The Retrieval... Ch. 01

Leah Hartsall was gone.

"Oh no...no, no, no," Jules began to mutter rapidly under her breath as she quickly walked to the corner of the little alley. Jules came to an abrupt halt as she almost ran face first into her assignment. Leah's hand planted solidly on her chest had prevented the collision.

"Calm down," Leah advised and guided the Fed gently back into the alcove by the dumpsters. "Coming down off adrenaline can be bitch, so just keep breathing...nice and easy."

"Okay," Jules said shakily. She could hear the wail of sirens off in the distance but they were getting louder.

Leah turned her head so she could continue to watch the street, but paused to check on the Fed for a moment and seemed almost embarrassed as she quickly took her hand off of the redhead's upper chest. Jules hadn't noticed where Leah's hand was either, but the tall blonde's obvious embarrassment actually made her smile a little despite their circumstances.

Jules smile quickly faded and she looked nervously up at the taller woman. "I thought you left me."

"I know," Leah nodded once as she continued to watch the traffic on the street warily. She turned to look at Jules in all seriousness, those blue eyes seemingly even brighter. "But just so you know - I would never do that."

"I..." Jules started to say automatically but as she looked deeper into the woman's eyes, she completely believed her. "Thank you."

Leah continued to stare at the Fed for another couple of seconds and then gave her that little half-smile before turning back around to watch the street. They needed to get out of this part of town so Leah could think and come up with a plan. Jules just stood there, her mind blank. She knew she should be doing something, but couldn't seem to think clearly as she kept glancing over in the direction of the police station. That part of the skyline above the little stand of trees was dark with smoke.

"Come on," Leah reached her hand out behind her and held it open for the Fed to take. "We need to keep moving."

Jules hesitated as she stared at the open hand. This was a mistake...possibly the worst mistake of her life. She was in enough trouble as it was and she knew that by taking this woman's hand it would be going against every rule and protocol she was supposed to follow. Jules should have been the one taking charge, leading the way and giving directions. This was supposed to be her job, but she could honestly say that she was scared to death right now...and for some odd reason that she really couldn't explain, she trusted this woman.

She put her hand in Leah's and they started walking.

****

It seemed to Jules like Leah dragged her all over the Queen City as they walked down backstreets, cut through the lobbies of various buildings and parking decks, backtracked, zig-zagged and moved in a random pattern for what felt like hours. The only time they stopped was when Jules suggested she should probably call into her office back in DC. That was when Leah had demanded her cell phone. After she took the battery out of it and the sim card, she handed it back to Jules and they started walking again. After another few blocks, Jules finally spoke up that her feet were out and out killing her and she had to rest. Without a word, Leah guided her for another half a block to some kind of retro diner that looked like it was straight out of the 1950's.

Leah got them situated in a booth and then starting asking questions. At first Jules was reluctant to be honest, but thinking about the way her car had burned made her finally just start from the beginning and tell this abnormally calm woman with short blonde hair everything. Jules even included a few details about the bride-to-be and the bartender even though they weren't really relevant to their current situation. She wasn't sure why she felt she needed to share that part of the story. It wasn't appropriate, but maybe she did it to gauge the reaction of the woman sitting across from her.

Leah didn't seem phased by it. She sat and listened with the same neutral expression. She asked a few questions every so often so she could clarify some detail or another, but for the most part she just listened intently. When Jules's story finally ended at the police station, Leah was having a hard time suppressing a grin.

"What?" Jules demanded. "What's so funny?"

"Nothing," Leah held her hands up in mock surrender but couldn't help the girlish giggle that escaped. "Okay, I'm sorry. It's not funny."

"Then why are you laughing at me?"

"I'm not laughingatyou," Leah corrected and giggled again. "I just got tickled is all."

"And what exactly tickled you?" Jules asked and made exaggerated air quotes with her fingers when she said the word tickled.

"It's nothing," Leah insisted and then rolled her eyes. "I just had this thought that struck me as funny."

"Oh, for Heaven's sake," an exasperated Jules threw her hands up. "Forget it, I don't want to know."

"Good idea," Leah mumbled and slid out of the booth. She announced that she was going to see about another vehicle and told Jules she'd be back as soon as she could. Before Jules could protest or insist on coming with her, Leah was gone. Jules sighed and ordered a cup of coffee. Sheesh...she wondered just how much more this assignment could not go the way she had thought it would. She sighed. She didn't think she was saving her career by any stretch of the imagination.

Two hours later, Jules was coming out of the ladies room after her fourth cup of coffee and looked up to find Leah sitting in the booth. Jules slid into the booth and looked at the blonde woman she was supposed to be escorting back to DC. Jules held her hand over her coffee cup as the waitress carrying the pot slowed down near their table. She looked at Leah steadily. "That took long enough."

"Oh...sorry about that," Leah replied as a shadow of irritation flashed across her face. "I don't know why I tend to dawdle whenever I'm out finding another vehicle for a federal agent who had her car blown up. My bad."

"I just...," Jules stopped and took a deep breath. She paused to rub her fingers into her temples. "You're right, I'm sorry. I have a headache and I think I drank too much coffee."

"Next time you should try decaf or maybe tea," Leah suggested. She turned her head and got the attention of the waitress and proceeded to order a full breakfast of eggs, bacon, toast, grits and orange juice. She looked over at Jules who just shook her head. "You should eat. We won't be stopping for a while once we get on the road."

"Fine," Jules sighed. "A bagel, please, toasted and lightly buttered."

They sat quietly until the waitress reappeared with their food and then the silence continued as they ate. Jules picked at her bagel, but Leah neatly and efficiently consumed everything on her plate until she was sopping up the last little bit of egg yolk, grits and bacon grease with her last piece of toast. After swallowing the last bite with a satisfied sigh, she drained the remains of her orange juice and then sat back with a hand on her stomach.

"Not hungry?"

"Not really," Jules shrugged. She picked up her coffee cup but set it back down without taking a drink.

"It would probably help your hangover if you ate the bagel," Leah quietly commented.

"Look," Jules leaned over the table, changing the subject. "What exactly are we supposed to be doing right now? Other than not calling my boss and not reporting what happened?"

"Shouldn't you be the one telling me what we're doing?" Leah asked. Before Jules could answer Leah continued. "I get it - you don't have a lot of experience in the field, so you really aren't sure what we should do."

Jules frowned and started to say something, but Leah held her hand up. "Its fine, I won't hold it against you. Basically, you have two options. One, you can call your office, announce your location and wait for whoever it is you work for to send the cavalry."

"Which is what I'm supposed to do," Jules nodded and then added. "But I can tell you don't like that option."

"No," Leah sat up straighter. "I don't."

"Why?"

"Well, from what you've told me," Leah explained, "you pissed off someone with some juice. Just my opinion, but I wouldn't feel real comfortable if I were you."

"I don't now...but let's say you're right," Jules replied slowly. "What's the second option?"

"Stay under the radar," Leah said simply. "Keep a very low profile and head back to DC. You said you trusted this Atwood guy, right?"

"One hundred percent," Jules confirmed. "He'll know what to do. I should call him."

"Bad idea," Leah shook her head. "You have no idea what resources some people have access to. It would scare the shit out of you if you knew what the NSA was capable of."

"You're serious?"

"Look, Agent Bradford," Leah leaned forward and put her forearms on the table. "I'm not going to tell you what to do, but I'm sure you've read my file...you know I've had a lot of experience with work like this. Once upon a time I used to do stuff like this for people in Washington. My personal opinion is you should get off the grid and stay off the grid until you can walk into Atwood's office in person and tell him your story."

"Wow," Jules slumped back in her seat. "You honestly think this is that serious?"

"Whoever's out there tried to burn you alive in your car in the parking lot of a police station," Leah shrugged. "What do you think?"

"Okay," Jules nodded almost to herself. "Okay...I guess you're right. I mean, you are right. So...what do we do?"

"We start driving," Leah replied. "Take the long way back to DC and I mean the long way. No phones, no computers, no credit cards. We pay cash for everything and use fake names when necessary."

"Wow," was all Jules could manage.

"Like I said - off the grid."

"Can I ask you a question?"

"Sure."

"Why are you so willing to help me?" Jules asked quietly. "I mean, you could have just taken off. Why did you stay?"

"I guess," Leah took a deep breath and let it out slowly, "because you need my help."

"That's..." Jules hesitated and looked puzzled before finishing, "very kind of you."

"Well, don't forget I was going to be in that car too," Leah added and looked around the restaurant. "I really don't appreciate being collateral damage."

"Oh," Jules replied with just the slightest trace of disappointment in her voice. "Yeah, I can see that."

"I also really, really don't like it when someone tries to victimize a woman," Leah added as she looked around the restaurant again and then almost mumbled, "I detest bullies."

"So what, are you like some kind of knight in shining armor or something?" Jules tried to joke. "Going around and rescuing damsels and all that."

"No," Leah said flatly and looked back at Jules with those almost disturbingly bright blue eyes. "I'm definitely not the good guy...not by a long shot."

For some reason, Jules shivered.

****

After paying their tab, the two women loaded up into the used Jeep Grand Cherokee that Leah had procured. Jules didn't bother asking where or how she got it. Jules got behind the wheel, but didn't have a clue as to Leah's strategy other than her original comment that they would be taking the "long way back to DC." Leah gave her directions to the interstate and they headed south. Again, Jules didn't say anything about the fact they were headed in the opposite direction of DC. She trusted that the tall blonde knew what she was doing as they kept driving until they were a good thirty minutes into South Carolina.

She soon found out that the long way meant going south to Columbia, South Carolina and then over to Florence before heading back up into North Carolina via Rockingham. At that point they stopped for gas and Leah took over the driving duties while Jules tried to nap. She managed to doze for a little while, but the smell of the ocean soon woke her and she realized they were almost to the coast. Shortly after waking up they stopped for gas, a restroom and a burger in Wilmington. Jules thought it would be nice to actually go down to the beach, but knew it was a silly urge and didn't have the nerve to say it out loud.

Back on the road, the day seemed to just drag on endlessly as they drove through the unbearable heat and humidity of the Carolinas. Jules was feeling marginally better from her hangover, but was bored out of her mind as her traveling companion wasn't all that talkative. It also wasn't like they were heading towards a specific destination in a straight shot. Every now and then Leah would decide they needed to detour off onto back roads just to be on the safe side. Finally, hours later, Leah pulled the Jeep into a town called Goldsboro, NC. Jules shook her head. What should have been somewhere around an eight hour trip with the normal stops for gas and restroom breaks had actually taken them eleven hours.

Both women were utterly exhausted as Leah drove around the city of Goldsboro looking for just the right place to stop for the night. Jules was a little disappointed when they passed several nice looking chain hotels and Leah finally pulled into the parking lot of a rundown looking place that proclaimed itself to be a "motor lodge" by the sign out front. When Leah put the Jeep in park and shut off the engine, Jules just sat there looking at her.

"What?" Leah finally asked.

"What - what?"

"I don't know," Leah shrugged as she opened her door and got out to stretch. "What are we waiting for?"

"Really?" Jules sighed heavily as she leaned over into the driver's seat a little so she could scowl up at Leah through the open driver's side door. "You had to pick the creepiest motel you could find?"

"Well," Leah started to explain as she leaned on top of the car door, but paused and arched an eyebrow at the Fed. It was pretty hard not to notice the lightly freckled cleavage that was practically spilling out of the redhead's blouse as she leaned over. Leah cleared her throat and looked away as she continued. "I picked a place that will probably let us pay cash with no questions asked. Not many hotels will let you book a room without a credit card."

"Oh...right," Jules finally nodded when she realized that Leah was correct. She sat up and with a sigh got out of the Jeep and followed Leah to the front office. She decided to wait outside of the cramped little front office and let Leah handle the check-in process. Jules watched through the big plate glass front window as the desk clerk handed Leah a room key and then looked up at the darkened sky as the first few raindrops were beginning to fall.

It seemed that as soon as Leah let the door to the front office close behind her the clouds just opened up as the sprinkle of raindrops quickly turned into a downpour. Leah didn't bother saying anything as she grabbed Jules's arm and they practically ran down the walkway to the first grouping of rooms. Leah unlocked the door to the room on the end that was close to the Jeep and pushed it open for Jules. The two women got themselves out of the rain and into the room as quickly as they could, but unfortunately couldn't avoid getting soaked in the process.

"I hope you don't mind sharing a room," Leah announced as she tossed the room key on the cheap little table that was by the window. "I guess I should have asked first, but we really need to conserve our cash."

"No, it's fine," Jules smiled as she looked around the dingy room, but her eyes kept returning to the bed. The one queen sized bed. Sharing a room meant sharing a bed too. "I don't have a problem with it if you don't."

"Okay, good," Leah nodded. "Do you want to take a shower first and get cleaned up?"

"No, you go ahead," Jules insisted with a smile. "I just want to sit down for a minute."

"Works for me," Leah nodded and put her backpack on the bed. She proceeded to pull both her soaking wet long sleeved t-shirt and her undershirt off at the same time over her head. Leah kept her head down as she unbuckled her belt while she kicked off her work boots. She then quickly slid her equally wet workpants off so that she was standing there in her sports bra and boy short panties. Jules realized she had just been standing by the door watching Leah take her clothes off, so she quickly walked around to the other side of the bed and sat down as the blonde placed her wet clothes in a neat little pile on the floor. Jules continued to watch from the corner of her eye as Leah bent over and started digging around in her backpack. Jules mentally shrugged - how in the world could anyone expect her not to look at that spectacular of a physique?

Jules didn't want to get caught staring at the woman's firm butt or her long, lean legs or those amazing six pack abs so she busied herself with rummaging around in her purse until Leah disappeared into the bathroom. The tall blonde spent all of 15 minutes in there before emerging in a fresh, dry t-shirt and a loose pair of men's boxers with her short, damp hair slicked back. Jules quickly smiled and kept her eyes averted as they traded places and Jules closed the bathroom door.

Leah's body seemed such a stark contrast to her own which was definitely softer and much curvier. Jules shook her head. She needed to get her mind off of anything remotely like that so she concentrated on her present physical state which for her was a complete mess. She stripped off her navy blue Ann Taylor suit jacket and pants which were dirty and wrinkled and set them on the lid of the commode. The white button down blouse followed which was just as dirty and wrinkled. She turned on the shower and her Victoria's Secret matching bra and panty set went on top of the pile and she stepped under the warm spray of water. The cheap shower head and mediocre water pressure felt like a five star spa as she let the water run over her head and body.

Jules was so grateful to get out of those clothes and get clean that only now did it register in her brain that she didn't have a change of clothes. She didn't have anything. Her bag had gone up with the Crown Vic...she closed her eyes and took a deep breath so she wouldn't scream out of sheer exasperation. This was just great...no deodorant, no toothbrush, and ugh, she didn't even have clean panties to change into.

She took out some of her frustration by vigorously scrubbing her body with the miniature bar of soap and by the time she was rinsing the last of the soap suds off she felt a little better. She used the entire little bottle of complimentary shampoo to wash her hair and then did the same thing with the little bottle of conditioner. While she let it soak into her auburn locks, she actually scrubbed her body again to try and get some of the imaginary travel grime off of her.

Finally feeling marginally better and after using all of the hot water, Jules climbed out and dried off with the coarse hotel towel. She wrapped it around her, tucking it in at the top and then took the time to hand wash her bra and panties in the sink before putting them over the shower rod to dry. Jules stepped out of the bathroom in just her towel and just stood there looking sheepishly at Leah. The tall blonde was reclining back on the queen sized bed flipping through channels on the TV with the remote.

Leah moved her eyes to Jules for a moment and went right back to looking at the television. In that glance Leah had taken in the fact that the motel towel wasn't doing a whole lot to contain the redheaded Fed's large breasts and the bottom edge ended high up on her thighs. As much as Leah had been mentally avoiding it, she had to admit to herself that her traveling companion was very attractive.

"Hey," Jules smiled awkwardly. "Do you have like an extra shirt or something I could borrow?"

Leah turned her head and looked at Jules again, longer this time.