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Mike and Carrie Saga Carrie had been through so much in the last twenty-four hours that Mike didn't want to burden her with his suspicions. He couldn't prove any of them anyway. He'd like to blame Stefano or someone, but Mike honestly couldn't think of one person who would want him dead. Maybe he was wrong. Maybe this was all in his mind. But true to form, Carrie picked up on his anxiety nonetheless. "Are you alright? Is something bothering you?" Carrie tucked a wet strand of hair behind her ear. Mike faked a half smile. "I'm... I'm fine. It's nothing." He sat down on the bed next to her, his mind filled with worry, wonder and what if. He couldn't imagine who would want to do this to him. But if someone did want to kill him, what if next time Carrie was the victim? What if they wanted to get to him by hurting her? Mike pushed the thoughts out of his mind. Maybe he was blowing this all out of proportion. Maybe it was only a string of coincidences. But he couldn't be sure. "I'm sorry Carrie. I've got a lot of things on my mind." He pulled the two medicinal containers out of his jacket pocket and intently stared at them. Could these small vials be the reason? "What are those?" Carrie's comment pulled him out of his endless road of questions. Questions that seemed without answers. "You seem preoccupied. Are you sure you're alright?" Mike's unusual mood swing was worrying Carrie. She'd never seen him like this before. "I just want to get us home." Mike exhaled to release the tension in his clinched jaw. "While you were in the shower, I tried to call home, but no one answered. Then I called dad and finally grandma's. I was about to give up when Hope answered. I told her we were stranded but the phone went dead." There was that word again. Dead. He banished the word from his mind by physically shaking his head. Carrie gave him a curious look. "So, unfortunately, she doesn't know where we are." "Neither do you." Carrie smiled and pushed at his shoulder, hoping to pull him out of the dumps. "True," Mike let out a stressful chuckle. "But at least I have a pretty good idea of our whereabouts." "Hope's more resourceful than you think. She's a smart cookie." Carrie stopped herself. She thought of the gooey chocolate chip kind. "Ooh, a cookie sounds really good right now." She put her hand to her stomach and it gave an immediate rumble. "I'm starving." "Now that you mention it, so am I." Mike smiled. Carrie always had a way of making him forget his troubles. No matter how sinister they might be. "Did someone mention food?" Carrie and Mike both jumped at the louder than necessary comment, but everything about Sister Mary Rosa seemed larger than life. ___________ Hope watched as John instructed the helicopter pilot. Two men were loading piles of smelly tread into the back seat of John's newest flying machine. He called it the Blackbird. John rode shotgun while Hope was stuck babysitting four brand new tires. She couldn't imagine what they were for. The tires barely gave her enough room to breathe. The Blackbird was out of Salem city limits in minutes. Hope couldn't hear anything John or the pilot were saying. The whirring blades droned on and on deafening her. She noticed they both had on large earphones with a small microphone attached to the side. Hope looked around and saw a similar pair sticking out from under the seat. They were a little large but being able to hear again was refreshing. "Keep going north. Mike once told me that his car was candy apple red. We shouldn't be able to miss it." John pointed in the direction he wanted the pilot to fly. Hope looked out of the window to her right. Mike's car would be easy to spot from up here. A few minutes later they were still circling. Unexpectedly, Hope was the first to see a flash of red between the trees. "Wait. There it is." Hope leaned into the front seat and showed John where she'd seen the car. John motioned for the pilot to taken them down. The cabin was now a pile of blackened cinders. Spirals of smoke emanated from the once solid structure. The smoke scattered when attacked by the blast from the helicopter's blades. "They were lucky to get out of there alive." Hope agreed. God must have been smiling down on Mike and Carrie yesterday. ___________ Eric tossed and turned all night. The quiet of the apartment he had longed for screamed and pounded in his ears. He got up and stared at the television. Endless commercials flitted in front of his eyes. But all he could think about and all he could see was Jamie's face and Jamie's pain. How could he have hurt her like that? All the old feelings came rushing back to him. Why did she have to show up now? Didn't he have enough to deal with? He couldn't help but go over it all in his mind. Sami and Lucas were up to something. He could just sense it. And Carrie was totally confusing him. What was the deal with her and Mike anyway? Eric always thought that she was in love with Austin. Mike was definitely in love with her, that was for sure. And to top it all off, his dad was dying and there was nothing he could do about it. Why couldn't God give him a break? ____________ Austin stared dumfounded at Sami lying nude beside him. She looked so happy lying there. Her hair was tousled just like Carrie's had been so many times after they had... "Oh, my God! What have I done?" He had dreamt that he and Carrie had make love. Was the dream really a reality but with Sami instead of Carrie? Austin jumped out of bed, slipped on a pair of jeans and made his way to the roof. He could always think better up there. A cool breeze blew across his face, and he could hear the rumble of distant thunder softly echoing it's timeless melody. Puddles of rainwater dotted the rooftop in a haphazard pattern. He softly kicked at one and watched as his reflection in the water shattered into a thousand droplets. The sun was already rising past the mountains. Another new day. Another day without the woman he loved. Could he ever get use to life without Carrie in it? ____________ Mike and Carrie smiled at one other like they each knew the punch line to a very funny joke, but couldn't bring themselves to laugh out loud. The kitchen was filled with wonderful smells of freshly baked bread, pancakes, eggs and bacon and other delights which filled the table in front of them. Mary Rosa took up her place at the stove. It appeared that she was making gravy, and Carrie could see biscuits baking in the oven. Mike wondered who else was coming to breakfast. There was enough food there to feed fifteen people. Carrie grabbed a croissant and pulled it apart. Heat rose in an invisible haze from the freshly made item. "Can you believe this?" Carrie took a buttery bite of the croissant. "No one cooks like this anymore. Not even your grandmother." "Apparently, no one has ever told her that." Mike filled a plate with various delectable treats. He couldn't remember the last time he'd eaten. His eyes were much bigger than his stomach. He didn't eat even half of what he'd piled on his plate. Sister Mary Rosa sat opposite them and watched as they silently ate breakfast. Mike kept wondering why she was staring at them so intently. He pushed the plate toward the center of the table and leaned back in his chair. The nun looked ready to pounce on them at any second. She waited until Carrie drank the last of her tea before she spoke. "I'm dying to know..." Mary Rosa waited an uncomfortable amount of time before she spoke again. "What brings you to our little chapel?" Rosa sat with her hands tucked beneath her chin with expectant wonder filling her eyes. She reminded Mike of a child who was about to receive a lollypop for being such a good patient. "I can't get the sight of the two of you out of my head. And I can't think of one good reason as to why you would be dressed as you were. There aren't cabins around here for miles." She sat and looked from Mike to Carrie and back to Mike. "Well?" Mike let out a nervous laugh. He did not want to get into what had happened inside the cabin in front of the fire. Just thinking about it made him blush. That was not a subject he wished to discuss with a nun. Mike cleared his throat and took a drink of orange juice. Carrie who was sitting next to him shyly smiled. He could tell that she didn't want the nun to know the intimate details either. So Mike started his explanation with the unseen sniper shooting at them, skipped the romantic interlude, and headed straight into the cabin fire. "My, my, my. Such an ordeal. That good Doctor Brooks." Sister Mary Rosa crossed herself praying for the doctor. "He came here many times in the last few years. I can't believe it." Mary Rosa grabbed onto Mike's hand and held it tighter than he would have liked. "You don't think they're still around, do you?" She looked quickly over her shoulder. "They who?" Carrie was confused. "Those people who tried to kill you." Carrie looked to Mike. "You really think they were trying to kill us? It was Dr. Brooks' cabin. I just thought..." "That man doesn't have a single enemy." Mary Rosa placed her finger to the side of her mouth and tapped it there. "None that I know of anyway. You don't have any enemies to speak of, do you?" Carrie looked at Mike. He had had the same look on his face earlier. Now the expression was more defined. More certain. "That's it, isn't it? You think someone's trying to kill us. That's what was bothering you." Carrie turned toward Mike and made him face her. "Tell me the truth. Do you think someone is trying to kill us?" ___________ After they landed, it became readily apparent what the tires were for. John was going to use Mike's car to conduct his search by ground. The pilot would do the same by air. Hope watched as the two men jacked up each tire and replaced it with a fresh one. Once the last nut was screwed in, the pilot told John that everything was set, and they devised a way to remain in contact with each other. It looked like a very complex set of walkie talkies. Hope didn't know where John had come up with them on such short notice but knowing John she knew he always had something up his sleeve. As the pilot ascended, the air around them was momentarily disturbed. Then as the helicopter flew off into the distance, silence enveloped them. It was so peaceful up here. Hope loved coming to the mountains. For some reason, a picture of Jude St. Clair formed in her mind. Well, she usually loved coming up to the mountains. She had been in the mountains when he had held her prisoner a few years back. Had it really been that long ago? It had been snowing and in the middle of winter then, so different from how it was today. So green and lush and fragrant. She was still thinking about her own mountain adventure, particularly the part concerning Bo, while John steered the Corvette expertly down the winding highway. They were headed in the direction of Green Mountain Lodge since that was where Mike had said he had been going. John snapped his fingers in front of Hope's face. "Tell me a little more about what Mike said to you on the phone. I feel like I'm driving blind here." "Right before we lost the connection, he said something about a chapel. I'm not sure that's what he said but it sounded like the word chapel. I could be wrong. That's why I didn't mention it before." "At least that gives us a little more to work with." John radioed the pilot with the new information. "He'll keep a look out for any churches from up above." They drove in silence for a long time. John looked over at Hope. She was resting her head against her hand looking off into the distance. He could tell she was thinking about Bo. At times she looked blissfully happy and seconds later, he could see her pain. He wanted to ring Bo's neck for treating her this way. What was he thinking running off with Billie like that? Didn't he know what this would do to Hope? The static of the walkie talkie brought his eyes back into focus and to the road ahead of him. The pilot relayed the location of the only chapel in the area. John pressed his foot a little harder on the accelerator. The cure for Roman just might be in Mike's hands and time was a wasting. _____________ Carrie stood in the bathroom drying her hair still thinking about what was said. Mike had never answered her question and she needed to know. Were they in danger? The hair dryer was whirring so loud that she didn't hear Keith sneak up behind her or expect the hand that covered her mouth. He dragged her from the bathroom and the dryer fell to the floor slithering along the tiles like a snake. Carrie tried to scream but he was too strong, his hold too firm. "You're not supposed to disrupt the plan." Keith huskily repeated the phrase that kept running through his mind. Having her so close, the scent of her skin invaded his senses. She smelled good. Too good. Trying to brush away the effect she had on him, he loosened his grip a bit and she squirmed to free herself. Grabbing her tighter, he pressed her back against him. She hadn't seen him yet and he didn't want her to. Because if Rosa ever found out, he didn't want to know the consequences. When Keith tried to wrap his bandana around her eyes, she bit into the fleshy part of his thumb and screamed for dear life. Mike and Rosa were still in the kitchen when they heard an ear piercing scream. Mike ran in the direction of the commotion. It sounded like Carrie. Oh, God, he thought. Don't let them hurt her because of something I've done. He didn't know who would want him dead, but he definitely felt he was the target. ____________ Stefano sat in Peter's house playing chess and listening to his favorite opera aria. The phone rang breaking his concentration. It was the call he'd been waiting for. "You were right about Keith. He lost them last night." Stefano pounded his fists against the table. "Damn! The henchman crouched on a ledge overlooking the chapel and squinted through a pair of binoculars. "Oh, no." "What? What is oh, no? What is happening out there?" Stefano sounded genuinely worried. Keith was loose cannon. He never should have employed him. "Keith grabbed the girl. He's dragged her out onto a terrace. We have to do something, Stefano. That's a good fifty foot drop." Stefano dropped the hand that held the phone to his side, uttered an unintelligible Greek phrase and brought the phone back to his ear. "Deal with him by whatever means necessary." The sniper sat in a crouched position and aimed his gun at Keith and Carrie. copyright © 1998, w3PG, inc |