Intersection (30 page)

“Taylor, Cassidy…..can you…” the agent began to ask for her friend’s assistance in protecting the woman she loved.

“Already done,” he said plainly.

“How do you know what I was going to say?”

“Captain Toles, when you almost die next to someone… Well, I can hear it….you love her…I get it…I’ll have Brady sweep the house tomorrow.”

“Thanks.”

“Don’t mention it….. Really, don’t,” he laughed.

Alex appreciated the needed levity. “Understood, Cap, understood.”

Alex Toles drove down Cherry Circle remembering the first time she had arrived here. It was impossible for her to believe that it had only been a week ago. It felt like an eternity, an eternity that she had loved Cassidy O’Brien and an eternity that she had been struggling with this case. Her life was completely different now. The things that suddenly mattered most to her had changed in ways that the agent found incomprehensible in certain moments. They were moments like this. She pulled into the driveway and turned off the car feeling glad to be
home
. But, it wasn’t really
her
home. Alex wondered what would happen when the case ended and there was no reason for her to be here with Cassidy. Reality was beginning to press in on Alex Toles. She looked through the windshield at the house in front of her and unconsciously pressed her thumb to her temple. After her conversation with her friend, Michael Taylor, she knew that her fears about a stalker were valid. Maybe Carl Fisher was a piece of a bigger puzzle but there was no doubt in Alex’s mind he had other plans for Cassidy. That should
have been her greatest worry as she opened her car door, but something else had risen to the surface. It wasn’t about money laundering or even psychopathic stalkers. Where, Alex wondered, would she fit into the puzzle that was Cassidy’s everyday life? She grabbed her case off the passenger seat and headed for the front door. Cassidy was exactly where Alex knew she’d be. She was in the kitchen chopping up vegetables and sipping a glass of iced tea. Alex stopped in the doorway to silently observe. “Are you going to hold up that wall all afternoon?” Cassidy asked remaining focused on her chore.

“I was just doing a little investigating,” Alex flirted.

“I see. Don’t you usually have to get closer to things to investigate them?” Alex smiled and moved behind the smaller woman at the counter, wrapping her arms around the woman’s waist. Cassidy’s breath seemed to catch momentarily in her chest. The agent’s touch both calmed and excited the teacher at the same time. She shivered slightly in Alex’s arms, “discover anything?” Cassidy asked as she tried to concentrate on the pepper in front of her.

Alex felt a grin creep across her face at Cassidy’s physical reaction to her presence. “I have to get closer to see clearly,” she whispered heavily in the blonde’s ear, reaching for a piece of the pepper on the cutting board and being quickly rewarded with a playful smack of her hand. Alex giggled and stepped back, chewing on the strip of pepper and pouting her innocence to the woman that had turned to face her.

The agent’s expression prompted a motherly shake of the teacher’s head followed by a howl of laughter that seemed to light Cassidy from within. The pepper fell limp in the agent’s mouth as she became completely beguiled by the face before her. Cassidy’s laugh softened to a snicker as she reached the agent and pulled the pepper from her lips replacing it with a kiss. “I am glad you are home,” the smaller woman softly murmured, straining to reach the taller agent’s ear. Alex’s response took both of them by surprise. She pulled Cassidy closer to her
and kissed her passionately. As the kiss broke the blonde woman in her arms found it difficult to speak or even open her eyes.

“I think,” Alex kissed the woman’s neck, “I might be onto something.” Cassidy’s breath escaped in a quiver and Alex kissed her again gently. “I’ll have to undress the facts later,” she whispered in the woman’s ear.

“Alex…”

Alex gloated devilishly as Cassidy’s eyes opened to meet hers. There was something about this moment that made Alex feel as though she had fallen in love withCassidy all over again. Green eyes danced with blue as they met silently. It was such a simple moment and yet it held within it everything that had meaning for Alex. She pulled Cassidy close, her heart bursting. The words fell from her lips, “
Tu es l’amour de ma vie
. (You are the love of my life).”

Without missing a beat the teacher responded, “
Je veux être avec toi pour toujours
. (I want to be with you forever).”

Alex took the face before her in her hands. “You will be,” she promised with a tender kiss.

Cassidy was drifting off on the couch when Dylan jumped in between his mother and the agent. Three hours of Batman had worn out Dylan’s mom and it was only seven o’clock. Dylan, however, was wide awake but growing tired of the caped crusader a bit himself. “Alex?” He bounced partially into her lap. The agent raised a brow at him. “How come you have a gun?” Cassidy listened closely.

Alex let out a quick but strong sigh. She had tried the last few days to keep the sidearm concealed around Dylan. Alex hated guns. She hated everything about them. She also understood their necessity in her work and she wanted to be certain that Dylan knew that her pistol was neither a toy nor was it something she enjoyed carrying. “Well, Dylan,” she said pulling
him onto her knee. “You know, what I do when I go to work is like a policeman in a lot of ways. Sometimes there are people; people who want to hurt other people….And it’s my job to keep people safe. That’s why I have the gun.”

He considered her statement. “Can I have a gun?” Cassidy watched the agent’s jaw line stiffen. “Why would you want a gun, Dylan?”

“I can be like you.”

Alex nodded. “Dylan…I wish I didn’t have a gun.”

“Why?”

“Because my job is to help people, and guns…guns can hurt people. It’s just something I have to do and it took me a long time, Dylan, to learn how to use it without hurting anyone.”

“Did you shoot anyone?” He asked curiously.

Alex swallowed hard. “Yes, Dylan. I have.”

“Did they die?”

Cassidy sat up ready to intervene and Alex shook her head. “Dylan, one time…quite a long time ago, there was a man who did some very bad things. He hurt a lot of people. He even tried to hurt me. I had to stop him.” Alex smiled at him gently. “And that was a day I wish never happened, for him or for me. You listen to me, if you want to be a good guy, you be like your mom.” He looked at her quizzically. “Real heroes don’t carry guns, Dylan. They don’t even wear capes, or drive fast cars or even catch bad guys.”

“But you’re a hero,” he said proudly.

Alex laughed uncomfortably. “Well, your mom’s
my
hero.”

“She is?”

Cassidy felt her eyes begin to water as she watched and listened to her lover address her son compassionately and cautiously. “Yes, she really is and do you know why?” He shook his head. “Because she doesn’t need a gun to protect people. She just loves them and teaches them how to be better people and people like your mom; they are the people that someday will make it so nobody has to have a gun or a cape.” She whispered
in his ear, “but maybe we’ll keep the cool cars.” Dylan smiled and nodded. He looked at his mother and hugged her hard.

“What was that for?” Cassidy beamed.

Dylan shrugged. “I’m glad you’re my mom.” He hopped down. “Wanna’ watch
Cars
?” He called heading for his stack of movies.

“Sure,” Alex called back.

Cassidy turned and put her head in the agent’s lap. Alex played gently with her hair, watching the woman’s eyes slowly close in contentment. “I love you, Agent Toles,” Cassidy said quite plainly as she drifted off. Alex inhaled and leaned back comfortably as Dylan crawled back onto the couch beside his mother, Cassidy resting on the agent and the boy resting against her.

“Alex?” He said in a whisper.

“What is it Speed Racer?”

“You’re still my hero too.”

“Right back at ya’ little man.”

Cassidy felt the bed start to move and she turned to see Alex jerking slightly in a dream. “Down…..down….Cap...” Alex seemed to groan some more unintelligible words before she spoke clearly again. “Where is he? Cap….not right…no…it’s…..CAP!”

Cassidy gently took hold of the agent’s shoulder shaking her lightly, “Alex…wake up….Alex.”

“CAP! ….NO…..” The agent’s knees were suddenly drawn into her chest.

“Alex, please wake up…it’s a dream.”

“Ma hatha! Arbaʿaẗu ʾarkān!” Alex sat straight up; her eyes darting and her body shaking violently.

“Alex,” Cassidy whispered as she put her arm slowly around the agent who was hyperventilating. “Alex, it’s okay.” Suddenly realizing where she was the agent helplessly collapsed into
Cassidy’s arms. “Shhh…it’s okay,” Cassidy whispered as Alex sobbed uncontrollably. “It’s okay. Oh Alex….I’m sorry.” Alex had woken this way many times over the years. The nightmares were far less frequent now and she was never certain what brought them on. She had always been alone; never with the comfort of anyone beside her. Feeling Cassidy’s arms surround her seemed to break the dam that she had built and her emotions poured through now like a raging river. She tried to speak but her words were lost in her tears. “Don’t,” Cassidy said to quell any speech. “Just let me hold you. Slow down….I’m here….I’m here, Alex.”

It took almost twenty minutes for Alex to regain any composure and even as her tears began to subside; she felt her grip on Cassidy remain firm. It was foreign to the agent. She was used to being the protector. What she had said to Dylan was true. Cassidy was her hero and with the teacher, Alex was as vulnerable as she had ever been. She had never trusted anyone so completely. “Cass?” The agent whispered.

“What, love?” Cassidy asked, continuing to softly rock the strong woman in her arms.

“I need you,” Alex felt her tears surge again.

“I’m right here.”

“I’m sorry…I haven’t had that dream…”

“Shhh,” Cassidy kissed the woman’s head.

“I was there, you know? It feels like I’m there…..Taylor fell… and…”

Cassidy pulled Alex to her. “Alex.”

“I should have seen it.” Cassidy stroked her long dark hair and wiped the tears from Alex’s cheeks. “How could I not see it…the trap…it was all…”

“Alex, stop this. Whatever happened there, I know it wasn’t your fault. Stop.”

“No. It was. I should have known it was a trap….four corners…I missed it.” Alex sighed and looked up to Cassidy as her
body began to relax more. “Cass?” The teacher looked at her lover with tears in her own eyes. “I can’t lose you.”

“You’re not going to lose me.
Je veux être avec toi pour toujours
, remember?” Alex forced a smile. No one had ever seen the agent like this. She was grateful for Cassidy’s arms and terrified realizing how much she needed them. Cassidy smiled and kissed her lover, “
Je t’aime
. (I love you).”

“French,” Alex said.

“I too have some talents, my love,” Cassidy said as she kissed the agent softly.

“Je t’aime,” Alex whispered.

“Forever,” Cassidy answered. “Sleep, love,” she said holding the agent lovingly. “
Je t’adore
. (I adore you).”