AUSTRALIAN ADVENTURES

Chapter 9:  Couples

He folded over onto her lap, burying his face as his shoulders shook with the sobs that wracked him then.  Berti rubbed his shoulders and Joimus stroked the back of his head.  Franki, watching, smiled.
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After a while, Bud was able to lift his head.  Dashing the tears from his cheeks, he turned toward Berti, who wrapped her arms about him tightly, holding on as though she would never let him fall.  The love, the friendship, the acceptance that surrounded him was so tangible to him, that it penetrated through all the long years of practiced shielding.  He kept sucking in and then blowing out long, long breaths as though the
very act of inhaling were something new and different.  

 

 

As she listened to the sound of his breathing, in her mind Berti took both his hands and began to lead him out of the baking sun, away from the roaring crowds.  Maximus, watching, understood and the last of his mistrust of Bud slipped away.  

Joimus leaned more fully against him.  "I can't sit up like this longer," she sighed.  Every muscle, especially in her back, had begun to scream in protest.  

 

 

"I'll get you back to the leafbed," Maximus said quickly, gathering her up in his arms as he stood.  She gasped with the pain of the movement, biting her lip.  

 

 

Bud, capable now of focusing his attention outward, was confused.  "What happened?"  

 

 

"The tor," Maximus replied, "she fell from the tor."  

 

 

"Why?" he asked, shaking his head.  "Why was she on a tor? How did she fall?"

"She...," Maximus began, but Joimus put her finger to her lips.  She didn't want Bud to know she had fallen in her hurry to get to him.  

 

 

"I was looking at the view, Bud," she said, "and got...careless."  

 

 

"But...your eyes?" Bud wondered.  

 

 

"She was...blinded," Maximus said, his voice filled with pain.
                               

 

"What?"  

 

 

Maximus pressed her a little more closely to himself.  She grimaced slightly and he hurriedly whispered, "I'm sorry."  

 

 

"Please get me back," she murmured.  

 

 

Striding as quickly as he could, he carried her to the pile of leaves and settled her onto his cape.  She sighed, the softness of the deep pile conforming to her body, taking the pressure off her many bruises. Within seconds she slept and he sat there beside her, holding her hand, running his thumb pad back and forth across her knuckles.  

"I don't understand," Bud said, looking at Berti.  "She was...blinded?"  

 

 

"She hit her forehead when she fell.  No one knows yet if it's permanent or not."  

 

 

He stared over at the leafbed.  He could see Maximus' back and the slope of his shoulders told him that the General was worried.  "Did I," he said, turning his gaze back to Berti, "have anything to...do...with it?"  

"No," she replied, looking him straight in the eye, "she climbed the tor to look at the view."  And that was, indeed, the truth.

Jack and Rose came up to the leafbed and the Captain knelt beside Maximus. "Himself has sent for the SUVs," he said.  

 

 

"Good," Maximus replied, "there is no way she could walk further...not now."  

 

Jack thought of the Channel Country and the Simpson Desert that lay between them and Uluru.  He was glad for Maximus' sake as well that the bushwalking was done.  "How is your leg?" he asked.  

 

"My leg is unimportant," Maximus replied, his answer not really surprising Jack at all.  

 

 

"Stephen says he feels hopeful about her eyes," Jack added.

 

 

"What does Stephen know of this?" Maximus almost spat.
                              

 

Jack, then, was taken a little aback.  But he saw how the General's jaw was working, saw the dark pain in his eyes, and knew that his friend was greatly concerned about Joimus.  

 

Sid leaned his shoulder against the trunk of the yook, watching the dynamic between the two men from the early evening shadows.  When Jack moved away to gather wood for the fire, Sid approached the leafbed. Maximus looked up at him and said, "I thank you for your help today."  

 

 

"My pleasure," Sid smiled.  He then knelt near Joimus and lay his palm across her forehead, closed his eyes, and...listened...with his whole being. Gradually Sid's lips began to curve upwards and he opened his eyes, smiling at Maximus.  He nodded and said, "Going well."  

 

 

Maximus pressed his lips together, dipping his head gratefully.   Jack, passing by with an armload of wood, saw the exchange of looks and frowned. This was not...right.  The palm of his cutlass hand suddenly itched.

          

"Ow!" said Steve as Laura pressed a cold cloth against his scalp.  The cooking pot had raised a decent-sized goose egg right on the crown of his head.  

 

"Shhhh!" she said.  

 

 

"There are...other...ways to keep me from talking," he continued, pointedly licking his lips.  

 

 

"Are there now?" she chuckled.  "You mean...these?" she asked, moving the cloth down, touching it to his mouth.

                                   

He nodded, and she saw the laughter in his eyes suddenly grow all serious. "You were... amazing," he murmured, his hand lifting a large section of her hair.

 

 

She blushed...just slightly. He moved the long, rich brownness to his lips, kissing it softly, though never taking his eyes off hers.  With his other hand, he ran his forefinger down the line of her cheek.  

 

 

She thought vaguely how all Himself's characters seemed to like to do something very similar to that, then she stopped thinking as his lips found hers.  

Somewhat deeper into the forest, Ando was exploring, determined to discover just how many hidden compartments Hando actually had.  "I always thought that was just a mole!" she exclaimed.  

 

 

"Most people do," he laughed.  His armpit WAS ticklish, you know.

"Check and mate!" Nash exclaimed, happy to have Charles back.  He was so happy, indeed, that he looked at Franki and asked if she were interested in mating, as he had the word currently in mind.  She allowed as how it was an interesting, even an appealing thought, but that she preferred a bit of moonlight and roses along the way.  "There are no roses in Cathedral Rocks Park, " he pointed out.  

 

 

"I know," she replied, "but I do believe there will be some moonlight shortly."  

 

 

"Perhaps we could find the Southern Cross together?" he added.  

    

"Perhaps we could," she smiled.

"We should enjoy the moments while we can," Jim said to Jewelie as they sat side by side on a yook log.  "When my movie comes out, I fear her attention may focus on me."  

 

 

Jewelie shivered, a clear picture in her brain of a large tower with an eye swinging toward Jim as volcanoes rumbled and the thud of thousands of heavy boots rumbled over the dark land.

"Do you think so?" she trembled.  

 

 

"I feel that well may be the case indeed," he nodded.
 

 

She looked at him, suddenly shy.  "I asked her recently if we had ever gotten to kiss yet."

"What did she say?"  "She reminded me of the cuddle in the cornfield in The Village."

"Was that...enough?" he replied, tipping his head to the side, studying her face in the light of the rising moon.  She shook her head from side to side, smiling slightly.  He thought back to her arrival in the ewe cart on Droogheeda, how they had been...new...together.

                                 
 

"You have been special to me from the beginning," he said softly, kissing her fingertips.

"As you are to me."  She raised his hand, gently caressing the back of it. "I'm sorry this was broken so terribly.  It's hard to imagine you fought with it again."  

 

"There are things one has to do, must do, at times."  He lifted the hand in question then, cupping her chin with it.  "And, then, there are things that one...wants...to do."  Leaning forward he kissed her...softly, gently at first...then pulling her close...continued...most thoroughly.

Sid watched Bunny lift the cheese to her mouth.  He sighed, remembering cheddar on his tongue.
                                

"Do you want some?" Bunny asked, proffering a small plate.  

 

 

"I do," he replied regretfully, "but I cannot."  

 

 

"In the beginning of Virtuosity," she continued, "were you not in an Oriental restaurant,  putting food in your mouth with chopsticks?"

"I was," he smiled, "but you may recall I also bled in red."  

 

 

"I've wondered about that," she admitted.  "It does not really... compute."  

 

He smiled more broadly at her remark.  "Think back," he urged, "to what was different about that opening scene."

She pondered his request a moment.  "The COMPUTER!" she cried. "You were only IN the computer at that time!"
                                   

"Bingo!  It was purely, entirely computerized.  So I ate and I bled red. But when I got... out...was free, no longer contained, and in my own nanotech synthetic body,  I had only blue in me and no...need...to ingest foodstuffs."

"Do you miss it?"  

 

 

"I did not before, but...now...now that I have known cheddar...I find I do."  He looked a bit sad, then added, "but not grapes."

Annsmac sighed.  "Perhaps there will be something at Ayres," she suggested, looking worriedly at Terry's equipment.  

 

 

He dropped his eyes, too, down to where it rested atop a clump of soft grasses.  "I don't know," he said, shaking his head, "that anything...sufficient...would be in such a place." 

                                    

"There could be," she added hopefully.  "One never knows what one might find in some ancient cave."  Then she shuddered slightly, remembering the lost tomb of Russenaten.(See: Saving Captain Jack) Turning fond eyes upon the K&R agent, she said, "You know I love you, Terry, no matter...what?"  

 

 

He nodded, his eyes lit with his feelings for the New Orleansette, and pulled her to him a bit awkwardly over the sadly blunted equipment. She lay in his arms, tipping her head to watch a small cloud passing in front of the full moon.  "Moon's full," she murmured.  

                                    

"I'm glad Biebe's OK," he said, "or we'd all be in trouble, wouldn't we."


Biebe had been watching Buggie's flying fingers as she wove a small replica of the Aboriginal basket that had contained her person earlier in the day.  He, too, lifted his head, studying the moon.  "Do...do you have any...carrots?" he asked off-handedly.

                                  

The basket fell from her fingers, plopping onto the ground, as she looked at him with eyes gone all wide and horrified.  Slowly he turned his face toward her, almost somberly in the moonlight.  She gasped. Then his features cracked into an enormous grin and he laughed, "Gotcha!", tackled her and rolled with her onto the grass, nibbling at her ear.

            

"I'm glad I sent for the SUVs," Himself remarked to Phyllis, settling himself, er, Himself, next to her on the picnic bench, leaning back against the tabletop.  

 

 

"You think going on to Ayres is a good idea?" she asked.  

 

 

He nodded.  "We might as well.  Eucalyptus is still so up in the air right now."  

 

 

"We could go back to Nana Glen," she suggested.  

 

 

Shaking his head he replied,  "Don't want to do that to Mum.  Besides, Uluru could prove...interesting."

"In what way?"  

 

 

"One never knows, does one?"
            

"Well," she continued, "at least we'll still be in Australia if the film starts up again."  

 

"If," he said quietly.  Looking at her seriously, he added, "Or...when."

"You think 'when'?"  

 

 

"Possibly. One never knows about that, either."


"Are you glad you came along?" Johnny was asking Mary as they walked near a small stream.

 

 

Nodding assent, she said, "Some things are better than others."  She was not quite used to the level of violence, but figured, given time, she would become accustomed to it as it seemed the others had.
  

 

"Am...I...one of the better things?" he asked, almost shyly.  Indeed he was.  She slipped her arm through his as they walked and he reached up, placing his other hand atop hers as it rested in the crook of his elbow.  

 

 

"I understand we are leaving for Ayres in the morning when the SUVs arrive," he commented.  

 

 

"I'm looking forward to it," she replied.  "I've always wanted to climb to the top of that."  

 

 

As he looked at the moonlight reflecting on the water, he pictured himself standing at her side on the summit.  "Me, too," he whispered. "Me, too."

Jeff kept rummaging through his backpack.  "What are you looking for?" Marti inquired.

"Socks," he said.  

 

 

Marti's eyes narrowed almost fiercely.  "I TOLD her you didn't USE socks!" she grumped.  

 

 

He grinned adorably.  "Dad thinks I do...or so he likes to say."
          

"So why are you looking for them now?" she pursued.  

 

 

"My feet are cold," he smiled.

"Ok, then," she agreed, her face softening.  "Just so long as she acknowledges you don't NEED socks for...other...purposes."  

 

 

He cocked his head.  "Would she do that...acknowledge that?" he wondered.

 

 

"Probably not," she continued.  "She's like that."  Her eyes dropped a bit to a particular, unnamed area.

"But WE know the truth."  

 

 

"Indeed we do," he chuckled.

"Indeed we do."  


Rose had overheard Maximus' sharp words to the Captain and was worried he had been hurt by them.   As they settled side by side near the fire he had built, she turned to him in the flickering light, noting that his jaw was set tightly.  "Is it...Sid?" she asked, laying her hand lightly on his forearm.
                                   

He nodded, not taking his eyes off the flames.  "He's enjoying this... milking it for all it's worth," he said, picking up a small stone and tossing it into the middle of the burning wood. Then he turned to look at her.  "And there seems to be nothing I can do about it."  

 

 

"You think when the three of them were...gone..., something happened?"  

 

 

"I do.  But I have no idea what." He frowned.  "It worries me," he added.

"You do not trust him, do you?"  

"I have little reason trust him," he explained.  "You saw what he did back in Bellingen? That was just the tip of the iceburg, Rose."  

 

 

He stared over toward the dim shapes under the yook where Maximus had lain down next to Joimus, his arm curved over her.  "I fear they will pay some terrible price for this new fondness they seem to have developed for him."

Lachlan leaned his back against a log, watching as the moonlight silvered the tops of the distant hills.  "Thinking of Manitoba?" Wanda asked.
    

 

"Not really," he replied, his lips curving upwards.  "I like being home in Australia.  There was a time when I truly thought I'd never see it again." He took her hand as she sat beside him.  "I'm glad you're here with me."  

 

 

"Do you really only know the one poem?" she wondered.  

 

 

"No," he chuckled, "but it's the most important one I know."  

 

 

She understood completely.  "You recite it so well, too," she smiled, remembering his arm motions, how he stood now, squatted now.  

 

 

"Perhaps I should have had a career as an actor?" he mused.  

 

 

"I think Himself has got that one covered," she replied.

Susan had taken her wallet out of her backpack and from betwixt her various cards, withdrawn a single pressed blue poppy petal.  She let it rest in the center of her palm, just staring at it. A slight breeze came by unexpectedly, blowing it away.  "No!" she cried, scrambling to her feet.
                                 

 

"I'll get it!" Zack called, setting down the two plates of food he'd just brought.  More than anyone, he knew how important the petal of the rare blue poppy was to her.  She had had this particular petal since the guanaco feeding grounds beneath the Towers of Pain in Tierra del Fuego.(See: Lucilla's Party)  The petal blew across the camp, ending atop Jeffrey's bowl of rice just as he was about to douse it with soy sauce.  

 

 

"Stop! Don't sauce the petal!" Zack shouted urgently.
          

Jeffrey picked the petal up between two fingers, not particularly wanting it atop his rice in the first place.  "A blue petal?" he said curiously, looking at Ute.  

 

 

"Susan's," she replied.  

 

 

"Ah, of course!" 

 

 

Just then Zack skidded up beside them.  "May I have it?" he asked breathlessly.  With a slight bow of his head, Jeffrey proffered the petal. "Thanks!" Zack said, running back towards Susan.  

 

"Is that canon or what?" Jeffrey smiled.  

 

 

"Very canon," Ute agreed, watching as he poured more sauce atop the rice. "This must be one of those epis where all the couples get a brief moment."

 

 

"Like the one in The Village," Jeffrey agreed.  "I don't think we've had one since then."  

 

 

"She doesn't always know what the heck to do with all of us," Ute added.  

 

 

"I know.  We make quite a large cast of characters...50, if you count Charles and Stephen, now that Teller and Lucilla are awaiting the YOOK verdict."

"I liked having them around," Ute remarked.  "I hope they come back to us."  

 

 

He had cocked his head, deep in thought.  "Do you think Charles and Stephen should be considered as TWO characters?"
     

 

"They are separate identities," Ute offered.

 

 

"But they only appear one at a time," he continued.  

 

 

"True.  It does make it somewhat...complicated."

Andy and Anna, Colin and Eryn were toasting marshmallows.  Eryn found some Graham crackers in her backpack that were only partially crushed and dated from as recently as October 2003.  "If we had chocolate, we could make S'mores," she said longingly.

"Chocolate," Andy murmured.  "I remember chocolate."  

 

 

"Perhaps...one day?" Anna added.  

The Countess was concerned about Joimus.  "It's my epitask, you know," she said to Alex. "Somehow I was assigned it."  

 

 

"Not an easy one, to be sure," he agreed, "but, then, you did get that impartation of obsure Ninja lore as a result, didn't you?"  

 

 

"It does have its benefits from time to time," she said, "but mostly it's very...worrisome."

"You would think she would take better care of herself," he commented.  

 

 

"I think it's part and parcel of the whole 'suffering General' syndrome she seems so fond of."

"How do you explain what happened to Bud?" he asked.  

 

 

"I can't...and that frightens me," she said.  "And I heard she recently watched Rough Magic again and has even now gotten the DVD of it."
       

 

"Really?" he asked, a catch in his breath.  

 

"Scary, eh?" she said.  "You had better be on your guard."  She looked at him closely. "She wants to know what the tattoo on your left bicep says," she added.  

 

 

"I'll keep it well covered," he said, pulling his sleeve down.  

 

 

"Do," she urged.  "We wouldn't want her to...find out."

As the moon rose steadily higher, the cast settled steadily lower. Tomorrow they would set out across the Channel Country of Australia, that vast expanse so criss-crossed with multitudes of mostly dry riverbeds of all sizes.  Even Mars did not have so many dry channels as Australia.  Who knew they had the same engineers?