It's mid-week, and I decided it was time for more Sidekick Carl, I hope one of a few I will get in before the month is up. This time around, it's just a scene with a couple characters I've been building up more than I planned. I had enough material that I held back some for later. As usual, here's the first and previous installments, and while I'm at it the chapter that introduced these two. I'm at maximum snark with the movie parody angle. Also, there is a line here I really came up with as a kid...
The woman was clearly beautiful and equally clearly in distress. She was tied to an office swivel chair, which was itself lashed to a set of double doors. The view was flattering as she looked straight up. “Nod if you can hear me,” a gruff stage whisper said. Piercing eyes peered out of a vent. “Constructor and Carl are in the building. I talked to them. When they make their move, I’m going to get you out. I just need to know, which doors are the guards at?” The woman turned her wide eyes just off-frame… just as a door opened.
Then the frame froze, as
John and Lauren Carter burst out laughing.
* * *
The moon shone brightly on a small but well-furnished room, now and then interrupted by a passing tree. The two agents lay unclothed under the covers, clearly happy. “We should do this more often,” Lauren said.
“It wasn’t anything, really,” John said. “They had to move the VIP train to pick up an ambassador. If we hadn’t gotten aboard, the room would be empty.”
The screen showed a
beautiful actress and a handsome, somewhat older actor racing across a rooftop.
Behind them, a 7-foot bodybuilder cast as Constructor fought Goliath and his lumbering combat
exoskeleton, represented with what was clearly a miniature puppet. The unseen operator alternated
slashed at the superhero, then tried again to dislodge the figure of Sidekick
Carl, hanging on to the back for dear life. “It’s still better than CGI,”
Lauren said. She nestled closer against him. “How many VIPs do you think have
done what we did?”
“Ah… more than you might
think,” he said. He put an arm around her. “We can skip this if you want to.”
“No,” Lauren said. “I’m all right.”
The heroine raced down a set of stairs, which a medium-distance shot showed leading to the launchpad of a quadruple-fanned VTOL craft, while the hero fired over his shoulder. As he turned back, the lady seemed frozen in her tracks. Then another man pushed into view, in the same blue uniform he wore, with a gun pressed to her head. “Sorry, Jonny,” the villain said. “You had a good run, but I need to catch my flight. And she's coming along for the ride.”
As the actors spoke, John mouthed silently. It was mostly banter that had never happened, as the traitor justified himself, but a few lines had really happened, or replaced ones they had never told.
“This is about me, not
her!”
“Anything to say to each
other?” (Why don't you tell him who you really are?)
“Don’t worry about me,
John…” (I love you! I’ve always loved you!)
“You can’t play hero
forever, John-boy!” (You think she really means it?)
“It will be all right…” (Let
her go, she’s just scared.)
“You’re not riding off
into the sunset…” (Why do you think she tried to get you in bed, love at
first sight?)
Then they both howled as the hero said, “If there’s an afterlife, send me a postcard!” And in the next shot, the traitor was falling to his doom.
As the credits rolled,
John turned to his wife. “We… we’ve had a good life, haven’t we? 14 years
together, 12 years married…”
“Three kids,” Lauren added.
John nodded. “We made it
work. I know it’s been hard, but we did it. Have you wondered, though…”
Lauren drew back enough
to look him in the eye. “C’mon, John,” she said, “we have this conversation at
least twice a year…”
“I know, but it’s important to me,” John said. “Do you really think we would have gotten together if, well, the Raven hadn’t taken over the office?”
She smiled. “You mean, would I have married Agent John Carter, if I hadn’t seen you escape the Raven’s goons through the air ducts, free the office staff, come back in to save me, shoot it out with the dirty security chief who let them in, and hotwire a jumpjet to get out before the building self-destructed?”
“Yeah,” John said. “You
know what it was really like.”
“Of course we would have been together, John,” Lauren answered. “It was going to happen. It was happening. We already had a connection. We’d gone on a date. It would have been a lot more than a date, if you hadn’t said no. Hell, there’s your what if of history. Would you have married me, if I had taken you home on our first date?”
“Yeah,” John said,
shifting awkwardly. “Of course, it wouldn’t have changed how I felt. Still, it
would have been… different.”
“Maybe, maybe not,”
Lauren said. “Still, I suppose I’m glad we did it your way. For a while.
I just want to know… did you have to tell him about it?”
“We were friends,” John answered. “He asked how our date went. Besides, he wouldn’t have told anyone. He couldn’t have told anyone, or the Raven would have tried to use you to get to me from the start.”
“Yeah?” Lauren said. “So
what did he say when you told him?”
“Actually,” John said, “he
told me if you asked again, I should say yes.”
“Really,” she said. “Were
you going to?”
“I hadn’t decided,” he
said with a grin. “You hadn’t asked again.”
“Well,” she said, “maybe I
was going to if you asked me on a second date. Maybe I was ready to ask if you
didn’t…”
“I thought about that,” he said. “I suppose that was why I didn’t ask.”
She straddled him then. “Let’s get one thing straight once and for all… and don’t act like you can’t listen to me while you’re staring at me,” she said. His gaze shifted enough to see real tears in her eyes. “You didn’t save me that day. You weren’t in any shape to save anybody, you were just waiting for a better way to die, until you found me. I saved you, and that made you mine.” She began to pound at his chest. “You’re mine. Mine. Mine.” She was still repeating it as she pulled up the covers and drew him on top.
A while later, they lay
sprawled on the bed. She raised her head long enough to say, “By the way, you
know Constructor’s girl lied to you, right?”
“Of course,” he said. “I figured we could give them a head start. They might find out something our agents wouldn’t.”
“John,” she said some
time later. “Dammit, John, I had my own gun.” But of course, he was asleep.
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