This time when we came back I got to be right in the middle of the festivities! Have I mentioned that I don’t like crowds? It was getting pretty bad until I got pulled up on stage for a photo op with the Director. At least they had food and drinks for everyone and plenty of tables and chairs set up. When I was allowed offstage Sylvia pounced on me and gave me a big hug and a peck on the cheek. That was awesome but surprising as she had never done anything like that before.
I got to do several impromptu interviews and even saw Janet Somethingortheother again. It was a good diversion but I knew that there were a number of essential tasks that had to be done. We had lost Maury and Jessie had taken a serious hit to her leg and there was a possibility that she could still lose it. Two others were hospitalized (broken ribs and a broken arm that happened out of combat) that were expected to make full recoveries.
I also needed to meet with the higher ups about the Australian Method and how to teach it to other units and militaries as well as everything else we learned while there. I needed to actually take over everything else here in our headquarters as company commander. I needed to talk to Sylvia about what happened in Australia. I also needed to debrief and connect with my command staff as well. Somewhere in there I needed to study the things that General Harrison had laid out for me. All of this and I knew for a fact that Sylvia wouldn’t allow me to just give up sleeping for the next couple of months.
Sylvia let me know when it was OK to disengage from the festivities and we headed to my apartment to unpack. “Congratulations, Captain. you’re now well on your way from celebrity to legend. We’re going to have to watch it or you’re going to be swarmed with groupies.”
“I have decided that being famous, although occasionally useful, is mostly a pain in the neck. Have you seen some of the thing they have been writing about you and me?”
“Yes, and don’t worry. There are people taking care of the most obnoxious stuff.”
“It not that big a problem to me because I just don’t pay that much attention, but when it starts hurting those around me; that’s when I get angry.”
“Did something happen?”
“Well you know how Lena is about rumors. Well I had a visit from Rowen, Lena’s child part. She started searching my room for hussies.” Sylvia had just taken a drink and did a classic spit-take and started coughing. “You OK?” She nodded and motioned for me to continue as she got some paper towels, “Well she had heard from her other parts that they needed to watch out for hussies around me. She didn’t know what they were, but she was sure looking for them. That was when I found out what was being said on the net about me and those around me.”
She looked at me with the most wide eyed expression I had ever seen on her. “Seriously! That is what you got from that?”
“I take it I missed something important.”
She started rummaging through her purse. “No. It’s not important, just surprising. We’ll work on that later. I have some news that goes with your promotion. It was decided that you needed an administrative assistant to be your extra hands. So as of today I will be spending part of each day working with you as part of your unit.” She brought out her tablet and showed me the memo.
“Well that’s awesome! Congratulations, you’re now a Giant Killer! So, Madam Secretary, what do we have on the agenda for the rest of the day?”
She rolled her eyes at my attempt of a joke. “Well, you have dinner with the Director, Angelia and General Moore at 7:00. Until then your appointment calendar is clear.”
“As much as I long to just rest and blow off the rest of the day, I have a number of things on my mind that I need to get taken care of before I can relax.”
She took out her tablet and a stylus. “OK. Tell me what you’ve got and we’ll make a plan.”
“I need to debrief my command staff, or at least schedule it. I need to create a schedule to study the materials that General Harrison recommended to me. I need to at least look over the offices to see what I need to take care of now that I am company commander. And, last of all, I need to talk to you about what happened between Lena and me on this trip.”
Sylvia dropped her stylus but quickly retrieved it. “Anything else?”
“Not off the top of my head.”
“Why don’t we start with what happened between you and Lena? You already mentioned the incident with the hussies. What else happened?”
“Lena seems to be divided into more than one person. I’ve heard of this, but I have no idea how it works or what to do about it. Lena has a little girl part called Rowen. I get along with kids really well and I just treated her like I would a kid and that worked out pretty well. I suspected that the main part of Lena didn’t know that Rowan was visiting me and found that out for sure on this trip. I didn’t say anything because I didn’t want to embarrass her, but I ended up doing so anyway.”
“So are you wanting my help with how to make up with Lena?”
“No. I talked with Lena and we’re getting along now. I just want to know how do you deal with people with different people inside them like that so I don’t end up screwing up and hurting her. Is there some sort of rules for acting around people with her … condition?”
“Lena has multiple personalities. It’s very rare but usually only happens to people who have had very bad things happen to them.”
“Like PTSD?”
“Yes, it’s caused by the same kind of things that cause PTSD only this is more serious. Lena is also a Savant, which makes her more vulnerable. Sukari and I have been working on ways that we can help her, and we were wondering if you could help us out.”
* * *
Sylvia looked over Allen and resisted the urge to facepalm. “Allen Spencer, you have killed giant killer aliens single handedly and given speeches in front of some of the most powerful men and women in the world. What in the world are you so nervous about?”
“What makes you think I’m nervous?”
Your voice just cracked, you are pale and sweating, and you look like you are about pass out or throw up. Sylvia decided to keep those observations to herself because she didn’t think they would help the situation. “Never mind. You are just going to town with your friend Lena. You are going to do some fun things and then you are going to come home. The only slightly romantic thing you are going to do is hold her hand at some point. Nothing more, nothing less.”
Allen looked like she had just told him that he needed to rip out his spleen with a spoon. He failed to look her in the eyes and lied badly, “I-I think I can handle that.”
The urge to facepalm was rising again but she managed to beat it down through sheer willpower. “You have your note cards and your back up note cards?”
“Yes.”
Notes are usually a horrible idea for a date, but after working with him to prepare, Sylvia had run out of alternate ideas with a snowball’s chance in hell of working. “Now when you see Lena, what do you say?”
“I, um, say something nice about her?”
She may have facepalmed a little, “Almost.”
He fished a stack of note cards out of his pocket. “Say something nice about the way she looks.”
“Anyway, it’s time to go pick her up. Just try to relax and have fun.”
“No problem.” he said with a hysterical hint to his voice.
As he drove away, Sylvia sighed and muttered, “I’m going to hell for this.”
* * *
I drove around to the main (impress the visitors) entrance and found Lena waiting with Sukari. I had the first couple of note cards in my hand as I drove and so I: 1)turned off the car, 2) got out to greet her, and 3) asked, “Have you been waiting long?”
“Only a few minutes.”
I had never seen Lena dressed up before. I had seen her in uniform a couple of times, but other than that it had either been t-shirt and shorts or the longjohns that they wore on duty. “Your dress looks nice.” And it did, but she just didn’t look comfortable in it.
“Thanks you look nice too.”
We stood there just long enough to be uncomfortable before I noticed Sukari making shooing motions. Then I remembered to open the door for her. I managed to get us on their way before I ran into the next problem. I was supposed to talk about something, but I could only remember what he wasn’t supposed to talk about. Not work, not the war, not video games, not the other people in the unit, not other girls, not about myself, and not politics or religion. What did that leave? “So, how are you feeling today?”
“Fine, how are you?”
“Pretty good.” Thirty seconds down, four hours to go. I looked around desperately for something to talk about. I saw a mileage sign. “I’ve never been to this city before, have you?”
“Only a couple of time when I was running away from Sukari, but that’s been years.”
The obvious question seemed like a bad idea so I continued my desperate search for another topic. I saw a cow! “What kind of food do you like?”
“I’m not picky, I’ll eat just about anything.”
Five minutes down, three hours and fifty-five minutes to go. Oh! I know! “What kind of movies do you like?”
“I really don’t like movies. I kind of get anxiety attacks in movies.”
I took my cards out of my pocket, shuffled through them, and tossed two of them out the window. Lena looked at me funny but didn’t say anything. I really wished that she had. Six minutes down … I really have to quit with the countdown. Let’s see… “Do you have anything you like to do in town?”
At this, Lena looked down and blushed. “I kinda have a lot of bad habits from when I was younger that I’m trying to break.”
I started to reach for my cards to throw the rest of them out of the window, but decided not to bother. What to talk about … I glanced at Lena to see if she was bored. Well duh, I could find out about her. That was even on one of the cards somewhere. “As much as we’ve worked together I really don’t know that much about you.”
“What do you want to know?” She tried to sound casual, but a bit of hostility slipped through.
“I don’t know. Where are you from, what are your hobbies; things like that.” That sounded reasonably safe.
“I’m from SoCal, you know, Southern California. No place in particular. We moved around a lot. Let’s see. Hobbies … You might have guessed that I like gymnastics and shi… stuff like that. I used to like surfing but I haven’t done that in like forever. Oh I like hiking but I don’t really get out there and do much even though the campus has all these mountains and stuff.”
That had seemed safe but she was looking embarrassed. When in doubt, say something nice. “Well, you’re definitely the best athlete we have. But, I’m not supposed to talk about work. Sorry.” That pretty much killed any conversational momentum we had. It was a good thing we were getting near the city. I was following the directions to what Sylvia had said were some “fairly nice” restaurants. I didn’t actually know what they were and since Lena hadn’t expressed any preferences, thought I would pull into the first one that looked interesting. Oh, there’s a steak house. I don’t think I’ve ever been to a real steak house.
I pulled in and found a parking place several rows back. I remembered to get the door for Lena. We got to the front door and there was a bunch of people waiting outside. I went up to the girl at the podium and she said that there was a two hour wait. We retreated a bit and I asked, “What do you think?”
She mumbled, “I think I’d rather get a burger.”
I fished my cards out of my pocket and removed two them and tossed them into a nearby trash can. “You know, I think I saw a Burger King and a Denney’s. What do you think?”
We both laughed and got back in the car. One nice thing about the cities on the Front Range in Colorado is that it’s never far to find a place with a good view. We sat on the hood of the car with a to-go bag between us. I had ditched the jacket and tie and she had left her shoes behind. We had a good view of the stars between the pines.
After we had watched the stars for some time, she asked, “So what was with the cards?”
I laughed self consciously, “It was a list of what I should and shouldn’t do.”
“OK. I understand why I got a list. So, why do you have a list?”
I sighed. “I’m afraid that I’m a giant nerd who has never been on a date ever and I have no idea how to ‘show a girl a good time.’”
“You’re kidding! Not even a date with friends?”
“What friends? I was the weird kid to that no one wanted to hang around with. It was always the same from grade school until I was recruited by Prometheus. This is the first place I have ever been that I felt like I even sort of belonged.”
“I know what you mean. If Prometheus hadn’t taken me out of that Crazy Camp, I don’t think I’d even be around anymore.”
“Well. I for one will always be glad they did. I felt like I won the lottery that day when you said that you’d join my team.” I decided to risk accomplishing my “romantic” goal for the night. I took her hand and said, “I always feel safer knowing you have my back.” She actually smiled shyly and looked down! I must have done something right!
She started to say something, but both of our alarms went off at the same time. The date was over and it was time to head home. We chatted about battlesuit maneuvers on the way home and when we reached the main (impress the visitors) entrance opened the door for her and returned her to Sukari.
Sylvia was waiting for me in the parking garage. I wrapped the evidence of fast food in my jacket and sat beside her in the cart, “Well, how did it go?”
“We didn’t get to see a movie and the wait at the restaurant was over two hours but we talked some and watched the stars for a while and I even held her hand like I was supposed to. Overall … heck if I know.”
“I should have known.”
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