Unexpected Superhero (Adventures of Lewis and Clarke Book 1)

by Kitty Bucholtz

  Hayley frowned. “What kind of witch doctor were you going to?”

  Tori wanted to hug her. Always loyal, that was Hayley, always on her side. “Dr. Huntington most recently said that I’m an egomaniac, that my problem is that I always want my own way and that I force people to do what I want.” Tori stabbed the carrots so hard the sharp ping of metal on stoneware echoed. She took a calming breath. “I haven’t taken those drugs since Thanksgiving. I haven’t seen Dr. Huntington since the week after. And I’m never going back to either of them because there’s nothing wrong with me!”

  Tori felt Hayley staring. Lex was probably gaping at her, too. She kept her head down. This was the sort of outburst she had to control. She breathed in deeply three times, exhaling three times, imagining the stress leaving her body, leaving her life.

  Lexie leaned over and kissed Tori on the temple. “I’ve never thought there was anything wrong with you.” Her voice was quiet but firm.

  Tori reached for her sister’s hand and squeezed.

  Hayley looked from one sister to the other. “You don’t have to convince me. I don’t think there’s anything wrong with either of you.” She laughed and said in a teasing tone, “But I’ve always known you two were a little off. That’s why I like you.” She toasted them with her wine glass.

  Tori laughed in relief. She felt much of Lexie’s tension dissipate as well. Wait, what did Hayley just say? They were both a little off. Suddenly, the pieces began to form a bigger picture. Lexie had been constantly searching for the perfect boyfriend in junior high and high school. Her rebelliousness had led to a teenage pregnancy. Mom and Dad had said it was Lexie’s hormones that made her emotional tantrums worse, but now Tori wondered if her big sister had also been on meds until she got pregnant. And everything had gone downhill from there.

  Holy smoke! If Tori had a power, Lexie’s “problem” might be a super power, too. But why hadn’t she ever said anything?

  Hayley nudged Tori to get her attention. “So the drugs have worn off and your powers are showing. Are you going to say yes?”

  Tori blinked, confused. “To what?”

  “The police. Are you going to be a superhero now? Save us from the bad guys?”

  Tori looked from Lexie to Hayley and down at her plate. She had no idea what in the world was happening, but the people she loved most in the world supported her in doing…whatever it was she was going to do. She raised her glass and smiled. “I think I’m going to at least try. That’s all I can say right now.”

  “Here’s to Team Tori,” Hayley said with a laugh. She clinked her glass against Tori’s.

  Lexie raised hers in a toast, too. “To Team Tori!”

  “Now you guys have to help me figure out how to tell Joe.” Tori hoped it would go as smoothly as tonight’s confession. Maybe she had nothing to worry about after all.

  TORI took a long pull from her hot caramel apple cider with whipped cream. It may not have caffeine but the sugar should give her a jump-start. And she needed the heat on such a cold morning. She was so freakin’ tired from working overtime the very first two days at her new job.

  She and Joe had fallen into bed Tuesday night after they both got home from time with their friends. Tori figured the bedroom was not the right place to rock Joe’s world with a crazy confession. And last night when she’d come home late from work, Joe met her at the door with re-warmed pizza, then massaged her shoulders in front of the fireplace. She needed to tell him, but the timing just hadn’t been right.

  That’s my story and I’m sticking to it.

  Meanwhile, she wasn’t sure about this new job either. Working at Half TV had seemed exciting when Janice at Totally Temps called her about it. But Tori needed to know if all this overtime was the norm. If so, she may have to call Janice and get a new assignment. It was kind of fun to be involved in making TV shows, but not if you worked like a dog every day.

  On the other hand, she seemed to be impressing her new boss. That was something. He’d been shocked to return from his meeting Tuesday and find that she’d found the how-to file, taken a few phone messages, and started work on a spreadsheet. Tori didn’t think it was that big a deal. The last temp hadn’t deleted any of the email messages, and the spreadsheet and the directions were all there. On the other hand – Tori needed a third hand to think this through – once Evan realized she was halfway competent, he’d started working her half to death.

  Tori flashed her ID badge and smiled at the security guard. He nodded without returning her smile, watching IDs as the morning rush continued. Before going upstairs to her desk, she stopped in the Human Resources office to talk to Pam. Tori found it interesting that the lobby and most of the ground floor had fresh paint, lots of potted plants, and lovely furniture. Upstairs, where the worker bees made things happen, the walls were a dim version of once-white, the carpet looked like something you might find in government housing after you’d had several tenants, and the smell – well, Tori didn’t want to think too much about what the smell was up there.

  Her hand shook a little as she opened the door to HR. She hated, hated complaining. But why waste time on a job you know isn’t going to be a good fit? She didn’t see how working ten or twelve hours a day was a good life-choice. And she didn’t know if there was a way to keep the job if she only wanted to work forty hours.

  “Good morning, Tori,” Pam said from near the coffee machine. “How’s it going up there?”

  Pam was either permanently peppy, or Tori needed to start drinking coffee.

  “Um, it’s great, nice people. Looks like they have a lot of work,” she hedged. “I just had a quick question. If I’m asked to work overtime, am I required to say yes? Is there a minimum amount I have to agree to?”

  Pam frowned. “How long are you working?”

  “Till 6:30 Tuesday and 8:00 last night.” Tori tried not to sound as tired as she felt.

  Pam’s eyebrows rose. “Really? No, as a temp you don’t have to work overtime.” Her expression changed to reflect her job – encouraging people to do their work with a smile and without complaint. “But I will say it would get you brownie points if you’d like to be considered for a full-time position later.”

  “Right.” Tori nodded and smiled back. “Of course.” She’d have to see if she even wanted the job before she started campaigning for it. She thanked Pam and hiked up the stairs to her cubicle. There was an elevator, but it was slow as molasses. Besides, the wide staircase was decorated with posters from the shows the station had produced over the years. Tori liked to look at them all, liked to think that she might have a hand in making something lasting someday.

  It’s not that she had aspirations in the film or television industries, she just wanted to do something with her life sometime. Preferably, before she died.

  On the other hand, Tori glanced at her watch – 9:07 a.m. and half the office wasn’t even at their desks yet. Maybe working in TV had its perks. She almost ran into Joanie as she came around the corner.

  “Morning, Tori,” Joanie said, and motioned toward the kitchen. “Did anyone tell you Thursdays are Bagel Day? We have extra security handling crowd control.”

  Tori laughed. “I wondered where everyone was.”

  “Drop your bag at your desk,” Joanie said. “I’ll wait for you. Otherwise, you’re doomed to the onion bagels and no cream cheese.”

  Leaving her purse and lunch bag on her chair, Tori followed Joanie to the kitchen. Her co-worker had been awesome from day one, filling Tori in on office procedures, politics, and gossip, as well as making sure Tori knew about all the extras. First Tuesday screenings of various shows or movies once a month was the one she looked forward to most, and now Bagel Thursdays. The job did have its perks. Maybe she shouldn’t have said anything to HR quite so quickly.

  Toasted blueberry bagel with a schmear of cream cheese in hand, Tori met a ton of new people in the kitchen. She’d never remember all of their names. But she wouldn’t forget the tiny little lawyer named Can
dy with the bubbly laugh. Sweet, Candy, she could remember that. And José in residuals was charming, showing everyone pictures of his newborn son.

  Twenty minutes later, after Joanie walked her around the second floor showing her what departments were where, Tori felt a little more settled. She liked knowing where things were, what goes where, where to find what you need, and Joanie was a much bigger help than Evan had been so far. Maybe it’s just that women relate better, understand what other women need to feel at ease.

  Back at their desks, the ladies were putting their purses away when a man Tori didn’t know walked up. “Either of you see Evan yet?”

  “Good morning to you, too,” Joanie admonished him. Joanie didn’t look that old, maybe mid-forties, but she must have kids. You could hear it in her tone.

  He glanced at her, and Tori wondered if he looked a bit sheepish. “Good morning, Joanie.” He looked at Tori. “Hi. Have you seen Evan?”

  Tori shook her head.

  “We’ll tell him you’re looking for him when he comes in,” Joanie said.

  “Thanks,” the man said as he turned back toward his office.

  Joanie turned to Tori and said under her breath, “You’d never know he was a temp, would you?”

  Tori pulled out her chair and turned on her computer. “Who is he?”

  “His name is Chuck.” Joanie laughed. “Can you believe it? Chuck. Anyway, he’s been here for months, right hand man of Evan’s boss, Richard. The station just hasn’t gotten around to hiring him yet.”

  Tori sat down and scooted her chair closer to her computer. Her foot hit something and she repositioned herself. Half a dozen file boxes were stored under her desk. “Months, huh?” Did she want to hang around for months without benefits?

  Joanie started to say something else, but her phone rang, so Tori opened her email. Three messages from Evan from last night. Did the man ever go home? She opened the first one, her foot knocking against something under her desk again. Evan had sent her another spreadsheet that needed to be updated with current numbers.

  Tori opened the next email – more directions on the kinds of formulas he wanted to use, the spreadsheets he wanted linked, and a reminder to cross-foot the totals. The third email was time-stamped around midnight and seemed more like a P.S. It read, “If I’m not around tomorrow, remember the Nine.”

  Tori frowned and tried to think of what he meant. Her face cleared suddenly – of course. When totals don’t cross-foot, you divide the difference by nine to see if you’d transposed any numbers. Tori deleted the email; she already knew that. Evan certainly didn’t have high expectations for temps, did he?

  She turned to the file cabinet next to her to pull the file she needed. Swiveling back, her feet again bumped into something under her desk. What in the world was under there? It felt softer than a box. Using the extra space under desks for storage seemed to be a common practice around here.

  She rolled the chair back a foot and leaned over to check it out. The desk was deep, and the lighting here was awful, so it was dark under there. But that looked like…

  “Oh, I’m sorry, are you working on my computer?” Tori felt herself turning red to think she was kicking some poor IT guy without even noticing it. Why hadn’t he said something, for heaven’s sake? She paused and waited for the man to answer, but he didn’t move. That was a man, wasn’t it? “Excuse me?”

  Tori squinted to get a better look in the poor light, then bounced up, her mouth open in surprise. She turned to Joanie, but she was still on the phone. The way the cubes were set up, she couldn’t easily see the other cube-dwellers. She put her hand over her mouth and took a deep breath. She’d definitely noticed that Evan’s eyes were red last night, and on other occasions in the last two days. Was he a drunk?

  She tentatively lowered her head under her desk again.

  “Um,” she cleared her throat. “Evan?” she whispered. That was him, wasn’t it? Lying on the floor under her desk, looking for all the world like he’d passed out there last night. Crap.

  “Mr. Ruffalo?”

  Tori looked up again, but no one was nearby. She bit her lower lip. Should she call Pam? She hated to get Evan in trouble. Maybe he had a reason for… Yeah, right. Still… She peeked at him again. She’d already hit him with her foot a few times, so he needed more than a little prodding to wake up.

  Chuck. Joanie just said he worked for Evan’s boss. Tori got up and pushed her chair back in, hiding Evan from sight. She walked nervously around the corner, looking for Chuck’s office. Finding him, she knocked on the doorframe.

  “Chuck, can I talk to you?”

  He looked up but didn’t say anything. Tori didn’t like making snap judgments about people, but Chuck seemed rude and she didn’t particularly like him. She wondered if she should call Pam anyway. But if Chuck was a temp, too, certainly getting his help couldn’t hurt Evan.

  Tori walked in and leaned over his desk so her voice wouldn’t carry. “I found Evan. I think he’s passed out under my desk.”

  Chuck frowned at her, his forehead creasing as he processed this information in the same disbelieving way that Tori had.

  “Yeah, I know, weird,” she said. “I accidentally hit him with my foot a couple times before I realized he was down there. Then…I didn’t know what to do so...I thought maybe you could wake him up, get him back to his office or something.”

  Chuck stood and ushered Tori back to her desk. He still hadn’t said a word. He glanced around the office then leaned down to look under her desk. “Aw man…Evan?” He got down on his knees and reached in to shake Evan’s shoulder. “Evan? Wake up!”

  “What’s going on?” Joanie said from her desk. She got up to see what they were doing. When she saw the men under Tori’s desk, she burst out laughing then clapped her hand over her mouth. “Oh, this is good. This is going to go round the office for months.”

  Tori let slip a nervous laugh. It was ridiculous. Coming in to work and finding her boss passed out under her desk. Watching another man try to shake him awake. Chuck was going to rattle Evan’s teeth loose if he wasn’t a little gentler.

  Finally, Chuck crawled back out and turned to them, his face white.

  “Is he drunk?” Joanie asked.

  “No,” Chuck said, his eyes unfocused, “he’s dead.”

  Tori giggled again. “Dead to the world?”

  Joanie just stood there, not laughing anymore.

  “No,” Chuck looked at Tori. “Well, yeah, dead to the world, dead to everything. He’s dead.”

  Tori stopped laughing and felt her mouth fall open. Oh, God, please don’t let him be dead. Not really. Please wake him up!

  She put her hand over her mouth and looked from Chuck to Joanie to the dark shadow under her desk. Her desk. Where her feet had been kicking him all morning. Well, not kicking exactly, but she watched those forensic shows. They’d find her shoe marks on his back and–

  “I didn’t do anything!” She shook her head back and forth as she watched her co-workers for a sign that they believed her. “I didn’t do anything! He was just there–” she pointed and then looked away, holding her stomach. Her bagel wasn’t handling this new development very well.

  She gulped at the air. “I’m calling HR,” she said and rushed to Joanie’s phone.

  “Tori, don’t–” but Tori didn’t hear the rest of what Chuck said.

  “Pam, he’s dead! Evan’s dead!”

  “Calm down, Tori.” Pam turned on her soothing voice. “Is this about the overtime? If he needs more personnel, we–”

  “No, he’s dead!” Tori could feel the bagel working its way up out of her stomach.

  “You can’t threaten your boss just because–”

  How many different ways could she say it? No more, not with breakfast on its way. She grabbed Joanie’s garbage can and made a mad dash for the ladies’ room. She made it about ten feet before she lost her breakfast.

  CHAPTER 6

  TORI no longer considered Bagel Thurs
day a job perk.

  She endured thousands of questions from her co-workers, Pam and everyone else in Human Resources, half of management, and a dozen police officers. She even met the owner of the TV station. By lunchtime, Tori and half a dozen others had gone home, too upset to work. Pam suggested she take Friday off, too, since they had to figure out who Tori would report to now.

  She didn’t care so long as it wasn’t a dead man.

  Joe’s reaction when she called him was to rush home, wrap her in his arms, and let her cry, promising over and over that he’d keep her safe, always. It was probably the nicest way to end such a horrible day. That wonderful odd feeling of absolute safety encompassed Tori, and she slept fairly well.

  Friday morning, she and Joe agreed not to mention Evan’s death to their families – after Tori convinced him not to cancel their wedding reception the next day. Instead, he called a cleaning company (clever, wonderful man!) and, after a brief foray into work, stayed home with Tori for the rest of the day. He helped her prepare food, put up decorations for the party, and field phone calls from both of their mothers and three aunts who all had questions about the party. Best of all, he made her laugh until her cheeks hurt.

  She loved him more than ever. Nothing could ever make her feel differently.

  By eight o’clock Saturday morning, they were both up and making final preparations. Joe was outside shoveling and salting and sanding the sidewalk. Tori tried to get a turkey in the oven while answering three phone calls on two phones. Chances were good she’d be glad when this spectacle was over and she and Joe could settle into a quiet life together.

  Hopefully, a long and happy life. Tori was getting more nervous about what Joe’s reaction would be to her recent, uh, condition the longer she put off telling him. No way could she tell him now, though, hours before his entire family arrived. But the longer she waited, the more she wished she’d just told him as soon as she found out. This whole keeping a secret thing was beginning to fester inside her.