“No, what do you like best about running with Bannen?” Chi replied, grinning.
“This isn’t going to end well for me, is it?” I asked.
They both ignored me, which took real effort, because they were running along either side of me, Chi on my right and Nora on the left. They had a talent, however, for talking around me. It was nearly an artform.
“Having to wait at the corner of every street for the walk signal!” Nora chirped, glaring at me out of the corner of her eyes.
“May I remind you that the last time we just willy-nilly tried to run through, someone tried to run you over, then I had to snatch you up, then Chi had to grab both of us, and we ended up in a mud puddle the size of the ocean?”
“It’s pre-dawn,” Chi observed sarcastically. “What kinda traffic are you seeing here that we’re not?”
“I seem to recall,” I put a finger to my chin, staring up at the sky thoughtfully, like a wise sage drawing upon an ancient memory, “yes, I do seem to recall these words. Right before we ended up in that giant mud puddle.”
“Dry spell,” Nora retorted, flinging her arms far and wide.
“Yes, absolutely, the mud puddle was the point I was trying to make,” I deadpanned back at her. I don’t think she realized how close my heart had come to stopping, seeing that taxi nearly plow her over. It seemed stupid that after fighting some of the biggest and baddest monsters in the world, that it would be a stupid accident near home that killed Nora. But she had no fear of traffic. It was part of the reason why we went running with her whenever we were in Foxboro. It encouraged life. “Not your lack of coordination at pre-dawn.”
Nora gasped and put a hand to her heart, affronted. “You did not just go there.”
“He totally did,” Chi disagreed, his mouth gaping open. “She could throw you, Bannen. I think I should point this out. She could throw you into the harbor. Can you breathe underwater? I don’t think you can breathe underwater.” His ability to continue talking despite how long and how fast they’d run was very impressive. Then again, the man routinely followed Vee. “If you could, I’m sure you would’ve brought it up by now. Because you do bring up things you excel at.”
“Especially if it involves beating things up. The man’s a braggart,” Nora agreed. She cracked her knuckles, one hand pounding into the flat of her other palm. “I, meanwhile, am the soul of modesty.”
“I’m trying to back you up here,” Chi told her, sounding distinctly disapproving, “but there is nothing I can do with a lie that big and that blatant, Nora.”
“I know you can’t breathe underwater,” Nora said, unconcerned. “You flap in the water like a beached whale.”
“I’ll take my chances. You kill me, you’re stuck dealing with him alone.” Chi jerked a thumb my direction.
“I’ll just send him back to Rena,” Nora shrugged. “He’s the team’s problem, anyway. I just walk him sometimes.”
“That’s real civic minded of you,” Chi agreed.
“If you’ve got enough breath to talk, we’re not running fast enough,” I observed.
“Meh, we’re at the coffee stall, it’s time for early breakfast and shooting the bull.” Chi pulled up to the little wooden shack on the wharf, ordering donuts and coffee for all of us. Nora and I stretched a little, although I wasn’t feeling winded, just warm and limber. And tired, honestly. I hadn’t gotten a full night’s sleep in a long while. I kept hoping that enough exercise, enough time, would settle my subconscious mind and let me sleep properly. It hadn’t happened so far.
We took one of the wooden benches nearby and settled in. Accepting the hot cup and warm donuts, I dug into both, letting the sugar rush help offset my lethargy. I think Nora realized something was up, that we had something to talk to her about. She watched us as she tore into her own breakfast. I got a full donut down, drank some of the coffee, and only then tried to feel her out on it. “Nora. You know anything about the new therapist, Clara?”
“I’ve run into her in the halls a few times,” Nora responded slowly, eyes studying me and Chi. “Seems nice enough. Pretty. Why?”
“We both got assigned to her the other day,” Chi pitched in around a mouthful of donut. “It was…what do you say, Bannen? An unmitigated disaster?”
“Not quite, but close enough,” I admitted sourly.
Nora pointed a finger at both of us, eyes going wide. “Wait, both of you? Who in thunderation thought that was a good idea?”
“Maksohm said everyone else is full up for the next six months,” I explained.
“Oh.” Nora chewed absently on her bottom lip, still giving us that intense study. “Why the disaster?”
“She diagnosed me with PTSD without asking any questions?”
Chi swallowed his mouthful and added, lip curling up in disdain, “And she read me the riot act for snuggling with Rena.”
Nora planted both elbows on her knees and let her head sink into her hands. “Oh man. Did you tell Dah’lil this?”
“Yeah, tried. He’s…not listening.” Not that I blamed him, really. We’d raised something of a fuss about going into therapy to begin with; he likely felt we really hadn’t tried to talk to the woman. And I admit, I’d only told her that one thing, but she’d shut me down so fast on that, the issue that was the most important, that I didn’t feel like I could talk to her about anything else.
Nora’s brows screwed up in a doubtful expression, which granted, was fair. Our team leader was an amazing listener. That was why he’d gotten the job of team leader in the first place. This was just one of those rare times when he wasn’t paying attention as closely as he should have been. Something struck her, and her mouth opened in a silent ah. “Probably because of Rena.”
My cup stopped halfway to my mouth. “I’m sorry, what about my wife?”
She gave me an odd look in return. “You don’t know?”
“Nora. Would I be asking if I knew?”
“Oh, right. You probably haven’t experienced it, they don’t see you in the same light. They figure you just got dragged along with her.” Nora grimaced and took a sip of her coffee, looking out over the water. “Rena’s shot up in the ranks of the MISD very quickly. Mostly because of her magic and how she dealt with Toh’sellor, but the other agents, the petty-minded ones anyway, they don’t see it that way. They’re jealous of her. The pettiest of the lot tried to do some low-level harassment yesterday. Rena didn’t seem to think much of it—”
I groaned, because of course she wouldn’t, Rena didn’t operate on those lines.
“—but it got Dah’lil’s panties in a twist. He had some very sharp words with a few agents and their superiors. I know he went around with her yesterday as she got her paperwork straightened out, too. Just to keep the flies off.” Nora lifted one shoulder up in a shrug. “He might not have been paying attention to you because of that.”
Chi ran a hand roughly through his hair. “I see the problem. Not sure about the solution, but I see the problem.”
“Gents, I think you need to do one more session with this woman,” Nora advised, and that glint in her eye promised evil fun. I perked up hopefully. Nora normally didn’t instigate mischief, but she always came up with good ideas. “But do a group session and insist that Maksohm go in with you. He’ll take it as you trying to cooperate and go all big brother on you. I guarantee this. That way, he can see for himself how badly this is going.”
“That’s a great idea.” My group session was scheduled for later. Which gave me plenty of time to talk to my wife and get a list of names of just who was stupid enough to mess with her.
Rena and I had a nice, long talk about the harassment thing. She promised to stick with someone else while we were in Foxboro until the stupidity died down. With that kind of assurance, I felt better about going into the group therapy session.
We didn’t say any complaints to Maksohm before going in. I listened to Nora’s advice on this one. All I told him was that the therapist said individual sessions di
dn’t work for me (not a lie) and that I would feel better if he came in with me and Chi to the group session (also not a lie). Maksohm was the most natural big brother in the world, so of course he immediately agreed.
Mid-morning, we waltzed up the stairs to Clara’s office again. As we went up, I leaned in to whisper in Chi’s ear, “First one to make her crack buys drinks tonight.”
“Done.” Chi rubbed his hands together in evil glee, expression filled with anticipation, and bounded up the stairs.
Maksohm, coming up behind us, either heard something or he suspected it. “I expect the two of you to actually tell her a real concern.”
There was a fine line between the spirit of the law and the letter of the law. I could walk that line better than any circus performer in existence. “Absolutely.”
Maksohm sighed. He didn’t believe me.
That was alright. I didn’t believe me either.
As we walked into the office, Clara greeted us with a professional smile. “Agents, welcome. It’s Agent Maksohm, I believe? You’re their team leader?”
“Yes,” Maksohm answered, coming around to shake hands with her. “They asked that I come in for this session. It’s frankly a bad idea to put these two in the same room without some sort of equalizing force, so I agreed.”
I sank into the two-seater couch, Chi taking the cushion next to me, and had to tamp down an evil grin. I knew just how to start.
Clara, for once, didn’t immediately pick up the clipboard. With that fixed smile still on her face, she regarded the two of us. “Who would like to start?”
“Vee used me as a blunt weapon to hit monkeys with last mission,” Chi volunteered immediately.
“And she felt very bad about that,” I said, lips twitching.
“I felt worse.” Chi stuck his tongue out at me.
A muscle jumped in Clara’s jaw. Score one.
“To be fair,” Maksohm inserted with an apologetic smile, “that actually did happen. And Chi has a phobia of sorts with monkeys. It’s a culmination of bad experiences.”
“I see.” Clara picked her clipboard up and scribbled a note. “What else?”
Maksohm’s expression twitched into an open frown before he caught himself and smoothed it out. I gave myself a mental pat on the back. Even he found it strange, that she didn’t address what Chi had said, just demanded the next thing on the list.
“Chi jumps off of things he shouldn’t and I get blamed for it,” I stated with a mock-glare at my friend.
“I love that this is your response,” Chi retorted with an eyeroll. “Not that I’m in danger, but that you’d get blamed for it, like that was the issue.”
“Says the man that got Wade to throw him up a three-story building.”
Lifting a hand, Chi stared me down in open challenge. “Every person that has been thrown by a giant.”
“Excuse you,” Maksohm couldn’t help but respond, affronted but amused, if that smile was anything to go by. “I do not have giants throw me, it’s a matter of professional respect. And neither of you can fly, so being thrown anywhere is a bad idea.”
“I don’t see the problem,” Chi riposted, grinning. “I haven’t hit the ground yet.”
“He takes about a year and a half off my very mortal life every time he pulls that,” I complained aloud. “I get yelled at every time.”
“I’d say we should just let him fall one of these days,” Maksohm said thoughtfully. “But Vee would get him if we don’t.”
Clara cleared her throat. Quite pointedly. “If we could get to the actual issues that brought you to me? You both have PTSD, which is no laughing matter—”
“Excuse you very much, I do not.” I’d show her post-traumatic stress disorder in a minute. “The only fear I have is of my wife going down, again, in front of me. Stop her from doing that and I’ll be peachy keen.”
Maksohm frowned openly at her now. “I’m sorry, I don’t mean to tell you your business, but I don’t believe that Bannen has PTSD either. He’s actually the most even keeled in the team.”
Clara flipped two or three pages on her clipboard and rattled off, “You were summoned to a different continent, made into a human familiar without any understanding or training for what that meant, forced to break the familiar bond, summoned again, escaped assassins, battled Toh’sellor twice, forced to watch as your wife went into a Mind Down on two separate occasions, and was severely injured yourself on multiple occasions protecting her. All of that in the past three years. Of course Agent Hach has PTSD.”
I caught Maksohm’s eye, my expression saying clearly, See the problem?
From the way his brows compressed in a straight line, he certainly did. “He has a small problem with insomnia, and sometimes slight anxiety because of the familiar bond creating a ruckus, but that’s it. Those are his only issues. Why don’t we talk about why he can’t sleep first?”
“I’m not in the habit of having my diagnosis questioned, Agent Maksohm,” Clara informed him with her mouth in a flat line.
He ignored her, eyes on me. Something about his expression said that he understood now why Chi and I had dragged him in here. But he still thought it was because I wasn’t communicating properly with her. That she’d gotten impatient with us. That wasn’t it at all. Okay, it was only partially the reason. I wasn’t sure why he made us sit through this farce any longer. I wanted out.
“Tell her why you can’t sleep,” he prodded, switching to take the chair next to my end of the couch. Probably to thwart any attempts on my part to run for it. More fool him. I would use him as a launching pad to get to the door, I was not above such childishness.
“I can’t sleep,” I bit off, overenunciating each word, “because my wife can’t sleep. She’s the one that needs these sessions, Dah’lil.”
“And she has them, with a different therapist,” he returned peacefully. “And that’s not why you can’t sleep, Bannen. I’ve seen you up even while she’s peacefully sleeping.”
“I don’t like you anymore,” I informed him flatly. “You’re a traitor and a fiend. I’m throwing you to the big fishies in the oversized bathtub. If a giant sea serpent comes at us, I’ll cover you in molasses so you’ll be swallowed up smoother. You will go straight down its gullet and pay rent in its stomach, and I won’t even shed a tear or lend you money so you won’t get evicted. I will yell ‘I told you so’ as you digest, and I’ll remember to forget to put flowers on your tombstone every year.”
Of course he didn’t take a word of that seriously, just stared right back at me, eyebrow quirked. “Hach Xian Liang, do I need to go get your wife?”
Ouch, full name, huh. “That is not at all friking fair, and what did I do to piss you off, huh? I’ve been good! I haven’t done any arrow dodgeball with Chi or anything.”
“Really. Have you been good, or good at it?” Maksohm asked the question like he already knew the answer. Which he likely did. Because Rena tells him everything.
“Arrow dodgeball?” Clara asked, trying to keep up with this conversation.
“They did this about five months ago,” Maksohm explained, not taking his eyes off of me. “They were on an open field, Chi firing arrows at him, Bannen either catching or dodging him. If Bannen could reach Chi without getting directly hit, he won.”
Clara’s eyes went round. “That…that was a game?”
“It was training, and I was trying to wear Chi out so he could sleep, you know this,” I protested. And I probably shouldn’t have said that last part. “We promised to put corks on the arrows next time. Actually, now that I think about it, how come both Chi and I are assigned to her? That’s, that’s just cruel and unusual punishment, right there, inflicting both of us on her. At the same time. For shame, Maksohm, really, I thought you were a nicer person than that. This woman will need therapy herself after we’re done with her.”
“Why don’t you let me worry about Chi?”
“He’s managed to alienate most of the department, hasn’t he,” I guesse
d dryly.
Chi puffed his chest out in a proud manner.
Seeing a beautiful opportunity, I latched onto Chi and snuggled in against him. Because he’s my brother-from-another-mother, he didn’t miss a beat, pulling me more snuggly into his side. Which felt a little odd, I was used to snuggling curves, not muscles. “If we can’t play arrow dodgeball, you’ll just have to keep sleeping with us.”
Chi sighed gustily against my hair. “I do love sleeping with you two.”
Clara’s pen ratted an irritated staccato against her clipboard. She was not happy with this turn of events. “Agents, kindly stop taking the piss—”
Ignoring her, I kept rolling. “I just can’t sleep without your hard, warm pecks against my cheek.”
“And the thought of not being able to run my fingers through your daffodil-smelling hair keeps me awake at night,” Chi rejoined.
“Then I’ll just have to rub my hair in your face until you dream of sunshine and unicorns.”
“No need, I’d rather just dream of your biceps and slight tummy chub, Banny.”
“Excuse you, ChiChi, I haven’t had any chub in months since Rena cut me off of biscuits every morning.”
“Agents!” Clara snapped, sounding impressively outraged. “That is quite enough. Stop messing about, I need actual information, not this ridiculousness.”
Maksohm growled out a curse, half-resigned. “That’s it. I’m calling Rena in here. Maybe she can keep you two on task.”
“Agent Maksohm, I would prefer that you not call Agent Renata Hach in here,” Clara informed our team leader, “seeing that she has an unhealthy relationship dynamic with Agent Franklocke.”
Maksohm blinked at her. Blinked again. “What? Where on earth did you get that idea?”
“Agent Hach has already informed me that he let his wife sleep with Agent Franklocke on the last mission.”
“It sounds so wrong when she puts it that way,” Chi mourned.
Upping the antics, I wailed, “She doesn’t understand us, Chi!”
Chi patted my back, hiding his face and gave a choked, “It’s alright, I’m here for you.”
Echoes Page 4