A LOVE FOR A LOVE

PART THREE:

It wasn't until late morning that Maximus awoke. He lay there a while, not at all grateful for returning consciousness for with it came a fresh wave of pain. Her face. There pressed to the glass. The look of horror in her eyes. Desperately, he tried to replace it with a memory of her face as she painted or as she brushed Marcus' fur. It was no use. That last look was seared into his brain as though branded there by the force of the explosion itself.

Sunlight came in through the tear in the shade. Reaching out from the bed, he pushed at the shade, trying to twist it a bit so that the tear closed enough to shut out some of the light. He didn't fully understand the principle behind the workings of shades, Caroline had had none, and all he managed to do was get the blasted thing to roll up with a loud snap, unhook itself from its brackets, and crash to the floor.

The bedroom door quickly opened and Bud's head appeared. "You ok?" he asked, concerned by the noise.

Maximus just looked at him. There was no real answer to the question.

Bud came on into the room. "You hungry? Been awhile since you ate."

Again Maximus did not answer Bud's question, only posed one of his own. "Is there any way, any way at all, for me to go back to my time?"

Bud looked at the man on the bed. Maximus' eyes were dark pools of anguish. "No, brother. There is not. We are stuck here, all of us, because of Sid."  Maximus closed his eyes. It has to be harder for him, Bud thought, a damn sight harder. I'm only half a century out of whack, but him...God...I can't even imagine.

Without opening his eyes, Maximus said, "I wish go back to NanoCorp. I must see it again."

He raised his lids, turning to stare at Bud. "Last night you said we would go back."

Bud's mind raced. Yes, he'd said that. But not so soon. Today police and firemen and investigators would be all over it like flies on a piece of cake. Melted cake. "You know," he said gently, "there will be no trace...."

"I know," Maximus said wearily, "but yet I must see it again."

He sat up. "Is there news of Cort? Did he and his family get safely away?"

"I've spoken with Terry," Bud nodded. "They're on the plane to Sydney."

Maximus shook his head. "Could Terry not find a place for them without Sid in the sound of it?"

"I don't know that they'll stay in Sydney," Bud shrugged. "It's just sort of a starting point for them."

Maximus rubbed a palm over his face as though wiping cobwebs away. "I am glad they are safe." He dropped his hand, looking quickly up at Bud again. "They ARE safe, are they not?"

"Safe as we could get them for now. Who's to know, though, how safe anyone can really be if Sid's still alive?"

"Sid has never been...alive," Maximus growled, but even as he said it, he remembered that for a time on the island it had been different with the nanotech. He'd gotten sick, he'd grown a beard. No matter, that was over long ago. Sid was simply Sid after that. "How will we know if he survived?" he asked.

Bud smiled wryly. "I'm sure he'll let us know...if that's the case. Which I fucking hope it's not."

"We have thought before that he had been...removed...when he had not." Where had Sid been, what had he been doing, all those months since they'd escaped from Redemption? No one knew. Then, suddenly, he was there among them again like some plague you thought had run its course but had returned to kill more of your troops. And the woman you loved.  Blinking rapidly, he got to his feet. "May we go now?"

"You should eat someth...."

"I do not require food," he said quietly, heading past Bud for the door.

"Maximus...stop," Bud called, then almost laughed because it was a line from Gladiator.

The General paused, turning his head back, a questioning look now in his eyes.

"You can't go back there dressed as you are," Bud pointed out. He himself had already changed into brown slacks and a tan shirt, but Maximus was still all in black. "Wait here just a second and I'll bring you a different outfit."  Maximus remained standing where he was, making Bud feel unsure if he would actually leave the room. "Ok?" he added.

"I shall wait," Maximus replied.

In less than two minutes Bud returned with a small satchel which he plopped onto the bed. "Should fit," he grinned. "I'm pretty good for some reason at knowing what size to get you."

Maximus unzipped the satchel and pulled out a pair of slacks and a shirt very similar to what Bud had on. "Twins," Bud shrugged.

Bud left for a few more minutes and when he came back, he looked Maximus up and down. The brown slacks and only slightly lighter tan shirt did have the effect of making the two men look like twins. They were both large men, well-muscled, and Maximus was only a few years older than Bud, not enough so that it was of much consequence. But for the hair, the beard, and Maximus' formal English accent, they could have been the same man. They were, in fact, the same man in that unexplainable way of their creation.

Maximus was interested in none of that. "We may go now?" was his only comment.

"We may go." Bud's mind, though, was spinning with possible consequences. In his current mood, Maximus was not liable to take all that much care about not being seen. While the General dressed, Bud had quickly called Terry, alerting him to what they were doing. Terry

had been very alarmed, had asked Bud to talk Maximus out of going. "YOU try and keep the Roman General from doing what he intends to do!" Bud had growled in reply. "If I don't drive
him, he'll walk there by himself. You know that." 

Terry had sighed into the phone. He did know that. "Do the best you can, then, to keep him out of trouble. I've got my hands full right now trying to figure out what in hell we should all do to avoid prison. Call me later. Let me know how it goes."  He paused. "I don't like this, Bud. I don't like this at all that he wants to go back there so soon. He's got to know how dangerous it is."
 
“Aw fuck…Terry, he doesn’t care.  You haven’t seen the look in his eyes.  He doesn’t care.”

He heard Terry blow out an explosive breath into the phone.  "I'm not surprised.  Just watch your own back, ok, Bud?"

"Always do," Bud replied and hung up the phone.

Bud parked in the woods behind the NanoCorp campus and led Maximus to a small gate, pulling out an access card that would give them entry. No one was anywhere about in this isolated section and the gate was one that was mostly entirely unknown except by Terry, John, and himself. Maximus hadn't said a word since they'd left the safe house and as they made their way through the woods, he remained silent. A taut grimness seemed to radiate from him. Bud, walking three paces ahead of him, could feel it almost tangibly against his back. Just before the woods gave way to manicured lawn, Bud paused, motioning with his hand for Maximus to remain in the shadows behind him.

In daylight, the ruins of the NanoCorp headquarters was a sight to behold. It had been a large building, a gleaming structure of white with huge expanses of green glass. There was nothing

left of it now but a huge grey mass of still-smoldering rubble. A terrible, stark ugliness lay over the entire scene. Maximus stepped up beside Bud, his jaw clenching and unclenching, his nostrils flared tightly.

It was utterly wrong that whatever might be left of his Caroline was part of that ugliness. She had been nothing but beauty itself, and now...this. A stench of chemicals  hung low over the ruins. The structure had not just burned, but had melted together, collapsing, enfolding on

itself so that the teams poking around beside it could not simply lift a piece here or there. It

was all...fused. Maximus pointed to an area of the woods about 50 feet to their left.

"There. I wish to go there." And he moved off in that direction, Bud quickly following.

When he stopped, he was directly across from the part of the building where last he'd seen Caroline. Again her face hovered there before his eyes. She'd had no time to run, no time to move at all. His gaze moved carefully over the ruins. The afternoon sun glinted off solidified globs of green, green that had been the tall windows behind which she had stood. She would be under that, though all that had been her form would have been utterly destroyed by it. Abruptly he turned his face into the rough bark of a large pine, closing his eyes, his hands in tight fists at his sides.  What good did it do a man to be proficient in killing with the sword when his womenfolk died unspeakable deaths that he could do nothing about?  And this time, this time, he had not even a body to bury. He had nothing. Nothing.

After a long moment, he turned back, staring at the ruins again. "I must know if Sid has survived this." He fixed Bud with an intense look. "I MUST know!"

"You will, Maximus. If he survived, you'll know. He'd make sure of that. You know him. You know he would."

~

Sid watched Caroline as she sat leaning her back against a palm, staring out at the open sea. Dusting a bit of sand off his hands, he came up and plopped down just to her left. She didn't acknowledge his presence in any way.

"Maximus used to do that, you know."

She sighed. "What?"

"Stare at the sea like that."

"How long?" she asked.

"How long did he stare at the sea?"

"How long are you going to keep me here?"

He grinned. "Depends."

Finally she looked at him. "On what?"

"On how quickly his cup of suffering fills up."

She started to turn her head away again, but he'd suddenly noticed her necklace. His hand darted out, yanking it off her neck.

"No!" she cried.

But he was already turning it over and over in his hand. The silver chain had a small Roman eagle, dangling pendant from it. They had found it together in a tiny antique shop in the country and Maximus had bought it for her, keeping it in his pocket until they had found a place for their picnic lunch. Seated together on a blanket he'd spread by a rocky little stream, he'd taken it out, held it in his hand a while, a fingertip tracing the outline of the eagle's wings.

"Old and new," he'd smiled. "Symbol of both what was and what is now." Then he'd kissed the medallion, adding, "And what is to come."  As he'd fastened it around her neck, he'd whispered into her hair. "You have made me whole again, my love. You have joined into one piece the broken halves of me."

Lunch remained in the basket, uneaten, as he made love to her all afternoon.

Sid looked up from the eagle to her eyes. "Ah!" he said delightedly. "This is special, is it not? This has...meaning?"

He had found already that his patience was growing thin. He was not good, not at all, at merely waiting for satisfaction. He wanted to, so to speak, stoke the fires of anguish. "Alrighty, then," he smiled, getting to his feet and without another word, vanishing with the necklace inside the small hut he'd erected for Brianna soon after they'd first arrived on the island.

Caroline's hand went to her throat, moving back and forth over the empty place where the eagle had lain for so long now. "Maximus." She breathed his name and then rested her face and arms on her bent knees.

Sid opened a box, withdrawing a small propane blowtorch and set about melting the eagle. Not so much that one couldn't make out what it was, but enough that it looked like it had been in a fire. He broke off about half of the chain, tangled the ends of the remaining links, and melted that a bit, too. He whistled as he worked, absorbed in the details of his pleasant task.  Then he disappeared.

He was there. Sid had known Maximus would be unable to resist going back to NanoCorp. With a happy smile, Sid slipped soundlessly through the trees to Maximus' left. He needed a perfect spot. Ah! There! Then he moved back into the deep shadows of the trees, waiting, eyes sparkling with anticipation.

Maximus knew he should go. This place, these ruins held nothing but pain for him. But the going was hard and his eyes returned again and again to the area where Caroline was...had been. 

"We need to go." It was Bud, his hand on Maximus' arm. Bud had been watching other things, had seen Terry in the distance, Dee at his side. There were too many people here, too much was going on. And he could think of no good explanation to give any investigator as to why he and
Maximus were lurking at the edge of the woods. The whole thing would be just way too suspicious. "Now," he added firmly when Maximus didn't respond.

Maximus blinked, looked at him almost vaguely, still lost somewhere in deep reverie.

"NOW!" Bud gave his sleeve a sharp yank. "Now, Maximus, for fuck's sake!"

Maximus closed his eyes. For him it was as though he were standing at Caroline's gravesite.

He had no memory of being carried away from the graves of his wife and son. He'd not regained consciousness until they were already in North Africa. But now he had to walk away on his own
feet. His lips moved, murmuring a farewell prayer, and he turned slowly to his left.

A bird, he did not know what kind, was singing from the twisting branch of a pine not far ahead. He did not wish, not now, to hear birdsong, but he could not help himself, and his eyes followed the sound to the branch. He did not smile as it flew away. He did not watch the path of its flight. He simply began to walk past the tree, weary, his soul weighted with grief.

Something glimmered in the sunlight that slanted in from the nearby edge of the woods. He ignored it, but the thing moved in a slight breeze, almost twinkling with reflected light. He stopped, his instinct for noticing details alerted.

"Keep going," Bud urged from close behind him. But Maximus seemed rooted to the spot, had reached his hand out and taken something off a bare twig that was part of a larger pine branch. "What in...?"

Maximus stared at what lay on his palm, his breath catching, stopping. Then he simply moaned, "Oh...gods!" and sank to his knees, pressing the thing to his lips.

Quickly, Bud squatted beside him. "Maximus? Are you....?"  He didn't understand. What had just happened? "Maximus?" He put a hand on the General's shoulder.

Finally, Maximus seemed to realize Bud was there and turned to look at him, his eyes brimming with tears. "It is hers," he said, the thing still wrapped in his hand.

"What, Maximus? Whose?"

"Caroline's. This." He uncurled his fingers, revealing the melted medallion resting on his palm.

"Caroline's?" Then he saw what it was. "A necklace?"

Maximus nodded. "She wore it always." He turned his head back toward the ruins. "Bud, she had it on yesterday."

"May I?"  Bud lifted the necklace from Maximus' hand, turning it over and over. "An eagle?"

Maximus nodded again. "But...how?"  Bud's forehead furrowed in a deep frown. If Caroline had had this on during the explosions, there was no way it could have gotten way out here. No way.  Unless....

"Someone had to put this here," he stated, his lip curling slightly. "I think, Maximus, it is a message for you."  His eyes darkened at the blatant cruelty of it.

"Caroline?" Maximus' expression filled with sudden hope.

"I'm sorry, Maximus," Bud said, his voice going soft with compassion. "I think it's more likely it was...."

"Sid."  Maximus breathed the word as though it were a curse.

"It's what we feared," Bud sighed. "He's alive and he wants you to know it."

"But...this?" Maximus took the necklace back from Bud. "Why would he...?"

"I think you know why," Bud offered grimly.

Maximus closed his eyes, his hand closing in a tight fist around the eagle. Sid had been there. When Caroline died, Sid had been there and somehow gotten the necklace from her body. Now he was using it as a calling card.  He slumped to the side on his right hip, pressing his fist to his mouth. Sid blamed him for Brianna's death. He knew that. Now, what? What was he saying? That he was glad Caroline, too, had died. Was that his message?

Sid was enjoying himself tremendously. The General had fallen to his knees. He liked that especially. When he slumped to his hip, that was even better. He couldn't help himself. A sharp laugh burst out his throat. "Ooops!" he said, and for one split second his eyes met Maximus'. Then he disappeared.

"SID!" Maximus roared the word, scrambling to his feet and charging through the underbrush. When Bud caught up with him, Maximus was again on his knees, but leaning forward on both hands, panting with rage and frustration.

"You SAW him?" Bud asked incredulously. "He was here?"

Maximus could not speak. Bile was rising up his throat, stinging, burning. He managed to nod his head.  "Good God!" Bud mouthed, then pulled his phone out, quickly dialing Terry.

"Sid's alive," he said brusquely. "Maximus just saw him in the woods. Figured you'd want to know that. The bastard left Caroline's melted necklace hanging on a tree for Maximus to find. Damn him to fucking hell! No, I don't think anybody saw us. Yeah, the safe house. I'm taking him back there now. Yeah, I will. You guys be careful, too."

~

Sid came out of the hut clapping his hands. Caroline was seated where he'd left her, unaware he'd even been gone. "Ring side seat, my dear!" he chortled merrily. "Best seat in the house."

"I suppose you're going to tell me what in hell you mean?"

"Now, now. Bitchiness will get you nowhere."

"Nothing will get me anywhere," she said, feeling very tired.

"True," he agreed. "But the show I just saw was a Tony-winner for sure."

"Show?"

"The Maximus Show."

Her eyes opened wide. "You saw him?"

"Just now. In the woods on the side of the campus."

"You went...back?"

"Umm hmm! And just in time, too. The poor suffering General was staring out of the woods most forlornly at where NanoCorp had melted around you."

She closed her lids. "I don't want to hear this."

"Oh, but you DO! You must, in fact! It's all so delightfully entertaining."  He stood right in front of her, staring down at her. "I melted your eagle, you see. You obviously had it on when doom found you there by the glass wall. So sad."  He chuckled. "Anyway, you'll be happy to know your General now has it back in his possession."

"How?" She didn't look at him.

"Hung it on a tree. Rather like blackened feet, I suppose. He found it. You should've seen his grief. Heartrending, absolutely heartrending. But now he knows I myself did not melt. The game's afoot, Caroline!"  He did a small jig on the sand. "The game's afoot!"

ON TO PART 4

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