Fandom: Houston Knights
Series: Other Stories
Rating: NC17
Pairing: Joe/Levon
Archive: NO
Title: Subterranean Homesick Blues Part Two
Author: Starwinder
e-mail address: starwinder2of7@gmail.com

Part Two

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It was late afternoon before they reached the cabin. Like the tree house it was old, perhaps not as old as the tree house but at least a hundred or a hundred and fifty years old. It was built of logs and stone. At one time it might have had glass windows but if so, they had been broken out and never replaced. Wooden shutters covered the window wells now. A stone fireplace provided heat, light and a place to cook. An ancient table sat in front of it, with an old three-legged black cauldron on it.

Someone at some time had cleverly diverted a part of the creek so that it flowed through a wooden trough into the cabin and back out to the stream. Joe examined the arrangement with an amazed look on his face. "Man, whoever did all this was a smart person. You got running water. You got a bathtub. It won't be a lot of work to heat water in that cauldron and take a bath, or wash the clothes."

"Yeah," Lundy grinned, "and if we keep messing up clothes at the rate we have today, we're gonna have to wash'm."

Joe grinned, "So, why not just not wear any?"

"You are a horny toad, ain't ya? You go walking 'round here naked all day and you won't be able to walk at all time our vacation's over."

"Won't be the only one," Joe purred, moving closer.

"Back off, Boy! We gotta get settled 'fore nightfall. Gets plumb cold up here then. If'n you got energy to spare, go chop some wood. We're gonna need it. There's an ax around here somewhere."

Joe groused but obeyed. Lundy was pleasantly surprised to find that his partner knew how to chop wood, making quick work of producing enough firewood for a couple of days. While he was doing that, Levon swept out the cabin and straightened up. There wasn't a lot to do but it looked like some small animals had been making themselves at home in the cabin and he cleared out the mess they'd made, opening the shutters to let the place air out.
By sundown, they'd finished their work, cooked and eaten. Lundy walked out on to the narrow porch of the cabin and stood watching the sun sink down below the rim of the canyon, leaving the canyon floor in darkness. LaFiamma came and stood behind him, slipping his arms around the cowboy's waist.

"Beautiful place, Lundy." He said softly.

"Didn't really think you'd like it. Ain't civilized. No modern conveniences." Lundy leaned back into his lover's arms.

Joe chuckled, "I was a Marine, for awhile, about three years. Compared to some of the places I've been, this is very civilized, very comfortable."

Levon turned to look up at his partner, "You never mentioned that before."

"I was in a special unit. Covert Ops. I'm not supposed to talk about it. If you sent off an inquiry through the HPD computer all you'd get back would be my name, rank and serial number. Everything else is classified."

Lundy stared at him, studying his partner's face. Finally he said, "LaFiamma, how old are you?"

"What?"

"How old are you?" Lundy asked again, "You've been in Houston three years. You were a detective in Chicago for four years, a uniform for three. You said you took a year of law school. You gotta have four years of college before law school. That's fifteen years worth of living. Now you're telling me that you were a Marine for three years. I never thought to ask before, just assumed you were some younger'n me. You act like a kid sometimes. I just would like to know ..."

LaFiamma smiled and shrugged. "It's all right. I never figured it mattered. I'll be thirty seven on my birthday."

"You're just a year younger than me? You look ... ."

"I take good care of myself. No big deal ... is it?"

"No. I ... actually I'm kinda glad, we're about the same age." He hesitated, "Though I reckon maybe I've made a fool of myself, treating you like a kid when you ain't all that much younger'n me after all."

Joe reached out and pulled him back into his arms, "Like you said, Cowboy. Sometimes I act like a kid. If I minded you treating me like one, I would've said something sooner. I liked the way you treated me, like a beloved kid brother. I was the first born son, never had a big brother to look out for me. I was the one that did the looking out for. With you I could just relax and let you be big brother. Liked it, till I fell in love with you and wanted more than that."

He hugged Lundy close. "Let's go inside. Try out that tub. Bath each other. Make a little love. Sleep together, naked and warm, all cuddled up."

"Sounds like a plan." Lundy murmured.

They went inside.

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Knowing that they'd need at least a day and a half to get back through the caves and a half a day to get back to Houston, they knew that they could only stay at the cabin four days. They had two weeks but they'd taken two days before leaving for the caves and would need at least one day, maybe more, to get back into a working mood.

The time passed quickly. They spent a lot of it making love or just lounging around in bed, talking and laughing. They fished in the creek and cooked their catch over an open fire on the bank. There was a place where the creek widened out and slowed down, making a great swimming hole and they splashed around in it and then lay up on a big rock and sunned, naked, ending up making love there.

The last day in the cabin dawned, overcast, with the threat of rain looming. They packed, closed up the cabin and hiked back up to the tree, hoping that they would make it into the shelter of the caves before the bottom fell out. Climbing it they both found themselves thinking about the day they'd come into the canyon. Reaching the tree house they decided to take a break and eat lunch before going on into the caves. It hadn't started raining yet and they thought they had time before it did.

Joe sat cross-legged on the floor of the tree house, smiling at Lundy as they ate their fish sandwiches.

"What are you grinning about, Boy?" Levon demanded, as if he didn't know.

"Just remembering."

"'Membering what?" Again as if he didn't know.

Joe laughed. "You, on your knees on a tree branch, begging to be screwed." He laid his sandwich down and launched himself at Lundy, "Me moaning and begging for your cock, right here in this tree house." He took Lundy's sandwich and laid it aside, pushing his partner down and crawling on top of him kissing him. "Do it again, Cowboy. Fuck me." His voice was heavy with passion.

"We ain't never gonna get back to Houston if I have to stop every five miles and nail you, Boy!" Lundy groused ... but he did it anyway.

They climaxed to the sound of thunder rolling over the tree and dressed as the first drops started to fall. They had to run to make the caves without getting soaked.

Once inside, Joe grabbed Levon, laughing as he turned them back to watch the rain coming down in sheets just outside the mouth of the cave. He pulled his partner close and kissed him. "Don't know how I'm gonna keep my hands off of you at work now." He moaned, " I kept thinking, the heat'd wear off, wouldn't want you all the time after a while. It ain't happened."

"Same here." Lundy confessed. "Reckon we'll just have to hope that when we get back to work, have other things to think about, we'll be able to back off a little." He slipped his arms around Joe holding on tightly, resting his head against his partner's broad chest.

For a few minutes they just stood there, clinging to each other. "God! How I wish the world was different!" Joe murmured. "I'd marry you, invite all our friends to the wedding. We could hold hands, kiss in public. No hiding, no worrying. I love you so much. I'm so sorry it can't be that way."

"Not your fault. Just the way things are. I love you, too. Glad we had this time, this place. This has been the happiest week of my life."

"Mine, too, Cowboy. Mine too." Joe kissed him gently then pulled back. "I suppose we'd better go."

"Yeah," Lundy agreed and turned to lead the way into the cave, taking out his flashlight and turning it on.

OOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO

Several hours later they sat down to rest on a rock where they'd rested once on the way to the canyon.

As LaFiamma sat down his foot bumped against something. Shining his flashlight down at the floor of the cave he frowned, "Lundy, look at this." He reached down and picked up the object, holding it out to his partner.

"Looks like a kid's toy." Lundy said, regarding the white stuffed bear.

"Coca Cola polar bear." LaFiamma confirmed, pointing to the coca cola bottle the bear was holding. "It's practically new, too." He shined his light back on the ground, "Footprints here." He shook his head. "This is a little kid, Lundy and no adult footprints. How'd it get in here?"

"Lots of holes a young'n this small could crawl through into the caves. Grown up couldn't get through." Lundy was shining his light around, following the tracks back where they came from. "This passage here, that the kid came out of, leads back toward the Terrace Garden, but it ain't passable, not by an adult." He turned to shine his light along the trail of footprints, following them in the direction that they were going this time.

He shook his head, "Ain't real sure where this passage goes. Do know that it narrows up ahead a ways, be awful tight. You'd have to get down on your belly, wiggle through. Know how you feel about that ... ." He trailed off.

LaFiamma looked down at the footprints, "We sat on these same rocks four days ago. None of this was here then, not the bear, not the footprints. This kid came along after that. There's no way of knowing how long it's been in here other than that it wasn't here then." He paused then went on thinking out loud. "We could go on out and send help back but the kid could be dead by then or wander into a passage that no adult could get through." He looked up at Lundy, "I don't think we have a choice here. We have to try and find the kid."

Lundy nodded, pleased that his partner and lover could and would, as always put his own fears aside for the sake of helping someone. "Let's go then." He picked up his pack and started off, shining his light down at the cave floor, following the footprints.

LaFiamma followed him.

An hour later they reached the narrow part of the passage that Lundy had warned LaFiamma about. They could hear the child crying somewhere up ahead.

Lundy tried calling to the child but he or she didn't answer, just kept sobbing. Turning back to his partner he said, "We're gonna have to crawl through. The kid's too tired or too scared for us to get it to come out to us." He gave Joe a sympathetic look, "I can go on alone, bring it back here ... ."

LaFiamma shook his head. "I'll be all right. Kid might need first aid. I'm better at that than you are. Got some stuff in my pack for emergencies."

"All right. Just remember to stay relaxed. Push yourself along with your toes, arms over your head, pushing the pack ahead of you."

"Got it. You go first. If you have to you can pull me through the last if I get hung up. Don't wanna get stuck and block you from getting through."

Lundy nodded and dropped to his belly and started through the passage. LaFiamma followed, trying not to think about what he was doing, concentrating on the sound of the weeping child. It seemed to take forever before he was finally through the narrow tunnel and Lundy turned back to pull him out into another cave. This one was small only about ten to twelve feet across.

The kid was lying in a heap on the far side of the cave, crying softly. It was a little girl, about four or five years old. She was wearing jeans and a t-shirt, with sneakers.

Lundy approached her slowly not wanting to frighten her, "Hi," he said gently, "I'm Levon," he gestured to LaFiamma, "This is my partner, Joe. We're police officers. Can you hear me, honey?"

She didn't move or answer.

Joe moved closer. He reached out and turned her head, so that he could see her eyes in the light from Lundy's flashlight, they were open and leaking tears but unfocused. He felt her face and then her arms, "She's cold, Lundy. Get me those heat retaining blankets outta your pack."

While Lundy got the blankets, Joe finished checking her over, "Doesn't look like she'd got any broken bones or injuries. Probably just got hungry and cold."

She stirred as he lifted her and laid her on the blanket, tucking it around her. "D-D-Daddy!" she cried out and raised her arms to him.

He lifted her, cradling her in his arms, "Sorry, kiddo, I'm not your daddy, but I will do my best to get you back to him."

He shook her slightly, "Can you hear me, sweetie?" he asked, "What's your name?"

"M-M-Mary L-L-Lisabeth." She muttered.

"Are you hungry, Mary Lisabeth?"

"Hungry."

"Let's see if you can eat something. Do you have any idea how long you've been in here?"

"A long time." She clutched at his shirt but it slipped out of her hand.

LaFiamma reached out and took her hand. "Mary Lisabeth I want you to do something for me. I want you to squeeze my hand just as hard as you can, okay?"

"'kay." Her hand closed, on his, weakly, very weakly.

He looked over at Lundy, "She's awful weak. We gotta get some food in her before we do anything else. There's some canned fruit in my pack. They've got pull ring tops. Open a can. Let's try to get the juice in her if nothing else. The pineapple is packed in heavy syrup. That'd be the best. Sugar will give her some quick energy, then maybe we can feed her the pineapple chunks."

Lundy opened the tin of pineapple and handed it to Joe. Mary Lisabeth drank the syrup off it eagerly. Joe shifted so that he was sitting with his back to one of the cave walls, holding her on his lap. She was starting to warm up inside the blanket and appeared more aware.

Joe had Lundy bring over the toy polar bear.

"Is this yours, honey?" Levon asked.

"My bear!" She reached for it.

Lundy gave it to her, smiling. They still had to get her out of the caves but, it seemed like she was gonna be all right. Maybe she hadn't been in the caves too long after all.

After she finished the pineapple, Joe asked if she wanted anything else to eat. When she said no, they decided it was time to move out.

Lundy had examined the cave they were in while Joe fed her. Now he turned to LaFiamma, "Only way out is the way we came. I'll go first. You put the packs on one of the blankets and tie a rope 'round it. Give me one end. I'll pull them through, then do the same with her. You bring up the rear, with the other end of the rope. That way any thing gets stuck we can work it back and forth till it's clear. She oughta come through easy. Long as she don't panic."

"I'll talk to her. Keep her calm." LaFiamma said.

Lundy gave him a look that asked, 'Who's gonna keep you calm?' but didn't say it aloud. Joe would do what he had to do to save the kid.

They made it back through the passage and then back to the place where they had found the bear. Joe was carrying the little girl along with his pack. He sat down to rest on the same rock he'd sat on before.

Lundy shined his flashlight down at the tracks the girl had left before. "I'm gonna follow these back up this passage far as I can, see it I can find how she got in here. You might try feeding her some more of that canned fruit you've got while I'm gone. Try and get her strength up."

Lundy was gone for the better part of an hour. When he returned Mary Lizabeth was asleep in Joe's arms. He was rocking her gently.

He looked up as Lundy rejoined them, "Find anything?"

"She came in past one of the spots a grown up can't get through. Don't know exactly how she got in here. We'll just have to take her out through the Terrace Garden, way we came in."

Joe nodded. "Better get going. Somebody is probably pretty worried about her."

Lundy nodded. "Was hoping to camp at the Terrace again but we'd better just keep moving, get her on out of here. If we don't run into anybody looking for her, we can call the local sheriff on the Jimmy's radio."

They picked up their packs and moved out. Intent on getting the child out of the caves and finding her family, they picked up the pace, making much better time than they had coming through the caves on their way in. They didn't run into anyone searching the caves.

It was almost nightfall when they exited the caves and made their way to where they'd left the Jimmy. Lundy picked up the police radio's mike and thumbed it on. "Any law enforcement unit. This is Houston PD unit 9214. Please respond."

"This is Sheriff Langley of the Uvalde County Sheriff's Department. What can I do for you?"

"This is Detective Sgt. Levon Lundy. HPD's Major Crime Unit. My partner and I was doing a little spelunking on our vacation. On the way back out we come across a child wondering in the caves. Female, Caucasian, 'bout four or five years old, blonde with--"

"Thank God! Is she all right? We've been huntin' her for two days! Where are you?"

"Seems okay. Been sleeping a good bit, figured she was just wore out. We got a little food in her. Exited only place I knew for sure we could get out. The old Terrace Garden exit. We're parked off of County Rd 334 up toward Turkey Mountain. Ain't for sure we're in Uvalde County."

"Probably not. We've got a chopper up with a med team. I'll send it that'a way. Ya'll stay put. Tell me what to have them look for."

"You're looking for a red GMC Jimmy. Parked right near a big old cactus. Thing's gotta be about twelve feet tall. Only one around here."

"Has that cactus got three main branches? Looks like a man standing with his hands up?"

Lundy turned to study the plant in question. "It's got three branches. Reckon it'd look something like that."

"That's the 'ole scarecrow'. Know right where it is. Chopper pilot does too. Should be there'n no more than ten minutes."

Lundy stood beside the Jimmy watching the sky. LaFiamma sat inside, holding Mary Lizabeth. She was awake now and sat up, turning to look at him.

"My daddy has blue eyes." She announced.

Joe smiled at her. "Same color as yours I bet."

"Uh-huh. Same as mine. I'm daddy's girl!"

"How'd you get lost, sweetie?" Joe asked softly.

"I was playing. It rained. Hard. I hide."

"Yeah, well you hid a little too good, sweetheart." Joe said softly.

She leaned back against him and he stroked her hair.

"You'll be back with your daddy soon, kiddo." Joe murmured rocking her gently.

Minutes later they heard the sound of the chopper approaching. It set down on the road and Joe carried the girl over. Lundy followed. The pilot shut down the engine as the paramedics checked her over, since it didn't seem that she was in need of immediate evacuation.

Joe watched worriedly as the medics checked her. One finally looked up. "Ya'll did a good job. She's a little dehydrated. Needs some food and water. Other than that, she looks good. We'll fly her back to the hospital and her parents. Doubt that they'll even keep her at the hospital after they check her out."

Lundy touched Joe's arm. "If you wanna ride with her in the chopper. I can pick you up at the Uvalde County Sheriffs Office. We'll have to make a report any how."

Joe looked at the medics, "Would it be okay for me to ride along? I'd kind of like to see that she gets back to her parents."

The paramedics exchanged looks among themselves then nodded, "Sure, why not? Ya'll saved her."

Joe climbed aboard the chopper and Levon turned to go back to the Jimmy. He sat and watched the chopper head out before cranking the vehicle and driving off toward Uvalde County.

He didn't realize how tired he was till he pulled in to park at the Uvalde County Sheriff's station and got out of the Jimmy. He felt like he'd been hit by a truck. He went inside, stepping up to the desk he started to introduce himself and ask to see the sheriff but as soon as she saw him the female deputy grinned and said, "You must be Sgt. Lundy."

He frowned, "How'd you know?"

She chuckled and gestured toward his clothes. "Mud stains match your partner's. Sgt. LaFiamma is with Sheriff Langley now. You just go on in." She pointed towards a door. "Right through there."

Sheriff Ben Langley was a big man, well over six feet tall and heavy set. He leaned back in his chair, motioning, Lundy to have a seat, "Was just tellin' your partner how lucky that little girl was that you two were in the right place at the right time. Doubt that we'd have ever found her in time. Even if it'd occurred to us that she might have wondered into the caves."

"We didn't find how she got in. Passage she came down, was too narrow for either of us to get through. We crossed her trail a good four hours beyond the Terrace Garden cave. Followed her tracks to a cul de sac cave more'n an hour past there. Took us near six hours to pack her out through the Terrace Garden but that was the only path I knew I could get out through. Couldn't risk getting lost in there with her."

"According to Highway Patrol records that Jimmy of yours was parked there at the Scarecrow since, last week. Ya'll in the caves all that time?"

Joe and Levon exchanged a glance, then Lundy shrugged. "No, sir. Long time ago, my grandaddy took me through those caves, to a canyon. Far's I know ain't no other way into that canyon. There's an old cabin in there. We camped in it for four days."

"Lost Canyon. Thought it was a legend. Never met anybody that'd been in it."

"You have now."

Langley nodded. "You two, boys did a real good thing, saving that child. However, you decide to go back to Lost Canyon, I'd appreciate if you'd stop by, let me know you're gonna be there and how long. We can keep an eye on your car for you ... and if something should happen, you don't come out, we'll have an idea where to look for you." He paused and surveyed them. "Now you look plumb tuckered out. Why don't I call across to the motel, get you a couple of rooms for the night, on the sheriff's department."

"Ain't no need for that. We can get a room."

"No problem. Be a pleasure." He watched that look pass between them again and smiled.

Lundy shrugged. "One room's fine. Two beds." He added.

The sheriff nodded. "Ya'll head on over. I'll call the desk clerk. It's up the street to the left as you go out the door. Only one on that side of town. You can't miss it."

OOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO

An hour later, Joe was laying in the middle of the king-size bed, laughing.

Lundy was trying to pretend that he was annoyed that the sheriff apparently had screwed up the room reservation, when actually he was delighted with the room they had. Delighted with the room, delighted with the king size bed, delighted with the hot tub in the adjoining room and most of all delighted with his happily naked partner flopping around on that king size bed.

Joe rolled over and leaned off the bed to pull open the drawer of the bedside table, displaying his beautifully rounded ass for Levon. He pulled out a hand full of condoms and a tube of lube, rolled back over and tossed them at his partner. "You know, Lundy, I think that the sheriff must have given us the local whore's private suite. There's all kinds of kinky stuff in here. You see that dildo in the top drawer of the dresser?"

"Don't need no dildo. Got my own equipment!" Lundy declared, said equipment bobbing in front of him as he approached the bed his lover lay on.

"And very nice equipment it is, too." Joe chuckled reaching out to grab it and cover the head with his mouth.

They ended up sleeping past check out time the next morning. Since they had to pay for another night they decided to use it.

It was along about two a.m. of the second night that the hotel clerk called up to say that the neighbors would appreciate it if they turned down the stereo, and if they couldn't turn it down, could they please find something besides 'Subteranean Homesick Blues' to play on it! For some reason that set the two men off into gales of laughter but they did turn it off. Not that it got much quieter. Some of the more staid neighbors might have preferred the music to the uninhibited, moans, groans and passionate cries that the music had been masking.

They ended up driving back to Houston at night after the next day, arriving just in time to shower, change and get to work on time.

Everyone commented on how relaxed they looked, what a good vacation they must have had. Nobody could figure out why they kept bursting out laughing for no apparent reason. The word 'tree' seemed to be a particularly effective laugh trigger.

The End.