Taking Chances, by E. L. Van Hine and L.H. Nicoll

[louisev]

well, you may never have seen anything like it in any fandom, but never having written any fan stories before this, I have nothing to compare to, Moia.  And also, writing with a somewhat "live" audience is a completely new experience for me!  particularly an audience so....

big!

Don't worry... I do feel guilty about finishing up the Saga, but that should ease somewhat!

[louisev]

Congratulations Laramie fans:  E & E is now #1 most viewed thread at Bettermost!!!!! *yay*

[yb]

What an achievement!  Well, I don't post much, but I certainly contribute in the viewing department.

[MaineWriter]

Congratulations Laramie fans:  E & E is now #1 most viewed thread at Bettermost!!!!! *yay*

Yoo hoo Louise...stats chick checking in....we have been the #1 most viewed thread for like, 3 or 4 days?  Okay, I'll forgive you, you are writing all the time, which we love....


L

[louisev]

oh. Last I saw we were like number 3 in posts or something.  I didn't see the number 1 thing until I was checking my own ranking in the top 10.

[Bigheart]

Yoo hoo Louise...stats chick checking in....we have been the #1 most viewed thread for like, 3 or 4 days?  Okay, I'll forgive you, you are writing all the time, which we love....


L

We sure do, Leslie 

OMG ~ that's so amazing! 

[MaineWriter]

For the re-readers, chapters 21-25 today.

http://louisev.livejournal.com/7884.html

Chapter 21 has the famous steak dinner at the Rose Hotel:


“Hey. Earth callin planet Del Mar. You in there boy?” Ennis turned to the voice and saw those grey eyes look into his. “You are a million miles away Ennis. You wanna eat or get to crawlin through the carpet straight away?”

“Eat, sure, that’d be good.”

Ellery smiled. “Unless you’d like to spend some more time in the art gallery here. It’s still my day off.”

“Uh, no.” He blushed, suddenly embarrassed, and then it struck him – that charm had been redirected from the receptionist and was now turned on him, and it felt like a ray of sunshine creeping over the mountains at dawn and suddenly striking his face, warming him to the bone. “Nope, just like ta see mountains is all.”

Ellery waved his hat toward the restaurant section of the hotel. “Then after you, your table awaits.”


Leslie

[MaineWriter]

We are going to have a lot of good quotes today, because these are some of my favorite chapters.

From Chapter 21:

“Shit.” Ennis grinned widely and shut the menu. “I feel like the King a Sweden.”

“King a Sweden doesn’t get no range fed Angus beef off the hoof, Ennis. Just consider it me makin good on the winin and dinin part a our association.”

Ennis looked back at the glittering eyes of the man across the table, and the hair rose on the back of his neck, and he couldn’t decide if he loved or hated how he felt at that moment, but before he had a chance to close his mouth, which had fallen open at Ellery’s last comment, a slip of a girl with a fancy lace-edged apron and lace coif over her blond curls had taken up station at the edge of their table.

“What kin I get you, Deputy Cantrell?” she said, her voice hardly a whisper.

“Me an my assistant here’ll have T-bone steak, with of course all the trimmins and biscuits an applesauce. That all right with you , Del Mar?”

Ennis felt another chill go through him with Ellery’s use of his last name, as though it really were an official dinner of some kind, and he nodded, his mouth paper-dry.


L

[MaineWriter]

The famous biscuits and gravy line, also from Chapter 21:

“Uh, medium, please, ma’am. An butter with the biscuits, no gravy.”

She scribbled hastily, nodding, then looked at Ellery, who wasn’t paying her any attention at all, and said “That sounds nice, make mine the same, but I would like some gravy. Need ta have somethin to dip my biscuits in.”

Ennis gulped, his eyes widening.

“Oh, drinks, you haven’t ordered any drinks.”

“I think we’ll be havin some of yer beers on tap, unless my associate would like otherwise,” Ellery replied smoothly, nonplussed by Ennis’s reaction.

“Uh. No. That’s. Fine....” he choked out, keenly aware of the gaze of the man facing him. Ennis watched the girl make her way silently across the almost-deserted dining room – it was still early for dinner – and gulped again, his throat dry.

“Why Ennis I think you like it when I talk dirty,” Ellery said, pitching his voice so low it was nearly a whisper, which almost made Ennis jump. “Course its only dirty if you think it is.”

“Ellery...”

“I said I wouldn’t lay hands on ya, but I refrained from promisin not to make provocative allusions at dinner.”

Ennis looked up at last, his face deeply flushed. “No one ever talked ta me like this in public, Ellery, I don’t know... what ta say.”

“Yer doin just fine, Ennis. I just love makin you blush. But if you want I kin stop now and go back to blatherin about what a dumbass Bill is and how stupid I am to get roped into his problems and his bar and his customers.” From the rapid change of topic, Ennis found himself able to breathe again, and realized Ellery was doing the equivalent of giving him body space, pulling his hand away to let him decide how he felt.


L

[MaineWriter]

Let's be friends, from Chapter 21:

“Because, my friend, I care about my work. It’s important ta me. Chasin ass is great but that isn’t in the big picture. You still got to have some meanin in life, and I get that from chasin bad guys an makin em pay for their misdeeds. Corny as hell and a big cliche. But it’s the truth, and that’s somethin Bill will never, ever get. The big picture.”

“Well I dunno, Ellery. I think I get that.”

Ellery smiled sadly. “Well then, you are the first man ta come along in a dog’s age who did. Maybe I ought ta make you my deputy after all. For real so to speak.”

Ennis laughed. “I haven’t even got a year a high school, Ellery. I’m as ignorant as Pete even if it don’t show.”

Ellery shrugged. “Or maybe I could make ya something else. A friend for example. You don’t suppose you’d care ta be my friend would ya Ennis? For the price of a T-bone steak maybe.”

Ennis raised his glass, his heart feeling full, and not at all jittery at this proposal. “That sounds like the right price, Deputy Sheriff.”

Just then, a busboy came by and slid their salads onto their placemats. “Woulda served em sooner but you seemed ta need ta talk. You want dinner straight away?” Ellery glanced over at Ennis, who nodded. Then he raised his glass, and leaned over, clinking it against Ennis’s. “Then here’s to a fair ending to an absolutely shitty Friday off, and to friendship,” and drank deeply, never taking his eyes off Ennis.


L