Into Africa

By

UCSBdad

Disclaimer: I own no Castles. Or Becketts. Rating: K+ for language. Time: The present day, but in an alternate universe.

Two months later.

Rick Rodgers limped out of the deli with his lunch in one hand and his cane in the other. He hated the cane, but any exertion would make his legs hurt like hell. He tolerated the cane.

Then, a low, sexy voice called out. "Hey, soldier boy. Looking for a good time?"

He whirled around and almost lost his balance. "Kate?" He knew she was gorgeous, but he hadn't seen her like this before. Her stiletto heels accented her long, lithe legs. He blue skirt was short, coming to about six inches above the knee and her blouse showed a generous amount of cleavage. Her hair was longer now, falling in curls around her face. She wore little makeup, just enough to accentuate her natural beauty.

"Who else?" She said with a smile.

He took a step towards her, but she ran to him and ran her lips softly over his. "I'll give you a better kiss when I know what parts of you aren't wounded."

"Just my legs. I was halfway into the bunker when I got hit."

"Then here's your better kiss." She put her arms around his neck, and gave him a scorching kiss, molding her body to his.

When they broke the kiss, he smiled down at her. "Sorry I only managed one email to you."

She shook her head and smiled back. "You were wounded. You're okay except for the legs, right?" She asked, suddenly concerned.

"My Doctor keeps a very close eye on me. Don't worry."

"I hope your doctor isn't a woman. I'm the only woman I want keeping an eye on you. On all of you." She said suggestively.

"It's Ron Fields. You should see him. He goes to the gym and he's out on the firing range any time he can get away. I keep having to remind him not to believe the hype about him being the next Rambo. Dr. Rambo, that is. He may end up working with the Special Forces some day."

Kate ran her hand over the gold oak leaves on his lapels. "Major Rodgers. Congratulations."

"They told me I'd been promoted while I was still sedated. I had to ask three times after that to make sure I wasn't hallucinating."

"And you're stationed here at Fort Bragg?"

"I'm still assigned to the hospital, but when they release me, I'm going to the JFK Special Warfare Center and learn to shuffle paper. I'm afraid my days as a SFOD A commander are over. They don't give teams to majors."

"I can't say I'm unhappy about that." She stopped for a moment. "What happened to your team and the Rangers after you left?"

"They were replaced by a battalion from Chad. Chad's been fighting since forever. Good soldiers, I hear. The listening post is still there. Maybe someday someone can come back and complete the dig."

"I knew the Rangers you had there were back. If you remember Chris Sullivan…"

"The blonde who was with Billy Hebert?"

"They're conducting a long range courtship now that he's in Georgia and she's back in New York. I wonder if he'll become an archeologist or she'll become a soldier."

"So what brings you to Fort Bragg?"

"Who do you think brings me here?"

He pretended to think. "Me?" He said at last.

"Absolutely."

"How long can you stay?"

"A very long time. You're looking at the new head of the archeology department at Wake Forest University."

"You left Duquesne? Why?" He was afraid that if it was because of him, she might resent him for it someday.

She shrugged. "As long as I was at Duquesne, I'd always be Jim and Johanna Beckett's little girl. When I got back there were a lot of nasty rumors that I'd gotten in over my head in Africa and that I'd only been sent because my parents were the dean of students and dean of the college of liberal arts. At Wake Forest, I'll have to stand on my own two feet."

"And lovely feet they are, but I hope you know that there are very few Roman ruins in North Carolina. The next one they find will make an even one."

She laughed. "Did you know that the interior of North Carolina was largely settled by Gaelic speaking Scots Highlanders? And most of them remained loyal to the English during the American Revolution?"

"I missed that in school. That's going to be your specialty now?"

"Not exactly. Most Americans aren't interested in their Loyalist ancestors. But, during the Revolution, African-American slaves who escaped from Patriot slave owners were freed by the British. There was a mostly African-American town on the seacoast that provided crews for British privateers. When the Revolution ended, most ended up in Canada and a few elsewhere, mostly the Bahamas. There's a lot of interest in the African-American community about their ancestors and I have a grant to do a dig there. And I have a lot of enthusiastic supporters for the dig, one or two in Congress."

"Just how far away is this town?"

"Nothing that a healthy Army officer couldn't drive in an hour or two."

"I'll have to try that, just to make sure you're right."

"I understand you have another Joe Flood book coming out in a week or so? Flood's River?"

"Yup. Joe Flood in the Big Easy."

"Any way I could get some spoilers?" She batted her eyelashes very coquettishly.

"As it happens, I have a few advanced copies at my quarters. If you'd care to come along, I could let you have one."

"At your quarters? Is this some plot of yours to get me alone and take advantage of me?"

"Absolutely."

"Then let's go."

"And I've already started the next book, Flood's Dig. You can read what I've written so far."

"Flood's Dig? Is it about archeology?"

"Of course. Joe Flood meets a beautiful and brainy archeologist when he goes on a dangerous dig as her bodyguard."

"What's the archeologist's name?"

"Ohio Smith."

Kate made a face. "That's an awful name. It's so derivative."

"Do you have a better name?"

Kate thought for a moment. "How about Nikki Heat?"

"Nikki Heat? That's a stripper name."

"It's an archeologist's name. And since you know nothing about archeology, you'll need a muse."

"A muse? Now where would I get a muse?"

She put her arm around him. "You already have one. Now where are you parked?"

And off they went.

Together.

Always.

The End

Author's note: I do try to be accurate, up to a point, in my stories. The Romans did trade far beyond their Empire, as far as India. There has been trade across the Sahara for millennia, too. While the Romans did patrol the northern end of the Sahara Desert with camel mounted soldiers, to the best of my knowledge, they never got as far a modern-day Niger.

Gaelic speaking Scots Highlanders did settle the interior of North Carolina, and other places and they largely remained loyal to King George III. Flora MacDonald, famous in Scotland for helping Bonnie Prince Charley escape after the Scots' defeat at Culloden, eventually settled in North Carolina where she remained loyal to the Crown. She fled back to Scotland after the Revolution.

My own military service was with the Air Force during the Vietnam War, so I may have made mistakes describing current operations by the Army. I did hear that a soldier in the late 1990s was punished for telling his old high school buddies that US troops did eat the bodies of their dead foes to gain their strength. This may just be a war story, though.

Next up is When Kate Shot Rick. No, it's not at all like When Harry Met Sally.