It was late that same night, and once again I was at the desk in my office. But this time, I was sitting at my desk, chewing on my lip, (not my glasses) and watching the clock nervously. My hands were occupied with a squishy ball that I squeezed when I was nervous or stressed out. All of the lights were off in the building, except for my office light. It was almost eleven at night, and I was waiting for Taylor. Since Taylor's officer, or the lady who looks over him and his activities, would not allow him to go see Scarlet's grave, I was sneaking him out. We were meeting in my office at eleven, which was in two or three minutes, going out to my car, and driving to the grave. His ability to pick locks was what would get us in the cemetery.
It was all very morbid to me. And incredibly spooky. I mean, we were going to be walking around on dead people in the middle of the night… almost. Still, when you are a fairly small woman, it's scary. Taylor wasn't exactly a he-man, either. Even though I knew Shawn would object to my outing with Taylor, I hadn't told him and I was sure I would be attached to Taylor the entire evening/morning.
"Corrine?" a husky voice whispered.
I turned my head sharply and I jumped up and fled to Taylor. "Let's go."
On impulse, I grabbed his hand and began leading him to the door after I had turned off my light. It wasn't until we were almost to the door that I realized my hand was in his. I dropped his hand quickly and opened the door. A big, pale, old face appeared when I opened the door. I screamed and jumped back.
"Dr. Becker?" an old jolly voice questioned. "Oh Lou! It's just you. Oh my God!" I laughed, with a hand to my heart. It had just been the night janitor.
He laughed heartily. "In late again?"
"Yup," I smiled.
"Now who's this?" Lou asked, nodding at Taylor.
"Oh!" I exclaimed suddenly remembering him. I couldn't tell Lou he was my patient because then he would tell one of my superiors and I would be in head deep.
"Is this the fiancé I keep hearing about?" Lou winked.
I looked at Taylor with wide eyes.
"Yes, yes I am. Nice to meet you," Taylor smiled holding out his hand.
Lou grasped Taylor's hand and they shook hands. "You too, son. You got quite the woman, you know. Lovely lady," Lou grinned, and winked again at me.
What was I doing during all of this? Staring, shocked, at the man who was now attached to me, also known as Taylor, who was grasping my arm and hand the same way Shawn did. I shuddered and looked back at Lou.
"Well I don't want to keep you from your work. I'll see you tomorrow!"
We squeezed by Lou, who waved us a big goodbye and good luck at our "coming marriage". As soon as we were out of Lou's view I shrugged Taylor off of me. He looked at me smugly.
"Why did you do that?" I hissed.
"What? I thought it was a nice save."
"No, it really wasn't, seeing as though my real fiancé is laying in bed at home! You should just be grateful Taylor. You should just be grateful."
"I am!" he surrendered, holding his hands up as we approached my car.
I clicked the button on my key ring and it unlocked.
"Still have the truck, eh?" Taylor laughed.
"Actually I have a brand new BMW sitting in my garage at home. But I love my jeep," I sighed as I got in the car.
"Wish I could say the same," Taylor laughed.
I looked at Taylor, looking him over. "You aren't really the jeep type, you know."
"I know. More the convertible, wind-blowing-in-hair, racing with hot chicks type."
I groaned as I began backing out. "You still say hot chicks? Damn, I thought you would have out-grown that by now."
"Nope," Taylor grinned proudly. "Can't say I have."
I pulled two heavy-duty flashlights out from behind me. I handed one to Taylor. "One for you, one for me. Do you have a cell phone?"
"No," Taylor grumbled. "I had two, but Charlotte took them away."
Charlotte was Taylor's officer. The males who had last names beginning with E through K had Charlotte for their officer and Carmen for their chaperone. On a bored day, Dawn and I had gone onto this website for baby names, and looked up all of the people who worked at the clinic. The ironic thing about Charlotte, is that the name "Charlotte" means little and womanly. Charlotte is anything but womanly. She's extremely large with a deep, deep voice, and she acts manly. She dresses manly. There is no womanly daintiness in Charlotte.
"Oh. Okay. Well since you have pockets, can you hold mine?"
Taylor looked me over. "You have no pockets?"
"No. Well my jacket does, but everything falls out of them. And I am not taking my purse."
Taylor laughed. "Okay."
"So it's the cemetery by…"
"The art museum."
"Gotcha," I winked.
We were silent for a while after that. I was sure Taylor was in his own lost thoughts as I was in mine. Basically I was thinking about Taylor and Scarlet, and Shawn, of course. Our wedding was coming up fast, three weeks from tomorrow. I shuddered. Of course I was excited, but nervous, too. I loved Shawn and I loved just the thought of spending my life with him. But still… wasn't I allowed butterflies?
"Is this it?" I asked Taylor quietly as we neared a cemetery.
Taylor looked up from his nails. "Yeah."
I pulled into the empty parking lot and parked. Taylor and I got out and I immediately clutched him when we met in front of the car. He glanced down at me and chuckled. We proceeded to the locked gate where Taylor took the bobby pin out of his pocket and jammed it into the lock. He fiddled with it for a few seconds and then the cast-iron gate slowly creaked open. Taylor and I looked at each other nervously.
As we walked into the cemetery, I noticed Taylor began clutching me too. "Hypocrite," I muttered. Taylor laughed quietly as we wandered down the cement path. Headstones of all different shapes and sizes popped out at us.
"Taylor?" I whispered.
"Yeah?"
"Do you know where her grave is?" I looked around myself suspiciously.
"Sort of. Ike went looking for it earlier today when I called him, and he told me it was around a baby redwood."
I frowned. "Do you know what a baby redwood looks like?"
"Yeah. We did a documentary on them. Remember?"
"Oh yeah. What is a redwood doing in an LA cemetery?"
Taylor shrugged and we kept walking. The cemetery was extremely large, almost an acre I guessed. The bushes around us began shaking and Taylor and I stopped. My eyes grew in size and I clutched Taylor harder.
"Taylor…" I whimpered.
"Shh shh," he quieted me, rubbing my back.
I watched the bush with an eagle eye. Suddenly a chipmunk crawled out of the bush. "How cute!" I squealed.
Taylor rolled his eyes and pulled me to keep walking with him. We searched for the baby redwood, and finally, after about five minutes, found it. Taylor and I ran for it, dodging headstones and apologizing to the ground that covered bodies. (Well, I apologized. Taylor laughed at me.)
The grave was a big marble block with an angel sitting on top, looking wearily past me. I kneeled down next to Taylor and read the carving.
"Topanga Ashton Hanson. Almost a partner. March 2007."
I looked at Taylor, tears in my eyes. He was sitting in front of the angel on the grass, Indian style. Tears were streaming noiselessly down his face as he stared sadly at the carvings. My own tears began falling as I saw the broken man before me. I got up from my perched position and began walking away from the scene to give Taylor some time alone with his dead daughter.
"Cory?" I heard a feeble voice whisper. I turned around to see Taylor looking up at me with sadness in his eyes, tears still falling. I ran back to him and fell down next to him, grabbing him in a hard hug.
"Oh, Taylor," I cried with him. We rocked back and forth as I stroked his hair. After about ten minutes we stopped moving, we just held each other and read the carvings on the grave, over and over.
Finally, another ten minutes later, Taylor wiped his eyes and pulled away. He got up and walked away from me to lean against the side of the tree that was facing away from me. I sat still, brushing my stray tears off of my blushing cheeks. A wind blew through my hair and I wrapped my arms around my knees. I looked over at Taylor again. He was still hunched over at the tree, hands in pockets. My eyes trailed back down to my feet.
We stayed that way for possibly a half and hour, both lost in our own troubled thoughts. Finally I decided it was time to go and I stood up, only to find that I was completely and utterly alone.
"Taylor?" I called. I began panicking, looking around me. "Taylor!" I started walking around, my head sharply turning every which way. "Oh my God," I whimpered. I was alone in a cemetery at night. "Taylor!" I whined.
"Cory, I'm right here," Taylor sniffed.
I looked around for the source of the voice. "Where?"
At last I spotted an arm waving from behind a headstone near the tree. I frowned. "Taylor, what are you doing?" I walked around to where he was and read the carvings. It was Scarlet's grave. "Oh. Um, do you want to stay here for a while longer? We can if you want…"
Taylor began standing up and took my hand when I offered it to pull him up. When he was vertical again I clutched his arm. He looked down at me snidely. "Nah, it's fine. We can go now."
We began our trek along the cement path back to the car. I lit up my watch and looked at it. It was well past one thirty. I sighed. This was going to be a hard one to explain to Shawn. I had pondered telling him what I was doing. But neither of us needed a fight nor more stress with the combination of the coming wedding and our jobs. So I had decided to simply tell him I had been working on a case write-up and had fallen asleep at my desk.
When we were about halfway to the gate, Taylor began speaking. "Listen, Cory. I really appreciate you doing this. I realize you could lose your job. There just are not any words to describe…"
"You're wel-" I paused as the bushes began wrestling. I looked up at Taylor wearily. He tugged me to keep going. "You're wel-" I tried again, but the bushes kept on moving and it was scaring me. "Um…" I mumbled, staring at the bushes. Suddenly a pale, decrepit, old man popped out of the bushes. Taylor and I both screamed.
"Run!" Taylor yelled.
Our hands still latched, we ran for the gate. I, once again, began crying in terror and surprise. When we got to the cast-iron gate, we looked back. The man was simply that- an old man-, who was walking with a cane down the path muttering, "Stupid kids". Taylor and I looked at each other, blinking, and burst out laughing. He pushed the gate open and latched it once we were on the other side. I glanced at him as we were making our way to my car. The way Taylor held himself now was very different from when we had gone into the cemetery. His back didn't hunch, his face wasn't fallen; he was just… brighter. He was Taylor.
Taylor and I stood at the door to the rehab center once again. I opened it and we stepped inside. It was completely dark and deserted, as it should be at almost two AM. I walked him to the door leading to the dorms and we looked up at each other.
"Hug?" Taylor murmured.
I smiled softly and wrapped my arms around his neck. It felt like old times. But it felt brand new, too. We had both grown a little; I had fully developed curves and Taylor had a lot more muscle.
When we pulled away, Taylor looked me in the eyes deeply and I knew what he was thinking, so I stepped away before he could kiss me. I would not cheat on Shawn no matter what. Even if Billy Joel, (cough, cough), was offering to kiss me, I would not oblige. For the time being, Shawn was my one and only.