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Post by Grace Forjacks on Aug 22, 2009 15:44:49 GMT -6
Grace woke when her viewscreen trilled at her. She came out of sleep fast, sound asleep one moment and alert the next. Enan was sleeping beside her, one warm arm slung around her stomach. Grace really wanted to ignore everything and go back to sleep.
The viewscreen trilled again. With great reluctance, she slid out from under the arm and grabbed her sweats and undershirt. She walked over to the desk, sitting down in the plush chair. It asked her if she would accept this call. No name was attached to it. There were very few people who had this number, and to get one from a stranger was really remarkable. She hit 'accept'.
It flickered on, Grace squinted momentarily as the bright light blinded her. She blinked a few times, and got a good look at the screen as her eyes finally adjusted. She felt irritation as she recognized the all-too-familiar face.
"For fik's sake Charlie." She growled, "It's too early for this."
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Post by Charlie Ellis on Aug 22, 2009 15:47:26 GMT -6
He hadn't been sure she was going to answer the call until she did, Grace's beautiful face coming up on his screen. For a second, she couldn't see him, eyes squinted and Charlie took the moment to look at her and study her. Gosh she'd just gotten even prettier since the last time he'd seen her.
She growled at him, and Charlie felt his heart flutter. "Hi Gracie! You look good! Did you do something with your hair?"
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Post by Grace Forjacks on Aug 22, 2009 15:50:07 GMT -6
"Don't call me Gracie." She growled again. Why did it have to be Charlie? She was sure she'd blocked all of his usual numbers. Grace turned on the trace. All she needed was sixty seconds and she could kill this number too. Maybe that would have been hard with anybody else, who would have at least known to hang up at the 50 second mark.
Charlie was not most people. Charlie didn't even have the IQ of most people. What Charlie had instead of a brain was a broken hamster wheel and a few dead batteries in his head.
"What the fik do you want?"
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Post by Charlie Ellis on Aug 22, 2009 15:53:22 GMT -6
"Okay Gracie." He said, completely missing the way her eye twitched a little. "Look, I'm trying to find somebody and since you were just on Terra, you've probably seen her. I'm sending you the picture."
He tried, unsuccessfully, to send the picture. Computers were not Charlie's forte. They were things that seemed to always be laughing at him, no matter what he did. After a frustrating minute, he finally just pulling up the info on his DatPadd and showed it to her. "Do you know her?"
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Post by Grace Forjacks on Aug 22, 2009 15:58:23 GMT -6
Grace slouched back in her chair and watched Charlie fail to operate a computer designed for idiots. What a moron. She couldn't remember if he had always been this stupid, or if he'd just gotten worse as he got older. Sometimes Grace really wished she had a time machine. Then she could go back in time and smack her younger-version upside the head for ever giving him the time of day.
He finally shoved his crappy eInkr rip-off against the screen. She didn't recognize the face at all. It wasn't even one from the bounties, which Grace would at least be vaguely familiar with. This woman was a total stranger. "Charlie, am I actually supposed to know her? Is she even a criminal?"
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Post by Charlie Ellis on Aug 22, 2009 16:01:33 GMT -6
Charlie nodded, "Yeah! She's a murderer! I think." He checked the info he'd been given before. No actual murder conviction. Whoops, "Okay, maybe not. But she was seen at the scene of a murder! That's almost the same thing!"
He could see Grace reaching for the disconnect button. Crap crap crap! "Woah woah woah wait! Woah! Come on Gracie!" He begged, "I've been asking everybody. I really need this! I owe this guy a favour and he said that if I can find her, then we're clean and I don't owe him anything anymore!"
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Post by Grace Forjacks on Aug 22, 2009 16:06:21 GMT -6
Grace kept her finger hovering over the disconnect. She had the trace. All she needed to do was hit end and it would be goodbye until Charlie found another number to spoof. But... she'd always had a weird blindspot when it came to Charlie. She didn't love him, and she knew he was a piece of scitte, but he always came across as somebody who was too dumb to be really evil. And it didn't feel good hurting someone that dumb. It was like kicking a puppy.
She took a second look. "Charlie, I still don't know who she is. And that says the murder happened years ago. Why does it matter to your guy if we find her? Tell him she's probably gotten herself killed, or she's stuck whoring. That's good as dead."
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Post by Charlie Ellis on Aug 22, 2009 16:09:22 GMT -6
She didn't hang up. That meant he had her. Charlie felt relieved, but he tried not to let it show. He gave sending the info another shot, and this time he managed to do it. "Can you just show it around for me? My guy doesn't want her dead, he just wants to know she's okay."
At least, that's what Charlie was assuming. Why else would he have asked Charlie to track her down alive? If he wanted her dead, there were like a million and one assassins to take her out. "But you've got to keep it quiet. He doesn't want other people knowing he's looking for her."
Charlie grinned at her, leaning on one elbow, "I totally owe you Gracie. And I can pay it back any way you want. Any way." He waggled his eyebrows, just in case she missed his meaning.
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Post by Enan Breese on Aug 22, 2009 19:44:13 GMT -6
Enan stirred a bit as Grace got up. He didn't think much of it and rolled back over. It wasn't until he heard another voice that he slowly opened his eyes in a slight confusion. He slowly sat up and scratched his head a bit, just listening. Grace seemed annoyed with the caller but he seemed sort of desperate in his opinion.
Hearing the callers response, Ohh, Any way? Enan couldn't help but snicker a bit to himself. He was tempted to go and see who this caller was, but wasn't sure if he should.
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Post by Grace Forjacks on Aug 22, 2009 20:32:39 GMT -6
Grace responded to Charlie's crude attempt at innuendo with a much more straight-forward sign, flipping him the bird. "Charlie, I'll crash my ship into the sun before I let you get near my nethers ever again." And she was quite serious about that one. The sun wasn't even that far to reach if need-be.
She heard Enan stir a little, glancing over her shoulder. The man was playing quiet. Probably a good idea. Most of the men she slept with didn't get to hear about her sordid past so soon, or ever if she could help it. "If I see her, I'll pass it on. Until then, stop calling."
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Post by Charlie Ellis on Aug 22, 2009 20:37:13 GMT -6
"Geeze Gracie, you don't got to be so negative." He sulked a little. How could Charlie help it? The torch he carried for her hadn't extinguished, no matter how much Grace had rained all over his parade. One day she'd see that he was the guy for her. Charlie just had to wait it out until all the other guys went away.
And speaking of other guys... Charlie glanced over Grace's shoulder, frowning. "Is there a guy back there? Did you really answer my call when you've got a guy in your room?" He tried to get a better look, but Grace moved, blocking his view, "Gracie! Aw come on! How could you!"
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Post by Grace Forjacks on Aug 22, 2009 20:41:23 GMT -6
Oh great. She hadn't moved fast enough to keep him from noticing. Cue the Charlie whine. Why couldn't he find some other girl? It wasn't like he was ugly, and plenty of women enjoyed the dumb thing. And if not, there were plenty of whores on every planet. It wouldn't break Charlie's bank to use one from time to time.
"How could I what? We're not in a relationship." She pointed out, "We're not even friends. I'm doing you a favour so you'll owe me one, not because I like you or even respect you. If I have someone back here, it's my business."
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Post by Charlie Ellis on Aug 23, 2009 20:05:31 GMT -6
Charlie gave Grace his best sad-face and puppy-dog eyes. He knew she really didn't mean it. It was just that she thought she had to play hard-to-get.
Or maybe it was something else. "Are you PMSing? Because my sister says if you eat chocolate, you'll-" The screen went black almost immediately. She'd hung up on him. "... feel better." He finished, since it seemed kinda incomplete.
Charlie slumped in his seat. And then he made a note to buy Grace some chocolate next time he saw her. Boy did she need it.
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Post by Grace Forjacks on Aug 23, 2009 20:09:24 GMT -6
Grace couldn't have stabbed the disconnect button any quicker if she'd tried. She should have known from that dumb blossom of comprehension on Charlie's face, leading him to exactly the wrong damn conclusion. As if she could only be short tempered because her hormones were batty instead of short tempered because Charlie was only mildly more intelligent than a bag of wet noodles.
"Dumb son of a bitch." She muttered, blocking his latest spoofed number. With that, she checked to make sure the ship was still on course (it was), and then headed back to the bed, flopping on top of the covers.
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Post by Enan Breese on Aug 23, 2009 20:28:41 GMT -6
She must have hung up on him, don't blame her one bit. Enan laid back down and put his hands behind his head. He watched and waited till Grace had flopped onto the bed before he turned to her, still half asleep.
"What was that?" he asked quietly. It was definitely clear from the sound of her voice that Grace was not to fond of the man on the other end of the call. "Guy didn't seem to bright..." he yawned. He seemed like the type of person that would be an easy target for someone like Caden to pelt in the face with something.
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