| Subject: Chapter 5 |
Author:
Mary
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Date Posted: Friday, August 05, 09:51:47pm
In reply to:
Mary
's message, "The Healing Touch - Part II" on Wednesday, August 03, 12:02:24pm
Chapter 5 – Part II
Her head hurt so badly that the numbers in front of her were starting to blur and nothing was making sense. Nikita sat looking at all the data on Marcali and things were just not adding up the way she had expected them to. She kept hunting and hunting through all the files and all the columns of numbers and something just didn’t feel right.
It all looked great. It was almost like someone had structured this company to fit with Wolfe Enterprises. The financials were incredibly impressive, their cash flows were solid, the balance sheet showed no signs of anything amiss, and their stock price was undervalued. It was prime for the picking, but why? It just seemed too perfect. Maybe Nikita thought, ‘I’m just not as experienced as I need to be to see what might be wrong. Maybe I’m not even the right person to be looking at any of this at all.’
She closed her eyes, turned her chair around and tried to ignore the stacks of reports that were waiting for her to scrutinize. The meeting with Marcali was now scheduled for Monday and she only had two days remaining and yet she had a terrible feeling about this. She had never felt this way about the Singapore deal, not once. Her defenses were down, she was tired and she let her mind wander back to Central One. She had always had any uncanny ability to just know when something else was wrong with a patient. Doctors and nurses would argue with her but in the end she was always right, there was always something else that was found. That is how this felt.
She didn’t hear her office door be pushed open just a little more. She didn’t see the worried eyes that took in the dark office, with only a desk light and the light from the laptop to see by. He saw her long blonde hair swept up in a topknot on her head, haphazardly like she was frustrated with it.
He backed out of the office without her ever knowing that he had been there, walked down the hall and flipped open his cell phone. “I need a car in front in ten minutes. Thanks.”
She wouldn’t like this but it was for her own good. It was after two in the morning and Mick had been having a great time with Tess tonight, partying at the Club had been awesome, drinking, fun with friends. Then he had convinced her that they needed to go to her place and they were on their way when Mick noticed the light still on in Nikita’s office as they passed near the building.
He had taken a deep breath in the cab and then asked the driver to stop. He sent Tess on home, disappointed but with a promise to see her in the next few days. He had taken the elevator straight up and found Nikita just as he had expected. He had a responsibility and there was no putting this off any longer. He knocked on the door and walked in, “I asked myself, what anyone would be doing after two a.m. in their office? I mean, really, either you should be out partying or you should be sound asleep.”
She sniffled. He definitely heard a sniffle. Panic welled up within him. That would mean tears. Mick could handle almost anything but tears. “Mick, go away.” It was said so sadly, so softly that his heart broke just a little.
He stiffened his spine and walked around the desk. She looked horrible. Tears stained her pale cheeks, hair was mussed, wrinkled clothing, she was a disaster. He couldn’t have this. He grabbed her suit jacket off the desk and held it up, “C’mon popsicle. Let Mick get you home.”
But she just sat there with tears in her eyes and running down her face, “No. I don’t want to go home,” she said softly.
“Doll, it’s really late and you need to rest.”
She just continued to stare, “I can’t. I’m all alone Mick. I can’t.”
He didn’t know what to do. But he did know that she was past exhausted and he had to get her out of the office and home to sleep. He took her hands, realizing they were very cold he started to rub the circulation back into them. Then he looked into her eyes and made her listen, “I am taking you home. Right now. You are going to sleep. I will stay with you if that is what it takes. Now let’s go.”
He pulled her to her feet, put her suit jacket and coat on and grabbed her purse, closed the office door and led her downstairs almost like a child to the waiting car. She didn’t say a word on the short drive to her building. Once inside he led her upstairs and she unlocked the door and in they went, he found the light switches and turned on the lights.
“Let’s get that coat off and let you get some sleep.” He took her coat and hung it up, removed her suit jacket and then noticed how loose the skirt was that she was wearing. “You know love, after you get some rest I have a friend who does great tailoring. We are going to have him take a look at your suits.”
“Whatever, Mick,” she didn’t care at this point. Nothing seemed to matter. Just sleep.
“Would you like some tea? I’m sure you must have tea.”
“No nothing for me,” she said as she made her way up the stairs to the sleeping loft. “I just have to sleep now Mick. I have to sleep.”
He watched her leave and lost sight of her as he made himself at home in her kitchen making himself a cup of tea. He would make sure that she was all right and then get home to get some rest himself.
He finished the tea preparations and heard a small whimper come from her room. When it happened again he decided that he had to make sure she was all right. He went up the stairs slowly so as not to frighten her. She was still in her office clothes and she was clutching a pillow as she sat against the headboard, trying hard to silently cry and loosing the battle.
“Nikita, what is it love? What’s so terribly wrong? It’s Mick, you can tell me anything.”
“No. I can’t.”
“Yes. Of course you can.”
But she remained silent and in desperation he finally just pulled the covers down from underneath her, and then put them back up over her so she was warm. “Now lay down. You’re tired and you need rest. You get some sleep and you and I will talk in the morning love.”
He turned to leave and she called his name, “Mick?”
“Yeah?”
“Please don’t leave. I don’t to be all alone here. Ok?”
“I’ll be right downstairs. Now you sleep.”
He settled onto the sofa with a thump and pulled the blanket over him that he had found in the closet. His tea was long cold and he was too tired for it anyway. He had worked for a lot of people for many years, but this woman was special. There was something about her that he felt a need to take care of her, to make sure that she was all right. Maybe it was her blatant disregard for her own well-being? He didn’t know. He just knew that she had asked him to stay and there was no way that he would leave. He settled in for the night.
*****
There was a pounding that was annoying, pulling him from the warm spot with the lovely bird that he was enjoying in his dream. He tried to ignore it but it would not go away. There is was again, pounding.
Mick awoke with a start. Then he remembered that he was at Nikita’s apartment. The sun was up, and light was pouring through the thin sheers that hung over the French doors. He sat up and rubbed his eyes. Then there was that pounding again. Someone was at the door. And they were rather insistent.
Mick stood and straightened his wrinkled clothing he had slept in as best he could. He kept the chain on the door and peered out talking in an agitated, hushed tone, “Could you keep it down, some of us are trying to sleep.” Mick didn’t like what he saw on the other side of the door. This person looked like an over aged hippie with long grey hair tied back, bandana in place, leather jacket, jeans, and an obnoxious tie-dyed t-shirt.
Walter stood on the other side of the door and peered at the balding, short man in front of him and instant anger went through him. What was this awful little man doing in his Sugar’s apartment? Walter growled, “And just who the hell are you?”
“Name’s Mick. And just exactly who are you and what do you want?”
“I want to see Nikita.”
“Not until you tell me who you are and what you want,” Mick stated in his firmest tone.
“Walter, she’s probably talked about me. And I need to talk to her.”
“I don’t recall Nikita ever mentioning a Walter. And she’s still sleeping you’ll have to come back.”
“Like hell I will. If you don’t open this door I will break it down.”
Mick studied Walter for a moment and realized that his eyes were deadly serious. Mick stepped back, undid the chain and opened the door.
Walter entered and looked around. Michael was close behind him. Mick took one look at Michael and he just knew to be afraid of him. He was dressed in black from head to foot and his face was a blank mask to try to read. But his eyes, they told the story. This was a desperate man, a man who had seen too much and been through too much pain, a man hanging on by a thread. He approached him carefully, “And you are?”
Without an actual look at Mick, it was more through him, he replied, “Michael.”
Then they all heard the sharp intake of breath, the small cry of incredulity mixed with anguish. Nikita was standing at the top of her stairs on the landing, pale as a ghost and shaking, she swayed as she said one word, ?“Michael?” Then she passed out flat on the floor.
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