by Margaret Kay
Kennedy knew that Jackson was away on the mission with Gary. She knew that she was in a mood, missing Gary. She could only imagine how hard on the toddler it was when his daddy was gone. “Of course, I’ll help. Give me about fifteen minutes to get dressed and I’ll be out the door.”
“Oh, thank you so much. You don’t know how much I appreciate this!”
Kennedy hung up the phone partially dreading the morning with the screeching toddler and partially thrilled that she would actually be helpful. Over the course of the past few weeks, she really felt accepted by these people and a part of the group. Angel reaching out to her for help proved that.
She ran a brush through her hair and then dampened her fingers and tousled it. She really loved this low maintenance hairstyle. She washed her face, and dressed in yoga pants and an oversized sweater. The temperature had dipped to a low of forty overnight and today’s high wasn’t forecasted to make it out of the sixties. It was the beginning of October. Fall was here.
She parked on the third floor of the parking garage structure and entered the building through the public access. Gary said they’d eventually get her set up with an entry code so she could park where the team parked in the sub-basement level, but she didn’t mind coming through the public entrance into the building.
Angel gave her a relieved smile as she entered the outer office area of the Shepherd Security suite. Immediately, the door to the inner area buzzed, and she entered. Sammy sat in his activity chair, pounding his little fist into it. His chin and the bib that protected the front of his shirt were drenched with drool.
“He’s cutting some teeth and I know he’s miserable,” Angel said, picking the little boy up. She also lifted a textured blue teething ring from the tray. “And this isn’t doing anything to help him.”
“Do you have any of the soft baby washcloths here and a jar of the fruit baby food?” Kennedy asked.
Angel shook her head no.
“Gary’s sister-in-law, Leslie, used to wet a washcloth, put fruit in the middle and twist it, and then she froze it. It gave a textured, frozen, sweet tasting surface for their boys to chew on when they were teething. I remember it worked well.”
“I’ve never heard of doing that, but I’ll make some at home tonight,” Angel said. She reached into her desk and pulled out a tube of baby Orajel. “I hate using medications, but here, in case he won’t stop fussing.”
Kennedy took it and slipped it into the long side pocket of her yoga pants. “I’ll try not to use it.”
“What may distract him is if you take him down to the workout area on sub-basement two level. He loves to run on the mats, hang from the bars, with help, of course, and I have some of his ride on toys down there too.”
“Sure, but I don’t have access to the elevator or door panels.”
Angel picked up her phone. She dialed Ops.
“What can I do for you, Angel?” Yvette answered.
Angel relayed the issue. “Can you grant Kaylee access?”
She heard keys clicking. “Tell Kaylee her code is zero-nine-one-zero. I’ve instituted a one-day over-ride. She has access to the elevator and all doors for today.”
“Thanks, Yvette,” Angel said. She hung up and relayed the information to Kaylee.
“So, if I take the elevator down to sub-basement two, it opens into the parking garage.”
“Hit sub-two rear. The back door opens to give access to the Team Room to the right and the workout space to the left.”
“Ah, okay.”
“He has a fresh diaper on, but here, you may need this.” Angel handed Kaylee the backpack that served as Sammy’s diaper bag. Then she handed her son over.
“Are you ready to go run and play, little man?” Kennedy asked in an animated, baby voice.
He shoved his wet fist into his mouth.
“Oh, and here,” Angel said, handing Kaylee a cloth diaper. “To wipe off his chin and hands. I’m sorry he’s so gross today.”
Kennedy laughed. “He’s not gross, he’s a teething baby.”
“Before I forget, give me your car keys. Shepherd will have someone move Sloan’s car down to our parking garage.”
“That’s okay,” Kennedy argued. “I don’t mind parking out in the public area.”
“Shepherd wants someone to move it down,” Angel repeated. “Shepherd gets to call the shots around here.”
“Oh, okay,” Kennedy said, handing the keys over. She wasn’t sure why it was a big deal, but she wouldn’t go against anything Shepherd wanted. She knew that Gary, and everyone, respected the man immensely.
She walked through the inner hallway to the elevator that she knew was near Shepherd’s office. She was disturbed, seeing Shepherd’s door open, and even more disturbed when she locked eyes with him, and he called out to her.
“Kaylee, can you come in for a moment?”
Oh, hell, she cringed. This man intimidated the shit out of her. But she plastered a smile on her face, like she had countless times before in her past life as she stepped through the threshold and into his office. Shepherd sat with his wheelchair pulled up to the conference table. “Hi Shepherd,” she greeted.
“Thanks for coming in to take care of Sammy today. If it wasn’t important that Angel have time to focus, we wouldn’t have disturbed you.”
“It’s no trouble at all,” she said. “I’m happy to help.”
“We’ll get you set up with access and codes into our private parking garage and the doors throughout our suite before you leave today.”
“Thank you, but it’s not a big deal to me. I don’t mind coming in through the public access.” She tempered her voice to be agreeable, wanting to throw off a low maintenance vibe.
“It’s about security and about taking care of our people. Our Operators, our Analysts in Ops, Angel, Sammy, and you are all agency personnel and I want to offer the highest level of protection to all agency personnel. And our Operators won’t be able to do their jobs and focus if they are worried about their loved ones. That’s why you have an agency phone, a tracker, and can call into Ops if you have any problems.”
“That’s great, thank you,” she said, wanting to end this conversation. She took a step backwards, towards the doorway.
“And Kaylee, I’d like you to consider the injected in-tracker, rather than the bracelet. It offers a higher level of security.”
“I’ll think about it, sir. Gary has asked me to consider it too.” That should be enough to placate him.
He narrowed his gaze on her, which she felt.
“Kaylee don’t give me lip service. Think about Gary for a minute. What happens if you go missing and your bracelet tracker is found with your phone and you’re nowhere to be found?”
“Okay, I will.”
Shepherd breathed out a heavy sigh. “The first thing that’s going to happen is that Sloan will be unduly stressed and ineffectual and I don’t need an armed Operator going off half-cocked to find you. If that happens, there will no doubt be loss of life when he finds whoever took you, regardless of your status. The next thing that will happen is that this entire agency will mobilize to find you, so all of our other operations and cases will cease.”
A pang of guilt hit her. “I’m sorry. I didn’t realize any of that. I wouldn’t want to cause any inconvenience or stress to anyone.”
Shepherd nodded. “So, now that you are aware, carefully consider it.”
Kennedy forced a smile and nodded. “I promise you I will give it real consideration.”
Shepherd nodded again. “Very good. Thank you for stopping in to chat.”
“Thank you,” she said and then backed out of the room.
Once within the closed elevator she looked into Sammy’s face. She realized he had been silent when Shepherd spoke. Jesus, even the baby respected the man.
“Was that as uncomfortable for you as it was me?” She asked him.
Sammy shrieked in response.
“Yeah, I thought so,” she said as the eleva
tor doors opened.
She stepped off the elevator. She went to her right, curious about the Team Room. She entered through the wide-open door. The lights automatically came on as she entered. Large lockers and benches lined the room, a name on each locker.
She wandered around the room, viewing the last names. She only recognized a few as she knew most of the people by their first names or call signs only. Finally, she found Gary’s. She ran her fingers over the plate that read ‘Sloan’. There were no locks on the lockers. She considered opening his, wondering what he kept in there, but she knew that would be invasive. And if anyone came into the room, she’d probably get into trouble. Hell, she was probably not even supposed to be in this room.
She left and hurried to the workout room, down the hall. She entered into the large, brightly lit space. Two men that she didn’t recognize were at the far end of the room by stacks of free weights and barbells. To the left was a large open area of mats, farther beyond that, she saw a half dozen ride on toys and other kiddie toys sitting on the cement flooring.
She came to the edge of the mats and sat Sammy and his backpack down. The little guy took off running across the mats, towards his play equipment. At the edge of the cement, was a slide and toddler climbing gym. She pulled that onto the mat, assuming they wouldn’t let him play on it on concrete.
Not knowing Sammy’s abilities, she hovered spotting him like an overprotective mother. He was a little daredevil. He dove down the short slide headfirst. “You’re going to give me a heart attack,” she whispered as she caught him.
Sammy threw his arms around her neck and squealed in delight.
“You think that’s funny, huh?”
After a while, she realized that she and Sammy were alone. The two men were no longer in the gym area. She hadn’t seen them leave and didn’t know where they were. She glanced around, suddenly feeling nervous about being in this huge space all alone with Sammy. No, she told herself. You are perfectly safe here. Now stop letting your imagination run away. You’re in Chicago, not L.A. You are safe.
She played with Sammy for at least an hour. The toddler had boundless energy. He loved to run on the mat, in a wide circle and then come back to her and plow into her. He’d hug her and laugh. Tired of being hit by a force of what was sure to leave bruises, she distracted him with one of his ride-on toys.
“Show me how you ride this,” she told him.
Sloan and Delta Team, Jackson, and Garcia returned from their mission. Upon entering the private Shepherd Security area of the garage, Sloan stared at his car. “That’s odd. Why is my car down here?” He asked no one in particular, aloud.
“Yeah, I drove you in when we left,” Sherman commented, staring at Sloan’s SUV which was parked beside his little red baby.
“I wonder if Kaylee is here for some reason. I hope everything is okay,” Sloan said. He retrieved his phone from his pocket. There were no messages. “I’m sure if something was wrong, she would have called or text messaged me.”
“You know she would have,” Lambchop agreed.
The men entered the Team Room to stow their gear.
“Angel says Kaylee is here helping with Sammy. They’re in the workout room,” Jackson said. He held his phone in front of his face.
Sammy rode in circles, his little legs propelling him faster than Kennedy thought possible. The trike tipped as he took a sharp corner. Before Kennedy could even jump up from where she sat on the mat, Sammy’s loud shriek pierced the quiet of the room.
She lifted him into her arms and hugged him to her chest. “You’re okay. There’s no blood.” She sat down and cradled him. He rubbed his eyes as he cried. Good, he was getting tired. She surely was. He’d worn her out. She rocked him and sang a ballad to him. He stopped crying and gazed at her with approval while rubbing his eyes with both hands.
Sloan stopped Jackson where they were, just outside the doorway, leading into the workout area. He closed his eyes and listened to Kennedy’s acapella singing. It was beautiful, just as he remembered her voice from so many years ago in an apartment so far away, three hundred thirty-three miles, and twelve years, to be exact.
They walked in and saw Kennedy seated on the mat, cradling Sammy in her arms, rocking him as she sang. She looked so natural and comfortable, like she’d known Sammy his entire life. Sloan’s heart took the sight in. He could see her with their babies, singing them lullabies. He remembered something Garcia had said, how one day it just hits that you want a kid, a mini you. He couldn’t say that was what had just happened, but he couldn’t say it hadn’t either.
Jackson stepped away from him, heading to Kennedy and Sammy. Kennedy glanced up and saw them both. She smiled. “Look who’s here Sammy! It’s your daddy.”
Sammy gazed at Jackson and let out a happy yell. Jackson swooped him out of Kennedy’s arms and hugged him. “I missed you, Sammy.”
“He fell a few minutes ago on his trike, tipped it over, but I think he’s okay. He cried but I think he’s getting tired.”
Jackson looked him over. “He looks fine. You’re my tough man, aren’t you?” He asked the boy. “Come on, let’s go find mommy.” He smiled at Kennedy. “Thank you for coming in and helping out with him.”
“You’re welcome,” she said coming to her feet. Sloan stepped in and embraced her. “I’m glad you’re back,” she whispered in his ear. “I missed you.”
Sloan kissed her. “I missed you too.”
“Can you leave, or do you have a debrief?”
“We have a short debrief. I imagine I can leave within the hour.”
“I’m not sure if Angel will need me to help out with Sammy a bit longer. She had a project she had to get done for Shepherd and Sammy wasn’t allowing her to focus. I committed to being here till Sammy went down for a nap.”
“Let’s go up to five and see what they need. You can hang out in the lounge if you want while I am in my debrief and then we’ll get out of here. I’m sure Jackson can take over with Sammy after we are done.”
She kissed him again. “I am so glad you’re home.”
They left the Shepherd Security Building an hour later. Sloan ran through the drive-thru of one of his favorite high-end, fast-food restaurants. They brought their Italian beef sandwiches home and the order of cheese fries they’d share. After eating, they shared an afternoon of passion in their bedroom.
After making love to her, Sloan held her and gazed around at the room that was clearly theirs, no longer his. Not only was her shit all over the dressers, but since he’d been gone, she also hung on the wall over the bed, a half dozen pictures of the two of them that she’d taken during their day in Chicago.
He pointed to the pictures of them, the selfies she’d taken on her phone. “I like those there.” He gazed over her beautiful face and disheveled red hair. “And I like you here, with me.”
She couldn’t help but smile. “I like being here with you. I think I’m finally feeling settled, normal, I’m not sure what words I’m looking for.”
Sloan embraced her. His discussion with Garcia the previous evening came back to him. Away from the edge was what he thought she meant. She was finally calming down and coming off the edge she’d been on for probably a long time. “You don’t need to put words to it, baby. Just embrace it and enjoy it.”
She snuggled back in against him, her head on his chest. She loved the quiet moments, when they just held each other. It felt comfortable, natural. She remembered her conversation with Shepherd earlier that day. Gary had given her so much peace of mind. He deserved the same from her.
“So, Gary, I’ve been thinking.” Kennedy fingered the bracelet, holding it up so he could see. “I don’t like this so tight.”
“Kennedy, we’ve been through this.”
“Hear me out. I’ve talked with a few people about it, about the injected-in tracker, and I’m okay with it.” Her gaze met his. “You can inject it into me.”
Sloan was genuinely surprised. “Really? Baby, thank you. That re
ally will put me more at ease.”
She rolled onto her stomach and looked into his eyes. “Yes, I know and that was part of what changed my mind, knowing it would bring you peace of mind.”
Sloan engulfed her in a hug. It had occurred to him over the past few weeks how much she had changed, but this was a huge shift for her. She was becoming the girl she had been, a better, more mature version of that girl, a version he loved and felt a strong connection to.
“Thank you, baby,” he repeated.