopped their slow slither towards the spiral staircase, were now clearly at a loss about what to think about their choice of quarry. Like stunned animals, they froze, hoping that they danger they faced would be turned onto some other unlucky prey.

By the time Lowell looked directly at her, his extremely intense expression had returned to almost normal. The dark eyes no longer frightened her, and Ellie could clearly see the strain he had been under for the last few weeks dragging him down. But when she still was holding out hope for a nod? Signifying that he was going to step down and go down to the nearest kiosk, and sign-in his intention to get on one of the buses?

Her troubled and truly complicated friend only shook his head.

For the look Lowell gave to his boss... the mask Ellie hated to see most these days came back down over the cute face... and the slightly younger man she hoped to get to know so much better turned completely around and went back up the spiral staircase.

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"Ellie? It'll all be ok! Let me try and explain! Lowell told me earlier to send you his regrets about tonight. He knows that he promised you that he'd go to the museum event. But after all this mess? I don't know if he is even going to be able to leave the building by the time that party is all over and done with!"

The long dark hair shook, just as much as the pale shoulders, that were revealed by the slits cut into her unexpectedly form fitting dress. It wasn't a reaction born of anger. Just stress, worry and disappointment.

"... he's not coming... after all the work we've BOTH put into tonight... how could he... it would be his chance... to let everyone see him... for something other than what they have come to think of him... why?... why?... "

"He didn't tell me to apologize to Carissa, just you. It's not just the work he's been doing on the Lakefront project's failed bid analysis. He finished with that Thursday morning. I've been going over his final revisions of it all yesterday and today. I don't know how he did it so fast, or so well, either. The Board said their entire team would need three more weeks for their own far less accurate report, and then just today they begged me for an additional week extension? Lowell did his, by himself, in less than four days."

Ellie turned her head to look up directly into his eyes.

"But sir? If he's done with the report, why haven't I seen it? I'm still due a copy by Monday morning, right? Or is the news just that bad? Did I screw up my last-second part of that bid review, somehow? What else is Lowell doing, that is so much more important than being there at the museum's Grand Opening, for all of the official company announcements tonight?"

Everett carefully placed a hand on the soft shoulder, to help stop it shaking before he spoke.

"I've asked you to call me Everett, when it's just us. Carissa does, so does Lowell. Why don't you? Think about trying to call me by my name, will you? Please? It helps me think, and feel like I actually belong here in the States now. Ok?"

His assistant nodded but kept silent... waiting for him to try and answer her questions as best as he could... while being mindful of how little time they had left before he had to give his smaller speech to the Market Square crowd milling around below them.

"The big secret surprise for the garden event is the unveiling of a new piece of art. It's what's been going on underneath that tent in the back all week, by the new brick wall, flanked by the two largest trees in the corners. I had Lowell go over to the Artist's studio Monday morning, to go over how to help her finish disassembling it for transport. It's been held securely off site in a warehouse, and is designed to be left outdoors, permanently. Some sort of new aerated light weight plasticized concrete. She just learned how to sand cast it, and the sculpture is like nothing else she's ever done. Apparently, its a bit shocking to stand in front of, and not even the museum director has seen it? Well, other than the person that taught her how to cast her designs with the new material. And now, Lowell, of course. The steel armatures inside are supposedly unique, and terribly complicated to reassemble. The two have been working on it, from dusk to dawn, under that tent, like madmen all week! But it's finally done, and you'll get to see it when we all do. And as a surprise for you and Carissa, you'll finally get to be one of the few people in about six years, to meet the Artist in person."

The dark brown eyes blinked several times, as the brilliant young woman rapidly digested the news, and got it properly categorized in her brain. But once she had it all in place, it was interesting to hear what mattered to her most.

"You're working Lowell to death! You know that, don't you? Just because he CAN do multiple 'some things' at the same time, doesn't mean that he SHOULD always have to do it! Especially not this much all at once! He doesn't hold back anything! Especially not for himself! I don't care if he THINKS it's making him happy! It's not! It's up to US to protect him! Even if it's from himself! YOU can't keep making it worse for him! It's got to stop! Right now!"

Ellie shook even worse in the passionate defense of her friend... but she knew the pressures building up inside and outside of the company... especially with the financial crunch of all the recent stock buy backs he'd made from his own rapidly dwindling personal accounts.

The Trust and how it was finally going to be settled, just might make the difference between soaring even higher in the business world, and corporate oblivion for them all.

"Ellie, you know that I can't promise anything! Not right now! But if you can find a way to make him slow himself down? Frankly, I'd be amazed, and you have my full blessing to try! Whatever it will take! It's getting Lowell to stop adding more work onto himself, that no one is telling him to take on? That's been my problem with him since the very first day he came to work here! He's sort of like you that way. When our chance to review the second and final Lakefront bid finally came, you could have just sat at your desk and read the reports, instead of doing all those field trips yourself! You are a manager now, of sorts, and you could've delegated at least some of those visits. Or asked for volunteers. Right?"

Ellie blushed, and stayed silent for a full minute, even thought they both knew that they really didn't have that much time to waste. But the dark haired girl needed it. Only when she was sure she had the right question to ask firmly in mind, did she speak again.

"The latest rumor is saying that even after spending hundreds of thousands of dollars, sometimes tying up every single department in the company, we STILL got underbid by a mile! It wasn't even close! All Lowell, Carissa and I were allowed to do was 'review' the damn Board's final written plans. We couldn't even make suggestions! The Board of Directors said it was too late in the process to make any changes, at least before they sent out their second bid! After all three of us pointed out some glaring errors in their paperwork! They only said that they had already fixed them. And worse, to hedge their bet, the Board unjustifiably lowered the final price by another five percent! The Lakefront Homeowners Association must have loved that! We'd barely be breaking even, if there was even a single weather delay! I heard that whomever actually won the contract, underbid us by another twenty percent! And promised they would get all the construction done twenty weeks sooner? That's impossible! I oughta know! The bid process was all closed! Only the surviving finalists, from the first round of companies, were allowed to try again! We were the only business big enough on that shorter list that could possibly complete the job in less than a year! That's why the Board went all out, trying to get the contract! Who in the hell won?"

The passion Ellie had for doing her job perfectly was one of the reasons Lowell was attracted to her. But this was the sort of situation where the real answers, that would let him help her, were either all or none. Given the time left before his speech, and the need to alter the angry mood his makeshift Porter for the evening was in? Lest he continued to bitterly spiral out of control?

That made Everett plan to risk a little too much honesty... then too little... and he could only hope that Ellie didn't catch on.

"I'll go look for Lowell in a minute, and tell him to send you the link to his report file on the secure server. You three, including Carissa, did nothing wrong. It was the Board, insisting that they wanted to go it alone, and in full secrecy take on every single task ourselves. They deliberately ignored every single partner that we've developed in this town over the years. They wanted one single high profile solo company project! To do it? They had to deliberately bypass me, when they started the final bid process while I was away for those five weeks last fall! Just read Lowell's report summary, later tonight, and then glance thru his extra charts at the very end. It'll tell you enough. Just look at all the extremely creative and unique coalitions of winning competitor's names involved! What two individuals do they all have in common! Discover that and you'll probably instantly figure out what went wrong with our bid! It'd take Carissa a bit longer to reach the same conclusion though, at least all on her own, without one of her 'attendants' to do her 'homework' for her. I told Lowell the other day, that because of things like her delegating too much, that y-you two would make the b-better couple."

The deep brown eyes watered a bit in response to his honest support of her heartfelt desires, but Ellie's ears and mind were open, too. She instantly caught the slight hesitation in his voice, and the lack of focus to his eyes.

"Lying? To me? Right now? Or even just half truths? If your cousin downstairs hadn't sworn to me you got thru college, by paying for a semester at a time by winning at cards? I'd say that you never had that much of a poker face! Since we're so short of time, if your going to speak to Lowell before your speech, just say the rest. Plainly. Please. Everett? Please?"

He had to sigh, and just let the rest of the words he had to say just flow out, so he couldn't change them too much.

"I also told Lowell that while YOU suited him almost perfectly right now, that Carissa would be better for him in the long run. But only if he really wanted to be forced to change, to become a totally different man, and be made to step out into the light more. To have no choice but to lead, and learn how to use power directly. That even though most people would think standing side by side, that he and Carissa had the 'look' of the better potential couple? I didn't think that he would be happier with her. What brought the question of you two girls up? It was when Lowell asked, again, for leave to go on assignment in France. I finally told him, flat out, no. Never. That I wouldn't even consider, or allow it, not even after the Trust had been resolved. Even if he learned enough spoken French to do better than just limp by! I want him to have a real life, someday, and that by his getting any more seriously involved with a woman who already has a permanent lesbian lover? I am not a prude, but... "