* CONTINUITY *
This story takes place:
* after X-FORCE #86
* before X-FORCE #87
This story differs from canon as follows:
* Dani and Roberto are a couple (see my story VALENTINE'S NIGHT for
details)
* Roberto and Tabitha's relationship in X-FORCE #75-86 has been reduced
to them sleeping together once, thus cheating on Dani and Sam, respectively.
* MATURE CONTENT *
This story includes: EXPLICIT SEX (m/f masturbation consensual)
* DEDICATED TO *
Red <alysonmiers@usa.net> Monster
Here's lookin' at you, kid. Wouldn't have written this without you.
*******************************
* CHAPTER ONE: Past Revisited *
*******************************
"Like what y' see?"
"I most definitely do", Roberto Da Costa answered
as he watched the
water pour over Theresa Rourke Cassidy,
matting her long red hair
against her head, onto her shoulders, and over her back, turning
it a
slightly darker shade than usual. Her average-sized breasts were
firm
and faintly upturned, two small but perked-up
red nipples pointing
outwards, screaming for attention. Between her legs, a
similarly red
tuft of pubic hair was also matted and darkened by the
water flowing
over the female figure, the sharp edges of the trimmed
hair becoming
very clearly visible.
"Turnabout's fair play, they say", Theresa replied with a mischievous
smile, and grabbed the towel around Roberto's waist, then with a swift
motion yanked it off and threw it away somewhere
onto the bathroom
floor. She didn't know where it
ended up, her eyes were on the
delicious five-inch erection that emerged from under
the towel, and
the eager way in which it pointed
away from his athletic, lean,
chocolate-colored body, and towards her softer, paler figure.
"And all is fair in love and war", Roberto commented
as he stepped
into the shower with Theresa, leaving the curtain open
behind him as
he wrapped his arms around her and pressed his hot, hard body
against
hers underneath the cascade of warm water.
She didn't waste time, and reciprocated his
embrace. Slender arms
coiled around his back, and crushed him tightly
against her chest,
even as his hands proceeded lower down, to hold her rear.
She raised
her legs up, to capture his waist, and felt his hardness
against her
suddenly throbbing sex.
A soft wheeze escaped her lungs as he slammed
her back against the
wall of the shower, and pushed
himself against her, trapping her
between rock and a hard thing. She hissed, and pulled
herself a bit
higher on his body, so she could get his length
to the right spot.
With a moan, she roughly lowered
herself onto him, feeling his
thickness fill her and please her. "Oh...oh yes..."
He grunted and started pushing against her.
The water flowed over
them, combining with the passionate exertion, to
make them sweat as
they coupled animalistically -- she squeezing
him within her, he
moving inside her, back and forth, back and forth, back
and forth...
Their thoughts faded away into mindless pleasure
consisting only of
movement back and forth, back and forth, back and forth...
***
...back and forth, back and forth, back
and forth... The fingers
stroked furiously over the aching point, trying
to unleash all the
built-up need and frustration in an overwhelming explosion of
orgasm.
The body shuddered, again, again and again, as tremors of approaching
climax wracked it mercilessly, waves of pleasure crashing all over
it,
caressing it, stroking it as if there was nothing
in the world left
but sex, and the overpowering need for it...
A soft whimper erupted from the throat,
but teeth bit down on the
bottom lip to muffle the sound so anyone wouldn't hear it.
If anyone
found out about the masturbating, all of the hard-earned respect would
go straight down the drain. So silence was of the essence, and
it was
maintained as the wild orgasm crashed thru body and mind, melding with
the delicious fantasy stemming from that incident
not so long ago,
when he had walked in on her taking a shower...
The orgasm passed. The body spasmed
a few final times. The hips
bucked, and then fell down onto the sweat-dampened
sheets. Heavy
breathing resumed, though it was kept as quiet as
possible so as to
not catch the attention of anyone passing by the room.
"Mmmm..." the lips whispered softly as
the body slowly relaxed,
muscles limp and exhausted from the furious tensing and clenching
the
climax had induced. "That would be so..."
***
"AWESOME!"
"Of course it is...'awesome', as you so charmingly put it,
Tabitha",
Roberto commented, wrinkling his nose a bit disdainfully as he stepped
out of his new car. "Not
all of us relish the idea of using a
twenty-year-old, beaten-up, dusty, scruffy,
malfunctioning little
piece of junk as our choice transportation."
Danielle Moonstar leaned backwards against the wall of the
warehouse
where the mutant team X-Force currently
lived. "I see you still
haven't gotten over your obsession, 'Berto", she smiled with amusement
as she looked over the bright red Ferrari Testarossa. "Been
watching
many Magnum reruns lately?"
"Feh", Roberto shot a mock-annoyed glance at Dani. "I do
not need to
watch reruns to remember the greatest television show ever."
"When is it on?" Tabitha asked.
"9:30 pm every Tuesday night", Roberto replied.
***
"Doesn't it hurt?"
KLAKKT!
"Ah've learned ta deal with it, Jim", Samuel Zachery Guthrie
replied
as he parried the bo staff with his own, going to a crouch and raising
the staff horizontally above himself.
"Fekt!" James Proudstar cursed as his overhead blow glanced off
Sam's
staff and left him off-balance and vulnerable to a counterattack.
His
muscles quickly tensed in anticipation of the coming blow.
"Fekt??" Sam asked as he brought his staff around from the
parry and
sweeped low with it, intending to knock Jimmy's feet from
underneath
the Apache. "Fekt?? When did you turn into Shatterstar?"
"I guess I picked up a couple of things from him", Jimmy
answered as
his legs thrust, sending him upwards in a leap.
Not only did he go
over Sam's staff, but also over
Sam himself, landing in a crouch
behind the Kentuckian before finishing his
sentence with, "when we
trained together."
"*Now* you tell me", Sam hissed, just before feeling
his opponent's
staff smash right into his back, sending a spasm of pain
thru him as
he lost his balance and toppled forwards with an "UNGH!"
"Well, would *you* reveal that you
had the upper hand *before*
starting the fight?" Jimmy asked as he brought his
staff around and
prepared to administer the coup d' grace to Sam.
"As I recall, your
keeping cards hidden was what got
us victory when Exodus came
calling..."
"Good memory", Sam wheezed as he tried to recover from the
blow that
had laid him low, but knew he couldn't
do it fast enough to dodge
staff that was already whistling down thru the air towards him.
"What --?" Jimmy blinked as his blow glanced off the blast field
that
suddenly appeared around Sam, a dull orange glow of biochemical energy
which served as an impenetrable force field. "I thought
we agreed no
powers!"
"Ah've decided you've been using yoah superfast reflexes", Sam
simply
replied, and kicked out with his left leg, using it to
sweep Jimmy's
legs from underneath the Apache while
the surprise still had its
maximum effect.
"UNFF!" Jimmy coughed as he toppled backwards
and crashed onto his
back onto the floor, momentarily breathless
and helpless from the
impact. "*Now* you tell me", he said, and opened
his eyes, only to
see Sam's tall form towering beside him, and holding
the tip of his
staff against Jimmy's throat.
"Like you said, Jimmy", Sam smiled, "mah keeping cards hidden
is the
key ta winning." He lowered his staff away from Jimmy's
throat, and
instead extended his hand down at the Apache, offering to help him
up.
"An' I'm pretty good at playin' cards -- just ask Gambit",
he smiled
playfully, recalling the time when he had beaten the Cajun thief
in a
game of poker.
"I don't doubt that one bit, Sam", Jimmy answered
as he took Sam's
hand and pulled himself up. "You always were a player.
Much more of
a fighter and leader than I've ever been."
"Don't sell yourself short, Jimmy", Sam
answered, and picked the
Apache's staff from the ground to join
his own staff in his hand.
Then, he put both staves away onto
the rack on the wall of the
training room. "You've always been the
heart and soul of X-Force,
from the beginning. The backbone's that's
always been there. And
don't think we don't appreciate it."
"It's not that I think you don't appreciate it", Jimmy answered,
and
walked over to one of the closets in the large hall,
and pulled out
two towels. "But I really don't see myself as the
heart and soul of
the team, Sam." He tossed the other towel over to
Guthrie, and then
dried his own face off with the remaining one.
"That's always been
you. Or maybe Bobby, in a weird way."
"We've both been away from the team for long times", Sam
answered as
he caught the towel and wiped his face dry as well, then
flipped the
towel onto his shoulder. "You've always been here."
"Doesn't matter", Jimmy answered and turned around,
heading for the
door to the showers. "You and Bobby've
been around since the New
Mutants begun. That's still a hell of a lot more time than
I've been
here."
"Well, it's not the length that counts,
it's how you use it", Sam
grinned as he followed Jimmy into
the showers. "So what're you
planning?"
"I wish I knew", Jimmy answered as he tossed
his towel down onto a
bench and then pulled off his sweaty
shirt. "I just feel like --
like, you know, I'm on the team because there's nothing
else I know.
Not because I *want* to be here."
"Ah see", Sam nodded and started stripping himself off as
well. "Ah
guess that might be a mite like what Ah felt like on the
X-Men. All
mah life, I've figured that's where Ah wanted ta
go, but once I got
there -- well, once Ah got there, it wasn't so special.
And I just
kinda hung on with them, until Ah realized mah place wasn't with
'em,
it was with mah family -- you guys." He paused as he started
pulling
off his pants, stripping himself down
to his white cotton briefs.
"Maybe -- if'n ya don't feel at
home here, maybe your place's
somewhere else, Jim?"
"I dunno, Guthrie", Jimmy mused. "I don't *have* anywhere
else. You
had something to return *to* -- I don't. I think it'd be more
running
away *from*, than going back *to*, if I left."
"Running away from Terry?" Sam asked as he slipped his briefs off, and
headed towards the showers.
Jimmy sighed and looked down for
a moment, then shrugged as he
finished stripping off as well, and headed after Sam to
the showers.
"I suppose."
"Speaking o' Terry", Sam frowned, and turned his shower on, flinching
slightly as the cold water started pouring over him before starting
to
adjust the temperature upwards gradually, "what's
with this Risque
gal? What's her story?"
"Saved me from Selene", Jimmy answered
a bit tensely, "took me to
Florida with her, we had some fun, she betrayed me.
Sold me off to
some guy named Sledge. I think she was in debt to him over something,
and he wanted me to do a job for him...fetch the Vanisher out
of some
pocket dimension." He shrugged, and turned
his shower on, standing
beside the water fall while he
waited for it to get warm, before
stepping underneath it. "I don't
want anything to do with Gloria
anymore."
"But you were happy with her?" Sam asked as he let his neck
go limp,
his head dangling forwards lazily
as the shower caressed his
exercise-tensed body.
"Well, until she sold me off, yeah", Jimmy frowned a bit angrily.
"Jimmy", Sam said calmly. "Sometimes we do things
we regret. Even
the best of us make mistakes. If she's all
ya got outside X-Force,
maybe you oughta give her a second chance?"
"Would you give Tabitha a second chance?"
Sam froze in place, and winced mentally. He stayed
quiet for a long
time, and then said, "Ah guess Ah see your point."
"Which brings us back to what we
were talking about during the
exercise", Jimmy said quietly, as he
took a bottle of shampoo and
started rubbing the liquid into his hair. "How can you
manage seeing
Tabitha together with Bobby? I
don't think I could handle seeing
Terry with another guy..."
"No use cryin' over spilled milk, Jimmy", Sam said
as he rolled his
head around from side to side slowly. "Ah messed things up, an'
Ah've
gotta face the consequences. If Ah'd been more attentive
to her, we
might still be together. It ain't her fault, or Bobby's."
"I wish I could have an attitude like that", Jimmy mused.
"If I saw
Terry with another guy, I'd just end up thinking over and over
again,
what's that guy have that I didn't? Why did he succeed
and I didn't?
And I suppose I'd get bitter that she'd choose
him and not me. If
that ever happened, I couldn't stick around to watch it."
Sam nodded silently, and started lathering
up his blond hair with
shampoo as well after he felt his neck muscles were at least
somewhat
relaxed and less achy. "What coupla guys we are, huh?
The two girls
in the world that we love, and they don't want us."
"Life sucks, Sam. I learned that when my brother
joined the X-Men,
and got killed. And when I quit the Hellions, and
went back home to
Camp Verde, to see everybody dead. And
when I joined X-Force, and
found out all my old classmates
had been killed by that bastard
Fitzroy." James Proudstar sighed and shook his head as
he started to
rinse his hair. "I've been hurt
so much already...I just want to
settle down and be happy for a change."
"Ah've noticed you don't use the 'Warpath' name anymore", Sam
pointed
out questioningly.
"I don't hold a grudge against Xavier anymore for John's death", Jimmy
answered. "And I've found out Stryfe
was responsible for the Camp
Verde massacre, and well -- he's dead. And we killed Fitzroy
back at
your place in Kentucky, when the Younghunt was on, as far as
I know."
He shrugged, and reached for the soap after his hair
was thoroughly
rinsed. "There's nothing to be on the warpath against anymore,
Sam."
"Well, except the general anti-mutant sentiment", Sam answered.
"But
Ah dunno if you've ever gone for that particular battle."
"I'm not a politician, Sam. I'm no good with words",
Jimmy replied.
"If I was, I'd be with Terry."
"You hope."
"Well, yeah. I hope." Jimmy sighed
and shook his head. "No use
hoping. I just wish --" He paused, and frowned a bit, then
shook his
head again and said, "Nevermind."
"What?" Sam asked as he got a bar of soap and started
lathering his
hands up as his eyes lingered confusedly
on the form of James
Proudstar.
James sighed, and bit his bottom lip. Then, he lightly
hit his fist
against the wall of the shower room. "Well, this is going
to make me
sound like a jerk -- but I wish we could've made love.
Even if it'd
have been just once. I just
-- I would've wanted something to
remember her by." He snorted faintly.
"I guess this is the male
sex-centered mindset speaking."
Sam blushed slightly. "So you --
Ah mean, you two -- you never
actually --?"
"Nope", Jimmy answered, and ran the soap under his arms, then down his
sides to his hips. "Not even close."
"Oh", Sam said quietly, and turned away from Jimmy to hide the
slight
arousal he was starting to get
from the thought of Theresa in
conjunction with sex. He tried
turning his thoughts away from
Theresa, and asked, "Have you and Dani been talking
much lately? I
remember you and her used to have something
going back in the old
days..."
"Maybe something small, but it never amounted
to anything", Jimmy
sighed again. "Seems like every time I get to like
someone, I don't
have the guts to say or do anything about it because I'm
scared they
don't feel the same way, and they'll run away. Not
that I've really
liked that many people, in that way...
I used to like Dani, but I
don't know anymore... And then there's Terry...
And Gloria. And I
think that's about it." He smiled faintly.
"At least there was one
good thing about Gloria", he said bitterly. "She
was great in bed."
The smile quickly faded, and he murmured quietly,
"Not that I have
much to compare her to..."
"Well, Ah don't have that much experience mahself", Sam smiled
sadly.
"Ah used ta have the biggest crush on Amara -- never thought
Ah'd get
over her givin' me the cold shoulder until Ah met Lila, an' she
swept
me off mah feet. And after her -- well, there was Tab.
And that's it
for me."
"Did you sleep with both Lila and Tabitha?"
Jimmy asked curiously,
quirking an eyebrow as he started soaping
up his crotch, a slight
swelling beginning within him.
"Yeah", Sam blushed. "Lila's the one Ah lost mah virginity
to. She
was a dang sex maniac. Taught
me pretty much all Ah know", he
answered. "Not that Tabs fell much short'a Lila..."
"Yeah, I know what you mean", Jimmy said, and started getting
a hint
of a smile back to his lips. "Gloria was like that, too...
We spent
a couple of weeks almost entirely in bed." He turned
around to show
his back to Sam, and the huge bird tattoo covering almost
the entire
back. "That's when I got this. I don't know if I should
regret it or
not."
Sam glanced over his shoulder, and then blinked at the sight,
turning
fully around to see it properly. "Wow", he commented, and
then said,
"Paige's always been teasin' me about wanting
to get a tattoo. Ah
guess now that she's got her huskin' powers, Ah might actually let
'er
do it." He smiled, and said, "Ah
can tell 'er to get rid of it
whenever Ah want."
"Handy power to have", Jimmy said, and glanced down
a bit, at Sam's
full eight-inch erection. "No wonder
you hooked those two", he
chuckled faintly. "I can't imagine why they'd
have wanted to leave
you though..."
Sam blushed crimson, and turned around again to hide the
evidence of
his arousal, kicking himself mentally over
having even gotten onto
this topic. "Size ain't everything, Jimmy
-- 's what Lila used to
always tell me back when we were together..."
"I suppose that's true", Jimmy nodded. "I mean, Bobby doesn't
have a
particularly big one, and he seems to do well enough..."
"Well, he's the *only* one of us
who does, period", Sam replied.
"Sometimes when he and Tabs can't keep
quiet at night, Ah'm about
ready ta walk in and clobber them for flaunting it and not keeping
it
down."
Jimmy chuckled slightly at the mental image. "They'd probably invite
you to join them", he joked.
"Not funny, Jim", Sam said with a faint glare in the direction
of the
Apache, and then sighed with a shake of his head.
"Sorry. Ah guess
they're still a sore spot with me."
"That's understandable", Jimmy said, and turned his shower
off after
rinsing all the soap off himself. "Like
I said earlier, I'm still
pretty sore about Terry myself."
"We'd better just drop the topic", Sam nodded,
and started rinsing
himself off. "So, what do you think of Jesse?"
"I'm not sure yet", Jimmy answered as he walked off to the
bench and
grabbed his towel, starting to dry himself off. "That boy
feels like
he's hiding more secrets than almost anyone
I've ever met. And he
knows more about us than I feel comfortable with. And it's
like he's
trying to push all our buttons somehow."
"Yeah, 's what I'd thought, too", Sam said as
he turned his shower
off, and walked over to his bench, sitting
down with a thoughtful
expression. "I'd better have a word with Dani and Dom about him."
"Sure you want to talk to Dom about him?"
Sam quirked an eyebrow at Jimmy's words. "What do you mean?"
"Well, just that -- well, I don't know. He seems to be hanging
around
Domino an awful lot. And Domino
doesn't seem to mind." James
Proudstar shrugged faintly. "Just an odd feeling
at the back of my
neck. Nevermind."
A concerned frown rose slowly onto Sam's face, but he then
discarded
it. "Ah'll think about it." He
finished drying himself off, and
started getting dressed again. "In the
meantime -- how about that
codename?" he asked. "Locus said
you'd one day take on the name
Pridewalker."
"I wouldn't take *anything* Locus says at face value", Jimmy said with
a wrinkle of his nose as he pulled his pants
on. "It might've all
been a trick. If it wasn't, and she *has* seen
the future -- well,
she might've changed it by telling me. And
if she was lying -- I'm
definitely not picking that name. I'll pick my names
myself, rather
than rely on a two-bit MLFer."
"Thought about going back to Thunderbird?" Sam asked as he pulled
his
shirt on.
"I've thought about it", Jimmy nodded.
"But it feels like a step
back, to being a kid, rather than going ahead. On the other hand",
he
shrugged, "it might be who I am."
Sam nodded and walked over to a mirror, starting
to comb his moist
hair. "Well, as long as it
ain't 'Deadpool', Ah won't have a
problem..."
Jimmy groaned softly. "Don't even remind me of that lunatic."
He took
a deep breath, and said, "Actually, I've been considering 'Mustang'."
"You're gonna name yourself after a car?" Sam quirked an eyebrow.
"Not just a car, Sam", Jimmy said. "But what it stands for.
The wild
expanse of America, and a stallion riding free, fast as the wind..."
"Ah suppose it does have a kinda glamor at that",
Sam shrugged, and
put his comb away. "Like Ah said, your call, Jim."
James nodded slowly, and then headed out of the shower room,
exiting
into the training hall.
Sam almost bumped into Jimmy's back as
he realized the Apache had
stopped almost dead in his tracks after going thru the door.
"Hello, Theresa."
***
SCREEEEECH
Danielle Moonstar watched calmly as the bright red
sportscar curved
onto the street, slammed down its brakes and skidded the
rear around
with the screeching complaint of strained rubber.
The car slid into
place perfectly onto its parking spot beside the warehouse
where the
mutant teens of X-Force currently lived.
KRSH
Almost perfectly.
"Ah, droga!" Roberto Da Costa muttered as he looked to the side mirror
and saw the left-hand rear corner of
the Ferrari in way too close
proximity with a lamppost. He wrinkled
his nose and his lips drew
into a slight pout.
"Nice going, Evil Kneivel", Tabitha Smith commented sarcastically from
the passenger's seat. "I guess I should be
thankful you didn't get
either of us killed..."
"Evil Kneivel drove a motorcycle", Roberto grunted
as he swung open
his door and stepped out of the car, heading over to the
back of the
car to check the damage.
"So?" Tabitha shrugged as she exited the vehicle as
well and walked
over to the back of the car to join Roberto.
"A trick driver's a
trick driver. And face it, you're definitely not one", she grinned.
"Harumph", Roberto just muttered and ran his fingers over
the dented
metal and the shattered tail light.
"Stupid car doesn't *handle*
right..."
"Oh, right", Danielle smiled as she
walked over to the pair, and
rested her chin on Roberto's shoulder
playfully. "Far be it from
*you* to actually have a *shortcoming*..."
"Bobby?" Tabitha mock-gasped in horror at the tall Cheyenne woman, her
eyes widening in an exaggerated expression.
"A *shortcoming*? Oh
*please*, Dani, *say* it ain't *so*!"
Roberto grumbled and shot a glare at the two women,
then started to
walk away towards the entrance to the warehouse, a storm cloud
saying
"I hate you two" almost visible over his head.
The two women managed to hold a quivering smile until he
had entered
the building, and then collapsed into
uncontrolled laughter, Dani
leaning against the lamppost and Tabitha banging her fist against
the
back of the Ferrari.
***
"H'lo, Jimmy", Theresa Rourke Cassidy grunted
without looking over
towards the two men emerging from the shower room. Her
attention was
on the 100 pounds of steel she was holding up as she lay
on her back
on the bench. Gradually, she brought the bar downwards,
making sure
to hold it all the way and not let her muscles buckle and let it fall.
KLANGG
Steel met steel, as the bar descended onto its support-rest-thingee,
and Theresa let her muscles relax for a moment, her
grip on the bar
loosening, and then ending completely as her exhausted arms fell
limp
beside her.
"Um, I need ta head off t'... Ah've got something to do", Sam
Guthrie
said and started to head towards the door out of the gym
hall. "See
you later, guys..."
James Proudstar quirked an eyebrow at Sam, and then glanced briefly
to
Theresa. "Yeah, me too", he said. "Take
care, Terry. Be careful,
don't hurt yourself..." He turned his back
on her and followed Sam
towards the exit.
Theresa's eyes narrowed at the two men, but she didn't say anything
as
they opened the door out of the gym.
"Oof", Sam uttered as he bumped straight into Roberto Da Costa
in the
doorway. "Hi Bobby -- sorry", he said, stepping thru
the doorway to
make way for the Brazilian to enter the gym.
"No problem", Roberto replied with a slightly stormy
expression and
followed up with a "Hi, Sam", and a quick nod to his best friend.
He
then turned his eyes onto Jimmy. "Proudstar", he said neutrally,
and
gracefully slipped past both of them into the gym.
"Hey Bobby", Jimmy replied more amicably than the black man, and
then
with a brief wave of his hand, exited the gym, closing the door behind
him.
Roberto Da Costa's angry eyes found the sweaty body of Theresa
Rourke
Cassidy, and slowly traveled up to meet her narrowed eyes.
***
"He isn't too fond of me, is he?"
"Not too, nope", Sam Guthrie answered as the two men
headed towards
the kitchen areas of the warehouse. "Ah think
he never did. Dunno
why. Bobby gets that way with some people." He shrugged
and glanced
to James Proudstar. "Sorry about that. He's mah best
friend, but he
really can be a stubborn ass sometimes."
"It's okay", Jimmy answered as they entered the kitchen
areas and he
headed over to the fridge, opening it
and taking out a pitcher of
orange juice. "It's not like I'm
trying to win over his heart or
anything -- speaking of which, you don't really have anywhere
to get
to, do you?"
Sam shook his head and took a bag of sliced bread out of
a cupboard.
"Nope", he answered. "Just thought Ah'd give you and Terry an
opening
if y'all wanted ta talk." He opened the bag and took
out some bread
slices. "Don't look like you wanted to."
"The *last* thing I need these days is to talk to her", Jimmy
replied
and took two glasses out of another cupboard and poured
them full of
the orange juice. "I'm trying to get my heart
to *forget* her, and
seeing her wherever I turn isn't exactly helping. I guess that's
part
of why I want to run away. If I
stay here, it's just tearing the
wound open again and again, and never letting it heal."
"Ah understand", Sam nodded and pulled out a sharp knife, starting
to
slice up some cheese, sausage and tomatos to
put between the bread
slices. "Ah don't feel the same way, but Ah understand.
T' tell ya
the truth, Ah've been thinkin' o' takin' Tabitha back..."
"At least she *wants* you back", Jimmy commented as he quickly
gulped
down his glass of juice, and then re-filled it. "I'm just going
to be
hurt if I stick around. You
at least have a chance of getting
together with Boomer." He shrugged slightly.
"I think you should.
Everyone can see you two love each other."
"Well, Ah *do* love her, but..." Sam frowned
and finished slicing
stuff up, and started to lay
them between the bread slices,
accompanied with big bushes of salad.
"She *cheated* on me, Jim.
How'm Ah gonna know she won't do it again?"
"You don't", Jimmy answered as he grabbed one sandwich as Sam finished
it. "But let me ask you one question -- isn't she worth the risk?"
He
peered at the sandwich in his hand thoughtfully
a moment, and then
quirked an eyebrow, asking, "No butter?"
Sam smiled faintly, and shook his head. "Sorry. Ah don't
use butter,
didn't think to put some in for
you..." He opened the fridge and
pulled out a container of butter. "Here ya go, have a ball."
He then
resumed making the next sandwich with a thoughtful
expression. "As
for Tabitha..."
***
"You really love him, don't you?"
"God, yeah, Dani", Tabitha Smith answered as she opened
the door and
entered a small Turkish restaurant, closely
followed by Danielle
Moonstar. "I'm dying without him", she said with a pained
expression
as she glanced around the mostly
empty estabilishment and nodded
questioningly towards a remote corner booth.
Dani nodded in agreement and the pair headed over to the
booth, took
off their jackets and tossed them over the backs of their seats.
"I'm
sorry", she said quietly, and then glanced towards the
cash register
where a Turkish man -- who, despite not being black, somehow
reminded
her of Roberto's father -- was
waiting for them to come over and
order. "You know what you wanna get?"
"I guess", Tabitha nodded and started heading
over to the counter,
glancing up to the board above the man for the selection
and quickly
picked something. "A marmara and a large Coke, please",
she told the
man and dug up some cash from her pocket, handing it over to the man.
"Strong or mild sauce?" the man asked in an accented voice which
made
Tabitha blink once before her brain wrapped around
the sentence and
managed to filter out the accent.
"Um...mild, thanks", she answered, and then stepped aside to let
Dani
order, while she occupied herself with grabbing a
fork, a knife and
some paper from the table next to her.
"I'll have a Pizza Tropicana, thanks, and some milk",
Dani told the
man and dug up her wallet.
"And plenty of oregano, please", she
smiled as she handed over the cash, then stuffed the wallet back
into
the back pocket of her jeans.
"All right. Will be ready in fifteen minutes",
the man nodded and
turned around, heading off the cash register and into the kitchen area
behind him, starting to get busy.
Dani grabbed a fork, a knife and some paper as well, and
then headed
back to their table with Tabitha. "I'm sorry about
Sam -- but he'll
take you back, I *promise*. He's
too soft to stay angry forever.
Just give him a while to get over it..."
"Thanks", Tabitha said quietly as she sat into her
chair and stared
quietly down at the table for a moment. "You're being too nice
to me,
you know. It *was* your boyfriend I scr...uh, slept with..."
Dani smiled, a hint of sadness passing over her eyes
briefly. "You
can say 'screwed' to me. I'm
not sixty years old", she made a
half-hearted joke in an attempt to lift the mood slightly. "And..."
A
frown broke thru onto her face for a moment, forcing her to swallow
a
bit. "Well, let's just say that if we have to routinely put our
lives
in each others' hands, there's no room for grudges, Tabitha..."
"I wish Sam felt that way", Tabitha said
quietly, and drummed the
table nervously with her fingers. Then, the fingers
paused, and she
looked hesitantly into Dani's eyes. "I really
didn't mean to screw
him...honest. It just...happened... I'm really sorry..."
"It's okay", Dani said with a sad smile. "It's okay... I've
put this
behind me, and...well..." She forced a grin.
"Let's just drop the
topic, okay? I don't want to remember any of it... 'Berto
cheated on
me once, it happened, there's nothing I can do about it except
try to
forget it..."
"I swear it won't happen ever again..." Tabitha offered.
"It'd better not", Dani said sharply.
***
Theresa Rourke Cassidy watched Roberto Da Costa's bare torso
glisten
with sweat all over, and the slacks
covering him from waist-down
starting to stick to his skin from the
perspiration. She watched
those gorgeous muscles, tense and flowing underneath
the chocolate
skin, the image of perfection, a
sight that could make statues
envious. It mesmerized her.
"...four hundred ninety eight...nnngg...four
hundred ninety
nine...nnn-nnff...FIVE hundred!" he said triumphantly, and then with
a
"Gnahh!" sound lowered the metal bar onto its support structure.
KLANNG
"Not bad", Theresa said with a voice that was
slightly breathless,
even though she hadn't done anything
but watch him the past few
minutes. She couldn't restrain her
tongue from flicking out and
licking her lips very briefly.
"'Not bad'?" Roberto asked with a disdainful voice, his exhausted eyes
opening to look at Theresa standing at the head of the
bench. "Half
an hour ago, you were straining to get a *tenth* of five hundred
with
a *third* of this weight..."
"Tha' was me", Theresa replied off-handedly.
"You're you. I don't
work out near as much as y' do."
"Hnh", Roberto snorted, and sat up on the bench, bending
forward to
touch his forehead to his knees, letting out a relieved
"Ahh" at the
feeling of a vertebrae pop in his back. He slipped off
the bench and
stood straight, extending his aching
arms above his head and
stretching them out before lowering them
to his sides. "So what
*will* I have to do to impress you?"
Theresa quickly bit back a "Just stand there" comment, and looked into
the Brazilian's eyes thoughtfully. "When I was stayin'
on Muir Isle,
me da took me on a run 'round the island early
every mornin'." She
crossed her arms over her chest and smiled. "Beat me at
runnin', an'
I'll be impressed."
A very mischievous smirk slowly crept onto Roberto's face. "Deal."