12 Years Ago (2)

4,587 days until extinction.

Compartmentalization had always been something that Harper excelled at, her father had always complemented her ability to handle stressful situations without letting her emotions betray her. Despite that her current assignment was pushing the limits of that ability.

“Hey, where’d you go?” The thin, perfectly manicured hand of Gabrielle Paszek waved in front of Harper’s face snapping her back into reality.

“Huh? Oh, sorry babe I was just-”

“You just figured you’d rather be somewhere else than here with your smokin’ hot girlfriend who hasn’t seen you in almost a week and is aching with needs?” Her tone was playful and mocking, one of the things that had first drawn Harper to her.

They had been together nearly three months now, three months since Harper had been assigned to the haystack. At first it had been easier to lie to her, but now the way Gabrielle looked at her felt like a knife in her side; her honey color eyes sparkling with love as the vice-like feeling in her chest tightened.

“You make a good point.”

Harper slid her hands under Gabby’s legs and flipped her onto her back causing her to giggle before she captured her mouth silencing her with a passionate kiss. Pressing Gabby deeper into the couch Harper held her body close, sliding her hand along one of Gabby’s thighs. Breaking the kiss with a disappointed moan Harper leaned close and whispered into her ear.

“Should we move to the-”

An abrupt, loud and enthusiastic knocking at the door interrupted Harper before she could finish.

“Gabby! Gabby open the hell up! Don’t leave me hanging Gabby!” The voice was rough and raspy, with an urgency to it that only increased with each word and each successive knock.

With a groan of frustration Gabrielle threw her head back and cursed before giving a small sigh of reluctance.

“It’s my brother.”

“Oh, yeah he sounds like he needs you. I’m gonna just use the bathroom, give you guys a bit of privacy?”

Gabby smiled at her, a smile of sincere trust and appreciation that made the knife-like feeling in her side twist painfully.

Standing up Harper made her way to the bathroom which happened to be situated in such a way that one could hear conversations from almost every part of the apartment. It was a gesture of kindness that masked her intent to eavesdrop. Closing the door behind her a moment before Gabby opened the front door Harper then pressed her door to the cool wood finish to listen.

“What the hell Krys! Why are you here?”

“Gabs I’m sorry, I just needed a place to cool my heels for a bit. I screwed up.”

Harper’s ears piqued and she pulled the small notepad from her back pocket that Rainer had instructed her to carry at all times. Looking around she quickly grabbed an eyeliner pencil in case she needed to write anything down.

“What stunt did you pull this time?”

“Nah this isn’t some stunt, I’m absolutely up a creek right now Gabs! This new dude I’m transporting for is absolutely insane!”

There was a pause and Harper heard Gabby shift closer to the male voice, when she spoke next her voice was hushed enough that she had to strain to hear it.

“Okay you need to lower your voice. I have company.”

Silence followed and Harper quickly flushed the toilet and began washing her hands. As she dried her hands she waited a few seconds more before stepping out.

Tension hung heavy in the air and by the way Gabby kept casting glances at her brother Harper had begun to suspect that she was indeed involve; and suddenly the pain in her side felt lessened ever so slightly.

“Hi,” she said as casually as she could muster. “I’m Harper.” She offered her hand which Krystian shook firmly before offering an evidently fake smile.

“Krystian. Sorry about my voice, didn’t mean to interrupt.” He gestured to his sister. “I’m Gabby’s brother.”

“Oh so you have a brother?” Harper looked at Gabby playfully.

“Yeah, I guess I forgot he was on leave.”

“Oh no worries. I should probably head out then and let you two catch up.”

“Nonsense!” Krystian’s voice was loud and commanding, he wore a friendly smile and extended his hands wide. “I’m the one whose crashing.” He gestured over his shoulder to the overnight bag resting on the bench near the front door.

“Actually,” Gabby piped up. “I mean we were going to get dinner after…” She chuckled when her eyes met Harper’s, and Harper’s heart fluttered briefly.

Turning to Gabrielle’s brother Harper asked, “have you eaten yet Krystian?”

-----

“So she was screaming ‘nana I’m blind’ at the top of her lungs!” Krystian was laughing loudly while he recounting a childhood story. A half devoured taco sat on the take-out wrapper along with the crumpled wrapper of over half a dozen others that the trio had eaten so far.

“I just wasn’t used to rural lighting!” Gabrielle blushed as she defended herself tossing one of the wrappers at her brother who batted it away with ease.

“Wait, seriously?” Harper looked over at her and received a trio of wrappers tossed at her.

“Hope Gabby hasn’t been driving you batty yet Harper.”

She laughed loudly as Gabrielle began to rain blows down upon her brother with the ferocity that only a sibling can muster. And for just a moment she forgot that she was on assignment, for a moment she simply got to enjoy the brief dream of being part of something else, something bigger perhaps.

“No it’s been really nice getting to know her.”

The two women shared a brief intimate look before both pretended to look elsewhere as their faces darkened with embarrassment.

“How’d you to meet?”

The question snapped Harper back to reality like being struck with a bucket of ice water. Clearing her throat she laughed and rubbed the back of her neck.

“Well…it wasn’t exactly super romantic.”

Gabby laughed loudly, “you can say that again. She hit me up on a dating app with a cheesy ass pick-up line. We kinda did a will they won’t they thing for a bit before she fully swept me off my feet.”

Her brother gave Harper and appraising look while finishing off his taco.

“Yeah, she’s a grunt just like you too.”

“Oh really?” The appraising look he was giving her narrowed ever so slightly. “What unit you with?”

She had practiced this lie nearly a hundred times with Rainer and so took a large chomp of the taco before giving her brother a faint nod. “With the 4-2. What about you?”

“The 3-7. You see action?”

“Not much, but enough.” She took a long swig of the beer to help sell the intensity of her words before setting it down but letting her hand linger there a moment as she lowered her gaze before pulling her hand back and forcing a very clearly fake smile on her face.

“But that’s not really dinner talk.”

After that the dinner returned to more casual and friendly chatter until the late evening gave way to very early morning and Krystian insisted that he order a ride share for himself. As he was giving his sister one final goodbye hug he gestured to Harper.

“Think you could walk me out?”

“Oh god,” Gabby said while her face scrunched up like she’d just tasted something sour. “You’re not going to do the big brother talk again are you? We are seriously way too old for that.”

He laughed and shrugged, “hey it’s tradition. You understand right Harper?” The way he looked at her gave the indication that despite the friendly demeanor he planned for a more serious talk.

“Of course,” leaning in she kissed Gabby on the cheek with a smile. “It’s okay, I’ll just help him down to the lobby.”

She smiled apologetically at Harper before her and Krystian stepped out into the hallway and began walking down the hallway. They reached the elevator but Krystian led her toward the staircase.

“I gotta burn off those tacos somehow,” he said with a playful smirk that was nowhere near as friendly as when he’d been in the apartment. “So how you like the army?”

“It’s alright,” Harper said casually though internally surprised he might be heading in the direction she suspected. “Pays the bills, though barely at that these days.”

“Yeah. Gabs is lucky her place is rent controlled. I’ve been shacked up in some roach motel while on leave, can’t really afford much else.”

“I had sell some plasma this week just to be able to take Gabby on a decent date,” Harper said with a morose laugh. “She deserves better though.”

They descended the rest of the staircase in silence but before opening the door to the ground floor Krystian turned and put a hand gently on Harper’s arm.

“So listen, I wouldn’t normally bring something like this up but I’m kinda between a rock and a hard place right now. And if my sister trusts you enough to be telling you her real name, then I gotta image you’re on the level.” He looked around before leaning in, “I got a line on a job to help pad that wallet. Take my sister somewhere nice or something.”

Looking around in a perfectly mimed reaction of surprise Harper looked around and swallowed hard, hard enough that he’d notice. Chewing on her bottom lip she asked, “what’s the job?”