Since she'd inadvertently dug the hole - and Hector was acting like he couldn't hear - Andi figured it was her job to
supply the answers. She slipped the right amount of paper off the rack and started wrapping the sourdough loaf.
"We put it over one of his old scars so it wouldn't damage his vanity. He kept going on and on about how he had
women to impress when he did lawn work or some such." She shot the other woman a look under arched brows and,
lips twisting at their edges, asked: "And when, exactly, were you planning on having my boyfriend in such a position as
to be able to check him over for scars?"
Jolanda laughed. "We're in the middle of a cool spell." She said. "Eventually, like tomorrow, it'll get hot enough that all
the guys will take off their shirts. Even the ones that shouldn't. And there are a bunch that really shouldn't! Besides I
keep track of his scars so I can pick on him. Eventually he's going to be one big lump of scar tissue."
She cast a look over at her friend's girl. "but that's not anything you don't already know I guess."
There was a moment when pain moved through the English woman's brown eyes. A ripping tear across the tranquility
and Andi was glancing down at the bread and smoothly tucking the last of the paper edges into a fold.
"Well, you're more than welcome to look. If its for teasing purposes." Andi told her, turning around with the loaf of
bread in the crook of her arm and a smile. "I can hardly deny any woman that."
"Hard to deny them looking anyway. Unless you plan on gouging out the eyes of every straight female in this parish
that might look at him. And that's no way to spend a vacation, would take far too long." Jolanda said.
"Jo, quiet." Hector said.
"But he is surprisingly humble about things." She said with a fond smile. "Though he makes up for it. And we all have
scars. Just most of his are more visible than others."
It was there again. That great tear across those brown eyes. Threatening to slip down into eternal darkness. Andi
didn't want to talk, or think, about scars. Not her own hidden ones. And not the new ones Hector would likely earn.
She knew he would be leaving again and that he would be going out into the shadows and the dark again. It was just -
easy to ignore that here and now.
Easy to pretend you'd forgotten.
"I can't blame the other girls for looking." Andi agreed with a smile. "God's gifts were meant to be appreciated. As long
as its them looking I won't be resorted to eye gouging." She was being polite and slow about it but she was headed for
the door. "Thank you for the bread. And the kitchen offer. I would like to come back sometime and see what a mess I
can make of things. It was very nice meeting you."
Jolanda followed her out and wiped her hands on a waiting cloth.
"Your job scares her." She said point blank, in front of both of them. She wasn't one for pulling punches or waiting for
'polite' times. Though she winced at the flash of pain that went though his dark eyes.
It wasn't anything he didn't know. There was just nothing to be done about it. hard to make her feel better about it
when she had seen first hand what can happen when things go horribly horribly wrong.
"Don't." Andi was standing close to Hector again and her free hand shifted automatically as she stepped into him.
Resting against his stomach. The look she gave Jolanda was fierce and scoured clean of the least hint of friendliness.
Her thin jaw locked.
"It's not his fault. I'm not well right now and he's being good enough to play along with me that I am. The way I'm
seeing things now isn't the way I usually do. Or should. At the moment I'm quite broken and everything scares me. He
loves his job and more, he's the best there is at it. Don't feed the thought that's already inside him that he causes me
pain because of it."
Jolanda looked at Andi, then at Hector and her face softened.
"My mouth gets a head of me quite easily." She said. "Most people don't pay much attention to me. Then again, its
good that he's got someone to tell me to shut up, since he never will. Well, not and really mean it."
Hector sighed and slid an arm around Andi's shoulder. "Could be worse, could give you the lecture I gave Sam."
Jo laughed. "Ah, the blanket of freedom speech? That's a good one."
Andi shut her eyes and leaned into Hector and the protection of his arm.
She'd hated doing that. Not defending what he did. But - having to admit she was broken. She hated having to admit
she was broken. Resisted fiercely admitting it to him and herself. Truly hated passionately having to do so in front of
strangers. But it wasn't right. It wasn't fair. Letting him think that her reactions now to the thought of him being hurt
again were the same reactions to it that she would usually have. The emotions would be the same but the reactions
wouldn't. She didn't want what was inside him hurt over her anymore than she'd already hurt him.
"Blanket of freedom?" She asked with a brief smile without opening her eyes. She wasn't mad at the other woman.
She did like her. She didn't want her to think she'd been angry at her. Just at what she'd said. "I think I've been spared
that one. Is it very good?"
"Only works for those that don't appreciate the military, or worse, a military presence." He said with a chuckle. He
knew the popular opinion on his job wasn't positive right now, the world being what it was, and his personal job was as
misunderstood as it got. From the perception that all he did was shoot things and people all day to maybe doing
nothing at all.
"The rest of us, the normal thinking people, aren't quite that bad." Jolanda said as she packaged up a few sweets for
them. "Remember to bring her back, I like slave labor."
Andi smiled softly and opened her eyes.
"I'd like that. You did promise to pay me in burnt bread and crumbs after all." She agreed. Watching what the other
woman was doing without moving away from Hector. She thought she'd probably had enough social interaction for
now. Nosey women, gossipy grocer, rambunctious baker. It was dealing with different interactions, prodding her for
weak points. Which was good. But now she was tired.
She told herself it was like learning to walk after breaking a leg. Starting slowly. Feeling shaky afterward was
supposed to be expected.
"Then we'll see you." Hector said. "You know how to find me."
"That I do." Jolanda said. "Hard to miss you, you're obnoxiously tall." She said and packed everything into the grocery
bags and handed them to her. "Ooh, there goes my oven!" Though it was probably just a nice way to ease them out
without them feeling more uncomfortable than they already were. Her and her mouth! She disappeared into the
kitchen and Hector looked at Andi.
"She's a little much, but she's not malicious." Which was something, unfortunately, he had a feeling he couldn't
guarantee about others as he guided her back outside the bakery and on the way back to the house.
Andi gave a quiet smile.
"I like her. She loves you very much." She shifted slightly under his arm to be closer without throwing off their strides.
Noticing he was taking them home by a different route and watching the new scenery. Noticing she'd have a chance to
recover before she was likely to run into Paige.
"I wondered what your friends here would be like. I'm glad I got a chance to meet her first." Hector hadn't seemed like
much of a - a cutout for her. He played one role for Mrs. Johnson (sweet boy) and another for Paige (out of bounds)
and another for the grocer (friendly neighbor). She was familiar with that. Letting people see what they wanted to see.
But he hadn't seemed to need to pretend with Jolanda. He'd seemed like - Hector for her. Andi had been relieved to
see it.
She still wasn't going to apologize for what she'd said, she thought stubbornly, eyebrows unconsciously coming down.
Even if she probably should. Jolanda was his friend after all...
She craned her neck to look at a bush full of wide red flowers as they walked past it. Inner direction tugging her that
they were close to home.
"How long have known her?" She asked curiously.
"Funny story." Hector said with a laugh. "When I got my appendix out, she was my roommate. She got her tonsils out.
So she shared in my contraband food, and then we realized that, wow, we lived near each other. She grew up in the
next town over, but they already have a bakery. So she took advantage of this place NOT having one. But when I was
growing up, after I got my appendix out, she'd come over and play with me at my grandparent's house. Then when I
transferred here in my senior year, she was my link to getting to know the school, since she went to the same school."
They got to the house and she opened the door. He set everything on the counters and checked on the gumbo. "She
has absolutely no tact, no way of smoothing any bluntness, probably the only one outside of my grandmother who told
it like she saw it growing up. God I loved her for that."
Andi had been putting away the groceries as he talked and she paused to reach out and gently touch his cheek. In a
family that tried hard not to talk about things and ignored them when possible if what he'd said in the past was any
indication, having someone that didn't hide anything that was going on must have been a welcome relief.
"I'm sorry. I'll try to play nice in the future." She promised softly. "I wasn't wrong" her brows came down before she
sighed: "But I should have handled that better."
"Had you handled it 'better' that would mean you'd be phrasing something 'nicely' or 'politely,' and she wouldn't have
appreciated it." Hector said and chuckled. "The phrase 'in your face' doesn't even begin to describe her. You did fine.
Now she knows where you stand. And if nothing else, you can both bitch about worrying about my chosen occupation
in the future." He shrugged with a grin. They couldn't deny they worried, and he couldn't deny that he gave them
something to worry about, after all.
Andi shook her head, chuckling softly to herself as she shot him a look and then went back to putting away the
vegetables.
"And to think all these years my mother tried to teach me to be civil." She stated. "When being a yob was really what I
should have been aiming for." She straightened up and closed the ice box door. Looking at Hector over her shoulder.
Eyes teasing. "But if you really want me to be more like Suz..."
"Uh...no thanks." He said as he brought in the tea and added ice to it. "I guess it's an American thing, you either hide
it all behind civil politeness and really don't say anything at all, or you're just....out there. Or you're like me and stay in
the background until the storm passes, because they always do." At least that's what he had done in his childhood,
until he sprouted up a few inches in adolescence and gained a mouth that loved to talk back.
She thought of the Hector who had gone nose to nose with Sam. With Mike. That she'd heard did the same for
practically the entire SAS command. That, even more brave as far as she was concerned, had stood in front of her
mother. Subtlety on the job he probably had plenty of. But in day to day living, as far as she could tell, Hector let you
know exactly where he stood. Almost immediately. Bluntly and without apology.
She loved him for that.