THE LONG WAY HOME, PART Nine

One thing Lynda missed about the Junior Gazette building not being around any longer was not knowing the best places to hide. Lacking anywhere better to get away for a private chat with Spike, Lynda dragged him into Marriner’s TARDIS, which was back operating as his Gazette office. The first sight they met with was Paul in a suit. Lynda had never seen him dressed up at all, except for his military uniform. Around the Gazette, he always dressed casually and never bothered even attempting to look business-like. Obviously, something was afoot. Sophie was handling the chores of tying the knot in Marriner’s tie.

"Looking for somewhere to hide?" Paul asked Lynda.

"Do you mind?" she replied. "I need to discuss some things with Spike."

"As long as you two behave, that should not be a problem," he said.

"Big plans?" Spike asked.

"Dinner with Sarah’s folks." Sophie finished the knot and looked him over, nodding.

"Do you think it will impress them?" he asked Sophie.

"Good as you’re going to look, I’m afraid," she chuckled.

"The arboretum is a good chatting place. Down the hall, turn left at the second door on your right then two doors left."

"Is the cat in or out?" Lynda asked, as an afterthought.

Paul stopped to consider and closed his eyes briefly. "The cat is in," he finally said. "You’ll not run into it."

Lynda set off down the hall with Spike in tow. Spike looked at her strangely. "You don’t want to meet the cat, Spike. Trust me."

As Spike and Lynda passed down the hallway from the office and entered the control room, they found Sarah’s wheelchair empty. Lynda held Spike back and watched the goings on in the room unnoticed from the corridor. Sarah herself was standing beside the console wearing a beautiful red dress that Arthur happened to be hemming with a sewing kit at the moment. Laura sauntered in carrying a large diamond necklace that would have been at home being worn by the Princess of Wales.

"Where did you get that!" Sarah exclaimed.

"Oh, I practice safecracking in my spare time. Try it on."

Sarah did and looked at her reflection in a full-length mirror Arthur had brought into the control room.

"I used to dress up when I was four and pretend I could look like this," she said thoughtfully. "I never dreamed I would be able to do this for real."

Laura laughed at this. "Not every dream we do here is a bad one, Sarah. This one belonged to his wife, and I expect it will be yours soon."

"Come on Laura, he doesn’t just give away stuff like this."

"Not to girlfriends, no." Laura smiled. "This is strictly community property stuff. Seeing you wearing it will only make him that much more anxious to do the deal and make you an equal partner. Speaking of diamonds, when are you going to get yours, Lynda?" Laura had noticed the visitors in the shadows.

Lynda and Spike stepped forward. Spike answered her question. "We were going Christmas shopping tonight with the bonus money we got. I think we know what Santa will bring this year." The two of them held each other’s hands as he spoke.

"Good," Laura said.

"Why don’t you ever get yourself a guy, Laura?" Spike asked.

"Whatever should I do with one?" she chuckled. "I have Sophie to amuse me."

Spike wisely decided to let the conversation drop.

In the offices of the Junior Gazette, Julie stared into a mirror in the bathroom and shook her head. This day had been purely awful. Kate stuck her head in the bathroom and, seeing Julie there, entered.

"I have some drafts I want you to take a look at," she said.

"Not now, Kate. I don’t feel up to it," Julie said dismissively.

"I think you should, Julie." Kate spoke in a forceful tone and Julie looked at the sketches--or rather, what was written at the bottom. ‘You’ve got two aliens here now. Want to talk about it???’

Julie glanced at Kate in disbelief. Kate shook her head. "I’m sorry you don’t like them. Stop by my place later and I’ll have some better ones worked up for you." She took the papers and left.

Spike and Lynda never made it to the arboretum, settling instead for an art gallery complete with a replica Mona Lisa hanging in a golden frame. The two sat down on a bench and Spike unloaded his troubles.

"Lynda, I think it’s great that Paul wants you to do all this but what am I going to do for a week?"

Lynda looked at him curiously. "I thought that part would have been obvious."

"Precisely," he said. "Lynda and her pet Spike. I’m not a planner. I’m a reporter. I need something to do besides call you brilliant and keep you up nights." He kissed her.

"Why didn’t you say so?" boomed a voice from the other end of the room. Paul sauntered in. "I’ve got just the ticket for you. Lynda works on the Junior Gazette’s future and Spike does some research into Sophie and Laura’s arrest and conviction. That would make an excellent story for the Junior Gazette, as well as get my two associates out in public again without the benefit of alien technology."

"Where were you planning to stash them if you didn’t want them in the public eye?" Lynda asked. "I don’t think baby-sitting those two was in the deal we had."

"I got a wonderful deal on a Scottish castle overlooking Loch Ness--UNIT had some dustup there some years ago and the locals are terrified of the place. The real estate agent was more than happy to cut the price for me. I was planning to stash them there. Angus the caretaker lives on the grounds and my interior decorator is in and out during the day remodeling the place, but it’s roomy and there’s plenty of privacy."

"Christmas in Scotland. Moonlight on the beach!" Lynda moaned.

"Not so bad," Paul said. "I understood she put in a lovely stone Jacuzzi. I haven’t seen the place, but I want to get up there myself someday. Probably spend summers there."

"If you get cold, Lynda, I know one way to warm up," Spike chuckled.

"Fireplace," Paul said. "I expect you two to behave. I don’t want to eat my dinner on a table with a sign on it saying ‘Spike and Lynda had fun here’ and a list of eleven separate occasions."

"Only eleven?" Spike asked. Lynda shot him a wicked glance.

"My name is not Julie," Lynda said. "If I tell you I’m going to get some work done, then work will get done, Spike or no Spike. What I really could use is Kenny right now."

"Kenny?" Paul asked.

"Kenny Phillips. Used to be our assistant editor before he left for Australia," Spike said. "Really great guy, terrible luck with women, good head for business."

"So Kenny could help us, you think?" Paul asked, his eyes beginning to twinkle.

"You wouldn’t happen to be able to get him for me?" Lynda slyly asked.

"You tell me where he is and I’ll do my best."

In the control room, Arthur had finished the dress and pronounced his handiwork ‘good’. Sarah sat down in the wheelchair for a rest and Laura wheeled her into the office. Sophie sat in Marriner’s chair with her feet on the desk.

"Where is my date?" Sarah asked Sophie.

"Off spying on Spike and Lynda, and he’ll be back shortly," she replied.

"Why am I not surprised," Sarah said. "Does he ever find any kind of trouble he doesn’t get involved with?"

Arthur strolled into the room, looked over the view, and snapped his fingers. "Escaped convicts are not to be in the office. What would happen if someone entered and saw you?"

"I’ve locked the doors, Arthur. I know my way around this place well enough to do that."

"I’ll be glad when the two of you get your civilian status back. I’ve had enough troubles in my life already without having you two scrambling my circuits further."

"My mum feels the same way about me. Maybe she’ll lend you some Prozac."

Outside the Junior Gazette, Paul was waiting with his selected vehicle of the evening, a silver Jaguar. Frazz wheeled Sarah out to the car, and Sarah insisted on getting out of the wheelchair and into the front seat herself. Frazz stowed the wheelchair in the trunk, and the Jaguar sped off.

"So, what do I need to know about your folks?" Paul asked.

"I was wondering when you’d get around to asking," she replied. She looked the interior of the car over. "Typical American arrogance to bring a car with the steering wheel on the wrong side!"

"I suppose it is my fault Cornwallis had to surrender to General Washington," Paul chuckled. "Win that war, and we’d all drive on the same side. But you lot lost, so we do everything differently. Better, too. I was trying to explain that to Lord North, but he never could grasp the significance of the concept."

"You met Lord North?" Sarah asked incredulously. "Let me guess, you single-handedly saved the American army and won the war."

"George Washington did help a little," Paul smiled. "I’m lying, of course."

Sarah closed her eyes and lay back in the seat. "Remind me again--why am I nuts about you?" She paused. "No, besides that!"

"Because I really could let you meet George Washington, if we wanted to. I’m more than dinner and a movie. I can give you the whole universe and have you back before morning."

"Straight on to Never Never Land," Sarah said. "Now playing the part of Wendy, Sarah Jackson."

"Not such a bad role. I would never marry Captain Hook."

"But you would marry Wendy, right?"

"Mmmmmm. Wendy is hard to rhyme, too." Paul smiled. "I like the necklace. Did Laura steal that out of the safe?"

"Yeah," Sarah said half-heartedly. "Do you normally let her break into your safes?"

"Oh, just the unimportant ones. She needs the practice. Anyway, the necklace goes very nicely with the ring in the glove compartment. You might want to try it on for size."

She looked at him with a mixture of shock and adoration. "What kind of ring?"

"What kind would you like it to be?"

Sarah opened the glove compartment, and there was a diamond ring sitting in a gold and velvet case. She picked up the ring and put it on. "Paul, this is so beautiful--I don’t know what to say."

"I know three little words Lynda might suggest."

"I’m not Lynda, and don’t you forget it. You want me, you ask me, dear."

"Will you marry me?"

To which Sarah Jackson, who had been dumped more times than she could count on fingers and toes, said "I’ll think about it."

Julie stopped by Kate’s flat, and Kate hustled her downstairs and out into the street below. "I’m not taking any chances," Kate said to her. "Marriner and his gang scare me, and I don’t trust anything any more."

"He threatened me," Julie told her. "He said he’d kill me if I messed around with him."

"That’s not an idle threat. We’re not on the same level as an all-powerful alien, and what’s one less human to him?"

"Why is he here--why buy a junior newspaper if an alien wants a press mouthpiece?"

Kate shook her head. "Because we’re a junior newspaper, we’re not always taken seriously. He buys us, converts us into a competitive adult newspaper, and nobody knows anything until it is too late. It’s a plan only Colin would love--build a newspaper you want people to read, and then hypnotize them into reading it and have them pay you at the same time!"

"Kate, how many aliens are there?" Julie asked.

"Paul is here, and I’ve met his controller. They can travel in time and space!"

Julie looked at Kate skeptically. "Time and space? Hitting the bottle earlier than usual I see."

"You think I’m kidding, don’t you? What do you think aliens do for a living? Play golf? Paul used to be human. Maybe they are converting us into aliens one by one!"

"You are completely paranoid. Maybe that’s a good thing with aliens, but be reasonable."

"Why hire an alien to keep your alien menaces under threat," Kate continued. "A whole world dependent on an alien giving them knowledge and protection--one alien standing between our world being completely defenseless. Think about that."

"Angie said he dabbles," Julie countered. "You’re blowing this way out of proportion." In her heart, she wasn’t so sure.

This page created by Murray Head on the eleventh of June, 1998.