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More Than Eyes Alone Can See	By : Psnoo17 Category: M through R > Once Upon A Time In Mexico Views: 1450 -:- Recommendations : 0 -:- Currently Reading : 0
Disclaimer: I do not own Once Upon a Time in Mexico, nor any of the characters from it. I do not make any money from the writing of this story.

Chapter List
- 1-More Than Eyes Alone Can See
- 2-2
- 3-3
- 4-4
- 5-5
- 6-6
- 7-7
- 8-8
- 9-9
- 10-10
- 11-11
- 12-12
- 13-14
- 14-15
- 15-16
- 16-17
- 17-18
- 18-19
- 19-20
- 20-Index of Quotes
- 18
- 19
- 20
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In Washington, D.C.
�Hello?�
�I did it.�
�Excuse me?�
�I did it. The procedure was a success.�
�Logan?�
�Do you know anyone
else that started human trials on
experimental surgery lately?�
Ingrid Rochester rolled
her eyes behind her designer glasses.
�Well, now that you mention it . . .� She sighed and took a break from
transcribing some recent lab notes.
�Didn�t you perform that surgery nearly two months ago?�
�Yeah, but I wanted
results before I called you. You�re a
snob when it comes to that sort of thing.�
�Ha-ha. So, how�s the patient, besides being crazy
enough to submit to your care?�
The two college
friends talked for some time. Inge let
her mind drift through most of the conversation, not bothering to listen that
closely since she knew a copy of his notes and observations would be in her
hands n cln class=GramE>sooner or later.
How soon all depended on whether or noe dee decided to fly out to
LA. A break would be nice, but she was
so close to getting funding for a retrovirus project that she�d hate to leave,
even for a week. One only advanced in
the CIA if one was brilliant or a workaholic.
She grinned in pride; luckily she was the fir� �What did you just say?�
Logan
chuckled. �I know it�s hard to believe,
but I think that Sands actually deserves part of the credit. After all, without him, I wouldn�t have had
someone to operate on.�
Inge couldn�t
believe her ears. �You said �Sands�?�
�Yes. Perhaps you should go see if you have any
waxy build-up in your ears.�
She ignored
this. �What�s this guy�s first name?�
�I can�t tell you
that actually, and not because of doctor/patient confidentiality. He�s never told me what his first name is.�
�What�s on his
chart?�
��Giovanni,� but
Tess said that was a pseudonym.�
Inge had forgotten
that her old roommate had found this man.
If I�m right . . . �And she
found him in Mexico?�
�Mmm-hmm.� He sounded distracted, as if he were looking
over some test results.
�Do you know where
in Mexico?�
�Umm . . . yes, but
I can�t think of the name. It was the
site of that failed coup in November.�
It was him. �Culn?� Looking at
the nameplates on the doors as she passed them, she quickly found the one she
wanted. She opened the door and asked
the secretary, �Is he in?�
�Yes, but I�m
afraid that Director Colton is in a meeting.�
�I think he�d want
to be interrupted. I have important
news.�
�Under normal
circumstances that might be alright, but he�s meeting with Senator Sands and
his wife.�
This was her day �
truly, it was. �It�s about our agent
thatt MIt MIA in Mexico
three months ago.�
The secretary�s
eyes widened. After a moment of simply
staring at Inge, the woman got up and opened the doorthe the office. �Director Colton, Dr. Rochester is here to
see you.�
William Colton was
glad for the interruption. Senator
Sands, while an important man, was full of hot air at times. He lacked his son�s air of contained
energy. With the younger it was always a
surprise to see him sit still when you knew he was completely able of wreaking
serious havoc; the older man simply blustered.
�Dr. Rochester, this is highly unusual.
I trust you have a good explanation for your intrusion?�
She nodded, a confident and self-satisfied look in her eye. �I found him.�

In Los Angeles
A confident, blond
haired woman walked into the lobby of the medical plaza. She looked around, then
approached the receptionist. �I�m
looking for Logan Pierce, can you tell me where his
office is?�
The receptionist
lookhe whe woman over, noting the expensive suit, leather briefcase, and well
hidden look of superiority in her eye; she knew another doctor when she saw
one. �Dr. Pierce�s offices are on the
third floor.� Inge nodded her head in
thanks and headed for a bank of elevators, her expensive leather heels clicking
against the marble floors. Well, Logan certainly found himself a cozy position.
She rode the
elevator in silence, her thoughts awhirl.
She and Sands had had a brief but intense fling in the months before
he�d been sent to Mexico. To put things nicely, the break-up had been
neither pretty nor her idea. Actually, it was all his
father�s fault. The Senator had
unexpectedly shown up at Sands� apartment as they�d been preparing to go out
one night, and he�d mentioned how good they looked together and how glad he was
that Sheldon had given up on his �bimbos�.
Privately, Inge had agreed.
Sheldon was the type of man she was looking for � successful,
intelligent, privileged, and sexy as hell.
But Sands hadn�t taken his father�s comments well. He broke up with her the next day. And
three years go by without hearing one word from him, then
he practically falls into my lap. I
wonder if it�s supposed to be some kind of sign.
The doors opened
and she walked to the door marked with Logan�s
name, rapping on it with her knuckles.
�Come in.�
A half an hour
later, after greeting her old friend and getting the required chit-chat out of
the way, Inge murmured, �Remarkable,� as she looked over Sands� charts. �I can�t believe he�s shown this much
improvement in jtwo two months. And you
say that nearly all the nerves and tendons were still intact when he got to
you?�
�Mmm-hmm. Tess did a wonderful job with him while he
was on the medication.�
never
leave a patient before she was confident that they no longer needed her.� Logan
looked even more uncomfortable.
Satisfied, Inge let the subject drop.
�You know . . .� Inge looked at Logan
as he addressed her several minutes later; he had a mischievous grin on his
face. �Sands is scheduled for a check-up
today. I don�t suppose you�d be
interested in sitting in on my examination?
As a colleague, of course.�
�Of course.� They both knew he wanted to rub her nose in
his success. After all the times she
said he�d been daydreaming, she was willing to admit that she might deserve it. �I�d be delighted.�

Sands had never before considered that sight could be as
disorienting as blindness . . . but it was.
Now that he was starting to see again, he almost wished that he hadn�t
gone through with things. Almost. Once he progressed past the headache inducing
undistinguishable blur of light and color stage, he�d be glad to see
again. But for the moment it was a pain
in the kiester.
�Yo, Sands, let�s
go man.� For the thousandth time in the
past week alone, Sands cursed Tess for leaving.
For whE>who her family was. For leaving him to the care of �Carl,� his
perpetually cheerful nurse. If Sands was
honest with himself, he hated Tess for more than just that � he hated her for
leaving him. It�s your own fault she�s
gone. Or don�t you remember?

* * *
* *
Tess was nervous. She
didn�t like being nervous. Nervousness gave
her too much time to think about her actions and thoughts. Especially when it came to this man.
Just
go in and see him.
And if he doesn�t want to see me?
That�s
fine. He can�t see yet.
Tess rolled her eyes. For the past week, she�d been keeping up on
Sands� condition through phone calls and conferences. She�d never actually gone in to see him,
although Marcos had on several occasions.
But this morning things had changed.
This morning Logan had
called her and said that the nurses had said that Sands had been asking for
her. So here she was. We
didn�t exactly part on the best of terms.
What are you talking about? He asked you
to kiss him. I think he might be sweet
on you.
We both know I was talking about what
happened the night before his surgery.
The whole �Barillo revelation� thing?
Sorry. I forgot.
You�ve been trying so hard not to think about it that I didn�t want to
bring it up.
Tess didn�t believe
that for a moment. Instead of arguing
though, she went to the door of Sands� room.
There was a window in the door and she looked through it, watching
Sands. She couldn�t even tell if he was
awake or not.
�Can I help you,
doctor?� Tess turned to see Merrie at
her elbow. The nurse had been persistent
in her care of Sands.
�Umm . . . I don�t
want to disturb him if he�s asleep.�
�Do you want me to
go in and make sure the coast is clear?�
�Sure.� Tess watched as the younger woman walked into
the room. Immediately she knew that
Sands was awake; he remained in his reclined position, but his entire body
tensed. Merrie didn�t say anything as
she adjusted his IV drip and made a note in Sands� chart, but Tess knew he
recognized who was in the room by the way he relaxed. For the first time she wondered if she�d done
the right thing by staying away. Perhaps
if she�d even dropped by every now and then, he�d find it easier to relax.
Yeah,
and if you thought he was charming before, you�d love him now. The voice was incredibly sarcastic.
I can handle a bit of verbal abuse. Aren�t a few harsh words worth his peace of
mind?
Well, you can either stop
being yellow and go inside and find out for yourself, or you could keep looking
for reassurance from me.
That was a good
point. As Merrie came back out of the room
with a wink and an assurance that all was clear, Tess walked into the lion�s
den.

Sands lay quietly in his bed as the nurse left. Impatience and boredom had become second
nature by now, even though time was still inconsistent where he was concerned. More often than not he�d find his
consciousness drifting in a drug induced haze until someone came into the
room. He�d then have a few minutes of
coherent thought until they left, and then he�d fall back into the well of
thoughts that seemed to bubble with new information every time he looked into
it. Of course, he had probably just
forgotten most of it from the last time he could remember remembering anything.
Most of his
recurring or new thoughts centered around the woman who�d been at his side night
and day for all but the past week. He
wavered between relief that she was absent and anger that she was gone. He had no desire to really talk to the woman
now that he knew about her . . . family connections, but a small piece of him
resented not having her at his beck and call. The least she could do after everything else
that had happened was sit around and distract him until he was capable of doing
so himself.
The door shut. Sands waited for the echoes to die before
turning his mind and his ears to other things.
Silence. He moved his head,
detecting something. No.
Only near silence. There�s
someone in the room. He could hear
someone breathing over by the door. He
waited for them to speak or to move . . . nothing. Well, this
is interesting. Certainly more
interesting that anything else that had happened recently.
Sand didn�t address
whoever it was who was doing their best to imitate a
potted plant. Sooner
or later their patience would wear out because he had nothing better to
do than wait for them to give themselves away.
-Tap, tap, tap. Ta-tap, tap, tap- Sands
stopped listening as he realized who it was, instead rolling his head towards
the window. He could feel the sun on his
face, and even if he couldn�t see it yet, he was willing to take what he could
get. �I don�t suppose you brought my
cigarettes,� he drawled.
�No.� Her voice was quiet, but it carried across
the smallish room.
�Then why are you
here?�
�If I knew, I would
speak. I know little. I guess much.� He heard her walk partway across the room,
although she didn�t exactly come closer to the bed. �They told me that you wanted to talk to me.�
�Where would anyone
get that idea? Can you think of a reason
I�d like to talk to you?�
Tess had a funny
feeling in the pit of her stomach.
Something wasn�t right. His voice
was too . . . impersonal? Uninterested? Forged?
Tess couldn�t decide what was making her nervous, so settled on
tentatively speaking her mind. �His
mind, of man a secret makes,/I meet him with a
start,/He carries a circumference/In which I have no part,/Or even if I deem I
do �/He otherwise may know./Impregnable to inquest,/However neighborly.� To keep her hands from tapping, Tess hid them
behind her back where they started wringing.
�How would I know what you�re thinking unless you tell me?�
This irritated
Sands to no end. The woman was such a
coward. For once it�d be nice if she�d speak her mind instead of hiding behind
quotes. �It�d be too much to ask of you,
wouldn�t it?�
�What?� Tess didn�t understand.
�It�d be too much
to ask you to stop being a coward.� He
could hear her stunned silence. �I
suppose some traits breed true no matter how diluted the blood.�
�Se�or?� He almost laughed when he heard the whisper
of hurt in her voice. What right did she
have to be hurt?
�At least when your
father and sister manipulated people, they did it very openly. When they used you, you knew it. You can�t even do that. You get people to do what you want and they
never know. What did you get from
this? What was in it for you?�
�I didn�t do this
for me.�
�Maybe you find
comfort in telling yourself that, but we both know it�s not true.�
His words hurt.
They came dangerously close to the truth. �Why are you ��
�Tell me,
Teresa. Tell me. Did you take me in out of the goodness of
your heart, or was there another reason?
There was something else motivating you, wasn�t there?�
�No . . .�
�You�re a liar,
Teresa. Do you get a charge out of making
people dependent on you?�
�No. I ��
�You what? You�re pathetic? You�re useless? Ineffective?
Worthless?�
�You�re weak, Teresa. Your compassion will ruin you. I try to make you strong and this is the
thanks I get?� What had she been thinking
to come here? �I felt responsible. I spent my life being responsible for the
actions of my family. Whatever they did
had me at the root. So it was my fault
that they left you to die, and I . . . I accepted that. Everything I did was to make up for
that. I only wanted to give back what
they took.�
Her voice was
quiet, but dug into him with fiery claws.
He�d thought that venting his anger would make him feel better because
Tess had taken everything else he�d thrown at her with a calm eye . . . I suppose it�s nice to know the woman has
nerves to hit after all. That didn�t
explain why he didn�t feel better. �Get
out of here, Barillo.�
'> The name was the
equivalent of a slap in the face. For a
moment Tess could do nothing but stand frozen in her place, but then she
nodded. She understood. She couldn�t blame him for feeling the same
way she did. �I
see why you say that only men do evil, I think.
Even sharks are innocent; they kill because they must.�

He didn�t know who she was referring to: her
family or his cruelty. Yes, he was aware
that he�d been cruel, but at the moment he really didn�t care. Why should he?

When Sands didn�t reply, didn�t even acknowledge her, Tess knew that was
it. Quietly, she made her way to the
door and let herself out of his room. I will not cry. I knew what I was doing when I went into
there. I knew how he would feel as soon
as I realized he knew my last name.
Still, it was hard.

�T? Are you alright?�

Tess spun to find Logan behind her. She nodded. �Umm . . . I�ve taken a job in New York. I plan on being gone by the first of January. We�re going to need to find someone to take
care of Sands.� She left before the
stunned look could leave Logan�s face. She didn�t
want to talk. About anything. She wanted to go tend her wounds in private.

Logan stared after her for a moment before going into Sands�
room. �Well, whatever you were
attempting, it worked.�
* * *
* *

�Hey, Sands. We�re
here man. Let�s go.� Sands woke from his reminiscences and opened
his car door. Good riddance. There was no
reply. Why should there be when he
didn�t even start to believe he meant it?

�Well, everything certainly seems to be progressing
nicely.� Logan
made a note in his chart as Sands finished walking through an obstacle course;
the obstacles were large and brightly colored so they were hard to miss. This time through, Sands had managed to
navigate the course without brushing against a single object. �Just one more exercise and we�ll be done for
the day.� Sands nodded to hide a surge
of relief � his head was starting to pound unpleasantly, which was different
from the moderate pounding he felt most of the time.
Logan
hid his own sigh, although his was of frustration. Since Tess had left, Sands had become
withdrawn. Not that the man had ever
been congenial, but there had been times when his presence had been almost
bearable. Now the only times he spoke
anymore were to say something caustic. Although, he�s incredibly determined to
regain his sight as fast as he can.
Perhaps I�m just reading too far into things. �Come over here and have a seat.� Sand did.
�We�re going to combine two exercises into one, actually. We�re going to turn up the lights � just a
very small amount � and then we�re going to test your eyesight a bit.�
�I thought we were
already doing that, doc.�
�This more like a
classic eye exam. I have some pieces of
poster board that have been cut in half.
On them, letters, or numbers, or shapes have been printed in red, since
that�s the light frequency best seen by the human eye. We�re going to test how close things are
before you can focus on them and how far away they can be before you can�t
recognize them.�
They did this long
enough that Sands� headache became literally blinding. He couldn�t focus his eyes at all,
anymore. Logan
noticed this when his patient stopped cooperating altogether. �I guess that�s enough for today, then.�
Sands barely bit
back the obscene comment he was going to make in reply to that. Instead, he rolled his head back on his neck
and blindly stared at the ceiling, letting everything go completely out of
focus. The light still hurt, but not as
badly as it had when the bandages had first been taken off. Then the pain had been so bad that he�d had
to bite back a moan, even though no more light had been in the room than the
light cast by a small candle. The room
he was in now was lit by dim sunlight.
Natural sunlight. The shades on
the windows were controlled by computer to simulate different strengths of
sunlight � at the moment they were a step above dusk.
The door opened and
Sands listened as a pair of heels came into the room. There was something vaguely familiar about
the person�s gate, but it wasn�t recognizable enough for Sands to know who it was � which meant it wasn�t anyone he�d met since the
Day of the Dead. He recognized all those
footsteps. And there was no hesitation
to make him think that perhaps his memory wasn�t as good as he thought it
was. His interest roused enough to make
him ask, �Who�s your friend, doc?�
�A colleague of
mine. We went to med school together �
heck, we grew up together � and she�s actually a friend of Tessa�s as well.�
I won�t hold it against her. �While the background information is
appreciated, a name would be appreciated even more.�
�Oh, sorry. This is Dr. Rochester.� Sands remembered where he recognized those
footsteps from and he held back the desire to laugh. This was unbelievable. �Known to her underlings as Ingrid
Rochester.�
Inge shot a look at
Logan, but he shrugged. She shook her head and addressed Sands. �Hello Sheldon.�

Logan had left
his patient ans frs friend alone some time before. The moment Inge and greeted Sands he�d felt
awkward and in the way, so he�d excused himself. Now the two were engaged in a standoff of
sorts.
�You�re looking
well,� Sands addressed the dark, human-shaped blur at the other end of the
room. I see you�re still bleaching your
hair.�
�I see you�re still
a jackass.�
Sands
chuckled. �Sorry, rubia, but things
don�t change that much.� He was glad to
see that she was still upset with him over their sudden breakup. �Don�t tell me you�re still holding a grudge
after more than three years.�
�No, no
grudge. I simply don�t like you.� Inge was irritated. Nothing changed this man. Not even having his eyes scrambled in his
sockets. �They sent me down to evaluate
whether you should be taken back to DC immediately or left here to finish
recuperating.�
�Ah, eager to get
me back now that I�ve risen from the dead?�
�They�re not
viewing it as anything that spectacular.
Just another agent emerging from the ranks of those gone MIA. I don�t think director Colton
is going to be happy to learn that you�ve been in the States for over two
months without sending some sort of notification that you�re alive. Your parents have been riding the poor man
rather hard to get some news of you.�
Sands grimaced. �Before I left,
the Senator was pressing for marines to go in and search you out, despite the
fact that the trail would have gone cold by now.�
There was an
uncomfortable silence between the two.
Sands, of course, reveled in it, pulling out a pack of cigarettes and
lighting one. Inge stood across the
room, feeling irritation buzzing under her skin. Sands smiled . . . it was good to be in
control.

In Fairmont, New York
Tess took a break
from arranging the latest batch of new furniture to arrive at her house. For the first few weeks after coming to New
York, she and the children had lived in a three
bedroom apartment while she tried to find a house. It�d been a struggle just to decide how much
she could afford to spend, and she�d spent one entire afternoon on the phone
with her attorney trying to figure out how much money she had available to
her. The final figure had been
considerably higher than she�d thought � it turned out that Barillo had never
changed his will . . . the will that listed her as the primary beneficiary if
Ajedrez was also dead. The news that she
had nearly a hundred million dollars in off-shore accounts had kept her sitting
in shock for another afternoon. Not that
she had access to that much money � half of that was in accounts that were
monitored by the cartel and she couldn�t take money out of them without
alerting �the family.� But the rest of
it was in her personal accounts, which she did
have access to.
The next morning she�d started looking for a house that she could feel
comfortable in.
It�d taken a month, but she�d eventually
found the house she and the children were now living in. She, the children, and Cora Mendez. Cora was the daughter of Tina, Logan�s
personal assistant. Cora was also a
registered nurse who specialized in home care for the . . . mentally impaired,
or at least that�s what she wanted to specialize in. No one had taken her on yet because of her
young age. At twenty-two, she was nearly
a decade younger than Tess, but Tess had looked over
her qualifications and recommendations and had decided that the woman was just
what she needed. Cora had needed a job
and Tess had needed someone to help her look after the children and be on hand should . . . should the balance ever tip.
Now, five months
later, Tess was ready to admit that the woman was a lifesaver. The children adored her, she had a nearly
bottomless well of energy, and she wasn�t daunted by Tessa�s confession of
being a schizophrenic.
She�s
obviously not a very bright woman. Tess
ignored that comment, instead surveying what she was coming to think of as her
home.
The house was
large, but it had a distinctly Spanish flavor to it that she found comforting:
red-tile floors, stucco walls, exposed beams.
Her favorite feature were the humongous floor to ceiling windows in the
living room. There was a large kitchen
that Tess was sure she�d never come close to using completely. Ursula Le Guin
Author�s Thanks:
thanks go to everyone who ever reviewed, even if it was just once. The encouragement I got from the quotes that
were sent in, or the one line reviews, or the humongous reviews, was what kept
me going. The urges, the threats, the nagging
. . . thanks to you all. Now for the
reviews for the last chapter:
Scarlett
(Scarlett! *smack* Sorry mate, couldn�t resist. I�m glad to hear that you�ll be reading,
although I wouldn�t mind reading another chapter of your fic. ^_^); The Flaming Chia
Pet (I�m glad you�re saving your tomatoes.
I get the feeling you�ll like the next fic. Now that I�ve successfully written one
without romaromance . . . well . . . not sure how much romance I�ll be writing, per se, but there will be some
relationship stuff going on. : P); sidhe_ranma (yes, but ff.net wasn�t cooperating with me, and the
chapter was displaying in two different fonts and font sizes, so I had to
delete the chapter and repost. It was
annoying, to say the least. Thanks for the
complements.); Digital Diamond (I
think I can safely say that your reviews have �flair.� ^_^ Yes, a sequel that I will post as soon
as I finish this. And Jessica � well,
she noses into everyone�s business, not just Tessa�s. I like her just because she�s so different than everyone else I�ve written so far. But she won�t make too many appearances. And the first on your favorite�s list? I�m very honored.); Isola (Don�t worry! I posted it.
It�s up, or it had better be.); Nimwen (oh, my ideas roll so fast that they get mixed up and then I have to untangle them. That�s what my problem is. ^_^); Satisdee (yes, hmm, enormous energy. Yes, Chia terrified
me. : P I hope this chapter lives up to
expectations.); CaptainJackSparrowsGirl
(yes, more, a sequel. I hope everyone
has caught on to that by now. ^_^); Pixy (new computers are fun. : D As for waiting
a month to post the new story . . . I honestly think I�d be killed in effigy by
then. You reviewers can be brutal if
your obsessions don�t get fed.); and Blank
(yes, I caught that little mistake as well, and I�ll fix it once I post the
final copy of this story. That�ll be in
a week or so � there�s a lot of story to read through and fix.)
And new reviewers � Shinneri-chan (you wouldn�t be
the first to be obsessed, and hopefully you won�t be the last.); Kontara (I
really don�t try to make people cry, but it�s always a plus. ^_^ As for your lack of viewing OUATIM � I
like to think my Sands is an accurate interpretation of Sands, but it all
depends on the reader, I guess.); Crystal
Symphony (thanks for the quotes, and thanks for the complements. I�m always amazed the people sit down and
read something this long � it can be daunting.); and Lorelei Lee (I�m not a quick, fluffy, romance type of girl � which
isn�t to say that I won�t be moving into some smut-like territory, but it�ll be
just as painful and confusing and angsty and full of
substance as the rest of the story. I�ve
written some preliminary scenes and run them by people, and they seem to like the
character building/informational stuff I�ve thrown in with the sex. We�ll see what actually makes it here
though. ^_^ I�m so glad you found Sands to be in
character, and Jess . . . well, apparently she�s one of those people you either
love or hate. Glad I got her character
written down that well.)
And last, but never least, more thanks and gratituhan han I
can ever give to Ashley, who stepped
forward to be my beta. And who, despite
ice storms, evil computers, bad job hours, school, and family, has been sending
me beta copies full of caught typos and grammar mistakes. Girl, you are a lifesaver, and I look forward
to working with you on �Fallen.�
- 18
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More Than Eyes Alone Can See