The Art Of Friendship by Allison McDonnell

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Chapter Two: Storm Front

Only a few hours later, the caravan was halted when Baines inadvertently got the Transrover stuck by driving it into a patch of mud. Although Danziger was able to successfully maneuver the vehicle back onto drier land, the underside of the carriage was a muddy mess. To make matters worse, several of the instruments were now coated with sludge and would need to be carefully flushed out to prevent them from corroding any faster than they already were. Because John stated that it would take at least half a day to restore the 'Rover to its prior state, Devon grudgingly announced for camp to be set up for the night.

Baines, Walman and Mazatl stayed busy scrubbing down the Transrover's mud-caked frame while Danziger, True and Denner performed the more delicate task of removing several parts and inspecting them for damage before cleaning the pieces by hand and reinstalling them. It was slow, messy work and Danziger was already in a foul mood when Devon happily sashayed up to the muck covered crew.

"Hello, Danziger," she said cheerfully.

John set aside the CV-joint he'd been wiping down with a rag and eyed her suspiciously. He'd quite naturally assumed that Devon would be upset that they were falling one more day behind schedule due to Baines' mishap. Instead, she was looking at him like the cat that had just swallowed the canary. In other words, something was definitely up.

"My, my, aren't we chipper?" he offered cynically before repicking up the gadget and laying it on a nearby blanket to sundry with several other cleaned components. "I figured that you were coming over here to read me the riot act. Or maybe to tell me to work faster."

Devon followed him as he grabbed a wrench and made his way back underneath the Transrover to extract another part almost completely hidden under a thick layer of ooze.

"Not at all," she brightly exclaimed. "I just wanted to ask if you'd mind keeping an eye on Uly for the next couple of hours, that's all."

"Yeah, sure," John grunted while fighting to loosen a particularly tight bolt. After thinking about it, he asked in a slightly accusatory tone, "Wait a minute. Where are you off to?"

"Alonzo and I are taking the Dunerail and scouting ahead," Devon announced enthusiastically, grinning from ear to ear. "Maybe we'll do a little foraging while we're at it."

At this point, Denner and the others in the cleaning crew were becoming suspicious of Devon's odd behavior, too. They stopped working and exchanged baffled glances with each other as they tried to figure out why their leader would be so happy to be spending time with Alonzo. Had they missed something? Perhaps the plot was thickening.

Danziger was just as, if not more, curious than they were. "Somethin' you want to share with the class, Adair?" he asked evenly, noticing that the group was hanging on their every word.

"Nope. Nothing really to tell," she shrugged, feigning indifference. Then a look of evil glee overtook her face as she delivered the news that she knew would bring Danziger hours and hours of emotional torment. "Except that I'm driving."

Just as she had suspected, Devon's verbal arrow hit its mark. "Great. That's all I need right now," John grimaced, tossing the wrench to the ground and rising to his feet. "Look, if you got a problem with me, deal with me directly. Don't take it out on my vehicles."

"Oh, stop taking everything so personally," she mildly scolded, rolling her eyes. "I'll return it in perfect condition."

Danziger let out an exaggerated sigh. Every day that woman steals at least a month off of my life, he grumbled to himself.

"Fine, take the Dunerail," he conceded under the fabricated notion that he'd been given a choice in the matter. He took a step closer and warned, "But there'd better not be so much as a scratch or a missing chip of paint on it when you get back, do ya' hear me? And God help you both if there's a dent."

Devon snorted and shook her head as she started to walk toward a waiting Alonzo. Danziger continued in a louder voice, "I mean it, Adair. I'm gonna check it over personally."

Clearly not intimidated, Devon spun around and planted her hands defiantly on her hips. "Give it the white glove test, if you want. You won't find a thing."

She flashed a quick smile before rotating back and resuming her journey toward the Dunerail. John gave her a scrutinizing stare as she climbed into the vehicle and she and the pilot zoomed off into the distance.

When the two were no longer in view, Danziger turned his attention back to working on the Transrover, completely unaware of the looks he was getting from the surrounding crew. He was much too busy lost in his own thoughts as he found himself mentally cataloging the many facets of Devon's unique personality.

Annoying.

Overly confident.

Opinionated.

Quick tempered.

Inflexible.

Moody.

Pushy (make that very pushy).

Occasional God complex.

Absolutely irresistible.

He could hardly wait to get to New Pacifica.

______________________________________________

A little less than two hours after Devon and Alonzo left camp, Magus came rushing up to the Transrover frantically calling Danziger's name.

"John! John, you gotta get to the comm tent!" she implored.

Realizing that something was wrong, the mechanic jumped to his feet and instinctively looked for True. After confirming that she was safe, he worriedly asked the crew woman, "Why? What's wrong?"

"Just come quick," she urged before turning to the rest of the small group. "And somebody needs to find Julia, too." Magus tried her best to contain the panic in her voice as she pivoted back to Danziger and revealed, "There's been an accident."

Danziger was met by Yale, Bess, Morgan and Cameron as he rushed into the canopy-style tent which housed all of the communication equipment that Eden Project had managed to salvage from the crash. Bess swirled the eyepiece of her gear away from her face in order to address the mechanic.

"Don't worry. They're fine. We're on with Alonzo right now," she told him using her most comforting tone after viewing the distressed look on his face.

As per usual, John didn't have his gear with him, so he motioned for Cameron to toss him a spare set laying on a nearby table. He quickly logged on and was greeted by Alonzo whose face sported a split lip along with several scratches on his forehead.

"What happened? You guys all right?" Danziger questioned anxiously.

"Yeah, we're okay," the pilot assured, although he did appear slightly ill at ease. "There was a koba in our path and Devon swerved off the road to avoid hitting it. She accidentally rolled the 'Rail down an embankment."

He paused before reluctantly adding, "You're gonna have to come because I'll need some help to get it upright again. I think it's still drivable, but you should bring your tools, just in case."

Danziger was unconvinced and had no problem showing it. "Do a PV scan, so I can see how bad it is," he instructed gruffly.

Solace began walking toward the edge of the hillside to enable Danziger and the others to survey the severity of the damage. As he swiveled the eyepiece outward, he quickly panned past the image of Devon who was sitting on the ground with her head buried in her hands.

"See? It doesn't look too banged up," Alonzo optimistically commented after focusing in on the impaired vehicle. "It just needs flipping over and maybe a few minor repairs."

Danziger was no longer interested in inspecting the wreckage. Now, his mind was on something else entirely. "Tell Adair to get on her gear."

Solace swung the eyepiece back to its original position, centering solely on his image. He briefly glimpsed in the leader's direction and responded, "She can't. It was busted in the crash."

"Then give her your set. I wanna talk to her."

Alonzo again averted his eyes toward an unseen Devon before awkwardly relaying, "She won't, I mean, uh, she says that she doesn't really feel like talking right now."

"Why? Is she hurt?" John asked with a furrowed brow.

Yale turned to the mechanic, divulging, "Devon is fine, although she did hit her head on the steering wheel when they wrecked. It's probably just a bump, but you should bring Julia with you. Both of them have a few cuts and bruises that need to be looked at."

"Well, if she's okay then she can get her ass on gear and tell me herself," Danziger exclaimed, his impatience growing with each syllable.

Bess and Yale exchanged a momentary glance before the Earth-res disclosed, "Well, um, the rest of us spoke with her right before you got here and she didn't look too much worse for the wear. Right, everyone?"

The others in the tent all nervously shook their heads in agreement with Bess' statement. With a jolt of awareness, Danziger rocked back on his heels and clenched his fists tightly as he realized the sobering truth.

It wasn't that Devon didn't want to talk. She just didn't want to talk to him.

A deep growl escaped the pit of Danziger's throat as he roughly removed the gear from his head and reset it on the table. "Is the ATV charged?" he questioned Cameron through gritted teeth.

When the crewman nodded back in affirmation, John declared in a no-nonsense tone, "Good. Tell 'em that Julia and I will be there as fast as we can." He then turned to march out of the tent before he lost his composure.

"John, wait," Yale said, grabbing him by the arm. "You're going to have to hurry. There's another storm coming in from the northwest and it will probably be on top of them by sundown. Be sure to take some extra supplies because the four of you will most likely be stuck there until tomorrow when the rest of us can catch up to you."

Bess appeared next to Danziger, offering, "Why don't you let me load up the ATV while you and Julia get everything that you need, all right?"

The mechanic exhaled deeply. "Okay. Thanks." He motioned toward Julia who'd obviously just been alerted about the accident and was hurriedly approaching them to find out the details. "Fill her in on what's going on and tell her to meet me back here in fifteen minutes."

Without waiting for a response, John took off in the direction of his quarters in order to retrieve his tools and pack a few personal items. As he lifted the flap, he looked back just in time to see Yale place his gear onto Uly's head, presumably so that the child could speak with his mother.

Danziger shook his head in frustration. "Can't avoid me forever, Adair," he muttered to himself as he charged into his tent to collect his things.

______________________________________________

"Hey, I think I see them!" Alonzo called down to Devon from the top of the small mesa he'd climbed to get a better view of their surroundings.

Although at that distance, the ATV appeared to Alonzo as little more than a migrating billow of dirt and mud, he could easily tell that Danziger was traveling at a breakneck pace, pushing the vehicle to its limits as he slid around displaced boulders and large puddles of water. Despite the fact that Solace was more than a little nervous about catching hell from John for wrecking one of his prized vehicles, he let out a relief-filled sigh at the welcome sight of them. As a gust of wind whipped through his hair and rustled his clothes, Alonzo turned to view the black, foreboding clouds quickly moving in from the opposite direction.

Looks like we're caught smack dab in the middle of two approaching tempests, Solace inwardly joked. However, after taking another look at those ominous storm clouds which were getting closer by the minute, the pilot concluded that incurring Danziger's wrath would likely be the lesser of the two evils that he and Devon were going to be subjected to that evening.

It was late afternoon and the already gray skies were slowly continuing to darken when Julia and Danziger finally arrived at their destination. They jumped out of the vehicle and were met by a slightly sheepish, but very grateful Alonzo and Devon.

Alonzo wasted no time and wrapped his arms around Julia, pulling her into an affectionate hug. "Hey there, stranger."

"Hey, yourself," the doctor warmly greeted. Momentarily forgetting about his split lip, Julia gave him a quick peck on the mouth, eliciting a yelp from the pilot.

"Oops, sorry about that," Julia apologized before breaking into a grin. "So much for the idea of kissing your cut to make it better."

"Just when I thought that your bedside manner couldn't get any worse," Alonzo said with a chuckle while the doctor opened her med-bag and began to attend to the superficial abrasions on his face.

Meanwhile, Devon and John's reunion wasn't quite as pleasant. After conducting a brief, albeit intense, examination of Devon's features upon his arrival, Danziger basically chose to ignore her. Instead, he concentrated on the task of unloading the supplies from the ATV. Devon already knew that she was in deep trouble when she apprehensively approached him.

"I'm so glad that you're here," she expressed, looking slightly flustered as she fidgeted with the ring on her right hand.

He stopped working and straightened up to his full height, rigidly folding his arms in front of him. Devon noticed for the first time that his skin and clothes were still coated with dirt, most likely because he hadn't been given the opportunity to clean up after fixing the Transrover.

"Are you all right?" he asked, his voice as equally hard as the expression displayed on his face.

"I just got scraped up a little, that's all," Devon assured, briefly lifting her arm to show him a scabbing elbow. She pulled back her bangs to reveal a purplish bruise. "Except for this goose-egg."

John took a step forward in order to examine the size and discoloration of the knot on her forehead more closely. His fingertips lightly circled the edge of the bump just where the skin was starting to swell.

"Guess it's a good thing that I'm so hardheaded, huh?" Devon jested, making a feeble attempt at humor to try to lighten his mood.

Not even the hint of a smile escaped Danziger's lips. "So, you're okay?" he said coolly, dropping his hand to his side and taking several paces backward to put some distance between them.

Devon's own grin vanished as he retreated away from her. Boy, she'd really done it this time. John was so angry that he didn't even want to be near her.

"I'm fine. It's just a bruise."

"Why don't you let me be the judge of that?" Julia called out from behind the couple as she and Alonzo joined them.

John was all business as he looked past Devon toward Julia, stiffly instructing, "Check Devon out to make sure that she doesn't have a concussion. If she's really okay then, after that, both of you can unpack the rest of our stuff and put up the tents." His eyes returned to Devon. "That is, unless you had the forethought to crash the 'Rail near a large cave."

Devon's eyes narrowed at the mechanic's cynical remark. "No such luck," Alonzo replied before Devon could supply an appropriate retort.

"Okay, then," Danziger continued, his stern gaze remaining squarely on Devon. He gestured toward a nearby cluster of boulders. "You may want to set up camp near that rock formation over there. That way, we can at least shield ourselves from some of the wind. While you're doing that, 'Lonz and I will work on the 'Rail."

The sound of not so distant thunder reverberated in their ears to remind them of the seriousness of their situation. Danziger clapped his hands together.

"We don't have a whole lot of time here people, so let's get to it," he said firmly, picking up his tool box and setting off for the overturned vehicle which lay at the bottom of an incline about two hundred yards away from where they were standing.

After John disappeared over the slope, Devon turned to Julia, asking, "Has he been acting this surly all day?"

"No," the doctor answered as she scanned Devon's vital statistics with her diaglove. "Actually those were the first words he's spoken since we left camp two hours ago." She added with a shrug, "Although I could hear him grinding his teeth together for most of the trip."

Their conversation was interrupted by loud shouts carried by the wind from the base of the nearby hill. "Hurry up and get down here, Solace!" Danziger yelled with a ferocity that rivaled the impending squall. "I can't flip this damn thing over by myself!"

All three exchanged a look of trepidation. Alonzo found himself reconsidering whether or not the storm was indeed the greater of the two threats that he and Devon were currently facing.

Devon was obviously experiencing similar thoughts and swerved her wide eyed gaze toward Solace. "I'm a dead woman, aren't I?" she exclaimed.

A brilliant flash of light followed by another rumbling of thunder seemed to be a perfectly timed omen to support her dire prediction.

"Oh, yeah," the pilot nodded with a joyless smirk as he ambled backward toward the edge of the embankment. "I think that we're all in for a rough night."

______________________________________________

For one of the few times in his life, Danziger had some luck on his side. Alonzo had been correct when he'd presumed that the Dunerail wasn't too damaged and could be easily fixed. The frame was still intact and somehow none of the fragile components had been smashed beyond repair. It only took an hour or so for John to reconnect a few of the wires, patch one of the front tires and reattach the solar panels which had been torn off during the vehicle's wild tumble down the hillside.

Taking a moment to gaze at the steep grade of the slope, the mechanic reflected that Alonzo and Devon had been very fortunate indeed to have escaped serious injuries or worse. He also briefly recalled the memories of the prior winter when he'd been involved in a similar accident involving the Dunerail, but swiftly pushed those thoughts out of his mind. He was upset enough as it was.

Danziger had just begun to assist Alonzo in banging a few of the dings out of the framework when the pilot called his attention to the condition of the sky. Both of them had been so consumed with what they were doing that neither had bothered to notice that the sun had nearly been swallowed whole by the encompassing darkness. Moreover, the frequent sound of booming thunder could be heard echoing throughout the valley and John could feel the hairs on his arms raise due to the electricity in the air.

Realizing that they would need to take shelter very soon, John hurriedly refastened the 'Rail's cloth roof and then parked it under a large tree with the hope that its draping branches would screen out at least some of the forthcoming rain. After completing the task, Danziger remet up with Alonzo at the crest of the hill and they began to make their way back to rejoin their two crewmates. No sooner had they begun walking when the heavens parted and the pair was deluged by a torrent of water from above.

Both of them dashed toward the campsite that Julia and Devon had arranged among the grouping of large boulders. The dome-shaped tents had been placed at opposite ends, each nestled in the center of a smaller gathering of rocks to provide an additional barrier from the surging wind. Quickly inspecting the grounds, Danziger noticed a problem right away.

"Where's the other tent?" he called out to Julia as she poked her head out of the nearest double-occupancy unit.

The doctor successfully suppressed a smile as she viewed Danziger's alarmed expression. "There were only two," she replied as she moved aside to allow Alonzo entry.

"Looks like you're bunking with Devon tonight," the pilot said casually, also keeping his amusement in check.

"Whoa, whoa, wait a minute," John protested nervously, the crash of thunder nearly drowning out his words. "Why don't you and I take one and Julia and Devon can share the other?"

"Not a chance, pal," Alonzo declared, shaking his head emphatically. "Julia's a much better roommate than you are. She doesn't snore or hog the covers. Plus, she has all that medical expertise. I'm thinking of asking her to give me a complete physical." The corners of his mouth turned upward into a playful grin. "Maybe I'll give her one, too."

Before John was given the chance to respond, Solace began to seal the tent flap, snickering, "We'll see you and Devon in the morning."

Danziger stood there in the drenching rain for several seconds as he pondered his options. Sleeping in Julia and Alonzo's tent was certainly out. He briefly considered staying the night in the Dunerail, but thought better of it when he remembered that the metal vehicle was positioned under a tall tree, essentially transforming it into a lightning rod. Although possible electrocution still managed to come in a very close second, Danziger's first choice for refuge from the storm ended up to be sharing a cramped space with a woman who, at the moment, he was trying his best to avoid.

He slowly rotated and began his short journey to the other tent where Devon was undoubtedly expecting his arrival. He wasn't sure, but he swore that he could hear Julia and Alonzo's spirited laughter following him as he trudged his way through the heavy downpour. Just before he entered the shelter, Danziger let out an exasperated sigh. He was definitely in for a rough night.

______________________________________________

Alonzo was clutching at his aching sides as he doubled over with laughter. "Did you see Danz's reaction when you told him about the tents? He turned as white as a ghost. For a second, I thought he was going to pass out."

Julia was equally amused, merrily proclaiming, "Just wait until he finds out from Devon that there were only two sleeping bags."

Several moments passed before they were able to compose their chuckles enough to talk. "Good old Bess," Solace remarked. "That woman always has a matchmaking scheme up her sleeve."

A deceptively coy smile graced Julia's lips. "Well, to be honest, Bess had originally packed three of everything. I'm the one who took out the third tent and sleeping bag."

She shrugged as she observed the shocked look that had overtaken her lover's face. "What, I can't play, too?" she asked, batting her eyes innocently.

Alonzo was a bit surprised by her delightfully underhanded initiative. "Why, Dr. Heller, I have a whole new respect for you," he exclaimed as he closed the distance between them. "So, when do we check on them to see if they're sharing more than just a tent?"

"As mad as Danziger is right now, I'd give them at least an hour to get all of their aggression out. Then, when they finally get around to kissing and making up, you and I can catch them red-handed, once and for all," she answered with a satisfactory grin.

"Sounds like a plan," the pilot said, reaching up to softly caress her cheek. His hand slowly moved southward down her neck until it joined his other hand and began to unbutton her blouse. "So, uh, what should we do to keep ourselves occupied for the next hour?" he asked seductively as he leaned in to nuzzle her neck.

Julia turned down the lumalantern located just within her grasp. "I have a few ideas," she purred, eagerly tugging at his shirt to free it from his waistband.

He arched his head back to meet her hungry gaze. "I bet you do," he beamed as he bent his head to hers.

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