Walking an Endless Path Pt. 02

Rebecca looked up at his face and saw he meant it. The only pleasure she'd found while trapped in this town was being denied to her forever. Her rage exploded, and she turned on Pam, still leaning against the wall where she'd been pushed. Rebecca's crimson nails spread like bloody claws as she reached for the woman's face.

Joe grabbed Rebecca and held her against his chest as Pam dropped to the floor and cowered to avoid her attack. Rebecca thrashed like a wild woman, and the crowd gathered to watch doubled in size as her screams of rage drew them in. Joe was worried she was having a psychotic break. While he had no trouble holding her, and the witnesses could tell he was doing it for her safety, he started to worry that she wasn't calming down. If anything, she was getting worse. Joe looked around and saw Craig and Taylor standing at the crowd's edge. The Soldier's face was completely smudged with lipstick, and Taylor's mouth no longer had any. The man was looking at Joe as if asking what to do.

He knew what he had to do. "Call an ambulance," Joe said grimly. The Sergeant immediately dialed.

Joe spun Rebecca in his arms until she was facing him. He grabbed the hair on the back of her head, and she froze mid-scream and went silent. The crowd did as well. Her eyes were wild and desperate.

"Goodbye, Rebecca," he said and kissed her deeply.

Joe held nothing back. The surge crashed through her nerves, and she clung to him, forcing her tongue deep into his mouth to tangle with his. She moaned and clawed at him, thrashed, and finally went still.

The crowd remained silent as he moved her up into his arms and walked out of the club with her. He found an open bench against the wall by the entrance where it was quieter and laid her out to rest until the ambulance arrived. Joe sat beside her on the bench and put his head in his hands.

As he sat looking at the floor, he saw small black army boots approach and stop in front of him. He knew these small feet didn't belong to Craig. He looked up and saw Pam standing in front of him. She had tears in her eyes, and her black eye makeup was starting to run down the pale flesh of her cheeks. Joe pulled a tissue from his pocket and handed it to her. "Hi, Pam," he said quietly.

"Do you remember me?" she asked carefully.

"Yes, I've met you a number of times, and we were only a year apart in school, though I don't think we've ever said more than hello to each other."

"Well, you were in love with my sister," Pam said softly.

"Yeah... I was. Is she doing okay?" he asked.

"She married a real mean prick two years ago and now has twin girls. She lives in New York, so we only see her every second Thanksgiving and Christmas." Pam said.

"How are you doing? This is a new look for you." Joe said with a smile.

Pam looked at him, her big blue eyes filled with sadness. "I'm angry. All the time. Sometimes, getting a tattoo or a piercing helps. The pain clears my head. Gives me clarity. For a little while at least."

Craig and Taylor entered the hallway and sat a short distance from them. Pam looked at the sleeping form next to Joe. "What did you do to her?"

Joe looked down and felt his own eyes tearing up. "I don't know. Something bad, maybe."

Taylor rose to her feet and knelt before him, taking his hands in hers. "Joe, this wasn't your fault. Rebecca has been getting more and more edgy in the past few months. You know she's always been wild. Now, she's unpredictable, too. She'd had a rough time with her parents. They threw her out of the house, but she wouldn't tell me why. She has a small apartment here in town now. She was almost frantic about seeing you when we heard you were back in town. I didn't think about how she behaved when I agreed to drive her to your place. I didn't know it was this bad."

"I think Doc Watson needs to examine her. Then maybe she should get some help at the psych hospital," Joe said.

"Joe, she can't afford that," Taylor whispered.

Joe's eyes went hard. "I'll pay for it. I got a new job which pays well. I'll get it arranged."

Taylor nodded to Joe and went back to Dan. Pam sank to the bench next to Joe. "Are you here to save us all, Joe?"

"What?" he said sharply.

"When I was in the psych ward after my breakdown, the doctor told me I keep too much bottled up. I have to let things out. I'm going to do that now, okay? If you listen, that will be you saving me. You don't need to do anything or say anything. Just listen." Joe didn't know where she was going with this, but he nodded.

"You probably don't remember this, but I've always been shy. Cripplingly shy. When we were in school together, I was secretly in love with you. I was for as long as I can remember. At home, I lived in Elizabeth's shadow. She got all our parent's attention. She did everything right, and nothing I did mattered. When I was fifteen, my sister got to go to your sixteenth birthday party, and I desperately wanted to go too, but I suffered in silence as I was too chickenshit to speak to you. I started reading my sister's diary to get closer to you. The entry for when she visited you in the hospital turned my world upside down, and for the longest time, I hated you with all my heart. Then, years later, I read that she had made it all up in her head. God, how I hated her then. In the middle of that hate, I found out she was going to prom with you. I read in her diary what Rebecca and Taylor did with you that night and how they described it. My sister was so jealous that the others had felt what she had, so she immediately dropped you. For the first time in my life, I had... strong words with her about that, and that was the last time we spoke.

None of this is your fault; you are not responsible for my happiness. I am. I'm just grateful for this opportunity to say now what I couldn't say then."

Joe looked at her carefully. Measured what he saw against his recollections of her sister.

"Geezus, I was mooning over the wrong sister," he smiled gently, shaking his head.

"Yeah, life's a bitch, isn't it?" Pam smiled and stood up, putting her hands on her hips. "Maybe next time you come to town, you give me a call, and we can talk about old times again."

"I'd really like that. I don't have my cell with me. Can you write your number down for me?"

Pam pulled a small business card from her pocket. She wrote another number on its back. "Personal line."

"See ya, big man." Pam grinned, obviously feeling better for having unburdened herself.

The ambulance arrived, and the paramedics pushed a stretcher in. Joe lifted Rebecca onto the surface and gave them the details of what had happened, leaving out the kiss. He asked them to call Doc Watson. Taylor and Craig walked her out to the ambulance then Joe joined them outside. Craig suggested they call it a night, so they drove Taylor back to her car, which was parked outside the gate at Joe's. He got out and walked up the lane, leaving Craig to say his goodbyes to Taylor privately. People were still moving about with purpose when he reached the yard, which surprised Joe, considering the late hour. He nodded to a few he recognized. He walked up to the house and went inside.

The kitchen light was still on, so he poked his head in to see who was burning the midnight oil. It was Safa who had a laptop open and papers scattered across the table. Joe couldn't make heads or tails of it, so he gave up.

"Hey," he said quietly.

"Joseph! How did your date go?" Safa asked with genuine interest.

"It went much better for Sergeant Armstrong than for me," Joe said, a note of sadness still in his voice.

"You didn't get any action?" Safa asked.

Joe snorted and looked at the woman. "Get any action? Sorry, that sounds weird when you say it."

"I don't know the words men use when they speak of their conquests," she replied straight-faced.

"Ugh! Please stop." Joe grimaced.

He walked over to the cupboard, pulled out a bag of cookies, and poured a glass of milk. He offered one to Safa, but she shook her head and pointed to her cup of tea.

She moved some of her papers, and Joe put the cookies and milk on the table and pulled a chair out across from her.

After munching down a cookie and chasing it with milk, Joe looked at Safa and answered her question.

"Rebecca is a beautiful, sexy woman who craves action above all else, so that wasn't the problem. She and I have been enjoying each other for a long time, but there is nothing between us other than that. I don't even think we like each other that much. We went to a dance club, and while we were there, I saw the younger sister of my first love, and she now looks very much like her sister. It brought back all the memories of what it had been like to be in love. I didn't realize just how much I missed that. How much I need it. I realized that I couldn't continue seeing Rebecca. When I told her, she tried to attack the woman. I stopped her, but I think she had a psychotic break. She flew into a rage, and it kept getting worse. Finally, I had to knock her out."

"You hit her?" Safa was shocked.

"What? No! I didn't hit her! I kissed her," Joe growled.

Safa sat there, trying to comprehend what Joe just said. Her puzzlement showed on her face.

"Didn't I tell you already? It feels like I've told everyone!" he growled.

"Ah! The cattle prod!" Her eyes lit up as she recalled their conversation on the plane.

"Yes! Exactly!" Joe sighed with relief. He was really tired of explaining this. "I'm worried that I've done some damage to Rebecca with her exposure to the surge. She's experienced it more than anyone. Dozens of times. What if it caused her personality change? Taylor said she was already temperamental, but what if the surge somehow damaged her mind?"

"Has anyone else experienced it as frequently?" Safa asked.

"No, but Taylor is pretty close," Joe answered.

"Has Taylor exhibited any similar signs?" she asked.

"Uh, not that I could tell. Not really. No," Joe begrudgingly answered.

"Then maybe Taylor's assessment is more accurate. You can ask that she be examined, but don't be surprised that it wasn't your doing."

Joe frowned, munched some more cookies, and drank his milk.

"Can I see your tongue again?" Safa asked, breaking the silence.

Joe looked up in surprise. "Okay, but no touching it," he warned.

He stuck his tongue out and dropped it down his chin. Safa leaned forward and examined the lines.

"Remarkable! Perhaps their functionality is linked to your unique reproductive system. Maybe the stimulus from your tongue triggers a response in a similarly enhanced female to spur the release of sperm to fertilize your eggs!" Safa gushed.

Joe glared at her. She might like this biology lesson stuff, but when he was the subject, it made him queasy.

"Sorry," she said contritely. She noticed that Joe was just laying his tongue flat. "Can you point your tongue?"

Joe stretched his tongue to a point extending two inches past his chin. Safa's eyebrows went up. "That's... exceptional! Can you roll your tongue?"

Joe sucked his tongue back into his mouth so he could talk. "Roll it?"

Safa demonstrated making her tongue into a tube. "Apparently, a percentage of the population cannot do that," Safa said.

Joe tried to roll his tongue but couldn't make it curve up on both sides. He gestured excitedly when he thought he got it, but Safa shook her head though her eyes widened. Joe had managed to twist the tip of his tongue completely around three-hundred and sixty degrees. She didn't think that was possible with a strictly human tongue.

"Okay, so you're in the percentage that can't," Safa indicated. Joe shrugged and ate another cookie.

"So, what happens when someone touches it?" Safa asked.

The image of Amy popped unwelcome in his mind, and he frowned at the painful memory.

"It's... intimate, like a linking of the nervous systems. I feel what they feel, and they feel what I feel, and we both feel one hell of a lot of pleasure. It's not something I like to do with someone I don't feel really comfortable with or who isn't willing. Then, it feels like a complete invasion of their personal space and privacy. It... it's like rape. It's truly awful. Can we change the subject?" Joe was feeling really uncomfortable.

"I'm sorry. I didn't mean to make you feel bad," she apologized.

"It's okay. I should go to bed anyway. Any idea when we're heading back to LA? I'd like to see how my sister is doing."

"Agent White was working with the General to pinpoint the most likely alternate portal sites. So, I think either tomorrow or the day after," she replied.

Joe walked over to the sink and washed his glass. He put it away and put the cookies back in the cupboard. He bid Safa goodnight, then went up to his bedroom. As he got undressed, he realized that his new grey shirt had tears on his back from Rebecca's fingernails. Damn.

He dropped onto his bed with the card Pam gave him. He thought about her confession and lost opportunities of the past. He wondered what had happened in Pam's life in the past four years, making her who she is today. So radically different from the shy young woman he remembered. He was pretty sure she wasn't still in love with him. She'd apparently been through a lot, and she was still dealing with it. Joe didn't want to add any grief to that young woman's life. Everything about his life seemed to add problems to someone else's. But he'd promised to call, so call he would.

As he sat there thinking over the evening and picking out everything he'd done wrong, he recalled the moment when he'd turned around to see Pam standing there, watching him dominate Rebecca. She'd clearly been excited, but Joe wasn't looking for a replacement for Rebecca. He needed something more.

Pam, being Elizabeth's sister, immediately added complications.

His mind raced in circles between his longing for someone to love and his depressed acknowledgment that what he had to offer wasn't what most, if any, wanted in a relationship. It was hours before he fell asleep.

Chapter 25

The next morning, Joe dragged himself out of bed feeling exhausted. Worse, he felt stiff and flabby. He needed to work out. He looked at his free weights and realized he'd outgrown them. He needed heavier weights and wanted one of those home gyms like Doug had, only with twice the weight in the stack. If the General or Director Bannon had nothing for him to do today, he decided he'd stop by the town fitness club and buy a day pass to get a workout in. He also wanted to shop for gym equipment like the functional trainer he'd used at Doug's condo. There was a store in town that specialized in fitness stuff. He needed to visit the hospital and check in with Doc Watson to see if he'd examined Rebecca. He also needed to visit St. Germain's to get the boots and jacket and touch base with Rene. That was a lot of stuff to fit into his day.

But before all of that, there was breakfast!

Joe walked into the kitchen and saw his parents were just finishing up. Joe started to prepare himself some food, but Clara pushed him over to the table with a smile and said she would make him something. Joe sat next to his dad, and they said their good mornings.

"How was your date last night?" Karl asked.

"Not too good. Rebecca had a mental breakdown, and I had to send her to the hospital. I asked them to contact Doc Watson. I think she's going to need some psychiatric care."

"What happened?" Clara asked from the counter.

"We were dancing, and I saw Elizabeth's younger sister Pam, and the memories that brought up made me realize my relationship with Rebecca wasn't healthy for either of us. I need... an emotional connection. Rebecca doesn't make emotional connections. When I told her I couldn't see her anymore, she flew into a violent rage and tried attacking Pam. I had no choice but to... kiss her unconscious," Joe explained.

"I'm so sorry, Joe," Clara said, bringing him a plate piled high with eggs, hash browns, sausages, bacon, and toast.

"Thanks, Mom! If I'm not needed here today, I want to check on her with Doc Watson and run some errands."

"Roger said he wanted to see you after breakfast but didn't tell me what for. He's working in his guest room upstairs," Clara mentioned.

Joe nodded and then tucked into his meal.

-=-

Bannon was concentrating on writing his report for his boss. He knew this would go from Hillary to Frank, so he did his best to ensure it sounded as factual and dry as possible. Trying to eliminate or at least downplay the fantastic elements without making it sound like he was hiding something was excruciatingly difficult. Quite frankly, it was giving him a headache. His head spinning, he decided to take some aspirin he'd left in his kit in the bathroom.

He forgot to knock when he entered the bathroom he shared with Agent White.

She must have just stepped from the shower as her hair was wrapped in a towel, and a second one was loosely wrapped around her body. She was facing the mirror, applying something to her lips. She looked over her shoulder at Roger when he burst into the room.

"Oh, God! I'm sorry! I should have knocked!" he gasped.

Rachel continued to look at him and noticed he hadn't moved. A smile slid across her lips as she watched the crimson spread across his face. Still, he remained in the doorway, frozen, eyes drinking in the pale, smooth skin of her back, bottom, and legs. She cautiously turned towards him, taking it slow so he wouldn't bolt. She stepped closer, then let her towel drop. She heard him gasp as her full breasts came into view and saw his eyes traveling down her body. She took another step, then another, until she stood directly before the man she had fallen head over heels for. She reached up, took his strong chin between her finger and thumb, and tilted his mouth to meet hers as she leaned in for a kiss.

The first kiss was tentative. Her lips pressed against his gently, and she felt him holding himself back with all his might. She leaned in for a second kiss and slid her lower lip across his in a gentle caress and felt him sucking her lip between his. The smallest smile caught the corners of her mouth as she felt him taking the initiative.

It was her turn to gasp as she felt his strong hands slide across her back, pulling her to him, and he kissed her more passionately. The tip of his tongue caressed her lips, and she brought her tongue into play to slide against his. Soon, they were clutching at each other and breathing heavily, their kisses deep and touches bold.

A minute later, she was about to start tearing his clothes off when there was a knock on his door. They froze. The knock came again, and they heard Joseph calling out for Bannon.

"Just a minute!" Roger called out. He looked back at Rachel with a stricken look, suddenly realizing his professional breach of conduct.

Rachel gripped his shoulders and looked him in the eye. "No!" she whispered to him. "We will not feel guilty about this. I want it. You want it. We will be discreet, and we will be professional." When he looked her in the eye and calmed, she gave him one more quick kiss, then pushed him out of the bathroom and closed the door. Roger straightened his clothes and walked over to open the bedroom door. Joseph was outside, leaning on the wall, waiting.

"Yes?"

"Uh... Mom said you wanted to see me?" Joe seemed to be a bit distracted.

Bannon wracked his brain to recall why he had wanted to see the young man. He certainly wished he hadn't asked Clara to send him up. Ah! The phone!

"Oh, right! Come in!" Roger returned to his desk and pulled a sleek new smartphone from his briefcase. "I got you a new phone until you can get yours back, and maybe you'd consider keeping the new one instead. Has the General spoken with you regarding our theory that the aliens may have been targeting you?" Joe nodded. "Good. Considering our theory, the new phone has a few features that may be critically important. It maintains a global position marker, so we can find you anytime. I know this seems like an invasion of privacy, but think of it this way: We won't act on your position, but we will always maintain an extraction team within a reasonable distance to get to you quickly should you signal it's required. To send that signal, press the first three numbers on the screen simultaneously, then press the dial button. Or break the screen. As a failsafe, it calls for help when it's broken. So be careful with it. Other than that, it's just a smartphone. We will pick up the tab for the services you use. Yes, we will monitor them, but we do that already. Again, we won't act on anything we see there unless you specifically request it." He handed the phone to Joe, who took one look at the touchscreen interface and the lack of buttons and handed it back.