“They’re here,” Piper said pulling Bailey gently to her feet. She saw her take several deep breaths and close her eyes behind her sunglasses, standing perfectly still until spoken to.
“It’s good to see you well,” Jeremy said jovially to Bailey with a quick look at Piper.
“Hello, Major,” Bailey said. “Allow me to introduce Piper Tate.”
“A pleasure, Miss Tate,” Jeremy said with a smile, noting their joined hands.
“It’s nice to meet you,” Piper said with a grin.
“Are you ready?” Jeremy asked opening the door to the back of the limousine.
“Thank you,” Piper said, hopping in and pulling Bailey in behind her.
Jeremy got in as well and sat across from them, knocking on the window to signal the driver who immediately pulled away from the curb. He wasn’t sure what he could say in front of the Tate woman so he remained silent and waited for them to start any conversation.
“Piper knows everything, Major,” Bailey said, watching the scenery go by.
“I see,” Jeremy said wondering if she could read minds.
“Does my mother know she’s going to have company?”
“No,” Jeremy said. “I’ve arranged a private room; when we arrive I’ll have someone escort her there. Would you like to see your brother at the same time?”
“I’d like to see my mother alone first if it’s not a problem.”
“Of course not,” Jeremy said agreeably.
“How is she?”
“Full of piss and vinegar,” Jeremy said and Piper chuckled. “Like I said, I’m not one of her favorite people,” he added genially.
“Sounds like my Mom,” Piper said amused.
“She’s a handful,” Jeremy said. “Her stinging tongue has traumatized most of the staff.”
Piper chuckled and turned a smile on Bailey. “Does that sound like your mother?”
“I can’t remember,” Bailey said quietly and Piper’s face fell.
“I’m sorry,” Piper said sincerely squeezing her hand tightly.
Bailey continued to stare out the window and Piper gave Jeremy a little cock of her head in silent explanation, receiving a nod in reply. The rest of the trip was completed in an uncomfortable silence and Piper was relieved when they passed through the gates of the embassy.
“If you’d like to wait in the car, I’ll have your mother escorted and return for you shortly,” Jeremy said.
“Thank you, Major,” Bailey said and he nodded politely as he exited the car.
“You okay?” Piper asked when the door closed behind Jeremy.
“No,” Bailey said hoarsely.
“Baby, I promise everything will turn out fine,” Piper soothed. “Have I steered you wrong before?”
“No,” Bailey said reluctantly.
“Trust me,” Piper said confidently.
“Okay,” Bailey said uncertainly.
“Here comes the Major.”
Bailey took a deep breath and got out of the car when he opened the door for her. She waited for Piper and took her hand in a death grip as she got out and stood next to her.
“This way,” Jeremy said, leading them into the entryway where two guards stood.
Piper noticed the guards start to close on them and a scowl etched its way on to her features.
“Stand fast,” Jeremy said to the guards and they retreated to their original positions.
When they got inside, he turned to Bailey. “I apologize,” he said signaling to Andrew who was following at a discreet distance.
“Andrew, please inform all personnel that Miss Cameron and Miss Tate are not to be approached or hindered in any manner.”
“At once,” Andrew said and turned to carry out his orders.
“Follow me, please,” he said and led them through a long hall with several doors, eventually coming to a halt. “Your mother is in that room,” he pointed. “Take all the time you need. You won’t be disturbed.”
“Thank you,” Bailey said with an effort and Piper turned a worried look on her.
“Major, could we have a moment?” Piper asked.
“Of course,” he said courteously and walked back down the hall until he was out earshot, seating himself in one of the chairs that the lined the hallway.
“Piper, I don’t think I can do this,” Bailey said, struggling and beginning to breathe erratically.
“I know you’re scared,” Piper said soothingly, rubbing a hand over her back. “Would you like me to go in and talk to her first?”
Bailey nodded.
“I’ll be back in a minute, okay?” Piper asked gently.
Another nod.
“Don’t go away,” Piper said sternly and stood on her toes to peck her on the cheek.
As soon as the door closed behind her, Bailey collapsed into one of the chairs and put her head in her hands.
Jeremy watched in concern and curiosity as Piper went to work on her and was a little taken aback when she almost fell into her chair. He couldn’t comprehend how hard it would be to reunite with a family that thought you long dead, but watching a person he knew was far from weak so close to shattering, he understood it was not an easy thing for her to do. He watched covertly as she began to rock a little in her chair and he wondered if there was anything he could say or do to help her. In the end, he decided that any effort he might make would be for naught, so he studiously ignored her and hoped that she would see the situation through. He smiled in relief when Piper reappeared and dragged her almost bodily into the room.
———
Doreen looked up in irritation as the door opened, surprised to see a pretty red haired woman step into the room and look at her with smiling pale blue eyes.
“Hello there,” she said with the hint of a French accent. “I’m Piper Tate,” she added cheerily as she approached.
“Hello,” Doreen said politely as the woman bounced across the room and sat in the chair across from her.
“How are you today?” Piper asked pleasantly as she studied the woman.
“I’d be better if you’d tell me why I was dragged over here,” she said in a slightly annoyed tone.
“You were brought here because you have a visitor and she would like to see you,” Piper said with a smile. “Would you like to see her?”
“Who?” Doreen asked suddenly knowing, her chest tightening and her eyes growing moist.
“Let me get her, she’s a little scared,” Piper said rising from her chair and going to the door.
Doreen’s hands came to her mouth and she let out a strangled cry when Piper fairly pulled Bailey into the room.
“It can’t be,” Doreen said unbelievingly, the tears starting in earnest.
Piper gave Bailey a little shove in her mother’s direction and she took several steps before losing her resolve.
“My daughter had black eyes,” Doreen choked over a sob.
Bailey took a ragged breath and stepped forward, closing the distance between them to kneel in front of her openly weeping mother. She slowly removed her sunglasses and tentatively raised moist and frightened eyes up to meet her mother’s.
“Hello, Mum,” she said quietly.
“My beautiful baby,” Doreen cried crushing her in an anguished embrace. “My baby, my baby, my baby…”
Bailey buried her face in her mother’s hair and helpless to prevent it, she began to cry herself.
VI
Understand what I’ve become,
It wasn’t my design.
—D. O’Riordan
Piper slipped quietly out of the room and sat in the chair that Bailey had waited in, wiping at her eyes with the back of her hand. She was startled to suddenly find the Major standing in front of her and extending a handkerchief.
“Thank you,” she said with a sniffle.
“Quite welcome,” he said pleasantly. “I take it everything went over all right?”
“Yeah,” Piper said with a wistful smile.
“They’ll be
a little while I’m sure,” Jeremy said. “She’ll need you back in there shortly I’m afraid. Why don’t we take a walk and I’ll tell you how I came to meet her?”
“I’d like that,” Piper said standing up to take his offered arm.
———
“You care for her, don’t you?” Piper asked as the Major finished his story.
“I’d be lying if I said I didn’t,” Jeremy admitted. “She’s a remarkable person.”
“Yes, she is,” Piper agreed, zipping up her jacket against the cold.
“She’s lived a long time in a profession with a spectacularly short career span,” Jeremy said.
“She didn’t have the option of dying, Major,” Piper said sadly. “They would’ve killed her family.”
Jeremy went silent as he considered Piper’s words grimly. “My God,” he said finally. “What an unholy burden to have to bear.”
“It’s unimaginable to me,” Piper said. “She has to be the strongest person I’ve ever known, but at the same time she’s astonishingly fragile.”
Jeremy just nodded as he absorbed the information.
“Thank you, Major,” Piper said. “But I should get back to her.”
“Of course,” he said and walked with her back into the building, stopping when they reached the hall. “I’ll be right here if either of you need anything.”
“Thanks,” she said with a grateful smile as she traveled down the hall and tentatively entered the room she had left them in.
She found Doreen still sobbing and stroking Bailey’s hand, who was seated next to her on a sofa. Bailey looked up when she entered and waved at her to come in, which she did and quietly took a seat next to her on the couch.
“Mum, you’ve already met Piper,” Bailey said hoarsely. “Piper, this is my mother, Doreen.”
“It’s very nice to meet you, ma’am,” Piper said sweetly.
“How do you know my daughter?” Doreen asked.
“She owns the company I work for, Mrs. Cameron,” Piper said brightly, not elaborating.
“I see,” Doreen said slowly.
“Mum, I need to speak to Major Watts,” Bailey said. “I’ll be back in moment, alright?”
Doreen strengthened her hold on Bailey’s hand. “You come back,” she demanded.
“I’ll just be a few moments,” Bailey promised and with a helpless look at Piper she rose from the sofa and exited the room.
Doreen waited for the door to close and turned a glare on Piper. “What have they done to her?” she asked bluntly.
Piper debated with herself before she answered. “It’s a long story, Mrs. Cameron,” she said softly. “And not a very pretty one.”
“I can see that much in her eyes, child.”
Piper took a deep breath as it dawned on her that Bailey didn’t have the emotional stamina to explain anything to her mother and had purposefully left the room to leave her holding the bag.
“I know about your husband and son, Mrs. Cameron,” Piper said slowly. “Bailey survived the shooting and killed the man that gave the order to fire two days later.”
“Sweet Jesus,” Doreen said, bursting into a fresh bout of tears and Piper scooted closer and took her hand.
“When you’re ready,” Piper said gently. “I’ll tell you what I know.”
Doreen just nodded and wiped at her eyes.
———
Jeremy saw Bailey exit the room and he gave her a moment to compose herself before he turned in her direction to find her coming down the hall towards him.
“You’ve something for me?” she asked with a rough voice and he noted that she had put her sunglasses back on.
“Yes,” he said and walked into the foyer to signal Andrew who approached and looked at him expectantly. “Please retrieve the dossier I requested yesterday.”
“Back in a moment,” Andrew said.
“Major, I don’t have the words to express how much your actions have meant to me,” Bailey said slowly.
“Call me Jeremy, please,” he said with a smile. “I stopped being a Major many years ago.”
“Jeremy,” Bailey said with a grin. “Call me, Bailey.”
“That would be a pleasure,” he said. “And my wife and two boys are glad they still have a father and a husband.”
“I was glad to be of assistance,” Bailey said with a nod.
“I think assistance isn’t a big enough word,” he said pleasantly. “How far did you drag me across the sand?”
“Twelve miles.”
“Good Lord,” he chuckled shaking his head.
“Sir,” Andrew said from a distance as he approached and Jeremy waved him forward, taking the file from him and handing it to Bailey. “Thank you, Andrew,” he said in dismissal and Andrew returned to his distant shadowing.
“Shall we take a walk?” Jeremy said, gesturing outside and Bailey nodded.
“How long ago was my paper picked up?” she asked thumbing through the file casually.
“Less than a week,” Jeremy said. “You said you’ve already met Mr. Nguyen?”
“Yes,” Bailey said. “He’s dead.”
“I see,” Jeremy said nodding. “Is there any other way I can be of assistance to you?”
“Perhaps,” Bailey said. “I’m expecting the best, but I need to prepare for the worst. Would it be possible to offer sanctuary to anyone I might need to send you?”
“I can arrange that,” Jeremy said. “Do you expect this to happen soon?”
“If anything happens, it’ll be in the next two weeks,” Bailey said. “I’m hoping to end this quietly around that time, but I don’t know how much longer they can be patient.”
“I’ll be prepared,” Jeremy said. “And I’ll inform the Ambassador.”
“Much appreciated.”
“Is Piper with your mother?”
“Yes, I rather cowardly left her in there to explain things,” Bailey admitted.
Jeremy chuckled. “Your mother is a formidable woman.”
“Yes, she is,” Bailey agreed.
“Any thoughts on the Italian?”
“He won’t risk getting close to me,” Bailey said. “If they utilize him, he’ll play the sniper. He shouldn’t be a problem.”
“I’m glad to hear that,” Jeremy said. “Would you like to head back inside?”
“It’ll be awhile,” Bailey said, pulling her cigarettes from under her poncho. “It’s a long story.”
“I see,” Jeremy said reaching for his own cigarettes. “There’s a bench around the corner, would like to swap lies to pass the time?”
“Alright,” she said with an amused smile. “But first, I think I’d like to hear how you managed to find me and how you knew who I was.”
“Ahh, that would be a pleasure,” he said with a grin. “I seldom get to discuss my own ingenuity.”
———
“My baby,” Doreen said sadly. “She was Daddy’s little girl you know, she adored him.”
“She still does,” Piper said softly.
“She had a dark spot even when she was a child,” Doreen said. “Every once in a great while, she would retreat in there and not even her father could pull her out of it until she was ready.”
Piper said nothing and let Doreen work things out in her own way. She had watched Bailey’s mother run a gambit of emotions in the last two hours; from all out grief, to a somewhat frightening bright anger.
“She left you in here to tell me this didn’t she?”
“Yes,” Piper admitted. “She was terrified to come here today.”
“Why?” Doreen asked a little hurt.
“Mrs. Cameron, she may be thirty-one years old, but in a lot of ways she’s still very insecure and emotionally inexperienced. She’s isolated herself from the world for most of her life, she’s never had friends, or relationships; in essence, she’s had no one to guide her,” Piper said softly. “She’s incredibly intelligent and can deal with any situation, but she’s almost completely at a loss on
how to handle things on a personal or emotional level. And coming to see her mother, who has believed her dead for so long, was very difficult for her. She asked me before we arrived what would happen if you didn’t care about her anymore.”
“God,” Doreen said quietly, her eyes beginning to water again.
“She’s not pleased with how she’s lived her life, in fact I know she’s ashamed of what she’s done and it hurts her,” Piper continued. “She doesn’t want you to be ashamed of her too.”
“How could I?” Doreen asked tearfully. “All these years and she was fighting to make sure her brother and myself got a chance at life. She would have never allowed any of this to happen if Ryan and I weren’t in the picture, she would have killed herself first.”
“Maybe.”
“No maybe about it,” Doreen said. “You couldn’t cage her even as a child. She had a horrible temper and was very obstinate, no amount of threats or promises could get her to give in. If she was trapped and had no other concern but herself, she wouldn’t have tolerated any of this. Even if that meant she had to die to escape.”
Piper considered her words thoughtfully.
“What happens now?” Doreen asked after a moment, wiping at her eyes.
“I guess we need to ask her that,” Piper said. “Let me go find her, I’m sure she’s close.”
Doreen nodded and Piper lifted herself off the sofa and made for the door. She entered the hall to see Bailey speaking with the Major a short distance away.
“Bailey,” Piper said and Bailey nodded to the Major before she approached and let Piper pull her into the room.
“Come sit beside me,” Doreen said and Bailey walked uncertainly over to the couch and sat next to her mother. “Piper told me everything,” she said and Bailey’s eyes immediately dropped to study the floor.
“Wipe that look off your face,” Doreen said sternly. “I know that everything you did, you did for Ryan and I, and I won’t have you being ashamed for saving us and that’s exactly what you’ve done. You’ve carried a weight on your back that I think few could’ve endured. So, I’ll not hear of it anymore,” Her hand came up to cup Bailey’s cheek. “I’m proud and eternally grateful that I have my little girl back, and that you were strong enough to persevere and return to your family. I love you child, and nothing will ever take that away.”
Engravings of Wraith Page 43