Rum and Coke

Brian woke up the next morning feeling happy and very much alive. Grinning, he stretched out in his bunk before swinging his legs out of the tight space and pulling on a pair of pants. He could tell that were stopped because of the sight out of the window.

“A-hem,” a voice said from behind him. He looked over to see that Val was standing in between the bathroom and the bunk room. Her arms were crossed and she was looking at him expectantly. “I believe you owe me breakfast, considering that I saved your marriage last night.”

Brian nodded his head and walked toward her. “Ok, what were the terms?”

“You’ll just have to find that out yourself when you call her.”

Brian groaned. “Fine. What do you want for breakfast?”

She shrugged. “I’ll know when we sit down. We’re parked by a little B & B. I was just about to wake you guys up. The kids are already in the building.”

Brian nodded and smiled at her. “That’s fine,” he said before wrapping his arms around her. “Thanks, Val…for everything.”

She smiled and hugged him back. “Hey, what are sister-in-laws for? I just hope you know what you’re doing.”

“So do I.” He said, kissing her forehead. “I’ m going to go inside while you wake the others up.”

“Gee, thanks,” she said sarcastically while rolling her eyes.

“Hey, what are brother-in-laws for?” he replied, using her words against her as he ducked out of the bus.

Brian was greeted with the site of Ellie in a walking cast and resting her weight on a crutch. “Das ist nicht, was ich sagte (that is not what I said),” she yelled into the phone that was attached to her ear. She pounded the crutch to emphasize her point. “Ich sagte, dass wir die Abgabe bei einer Pressekonferenz am Jahresende darstellen können, oder ich kann sie Ende dieser Woche senden und die Presse nicht erhalten mit einbezogen. (I said that we can present the donation at a press conference at the end of the year, or I can send it by the end of this week and not get the press involved).” She said in a softer tone.

“Ellie?” he asked quietly, causing Ellie to turn her head and look at him questionably.

“Halten Sie bitte für eine Sekunde (Hold for a second, please).” She looked over at Brian. “Yes? Can I help you?”

“I was just wondering what you were doing.”

She pointed to her phone. “Phone conference.”

“Can we talk…you know…afterwards?”

Ellie looked at him quizzically. "Sure. That’s fine,” she replied before turning her attention back to her phone. “Danke. Jetzt zurück zu, was wir sagten. Die Pressekonferenz muss am Ende des Jahrkometen im Dezember einmal kommen. Ist dieses O.K.? (Thank you. Now, back to what we were saying. The press conference has to come at the end of the year- come sometime in December. Is this okay?” She breathed out a sigh of relief as they answered her. “Danke. Es war ein Vergnügen, das Geschäft mit Ihnen tätigt. Haben Sie einen guten Abend. Tschüss (It was a pleasure doing business with you. Have a good evening. Bye),” she hung up. “Arschloch,” she muttered as she glared at the phone. “Yea, I disrespect you that much.”

“So, can we talk? It’ll only be a moment.” Brian asked.

“What do you want to know?”

“First, what the hell was that?”

Ellie shrugged. “Mom made me in charge of handling the donations and Adam found the perfect charity, however, it’s in Germany…and my German is a little rusty. It also doesn’t help that I was supposed to call them months ago.”

Brian furrowed his brow as the others came out of his bus.“Why did your mother put you in charge of that?”

“Have you not met my mother?” she countered with a smile. “Anything else, hot shot, or am I allowed to get my food now?” She asked, smiling at the guys that passed her.

Brian rolled his eyes. “What you said and did yesterday-”

“Yea, what about it?”

“I’m confused. How did Danni not know-”

Ellie took a deep breath. “She didn’t have any signs until she was six months pregnant. By then, it was too late and the damage was already done. I don’t feel any pain at all. You can torture me all you want, and it’ll just feel like a dull ache to me. Like I said last night, I don’t feel a thing.”

“Oh, that’s good, I guess-”

“No, it’s horrible. I can break a rib and puncture a lung and never know that something was wrong until I either collapse or drop dead,” she told him haughtily before limping into the B&B.

“I’m not waiting for Gates to get here,” Matt growled as he snapped his phone shut and Ellie scooted into the booth.

“What’s wrong?” Mark asked, sandwiched in between Ellie and Bailey.

“That last interviewer was a government spy.”

Ellie looked over at Ryan. “Pay up, douche,” she smirked, holding her hand out.

“Do you guys not realize the severity of this? They can take everything away from you. They can lock you up for decades and take away your freedom. They can torture you and throw you out on the frontlines!” Johnny said heatedly, banging his fist on the table of emphasis.
“It’s nothing worse than what they’re doing now,” Ellie replied calmly. “You guys knew what kind of shit you were going to get into when you signed us. All that matters now is that we know that they’re finally paying attention to us,” she added with a smirk. “Now, who’s up for breakfast? I’m starving.”