Something Insightful

            Ian stared up at the ceiling. The doctor had spent another night, Ed and JR had only come in late last night so Ian and the doctor had the house to themselves for most of the previous day.

            He looked down at her, her head on his chest, and stroked her hair. She smiled in her sleep and Ian couldn’t help but smile too, he had lucked out somewhat with her.

  “Hey,” she said softly as she awoke.

  “Hey beautiful,” he said with a smile.

  “What time is it?”

  “Twenty to six,”

  “Aah, I’ve got to get to work, unless I call in sick,” she said running a finger along his bare chest.

  “We both know you won’t do that,” Ian said. “I’ll go make us some breakfast,”

            Ian kissed her before getting out of bed and heading to his closet to put on some clothes, he doubted very much that Ed or JR would like to see him preparing breakfast naked.

            Twenty minutes after Ian had gotten started on the breakfast, the doctor came down the stairs, dressed in the same clothes she had worn on their first date two nights ago. Ian smiled as he saw her, and she smiled back, walking over to him where they embraced each other.

  “Will I see you tonight?”

  “No, I’ve got to pick up a few extra shifts, but we can grab lunch,”

  “Sound like a plan,”

  “Good, see you then, I’ve got to run,” she said, kissing him before leaving.

            She had come with her own car two nights ago and it had been parked outside since then. Ian walked her out then returned in time to see Ed stumbling down the stairs.

  “Morning,” Ian said and placed a cup of coffee in front of Ed as he sat down.

  “Morning, where’s the doctor?”

  “Just left, work,”

  “I see. It strange, for you”

  “What is?”

  “Sleeping with a woman, on the first date I mean,”

  “Yeah, but there’s something about this one,”

  “No, you think she might be the one?”

  “Maybe, but I’m not gonna pop the question just yet, sure we enjoy each other, and each other’s company, but I’m still the logical man I used to be”

  “Coolio,”

  “How was your date?” asked Ian.

  “Was good, didn’t see much of the movie, if you know what I mean,”

  “I do. Oh, before I forget again, your father phoned last night while you were out, asked me to tell you that your sister has some important announcement, she wants everyone at the house this afternoon for lunch,”

  “Why didn’t he just phone me?”

  “I think he did, but you were busy with…more important things,” said Ian with a devilish smile.

  “Ah, yeah, that might be it,”

  “And don’t forget, next week is the anniversary of The Event,”

  “How could I forget,” Ed said coldly as he stared at the ring on his right hand.

  “Not all mementos of times rather forgotten are scars,” said Ian lifting up his right arm so Ed could see the series of 1’s and 0’s tattooed on his wrist, “and more often than not, it’s the wounds we cannot see that leave scars deeper than steel can make,”

  “I know, I’m sorry, I didn’t mean anything by it. You’ll remind Dev, won’t you?”

  “He won’t forget either. He may say it doesn’t bother him, but he has nightmares just like us,”

  “Morning,” said JR.

  “You’re up early,” noted Ian, breakfast was done and he filled an extra plate for JR.

  “Yeah, I’ve got to go see a client, I swear some of these server admin’s are useless,”

  “You’re telling me?” said Ian. “Hey, neither of you are doing anything tonight, I think it’s about high time we had a braai,”

  “Agreed,” said Ed.

  “Can we bring other people?” asked JR.

  “Yeah, sure, but you have to be here, I’ll let Dev and Marko know, see if they’ll join us,”

  “They will,” said Ed confidently.

            For the next few minutes they talked and ate their breakfast. JR was the first to leave, he was already dressed, Ian on the other hand still had to get dressed before he left for work twenty minutes later, leaving Ed home alone until later when he left for his parent’s house.

            Ian didn’t go directly to the Scorpion HQ, instead he went to Project 8, killed a few hours there before heading in to HQ. Before he got there, the Colonel phoned and gave him GPS coordinates of a crime scene.

  “It seems you were wrong,” said Monroe as Ian crossed the police line.

            They entered the skyscraper and went to the top floor where the CEO’s office was. The man had been impaled behind his desk with a hole in the roof where the sky-nail had come through. Ian was surprised that the sky-nail hadn’t padded right through the floor and into the next floor.

  “Thor,” he said.

  “He’s picking up the pace,” said Monroe.

  “Yeah, which means he might make a mistake sooner,”

  “We need to find him BEFORE he kills someone else,”

  “Fat chance of that happening,”

  “I though you said you were the best?”

  “I’m good, not God, I can’t work miracles, most days. There has to be a link between the victims,”

  “We’ve checked, nothing,”

  “There has to be something,”

  “Ian,”

  “JR?” said Ian surprised. “What are you doing here?”

  “This is…was my client,”

  “You didn’t have an Abraham Fisher as a client, did you?”

  “No, why,”

  “No reason,” said Monroe.

  “You guys investigating this?”

  “Jip,”

  “Is there anything you could tell us?” asked Monroe, “Did your client have enemies?”

  “He’s a corporate big cheese, of course he had enemies,”

            Later that night they were all on the roof of their house. Dev and Marko had joined them, JR had first gone to pick up Melisa, much to Dev’s irritation, but he got over it quickly enough.

  “We’re your date?” Ian asked Ed.

  “Busy,” he said.

            They started to braai just after nine, at which point Ian and Ed provided a little entertainment, singing Stand By Me, after which they were kindly asked not to sing again.

            They spent most of the night catching up with what had been going on in their lives of late. JR let slip about the blonde doctor and Ian was forced to explain why she had stayed for two nights in a row.

  “Ed, what did your sister want?” Ian asked while they ate desert.