A Fight and a Riddle:

Over the next week Dee worked on making the room her own. Twice she had gone out to dinner with Eddie and had a good time. He had allowed her to borrow the car to go back to Jiaoshu's in order to get some things that she needed. As the night had worn on and she still hadn't come back, he started to worry that she perhaps had decided to leave. When she came back very late, he was waiting up for her.

"Eddie. You're still up. I thought you were going somewhere tonight?" she said, setting down the suitcase she had brought with her.

His eyes were slightly glazed over from the alcohol he had been drinking, starting with scotch and working his way through the decanters to the brandy. Getting up, he walked toward her, slightly wobbly on his legs.

"I thought you weren't coming back," he said as he came to a stop in front of her.

Dee winced and stepped back, covering her nose. "God, Eddie. You stink! Have you been drinking all night?" she asked, looking past him. On the table she saw the various glasses and the obviously lowered levels of his alcohol decanters.

"Just a little. Come and have a drink with me." He reached out to put an arm around her and lead her to the couch.

"No!" Now she jumped back and out of his reach. "Go to bed, Eddie. Sober up before you come talk to me. And for the love of Buddha, take a shower!"

With that she grabbed her suitcase and stormed into her room, making certain the door was locked behind her. Taking one of the straight back chairs she had, she jammed it up under the doorknob. She knew that if anyone had access keys to these locks, he did. In the state he was in, she didn't trust him one bit. Her wariness paid off as she heard the doorknob rattling and the lock pop. When the door wouldn't open, he finally knocked.

"Dee? C'mon, Dee. I was just worried."

"Go to bed, Edward," she said, pulling her shoes off. "Stupid man."

He knocked a few more times, asking her to open up. When she didn't answer, he finally went away. It wasn't the first time Dee had ever seen someone drunk like that. Manchu had once gotten that drunk and he had regretted it. He had never tried to come after Dee, but he had woken up the next morning in a great deal of pain. Dee had to explain to him, as she pressed a cold compress to his swollen face, that every woman in the bar had slapped him, followed by a few punches from some of their boyfriends. Manchu had only been saved when Dee had stepped in, apologizing profusely and dragging him out of the bar by his braid.

Somehow Dee didn't think this was the first time the Riddler had gotten this drunk. One of her biggest turnoffs was a drunk trying to hit on her. Grumbling, she showered and changed for bed. Dee sincerely hoped that he would have a whopper of a hangover when he woke up.

~ ~ ~

Eddie didn't wake until almost noon the next day, having gone out for some drinks, and then coming back to the hideout and drinking himself into the ground the night before. When he wandered out to the kitchen for his coffee, Benny and Trigger were there making themselves lunch. Scrubbing his hand through his hair, he grimaced at the headache he had. Once he finished the peanut butter and jelly sandwich, washed down with two cups of coffee and aspirin, he was feeling somewhat better.

"Where's Query?" he asked.

The men shrugged. After a minute, Trigger spoke up. "She said something about working out. I dunno. Headed off to the exercise room."

Nodding, Eddie stood and went back into his room. Having a photographic memory had its ups and downs. He remembered what had happened last night before he passed out on his bed. The earlier part of his night had been spent at the Iceberg Lounge where he had sat drinking bourbon and coke, doodling out words on napkins. Turning his shower on, he scrubbed himself down, before getting out and brushing his teeth three times. Certain that he no longer smelt like one of the dive bars on the docks, he dressed and went to find Dee.

Leaning on the doorframe to the exercise room, he watched her flow through each move of her routine, dressed in a white martial arts uniform. The sharp whistle of her bo staff as it spun through the air accented her movements. Her face was flushed and there was a sheen of sweat over her exposed skin from her efforts. Eddie suddenly found himself looking at her in desire as his mind began to wander. The sharp snap of the bo staff as she collapsed it brought him out of his reverie.

"What is it you want, Eddie?" she panted as she scooped up a towel, dabbing at the sweat on her face.

He blinked, standing back up. "I came to apologize for last night."

Dee responded with a sharp nod, followed by silence as she took a drink of water.

"That shouldn't have happened. And it never has before."

Her eyebrow quirked up in a look of disbelief. "You've never been drunk before," she said with sarcasm.

"Oh, no. Plenty of times. The pleading. That wasn't me. I was honestly worried about you. For a while I thought you weren't coming back, that perhaps things had been worked out and they were going to allow you to return."

She snorted at that. "I could only wish Po Sin was that forgiving. He blames this on me, despite the contrary evidence." Wiping the back of her neck, she looked up at him. "Anyway, I more worried about your drinking than what you could have done last night. I'm not against drinking, but I've seen what can happen when people get drunk and I've never been fond of that. Plus, I hate the smell. Good to see that you've showered and slept though. Have you eaten anything?"

"Why are you so worried about that?"

"I care. You worry about me, I worry about you." She gave a shrug. "Best cure for a hangover is sleep and food. I've had to take care of my share of drunken Triad members. Some of them were lucky that I didn't hurt them too much in their stupor," she said with a meaningful look. "I'm not trying to change you, I'm just asking that if you're around me, would please try to watch your drinking?"

Edward opened his mouth to speak, only to stop when she shook her hair loose from the braid it had been in. With her skin still being flushed from her workout and her body still sweaty, he was having enough trouble talking to her without his mind wandering. Now her hair came down and threads of red stuck here and there to her face.

As she put a hand to the back of her head to work the last bit of hair free, he reached up and pulled the strands away from her face. Under his finger, he felt the slickness of her sweat. Before he knew it, he had swept her up in a zealous kiss. Consciously he became aware of the fact that she had a hold of his hands and was pushing back. Without a word, she broke the contact and hurried out of the room.

"Too much, too soon, Eddie my boy," he sighed. Turning, he went to his study and sat in his favorite thinking chair.

~ ~ ~

Dee shut her door behind her, sliding down to the floor, panting. Her heart was racing faster than it had been when she had been working out. The kiss he had given her had made her head spin. His groping hands had brought her to the fact that her hands, too, were moving toward places on him she had no right to go just yet. That had frightened her.

How does he do that? she wondered as she reached up and turned the lock on her door. Her breathing had returned to normal. However, her body was trembling badly and she almost fell over when she stood, her knees feeling like Jell-o.

They had only really known each other a week, but they were almost constantly together. She'd seen some of his bad habits and she didn't mind too much. He'd seen plenty of hers and didn't seem to mind. But she knew what she wanted and in all honestly, she wasn't ready. There was more about him she needed to know before she could possibly let the relationship progress. It was, in her opinion, far too soon to even think about that.

"Just relax and take a shower. You have things to do," she told herself.

~ ~ ~

A few days later Dee was putting away her laundry after dinner when she heard a faint shuffling noise. Turning to look at her door, she saw a large envelope had been pushed under her door. On the front of it in neat script "To Query" was written.

"Ok," she mumbled, picking it up.

Dee cleared a space on top of her dresser and opened the packet, dumping out jigsaw puzzle pieces. Frowning at them, she began to separate the edge pieces from the center. The puzzle itself didn't seem to be very large in size, but the pieces were small and there were a lot of them. Half an hour later she snapped the final piece into place. When she had been half done, she had figured out what it was, continuing, only to see how the finished message looked.

When is a door not a door?

"Ugh. He'd have to resort to that, wouldn't he?" she sighed as she went to open her door. As she did, a heavy package thumped to the ground. Dee looked up and down the hall before picking it up and closing the door. Attached to the package was a note. "'Turn it over.'" Dee turned the package over as she shut the door.

Finding nothing on the back of the package, she retrieved the envelope that the puzzle had come in. there was nothing on it. She looked at the puzzle. When she had put it together, it only had the one side with writing. With a sigh, she flipped it over anyway. Another message had appeared on the back of it.

Dress to the nines and come to where the flightless bird serves drinks that floe cold.

Tearing open the package, she found one of the dresses from Kittlemeier's that she had approved. Included were all the accessories she needed: a pair of shoes, a handbag, a shawl, and some jewelry. The dress and the shawl were in a vivid forest green; handbag and shoes in black. Dee smirked when she looked at the jewelry, lifting the question mark earrings to her ears.

"The man's a nutcase," she chuckled.
Next / First Time Main / Back