Samantha’s face became a washed with tears. His dream, that she had not dared to dream, added a thread, to the thread-bare rope she was dangling from. “Thank you, Doctor. That’s…, that’s my dream too. I was afraid to dream it…, until now.”
Kline smiled, “As the saying goes, if you can see it, you can achieve it, and I will be here for you, every step of the way.”
***
“Mom? Dad? Are you here?” Vicky cautiously pulled Aidan’s gun out, as she laid her purse on the table. Using two hands, she held the gun in front of her and slowly walked towards the living room. She knew how to use a gun; she had been taught in the training camp, they attended before Syria. In order to pass the course, she was required to hit the bull’s-eye. But the thought of taking a life went against everything Vicky held dear. Then again she’d never had a loved one threatened before.
She saw her father first, sitting in his recliner, his hands tied behind his back, his mouth taped shut. “Oh my God, Daddy!” Vicky ran to her father and pulled the tape off as gently as she could.
The minute his mouth was free, Leonard Montgomery looked up at his daughter and demanded, “Vicky, get out of here now, run!”
“No! I won’t leave without you and mom,” Vicky looked around to see her mother tied up on the couch. She ran to her and just as she was about to pull the tape off of her mouth, she saw the look of sheer terror in her mothers’ eyes. Then she heard a voice coming from behind her, a voice she’d heard before, a voice that sent terror piercing through her heart.
“I don’t want you to do that just yet, Vicky,” he said.
Vicky’s mind was screaming at her to run away from that voice, but the terror that her subconscious had kept secret for so long, exploded into her consciousness. When she turned around, pointing the gun at him, Vicky recognized her worst nightmare.
“No!” she cried, trembling so badly the gun swayed as if in the wind. Harold took a step closer to her, his hand outstretched, reaching for the gun, and in Vicky’s mind it was the giant hand coming toward her. She shrieked and recoiled in fear, accidently firing the gun in such a chaotic way, that it just missed Harold’s head, hitting the hallway wall behind him instead. But by then Vicky was trapped inside her nightmare, thirteen years old again and frozen in place. All she could do was scream, “Aidan help me!”
Harold took a step back, unsure what Vicky might do next, but he wasn’t going to pass up the opportunity to torment her, “Aidan isn’t here, Vicky. She ran away again, like the coward she is “
“No, don’t listen to him Vicky, it’s not true!” Leonard yelled at his daughter but Vicky was exhibiting all the signs of fear paralysis, something Leonard had seen on the battlefield.
“Leonard, you always was a panty-waste, but at least your daughter has some guts. Don’t you Vicky, honey? Come over here; let me make you feel worthy again. It’ll be better than the last time.”
“No, you bastard, don’t you touch her!” Leonard realized what Harold was planning to do, and he was desperate to stop him. He tried to get out of the recliner, but it wasn’t easy with his hands tied behind his back, and by this time, Harold’s irritation with Leonard had reached its peak. He cold cocked him across the jaw, sending him back into the chair, unconscious.
“Now, where were we, honey?” he said, as he approached her from the side.
But Vicky had retreated so deep inside her nightmare that her mind was as frozen as her legs were. She didn’t see Aidan and Jerry rush in, or Harold run out. “Go after him!” Aidan yelled, and Jerry ran out after him. Aidan quickly checked on Leonard, as she untied him and then realized Vicky was still standing there holding her gun.
“Vicky, baby, it’s Aidan, can you hear me?” Aidan walked slowly over to Vicky, and realized that she wasn’t putting the gun down. It was pointed right at Aidan’s chest now, so she cautiously moved to the side, and watched as Vicky’s hands shook so bad, the gun rattled. Aidan had seen that same empty frightened look on Vicky’s face, every time she had the nightmares, and she was terrified that she wouldn’t be able to pull her out of it this time. “I love you, baby, I love you so much, please wake up,”
Leonard began to stir, and Alice cried under her gag, but Aidan didn’t take her eyes off of Vicky.
“You’re safe now, Vicky, he can’t hurt you anymore, because I chased him away. Do you hear me, you’re safe now,” Aidan was near tears, every nerve quaking in panic.
Leonard woke to a sore jaw, and a fair amount of confusion, until he heard Aidan talking to Vicky. He started to get up but Aidan waved him off, and he knew she was right. Too many people around a shell shocked soldier, would only exacerbate the situation. Instead he quietly said, “Vicky, its daddy, wake up now, honey,” Leonard began to have the same fear Aidan had, when his daughter didn’t respond to him.
“Baby, I need you to wake up now, please. Come on, it’s time to plan our wedding, and…” at the mention of the word wedding, Vicky’s trembling worsened, and Aidan was so frightened by that, she took a step back, shaking her head at Leonard. But Leonard knew the trembling was a sign.
“Keep talking about the wedding, Aidan, she’s trying to come out of it!” he said hopefully.
Aidan looked at him and nodded, “Vicky, our wedding will be the most spectacular wedding ever held. Joyce and Ellen will see to that. You’ll wear a beautiful gown, and I’ll be in the best tuxedo we can rent, and…,” Vicky began to cry, tears softly flowing down her cheeks, slowly she lowered the gun, “and we’ll say our vows, and I’ll say always to everything. I will always love you, I will always be here for you, I will always tickle you when you least expect it…,” Aidan wasn’t sure what to say next, but she didn’t need to say anything more.
“Buy…,” Vicky mumbled, much to the joy of everyone in the room.
“Vicky, can you hear me, please say you can hear me?” Aidan practically begged her to speak.
Vicky finally focused on Aidan and said, “Yes, I can hear you, and we’ll buy the best tuxedo we can find, not rent it.”
Overwhelmed with gratitude that Vicky found her way back to her, Aidan began to cry, and she didn’t care who saw it. The release of her tears also released the tension, the fear, the feel of death, her heart had grown heavy with. “Oh thank you, Jesus!” she exclaimed, embracing Vicky as tight as she could.
But Vicky pulled back and placed her small hand on Aidan’s tear soaked cheek, “I’m so sorry, Aidan, I’m so very sorry.”
Gently taking the gun from her lover’s trembling hands, Aidan asked, “Do…, do you remember, Vicky?”
“Yes, I remember everything, and I think I’m going to be all right now.”
Aidan pulled her back into the embrace, and the two stood there for several minutes, just holding each other as their trembling nerves finally calmed down. It was Alice who brought them out of their euphoria, with a garbled request for help.
“Oh, Alice!” Leonard realized his wife was still bound and gagged and all three of them rushed to help her out of them.
She stood up with tears in her eyes and hugged her daughter, “Oh Vicky, I didn’t know. We didn’t know.”
“She’s right, Vicky, if I had known…,” Leonard was angry with himself for not knowing what his little girl went through, because of Harold. Why didn’t he see the signs? Why couldn’t he have stop it?
Vicky asked, almost desperately, “Could you just hold me right now, all of you, please, just hold me?” She needed the warmth of her family around her right then. She needed their strength, and their love to reassure her it was over. All three moved in and smothered Vicky with hugs and kisses, and for a long time just stood there stroking her back, holding her hand, whispering that it was going to be all right now, and how much they loved her. But just as her tremors subsided, Jerry walked in escorting Harold by knife point. One look at him, and Vicky’s knees buckled so bad, that Aidan rushed to catch her before she fell.
“Get him out of here, Jerry!” Aidan demanded.
> But Vicky stopped her, and said meekly, “No wait, I want to say something to him.”
“Aidan?”
“Yeah Vick?”
“Do you hate your father?”
“Yes, enough to kill him,” Aidan was only fourteen years old when she said that, but even at that young age, the abuse from her father, both verbally and physically, had taken away any love she had for the man.
“Aidan I don’t think you should kill your father,” Vicky said sincerely.
“Why not?”
Though her voice was still that of a child’s, her words were mature beyond her years, “Because his death won’t take away your pain.”
Aidan cocked and pointed her gun at Harold’s head, “Give me one reason, you bastard, just one,” She was really hoping for an excuse to shoot him so she could end the torment she’d lived with all her life. As Vicky approached him, Aidan said, “Not so close, Vicky,” and maneuvered to the side of him so that her gun was in line with his temple.
But Vicky put her hand on Aidan’s arm, and asked her to put the gun away. She’d seen too much death in her lifetime, and too much violence over the last few months. It had to stop. The thought of anyone being shot because of her, even the man who destroyed her childhood, was too much for her to comprehend. And she wasn’t about to let Aidan shoot her own father, even if it meant her own life. “Aidan,” she said softly, “his death won’t take away your pain, or mine.”
The visual battle of emotions ran across Aidan’s face as she remembered those words. She relented, not because Vicky was right, necessarily, but because she knew it would hurt her lover to much emotionally. She holstered her weapon and Vicky took her hand, holding it tight, to bolster her strength.
She looked at Harold, “I’m not afraid of you anymore,” she said apathetically, “you mean nothing to me.” She spit in his face and then walked away. The spittle on his face pushed Harold over the edge, and he wildly reached out to strike at her, but Aidan cut him off. As Jerry held him Aidan punched him hard in the jaw, followed by Leonard hitting him in the stomach. Harold went down, fighting for breath.
“You stupid bitch,” he said to Aidan, “Vicky never loved you, can’t you see that. No one loves you.”
Vicky and Leonard both shouted, “That’s not true!”
Aidan was seething, and with her anger already at the boiling point, she shouted at Harold, “You don’t know what the word means! Leonard is more of a father to me than you ever were.”
Though Harold proclaimed not to care what his child felt about him, what she said was an insult that cut him deep, none-the-less. He liked Leonard even less than he did his daughter, because Leonard represented everything as a father that he did not. But Harold couldn’t let Aidan have the last word and as he struggled to stand up, he said, “And you are nothing more than a dyke who drove your mother away.”
“Leave my mother out of this!” Aidan snarled through gritted teeth.
“If it hadn’t of been for you, my dear, she never would have left me. She never loved you either.”
Aidan lost all reasoning. She reared back with the hand wearing the cast, and slammed it into his jaw. “This is for all the times you beat me!”
Harold fell to the floor again.
Jerry moved to help Aidan, but Leonard held him back, “Let her get it out,” he said.
Aidan didn’t hear them, as she jumped on top of Harold and pounded her fist into his face again. “And this is for not loving me!”
Harold groaned in pain but Aidan wasn’t done yet. In her blind rage she screamed, “and this is for what you did to Vicky!” and hit him so hard that the cast shattered and fell off her hand. He lost consciousness, but Aidan reared back to hit him again.
This time Leonard did intercede, fearing that now Aidan would hurt herself. It took both Leonard and Jerry, to pull her off of him. They held her fast, as she struggled to get at her father again.
Alice walked over to Aidan and placed her hand on her fevered cheek. She said softly, “We do love you, Aidan. Do you hear me? We all love you very much.”
Aidan blinked back her rage and focused on Alice, and her uncontrolled anger instantly melted into uncontrolled weeping. With as much tenderness as Alice could give, she wiped away Aidan’s tears and kissed her on the cheek. Alice finally understood the magnitude of love and strength this woman possessed, and was regretting her past misjudgments. As Vicky walked up, Alice took her hand and placed it in Aidan’s, and then stepped away. Vicky smiled lovingly at her mother, forgiving her of her transgressions, and then looked up into Aidan’s watery eyes.
“I love you, Aidan,” she said so emotionally that Aidan broke down again and sobbed on Vicky’s shoulder, releasing all the anger, sadness and pain she had built up since childhood. For her part, Vicky held her lover tight and released her own childhood pain, and together, their tears washed away the pain from the past.
For a very long time they stood there, holding each other, unaware of their surroundings. They didn’t hear Leonard call the police, or see Jerry restrain Harold by pinning his arm behind his back. They didn’t care that Harold just laid there, with no fight left in him. All that mattered was their need to heal the wounded soul of the other.
The euphoric gauze lifted from their eyes in time, for them to see the police roughly handcuff a squirming Harold, and stuff him into a police car. They watched, as their worst nightmare was driven away, and when the police car, holding the dark regrets of their past, drove out of sight, their thoughts for the future filled the room with light.
Vicky turned to Aidan, patting her hand, and asked, “Now that the nightmare has been handcuffed, and hauled off to jail, can we get married, please?”
“With pleasure!” Aidan replied, as she twirled Vicky around, and pulled her close, capturing her lips in a lustful kiss. “How about starting the honeymoon before the wedding?”
Alice scrunched her face up, and looked at Leonard, who smiled and swatted her playfully on her behind. “Oh my!” Alice exclaimed with a smile.
Vicky giggled in anticipation, “Oh Aidan, that’s the best idea you’ve ever had.”
“Well then, I’ve got another brilliant idea. Let me whisk you off to a suite at the Marriot, where you will be spoiled rotten with dinner and dancing, and then I will make you giggle until the sun comes up, and then send you on your way to work.”
Vicky looked up at her and grinned, “I may just have to call in sick tomorrow.”
“But Vicky, you just got back to work, and—”
Leonard cut Alice off, by tugging on her arm. It didn’t matter though, because by that time, the two lovers were entranced in a deep kiss, and again, oblivious to anyone but each other.
The End
But it’s not the end for Aidan and Vicky! In book four, Aidan and Vicky have their wedding outside, not knowing that the weather threatens their happy nuptials. Harold isn’t done yet, Samantha may lose her baby, and Ruth and Kate come to a long term agreement.
Books by Mairsile:
Aidan & Vicky:
I Remember You
Aidan is tough, self-assured and suffering from amnesia. The only person who knows her heart, Vicky, can’t tell her that they were childhood lovers, even when Vicky is asked to hire her.
Vicky is the CEO of a multi‒million dollar health system, being targeted by terrorists hell bent on blowing up her hospital. (Book 1 of the A&V series) Buy it now!
Remember, It’s You I Love
Aidan & Vicky are on a mission called, Operation Pink Knight, where they must enter a war zone in order to rescue Aidan’s second love, and first fiancée. It comes down to a volatile standoff between them and the enemy, and Aidan must choose which woman to save. (Book 2 of the A&V series) Buy it now!
Generations of Women Warriors:
Generations of Women Warriors: Battle of Pea Ridge, American Civil War
First in a series chronicling the life and times of women in a family, who fought in historic battles and lo
ved in historic times, though both could get them killed. Temi, at age 17, finds herself pregnant, in love with a girl, and staring down a cannon, in this epic tale of growing up during the Civil War. Buy it now! (Book 1 of the Warrior series)
Generations of Women Warriors: Battle of Amiens, The Great War
The next generation in the second book of the series, finds the daughter of Temi and Robin, in France during WWI, fighting for her life, as German tanks rumble toward her. Buy it now! (Book 2 of the Warrior series)
Remember, You Love Me: Little Girl Lost Page 23