Desha's Reno of the Turks Fan Fiction

Interludes – Scene 22

Scene Notes: Elena found out she was a little more squeamish than she’d thought when she and Reno visited Costa del Sol. When Tseng sent her off to bring back the body, she wasn’t looking forward to Rude catching her in a similar state.

From Chapter 14: Trouble in Paradise:

“As they left the clinic, Elena felt an impending sense of dread… the last time she’d had to deal with Wymer’s body hadn’t exactly been one of her finer moments. It was one thing to lose it in front of Reno… thinking about Rude seeing her like that left her feeling decidedly uncertain about this trip.”

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They’d been in the air only a few minutes. For some reason, it continued to surprise Elena just how much faster it was to travel by helicopter… The boat ride she’d taken yesterday felt like an eternity by comparison. She swallowed nervously. Right now, an eternity seemed preferable. She wished she hadn’t eaten breakfast.

If she’d known she would be making this trip, she wouldn’t have.

Wymer’s body was still buried in its shallow grave on Playa Roja Island… but it wouldn’t be for long. The rookie glanced over her shoulder into the back section of the helicopter. A shovel and a neatly folded heavy plastic bag lay unassumingly on the floor. She groaned inaudibly. She really didn’t want to do this again so soon.

“Where’s the best place to land?” Rude asked, voice crackling slightly over her headset, and she jumped, startled from her thoughts.

“O-oh… um… The north beach, I guess. There’s a cove. I think that’s probably as close as we can get in the helicopter, and there should be a path leading straight up to the memorial garden,” she replied, thinking back to the little map on the back of the island brochure she’d spent entirely too much time yesterday studying. Rude nodded and altered course slightly, heading for the the little inlet on the northern shore of the island.

Her eyes traveled a little to the west, and she spotted the narrow strip of beach she and Reno had been dropped off at the day before. Not a single boat was in sight… apparently it was a slow day for the tour guides. Though, she mused, that was probably a good thing for the two of them. Running into other visitors to the island might be a little awkward. Within moments, they were on the ground.

They stepped out on the pebble-strewn beach, and Elena gazed up the steep trail that lead into the island’s interior. It seemed far more foreboding than it should have, and the rookie had to repeatedly tell herself that it was only her imagination. She’d done this once… she could do it again. She would not lose focus and she would not let Rude see her as weak as she’d been yesterday.

“Lead the way,” the other Turk intoned, and she suddenly realized that she been standing there for several seconds, just staring at the path. Elena took a breath and started forward, heading up the trail. She paused briefly at the crossroads to note the little signpost that pointed towards the Lovers’ Graves memorial garden, and turned down the appropriate path, Rude close on her heals with the shovel resting on one shoulder. It wasn’t long before she caught sight of the marble statue at the center of the garden.

It was odd. The first time she’d seen it, the whole place had felt so romantic and restful… the little piles of stones left by visitors dotting the ground a testament to the fact that other people had to have felt the same way she had. It had made her smile then.

Now though… the Lovers’ statue seemed more a sentinel guarding a dark secret than an homage to a love that carried on even after death.

“He’s over there,” the rookie said, pointing towards the far corner, at the large patch of disturbed earth that Reno had done his best to camouflage when they’d filled the grave back in. Rude grunted softly in acknowledgment, and tossed her the body bag before making his way over with the shovel. She shook her head slightly. It didn’t seem to phase him in the least. Come to think of it, Reno had unearthed the body without a second thought as well… though he, at least, had confessed that he hadn’t always been so numb to it – after she’d come dangerously close to puking her guts out. Elena wondered if Rude had ever shared a similar squeamishness.

If he had, she didn’t think he was going to be telling her about it. Rude was friendly enough, and since they’d discovered their shared interest in a certain TV show he’s started to open up to her a bit more… but he wasn’t nearly as forthcoming as his partner was when it came to casual chatting. Getting him to talk about anything too personal seemed to be a task she wasn’t quite experienced enough to take on. She shook her head as she realized he’d already set himself to the task at hand, and was moving large shovelfuls of loose soil aside.

“Careful…” Elena cautioned, “H-he’s not very deep…” She had no desire to see what happened when a shovel made contact with a five-day-old corpse.

“Thanks for the warning,” Rude responded, and Elena got the distinct impression that he didn’t much care to see that, either. The bald Turk made short work of the exhumation, and Elena cringed, looking down into the grave.

It was almost worse than the first time. The sight of the milky white, lifeless eyes, staring up at her made her skin crawl. For the briefest of moments, Wymer’s face seemed to morph into one she was much better acquainted with, and Elena felt the familiar sensation of bile rising in her throat as she realized it was Reno’s. She blinked and it was gone. The rookie swallowed sharply, and looked away with a shudder. That was an image that was going to haunt her for awhile… particularly given how close it had come to being a reality.

“Let’s get him out of there,” her fellow Turk said, sighing. Elena’s eyes widened slightly. For some reason, it had never occurred to her that she’d have to help with that… Rude was already unfolding the bag and laying it out beside the grave. That done, he moved towards Wymer’s head. “Lift gently. We don’t want a bigger mess to deal with. Trust me.”

Elena’s stomach turned as the implications of that statement hit her, but she shook it off. She could do this. She was a Turk. The rookie gritted her teeth and grabbed the dead man’s ankles, lifting in sync with her fellow Turk. The body was surprisingly stiff… and it gave a whole new meaning to the phrase ‘dead weight’. Wymer was by no means a small man. He been easily as tall as Rude, and likewise as broad.

It was right about then that the smell hit her.

How she hadn’t noticed it before, she wasn’t sure. Maybe it had been the fact that the body had still been mostly buried the last time she was this close to it, or maybe it had simply been that she hadn’t been leaning directly over the unfortunate junior executive before. Either way, it caught her entirely off-guard… though, even if she’d expected it, she wasn’t sure she could have stopped the inevitable.

Elena groaned softly, one hand rising to her mouth as she dropped Wymer’s feet. She didn’t stop to explain… she simply made a mad dash for the brushes a short distance away and spent the next minute and a half retching.

So much for not showing weakness.

When it finally stopped, she stayed there, on her knees, panting softly in the tropical heat. Her face was flushed, both from the exertion of having her stomach reject everything she’d eaten that morning, and from embarrassment. A hand suddenly came to rest on her shoulder and she flinched, not wanting to face her fellow Turk. Rude wordlessly handed her a handkerchief and then went back to deal with Wymer, leaving her to compose herself.

The rookie wiped her mouth and wished she had something to get the sour taste out of it. That would have to wait until they returned to the mainland, however. Finally, she couldn’t delay any further. Elena stood, somewhat shakily, and turned back towards Rude.

“… Could… you not mention that to anyone?” she asked, a little timidly. Rude shrugged and zipped the bag closed around Wymer’s body.

“If you want. Happens to everyone, though,” he replied, with a faint smirk.

~fin~