Re: Ghosts - ch.35 -- The Dr. Quinn Medicine Woman Fan Exchange

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Date Posted: 07:13:33 04/19/03 Sat
Author: dqfan
Subject: Re: Ghosts - ch.35
In reply to: dqfan 's message, "Re: Ghosts - ch.34" on 08:41:32 04/18/03 Fri

CHAPTER THIRTY FIVE Thursday about 2am

Though she may not have been upstairs in bed, Sophie was, at least, snug�

"Can you see the island?" Over the racket of the helicopter's whirling blades, Sophie yelled to the pilot from inside the cramped two-seat cockpit.

"Coming into view now." The pilot shook his head. He must've been crazy to take this job. It had been after midnight when he'd secured his hangar, ready to head home after a long day of offering sightseeing trips over Puget Sound. But when you've got two kids to put through college and a wife who likes to shop, you take all the work you can get, whenever you can get it.

Combine all that with a beautiful woman, fresh off the evening plane from Vegas, who shows up offering three times your usual price for a quick flight, which she says is a matter of life and death, and, well, Artie Crenshaw couldn't possibly pass up a deal like that.

Plus, he'd always been a sucker for a good story. And this one was a beaut! Daughter of an RCAF Commander. Experienced parachutist and rock climber. Has a newlywed husband with an eccentric aunt, being framed for a murder she didn't commit�

For crying out loud, Artie chuckled under his breath. His wife read romance novels that weren't this juicy!

"I'll radio the airstrip for clearance," Artie shouted to Sophie.

"No!" Sophie argued, stopping him abruptly. "There isn't time!"

"What?" Artie looked at Sophie like she had two heads.

"It'll take too long to drive here from the airstrip! It's on the other side of the island! Can you set her down in that clearing over there?" Sophie pointed to a large stretch of open field, set high atop a cliff, overlooking the water.

"I suppose so�" Artie agreed warily. He'd made unorthodox landings before but usually not on purpose.

Artie maneuvered his helicopter with his usual expertise. He'd been a commercial pilot for over thirty years before he started his own business, and he wasn't about to give Sophie anything less than a perfect landing. Besides, he couldn't have her telling her Dad pilots didn't know how to fly down here in the States, now could he?

"Beautiful� Smooth�" Sophie's appreciation of Artie's landing had him beaming.

"Glad you liked it," Artie smiled proudly. "What now?" he asked, enjoying this little adventure more than he let on.

"It shouldn't take long�" Sophie promised him. "I'm booked on the 5am flight back to Vegas."

It was close to 2am now. Allowing for the flying time back to Seattle, along with the time she'd need to clear airport security and Sophie figured she had a little over an hour to accomplish her mission.

"Why don't you come along?" Sophie invited. Even though it was summer, the nights here did get chilly and providing for Artie's well-being seemed the least Sophie could do.

"Well, I would like to call the missus�" Artie nodded, knowing he'd be in for all kinds of heck if he didn't. Besides, he was kind of curious to see what he'd flown Sophie over here in the middle of the night for anyway.

Taking just a few minutes to secure his chopper, Artie accompanied Sophie along a windy path toward a landmark structure most everyone around these parts knew.

"The Vashon Inn," Artie whistled appreciatively.

"You've stayed here?" Sophie asked as they approached the front walk.

"No, but I hear it's a real romantic spot," he winked.

"Oh, it is�" Sophie smiled, seeing the lights turning on at their arrival. "Terrific service, wonderful hospitality�"

Interrupting Sophie's testimonial, an irate voice could be heard opening the door. "Pazzia�crazy�flying here at this hour�are you outta your�"

Artie watched as the disapproving scowl on the little man with the dark hair dissolved into a smile the width of the Grand Canyon.

"Sophia! Cara! I should have known!" he greeted, with a warm bear hug and kisses that went from cheek to cheek and back again. Obviously, Sophie was welcome, if not entirely expected.

"No one in this world is as crazy as you, Cara," the old man continued exuberantly. "Except maybe for Pietro. Where is he?"

Gianni looked around confused. Finding only Artie, Gianni placed his hands defiantly on his hips and stared menacingly at Sophie's innocent traveling companion.

"And who are you?" Gianni asked with such suspicion that Artie shivered from the sudden chill in the air.

"Gianni, please�" Sophie placed her hand on the old man's chest, holding him back from the bodily harm he seemed prepared to inflict on Artie.

"His name is Artie and he's a friend," Sophie reassured him. "Charity's in trouble, Gianni, and Artie flew me over here in the middle of the night just to help. But there isn't much time. I have to meet Peter back in Las Vegas by morning."

"Well, why didn't you say so?" Gianni blurted in a huff. "Any friend of yours is welcome, Sophia, you know that�"

Gianni held out his hand to Artie in apology. "Arturo, is it?"

Deciding not to spoil their apparent d�tente by asking the old man to call him "Artie," Artie nodded with a smile. "Arturo'd be just fine�"

"Artie could use a cup of coffee, Gianni," Sophie requested. "And he'd like to call his wife�"

"His wife?" Gianni's relief was unmistakable. "Even better�" he patted Artie's arm approvingly. "Come, ecco�"

As Gianni led him toward the phone, Artie made sure to mention that he had two kids, too. Maybe that'd get him a piece of pie to go along with his coffee�

^^^^^^^^^

"How can I help you, Sophia?" Gianni asked, once Artie had been settled in front of the fire with his coffee - and pie.

"The cabin�" she whispered, not wanting to disturb Artie. "Is it empty?"

"Empty? Well, of people, yes. Of junk, no!" Gianni muttered, just thinking about it. "I stopped renting it out three years ago when I expanded the inn."

"Now, mostly everything that doesn't fit here," he gestured with a sigh, "finds a home there�"

Gianni's description brought a wistful, nostalgic smile to Sophie's face.

"Everything that doesn't fit here, finds a home there�" Truer words were never spoken.

For that was exactly what had happened - almost ten years ago�

^^^^^^^^^^^^^^

"Ms. Becker! Signorina, you have been hurt!" Sophie hobbled off the ferry, her leg not hurting half as badly as her pride. That motorcross race, today, should have been a piece of cake�an easy day of fun. Instead, nothing about today had been easy - nothing at all.

"I'm fine, Gianni," Sophie reassured him, steadying herself on her brand new crutches. "But my friend isn't�"

"Friend?" Gianni raised one bushy black eyebrow. Apparently Sophie's cast wasn't the only souvenir she'd brought back from her day trip to Seattle.

Following a few feet behind Sophie, carrying both her travel pack and his duffel bag - with everything he owned in the world inside - was a very weak, unsteady, bedraggled-looking, Peter.

"Peter, this is Gianni�" Sophie introduced. "Gianni, this is Peter�"

The two men stared at each other sourly. "Hi," Peter managed dryly, scrunching up the collar of his jacket against the wind.

"Likewise�" Gianni eyed him up and down.

This man was no more than a derelict�drunk, or worse, on drugs. Probably didn't have a penny to his name. He was certainly no man for the beautiful, caring, Signorina. Of that, Gianni was quite sure.

Appalled, Gianni led Sophie aside for a private conversation.

"He cannot stay at the inn!" Gianni refused emphatically. "I have other guests to think of, Signorina. He would not fit in. Look at him!"

"Hey, I'll just get back on the boat� Nice meetin' ya," Peter interrupted belligerently.

He'd only agreed to come here because� Well, he wasn't sure why, really. Maybe because he didn't have anyplace else to go. Or maybe it was because when he was certain that death was mere moments away, he'd awoke in that hospital today to see Sophie looking down at him like the perfect picture of an angel from heaven.

Certainly, the way she'd managed to keep him out of the hospital's psychiatric ward was nothing short of a miracle�

^^^^^^

"C'mon�" With the coast clear from any doctors or nurses, Sophie had taken him by the hand and helped him to sit up.

"Cmon, where?" Still feeling the effects of his overdose, Peter stood wobbly, but on his own two feet.

"You'd rather stay here?" Sophie hissed, motioning toward the emergency room entrance.

"Didn't say that�" Peter unveiled a tiny fraction of his thousand-watt smile and followed her as directed. "Just wondered how you did it?"

"I told them you'd come to see me in the race," Sophie whispered, picking up her pace as best she could on her crutches.

"That we'd gotten separated in the crowd and when I finally found you here, you told me you'd been mugged," she continued, almost at the door.

"Whoever did it must've shot you up with something, hoping to silence you permanently," she concluded innocently, as they both breathed the welcome fresh air of freedom.

"They bought that?" Peter stood awestruck.

"Actually, they're calling the police now so you can file a report," Sophie grinned, not bothering to look back.

"So, let's get out of here�"

^^^^^^^^^^^

A little later, in a coffee shop at the bus station, Peter and Sophie shared a snack and talked�

"I take it you didn't win?" Peter took a sip of the strong black coffee Sophie had purchased for them both. While he assumed she'd ordered his black just to sober him up, apparently, Sophie Becker liked her coffee black, too.

"Hmmm?" Lost in thought, Sophie was still debating whether she'd done the right thing.

"The race�" Peter pointed to her cast and smiled again.

"What? Oh, no�" Sophie mumbled, wishing he'd stop smiling so she could concentrate. "I didn't win."

"But behind door number three you found me�" Peter wisecracked, refusing Sophie's offer of half a sandwich with a grimace. "Coffee's about all I can take�"

"You'll feel better if you eat something," Sophie said lightly.

"Trust me, Sweetheart, you don't have a clue how I feel!" Peter's tone turned distinctively hostile, his eyes darkening suddenly.

Her debate over, Sophie grabbed her backpack and stood on her crutches. "You're right, I don't!" she shot back angrily. "I thought maybe you might want to tell me but I guess I was wrong. So, see ya!"

"Wait!" Peter blurted. Tired and worn, the drugs were still waging war inside his body and his mind. "I do. Please�"

"Why should I believe you?" Sophie shook her head, wondering if maybe she'd been terribly wrong about him.

"No reason at all," Peter agreed quietly.

There it was again. That thread of honesty, of decency. That glimmer of the man he was deep down inside. Sophie hadn't been wrong. She was sure of it.

"Do you like boats?" Sophie asked cryptically.

"Boats?" Peter wasn't sure he'd heard her right.

"Do you get seasick?" Sophie asked more to the point.

"Sweetheart," Peter chuckled wryly, "I can't get any more sick than I am right now�"

"Then, the ferry leaves in an hour," Sophie held out her hand to him again, prepared to set off to whatever awaited them.

Peter took a deep breath. He could crawl back into the gutter and hope an unfinished bottle of beer might roll his way; or, he could take a ferry ride with a beautiful woman who'd appeared out of nowhere and rescued him without asking for a single thing in return.

"Why not�" Peter gulped the last bit of his coffee. But, instead of taking Sophie's hand, he turned first toward the bank of rented lockers on the opposite wall of the bus station.

Sophie watched in curiosity as Peter removed a small duffel bag from the last locker on the right. "Is that all you have?" she asked gently.

"Til I sell it for my next fix," Peter shrugged, defeated, hoping he'd made the reality of his situation very, very clear.

^^^^^^^^^

Standing there on the Vashon Island dock, it was quite apparent to Peter that Gianni grasped that reality with no trouble at all.

So, why, Peter wondered, didn't she?

"Could you just give us a minute, please?" Annoyed, Sophie snarled at Peter and pulled Gianni further out of Peter's earshot before continuing their conversation.

"Can't you see, he needs help?" Sophie pleaded with Gianni.

"Help?" Gianni blustered. "He needs more help than I can give him - or you, Signorina," Gianni predicted with fatherly concern.

"Maybe�" Sophie said softly. "But if he could just stay on Vashon for a while - away from the city - feel a part of nature, and of life again�"

Gianni smiled indulgently at Sophie. She had only been a guest of his for a short time and, already, he felt quite protective of her. "I think maybe you are the one who needs help, no, Cara?"

"Truer words were never spoken, Gianni," Sophie admitted wryly. She was as addicted to danger and adventure as Peter was to cocaine. And on this adventure, she could be letting herself in for the biggest mistake of her life. There were definite lines between counselor and savior, friend and lover, and she was crossing them fast - pure and simple.

But how she felt when she looked into Peter Scarbrow's eyes wasn't simple. The touch of his hand wasn't simple. And his smile definitely wasn't simple.

Sophie had never really had a home. Didn't know what a home looked like or felt like, except for one regulation, cookie-cutter, air base after another. But somehow, something about Peter Scarbrow felt like home - home base.
She wasn't about to waste the opportunity to find out if she was right.

Gianni took one look into Sophie's eyes and saw all the doubts and desires of a woman who was falling in love - even if she didn't know it yet.

"There's a small cabin on the property. He can stay there if he wants," Gianni relented against his better judgment. "But not at the inn, understood? At least, not until he becomes more 'a part of life again,' si?"

"Gianni, you are an angel!" Relieved, Sophie thanked him with an enthusiastic kiss on the cheek.

"He will tend the grounds to pay for his room and board, yes?" Gianni insisted, not wanting to be seen as the pushover he really was.

"Yes, yes�" Sophie agreed, returning to Peter's side before Gianni had time to reconsider his decision.

Anticipating yet another rejection, Peter took a couple of steps toward the ferry. "I should just go. Thanks for everything, really."

"He said you could stay�" Sophie reported matter-of-factly.

"He did?" Peter hadn't had very many people help him lately, and, all of a sudden, today, he'd had two.

"You talked him into it, didn't you?" he queried suspiciously.

"Can I help it if I'm irresistible?" Sophie winked, gesturing to Gianni's waiting car.

Charmed, Peter watched her go on ahead and whispered softly under his breath, "That you are�."

^^^^^^^^^^

"I need to rummage in the cabin a little, Gianni," Sophie focused on the present once again. "Could you keep Artie company til I get back?"

"Go," Gianni handed her the key with a smile. "Rummage� Arturo and I will be just fine."

"How can I ever thank you?" Sophie couldn't begin to imagine.

Gianni, however, had had a little something in mind ever since he heard Sophie mention Las Vegas. "Well�"

"Anything," Sophie promised.

"Sinatra, he loved Vegas�" Reverently, Gianni invoked the name of his favorite singer. "Frankie, Dean, Sammy�"

"A souvenir of The Rat Pack, maybe?" Sophie suggested, giving her old friend a hug and a kiss on the cheek. "Something suitable for framing?"

"Even a postcard�" Gianni blushed, a bit embarrassed to have asked.

"You got it!" And with that, Sophie headed off to the cabin, brimming with almost as much anticipation as Gianni.

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Replies:

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