Friday, April 15, 2011

Chapter 5

A/N: I love your comments. I also like how we have some who think she absolutely needs to be with Jarret, yet we have some that are still giving Jack a chance... definitely makes it more fun to write with the sides forming. Love it!
Soundtrack for this chapter... well it's actually 2 songs. Since we are playing with this love triangle thing I needed a song for the "2 couples."
First up: Jack and Liz: Ray LaMontagne's You Can Bring Me Flowers
And...: Jarret and Beth: Kate Nash's Merry Happy



“Hey, so Grandma says you are off work today…”
I laughed, not surprised that even with the schedule switching, Elsie already knew my schedule.  “That I am,” I answered, suddenly feeling a little giddy.  Careful girl.  Remember what you told him two nights ago about not wanting to be a fling.
“Grandma also said you might be interested in showing me some places to do some repelling or climbing…” he continued.  I could picture his perfect smile just by the way he spoke over the phone.
“Did you need to ask Grandma how to ask me out for the day?” I chided, trying not to be overly obvious that I was smiling like a girl who had just won the Miss Canadian pageant.
“Well if you count me asking her for your phone number, then yeah,” he laughed.  “So what time can I drop by and pick you up?”
I took a deep breath to calm my heart-rate a little bit, glanced over at the clock and then answered.  “Um, I actually only need about 30 minutes to get ready…”
“I’ll be over in 30 minutes then,” he replied happily.
It suddenly dawned on me that he was not aware of where I actually lived and him picking me up would be absolutely no good.  “Wait!  How about I pick you up?” I blurted out suddenly.  “I need to stop by the Squad first anyway because I will need to pick up a harness for you…”  Phew, awesome quick thinking, Liz.
“Um, sure, sounds like a plan.  I’ll see you when you get over here then,” he said, not questioning a thing.
“Awesome!  See you in a bit!” I smiled as I smacked myself in the head for being a total dumbass and almost making things a little awkward.  Obviously he was going to find out sooner than later that the house he had dropped me off at that first night he came to town, was not mine.  Then he was going to find out that my real home was nothing more than a dilapidated rancher that needed a ton of work on the outside.  I prided myself on keeping it tidy and clean on the inside, but when it came to fixing the roof, redoing the siding and painting the trim, I just never got around to it nor did I really have the money to do it.  It had never really bothered me until he came to town.  Now I was just embarrassed.
I packed my stuff up in the truck, told Bruno sorry for not taking him along and gave him a big bone to reiterate the apology.  As I walked out of the house, he was laying happily in the living room, chewing on it, not paying any mind to me.  I then headed over to the squad building.


“You going climbing, Lizzard?” Taylor asked cheerfully as he followed me into the equipment room.
“I am,” I answered, rolling my eyes.  God bless Taylor, he was a wonderful medic, but he could really be a simpleton at times.  I sometimes never understood how a brain of rocks could actually made logical decisions.  I guess he could be easily described as the male version of Paris Hilton, just Canadian, not rich, not a druggie and a total sweetheart.  Okay, so maybe there are better people to compare him to, but it makes total sense to me.
“Who are you going with if Jack is here?” he continued his nosey questioning.  I had been hoping to get in and out of here so that I wouldn’t feel the need to divulge my plans, but that was obviously going down the drain quickly.  Taylor knew, hell, everyone knew that Jack was my normal climbing buddy, because up until the other night, Jack was my best friend who I did everything with.
“None of your business,” I mumbled, knowing I was going to give myself away because I could feel the heat already rising up my neck.
“She’s going with Stoll, I’m sure,” Jack said, happening to join into the conversation that he was not even invited to.
I turned around with the harness and extra rope on my shoulder and pushed passed both of the guys.  Taylor was too busy making kissy faces to make comments and I couldn’t even bring myself to look at Jack.  I was still very angry at him and it ruffled me even more that he used such an “all knowing” tone when he made the comment.  Despite not looking at him, I could feel his eyes boring holes through me.
“God, Jack.  You are such an asshole,” I growled, unable to hold my tongue any longer.  I had that problem when I was very angry about something.
“Oh, yes!  That’s me!  The big asshole!” Jack chirped back dramatically, his deep voice echoing off the walls of the bays.  “I’m such an asshole for worrying about you…”
“I can handle myself,” I spit back, this time stopping and turning to face him.  Taylor stood a few steps away from Jack looking completely confused and surprised at the same time.  I’m sure the guys were aware that there was a problem going on between Jack and I, but I knew they didn’t know the half of it.  Hell, I don’t even know half of it.  “So just back off and mind your own fucking business!”
“Fine.  Don’t come crying to me when he dumps your ass.”
“No worries there!”


She looked visibly upset when she pulled into the driveway in her old beat-up Chevy Truck.  However when she looked over and saw me sitting on the porch already waiting for her, a smile graced her face.  I instantly got up off the porch swing and hopped down the steps to meet her halfway.  “Everything okay?” I asked, and without even thinking I reached out and cupped her cheek with my hand.  It was probably an intimate gesture, but it only felt natural.
“Ugh, just some shit at work,” she sighed before looking up at me with her beautiful blue eyes that were slightly shaded by the plain black baseball hat she had on her head, her copper pony-tail pulled through the back of it.  She looked like quite the unruly chick in her worn-out jeans that we torn in both knees, layered black and olive green ribbed tank, beat-up hiking boots, with some wisps of hair escaping from her hat.  If I stared at her for too long, I was going to end up with a hard-on and from my previous experiences of climbing; it wasn’t going to be easy to sport it in the harness.
The small moment between us was nixed when Grandma came out on the porch yelling down to us.  “Hey kids!! I packed you a little lunch!” she said happily, trying to lift what looked to be a very heavy picnic basket.
I quick ran over to grab it from her.  “Geesh Grandma, it feels like it’s a little more than a little lunch,” I laughed, leaning into kiss her on the cheek.  “Thanks.”
“Anything for you, Jarret,” she smiled broadly.  “And you, Miss Lizzie,” she cooed as Beth came up beside me and placed a kiss on her other cheek.  “Now you kids don’t worry about me.  Stay out as long as you like…”
“Stop pushing, Elsie,” Beth laughed out her warning as she stomped back down off the porch and headed towards her truck.
“Whatever are you talking about, Lizzie?” Grandma played innocently as Beth just turned back and sent her an amused glare.
“Bye, Grandma,” I laughed as I placed the picnic basket in the back of the truck and hopped in the passenger seat of the old truck.
“This truck is pretty cool,” I remarked as I watched her shift the manual gear into reverse to back out onto the quiet street.
“You don’t need to keep laying it on thick,” she said flatly.  “It’s old and I would love a new one, but it still runs and gets me to where I want to go…”
“I’m being serious, Beth.  My dad had one of these old Silverado’s and I think they only reason he got rid of it was for the fact that the floorboard had rusted out of it.”
This piece of info made her laugh.  “Doug actually replaced that for me a couple summers ago…”
“I actually learned how to drive stick on my Dad’s truck,” I remembered fondly.  “I didn’t realize how much of a bitch the clutch was until I bought my first Mercedes and realized how much easier technology made it.”
“Ah, yes, the Mercedes…” she mocked in a pompous English accent.  “I’m sure you were disappointed not to be driving the ol’ Chevy after that.”
I laughed.  “Why how correct you are, darling.  It was the first car I ever bought,” I mimicked her fake accent.
She looked over at me and asked seriously.  “And how many cars have you bought since?”
I furrowed my brow as I took a moment to think.  “Probably 5 or 6?”
This factoid garnered a loud snort and a face palm to her head.  “That’s just ridiculous.”
“I usually just lease them…” I said, not completely understanding why she found it ridiculous.
“Must be nice to have all that money to piss away,” she said, finally making me realize what her real point was.
I looked out my window that was rolled down, letting in the warm summer air and took in the scenery of the small town and the small homes that looked lived in.  “You know, you never realize how much you miss about the small town atmosphere until you come back and experience it after you’ve been away from it for so long.  Sure, these houses might be small and your truck might be old, but all these things are what bring character to a place.  In LA the houses are huge and the cars are new and shiny, but so much is fake; things seem a lot more real here.”
“So are you saying you’d rather have this than the money?” she asked, sounding totally surprised.
I shrugged my shoulders, “Yeah, I guess so.  I mean, don’t get me wrong.  The money is definitely nice, it’s nice not having to worry about if I can afford something or not, but it doesn’t always bring the happiness you think it might.  In fact, I’ve learned it brings more trouble than anything at times.”
“Heh.”
“Enough about money talk,” I said, turning back towards her.  She actually had me sitting there reevaluating some things in my life and honestly, it was a little uncomfortable, especially since I still didn’t know a ton about the petite red-head shifting easily through the gears of her truck as we drove down a dirt road towards the park entrance of Duck Mountain.  “Tell me, how did you get into all this rescue/ropes stuff?”
By the time I turned 16, both my parents were gone.  My dad passed away when I was 10 from a hunting accident and my mom died of cancer when I was 16.  I moved in with my Aunt and Uncle who were older and not really interested in having a teenager around their house.  I didn’t really give two shits about school, not really finding a need in it. So instead of studying I would wander around town.  When it got cold, I’d meet up with some friends and spend my evenings on the snowmobiles; Summertime was filled with exploring Duck Mountain, hiking, climbing…I always loved the outdoors.  I met Rick, my chief at the Squad when I was graduating high school.  He had come out to rescue a friend of mine who had fallen down in the ravine and I ended up helping him with the rescue because at that point, they didn’t have any paid staff and no one was around that day.  He instantly recruited me and got me into training.  Elsie actually helped pay for me to get my training.  By the time was 20, I had my paramedic, high angle rescue, and other various rescue certifications.  Rick hired me and I was partnered with Jack.  Jack came from Winnipeg with already several years experience under his belt.  He was slightly annoyed that he had a woman for a partner,” she paused at this thought and I watched as a smile turned up her soft lips, “But once I proved myself worthy on a very dangerous high angle rescue, he never complained again.  We worked well together and Rick said we were his highest skilled pair.”
“Worked…were…those are all past tense words.  I was fairly sure Grandma mentioned that Jack was working today…” I said, slightly confused.
Her brow furrowed at this and her tone changed when she spoke.  “Jack and I have some issues right now.  He’s an asshole.”
“I’m guessing he is the reason you were upset earlier?”
“I’d rather not talk about it right now.”
“That’s fine,” I said, reaching over and gently squeezing her thigh for some reassurance.


“Jesus!  This is one hell of a work-out!” Jarret called up to me.  He was a couple feet below me as we scaled back up the ravine we had repelled down. 
“Oh come on, I know you’ve got muscles,” I cajoled down to him.  “I’ve seen them.”
“Yeah, you’ve touched them too,” he grunted as he pulled himself up to his next point.  “I’ve touched yours too.”
“Well, now you know where I got mine,” I laughed, trying to block out the rated R images that were suddenly popping up in my head.
“And those killer calf muscles and tight ass!”
I craned my neck to look down at him.  “You better not be staring at my ass, Jarret Stoll!”
“It’s kind of hard not too when you are ahead of me and it’s looking so good in those jeans.  Besides, I just like to think of it as incentive.”
“Incentive?”
“Sure, if I keep following it, I will eventually get out of this ravine and I’ll be able to smack it.”
I pressed my feet against the rocks I was standing on, pressed my ass out and wiggled my butt.  “Come and get it,” I crooned out, laughing at myself.  The ravine swallowed up both mine and Jay’s laughter, making me laugh even harder at the boisterous sound.
I got to the top and collapsed onto the ground, allowing the sun to beat down on me as I waited for Jay to finish climbing up.  Soon his head popped up over the ledge, making me think of a-whack-a-mole, but this mole talked.  “And here I expected to get up here and find you on all fours, with your ass right here so that I could slap it as soon as I made it up here.”
“In your dreams, Jay.”
“Tease.”
“How so?!” I scoffed, propping myself up on my elbows, watching him crawl over the ground towards me, acting like he had been through the hardest work out of his life, dramatically panting like a dog before collapsing down next to me.
“You shook your ass for me.”
“You said it was incentive.  I didn’t say I was going to actually let you smack it.”
“So I do all that hard work for nothing?!” he whined.
“Just think of it as training for your season,” I smiled, laying myself back down on the ground again, closing my eyes.
“I don’t get anything?” he asked, scaring the shit out of me because he was now only inches away from my face with his own as he hovered above me.
“Are you going to leave me alone if you get what you want?” I asked, steadily, willing my pulse rate to lower because it was now beating at a higher rate than when I was climbing.  His grey eyes were sparkling and his smile was making my insides turn to goo.  There is no keeping this simple.
“I can’t promise anything.  Being near you makes me think things that probably aren’t very Christian like.”
“Good thing I don’t really have a point of view when it comes to religion,” I laughed out nervously.
He too laughed before pressing his lips firmly to mine, this time causing my whole body to melt into a complete pile of goo.


It was going on a week since the last time Liz and I actually had a conversation that didn’t consist of “fuck you’s” or “go to hell.”  That was probably because we hadn’t worked together, nor had we seen each other besides during shift change.  When we did see each other, she didn’t even dare to glance up at me.
“Earth to Jack?” Gina, my girlfriend for lack of better terms, called to me as we laid in bed intertwined.  She was staying over more frequently since my fall-out with Liz, especially since I figured it would help me forget Liz if I was busy playing house with another woman.  Too bad even that didn’t seem to be working.
“Yeah?” I mumbled, not even bothering to look over at her.  She was a pretty brunette from the next town over, a widow who was almost 10 years older than me.
“You keep going out into La-La land and I don’t even know where you are half the time,” she said softly, running her fingers lightly up and down my chest.  I stopped her movement by placing my hand down over top of hers, trapping it against my chest.
“I have a lot on my mind,” I said evenly.
“Am I any part of that?” she asked, her voice cracking with some emotion.
I didn’t even bother looking over at her because I already knew the tears were there, so I just kept staring at the ceiling as I spoke.  “No, no you are not.  I’m sorry.  You can leave now if you want, I can’t play the charade any longer.”
She pulled her hand out from under mine and rolled out of the bed.  After getting dressed she stood in the doorway and said, “You need stop making the excuse that you aren’t pursuing her because of your job.  Jack, if you love her like I’m sure you do, then you need to go after her.”
“Mr. Hollywood has already done that,” I growled.
“Because you let him.” 
Those were the last words Gina and I spoke, but they were still echoing in my head as I pulled up to the station a night later when Liz was scheduled to be working with Paul.

3 comments:

MelTing said...

Oh yes, it's fun to have readers forming two sides, until you actually have to choose and suddenly you're getting hate mail...but I digress...by the way, with the multiple identities everyone has around here, it's hard to comment. Jack is busy being in a snit, (and also in a thirty-something widow,) but I assume once he recovers we'll see the charm that made Liz like him. Jarret meanwhile, has oodles of charm but has too much of the big city glitz for Liz to really fall for him. So I guess it's a matter of who can reform faster.

Meaghan said...

Still can't fully commit to a side... But I'm leaning torwards jarrett. I don't like how she is embarrassed by her house and stuff. I think jarrett will like her for her, and if he doesn't then he is not for her!
I don't like how jack was having that fling with that widow, he just needs to admit the feelings!
Already looking forward for the next chapter!

I Love Canadian Boys said...

Ok.. So i kinda already chose a side :P Jarret.. But i have this weird feeling that at the end of the summer when he has to leave he'll end up breaking her heart and make her run to Jack.. Please let me be wrong!
Can't wait for the next one!