VAQS:  The Eleventh Hour (1/2)
Place: An unnamed chartered bus heading for Toronto, an unnamed
       television studio in Toronto, equally unnamed coliseum in
       Toronto where they hold horse shows
Time:  God only knows; we're Vaqs -- time is relative.
       War? <blink blink> What War?


The Eleventh Hour (1/2)

by Tabitha Carlson and Teri DeLong
with lots and LOTS of ideas from Marilyn the VaqShaman and helpful
hints from the others

====

"Something is coming."  Marilyn muttered mostly to herself while her
pendulum swung gently from its chain that dangled from her fingers.

"Hope it's a bathroom," Tab replied, frowning out the window.

"You just *went* five minutes ago!"

"Gotta go again."

"Need to get you a catheter, you know that?"  Cloud sniggered.

"Hey," Lynn pressed her face against another window and squinted at
the scene getting closer, "we might be here."

"You're leaving face prints again."

Angel scooted over closer to the window by her seat and wondered at
the luck they'd had at winning this fabulous weekend getaway, with
tickets to see *The Show* with *him* in it. The AWESOME one.....

"Stop, stop stop stop stop."  Sarah M reached out and patted Naia's
hands, which were happily working at rolling two metallic medicine
balls in them.  A gay jingle from the balls had accompanied the
jovialities of the ride until Sarah began bouncing her feet, then her
toes and finally her head until she had to reach out and make it
*stop*.

"Hope the place has a bathroom."  Tab fogged the window with her
breath as she stared at the approaching buildings.

Janice rolled her eyes at the muttered request, trying to figure out
how one person could possibly have to go to the bathroom so often.

"Hey, where's Teri?"  Tricia ambled up the middle aisle of the bus
and stopped beside Sarah. Sarah shrugged and stared blearily at the
CD player they'd insisted on packing along.

"Couldn't get ahold of her.  We were gonna try again as soon as we
find a land phone.  All those roaming charges are going to kill us."

Marilyn frowned at her pendulum.  Something was niggling at the back
of her brain.  Something she was supposed to tell everyone.  But the
notion stayed just out of reach and she finally sighed, forgetting
about it and hoping it would come back later.  It usually did.

"That's it!"  Melissa bounced on her seat and pointed out her window,
a big grin plastered on her face. Angel's eyes widened and her mouth
formed a perfect little 'o', excitement sneaking her voice away.

"Bathroom!"

"Didn't we pack a bucket or something for you?"  Cloud leaned down
and peered beneath the seats hopefully. The bus pulled into a full
parking lot and angled around until it pulled to a stop alongside a
sidewalk that graced one side of a long building.

"Ok ladies, let's form a nice line and..." Everyone headed for the
front of the bus, pushing Sarah along as quickly and gently as they
could in their rush to get out. "...get out of the bus in an orderly
fashion," she finished after everyone was outside and ogling their
surroundings.

"Do they have a gift shop?"  Naia wondered aloud, craning her neck to
try and see around or over her friends.

"They do, and we'll be sure to stop there after your tour," a
melodious voice intoned from behind the pack of females.

"Oh, cool.  Um, hi."  Sarah turned around, her nose nearly coming in
contact with a man's chest. She backed up and looked up at their
guide.

"Greetings, ladies.  I'm sure you're anxious to get started, so shall
we?"  He stood aside and held out an arm to indicate where they
should go.

"Hey, did you stock the bus for us?" asked Tab.

"Indeed I did."

"Then, uh, it needs restocking.  Sorry."  Tab dropped an empty bottle
of Tequila in a trashcan as they walked by, a sheepish grin planted
on her face. Janice hiccuped, confirming her companion's statement.

Once inside the building, Tricia reached out and snagged one of
Angel's arms when she spied a full sized poster of *him* decked out
in a full suit. The quiet VaqAngel 'oooh'd' and her knees wobbled
unsteadily, but she nodded her thanks to Tricia and managed to get
past the poster without slipping to the floor in a rapturous daze.

"You wouldn't happen to have a motorized wheelchair handy, would you?
 I mean, for differently abled fans that like to come in for the
taping?"  Lynn asked of their guide with one eye on Angel's blissful
expression.

"As a matter of fact, we do.  But you don't seem to have anyone that
needs one."  The guide looked puzzled.

"Trust me, we will."

It was at that point that they passed the rehearsal area and *he* was
there.  His liquid brown, puppy dog eyes swung their direction and
there was a small yipe followed by a thump at the rear of the group.
Everyone turned to look, finding Tricia giving her best 'help me'
look while still holding onto one of Angel's arms.  Angel, for her
part, sat puddled on the floor, her gaze riveted on *his* form.

"Oh, I see," the guide nodded.

"Hey, doesn't he look like Vachon?  I mean," Naia stared at the
actor, a teeny frown of concentration gracing her face.

"Hair's too short, but yeah...I see it."  Melissa stood on her
tiptoes and stared over Marilyn's shoulder at the practicing actors.

"Big brown eyes, dark hair..."

"Slender..."

"Dreamy," came a soft voice from the floor.

"I'll get the wheelchair."  The guide grinned and moved off for a
minute, then returned with a motorized wheelchair, which he took to
the back of the group and stopped before the woman on the floor.

"What talent," Angel purred, "and SO handsome.  He is soooo awesome."

"Been going like that since she dropped," Tricia commented, helping
Angel up into the chair.

Sarah M moved to the back of the group and took the handles of the
wheelchair, just in case Angel slacked in her duties to move herself
along.  After all, there were LOTS of posters of *him* around.

"Now, if you'll follow me this way, we'll finish the tour before
stopping at the raffle."

******************

Meanwhile.......

On the other side of Toronto, one lone Vaquera had other things on
her mind. The excitement and bustle of the horse show swirled around
her almost unnoticed, all her attention focused on the back of the
man bent down beside her horse. The tall chestnut Saddlebred stood
dejectedly on three legs while the show's In-House Veterinarian poked
and prodded at the hoof he held in his hand. The man placed the hoof
gently back on the floor and straightened slowly, his forehead
puckered with a perplexed frown. His eyes were troubled as he turned
to face the worried owner who had hovered over his shoulder through
the whole examination.

"I cannot find a single thing wrong with this horse," he began. "Even
the x-rays we took earlier show absolutely nothing. I would say this
horse is fit as a fiddle." He met her blue eyes that were full of
questions. "If I hadn't seen it for myself," he amended quickly.
"Walk him out for me again, would you?"

Teri clucked to the big red horse and led him slowly down the barn
aisle. There in the softer lighting between the stalls, the tall
gelding didn't seem to be limping at all. The vet followed closely
behind them, watching intently every step the horse took. It hadn't
been anyone's imagination earlier, when the big beast had first
entered the showring for his first class of the weekend. He'd only
taken about two full strides before he suddenly threw his head
skyward, his eyes wild and white-rimmed in the bright lights. From
that moment on, he barely touched the one front foot to the ground,
getting increasingly worse with each stride until they could get him
back around to the gate and out of the arena. Now, mere hours later,
there was no sign of a hesitation in the horse's step. The vet was
quite unabashedly stumped.

"Take him back up where the lighting is a little better," the vet
called to her. "There's no class in the arena right now. Let's see
how he moves in there."

Everything seemed to be back to normal as Sizzlin' paced quietly
beside Teri, turning often to snuffle for treats. Teri wasn't feeling
very generous at the moment though, seeing as how the money she'd
paid for the classes they'd missed today was non-refundable. She
turned him down the last aisle and headed for the brightly lit arena
where folks were working their horses, practicing for upcoming
classes. They'd see how he did back in the soft footing of the arena,
when she'd put him through his paces. He certainly wasn't showing any
signs of discomfort now. Maybe all was not lost yet. There was always
tomorrow.......

But as they drew closer to the arena with all its lights and flashy
movement of gorgeous horses and sparkly clothing on riders, Sizzlin's
footsteps started becoming noticeably more and more erratic. A
hesitation here, a wobble there. When they actually entered the show
ring, he seemed distracted, all his usually impeccable ground manners
disappearing as he swayed and staggered into her. Teri barely managed
to keep him from knocking her down, and in horror watched as his head
dropped almost to his knees and he started limping again.

The vet rushed forward to her side just in time to keep him from
lurching into her again. Teri chewed her lip in frustration,
wondering how on earth the soft arena footing could cause lameness,
but then she noticed with surprise and dread that the vet no longer
was looking at the horse's legs. He had a flashlight and was shining
it into Sizzlin' eyes, doing that flippy-thingy with the light that
paramedics do when they're checking for reflexes and reactions.

*Flippy-thingy* she thought, snorting at herself in disgust. *Listen
to you. Your horse pulls up lame at a major show, and you turn three
all over again!*

The vet tried to lead Sizzlin' forward, but the big chestnut almost
fell on his face, acting like he was trying to set each hoof down
about a foot higher than ground level. Teri braced herself for the
worst, and it wasn't long in coming.

The veterinarian shook his head apologetically. He had no choice but
to have this horse removed from the show as unfit. He didn't have the
equipment with him to do a full neurological work-up, but he advised
her to see her vet as soon as she got the beast back home to Ohio.
That staggering and wobbling around could indicate a very serious
condition. There were many things that could cause neurological
damage, and it needed to be caught quickly if there were to be any
hope of reversing the effects.

Teri led her dejected, wobbly horse back towards his stall, fighting
back the tears as she thought about packing up and going home. And to
think she'd given up joining the others in an all expenses paid, 3
days/2 nights stay here in Toronto and a tour of the set of that
brand new TV show.....for this! She decided she'd kick herself for it
later when she didn't have a horse trying to take her legs out from
under her. She mournfully wondered what the other Vaqs were doing
right now.

==== continued in Part 2 ====

VAQS:  The Eleventh Hour (2/2)
Place: Tv Studios, horse show parking lot, Vachon's Church
Time:  immediately following part 1

The Eleventh Hour (2/2)

by Tabitha Carlson and Teri DeLong
with lots and LOTS of ideas from Marilyn the VaqShaman
and helpul suggestions hollered from the back of the bus :)

=====

"Hey!"  Lynn aprubtly pressed herself up against a full glass window
that stretched from floor to ceiling, revealing a courtyard outside.
"Oog uys...oog at."

"What is it with you and windows?"  Melissa put a hand on Lynn's
shoulder and pulled her back enough that they could understand her.

"Look," she repeated, "look at that." Everyone followed her gaze out
the window....and it got suddenly silent.

Triumphs.  Lots of them. Beautiful, sleek, wonderful Triumphs parked
in a line outside.

"Hey, looky!"  Naia bounced on the balls of her feet and grinned.
"We SEE, we SEE."
"No, that."  She pointed off to one side and a couple of the girls
tried to see what she was pointing at.

"What?"
"That."
"What?"
"That!"
"That?"
"Yeah!"
"Looky *that*?"
Naia nodded happily.
"But..."
"Isn't it sooo cuuuuute?"
"But..."
"It's all powder blue and shiny and just so cute!"
"That putt-putt?"
Naia nodded, her smile of triumph undeniable.

"Did one of the bikes have a baby?"
"No," Naia denied instantly, "it's a Vespa and I like it!"
"Bike had a baby."
Naia harumphed.

"Ladies?"

"OOoh, looky!  Gift shop!" The guide knew he'd lost all control and
only sighed, following the gaggle of women towards the gift shop.
They oohed and ahhhed and bought things galore for nearly an hour,
until he leaned in the door and reminded them, "It's raffle time."

"Oh, what's up for grabs?"
"It's a surprise.  Let's go find out, shall we?" As one, the girls
moved out of the shop with Angel whirring along in her chair amidst
them.

It only took a couple of minutes to lead the ladies outside where a
table stood at the fore of a crowd of people.  On top of the table
was a large box with a slot at the top where it looked like papers
were slipped in. Their guide handed each of them a ticket as they
neared the table, "Hold onto these and listen for the number."

"Ladies and gentlemen," a voice called out over the crowd, gaining
everyone's attention. "If we may have some quiet, we'll draw the
winning number."

At the table, opposite the crowd, their guide moved to stand behind
the box, his face congenial as he looked everyone over. All the Vaqs
peered at their tickets, wondering at the numbers on them.  They got
themselves together pretty quick and discovered that they had every
number between 1530 and 1543, except for 1531.

"Weird," Cloud mumbled under her breath after they'd made the odd
discovery. Their guide flipped open the top of the box and reached
in, ruffling all the tickets within thoroughly before pulling just
one out.

"The winning number is," he paused for effect, "1531!"

"Hey," Melissa groused, "that's just not fair.  All of them but
*that* one." The crowd muttered a little, but no voice sounded out in
response to the number.

"I bet they fixed it so no one could win."

Tricia wheeled Angel back towards the door when she spied something
poking out of the back pocket of one of the men that worked at the
studio. It looked suspiciously like...... She nudged Sarah and Janice
beside her and nodded toward the man's pocket.

"You thinking what I'm thinking?"  Sarah asked with a wicked grin.
"I bet I am." The trio wheeled Angel up until just in front of the
suspect fellow when Janice called out, "Hey, look!  It's *him*!"

Angel's eyes got wide and she looked wildly around, already oozing
out of her chair towards the man's feet in a slither of pure joy.

"I'm so sorry," Sarah moved around to the man's side, reaching out
with one hand towards Angel, "she just really really likes *him*."
Sarah bumped into the man's side by 'accident' and lost her footing
slightly, grabbing the fellow by the rear to gain her footing.

"Sorry, sorry," she muttered with a faux blush as she pulled her hand
off his backside.

Once Angel was plopped back into her seat, Sarah relinquished control
of the chair to Janice and slipped back into the crowd towards her
friends. She sidled up to Marilyn, slipping something into her hand.
The VaqShaman looked curiously into her palm...then grinned broadly
and handed the ticket off to Lynn.  She too looked at the ticket,
then raised it in the air and yelled loudly, "Got it!  I got it!
Right here!"

Lynn oozed through the crowd towards the stunned officials and
flashed the ticket at them.  "1531, right here, baby."

"Uh," was the response from their guide.  "Um..." He looked more than
slightly dubious. "May we see that?"
"You can see it all you want," she held firmly onto the ticket, "but
what's the prize?"

"It's uh..."one official was still stammering.
"This way, Ma'am," their guide nodded with a slight sigh before
moving away from the table.

With a triumphant grin, the girls followed, the ticket still in hand
after the officials got through looking at the number...1531. Her
friends falling into step beside and behind her, Lynn followed the
fellow around towards the courtyard they had seen earlier. He stopped
beside the first Triumph in line and turned to look at them.
"Ladies," how *had* they gotten that ticket?...," these are the
prizes."  He swept an arm out to indicate all the Triumphs.

It took exactly .05 nanoseconds for the girls to swarm around him and
lay claim to their prizes. All except for Naia, who swept her gaze
forlornly towards the lone Vespa sitting off to one side.

"Is something wrong?"  He asked the lone woman when she didn't all
but tackle him to get to the Triumphs.

Naia chewed on her lower lip and glanced at the Vespa.  "I like that
one."

Stunned into silence, their guide could only stare between the
scooter and the Triumphs, utterly confused. "But..." Waaaiiitt...this
could work out, he thought.  "Tell you what," he leaned down a little
to conspire with her, "if you like that better, I'll trade you what
would've been your Triumph for that Vespa." Naia's face bloomed into
a glowing grin and she nodded eagerly.

"Done."  He fished into his pocket and pulled out a single key,
letting it fall into her waiting hand.  "It's all yours."

With that, he claimed the last Triumph and walked it away from the
girls while happily humming to himself.

***********************

"Neurological damage, my sweet a--" Teri grumped at Sizzlin's
reflection in her rear-view mirror. She could just see his head
bobbing up and down as he contentedly munched his hay in the trailer
--a trailer which he'd loaded into with no hint of lameness or
wobbles. "Brain-damaged is more like it!" There was no reason for
them to be still sitting here, other than she just couldn't stand the
thought of leaving Toronto already. She'd tried to call Marilyn's
cell phone twice already to see how they were doing, but only got
voicemail, or worse, "The person you are trying to call is outside of
the calling area, or their phone is turned off." She'd been more than
half hoping she could hook up with them this weekend, since her plans
had been so abruptly changed.

She figured she'd try one more time. She glared at the cell phone
lying on the passenger's seat, willing it to be a "real" phone, but
to no avail. She reached for it gingerly, picking it up as you might
expect one to pick up a dead rat. Holding it arm's length, she
started pushing buttons. ONE of these damn things gives you a dial
tone....! Amazingly enough, she made it through the preliminaries and
actually dialed the VaqShaman's number again. She had to admit, speed
dial is pretty cool... but she hung up the phone in disgust when she
got the voicemail again.

She sighed again and swung her door shut....twice, since it didn't
close right the first time. She turned the key and held her breath,
waited as the engine chugged to life. She thumped the old Ford
affectionately on the dash. Couldn't complain too much; she'd only
paid $600 for her and she always started. Well..... ever since she
replaced the wiring harness, anyway. That travelling salesman that
had sold her the old truck never did say how he managed to fry the
entire electrical system. Good thing she was a mechanic and knew some
good junk yards.

She eased the old truck and battered horse trailer out of the parking
spot they were wedged into and pulled away from the buildings.
Heading out into the streets of Toronto, she caught a glimpse of
their reflection in a passing store window and she had to chuckle in
spite of her rotten day. Any Vaquera would have had to chuckle at
what it said on the driver's door. Yep, that old salesman she'd
bought her from, he sold hepa-filter vacuum cleaners door-to-door.
When he sold the truck, he'd peeled off the company name decal, but
the truck was so weathered you could still read the old lettering in
the faded paint.

Vacs-R-Us.

Sure, it was spelled wrong. But she couldn't bring herself to paint
over it.

Teri turned the radio up a notch and turned down a side street,
cringing slightly as a trailer tire jumped the curb. Since she was
here, she figured she'd see if she remembered how to find Vachon's
Church. It'd been three years since she was here last, and she didn't
get to see much of the town when she was here, seeing as how she
spent most of her time trapped in the RatPacker tunnels, and then
when she *did* find her way out, she'd spent a few more days
wandering around in a souvlaki-poisoning induced dementia. She was
pleased by the fact that she was actually recognizing landmarks. It
would be nice to think Vachon might actually be there, and even nicer
to think she might be able to hang out at the church for a couple of
days instead of driving straight back home. And she still hoped to
meet up with the other Vaqs that were floating around town here at
some television studio somewhere.

It rather quite surprised her that she did find the church in all
it's old run-down glory. She pulled the truck and trailer up into the
back parking lot, shut it off and climbed out, closing the door
behind her......twice, since it didn't close right the first time.
She gazed up at the stained glass windows, smiling. It was still
broad daylight, so there would be no sign of Vachon for awhile.

She was contemplating going inside, when there came a roar and a
rumble that she felt through the soles of her boots before she
actually heard it. If she didn't know any better she'd think.....

Before she could finish her thought, a herd of motorcycles roared
into the churchyard all around her. Triumphs, to be exact, what else?
Happy exclamations and flying tackle hugs ensued. Everybody was
talking at once, all trying to fill the other in on latest
happenings, when Teri slowly became aware of another sound that
tickled in her ear, something persistent and annoying enough that she
finally had to turn and find out what it was. She arched an eyebrow
at the sight of what could only be a Vaquera, complete with black
leather jacket(with a nice comfy quilty lining) riding some sort of
powder blue motorized scooter. The Vaq revved the motor up as she
drove it around the corner and into the parking lot with the other
vehicles.

"*What*.....is that?" Teri asked Tab quietly.

"That...is a Vespa," Tab answered just as quietly.

The Vespa revved an answer almost as quietly as the two Vaqs
themselves, in a quiet little putzedy-putzedy-putzedy
putzputzputzputzputz....

The two Vaqs locked eyes in mild amusement.

"We gotta do something about that."

======