From: perri29@aol.com   
      
   Title: Paradise Effect   
   Author: PR   
   Rating: NC17   
   Category: DRR, RST, PWP   
      
      
   Paradise Effect (1/2)   
   by PR   
      
      
   "Hello?" Monica Reyes answered her cell sounding harried, her breath hissing   
   into John Doggett's ear.   
      
   "Hey, you're not still at home, are ya'?" he called back at her.   
      
   "Yes, but I'm heading out now," Monica answered him.   
      
   Clutching the phone to his ear with one hand, and the other gripping the   
   stirring wheel, Doggett was sailing at 70 mph. He'd make it to the airport   
   without a hitch, but would she?   
      
   The assignment was crap.   
      
   Information flowing out of the Florida Keys had pegged the tail bone of the   
   United States as the new paradise for peddlers of beau coup loads of   
   marijuana hauled off pirated yachts and cruisers coming out of a chain of   
   Islands in the Bahamas. The news prompted the set up of an FBI/DEA sting to   
   smoke out a couple of nasties hooked up with this newly formed smuggling   
   ring, who had rap sheets impressive enough to gain them ten most wanted   
   status with the Bureau.   
      
   Along for the taking were a few dirty government members of the piss ant   
   Turk Caios Islands. They were taking bribes and reestablishing a serious   
   smuggling route that had been busted up by the DEA in the mid-80's, when   
   half the British Crown Colony parliamentary members had been nabbed in Miami   
   Hotels. But their successors hadn't seemed to learn much by their   
   predecessor's mistakes.   
      
   The assignment was crap, but the local was fantastic; the southern most   
   jumping off point of the contiguous United States, Key West. Drugs, thugs   
   and sunshine.   
      
   Doggett wasn't so up for the drugs and the thugs, but the sunshine and palm   
   trees, and tropical breezes beat the hell out of concrete and the gloomy as   
   weather hanging over the tri state area like a dingy shroud for the past   
   three weeks.   
      
   "You better make this flight," he warned her, teasingly.   
      
   "I will. I will," she assured him more breathlessly than before, the sound   
   of door banging in the background.   
      
   She was out the door of the loft now, and Doggett knew his call was only   
   adding to her distractions. "I'll let you go. Just get there as quick as you   
   can," he told her ready to hang up, then added, "but be careful, don't get   
   yourself in a wreck."   
      
   "I won't. Don't you either."   
      
   Doggett heard the pinging of her car's door chime. Man, she is hustling, he   
   thought and smiled to himself. "See ya' there."   
      
   "Okay," she breathed, then, "love you-bye."   
      
   Doggett chuckled and started to press the end button on the phone-- then it   
   hit him. The line clicked and Doggett's jaw dropped. "Whoa, what?" he   
   sputtered, and half-laughed in disbelief. He fumbled the phone, and nearly   
   caught it before it landed in his lap as the car swerved from his disengaged   
   attention.   
      
   "What the hell?" he muttered as he jerked the wheel and straightened the car   
   in the lane. He stared at the road ahead. Had he just heard her say what he   
   thought he heard Monica say?  "Ah, crap..."   
      
      
   ========================================================   
      
      
   Monica showed up the airport security office just as the officers had   
   cleared Doggett to continue on with his service weapon.   
      
   "Just made it," she exclaimed and smiled warily at him as she withdrew her   
   badge and gun for security to check.   
      
   "Just," Doggett replied, feeling unusually uneasy in her presence. He looked   
   at her with the nagging question nudging at the edge of his mind; did she   
   say what it sounded like she said?   
      
   She seemed completely normal, like nothing had been said or-- Did she even   
   realize what she'd said? Did she say it all? He began wondering, unaware   
   that he was staring at her.   
      
   She looked differently to him, and he figured it was just her appearance.   
   She was dress more casually than he was accustomed to seeing her. She wore   
   white slacks of some billowy fabric with wide legs that somehow completely   
   hid the shape of her own limbs, yet accentuated her hips. The slacks tapered   
   up and disappeared beneath a tight fitting cream colored blouse that was   
   covered by a brown sport jacket. She looked radiant in spite of the lines of   
   stress furrowing between her dark brows.   
      
   Monica looked around at him slowly, a peculiar smirk creeping across her   
   face. "What?" she chuckled softly.   
      
   Self-conscious, Doggett darted his crystal blue eyes from her questioning   
   study and rocked his head back and forth. "Nothing. Nothin'at all. Why?"   
      
   Monica lifted her brows, appearing a little dubious of him. Then seemed to   
   dismiss her suspicions and gave his clothes a circumspect appraisal. "You   
   look awfully formal for a plane flight, John," she commented.   
      
   Doggett glanced down at himself. He was dressed in his suit, tie and all.   
   Considering her attire he did suppose he was dressed pretty formally. "Force   
   of habit," he replied.   
      
      
   =========================================================   
      
      
   The flight was atypical.   
   The MD-11 soared through a picturesque sky of azure and billowy white clouds   
   that looked like cream puffs floating outside Doggett's window. His forehead   
   was nearly contacting the super thick plexy as he searched the sky for   
   answers or just the smallest of confirmations.   
      
   Monica was seated beside him casually turning pages in a Cosmopolitan   
   magazine, stopping occasionally to parse an article or comment aloud about   
   something of interest.   
      
   Her contented air was driving him nuts.   
      
   "Ten things a modern woman should never apologize for," she read aloud from   
   Cosmo with a smile. "Making more money than her partner," she paused, then   
   added her commentary, "life partner I'll assume." Doggett said nothing, and   
   she continued on reading aloud quietly, "Buying herself an expensive gift.   
   Sleeping with someone on the first date... Well, I suppose that would be   
   dependent upon how long she knew the person before they dated. Don't you   
   think?" She asked and glanced at him, seeing that he was staring fixedly out   
   the window. "John?"   
      
   Blinking, Doggett turned around to look at her as if she'd just woke him.   
   "Yeah?"   
      
   Monica held up the magazine for him to see. "This article says that a modern   
   woman shouldn't apologize for sleeping with someone on the first date." She   
   lifted her brows and asked him, "Don't you think that would be determined by   
   the time that she knew the person before she dated them?"   
      
   He blinked at the magazine then Monica, nonplused. "I suppose. Why are you   
   asking me this?" he said and immediately knew he'd sounded abrasive.   
      
   Monica studied him a moment, then with a lopsided smile asked, "Are you all   
   right?"   
      
      
   [continued in next message]   
      
   --- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05   
    * Origin: you cannot sedate... all the things you hate (1:229/2)