Bathe In Fire - Shadows of the Night 2

Chapter 5

Hi,

After reading your comments on the last one, I decided I had to do some extra work. So here it is, the next chapter, and it's super long!! And, yes, Anna will meet a certain someone again... Finally. Read, vote, comment. Let me know if you like it! Thank you for sticking with this story :D

Lara

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Chapter 5

It was Friday night and I was not at Joe's Pub. I was sitting opposite Andy Varner, in one of the Italian bars close to the Circle's headquarters. I had finally exerted my plan to bribe Andy into praising my exceptional potential as a fighter in front of Erika. I could still go to Joe's later, since that man in front of me could be as entertaining as he wanted to be, acquiring information regarding Maria's case was on top of my to-do-list, no matter what.

"After our first training session I didn't expect to hear from you so soon," he said. His hair was still wet at the ends. Like me, he had taken a shower at the Circle's headquarters, washing away the sweat and anger we had produced during our workout. "So, why the change of heart? You that desperate?" He added.

I shrugged. "I guess I just figured out that I need to learn a lot more before I'm ready to join the new task force. Besides, desperate times call for desperate measures, Andy," I said.

He was staring at me, brown eyes steely, something behind hardening. Somehow he looked serious, an expression I had rarely seen on the Andy Varner I remembered.

"Your offensive's not the best, and you could be in better shape. You only managed to evade me once or twice. Your footwork sucks. You're not agile and quick enough to evade unexpected moves from your opponent."

I raised my hand, palm facing him. "No sugarcoating please." If he noticed the sarcasm in my voice, he neglected it. "You just wait a year or two and I'll be sweeping the floor with you, bro," I continued.

A hint of a smile. Finally something else behind that steeled look in his eyes.

"If you say so, Johnson."

A few minutes later the waitress cleaned our table, balancing the dishes skillfully. Once she was out of earshot, I asked a question that had been on the tip of my tongue for quite a while.

"So, are you going to stay in New York, or is this just some sort of short-term vacation?"

I knew that members of the Force were frequently called to other cases outside of the city. While missions on the continent were a rarity, if not an impossibility, the North American CFs had engaged in South American missions repeatedly in the past. Andy shook his head and I couldn't help noticing that, for a change, not a strand of his blond, wild carpet of hair was out of order.

"I wouldn't call that vacation... No, I won't be going anywhere. Not so soon, anyway. You never know with the Force, though," he said before staring at me for a long moment. "You know, sometimes I wish I'd never left the Circle's academy. Life was easier back then," he added, directing his gaze to the night-lit view outside the window. Watching him like this made me believe that I wasn't the only one that had changed. Life had happened to all of us.

I gave myself a mental smack. "Yeah, can't say I disagree with that. Sentimentality can be a nasty bitch sometimes," I said, making a grab for my coke.

He turned to me, and to my utter surprise I found something else creeping into his expression. A blink. A slow, lazy smile. A scrap of playfulness. I saw a reflection of the Andy Varner I once knew.