~ Chapter Twenty Six ~

"Well, look who showed up anyway."  Scott shoved his hands into the pockets of his jeans as he watched the Mustang pull into the parking lot. 

Kevin grunted impassively in response.

"Last warning."  Brian said firmly, marching up to the two men, his eyes narrowed in a rather pathetic attempt to look menacing.  "NICE.  That goes for you too, Scott, although I'm not as worried about you."

"You're not the boss of me."  Scott protested mildly, not as irked as Kevin that Nick was there.  Scott got along with Nick tolerably well, when Kevin wasn't around.  Scott had even developed a small amount of respect for him.  For his age and experience, Nick had an amazing amount of knowledge and skill.  Nick was talented  - Scott wasn't denying that fact.  The problem was that Nick knew exactly how good he was. 

"Brian!"  Becky screamed from where she was sorting through softball equipment along with Scott's two children. 

"I'm coming!"  Brian hollered back.

Scott rubbed his ear and took a step away from Brian.

"You have been warned."  Brian pointed his finger at each of them in turn, then disappeared back over to the grassy field.

"He reminds me of that ship on Star Trek."  Scott said thoughtfully.  "You know - it appears and vanishes at the speed of light."

Kevin grunted again. 

"I didn't know Nick had a girl."  Scott added, noting the pretty redhead following Nick as they approached.

This time Kevin laughed.  "Where have you been?  He hasn't shut up about her for two months."

"Oh."  Scott didn't pay a whole lot of attention to the clubhouse banter.  "Um, am I supposed to know her name or something?"  He added quietly.

Kevin raised one eyebrow skeptically; still standing with his feet spread apart, arms folded across his chest. 

"Hey."  Nick said in greeting, not quite smiling, but not scowling either. 

"This your girl, Nick?"  Scott didn't believe in beating around the bush.  Kevin rolled his eyes at his friend's blunt question. 

Nick flashed a grin at his two teammates.  "Yeah - this is Stacy.  Stacy - Scott... and Kevin."

"Nice to meet you both."  Stacy said politely, reaching over to shake hands.  Kevin stopped the offended bodyguard pose and even turned on a very small amount of the Richardson charm; smiling and shaking hands as if he was actually happy to see both of them. 

Scott frowned; she had a fairly strong British accent.  "You from England?"

Kevin snorted in amusement and even Nick looked slightly askance at Scott's questioning of the obvious. 

"Um, Calcutta, mostly."  Stacy kept a perfectly straight face, winning her points in Scott's book.  "I went to school in England."

"Nick!"  Brian yelled, waving madly from the softball field.  "C'mere!"

"Excuse us."  Nick rolled his eyes slightly at Brian's enthusiasm and started over towards the field, leading Stacy by the hand. 

"What the hell is Calcutta?"  Scott said as soon as they left.

"Where."  Kevin corrected slowly, reaching up to scratch his head.  "It's a city.  I think it's in India."

~*~

"Can I have more Kool-aid?"  Becky asked politely, holding up her red plastic glass. 

"Here..."  Karen refilled the glass halfway, knowing better than to give Becky a full glass of something that would stain.

Becky took a long drink, then smacked her lips in appreciation.  Her eyes widened over the rim of her glass.  "Look!  Felicia and AJ are here!"  She set her glass on the table, almost knocking it over, and trotted over to greet them as fast as her little legs could carry her.

Karen shoved a strand of hair back from her face and watched AJ greet everyone, his mouth never stopping, and his hands waving wildly to illustrate his conversation.  Felicia stood quietly next to him, looking perfect, as usual.

It wasn't that Karen didn't like Felicia - she had talked to her on several occasions at the ballpark, mostly because of Becky's fascination with her, and for a member of the ‘perfect crowd', Felicia had been very nice - a little aloof, but still a nice person.

Karen perched herself on the edge of the table, next to the Kool-Aid container.  It was eighty plus degrees in the shade.  She hated it when it was so warm her shorts started sticking to her legs.  She doubted Felicia had that problem.  Felicia's sundress was hanging perfectly, not even wrinkled from being sat on; her hair  was pulled back into a cluster of curls on the back of her head, the Florida tan, red lipstick and cat-eyes sunglasses making here look like a movie star from the 1950's. 

Perfect people never had to experience their shorts sticking or looking down to find that buttons had mysteriously vanished from their shirt, or their hairclip suddenly breaking and flying away from their head with enough force to injure someone.  They mysteriously went through life, their hair always in place, their clothes never wrinkled, just like both Felicia and AJ now.  Karen wrinkled her nose.  They were like houses where people took their shoes off and didn't eat in the living room.  How exciting could that be? 

~*~

"I was safe!"  Brian protested, hands on hips, stomping his foot on home plate a couple more times for good measure.

"You were not, silly."  Becky said primly, waving her glove, which was almost as big as her head, at Brian.  "You were out.  Go sit back down and stop whining."

"Kevin!"  Brian hollered.  "Your daughter is cheating again!" 

"No, she isn't!"  Kevin yelled back from the pitching rubber.  "You were out, Brian!"

"Who died and made you an umpire?"  Brian demanded.

"Keep an eye on him!"  AJ added from third base.  "First he demands to pitch - now he's umpiring, next thing you know, he'll be playing all nine positions by himself, and it'll be us - against Kevin."

"You're out."  Becky said firmly, pointing at the sidelines.

Brian stuck his tongue out at both Becky and her father and jogged back to the sidelines, flinging himself on the ground next to Stacy.  "You haven't hit yet."  He pointed out.

"No."  Stacy said firmly.  She had never held a bat in her entire life, and now was probably not the time to start.  It was one thing to hit a baseball when you did it for a living, it was entirely another when you didn't, as evidenced by both Karen and Scott's wife, Ann, when they had come up to bat.  Stacy preferred not to make a fool out of herself in front of people she had just met. 

"Hey, Robby!"  Brian's voice drowned out her mild protest, as he yelled at Scott's youngest son, who was stepping up to the plate.  "Let Stacy hit!  She hasn't come up yet!"

"No... really."  Stacy protested again.  "I've never done this before."

Brian's jaw dropped slightly, before his face broke into a wide grin.  "You've never hit a baseball?"

"Why would I?"  Stacy reasoned. 

"Nick!"  Brian jumped up and grabbed Stacy's arm, pulling until she climbed reluctantly to her feet.  "How can your girlfriend never have hit a baseball?" 

The actual game itself was moving along quite slowly, given that every few minutes, time was called for long, confusing arguments over who was playing what position, where the ghostrunners were, and exactly who was out on what play.  For a game being played by a bunch of major leaguers, the rules were just a tad sketchy.

"C'mon."  Nick suddenly appeared behind Stacy, his hands resting on her hips as he pushed her gently towards home plate.

"Wait a minute..."  Stacy started.  "Nick, hang on."

"Calm down."  Nick bent over to whisper in her ear.  "It's fun, okay?  Besides, you're hitting off Kevin.  It's not that hard."

Nick wrapped one arm on either side of her, placing her hands on the bat, and then his hands on top of hers, his chest pressed firmly against her back.  "Watch the ball."  Nick continued whispering in her ear.  "Never take your eye off the ball."

Kevin rested one hand on his hip.  "So, you think she's gonna help you hit, Carter?"  He didn't say it in a mean way, in fact, he almost seemed to be teasing, but Stacy still felt Nick tense up behind her. 

"Throw the ball!  Throw the ball!"  AJ yelled, jumping up and down on third base like a little kid.  "This had got to be the slowest game I've ever played, and I was a Devil Ray!"

Kevin tossed the ball underhanded at the plate and Stacy found her arms moving as Nick took over and swung at the ball.  The ball and bat connected, the vibration running up through her arms, as the ball headed straight back up the middle.  Kevin dove for the ground, and the ball whistled past him, bouncing over second base into the outfield, where the Martin children chased after it.

"Did you do that on purpose?"  Stacy hissed at Nick, before it dawned on her that it was highly unlikely Nick could send the ball exactly where he wanted it to go.

"Yeah, I did."  Nick admitted, his lips accidentally grazing her ear as he leaned back in for the next pitch.  At least, Stacy assumed it was accidental.

"You can do that?" 

"Uh-huh."  Nick pulled her hands back a little farther.  "Ready?"

"Yeah."  Stacy tried to concentrate harder this time, finding it harder and harder to do so the longer she stood there.  She found herself concentrating on Nick's hands, on the way his fingers wrapped around the base of the bat - over her hands.  Nick smelled like a faint combination of soap and his hair gel, which had a strange pina colada twist to it. 

Kevin stepped forward and tossed the ball towards the plate again, but as before, Nick was swinging at the ball before Stacy's reflexes had even kicked in.  Bat and ball connected with a smack yet again, Nick leaving Kevin alone this time, and sending the ball towards first base.  Stacy could learn to appreciate playing baseball.  There was something strangely enjoyable about smacking a little white ball around.  Then again, part of it might have been her teacher.  

~*~

Felicia stood quietly at second base, her arms folded across her chest.  Another lengthy time-out had been called, while Kevin and Scott argued over the lineup and whether Karen or  Brian was supposed to be hitting.  To hear Scott tell it, Brian had mysteriously managed to switch teams.  Felicia wouldn't be surprised in the slightest if he had.  Brian always seemed to be in two or three places at once. 

She turned her attention over to her husband of almost three years.  AJ was sitting in the dirt at third base, happily engaged in drawing in the dirt with Scott's little boy.  AJ was going to be a wonderful father, even if he didn't think so.  He hadn't come out and said exactly that, but she knew what he was thinking. 

The shouting match at home plate ended with Kevin kicking dust in Scott's direction, Scott putting Kevin in a headlock, and Karen threatening that if they didn't break it up, she was going to use her bat.  Becky clapped her hands in delight at this idea, and Brian ran over to quickly pin Karen's hands to her side, ducking her elbow as it aimed for his head. 

Karen never failed to entertain everyone.  She was the one who blurted out exactly what happened to be on her mind, without thinking about it; she was the one who managed to dump the entire contents of her purse over a three row span at the game, scattering hair fasteners, keys, and ibuprofen across the cement tiers; she was the one that screamed the loudest whenever anyone hit a home run.  Felicia admired her enthusiasm, although she couldn't imagine actually living with a person like that for more than a few hours at a time.  AJ was obnoxious, but he was quiet about it. 

Things were eventually sorted out, Scott retreated back to the sidelines, Kevin returned to the pitching rubber, shoving his hair back into place, and attempting to straighten his neck back out, while Karen stepped up to the plate, informing Kevin exactly which county she intended to hit his pitch to.  She didn't quite follow up on her threat, but still smacked a solid hit towards third, which AJ stared at distractedly, reaching up to one hand it absently, still sitting in the dirt with Robby.

Felicia had to laugh.  The indifferent way in which all major leaguers performed plays was always a source of amusement.  They completed the easy plays automatically, and made the difficult ones look simple.  Even today, all of them playing positions they didn't normally play, in an pathetic attempt to make the game fair, they made it look incredibly easy.

Stacy, batting by herself this time, sent a line drive flying past Felicia into right center field.  Scott's daughter chased after it, the only kid left in the outfield.  Either Kevin was the world's worst pitcher, or he was intentionally allowing everyone to get a hit off of him.

"Lissie!"  AJ said in shock, throwing his arms in the air.  "Where's your competitive spirit?"

"It went the way of my athletic ability."  Karen said dryly, sitting down on second base to tie her shoe.  "Let me know if you find either."  She stopped, staring down at Felicia's sandals.  "Can you run in those things?"

"Not really."  Felicia shrugged.  "But my competitive spirit doesn't mind." 

~*~

"Nice hit."  Nick greeted Stacy at first base as the ball shot past Felicia into the outfield, and AJ began squawking in protest. 

Stacy returned the little eyebrow raise he had given her.  "I had a good teacher."

"Damn straight."  Nick grinned, reaching over and tugging on a strand of Stacy's hair. 

Another argument broke out at home plate, as both Becky and Robby decided it was their turn to hit.  Parents started moving in before someone was injured.  Becky had her father's temper. 

"You know what?"  Nick moved in behind Stacy, pulling her back against his white t-shirt, his black glove hanging off his left hand.  " I think I was about nine years old the last time I had this much fun playing a baseball game."

Stacy twisted her neck around so she could see his face, surprised by the tone of his voice and the expression in his eyes, trying to remember if she had ever seen Nick look quite that happy before.