And We All Fall (Book 1)

by Michael Patrick Jr. Mahoney

  “I’ve felt really guilty about not seeing him since I’ve been over there. I’m scared.”

  “Of what?”

  “To see him.”

  “Why?”

  “I barely recognized him nine months ago. He didn’t look like my father anymore then. I’m afraid of what I’m going to see now.”

  He hung his head in the surging shower water again.

  Jamie didn’t know what to say. She knew exactly how Jackson’s father looked now and there wasn’t any good news to give her husband.

  “He’s still your dad in there.” Jamie cupped her hand behind her husband’s neck and pulled him close. “No matter what. He’ll always be that guy, no matter what the disease has done or could still do to him.”

  “I know.” Jackson pulled away and grabbed the shampoo.

  “This road trip is going to be a great bonding experience for you and our son. He has been asking a lot of questions lately.”

  “About what?”

  “You. Us. Your dad. The Marines.”

  “What kind of questions?”

  “I’ll let him ask you. Please promise me you’ll try to get back as soon as you can so I can see you one more time before you fly out.”

  Jamie began to move her hand around Jackson’s genitals and then grabbed his manhood, noticing that Jackson was definitely ready to go again no matter what else was occupying his mind.

  “What’s that all about?” she asked.

  “I guess that’s what happens when you don’t see the love of your life for nine months and her beautiful, naked body is rubbing up against you in the shower.”

  “Uh-huh,” she said with a beautiful smile.

  “There’s time.” Jackson returned the favor, touching Jamie in erotic ways.

  Jamie pushed him away. “You’re so bad. I’m so late already and I still need to wash my hair.”

  “What the hell were you doing in here before I got in?”

  “Wouldn’t you like to know?”

  They smirked at each other. “You said in your message that you had to be there by eight. It’s almost eight now.”

  “That’s what Franco wants. He’ll have to be happy with nine. I had the whole fricken day off before he called last night.”

  “What’s the big deal? Why is he making you come in today?”

  “We are having a multi-agency conference call. Top officials.”

  “Hmm. Did I miss something? Something happen while I was in the air?”

  “If you did, I did. I have no idea. Franco said something is happening, but wouldn’t tell me what. He was really stressed out about it though. He just said over and over to make sure I am at the office for the call.”

  “When is that old guy going to retire so you can take over the region?”

  “I don’t know. He has been talking about it a lot lately,” Jamie noticed that Jackson was still ready to make love again, and she overtly grazed that part of him to let him know she was also interested. “I don’t want to run that place anyway. When are you going to be a teacher again?”

  “I don’t know,” Jackson said as he moaned in ecstasy. “Maybe really soon. I’m not sure how much longer I can be away from you and the kid.” He looked up to the ceiling with a look of euphoria.

  “Yeah?” she said with a smirk as she stroked him.

  “Yeah,” he said, looking at her with hunger in his eyes. “I need to do some thinking. Captain says I can get out whenever I’m ready. Just need to file the papers.”

  Jackson’s captain was also a good friend. He had been ever since Jackson dragged his lifeless body to cover and stopped the bleeding just enough for help to arrive during Jackson’s first tour, all while under heavy fire. He thought Jackson was crazy for coming back to the fray after so long, especially with ‘all those demons to fight’.

  “You definitely do that then, Cowboy,” Jamie said as she worked Jackson more and more vigorously as water deluged them both. “File those papers and enjoy more of this.”

  Jamie let go of Jackson and peeked out of the shower. She glanced at the clock on the bathroom wall near the mirror.

  7:40

  She saw the message Jackson wrote in steam on the window.

  ‘You are my fantasy, Jamie. Always.”

  She smiled and then stepped one leg out of the shower.

  “Where you going?” Jackson asked.

  Jamie pressed some buttons to make that old love song play once again as she stepped back into the shower and into the arms of her beaming husband.

  “One last dance?” Jackson asked his wife.

  Her wet hair reminded him again of that night outside the club when he asked the same thing as drunk patrons stumbled past them in the pounding rain.

  They ran back into the club holding hands and danced the final dance. They fell in love forever with their clothes dripping California weather all over the LED illuminated dance floor.

  “Absolutely!” she answered him loudly as they tenderly held each other’s hand now in the shower.

  He pulled her body hard close to him now in and kissed her deeply, as if one of them was going to wash down the drain forever once it ended. Jamie felt an overwhelming anguish come over her as his hands squeezed her behind. She couldn’t help but wonder how long she would have to wait again to feel this way.

  Nothing but this moment mattered as she wrapped her legs around him, again feeling him inside her.

  Chapter 5

  “Where are we with it all?” Franco said to his team as he leaned his mass in to the executive conference room at 8:25 in the morning. He grumbled questions as he looked over his team who were scrambling to meet deadlines.

  The phone on his desk rang loudly, distracting him before they could get an answer. He looked at his watch with resentment.

  “Where the hell is Jamie?”

  Some on his team were typing on thin, silver laptops while others hurried to put what seemed like endless volumes of paperwork together in some indiscernible but clearly necessary order. They were all focused on their part of what their boss portrayed as the most significant briefing in FEMA history.

  “Aren’t you going to answer that?” one of his agents, Alex, asked. “Could be Jamie.”

  All the staff members stopped what they were doing and stared at Franco, anxious for him to answer his phone. They were all on edge as Franco debated. The phone kept ringing, the only noise that could be heard in the quiet office at that moment.

  “Fine,” Franco said as he shuffled to his office, the fat around his stomach shifting uncooperatively underneath his shirt with every heavy step.

  “Franco Accossi,” he said out of breath.

  “Director Accossi. Greetings. Doctor Lars Bigsby here calling with the CDC. General Wingate said you would be expecting my call. Are you okay, director? You sound out of breath.”

  “Yes, yes. I’m fine.”

  “Any particular reason for that, Director?”

  “I’m fat and out of shape,” Franco said with all the moxie he could muster. He had never met the doctor, but there was something about the way he talked that pissed Franco off right off the bat. “Won’t be necessary to hall me off to your lab and dissect me just yet though, doctor.”

  Lars laughed a little. He appreciated the sarcasm, even now, despite what he knew.

  “We’ll hold off on that for now then.”

  “What can I do for you, Dr. Bigsby?”

  “Actually, I was hoping to speak with Dr. Mills.”

  “Dr. Mills isn’t here yet.”

  “When do you expect her?”

  Franco looked at his watch, still resenting. “Soon.”

  “Could you provide her cell by chance?”

  “She’ll be here soon, doctor. You’ll just have to wait.”

  “Alright. Allow me to leave my direct number for her. Can you have her call me the moment she arrives? I’d like to speak with her before the call.”

  “Sure. I guess she has two secretaries now. Is
there anything else I can ask her to do for you when she finally shows up?”

  “Please don’t take offense, director,” Lars replied, a little embarrassed. “Dr. Mills just offers medical expertise that you, well, don’t. I’d like to get her opinion about some things before we start the call.”

  Franco frowned, though he understood, noticing that his team had left the briefing room and gathered at the entryway of his office.

  “I understand there are infected subjects at your lab. Is that right?” Franco asked, drawing his team even closer to him.

  Lars hesitated a moment. “You could say that.”

  “I want to know more about their condition. What can you tell me?”

  “We do plan to go into great detail about that during the briefing, director. On the secured line.”

  Lars hoped Franco would get the hint. He didn’t.

  “I’d like that information now, doctor.”

  “I’d really like to address your questions now, director. I really would. Unfortunately, I’m under strict orders. You’ll have to wait until we are on that secured line. Just a few minutes from now. You understand.”

  “I have young grandchildren, Dr. Bigsby. My own kids. A wife. Should my family already be in the bunker under our house or what?”

  “Director, it’s important that we all keep perspective right now and avoid jumping to conclusions.”

  “Is that what I’m doing, Mr. Bigsby? Jumping to conclusions?” Franco asked indignantly. “Don’t you dare suggest that this isn’t a big deal, sir. Your call to me now tells me the world as we know it is about to change forever. I have a right to know!”

  Lars exhaled. “The briefing, director. We’ll discuss it then. You have my word.” He gave Franco his phone number. “You’ll give Dr. Mills my message?”

  “I’ll be sure she gets the message,” Franco said tersely and hung up the phone.

  He turned back to his team that was still huddling in the doorway of his office, staring wide-eyed at him. He studied each of their faces, one at a time. They all looked at him as if he might have answers to the questions they all couldn’t get out of their heads since they sped to the building in the middle of the night.

  “Back to work.” He waived his team away as the phone rang once again. “Jesus, what now? That better be you Jamie, stuck in the elevator.”

  He picked up the receiver.

  “Franco Accossi.”

  “Accossi. Cavanaugh. Central Intelligence Agency. Do you have a moment to speak with me before the call? I’d like to discuss some important information with you.”

  “Certainly.”

  Franco sounded and looked as though he saw a ghost as he walked with the handset to the window while sweat began to collect in his armpits. Where are you, Jamie? He looked through the window at the space where his deputy director always parked.

  It was empty.

  Franco listened to the man who identified himself only as Cavanaugh talk about what amounted to nothing for a few minutes, concluding his call with an intimidating directive for Franco to mention nothing about the conversation to the FBI when they called.

  “When?” Franco clarified.

  Cavanaugh hung up without answering.

  Seconds after Franco hung up the receiver, his phone rang again. This time, it was the FBI, and they had questions about a woman and her children that were reportedly missing in Virginia. Someone threw them in the back of a van. They wanted to know if Franco heard anything from the CIA.

  Chapter 6

  Bacon sizzled on the electric griddle in the lens of Jax’s new GoPro that was now mounted against his chest and recording everything he saw.

  “Mmm. I love bacon,” the microphone recorded Jax say at 8:20 a.m., along with him sniffing the greasy bacon-scented air. Scrambled cheesy eggs began to firm in a non-stick pan lined with bacon grease on the stove while four pieces of honey wheat bread browned in the toaster oven.

  Jax turned to video his mother and father hugging each other tightly, saying goodbye in the doorframe. Jamie had one foot in the house and the other past the threshold.

  “Be careful. Bring my son back safe and sound.”

  They were orders. Jamie transitioned to the professional version of herself in every way, barking out commands to her husband.

  She was dressed in her standard uniform, a dark blue power suit skirt with no decoration except her FEMA identification badge that she clipped to the lapel.

  “You know I will.”

  She was the youngest person in history to reach the regional deputy director title with FEMA, and everyone that knew her had no doubt why that was the case. Between her unstoppable drive and genius rated IQ, she had done more by the age of thirty in her field than most would do in their lifetime.

  Four years later, FEMA found her to be the perfect fit to work alongside Franco. Her promotion to her current position occurred a little over a year ago. The decisions she made on a daily basis affected national policy and influenced global safety on the most complex levels. It made her realize how unsafe the world truly was. “You too, solider. Come back in one piece. With all your pieces,” she said with a wink and checked her watch.

  “I’m so late!” She kissed Jackson on the cheek. “I gotta go!”

  The last thing she wanted to do was drive away. It was that nagging feeling she just couldn’t shake. She didn’t want to worry, but she couldn’t help it. She thought back to the day Jackson first talked to her about what happened to him that morning in Somalia.

  “I don’t know,” Jackson told her in a fog just a couple hours after he woke up in the hospital, just out of his week long, medically induced coma.

  “How are you feeling?” she asked as she rubbed the top of his head and kissed his forehead.

  “Like I’ve been ripped apart and put back together a few times.” He gently touched along the length of the stitches on his chest. “Hurts like hell.”

  “You are lucky to be alive, Jackson. Do you remember anything about what happened?”

  “It’s foggy. Danger. Every step that kid took.”

  Jamie could see it in his eyes, on his face. He was in Mogadishu, Somalia, though his body was comfortable in the clean bed at Walter Reed Medical Center. “Go on.”

  “Jumper!” Jackson yelled and tried to sit up, though pain pushed him right back. “Is he…”

  “He’s fine! Relax.” Jamie put her hands on Jackson’s cheeks and looked him in the eyes. “Jumper is fine. You need to keep your head on that pillow so you don’t rip out those stitches.”

  “Where is he?”

  “He’s in a veterinary hospital not far from here.”

  “He saved me.”

  “I know. He’s a hero, just like his commanding officer and father. You saved him too.”

  It was all coming back to Jackson. “That video you sent me.” The crinkles in his forehead multiplied by the second.

  “Yes?”

  “I watched it right before we deployed on the mission. And we all fall. And we all fall.”

  “What?”

  “You and Jax.”

  “Oh. I forgot that I sent that to you.”

  “I can’t stop hearing it in my head.”

  Jackson broke down in tears. That was the first time Jamie realized her husband would never be the same, that he would never be free, though she assured him everything would be okay more times than she could remember until he was able to get out of that hospital bed on his own.

  “I’m fine. Everything will be fine,” Jackson said to her. All these years later, he was physically stronger than he had ever been in his life, though the opposite was true for him emotionally. She wanted to believe that he was okay, but he wasn’t the same since that day at Walter Reed. Neither of them was fine.

  “Famous last words.”

  “Except they’re accurate. By the way, we are taking Jumper with us, so you won’t have to worry about him.”

  “Right on. I’m sure he will be happy to spe
nd more time with you as well. Bye, Jumper,” she yelled once and then again as she reached down to pet him quickly after he limped up to her, his tail wagging furiously. “Be a good boy for your dad and brother.”

  “You too, kid,” she said to Jax, waving to him. He waved back from the kitchen. “Listen to your father, no matter what.”

  “Okay, mom.”

  “Give your dad a kiss from me,” she demanded from Jackson. “Tell him happy birthday for me.”

  “Will do.”

  “I’ll try to go by and see him in a couple days.”

  “You’re the best. Now you’d better get going.”

  She nibbled on Jackson’s ear and whispered something into it about what she would do to him if he could spend one more night before he went back to Afghanistan. His eyes got big as he smiled and then kissed her deeply one more time.

  “Oh, get a room,” Jax said and pretended to gag, drawing a laugh from his parents.

  “Are you recording us now with that thing?” his father asked with his arms around Jamie, eyeing the GoPro.

  “Yep.”

  “Oh boy. Bye!” Jamie yelled as she dashed away with her hand in the air, waving.

  She started the engine of her aging blue Ford Mustang that she loved. She pooh-poohed Jackson when he told her last year that she should trade it in and get something as nice as her FEMA salary warranted. “What? Like a Maserati, made for some pretentious asshole? No thanks. I’ll stick with my horse.”

  She took one last look at Jackson and Jax who were standing together in the doorway waving goodbye as Jumper stood between them wagging his tail. She rolled down the window and yelled out to them, “Make sure you tell dad about Betsy, Jax! I love you all!” Then she raced down the street.

  “Betsy?” Jackson asked his son with an inquisitive look. “Who’s Betsy?” Jax shrugged and walked to the kitchen. Jackson and the dog followed.

  Jackson put together two delicious looking breakfast sandwiches together with all the fixings. Father and son shared their first meal together in a very long time as Jumper sniffed the air. Jackson took a piece of bacon out of his sandwich and tossed it to his favorite thing on four legs.