SYNOPSIS
Title: Strength of Spirit
Author: Kelly Wood
Featured Characters: Peter Caine, Kwai Chang Caine, Kermit Griffin, Straker (from Escape)
Guest Stars: Kerry & Kim Houghton, several mercenaries
Warnings: some mild language
Time Period: A few months after "Escape"
Story: Straker's back, and he's got Peter.
Disclaimers: Kung Fu: the Legend Continues is a creation by Michael Sloan and is distributed by Warner Brothers. This story is based on characters created for the show. No copyright infringement is intended.
Miscellaneous: Comments are welcome! Terri T. will be posting this on her website after it is posted here. Thanks for all the encouragement and help from my beta readers: shylo and Terri T. You guys are great!
Prologue
Blackness defined his world. Detective Peter Caine rubbed his face with his shoulder, thinking that there might be a blindfold, but the darkness, the utter lack of light, did not change. He closed his eyes and took a deep breath. 'Concentrate,' he told himself fiercely. Another deep breath. Peter began to take stock of himself.
His head hurt, a throbbing pain was located just over his left temple. The rest of his body was not much better; it felt like someone had used him as a punching bag. Peter tried to move his hand to feel the welt on his head, but his left hand wouldn't move. His right hand moved no further. Pulling did no good. So he was tied down. Another deep breath took care of the panic just beginning to stir in the pit of his stomach. Panic would do no good. He tested his feet. They were also tied. He shivered. Wherever he was, it was cold, and he seemed to be dressed only in his jeans—no socks or boots, no shirt.
Peter opened his eyes and waited for them to adjust to the darkness. A faint glimmer of light outlined three sides of a rectangular shape; a door, just across the room. From the light leaking in, Peter could just make out the shape of the chair he was tied to. A boarded-up window was high on the wall opposite the door. There was nothing else in the room; not much to work with.
Peter reached deep within himself. There had to be some way to get out of this.
Part One
Some vacation! Kerry sighed as she opened the door to let out the dogs. Her dog Maggie stopped at the door and looked at her, as if to ask what was wrong. "Out!" Kerry ordered, pointing. "Stay in the yard!" Maggie jumped out the door, following Scruffy and Jester, her parents' dogs. Kerry ran a comb through her wet caramel-colored hair as she wandered out onto the deck.
She watched the dogs playing and reluctantly grinned. Okay, so her parents really deserved this vacation. Okay, so she really didn't mind babysitting their dogs while they were away. Okay, so she didn't really have any better way to spend the extra six days she had earned in comp time over the winter. Vermont wasn't such a bad place to spend a vacation; it was just that she would like some company. "Human company," she explained to Jester, who had wandered over to give her bare leg a big sloppy kiss. "You can only stand so much solitude." She tilted her head back to let the sun caress her face.
April in Vermont could be horrible—snow, hail and/or mud season; or it could be beautiful, as it was now. The sun warmed the air to an unseasonable 70 degrees. The trees, though bare, showed just the faintest hints of color from the buds beginning to awaken. The brown grass of the field was showing the slightest hint of green, and the scent of spring was in the air. Kerry had raided her mother's closet for the pair of shorts she was now wearing. It would be nice to tan her legs a little before she gave up the tights she wore most of the winter.
The dogs were racing around the yard, chasing each other when the phone rang. Kerry ran back into the house to answer it.
The answering machine had already picked up. Kerry couldn't find where she had left the phone, so she listened to the speaker. "Hi Kerry, this is Kim. I'm coming up this weekend, I need to vent. See you then."
Kerry looked down at Jester, who had followed her into the house. "When I said human company, I was thinking of the friendly, non-related, male kind; not venting sisters," she said grouchily. Jester grinned at her. Kerry shook her head in disgust. "I'm discussing my needs with a dog now?" Replacing the phone back in the cradle, she grabbed a can of Tab (her breakfast) and a book and went out onto the deck to catch some rays.
An hour later, her hair was dry, her book was finished, and she was totally bored. "Let's go for a walk," she said to the three dogs laying about her in various states of slumber. "I need the change of scenery." She pulled her hair into a scrubby ponytail as she got up from the chair.
While the dogs jumped around her, landing on top of each other in their excitement, she went into the house and changed into her own jeans and laced up a pair of hiking boots. Although the sun was warm, she pulled on a beloved extra-large sweatshirt; knowing that in the woods, it would be much colder than on the deck. Hell, even at the edges of the field, places that rarely felt direct sunlight, there were piles of snow still melting. After locking the door, she draped three leashes around her neck and stuffed her pockets full of dog treats.
"Come on!" She said to the eager dogs, who didn't seem to quite believe that they were going off on an adventure. When they saw she was serious, they raced across the field on the path that took them into the woods.
Kerry's parents owned what she and her sisters jokingly referred to as "the ancestral estates," 50 acres of land at the foot of Blue Mountain that had belonged to her family since the early 1800's. It had originally been farmland, but in the past forty years had slowly gone back, mostly, to woods. There were paths that led through her parent's property to the neighbors. Together, the families had created trails though over 240 acres for mountain biking, horseback riding, and snowmobiling in the winter. After the trails ended, the land belonged to an apple orchard and logging operation, which went up to the top of Blue Mountain. From Kerry's house to the top of the mountain, there were no houses, no roads, and usually no people.
The dogs raced ahead of Kerry up the gentle slope of the mountain. They raced back down to check on her when she was too slow to catch up. They chased squirrels up trees. Kerry enjoyed hiking, and the dogs were fun to watch. As she climbed, she checked out the woods for signs of wild animals. Last year, about this time, she had spied a flock of wild turkeys resting in the trees. Of course, on that trip she had been with her father and no dogs.
Suddenly, the air rang with the sound of short excited barks. Kerry swore; she knew that particular bark. The last time Maggie had used that tone, she had cornered a skunk. Kerry ran, even before she heard Scruffy start to bay; and then Jester joined in with a series of yelps.
"If you girls have a skunk, you're going to be really sorry!" she yelled. "Maggie, come!" Maggie's barks where becoming more frantic. Kerry rounded the corner and came to a complete stop. Her dog was bouncing up and down beside the body of a man, lying face down on the ground. Jester was licking the bottom of one bare foot, and Scruffy was hiding behind a tree, still baying. "Oh my God!" Kerry gasped.
Part two
She ran to the man's side and dropped to her knees beside his head. Cautiously, she put one hand on the man's shoulder. "Sir?" Her voice was shaking, so she cleared her throat. "Sir? Can you hear me?" She shook the shoulder gently. No response. His skin felt cool, but not cold. Kerry reached down and pushed aside silky brown hair to feel for a pulse in the neck. It was there, strong and slow. She let out a breath she wasn't aware she was holding.
Heart pounding, she couldn't decide what to do. Years of her mother's warnings made her cautious. She didn't know anything about this man. He could be a murderer, or a rapist, or a lunatic escaped from the local insane asylum. She shook her head sharply. She couldn't just ignore someone so obviously in need of help.
Sitting back on her heels, she surveyed the man. Was he crazy? No shoes, not even any socks! He was wearing an old, dirty denim jacket that looked too big for him. The jeans were obviously his, they fit him like a second skin. Kerry looked up and down the trail. No sign of a horse or an ATV. What could have happened?
Maggie was still barking. Jester moved up from the man's feet to his outstretched hand and renewed her licking. Scruffy was trying to hide behind Kerry now. "Quiet!" she said firmly to her dog. She pushed Scruffy away. Her mind raced through the options available.
Obviously, he needed medical attention. Just as obviously, he wasn't going to get it here. Kerry knew exactly where she was, unfortunately, she was directionally challenged, and there was no way she would be able to tell someone else how to get to this exact spot. There was no way an ambulance would be able to drive up the trails anyway. Kerry ran her hands down each of the man's limbs. Nothing seemed to be broken. It didn't look like he had fallen off of anything; the ground wasn't disturbed by any tracks other than his bare footprints. It looked like he had reached this spot and dropped from exhaustion.
She took a deep breath, coming to a decision. Lifting his right arm above his head, Kerry rolled the man over towards her. She looked down at the still form before her.
"Oh no," she breathed. Under the denim jacket, the man wore no shirt. His torso was dark with bruises. Her gaze traveled up to his face. It was badly swollen. He had a black eye on the right and the other side of his face was covered with dried blood that had obviously come from a blow to the temple. Kerry looked around again, but saw no sign of a rock discolored with blood. On closer examination, both wrists and ankles were circled with bruises and dried blood.
Maggie started barking again, and this time Jester joined in.
Kerry's heart was pounding so hard her ears throbbed. "Be quiet!" she snapped at the dogs, alarmed by the sight she had just uncovered. There was no way this had happened in an accident. The dogs subsided, obviously alerted by her tone.
"Okay, we can do this," Kerry said to herself. "Water…I need water." There was a stream just down the trail. Kerry ran down, pulling her sweatshirt over her head as she did so. At the stream, she pulled off her T-shirt and put it in the cold water as she put the sweatshirt back on. Armed with the dripping shirt, she ran back to the man. With the wet cloth, she touched his wrists, then moved up to his face. Gently, she bathed the bruised face. "Wake up!" She prayed, "please, please wake up!"
***
Peter Caine felt something cold dripping on his face. With what seemed like superhuman effort, he dragged open his eyes. Three faces were staring at him intently. No, three dogs were staring at him intently. Then a woman pushed the dogs away and put a wet shirt on his face.
"Wake up," she begged.
Peter groaned. On the whole, waking up seemed like a bad idea. Sleep was much more comfortable. But wasn't there a reason that he should be up and moving...?
"You are awake!" the woman gasped, interrupting his thoughts. "Are you alright? No, never mind, that was a dumb question, of course you're not all right. Who are you? What are you doing here? Are you in trouble? What…" she stopped abruptly. Peter watched her face grow red. "I'm sorry, I tend talk a lot when I'm nervous…not that I am nervous," she added, a beat too late. Peter stared, trying to decide which question to answer first. The woman took the wet shirt from his temple and sat back on her heels. All three of the dogs moved so they were somehow touching her. One of them started to growl.
Peter slowly pushed himself up into a sitting position. "No," he said, his voice sounding rusty in his own ears, "I'm sorry. It must have been a shock to find me here, looking like something the ..dog.. dragged in. Where are we?" Cautiously he braced himself on one arm and lifted his other hand to gingerly feel the now wet bump on his head.
"About halfway up Blue Mountain. Did you fall off a horse or something?"
Peter hesitated. He hated to involve civilians in police investigations; even the most practical woman seemed to think she could become the next Nancy Drew. Considering he had no idea where Blue Mountain was, he was beginning to think he might need a little help. "Or something." He finally agreed. "Where exactly is Blue Mountain?"
Her eyes narrowed as she studied his face. "In Vermont," she said slowly.
"Near Monmouth?" Peter's mouth suddenly felt drier.
"Other side of the state."
"Um." Peter grunted. At least he might not have to worry about new terrorists.
The woman looked at him, her muscles tense. Peter concentrated on looking pathetic and harmless. He could tell the woman had decided to trust him when her body relaxed. Whichever dog had been growling stopped. "Let me help you down the mountain." She offered. "You can come to my house and clean up. My Dad should have some clothes that will fit you."
"That would be great. Um, my name is Peter, Peter Caine." He reached out his right hand.
She took it. "I'm Kerry Houghton."
To Parts 3 and 4