In Between Dreams (17 page)

Bailey waited for Sam to call her over. The woman was clearly overwhelmed. Katherine finally spoke up: “Maybe we should wait in the other room. We’re making her uncomfortable.”

“You speak French?” Halene asked her as they started to file into the living room.

Katherine scoffed. “Hardly. I just can tell. I’m very perceptive, you know?” She smiled at Daniel flirtatiously, and Daniel winked back at her as he made his way to the liquor cabinet. Bailey looked back and forth between the two. Was Daniel flirting with Katherine? The thought made her sick to her stomach. She watched Daniel pour a glass of scotch and turn to smile at Katherine.

“You’re already starting with the drinking?” Bailey groaned. “Can you not?”

“I think better with a little grog in me,” Daniel quipped, and took a long gulp of his drink. “What about you, Kat? Want a little something?”

Katherine clearly did not approve of this nickname, as her face furrowed in response to the question. She did, however, appear to like the idea of a drink. Her heels clicked against the hardwood as she made her way to Daniel. She grabbed his glass from him and poured the entirety of the glass down her throat. She winced a little after swallowing and gave the empty glass back to Daniel. “Never call me that again,” she said, and patted his shoulder roughly, like it was a warning.

Daniel was looking at Katherine like he was a hungry lion, and she was fresh meat. She turned around in the room and looked between Halene and Bailey, who were now sitting on the couch. “I am Katherine. Not Kat. Not Katie. Not K, Kittie, or K-Money. I am Katherine. You all seem very fond of nicknames,” Katherine snickered before beginning to list them out while counting them on her fingers. “Let’s see here. We have: B. Danny. Sammy. Dan.” Daniel scoffed at that one. “Bales.” Bailey pouted. “Hales. Haley. And my personal favorite: Sammy Froufrou.”

“You missed one.” Daniel chuckled and took a sip from his fresh glass of scotch.

Katherine turned to him. “Let me guess? I missed ‘Kat.’” Daniel and Katherine had a staredown. Daniel broke the eye contact first with a loud guttural laugh. “Right?”

Daniel’s eyes narrowed at Katherine as he walked toward the couch and handed Bailey his drink. “You’re good,” he said while he took off his jacket. “You got us all figured out.”

“You bet your ass I do.” Katherine nodded.

Daniel flung his jacket over the couch and took back his drink from Bailey before walking back over to Katherine. They were circling each other like they might pounce at any moment. Both of them had the corner of their lips curled up, like they each had a secret they couldn’t wait to share. “Tell me, who am I?” Daniel asked before taking another sip of his scotch. “You think I’m the drunken jackass who only says douche-bag things to get a rise out of people. Right?”

Katherine shook her head. “No, but
you
clearly do. You’re the guy who cares a lot more than he’d like. You probably have an older brother or father or maybe even an uncle who treated you like shit for your entire life, and you wanted to believe they cared. They didn’t though. You would ask them to come to your soccer games, but they never did. You were surrounded by assholes when you were a kid. You don’t know how to be a man without being an asshole.” She tilted her head and shrugged. “Am I right?”

Daniel was ruffled, but he didn’t say anything. She continued: “You drink to mask the feelings, the overwhelming feelings of caring that get in your way. You give a shit and you don’t want to. You’re crass, because you like to think of yourself as someone who says whatever he’s thinking. You like to think that you don’t care what other people think about you. But you dress very well, so you apparently care. At least a little bit.” She looked at Bailey and Halene for approval of her verbal beatdown, before looking back at Daniel and giving him her award-winning ear-to-ear smile. “Should I keep going?”

Daniel shook his head. “I think we’ve all heard enough from you.” His eyes were in slits as he glared at Katherine. When he broke the gaze, he looked at Bailey. Her eyes were wide with wonder. She had known him for ten years, and none of that had ever occurred to her. Katherine broke down his walls within minutes. Bailey slightly tilted her head and gave him an inquisitive look.

Their eye contact broke when the swinging door swung open again, and Sam entered with the woman of the house. She was no longer crying, and she waved at the room. Bailey stood, and she motioned for her to sit down.

“This is Babette,” Sam told them warmly. Sam addressed Babette, clearly introducing the group.

She was calmed down enough to discuss her situation.

“All right.” Sam smiled at Halene and Bailey. “She’s ready to tell us what happened and why she needs our help.”

Daniel pulled over a chair and sat on one side of Babette, and Bailey sat on the couch with her. Katherine stood near the windows across the room, and Halene sat on the other side of the sectional. Sam sat on his knees opposite Babette so he could hear everything that was said.

Daniel broke the ice. “Hope you don’t mind, I took a little something from your liquor cabinet.” Daniel lifted up his glass at her. Babette nodded her head to confirm that it was okay after Sam translated.

Babette begin to explain her situation through Sam’s words. She told them that her son hadn’t come home from the university last night, and he had officially been missing for eighteen hours. She explained that this wasn’t like Henry. “Henry is never late, and on the off chance that he is, he will call. He always calls,” she had said. Babette explained that the police wouldn’t do anything, because he wasn’t a minor and he hadn’t been missing for long. They had taken a report but couldn’t promise any involvement without additional evidence. Babette also said that “a mother knows when her son is in trouble.”

Bailey felt a maternal-like concern. She held Babette’s hand as she recounted the first hour she realized her son was really missing, and Bailey could feel everything Babette was feeling. “Does Henry have any suspicious friends that we should know about? Does he have a girlfriend?” Bailey offered.

“We’ll need to talk to
all
of his friends, not just the suspicious ones,” Katherine offered and glanced at Bailey. “We’ll need you to make a list.”

“Put the closest friends at the top,” Bailey interjected. She felt the intense need to show her place in the group. To prove her worth.

Katherine shook her head. “No, put the most suspicious members at the top.”

Sam and Bailey exchanged a look. Sam’s eyes told her to relax, and she quickly nodded. “She said she will give us a list and some numbers,” Sam said.

Halene stared at the floor. “Sammy?” Halene’s tone was urgent.

“What’s up, Haley?”

“Can we discuss this in the other room?”

Bailey looked at Daniel, who mirrored her expression of concern. Katherine cleared her throat. “Halene,” she interrupted them from walking into the kitchen. “I know you’re thinking that we aren’t qualified to do this,” Katherine said, her voice understanding. “We can. I swear. We’re not the cops—that is what you’re thinking, isn’t it?” Halene nodded slowly. “The cops won’t help either way. Babette needs us. We can do this.” Her motivation vibrated throughout the walls.

The room’s aura changed with her words, and Katherine looked at Halene. “Think. What do we need to do?”

Halene grabbed a pen and paper out of her satchel and handed it to Babette. “Work on your list. Daniel and Bailey will stay with you, and Sam, Katherine, and I are going to the university to talk to Henry’s professors. What’s his schedule?”

Sam translated Halene’s words and listened to Babette answer. Bailey felt overwhelmed. She didn’t know why Katherine was there or why she felt upstaged. Why was Katherine the one who was able to calm Halene down? That was quite literally her role in the group.

Bailey’s thoughts were interrupted with Sam translating to the group that the schedule was hanging on the fridge and that Babette had offered them her car. “We’ll take a cab,” Katherine said, and looked at Daniel proudly. She was almost triumphant. She was holding her ground with him and showing the group that she was worth her keep. Sam spoke a few words to Babette and then looked at Bailey.

“I told her that you two will keep her company, but you don’t speak French. She said she would turn on the English subtitles on the television for you,” he promised. “Call Halene when you’ve gotten the list,” he told Daniel before rushing out the door behind the other girls.

Babette squeezed Bailey’s hand and then took her paper and pen to the dining-room table and began writing. Bailey suddenly felt awkward being left in a room alone with Daniel and a woman who didn’t speak English.

Daniel was still gazing at the door. “What a woman,” he remarked, clearly referring to Katherine. “She just put it all out there.”

Bailey ignored his sudden outburst. “I get that someone has to be here,” Bailey started, and Daniel cut her off.

“But why is it the two of us?” Daniel asked as he poured himself another glass. Bailey made a mental note that he was on his third, and she needed to cut him off after this. “Isn’t it obvious? They need a translator with them more than we need one with us, and you’re the comfort. You’ve got to stay with the crazy one,” he said, and motioned toward Babette. Bailey narrowed her eyes at him.

“Then what about you?” Bailey asked in response to the current directive.

“Hales doesn’t want to deal with my drunk ass,” Daniel said matter-of-factly. “Everyone knows I work fine with a glass of scotch in me.”

“One,” Bailey shot back. “What about three?”

“That’s nothing,” Daniel noted casually as he walked over to her. He sat down next to Bailey and put his arm around her shoulder. “Come on. We’re in Paris. Stop being such a prude.”

“Prude?” Bailey’s question was more rhetorical than a query.

“It’s just scotch.” Daniel was clearly in denial about the amount he drank both before during and after a drinking bout. Bailey wondered whether Daniel was becoming a liability.

Bailey looked at Daniel squarely in the eyes and shook her head. “No. It’s not just scotch. It’s not just a little. You give excuses battered in ‘just a little’ and ‘it’s only scotch’ or vodka or tequila or whatever your drink of choice is. I hate to say it, but Katherine nailed it on the head, Daniel. You drink so you can keep on this facade. So you can walk and talk and act like a real asshole. You’re too afraid to show people who you really are.”

“And who is that?” Daniel was building his defense to get the focus to turn away from the issue. He was a master at reflection. Maybe one of his nicknames could be Teflon.

“You’re just a scared little boy,” Bailey said as if she’d always known it but was too afraid to say it. “You think if you’re sober that we’ll expect you to take care of us. You’re the oldest—you should have your head on straight, right? But no—you’re a mess like always, and we end up letting you ‘sleep it off’ or make sure you get food in your belly or we cut you
off. No more.” Bailey stood up to avoid his touch. “You’re a grown-ass man. Act like it.”

Bailey thought for a moment and looked back at Daniel. “I don’t think that Rodney would have wanted this. He would have wanted you to take care of us.”

Daniel didn’t say anything, but the expression on his face showed how hurt he really was. Mentioning Rodney struck a nerve with Daniel that Bailey could not fix. Bailey was torn on whether to attempt to take it back or leave it as it was.

Bailey stomped over to Babette, and she thought as hard as she could for the word for bathroom. “Um, uh,
baños
.” Daniel stifled his laugh. “Bathroom.” Babette stared at Bailey blankly. “Toliet. Uh, loo. Um…”

“Oui. Les toilettes?”
Babette nodded.

Bailey nodded furiously. Babette stood and waved her over to follow her. Babette led Bailey down the hallway and pointed her to a small washroom.

Bailey nodded at her.
“Merci,”
she said softly, and made her way into the small room and closed the door. The walls were a light pink, and there were candles all over the room. Bailey looked at her face in the mirror. She noticed that she had a little meat on her bones. She wasn’t as skinny and sickly as she looked in Seattle.

Bailey didn’t know what had gotten into her. Why was she yelling at Daniel? Was it because of Katherine? Her presence had thrown Bailey’s emotions out of whack. She put her head in her hands and took a deep breath.

“Fuck it,” Bailey said to herself. She made her way out of the bathroom after a couple of minutes and headed straight for the liquor cabinet.

“What the—” Daniel walked toward her swiftly. He put his hand on her arm to stop her from pouring a glass. “What are you doing?”

“I’m taking notes from the Daniel School of Sloppy Etiquette,” Bailey deadpanned. She never drank on a mission. She very rarely drank in her day to day life, but she was very good about not drinking on missions.

Daniel’s eyes softened, and he grabbed her arm tighter and pulled her from where she stood. He positioned himself between Bailey and the
liquor cabinet. “Just because you think I’ve given up on myself doesn’t mean you should follow me to hell,” he whispered seriously. “You don’t have to prove anything to anyone, love. Especially me.” He pushed a stray hair away from her face. She swallowed hard and remembered her new stance. She pushed passed him, back to the liquor cabinet.

“Exactly,” Bailey nodded. “I’m not giving up; I’m just not going to sit here while you’re drunk and be boring Bailey.”

“For the record,” Daniel murmured. “I don’t find you boring.”

Bailey gulped but kept her attention on pouring her glass.

“Who are you going to be?” Daniel resigned with his eye brow arched.

“Fun Bailey. She exists, you know?” Bailey told him. She was done trying to be professional. No one needed her to be the comfort right now; she wasn’t going to sit idly by and watch Daniel drink alone. She was going to join him.

Daniel set his glass in front of her. “Another round for me?”

Bailey looked at his glass and poured him another and pulled one more glass from the cupboard. “Two drinks?”