Lily kept her arms around herself, wearing a jacket, a sweater underneath, and a scarf yet she still felt cold. Rubbing her hands together she peaked her head forward and stared down at the train tracks. No sign of Samantha’s train yet but that was to be expected. She was early.
“Better to be early than late,” she whispered to herself and smiled.
She was standing with a few others at the station. Most of them were inside the little cubicle where a light hung overhead. It wasn’t providing that much light but sometimes the idea of a place being warmer was all that you needed. Her eyes wandered upwards to the sign and it flashed before shifting.
“Train #341 inbound in five minutes,” Lily read aloud and smiled. It had been six months since she’d last seen Samantha. After she’d been told that she would be able to stay, she clicked with their group perfectly. Gav and Lisa had both wanted to come but considering how late the train was getting in, neither could sneak out and be with them. Sadly neither Dick nor Lily had told their friends about their night jobs.
Distantly she heard the train’s whistled and grinned. The door opened behind her and some of the other people in waiting joined her on the platform. Taking a few steps back she pulled her phone out and shot a quick text off to Dick.
Lilly: Hurry up. The train’s almost here.
The train whistled louder and she turned to face it and was blinded by the light immediately. Holding a hand over her eyes she took a step back as the train whooshed by and coupled with her dazed eyes she stumbled slightly. She felt a hand at her back and started, turning around quickly but then scowled.
Dick grinned at her his hair getting tousled by the train and she hit his chest. “You couldn’t just reply to me?” she asked turning around to face the train again.
“Well you said hurry up and I’d have to slow down to reply,” he shrugged and then beamed at the train. “Besides. No voy tarde.”
“Well you’re right on time,” she said as the train eased to a stop with a hiss.
The doors slid open and people shuffled their way out. Dick couldn’t see over their heads much but Lily kept her eyes open looking for her. After a few minutes she grabbed Dick’s hand and pointed. “There! I see her!” she said and waved both their arms to get her attention.
As the crowd thinned out Samantha spotted the pair of hands waving and could see Lily’s bright red hair and Dick’s dark hand that was waving as well and couldn’t help but grin. Quickly moving through the crowd, she saw the pair of them. Lily’s hair was curled and bounced as she moved while Dick’s hair was longer and tied back in a tiny pony tail. Both of them were grinning just as wide as she was.
She dropped her bags and rushed over to them wrapping her arms around both their shoulders and smiling widely. She was nearly squeezed to death by the both of their hugs at once and picking her up together. She made a noise of displeasure but laughed anyway before being set down.
“It’s so good to see you again,” Lily said unable to hide her elation. Then gasped as she reached toward her face. Tracing across her jaw and up her cheek was a jagged scar that was slightly pink, mostly healed but it was jarring. “What happened?”
Samantha glanced down at it and then smiled. “There was an incident with a wraith. It was more powerful than I anticipated. This scar is because of that but we managed to defeat it. It was a good lesson.”
“A good lesson she says. Las mamadas,” he said and frowned hard. “Estas bien? Are you okay?”
“Yes Dick. It was a few months ago,” at the mention of that he gave her something like a death glare and she smiled. “I know. Longer than I meant to be gone. But they thought I needed the training. More than I had before.”
“Did you get a promotion or something?” Dick asked pouting.
“Actually yes. You guys are still trainees. I used to be a warrior. Now I’m a captain.”
That made Dick pause for a moment and whistle. “Okay so you’re the same as Betty now?”
“Essentially. So don’t slip up too much,” she smirked. “Where is Betty by the way?”
Lily shrugged. “She said that a woman of a certain age needs her beauty sleep. And that the late night was for the young. But to give you a hug for her.”
Shaking her head Samantha rubbed her forehead. “That sounds like her. I’ll see her tomorrow.” As she finished talking her stomach growled and she snorted laughing a little.
“Right!” Lily clapped her hands together. “Food. I know Dick is hungry. He’s always hungry. And you haven’t eaten.”
“I’m not always hungry gringa,” Dick said with a sour face. But he still smiled when he looked at her and motioned toward her bag. She shook her head and slung it over her shoulder. “Terco.”
“I’m fine,” she rolled her eyes and then motioned toward the two of them. “So enough about what I’ve been doing. You two. Tell me what’s been going on while I’ve been gone? The city seems to be in one piece so you’ve been doing well in that regard.”
“Yes capitan,” Dick said sarcastically. “Turns out we’re good at taking care of our city.”
“When he’s not full of himself he’s very capable,” Lily chuckled. “Though he still doesn’t listen to orders. And he’s a horrible teammate. I don’t know how we’ve put up with him this long.”
“What is all of this? I’m the anchor whenever we deal with a big wraith. And I mean muy grande!” he held his arms way above his head and then spread them wide just to emphasize how big the wraiths could be.
Both girls laughed and he scowled before joining in with the laughter. Samantha looked at the two of her friends and when she took a breath she felt it was easier. She felt lighter, a weight that was there before that just went away. For the first time in a long time she really was home.
With Dick leading the way they boarded the next train, having to buy a new card for Samantha and stood around holding onto the handrails as the train picked up and started on it’s tracks. “So, what are we going to eat?” Lily asked.
“Something with meat,” Dick said.
“Something unhealthy,” Samantha amended. “They made sure that we had a proper nutrition the entire time I was there. When I say I missed home, I missed home.”
“Hm,” Lily folded her arms and tapped her finger against her cheek in thought but Dick was quick to move as he grinned at them.
“I have the perfect place. Follow my lead ladies.” He said as he pulled out his phone checking where they were on the map. “We’ve got a few more stops so get comfortable.” Sitting down across from them he grinned and something about that was infectious because Samantha grinned back.
Dick ended up taking them to a pizzeria. The place was near where he and his uncle lived and the place itself was small with round tables and checkered table cloths and a few booths. The smells from the kitchen were intoxicating and Samantha sighed happily. “Good choice.”
“The place is seat yourself so,” he waved his arm. “Who wants first dibs?”
Lily glanced at the pair of them and then pointed toward one in the empty tables toward the middle. “I think that’s a decent spot.” She started toward it. Dick followed with her bags in tow and slid them underneath as he took his seat and Samantha in the other.
A waiter came over and asked them if they were ready and Dick took over with the pizza order for everyone and motioned to the girls. “Trust me. You’ll love it. Speaking of loving it. I have a story.”
Once the waiter had finished taking the orders and went back to the kitchen Dick turned and smiled at them, “Okay so I’m being perfectly honest. Me and Gav are in class together. We haven’t done the homework at all and we have a sub and Gav is feeling especially randy today.”
“This isn’t uncommon as you know.”
Setting down her water Samantha nodded. “I’m very aware. I’m more surprised he knows the word randy”
“He’s been reading while you’ve been gone.”
“Really? I’m impressed. Lisa’s a good influence on him.”
“Let me continue the story ladies. Please.”
They both motioned with their hands and Dick nodded. “So the teacher calls on us. I think it was Milinia or something like that. And she asks why the two of us are laughing so loudly. Gav thinking on his feet picks up the book and motions towards the chapter.
“’Well you see,’” Dick began mimicking his friends voice as best as possible. “’I’ve seen this STD before. You see I saw it on my friend dick. Not this Dick but another dick. Long and short it looked way worse than this.’ Now she wasn’t going to take this from Gav and she had a great retort. She said, ‘I would worry about you as well then. That strand can be air borne and if you’ve seen it on your friend then you yourself may have contracted it. In fact Richard as well I would be careful of who you sit near.”
Both girls burst into quick burst of giggles and snorted while Dick laughed as well between the two of them. “Gav is still not done living that down unfortunately.”
“Serves him right,” Samantha said and smiled. “He’ll learn to stop pushing every teacher we runs into.”
“One day he’ll learn,” Dick shrugged and then whistled lightly and grinned as the waiter brought a still steaming tray and their pizza delivered. “Mmm yes. Fantastico.”
Samantha’s stomach growled louder this time and both of her friends laughed. She looked away trying to hide her face but grabbed a plate and then reached for the knife cutting through the cheese and serving a huge slice for herself.
Blowing on it she managed to take a hasty bite before dropping it back down to the table and laughed. “So good. Way better than the train food.” She mumbled through her full mouth but stared at the slice as it cooled.
Dick went next getting a slice of pizza on his plate while Lily got one from the other end as well as a few pieces of bread that was complimentary. While Dick and Samantha ate Lily glanced at the two of them and motioned toward Lily, “Oh and Lisa has a list of shows you need to watch.”
“Please tell me they’re short and manageable.”
“I wouldn’t know.” Lily pointed at Dick.
He glanced up as he was cutting his second slice and shrugged. “One is several seasons deep but it goes pretty fast once you hit the middle of the first few seasons. The others are mostly short. I think she did it on purpose so you wouldn’t get scared off.”
“Well I guess I’ll talk to her on Monday and get the list. The last few were good enough to get me through the downtime in the training,” she said and leaned back in her chair groaning. “I can still feel the morning and evening drills.”
“What did they have you doing?” Lily asked curiously.
“Well before I could even get to captain rank I had to master my geist. That was the first month,” She looked at her palm then made a fist. “After dinner I can show you a few tricks.”
“I think I could show you some things as well,” Dick said. “Not fancy captain training but good old fashioned street learnin.”
“That so,” Samantha raised her eyebrow leaning on the table. “I remember the first few times we went training and you weren’t on par yet.”
“I learned on the field.”
“You really can’t help yourselves, can you?” Lily asked glancing at him and her. “Both of you.”
“What do you mean me?” Samantha asked her hand against her chest.
Lily raised her eyebrow. “You know what you’re doing. You know he can’t not rise to a challenge.”
Samantha smiled. “Guess so. I didn’t have many sparring partners at the facility.”
“What was it like? Was it military school or something like that?” Dick asked.
“Not quite,” she said and pushed her plate aside and touched the table. It was a campus kinda like a college. We had dorms, training fields, a library. There were I think two others on the course with me. There were test daily, proper ways to take care of wraiths, to help with civilians, damage control, working together as a team, training new recruits. Field training.”
Dick motioned toward her, “Is that what you were talking about when you went on the ‘field trip?’”
“Mmhm. Up north there was an attack from a wraith. Big one. Lots of people hurt. We had another captain directing us and working to secure the situation. Find any victims. Keep any civilians out of it. Taking down the wraith. Seeing if there were any people affected like you two were. Typical warrior duties.”
“Speaking of,” Lily checked her phone quickly. “Who’s turn is it to patrol tonight?”
“I took a wraith out earlier and they’re rarely more than one a night these days,” he shrugged. “What’s our new capitan have to say? Judgement call.”
She rolled her eyes but nodded. You two can take the night off. I’ll patrol and get back into the swing of the city.”
“Oh, does that mean I can be at home before three? That sounds awesome.”
“Don’t forget that I have to teach you to respect the chain of command.”
Dick grinned at her and glanced at the empty pizza platter. “Manos a la obra!.”
The Harlequin Library 