The Next Ten: Beginnings Series Books 11 - 20

by Jacqueline Druga

  “Maybe we should have.” William shrugged. “Our error. Perhaps if we did, I wouldn’t have to keep pulling you aside to explain things now.” William looked at his watch. “Well, I must go check on my patients. See you in a bit.”

  Dean’s head swayed as his father left then he looked to Andrea. “He kills me every single time.”

  <><><><>

  As Frank approached, the voices emerging from outside the hanger could be heard. He knew it was bad in there with the survivors just by the noise level that seeped out. It was no longer just Robbie and George doing preliminary processing. They had Henry, Dan, and Miguel as well.

  Frank had just seen Miguel up at Holding. Frank was dropping the three off and Miguel was bringing two in as well. The two Miguel had were agitated and prime candidates to be knocked out to ensure a safe helicopter ride to drop them off.

  The second Frank opened the door to the hanger and the noise level pelted him, he knew his concerns were confirmed. It was like a zoo in there. Sixteen, maybe seventeen people were in there. Some were talking, some complaining, but all of them were waiting. Seeing that many people told Frank that Robbie and George picked up a full load capacity. Looking around the small hanger for his brother, Frank heard the female calling of his name.

  “Frank.” She sounded excited. “Oh, my God! Frank.”

  Frank looked, shrugged, then spotted Robbie sitting at a desk.

  “Frank.” The voice came from over that way.

  Robbie had a strange look as he glanced up from his paper work to the woman across the desk from him. “You know Frank?”

  “Yes.” She jumped up and so did Robbie, bodily stopping her.

  “Frank!” she called out.

  Frank stopped. He saw her. The hair was longer, frizzy, and wild, but he recognized the woman all the same. Thinking of her and seeing her made his entire being cringe. Michelle. Frank calmly turned back around but stopped when Robbie called his name.

  “Frank, come here.”

  “Fuck” Frank mumbled and turned back around toward Robbie. He walked in his direction.

  Michelle breathed heavily and sported a huge grin of excitement. “Frank.”

  Robbie looked to Frank. “Do you know her?”

  “No.” Frank shook his head. “Never seen her before in my life.”

  “No!” she cried. “Frank, please!”

  “Frank.” Robbie stopped Frank from leaving. “If you know her, let me know.”

  Frank looked at Michelle. “Yeah, I know her and I don’t want her staying in Beginnings.”

  “What?” Michelle gasped. “You don’t mean that.”

  Frank grinned. “The fuck I don’t. Bye-bye.”

  Robbie chuckled. “Frank, she says she has an extensive background in ...”

  “I don’t care,” Frank interrupted. “I don’t. Trust is the main thing and she can’t be trusted. This is the woman that I let follow me across the country. This is the bitch who took the van.”

  Robbie quickly looked at Michelle. “You’re ‘the bitch who took the van’ Michelle?”

  Michelle tried to move to Frank, but Robbie stopped her. “I was frightened, Frank. You didn’t want to look for people. You were determined to find a dead family.”

  “Well guess what, babe,” Frank said with arrogance. “Meet my baby brother, Robbie.”

  Michelle’s mouth dropped open.

  “That’s right,” Frank nodded. “Look at him. He looks pretty alive to me.” Frank’s head tilted. “And guess what? My son,” Frank paused. “He’s alive and my Dad ... he’s alive too. He runs this place. And guess what again?”

  Michelle was afraid to ask “What?”

  “Bye.” Frank waved “Get rid of her, Robbie. Take her back out. I’ll talk to you when I don’t have to look at that face.” Frank pointed at her, waved again, and turned around. He started walking away.

  Quickly, Michelle ran, breaking by Robbie’s barricade and to Frank. She clenched his arm, trying with all her might to halt the big man. “Frank. Please. Please I’ve been out there. It’s horrible.”

  Frank did stop. With a smug, look he peered down to her. “And I’ve been here. I’ve gained twenty pounds. Been eating, surviving, and living.”

  “But ...”

  “You should have never have took the van. Ha!”

  “I’ll do anything.” Michelle pleaded. “Anything.”

  “Sorry.”

  “Please just let me stay. Tell your brother to let me stay.”

  “No.”

  “There are no women. I can be of use.”

  “Just to annoy the fuck out of me. I don’t need to be annoyed. I have a guy named Dean to do that.”

  “See, a man. That’s all the more reason to have me stay,” Michelle said.

  “Huh?” Frank was confused. “What the hell do ...” Suddenly, Michelle was no longer in his view. Frank’s head dropped to see her kneeling before him. She reached for his crotch. Dead silence filled the room. “Get up.”

  “Let me please you.” Hurriedly she undid his zipper.

  “Get up.”

  “You’ll never have to worry about ...”

  Frank stepped back, zipped up, reached down, grabbed her shirt, and lifted her up. “First.” He glared down to her. “You think I need that? I don’t. If you were the last broad on the face of the earth, I still wouldn’t want it from you. Secondly.” Frank’s finger waved. “A lay may be a form of bribe out there, but not in here although you are on the right wave length.” Frank grinned “You are fucked.” He left her there and walked over to Robbie. “She doesn’t stay. Make sure of it. She took the van. She stole. I don’t care what kind of skills she has, that doesn’t over shadow the fact she can’t be trusted.”

  Robbie peeked over to an upset Michelle. “You got it. If you don’t trust her big brother, I don’t trust her. She’s gone. However ...” Robbie dropped his voice to a whisper. “Between you and me, I would have taken the blow job first.” Robbie winked.

  Frank shook his head. “I’m out of here.”

  “Frank, why are you here anyhow?”

  “Oh.” Frank snapped and turned around. “I brought three up from Containment.”

  “No shit. Larry, Moe and Curly?”

  “You got it. They started trouble and grabbed Ellen.”

  “Is she O.K.?” Robbie asked.

  “Yeah. She got tossed, but she’s fine.”

  “Did Dean check her out?”

  “Yep.”

  “And the baby is fine?”

  “What baby?”

  ‘Oh shit!’ raced through Robbie’s mind. Quickly he stumbled for words.

  “Robbie, what baby?”

  “Um ... you know, the one that we brought into Containment.”

  “You didn’t bring a baby into Containment. What baby are you talking about and why would a baby not be ...” Frank’s eyes grew cold. “Fuck.” Frank turned to walk away.

  “Frank.” Robbie chased him.

  “How long has she known she’s been fuckin’ pregnant?” Frank asked as he marched from the hanger.

  “Frank look ...”

  In a spin and still walking, Frank blasted out. “And why didn’t she tell me! I’ll tell you why! It’s mine!” Frank jumped into the Jeep.

  “Frank!” Robbie cried out and watched Frank peel away. “Shit.” He tossed his hand out and flew back into the hanger. Trouble was about to start and Robbie had to make sure things were fine in the hanger. Then he would head into town to try to divert the impending disaster.

  <><><><>

  “I’ll be goddamned.” Joe exclaimed as he sat in the skills room. “Whoops, sorry, Reverend. You are an ordained Minister?”

  “I was. Guess I still am.” The man who would be forever known, plain and simply, as Rev. Bob, sat with Joe. His grey hair was in dire need of a cut and his eyebrows needed to be shaved off.

  “We need a minister in Beginnings,” Joe told him.

  “Do you have many Christians
?”

  “If they aren’t when they get here, Andrea coverts them. She literally scares the hell out of them.”

  Rev. Bob paused. “Is that right?”

  “She wants a full church. Wait until she finds out we have you.”

  “I can’t wait to meet the woman.”

  “You will.” Joe had so much enthusiasm to him. “Of course, today wouldn’t be a good day.”

  “Why is that?”

  “She’s traumatized.”

  “Really? What a shame. What happened?”

  “One of our recently released walked into her bedroom while she and her husband were screwing ... . whoops sorry Reverend, being intimate.”

  “You dealt with the man?”

  “Oh yeah.” Joe nodded assuredly. “Kicked him out.”

  “Kicked him ...”

  “Out. Yes,” Joe said. “I personally didn’t have a problem with letting him stay but I had a problem with hearing Andrea’s bitching. Whoops ... sorry Reverend, complaining. The mouths in this community just go and go and ...”

  “El!” Frank’s voice shattered in volume through Containment.

  “Point taken.” Joe motioned his head backwards. “My son.”

  “El!” Frank stormed into the Skills Room. “Dad! Where’s Ellen.”

  “Frank.” Joe stood up. “You don’t ...”

  “Dad.” Frank stayed serious, his breathing heavy and his face red. “Where is Ellen? I need to talk to her.”

  “In her office”

  “Then why didn’t she come out.” Frank turned in a rush to leave.

  “Would you?” Joe tossed his hand up then cringed when he heard another loud ‘El!’

  “El.” Frank didn’t knock. He didn’t care to. He just barged right into her office.

  Ellen calmly looked up from her desk. “I heard you.”

  “We need to talk. Now.” Frank slammed her office door.

  “What’s wrong?” Ellen saw the look on Frank’s face and she slowly rose from her seat.

  “Oh,” Frank laughed almost in disbelief. “I would kill you right now. Kill you ...”

  “Frank”

  “If you weren’t ...” Frank lowered his voice and placed his face close to hers. “Pregnant.”

  The air escaped Ellen and she bodily moved back.

  “Then it’s true.” Frank saw her expression.

  “Let me explain.”

  “Explain what? Fuck.” Frank’s hand cut through the air. “You know, I wondered, I really wondered why you haven’t been with me lately. I would have thought you lost interest, but you wouldn’t make ...”

  “Frank.”

  “El!” he blasted. “I’m starting to think the reason you didn’t do it for the past couple of weeks is because ...” Quickly he reached out and lifted up the end of her long shirt. “Fuck.”

  Ellen was showing.

  “Dean knows?” Frank questioned.

  “Of course he knows.”

  “How far along are you, El?”

  “Four months.”

  Frank gasped loudly. “Why didn’t you tell me?”

  “Because I didn’t want you to know.”

  “El, we don’t live on separate ends of the continent here. We live on separate ends of the street. You didn’t think I notice? Why ... why didn’t you tell me?”

  “I knew what your reaction would be.”

  “Let’s see if you’re right.” Frank turned from her and opened the door.

  “Frank.” Ellen dove for him. “Where are you going?”

  “Dean and I are having a little talk, right now.”

  “No!” Ellen screamed. “No!” She gripped his arm.

  Frank pulled from her. “No? Why? Ellen, you and I both know why you didn’t want to tell me. This baby ... this baby is mine.”

  “You can’t be sure if ...”

  “Bullshit!” Frank blasted. “Bullshit. What are the actual odds of it being Dean’s.”

  Ellen’s head dropped. “It’s Dean’s baby.”

  A gravel took over Frank’s tone. “I don’t believe so. And if this baby is mine, I will raise my baby. Not Dean. It will be mine.” again Frank tried to leave.

  “You promised me!” Ellen screamed.

  Frank stopped walking.

  “You have never broken a promise to me Frank. You promised me you wouldn’t tell Dean, I sleep with you.”

  “And I’m not breaking that promise. Those words will never cross my lips.” With total seriousness and anger Frank walked from the office and down the hall.

  “Frank.” Ellen raced after him. “Don’t do this. I am begging you. Don’t do this. please. Not now.”

  “And when do you propose he finds out? When the kid is born big and with black hair?”

  “No, Frank. The baby will be blonde because it’s Dean’s. It’s Dean’s.”

  “Keep telling yourself that, El. Maybe you’ll start to believe it.” Frank reached for the buzzer.

  “I do. No, Frank.” Ellen pulled him from it. “Listen to me ...”

  “No, listen to me. I have no plans to go over there and blast the man. I have every intention of sitting and talking seriously with him because this is a very serious matter.”

  “You’ll crush him.”

  “Ask me if I care.”

  “I care,” Ellen cried out with emotions.

  “No shit.”

  “Tact. No tact. No matter how you handle it, it will kill him. Think of him.”

  “What?” Frank blasted. “Think of him? You ask me to think of him? El, think of me first for once,”

  “I do!” Ellen screamed. “I always do or how else do you think I got like this?”

  Frank dropped his voice to a whisper. “You make a comment like that and expect me to believe this kid is his?” There was a pause of silence then Frank reached for the keypad, punched in his code and, with the door’s buzzing, he stormed out.

  In the hallway of the Clinic, Frank checked once more to make sure that Ellen wasn’t following him. Maybe she decided it was for the best. He peeked into the lab and looked at Dean who was working alone. Then Frank stood with his back against the wall and tried to calm down. It was not a situation that needed shouting nor would it be fair if, right then and there, he and Dean began tearing each other apart. Different than he had ever been in any situation, Frank vowed to remain calm and handle it with maturity.

  He went though his mind what he wanted to say and how he wanted to say it. He knew no matter how it was going to be put, Dean wouldn’t handle it well, but he would handle it better if Frank didn’t deliver the news like the post man from hell. It wasn’t like Frank could let it go. He could but he didn’t want to. It involved Ellen and now a baby, both things Frank wouldn’t mind--whether he admitted it outwardly or not–having in his life all the time.

  He lifted from his lean on that wall, opened his eyes and, slowly through parted lips, blew out the breath he held. One step, one single step was all Frank took into the lab when he heard Ellen call for him.

  “Frank.”

  Frank looked back, knocked on the archway of the lab, and stepped in.

  Ellen stopped. Going in the lab was not something she wanted to do. Her gut instincts told her everything she needed to know. She would hear from where she stood in the hall.

  Dean turned around from his work when he heard the single knock. He held folders in his hand and used them as a dramatic effect, slamming them on the counter. “What?”

  “Dean.” Frank cleared his throat. “You and I have to talk.”

  “What can we possibly have to discuss?” Dean moved about.

  “Ellen.”

  Dean stopped and spun. “Is there something wrong? Is there some sort of security problem or risk we need to discuss about her?”

  “No.”

  “Then you and I ...” Dean waved his finger about. “Will not discuss my wife.”

  “Why do you do that?”

  “Do what?” Dean asked.

&
nbsp; “Add ‘my wife’ to each statement.”

  “I know you don’t like it, Frank, but she is.”

  “Look ...”

  “No, you look.” Dean pointed “You are not someone I want to talk to. Not idly. Not about Ellen. Not ever!.”

  “I came in here with all intentions of being adult.”

  Dean laughed.

  “Dean!” Frank blasted. “Will you knock it off!”

  “No, Frank. You knock it off. I would appreciate if you would just get out of my lab.”

  “Not until you and I discuss what we have to discuss.”

  “There is nothing to discuss.” Dean moved away.

  “I don’t want to talk about this with you in any other way than calm. It wouldn’t do either of us any good.”

  Dean had to snicker. “Listen to the way you are talking. What are you up to?”

  “Why do you have to be like this?”

  “Why do I ... what the hell Frank? I have no other recourse than to be this way with you.”

  “Bullshit. You can shut up and listen.”

  “About what?” Dean said with anger.

  “About the fact that I just found out Ellen is pregnant.”

  “Well good for you.” Dean nodded. “What? You don’t like it? You can’t handle it?’

  “Dean.”

  “My wife’s pregnancy, our child, does not concern you.”

  “Oh I beg to differ. It concerns me very much.”

  “In what way?”

  “In what way do you think?” Frank stepped to the counter, seeing that Dean ignored him. “You really piss me off. You do. I did nothing to you and ...”

  “What! How can you say that? You did nothing to me. Who’s been the dick around Beginnings, Frank? Who’s the one that slept with Ellen the first day here? Who is the one that flaunted it in my face that not only did you sleep with her but you have long history as well? Who throws it in my face that you can snap your finger and make her jump?”

  “You stepped between us.”

  “No Frank. You stepped between the two of you. But you don’t remember that do you? Do you? The only thing that you ever know is what Frank wants to know.”

  “You should have given her up.”

  “For what? For you? I love her, Frank.” Dean pointed. “I want to make a life with her. You can’t handle it. You can’t handle that we’re happy. Any time we get happy or spend time together, you do what you can to interrupt and to stop it, but not this time. This situation, she and I having a baby, is something you can do nothing to get in the way of.”