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"You should start thinking about training with a sword soon," Adam said.
* Dammit where did that come from? Smart boy! * Adam told himself. He really had not meant to change the subject.
"Will you be staying," Lynda said, turned away, "For dinner."
"If you want me," Adam said looking at her in the moonlight, her light skin glowing.
"Yes," she said as she looked back into his face.
"For dinner... I haven't eaten yet."
"Give me a few minutes and I'll whip up something."
"Right, that's fine."
Lynda went into the cabin, turned off the stereo, and petted Akamu.
"Good going little cupid."
She waltzed into the kitchen and started dinner.
Adam stayed out for a moment longer.
* Did she really mean dinner? She had said yes. Why did I have to go and ruin the moment with sword training? I suppose I could teach her since I am the closest available. * Adam debated taking on Lynda as a student.
MacLeod's looks alone would have stolen her away, Amanda would have taught her how to shop and what was it she called it oh, lifting. He did not want another thief in his life.
* One is enough. *
He could never send her to Cassandra; he did not need another angry female Immortal on his tail. He did not want Lynda to find out about his past just yet, he'd rather it stayed quiet for a while.
Lynda made a salad and enchiladas from a recipe she learned while in Mexico for a week. She went down with a church group to help repair a church for a village. She came back tired and very dirty after not being allowed to take a shower for a week. The church group thought it would help the team learn humility. Lynda had been out numbered in that vote, took her three showers back to back when she got home to get clean, but still she went anyway. She got the main entree in the oven and she started setting the table for two. She liked the idea of having quiet dinners at home; it was just hard to find someone to do it with.
Adam finally came in and looked at Lynda's 'entertainment' center. She had all the latest equipment, DVD, and a CD player to die for. It could play 500 compact discs. Just to the right and left of the speakers were all 500 compact disc cases. Adam scanned through a few of them.
* I think I like her already, no opera. MacLeod would not like that. What do I care anyway? *
She had a wide variety of music, rock classics, Bonnie Tyler, modern rock. He noticed she had all of Bruce Springsteen's work.
* I love her. * He thought as he was a big "Boss," fan himself.
He hit the classical music portion. She did indeed have a few opera compact discs. He saw the title, "Phantom of the Opera."
It took him back a few years. He hated the fact that his love Christine's life had been into some entertaining fictional story to sell. It really did happen. He wished he could have seen a rough draft before the snake Gaston Leroux had it published. He wanted to sue the bastard for not even changing her name.
Lynda had a lot of country, instrumentals galore, Latin, new age, a few folk albums, soundtracks, Celtic music, a little rap, nature sounds, jazz, and blues rounded off the lot. She even had all of Joe's work, even a few he didn't have yet.
* Must be a fan. * Adam thought, wondering if she might like to meet him someday.
Adam picked out Born in the U.S.A. and found it in the player. He set it to, "I'm On Fire."
Lynda came into the living room to the strains of Bruce Springsteen singing, "Oh, oh, oh, I'm on fire."
* Oh Adam, if you only knew... * Lynda's heart secretly wished. Adam's back was turned to her and she stayed for the rest of the song. Suddenly, the buzzer went off in the kitchen.
"Dinner is ready," She called from the kitchen door.
Adam nearly jumped three feet in the air. He had not heard her come into the room. For a moment she had taken his breath away, and practically scared the begeezus out of the old man. He changed the CD to something a little softer, like one of John Tesh's albums.
* Eeew. Well if she likes him, I guess he couldn't be that bad. * Adam soon found his way to the kitchen, bringing Akamu for his dinner.
"I hope you don't mind spicy tonight," Lynda said putting a fresh beer for him on the table with an opener.
"Not at all."
"Good, have a seat and I'll be right with you."
Lynda put two cups of dog food in Akamu's bowl and he started mowing it down. She got him some fresh water and washed her hands again before sitting down to dinner. She ate one serving this time because she had a salad. For dessert Lynda made J-E-LL-O with a little whipped cream on top. There were things she would have rather liked to do with the whipped cream, since Adam was there, but that would have to come some other time. Adam enjoyed dinner and found dessert very cute. He wished Lynda had eaten a little more but he wouldn't push it.
Lynda put the food away and took her plates to the sink. She watched Adam stand up and stretch, rubbed his neck a little before taking his plates, to the sink. Lynda jumped on the opportunity she saw thereupon.
"I could help you with that pain in your neck, if you'd let me," she offered.
"It's all right, I'm just a little sore."
"Adam, please. I know what I am doing. I am a trained professional," Lynda teased, cracking her knuckles, reaching for Adam.
"You are not going to touch me with those."
"If you will listen to me and take a little advice, I can help you."
"What advice would that be?"
"Give me fifteen minutes in the living room and you can whine all the way home without pain."
"I guess it wouldn't hurt to let you try something with these old bones. It wouldn't kill me."
"Watch what you say Adam, I can also kill with these hands."
"Sure," he said.
"Could you rinse the dishes for me and put them in the washer while I get ready?"
"I suppose."
Lynda had a little plan cooking up. She went up into her room and pulled out her massage table from the closet. She set it up in the living room. Lynda shut the blinds for privacy and went back into her room for a sheet; two towels, a couple extra pillows, and her favorite massage oil. She opened the bottle to take another smell. Fragrances of vanilla, lavender, and coconut filled her thoughts of what she thought Hawaii smelled like. Smooth and easy, just beautiful. She put some in a bottle and mixed it with a little Johnson's baby lotion. Lynda changed her clothing into her cobalt blue silk pajamas, sans underwear, and her slippers. She figured after this she would head to bed. She'd be too tired for anything else.
* If this doesn't please him... I think I will go to that convent Emerald mentioned. Yeah right, you convent? * Lynda told herself, she had to giggle at the convent idea. She would never make it as a nun.
Akamu in came into her bedroom. He whimpers when he can't get up onto her bed after eating dinner.
She watched him try to get up on her bed, poor thing needed help after his dinner in the kitchen. She makes a quick stop and puts him on her bed. After helping him up on the bed she wished him good night and let him sleep on her pillow. Lynda quietly closed her bedroom door and went downstairs. She began to warm up the chilly room with a few aromatherapy candles. She wondered if she should light the other thirty candles she had placed around the room.
* What the hell, he's special. * Lynda told herself as she lit them all.
She turned off the lights and you could not tell the difference. The candlelight was so strong. She changed the CD to nature sounds of ocean waves. So meditation like, she knew Adam would go right to sleep and relax.
Adam rinsed off the dishes like Lynda had asked. It was beyond him why you had to rinse them off only to be cleaned again. He put everything in the dishwasher, put up the door, flipped the latch, and turned it on. Then he went the extra mile and wiped down the plastic tablecloth, folded it, and then hunted down the drawer to put it away. He figured Lynda would take care of the dry dishes later. He killed his beer from dinner and put the bottle in her green glass recycle container. He got another shock of his life when he opened Lynda's refrigerator. Eighty percent of her fridge was all beer. He did not think she drank 'that' much. Maybe she really had been keeping beer for him.
* How can I not love her? She keeps beer cold for me and likes Springsteen. I have her trained before I let her get to know me. She's a keeper for now. What is that smell? * Adam thought, as he smelled something funny from the other room.
A little like something burning, sweet, wondered what Lynda was up to. He grabbed a new beer, opened it, and took a swig from the long neck bottle.
"Adam Pierson, party of one, your table is ready," Lynda teasingly called from the living room.
Adam came through the swinging kitchen door...
"This is..." He was quite blown away for a second time at what Lynda had done.
"All I ask as a price for my dispensed advice is your sweater or whatever you have on under there. You can leave your jeans on but you may want to undo the button when you climb up here," Lynda said patting the white sheeted massage table.
"Ah so that's what the plan is. Get me drunk and half naked so you can rub something all over me," Adam sarcastically commented.
"No, well yes and no. The 'idea' was to rub your shoulders and get you to relax. Whatever you choose to read into that is your choice, Adam. We both know you are sore and I want to help."
Adam set his beer down; Lynda turned her back to give him some privacy, to start the CD. She put it on repeat, and then tried warming her massage oil in her hands. Adam took off his sweater and shirt at once, neatly placing them on her sofa. He undid the button on his jeans and positioned himself on the table. He assumed she wanted him on his front side; he rested his head in the face frame, his hips and feet still in their boots rested on the pillows placed there.
Lynda slipped his boots off, left his socks on, and lowered the table to the right height. She tucked in a towel into his pants to keep the lotion-oil mix off of them.
"Now all you have to do is relax. Let your breathing be easy," she said.
Lynda climbed up and straddled his thighs to give her more leverage. She warmed a little of the lotion in her hands getting them slick. Starting on the right side of his back, at the base, she placed her right hand on Adam's back. Lynda poured a little of the mixture onto the back of that left hand. Letting the heat from her hand warm the liquid while she put the bottle on the table where she could reach it. To start off, she spread out her hands, using her thumbs to apply the right amount of pressure. She carefully memorized every muscle in his old tired back. After the first five minutes he was moaning about how good it felt. He never had to ask her to rub in certain places. She seemed to find each and every one. Lynda carefully climbed down off of him and the table, one hand never leaving his body, to continue the flow.
She applied more mix to the back of her hand and moved around to the head of the table. His neck seemed tense when she first felt it. Just at her touch most of those tense muscles relaxed. His breathing, a steady rhythm. Lynda rubbed the muscles from his neck and down into his shoulders. Each and every joint she stopped at and worked at a little. She wondered if he was asleep yet. Lynda checked her clock on the wall near the kitchen door. It had just turned to 10pm. Her fifteen minutes had passed long ago but she was not about to let him know that. Somehow she rolled him over, moved the pillow under his head and the other under his knees. Lynda finished up her little massage by adding something extra. She began to rub around his neck, Adam's apple, throat. Then she went up, to his chin, then carefully massaging his cheeks. She memorized his face, burning it into the block of her brain where she would never forget.
At the end of the face massage, Lynda put both of her palms back to back on his forehead. Applying a light pressure and she easily stroked them apart from each other once. Adam could have sworn he was floating. Lynda picked up the edges of the sheet and wrapped him in a cocoon. She placed a blanket on top, looking at him so peacefully resting. Lynda had an inspiring moment, so she wiped her hands off, found an old sketchbook, and sketching pencils up in her room. She picked a good pencil and began to sketch the old man sleeping, to capture this memory in her own artistic license. She smiled when she heard him lightly snoring. After a few minutes she had a drawing completed to her liking. Lynda fell asleep on the sofa, the pencil slipped from her hand, the pad still rested on her lap.
Adam woke up about a half an hour later. He carefully got up and surprisingly felt wonderful. She had gotten rid of his pain. He noticed her drawing lying askew on the floor and realized it was of him sleeping peaceful and contented. His face relaxed and at ease. Adam thought she was quite good. He wondered if she had taken any classes or if it was a natural hidden talent of hers. He thought for a moment of doing a drawing of her but all he could draw now was stick figures. He had long since forgotten his training with the old masters, like Michelangelo, Raphael, Da Vinci. He had even posed for a few of them, of course he forgot that too. Adam drove back to Seacouver and crashed into his bed just after sunrise. He slept so deeply, getting a refreshing kind of sleep that he had not had in years, make that decades.
A while later Lynda slowly woke up and felt her presence alone. She noticed the table was empty and Adam's clothes were gone. He had covered her with the same blanket she had used on him. Last night felt like it was a dream. She looked down at her drawing and it brought her back to the reality that it had not been just a dream. Lynda got up, stretched her lower back, and headed upstairs to take a shower. She dressed comfortably and headed down to the kitchen.
Akamu followed behind her as fast as he could. He had definitely since the day Adam had given Akamu to Lynda, and the growth wasn't all in height…
Lynda entered the kitchen and began her morning breakfast regimen. Pills, cereal, and fruit Maybe an Eggo…
Akamu nipped at her heels until she finally fed him too.
It was a beautiful morning and she decided to work on cleaning up her garden. Pine needles and things littered the ground. After eating she grabbed her gardening tools from the durable plastic shed outside by the side of the cabin.
Akamu finished his own breakfast and followed Lynda out to the back yard. He set about sniffing and playing with the dead leaves, looking for bugs.
Lynda busied herself with raking and cleaning out around the roses. She missed Emerald much. Lynda wrapped herself in memories they shared from when they were in school together. The time that Emerald and Lynda snuck out past curfew to go to midnight showings of Rocky Horror Picture Show stuck out. She giggled when she remembered the time she dressed up as Magenta and Emerald went as Columbia. They had so much fun that night with others in the audience, they stayed out so late that Lynda and Emerald went to breakfast with a group of them that morning. They lived on coffee and soda with caffeine all day. Their other dorm friends covered for them. Then since it was a special Friday, they only had a half-day at school. They went back to the dorm room and crashed for the rest of the day until it was time to go out and party with the other two roomies.
Little Akamu found this half melted gas card. He went to Lynda and tugged on her jeans at the left ankle.
"What, what is it boy," Lynda asked and he ran back to the spot and lay down near the card.
She picked up the gas card and looked at it curiously.
* Why was this card so damaged? Why was it in my backyard? * Lynda's mind became confused, but then she saw most of the owner's name.
"Adam Pierson," she said with a lingering breath.
She put it in her back pocket and continued with her yard work. Her mind began to put various scenarios together.
* Maybe he had dropped it accidentally last night, but then why is it mutilated like this? It could have happened when Adam killed Emerald's killer. What if Adam killed Emerald? * Lynda thought.
She stopped for a moment to listen to the wind. Lynda could have sworn she heard Emerald's voice telling her that Adam Pierson had killed her. This was beginning to get strange, some things were not adding up in her mind, and red flags were going up all over her brain. She thought it would not hurt to check out Adam, just to put her mind at ease about the situation, she decided to check Adam out with the resources she had available. She set up her laptop on the kitchen table and grabbed herself a glass of Pepsi. Lynda busily typed away and managed to find out Adam Pierson had friends. She took the time to write down all of the names listed. She did address searches on them all. She noticed that there were a few that are in the same area as Adam. Oddly, Lynda noticed that they all were located within a mile or two of each other. Lynda looked down to see Akamu waiting with his leash in his mouth.
The duo caught a ride to Seacouver with old Mrs. Sanford who drove a boat like a speed demon. Soon she found herself at the doorstep of Joe's.
She decided to come back later when she found the door locked. Lynda walked around and bought herself some lunch. She bought a couple of hot dogs with ketchup and relish and then pulled out one hot dog for Akamu. She ate the empty bun as they walked around town, looking in various store windows.
Lynda went in a few, of course tying up Akamu outside. She bought new linens for her bed, some clothing that was in style, and a few stuffed animals to go around her room. She took a cab to the nearest motel to check in and get a room to drop off her purchases and take a rest before heading back to Winter Harbour. Lynda dropped off her shopping bags and went back out to do a little more shopping. Like stopping in at the bookstore and the music store, 20 compact discs and 10 books later, Lynda had what she wanted. She got back to the room and wondered how in the world she was going to get all the new stuff home. So Lynda went back out and bought her a huge suitcase with wheels. She made it back to the room and started packing up the new stuff.
Akamu got buried under the clothing and the sheets. He was having fun though, so he would bark just to let Lynda know he was still under the pile.
Adam was home working on the translation project for Joe, enjoying some Bob Seger, and a beer. So far he had only encountered five ancient grocery lists and a family tree that did not fork very much. He stopped working on that book for a while and moved on to one of the other books Joe had given him. He worked about three hours on it and discovered another chronicle of his. It made for some interesting reading. Adam was not sure he was going to give it back to Dawson to go back to the watcher archives because it held some rather personal memoirs he didn't want to be made public watcher knowledge.
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