"Liam!" Patrick yelled cheerfully as he went towards his long time friend with open arms.

"Patrick Parker," Liam moved towards him with a charming smile. "As I live and breathe".

The two men met each other and wrapped their arms around each other in a warm hug, patting thier backs while at it.

Patrick pulled back and began to observe Liam, getting a good look at him.

"You haven't aged a day, have you?" Patrick teased.


"It's the African food I guess", Liam chuckled. "You know they're completely organic down there."




Claire, Donovan, Larry and Brent stood and observed from far behind the two men on the old airfield where Liam's helicopter had landed. There were also some deputies around to offer security.


"Wow", Larry said as he narrowed his gaze to get a good look at the man Patrick was talking to in the distance. "He's hot."


Brent and Donovan shot Larry an incredulous look the moment he had said those words, but Claire's eyes were still fixed ahead.

As much as she hated to admit it, Larry was right. The man who was standing out there with Patrick was quite good looking, even from the distance. The way his pitch black hair was being tugged by the wind. The way he smiled, and even the way he looked at Patrick while talking to him.


There were two other people who got down from the Chopper far behind Liam. Claire could make out a lean man who looked a lot younger and a black man, whom Claire had no doubt in her mind, was an African native.


Patrick spun to them and gestured towards them far across, before he and Liam began to move over.


"Shit", Larry uttered in a nervous and uneasy tone as he pulled his hands out of his pockets. "He's coming this way."
He held his palm up to his face and blew a breath on it to make sure his breath was okay, then he tilted his gaze and caught Brent staring at him.


"What?", Larry uttered.


"You're really freaking me out right now," Brent frowned.


"Liam..," Patrick said as he finally got to them and then gestured towards Claire. "This is Dr. Claire Hayes."

Claire's eyes met that of Liam's with a polite smile. She felt her stomach flip a little when she saw the way his blue eyes rested on her face. He even looked younger up close. He looked like he was in his late thirties, or early forties at most.
Claire noticed a white streak of grey on his hair, which strange enough, made him even more appealing.


"...She used to be the medical director of Cherrywood Memorial, before she abandoned us and went to New york," Patrick gave a friendly chuckle.


Claire smiled at what Patrick had said and looked at the ground below her, before she raised her eyes to meet Liam. She felt her breathing pause a little when she noticed his eyes were still on her; as if she was the only thing that mattered at that point.


"Claire, my friend, Dr. Liam Price," Patrick said, throwing his arms around Liam's shoulder.


Liam stretched his hands forward for a shake; his eyes still on the blond woman, before she took them.

His grip was quite strong and firm. Claire shuddered at the way he kept his blue eyes on her until thier shake was over. The whiteness of his teeth astounded her.


Patrick introduced Liam to the rest of the crew and deputies, with Larry acting like he was about to shake Marilyn Monroe when it was eventually his turn.


Liam then spun to the two men who had walked up behind him and started his own introductions.


He reached out and held the shoulders of the black man standing beside him.


"This is my brother", Liam said with a smile. "Jelani."


Everyone looked confused at first. They were so confused, they didn't know whether say hello or not.


"What's up?", Larry uttered with a curt nod, being the first to break the silence as everyone turned to look at him.

Liam chuckled and turned to Jelani and began mumbling something in the african language of swahili to him.

The african man shifted his gaze to the people before him. He then placed his right palm on his chest, tapped his chest twice and raised his palm to them in a form of greeting.


While the others were confused on how to respond, Larry repeated the gesture quickly with a friendly smile on his face, but his smile soon disappeared when he noticed Jelani wasn't smiling back.


Liam then turned to the young man on his right who was struggling with a bunch of brief cases and trying to keep his glasses in place at the same time.

"This...", Liam said, jotting his thumb in the boys direction. "...is Kate Sullivan."


The boy suddenly shot his head up to Liam and glared at him. "Tate," He corrected. "Tate Sullivan."


Liam waved his correction off. "Whatever."

Claire smiled when she saw the way he waved him off. She was starting to like Liam; she thought he was funny.

Tate moved forward and shook everyone with a pleasant smile.


After all the pleasantries, Brent the cleared his throat.


"Well then-eh-", He said. "I think we should get a move on. The mayor is waiting for us."


"Yes," Liam said, as he shifted his calm eyes to Claire once more. "Ofcourse."



They drove in a convoy for over 20 minutes from the old airfield to the main town centre.


Patrick drove Claire, Liam, Tate and Jelani in a white 2015 Toyota 4runner, with Donovan and Brent driving close behind them, and Larry and another officer driving infront of them.


Claire sat in the middle row across Tate, whose attention was on his laptop infront of him.

She looked up at Patrick and Liam in the front seat, going on about thier university days and what they've been up to since then. Along with Liam telling Patrick what the city of Nairobi in Kenya looked like right now and how different it was since the last time Patrick came to visit.


She shifted her gaze back to Tate at her side. She was observing him. His Black curls of hair, the way his glasses sat on his pointed nose, his lean build and the way he concentrated on whatever he was doing on his system.

Claire could tell this boy was not older than twenty-six years of age, which actually sparked her curiosity as to what he was doing here.


She then spun in her seat and looked back at the native african man on the last row. He was looking out the window at the world passing him by outside the car.


Claire observed him too and noticed his tiny plaited corn rows that ran in tiny twists from his head to his shoulders. He wore two shell-like beads on both ears like earrings.

He had three beaded necklaces on his neck, each of them adorn with different colours of beads.

Claire noticed his smooth dark-brown coloured skin and lean musculature even through the grey t-shirt he was wearing, and when he turned his eyes from window and looked straight at her, she noticed that they were light-brown with a slight intensity in them.

Claire didn't realise when she started smiling at the man. She thought he was possibly the most beautiful human being she had ever seen.


She jolted in her seat when Jelani screamed out an african phrase that got everyone's attention, with his eyes fixed on her and filled with rage.


Claire's smile disappeared and confusion took over her as the african native kept shouting at her.

"Kuacha Kwangalia!" Jelani shouted.


A nervous Claire spun in her seat and looked forward in time to see Liam turn back and face them from the front "What's wrong?"


"I don't know..I just-", Claire stuttered as she shared nervous glances between Tate and Liam. Patrick couldn't turn in his seat for the fact that he was driving, so he just kept glancing at them through the rear mirror.


"kuacha kuangalia!", Jelani kept hissing, he was becoming restless now.


"What is he saying?,"Claire uttered in confusion.


"Hey, hey, It's okay Jelani" Tate dropped his laptop and spun to the man and uttered with his hand stretched forth to calm him. "Ni sawa Jelani, Ni sawa."


Jelani's wide eyes darted between Claire and Tate as he kept breathing heavily.
He then slowly fell back to his seat and just like that, he became calm again. Claire turned to Liam with an apologetic look.

"I'm so sorry", she muttered.

He said nothing. He just shook his head and chuckled and then turned away.


She turned back to Jelani who was still glaring at her and she thought he didn't really waste time to show he didn't like her.


"I'm sorry," she said to the Kenyan native.


The man said nothing. He just returned his gaze to the window.

Then she tilted her gaze to Tate beside her and caught him smiling at her and she was suddenly happy to see that someone had thought the entire situation was funny.


"It's okay," Tate assured her with a wave. "It's fine."


Claire nodded. "I didn't mean to-."


"It's fine", Tate said once more. "He just doesn't like people staring at him that's all."


Claire chuckled and nodded as she still felt herself trembling from the whole situation. "I'll keep that in mind," she uttered in a nervous chuckle.


Tate went back to his laptop and Patrick and Liam went back to thier conversation


Claire wanted to look back at Jelani again, but she thought twice.


She deflated and fell back on her seat with a sigh as she looked out at the large trees of the woods and forests flying by.



"This is gonna be a long summer."

For you info

"Kuacha Kwangalia" [/b]is swahili for "Stop looking at me."
[b]
"Ni Sawa " is swahili for "It's alright" or "It's okay."