Heart of a Warrior

9

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"IT CRACKS ME UP WHEN THIS JUNK MANAGES TO GET into the local paper. I mean, you expect it in the supermarket tabloids, but-"

"What junk?" Brittany asked as she closed the refrigerator, the cold soda she'd come for in hand.

Her roommate was sitting at their small kitchen table with a cup of coffee and a piece of coffee cake in front of her, even though it was midafternoon. Of course, Jan had only just gotten up an hour ago, having slept in later than usual today after a late night out with her current boyfriend. Several newspapers were there that she was catching up on reading, with one open in her hands.

"And on the second page, no less," Jan added as she glanced up at Brittany. "This is too funny."

Since Jan wasn't exactly laughing, Brittany took the funny part to be sarcasm. "What junk?" she asked again.

"Another UFO sighting."

Brittany rolled her eyes and headed out of the kitchen. Jan called after her, "No, really. Three people from Seaview swear they saw it. I wonder how long they stayed for happy hour."

Brittany came back and sat down across from Jan. "Some people actually take that stuff seriously, you know," she pointed out.

"We don't."

"No, but I can see why it would make the local paper, if three locals are claiming they saw something unusual. That's the first sighting in our area, which makes it newsworthy or at least of interest, even if it was just another weird-looking government plane being tested or a trick of the light. Besides, look at what those initials stand for, 'unidentified' being the word of note. I'm sure if the little green men ever do decide to pay us a visit, we'll have no trouble recognizing their transportation as a spaceship and calling it that."

Jan rolled her eyes now. "You are too kind, Britt. A flaky, delusional person is still a flake."

"No, actually, those sightings we probably never hear about, just as a known drunk isn't going to be taken seriously, either. The sightings that do make the news are usually from sober, respectable people who really do believe they saw what they claim to have seen."

"Or sensationalists who lie just to bask in the public spotlight," Jan countered as she continued to glance over the paper.

Brittany gave up with a chuckle. Her friend was one of those stubborn individuals who would adhere to an opinion to the bitter end, despite evidence that might suggest they have their facts wrong. She enjoyed such discussions, though, because she didn't let them frustrate her. She wasn't the type who had to be right all the time; she was perfectly happy to shrug and say we'll agree to disagree without getting hot under the collar about it, and go on to the next subject.

She'd still been in a rotten mood when she'd come into the kitchen, still furious that that gorgeous foreigner she'd met a few hours ago hadn't had the decency to at least say good-bye before disappearing on her. Trust Jan though to lighten her mood, however briefly.

They were three years apart in age, Jan the younger at twenty-five, but had hit it off immediately when Jan answered the roommate ad Brittany had run soon after she moved into the two-bedroom apartment. She could have afforded the place easily by herself, but her goals were already set, and having someone split the costs with her fit well into her plan. Besides, she wasn't a loner; she liked having people around, liked having someone there to talk to when she felt like it, or leave her alone when she felt like that, too.

But today she knew she wouldn't be good company. So she started to head back to her bedroom to lay on her bed and brood some more about all the things she should have said to that hunk to make him at least interested enough to ask for her phone number.

But again Jan arrested her attention, this time with a gasped, "Jeez!" and a moment later, "Oh, Jeez, I don't believe it!"

Brittany came back to stand in the doorway that separated the kitchen and tiny laundry room from the oversized living room. "What now?"

"We almost died yesterday and didn't even know it!" Jan exclaimed.

"Excuse me?"

Jan laid the paper down to stare up at Brittany wide-eyed. She was actually pale. "I thought meteors and comets got tracked coming toward us, like we had months' advance warning? Did you hear anything about this one?"

Brittany frowned. "A meteor passed by near us?"

"It didn't pass by, it was last tracked dropping into the Pacific, was already in the atmosphere when it was spotted, and then-gone."

"So there was no danger?"

"Are you kidding? It says here it was the size of a football field. If that thing had actually hit the water instead of disintegrating, the tidal wave would have been big enough to reach the next states over."

"But it obviously didn't hit."

"No, but that's beside the point. This one came in so fast that no one saw it coming."

"The size of a football field would be no more than a speck of dust in space, Jan. The observatories wouldn't pick up anything that small."

"I still don't like it that we hear about it after the fact," Jan grumbled.

Neither did Brittany, but she was pragmatic about things that she couldn't change. "If it came in as fast as you say, so it wasn't even noticed until it was already here, then nothing could have been done about it either way. Meteors flash though all the time, some hit, most disintegrate. We can be glad they aren't the size of comets, and chalk this one up to it wasn't our time to go."

"Is that farm philosophy?"

Brittany grinned. "No, just old-fashioned acceptance of fate."

Jan snorted. "I'd rather make my own fate, thank you very much, which includes at least having the option of trying to run for the hills."

Brittany might have suggested Jan go back to school and figure out how to build better telescopes, but she preferred to get back to her brooding, so she shrugged instead and once again headed toward her bedroom. But she'd no sooner closed the door when another shriek of astonishment was heard from the kitchen. Brittany shook her head. She did wonder what could possibly top the story of the meteor to upset Jan this time, but decided she could wait to find out.

But less than a minute later she was heading back to the kitchen despite her resolve. Curiosity could be a major pain sometimes, and she did occasionally have an overactive imagination that could go haywire if her own curiosity started acting up. She began to think of other things that had nothing to do with news articles that might have made Jan cry out, and she was actually running those last few steps to the kitchen door to make sure her friend was all right.

She wasn't. Jan was slumped across the table, the coffee cup spilled, the cake just missed by her head, the newspaper scattered on the floor next to her chair. Behind her stood-him. Unbelievable. That gorgeous hunk of foreign masculinity in her kitchen? And he looked annoyed and upset at the same time, if that was possible, as he stared down at Jan.

"What'd you do, scare the bejesus out of her?"

He hadn't seen Brittany yet in the doorway. He looked at her now and seemed to visibly relax, though he did sigh.

"She could not withstand the sight of me," he said by way of explanation.

"That's what I said-never mind. Help me get her to her bed."

There was no helping about it. He lifted Jan so easily that he could have been picking up the coffee cup, and simply waited for Brittany to lead him, which she did. A few moments later she stared down at Jan laying peacefully in her bed and had no idea what to do to bring her out of her faint. It wasn't as if she had any experience in the matter.

She sighed. "I really don't think we have anything in the medicine cabinet that covers fainting."

"I am told she will recover in due time."

"Told?" she said. "Or is that your way of stating your opinion? Oh, never mind," she added, realizing as she said it that she'd said it an awful lot to him in the brief span of their acquaintance.

She directed him out of Jan's room with a wave of her hand, followed him into the living room that adjoined both bedrooms, and pointed at the couch there. He took the hint, though he was very careful as he sat down on it, as if he were afraid he might break it. Come to think of it, some springs just might snap under his seven feet of solid man weight. He really was big. And although their living room was extra large in comparison to the rest of the apartment, it looked cut down to half its size with him in it.

Brittany was still in a bit of shock herself that he was there, when she had been sure she'd never see him again. And the fact that Jan had still been sitting at the kitchen table meant she hadn't let him in, so it was no wonder his sudden presence had scared the heck out of her. Some overdue annoyance that he had just barged in on them rose now.

"Is it normal etiquette in your country to just walk into someone's home without knocking?" she asked. "There are laws against doing that here, if no one has bothered to mention that to you."

He didn't answer immediately. She had changed into shorts and a loose T-shirt when she got home, but he was still dressed as he'd been at the mall, and still had that radio, or translator, or whatever it was, attached to his belt, the miniature earphone still firmly in ear.

"I knocked," he told her. "Yet no one opened the door."

She found that hard to believe. As big as his hand was, any knocking he did could probably be heard over on the next block.

So she raised a brow at him, "You didn't figure, then, that maybe no one was home?"

Another pause before he said, "I knew that not to be the case."

Okay, so he could have heard them talking through the door, but then how the heck hadn't they heard his knocking? She might not have heard him after she'd closed her bedroom door, but Jan should have. And why was she nitpicking when he was here? She still found that amazing. He'd actually tracked her down-but how had he?

She immediately asked, "How did you find me when my phone number is unlisted?"

Once again, a long pause before he answered, "I have excellent resources.

"No kidding," she agreed. "So much for thinking you needed a detective, when you've got the kind of access usually only law enforcement, government, or ambassadors-ahh, that's it, isn't it? Your embassy in this country is helping you cut through red tape?"

"For what reason would I cut tape of a certain color?" he replied.

Screeching out of the earphone. Well, he had answered immediately, without waiting for the coaching. Brittany almost laughed, but his wince restrained her. Poor baby He was having a heck of a time coping with the new language he'd learned, and his translator was obviously of the impatient sort.

"How about we have a conversation without your hyperactive friend's help?" she suggested, staring pointedly at the radio on his hip.

He gave her a brilliant smile and removed the earphone, dropping the cord so it dangled over the couch by his feet, a good guess that was far enough for him not to hear anything else coming out of it. Brittany only vaguely noticed, though, that smile of his having dazzled her to the core.

"Be at ease," he said. "I will be fine."

"Was that for me or your friend there?" she managed to ask him.

"My friend. She worries overmuch about me."

The dazzling subsided completely, some unexpected bristling taking over. "She?"

"She is a computer."

Brittany blinked. "Was that a joke?''

"Why would you think so?"

She laughed. He was quite funny. "Probably because computers don't have emotions, so they can't worry. Now, what brings you here?"

"I need you."

Those words almost melted her on the spot. She had the greatest urge to hop across the coffee table between them, right into his lap. The butterflies in her belly had just gone absolutely wild.

Never had she been so thoroughly turned on, and incredibly, just by words.