Chapter 2

"What?" Daddy blinked and began to frown.

"Well, nothing yet. I just got out of the Army this morning..." I amplified. "It's a little early for me to have a job. I've got a little money for the transition while I look."

"Oh." Daddy looked somewhat mollified. "What do you plan to look for?"

"That's not clear yet," I replied. "Something that will put food on the table to start, then I'll try to fine-tune things. I need to get in some more college courses. The field I hope to get into doesn't have a supporting major. The closest thing would be celestial navigation."

Daddy eyed me. "Like on a ship?"

"Yes, Sir."

Daddy turned to Rachel. "He's going to be a sailor, Honey. Best to drop him now." Rachel looked stubborn -- and unhappy.

"That's uh, if and when," I noted. "It may never happen. Right now, it's kind of pie in the sky."

Daddy cleared his throat. "Ahem, yes..." I knew we weren't on the same frequency.

"Why don't we just have our dinners and if Rachel and I can't find any compelling reason not to be together by the end of dinner, then we can go somewhere private where I can be a little more forthcoming?" I suggested, adding, "We're not communicating because I can't discuss certain things in public."

"Ah, hmmph, yes, all right," Daddy agreed reluctantly.

"I'm nineteen," Rachel whispered tightly, "I don't NEED their permission!"

"You know that, and I know that, Honey Bun, but THEY don't seem to," I countered.

"They need to learn!" Rachel declared. "I have enough problems without having them drag me back like a boat anchor!" She leaned in. "What's this about being a sailor?"

"Not here, Honey. There was a little confusion there. I wasn't talking about being a deep water swabbie -- I get seasick. I'll explain later -- and it's better than that."

"Okay." She leaned against me, apparently blissfully happy, while she dug into her salad. I went to work on mine, too, while trying to decide what to ask her.

"What are your plans?" I asked, finally. "What are you doing?"

"I'm in community college," she replied. "Theoretically, I'm working on my liberal arts degree, but I'm really wasting Daddy's money while I look for you."

"Me?"

"You're what I was looking for. I didn't have a picture, but I know it when I see it." She eyed me hotly. "I wanna go somewhere and rub myself all over you!" She stopped for a minute and looked troubled. "You know I'm fat, right? I mean, you've got twenty-twenty vision, right? You don't need glasses?"

I grinned. "Yeah, yeah, I get it."

"Yeah, well, maybe you ought to rub my belly or something." She reached down and wiggled on the seat, clearing her dress away from under her butt. "Go ahead -- make sure you can deal with it."

"What about... ?" I flicked a glance at the next booth. Nick was watching us.

"Do it." Rachel pulled her skirt up and stuck out her tongue at her brother. He grinned at her and didn't say anything while I slid my hand under there to sample skin. Surprise! I liked it! I liked the feel and I liked the look -- there was some definition there. She wasn't bushy, but she wasn't bald about the pussy mound -- whether it was trimmed or it just laid that way, her short pubes looked combed. "Well?" she whispered in my ear. I turned my head and kissed her. Rachel let go of her skirt and put a hand behind my head and moaned into my mouth, hers wide open to my tongue.

"Hey, hey, hey!" Daddy plucked at my sleeve and I broke the kiss to face his disapproval. "None of that!"

"No, LOTS of that!" Rachel asserted. "Go away, Daddy!" I slid my hand out from under her dress, hoping it was undetected.

"Let's eat," I suggested. "We can do that later." Daddy looked REAL unhappy, but he turned back to his dinner.

For the rest of the meal we limited ourselves to rubbing each other's thighs and the occasional kiss. I was very happy with Rachel and it was clear that it was mutual. Where she'd been all my life up to the day I got my CAP card wasn't clear -- but what WAS clear was the fact that she didn't seem to give a shit about the score. The appearance, at least, was that if we'd met a week or a year previous, the result would have been similar, at least, as long as I made the first move. Of course, the chances were that I wouldn't have made that move...

As for Rachel, well, I was beginning to get a feel for what was up with her. You know that guinea pig in 'Dr. Doolittle' that does the dance and sings, 'Do a little dance, make a little love, get down tonight!'? Well, that's Rachel. She's just ... cute. Sexy. You want to cuddle her. I did, anyway.

Dinner finished, Mommy and Daddy tried to separate us by paying the check first and trying to evacuate. Rachel was in the booth with me and when Daddy stood and turned to her and said, "Come, Rachel -- we're going," she just smiled and waved bye-bye.

Daddy wasn't thrilled. "NOW, Young Lady!"

"When Scott pays his bill. We'll be right along, Daddy." Rachel smiled up at him sweetly.

Daddy made to lean past me and get a grip on Rachel's arm. "You really, REALLY don't want to do that, Sir!" I warned him.

Daddy was red in the face. "I've had just about enough..."

I pushed his arm away. "She's not coming past me in any case," I told him. "You know that. You're making a fool of yourself and actually putting yourself in danger, I think!"

"Roger..." Mommy tugged at his shoulder. "Roger, stop."

Roger turned to eye his wife. "I thought you wanted this?"

"I've ... changed my mind." Mommy was watching me. I nodded and looked around. We were getting some attention all right -- a couple of male waiters were on the way. Mommy picked them up, too, following my gaze. "We'll wait in the parking lot..."

"We'll be right along," I promised. Mommy got Nick and Roger moving and the waiters stood down as they passed. One came by, anyway.

"Was he bothering you?"

"It was a little family spat. Rachel was being ornery," I explained. "It's all good." Rachel, sitting beside me, gave her best innocent smile. The guy nodded and headed off.

Problem was, that wasn't the only attention I got. There were two guys at a corner table watching things WAY too alertly -- and as Rachel and I went past, one of them eyed me while talking on a cell phone. The other one got up and fell in behind Rachel. Not good -- not good at all...

We got outside and the guy stopped at the door -- but I watched him give a wave at a blue Ford. Rachel was turning to head toward her folks, who were parked a couple of rows down and a ways over -- but I didn't want them caught in the crossfire, so I stopped her.

"We're in trouble, Honey Bun," I related quietly, pulling her to me. "I think we're walking into an Earth First ambush. When I yell -- or if you hear shots -- drop down between a couple of cars, okay?"

"You're kidding, right?" Rachel gasped.

"Wish I was..." The Ford was moving, rolling up the aisle and would pass behind us. "Tuck yourself in between the front of this car and that one..." I pointed at two nearby cars parked nose to nose. "Now, Baby!"

Rachel obediently ducked, then looked at the car and dove flat. I spun and pulled the Ruger as the ugly snout of a machine pistol poked itself out of the car window. I didn't wait for him to shoot first -- I ducked between the next pair of cars while hip-shooting at the car. The machine pistol lit off, but I'd addled the guy. I put three rounds into the car above it and it stopped firing abruptly. The driver hit the gas, but I was already working on the front passenger window. I had seventeen rounds and was fresh off the range; the car stopped moving under power, rolled into the curb in front of the restaurant and bumped to a stop with the right front tire on the sidewalk.

The hostess nervously stuck her head out the door and I said, "Call nine one one -- and be careful -- there are two more inside who might start something!" She nodded and backed inside while I cautiously approached the Ford.

The guy in the back seat with the machine pistol had taken one in the forehead, just over his left eye; he'd been sighting, I guess. The driver has a heavy woman in her forties or fifties -- I'd hit her in her right arm twice and from the looks of things, her right breast -- which was substantial. She groaned from the pain of her wounds and eyed me blurrily.

"Frank said this would be easy ... Where did the gun come from?" she croaked.

"Some of us shoot back," I replied. In the distance was the sound of sirens... "I'll get you an ambulance."

The woman waved wearily. "I'm dead, anyway, aren't I? I let that stupid jackass talk me into helping him..."

"Well, if I put in a good word for you, you might survive," I replied.

She eyed me in surprise. "You'd do that?"

"I might. There are two more, right? Inside?"

"Yeah. In the corner. Frank called 'em spotters. One of 'em called us on a cell and said to get ready and the other followed you out."

"I saw 'em. I just wanted independent verification."

Roger was trying to extract his family, waving urgently at Rachel. Rachel was looking back and forth between him and me.

"It's okay, Honey Bun," I told her, "The shooting is over." I waved her to me, and turned to yell at Roger. "She's a witness -- you ALL are!" I pointed a finger at him in admonishment and he subsided. "It's Daddy's fault," I groused at Rachel. "That little confrontation when he tried to take you out fingered us for the Earth First team."

Rachel looked seriously angry for the first time in our brief acquaintance -- and it came out more like vexed. "I don't care if he IS my Daddy, I'm gonna kick him where it hurts!" I looked down at her little flip-flop shod feet and couldn't stifle a grin.

The hostess stuck her head out the door again. "They're coming!"

"We need the paramedics and a meat wagon -- we've got one dead and one injured..."

"I scraped my knee..." Rachel interjected.

"Okay, two injured," I corrected. The hostess nodded.

The first cruiser wheeled up and two cops bolted out. I put the Ruger on the ground and said, "Earth First ambush team. They're both down -- one is dead." The cop who proceeded to hustle me to the nearest car to cuff me was the only one who heard me mutter, "There are two more inside."

"What?"

"There are two spotters in the restaurant. They were pretty obvious and the driver confirmed it for me."

"Mike!" the guy waved at his partner. "This guy says there are two more spotting inside!" he added in a stage whisper as the other guy came closer.

"You're a decent shot," the other cop noted.

"I just burned two hundred and fifty rounds at the range getting familiar with that pistol an hour and a half ago," I replied. "And I'm ex-military."

The cop nodded. "Do I have to see it?"

"Seven-two," I provided.

"Right. I'll tell the detectives to get a move on and call SWAT in case the pair holed up in there get wise." He headed back to his cruiser and the radio.

"It might be nice if the woman survived," I noted, "She's just a spouse, I think -- doing what she was told."

"It's still capital..." the cop said, removing the handcuffs but not being obvious about it.