Part 122, Chapter 2052
Chapter Two Thousand Fifty-Two
22nd March 1971
Los Angeles, California
“We were told by Sergeant Wilkinson that you were someone we wanted to talk to” The Producer said as he shook Ritchie’s hand. The Producer was in Ritchie’s estimation what would happen if an oily shark somehow managed to take on human form and cram itself into a three-piece suit. As the Producer let go of Ritchie’s hand, Ritchie had to fight the urge to make sure that all of his fingers were still there.
“I am a bit surprised to get your call” Ritchie replied, “I only recently completed the field assessment and since then I have mostly been out in Imperial Country.”
“Bill mentioned that” The Producer said, “Out in the desert working for Uncle Sam for a few weeks. You are former Special Forces, right?”
“Something like that” Ritchie replied, doubting that the Producer knew a damn thing about any of it.
“That’s good” The Producer said as he turned and walked swiftly across the filmset with Ritchie trying to keep up. The set was designed to look like any one of the streets that surrounded the studio. Ritchie wondered why they would go to so much effort to make this when they could just go a hundred yards in any direction. “Mind if I call you what? Richard? Dick?”
“Ritchie works” Ritchie said, knowing that he wanted to make a good impression. Shooting the Producer for calling him Dick would be the exact opposite of that. Though the Department might give him a medal for doing so.
The last few months had been good as Lucia and Ritchie had settled into their new house. Spending his time fixing the place up had been a welcome change from the madness he encountered on a daily basis Downtown and in Skid Row. As his first-year field assessment had finally come, Ritch had passed with flying colors, getting the automatic promotion to Police Officer II, and there was the real prospect of being transferred elsewhere in the Department. That was when Captain Evans had reentered the picture, something that Ritchie had mostly forgotten about. He had said that they would talk when Ritchie got back from guarding the State of California against any incursions by the Mexican Army. Ritchie knew that meant that there was a strong possibility that he might be recruited into the Tactical Division, D Platoon in particular, based on his time in the Green Beret alone.
In the meantime, Ritchie had gotten a call from a Producer in Hollywood asking if he would be interested in a Consulting gig for a television show. Set in Los Angeles, it was supposed to be about Police Officers, Firefighters, and Paramedics as they battled the disasters that struck the city on a regular basis, both natural and human caused.
The reason Ritchie was interested was because he was looking at transferring to a four-year University for an honest-to-God Bachelor’s Degree it the near future and Lucia was making noises to the effect of not wanting to spend her whole life working as a Day-shift Cashier at Ralph’s. There was also the very real possibility that there would be things that they couldn’t predict happening, not to mention both Ritchie and Lucia’s respective mothers asking the obvious sorts of questions.
Suddenly, money was a major concern. Consulting for a television studio who wanted to make a gritty show about first responders was a way to that without being crooked. Ritchie was prepared to give them grittiness by the truckful if there was a decent amount of money involved.
Plänterwald, Berlin
Kiki had been asleep for about five seconds before Nina decided that sleeping was not in her interest. As she picked Nina up out of the crib and tried to calm her, Kiki thought about how Nadine loved her so much. Perhaps Nina ought to go to Oma’s house and stay there until she was ready to go to University, Kiki thought to herself. Even as she had the thought though, Kiki felt a touch of guilt that she’d had it. It cleaved a bit too close to a conversation which her Sister-in-Law and Stepmother had forced her to have just after Nina was born.
Hearing about both sides of her family’s long history of mothers rejecting their children had not been a comfortable thing to listen to. Charlotte had told her that it wasn’t actually unique to her family, it was just that there were extensive records that went back centuries because of their prominence. It was the reason why Charlotte and Suga had pressed Kiki to accept all the help that was being offered. It was yet one more example of the long and ever-growing list of disadvantages of being who she was. Being from an old family and having a Social Worker for a Stepmother came with that.
Finding herself with a fussy newborn who would not calm down or sleep even though it was in the early morning hours, it was becoming clear to Kiki that there was a reason why everyone had been so concerned. There would have been no way that she could have possibly done this on her own, not even with Benjamin home. Then there was the aspect that everyone was too polite to bring up with her or talk about in her presence. That Kiki had made no secret of the fact that she had never wanted to be a mother in the first place, now she was having to learn on the fly.
Kiki also couldn’t help but feel terrible about Fianna Dunn coming here. Fianna had apparently dropped everything to come to Berlin to help out and Kiki felt a stab of guilt every time she her. She had barely thought about a woman who’d had a profound influence on her life in the years since she had gone back to Ireland. Instead, Kiki remembered the sense of betrayal she had felt because someone she cared about was going home after having completed the task she had come to do. It was one more memory that Kiki now looked at and cringed.
22nd March 1971
Los Angeles, California
“We were told by Sergeant Wilkinson that you were someone we wanted to talk to” The Producer said as he shook Ritchie’s hand. The Producer was in Ritchie’s estimation what would happen if an oily shark somehow managed to take on human form and cram itself into a three-piece suit. As the Producer let go of Ritchie’s hand, Ritchie had to fight the urge to make sure that all of his fingers were still there.
“I am a bit surprised to get your call” Ritchie replied, “I only recently completed the field assessment and since then I have mostly been out in Imperial Country.”
“Bill mentioned that” The Producer said, “Out in the desert working for Uncle Sam for a few weeks. You are former Special Forces, right?”
“Something like that” Ritchie replied, doubting that the Producer knew a damn thing about any of it.
“That’s good” The Producer said as he turned and walked swiftly across the filmset with Ritchie trying to keep up. The set was designed to look like any one of the streets that surrounded the studio. Ritchie wondered why they would go to so much effort to make this when they could just go a hundred yards in any direction. “Mind if I call you what? Richard? Dick?”
“Ritchie works” Ritchie said, knowing that he wanted to make a good impression. Shooting the Producer for calling him Dick would be the exact opposite of that. Though the Department might give him a medal for doing so.
The last few months had been good as Lucia and Ritchie had settled into their new house. Spending his time fixing the place up had been a welcome change from the madness he encountered on a daily basis Downtown and in Skid Row. As his first-year field assessment had finally come, Ritch had passed with flying colors, getting the automatic promotion to Police Officer II, and there was the real prospect of being transferred elsewhere in the Department. That was when Captain Evans had reentered the picture, something that Ritchie had mostly forgotten about. He had said that they would talk when Ritchie got back from guarding the State of California against any incursions by the Mexican Army. Ritchie knew that meant that there was a strong possibility that he might be recruited into the Tactical Division, D Platoon in particular, based on his time in the Green Beret alone.
In the meantime, Ritchie had gotten a call from a Producer in Hollywood asking if he would be interested in a Consulting gig for a television show. Set in Los Angeles, it was supposed to be about Police Officers, Firefighters, and Paramedics as they battled the disasters that struck the city on a regular basis, both natural and human caused.
The reason Ritchie was interested was because he was looking at transferring to a four-year University for an honest-to-God Bachelor’s Degree it the near future and Lucia was making noises to the effect of not wanting to spend her whole life working as a Day-shift Cashier at Ralph’s. There was also the very real possibility that there would be things that they couldn’t predict happening, not to mention both Ritchie and Lucia’s respective mothers asking the obvious sorts of questions.
Suddenly, money was a major concern. Consulting for a television studio who wanted to make a gritty show about first responders was a way to that without being crooked. Ritchie was prepared to give them grittiness by the truckful if there was a decent amount of money involved.
Plänterwald, Berlin
Kiki had been asleep for about five seconds before Nina decided that sleeping was not in her interest. As she picked Nina up out of the crib and tried to calm her, Kiki thought about how Nadine loved her so much. Perhaps Nina ought to go to Oma’s house and stay there until she was ready to go to University, Kiki thought to herself. Even as she had the thought though, Kiki felt a touch of guilt that she’d had it. It cleaved a bit too close to a conversation which her Sister-in-Law and Stepmother had forced her to have just after Nina was born.
Hearing about both sides of her family’s long history of mothers rejecting their children had not been a comfortable thing to listen to. Charlotte had told her that it wasn’t actually unique to her family, it was just that there were extensive records that went back centuries because of their prominence. It was the reason why Charlotte and Suga had pressed Kiki to accept all the help that was being offered. It was yet one more example of the long and ever-growing list of disadvantages of being who she was. Being from an old family and having a Social Worker for a Stepmother came with that.
Finding herself with a fussy newborn who would not calm down or sleep even though it was in the early morning hours, it was becoming clear to Kiki that there was a reason why everyone had been so concerned. There would have been no way that she could have possibly done this on her own, not even with Benjamin home. Then there was the aspect that everyone was too polite to bring up with her or talk about in her presence. That Kiki had made no secret of the fact that she had never wanted to be a mother in the first place, now she was having to learn on the fly.
Kiki also couldn’t help but feel terrible about Fianna Dunn coming here. Fianna had apparently dropped everything to come to Berlin to help out and Kiki felt a stab of guilt every time she her. She had barely thought about a woman who’d had a profound influence on her life in the years since she had gone back to Ireland. Instead, Kiki remembered the sense of betrayal she had felt because someone she cared about was going home after having completed the task she had come to do. It was one more memory that Kiki now looked at and cringed.
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