Remember, It’s Our Honeymoon
By Mairsile
Remember, It’s Our Honeymoon
© 2015 by Mairsile. All Rights Reserved.
This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places, events and incidents are either the product of the author’s imagination or used in a fictitious manner. Any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, is purely coincidental.
This book, or parts thereof, may not be reproduced in any form, without written permission from the author.
Cover Design: Mairsile
Photo Copyright: Mairsile
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Acknowledgements
I would not be writing best sellers without my two best friends, Fox and Joyce, always standing beside me. They are my heroes.
And last, but never least, may the glory go to God.
Mairsile
Chapter One
Aidan sat in her wife’s office, studying closely each page of the Home Land Security file, pausing often to sneak a quick look over at her bride. About three-quarters of the way through the thick confidential file, her eye caught on to something she hadn’t noticed before. The DNA of one of the terrorists killed at the hospital showed he was Irish. The information intrigued Aidan only from the perspective that her mother was from Ireland, and she was going there for her honeymoon. She highlighted the page with the intention of asking her boss about it when she went into her office that morning.
“Hey, baby, I’m going to go check in with Bradshaw, and I’ll be back in about an hour, okay?”
“Sure, honey. I’ll be here putting out some last minute fires.” Suddenly Vicky looked up from her papers and asked, “But, you’ll come right back here, right?”
It wasn’t that Vicky didn’t trust Aidan, and it wasn’t that she was being overly insecure. It was that after all they had been through together, in the last few months, they had both become very overprotective of the other. And for Aidan, that was saying a lot, since she had been that way with Vicky from the first day she met her in grade school. Truth be told, they preferred the clinginess right now, because each carried the recent vision of their lover bleeding in their arms from gunshot wounds.
“Count on it, kid.” Aidan said, already planning to text her wife in a little bit, just to belay any concerns.
“Hey, honey…”
“Yes, wife of mine?”
Vicky smiled. “I love you.”
“Hey, kid?”
“Yeah, honey?”
Aidan smiled. “I love you too.”
As Aidan walked down the hallway toward the exit, she thought of how much she enjoyed being married to the love of her life. But then she was distracted by a woman dressed in an Army combat uniform, talking to another soldier of higher rank. Damn, I miss wearing the uniform. The two soldier’s most likely had been visiting a soldier from the Arkansas National Guard who had been hurt in the tornado cleanup recently. They walked outside just ahead of Aidan, and she watched as they put their patrol caps on, and then saluted each other. Then they turned and went in different directions. Damn, I miss saluting.
*
Aidan walked into the local Department of Homeland Security, and grabbed a cup of coffee from the break room. This branch of DHS was not widely known in Little Rock, or the nation for that matter. The main focus of the DHS in Arkansas was for emergency preparedness, and it used to be a one or two man operation. But due to the assassination attempt on President Jackson Trenton, and the bombing attempt on St. Frances Hospital, it had now become a fully staffed office, with a terrorist division, that Aidan headed up. Technically, the city and state was too small to really warrant the need for a fully staffed department, including agents like Aidan, not when Texas had a large department available. But the former commander and chief, convinced the powers that be of the necessity for one. Even though his position as an emeritus president should have relegated him to more of a ceremonial position, Trenton kept his hand in several high level projects, such as the terrorist cell in Arkansas.
With coffee in hand, Aidan walked over and tapped on her boss’s door. Tom Bradshah, director of Arkansas’ DHS division was at his desk, studying the latest reports. He was regulated to a desk job now, having been taken off of field duty due to a wound he suffered during the attack on the hospital. It left him with a limp and a piece of shrapnel still embedded in his thigh.
“Can I see you a minute, boss?”
“Sure, Cassidy, what’s up?”
“I’ve been reading over the files on the terrorist cell, like you asked me to, and something stuck in my mind that I’d like to explore further. One of the terrorists has Irish origins in his DNA.”
“Yeah, so?” Bradshah wasn’t sure what she was implying.
“So I think maybe there’s a connection that we’re overlooking. This is the same terrorist that held Vicky and I hostage a few months ago and we all thought he was from here in the city, a home grown terrorist. And he may have been, but his parents or grandparents must have come from Ireland. That means he could have ties there that we’re overlooking.”
Bradshah considered her idea, “It’s a stretch, but you could be right. We’re getting nowhere fast on the cell here in Little Rock. We had a visual on them a couple of times, but they’re keeping such a low profile, moving from place to place, that we still have not gotten anything concrete on them. By now, they’ve probably already moved out of the city, maybe even the state. So any little nibble, such as a connection in Ireland, will be very helpful. Keep thinking, Cassidy, you’ve got great instincts for this game. In the meantime, you enjoy your time off and be prepared to hit the ground running when you get back.”
“Roger that, sir.”
Aidan left the office and immediately sent a short text to Vicky that said, done with work, wanna play? Vicky sent a text back that said, what makes you think work isn’t play? Aidan smiled. She knew that for Vicky, her work was her play. She texted her back and said, that’s not the kind of playing I had in mind, wink-wink. Vicky’s text reply was one word, S.E.X. That had been their special word since childhood, when neither one had the courage to say the word out loud. Aidan’s final text was, don’t start without me!
*
“What’s so funny?” Yvonne asked as she entered Vicky’s office.
“Oh, Yvonne. I didn’t hear you come in. I was laughing at something Aidan text me just now.”
“I hesitate to guess.”
“And you would be wise not to,” Vicky said grinning. “So, did you need me?”
“No, ma’am. You called me in here, remember?”
“Oh, so I did. I guess my mind is already on that plane for Ireland.”
“I wish I were going with you,” Yvonne quipped, and Vicky looked at her curiously. “Oh, no. I don’t mean with you on your honeymoon. I meant on my own honeymoon.”
“Oh? Has Jerry popped the question yet?” Vicky asked.
“I wish, but we barely know each other. These things take time, as you well know.”
“If it’s meant to be, Yvonne, it will happen, no matter how long it takes.”
“Yes, but unlike you, Vicky, I’m not as young as I used to be, so I need it to happen sooner rather than later.”
*
Aidan walked back into Vicky’s office with a box of chocolates for her bride, who looked up from her computer and grinned, “For me?” she asked innocently.
Aidan handed them to her, “Sweets for the sweet,” she replied.
“Why are you plying me with chocolate, honey? Not that I’m complaining, mind you.”
A
idan walked back to the door, closed and locked it, then turned to face Vicky, and replied huskily, “I thought maybe we could get this honeymoon started early.” But just as she reached for her wife, there was a knock on the door. “Damn!”
“I’m sorry, honey. I invited everyone up here so we could say goodbye. I thought it would save us some time,” Vicky explained. “Now I’m regretting that decision.”
“Well, okay, but you’re going to owe me a big one now.”
“That’s a debt I’ll gladly pay,” she countered over her shoulder as she unlocked her office door. “Mom, Dad, thank you so much for coming to the office.” Vicky embraced her parents, Leonard and Alice Montgomery, as more people filed in past them. “Mom, where’s Aunt Ruth?”
“She thinks she’s coming down with a cold,” Alice explained. “So for a change she’s doing the sensible thing, and staying home. She said to wish you a bon voyage and to have fun.”
“Aw, that’s sweet. Give her my love, and tell her to call Yvonne if she needs anything, all right?”
“Don’t worry, dear. I’ll keep my eye on her. She’ll be fine.”
Yvonne and Jerry came in and sat together by the window, while Dakota Lewis stood out of the way, waiting patiently for her instructions. Paul Stewart, wedged in past everyone and sat beside the others, and Samantha made her way over to a corner, trying not to be seen.
Soon Vicky’s office was full of family and friends, and as she looked around, she smiled at the warmth she felt in the room. Yvonne Rogers was her executive assistant and maid of honor at her wedding. Dakota Lewis was Vicky’s new handpicked hospital administrator, and Paul Stewart was her head of security for the hospital.
And then there was Samantha Vincent, Aidan’s first fiancée, there against her will, thanks to the Army. She didn’t have warm feelings for Vicky, but Vicky hoped that she would slowly, albeit begrudgingly, come around to accepting her. It didn’t hurt that Vicky’s parents took Samantha in, so she could be close to her premature baby without having to worry that her PTSD might hurt her child.
Samantha Jane Vincent, a Staff Sergeant in the U.S. Army, had been captured in an insurgent attack while serving in Iraq. The same attack that caused Aidan's memory loss and where Jerry was wounded. Samantha had been sold as a sex slave to a father and his son, until Aidan, Vicky and Jerry rescued her, and even helped delivered her baby in the middle of the Syrian Desert.
Also there to see the newlyweds off, was Aidan’s best friend, Jerry Williams, who was now working for her at DHS as a Special Agent. Jerry is in love with Yvonne, though he’s yet to say those three magic words to her.
Yvonne is thirty-three-years-old, older than Jerry by seven years, and has a ten year old son that adores him. And though she has not admitted it yet either, Yvonne is in love with Jerry as well. The two are still at the insecure stage, afraid to go further for fear of rejection.
Vicky had the flat screen television monitor, hanging from the wall across from her desk, on mute. Everyone quieted down when the local news station interrupted the broadcast, and cut to President Trenton and President Robert Sherman, walking down the streets of the tornado ravaged city of Little Rock. She turned up the volume and everyone gathered around.
Former President Trenton spoke first. He had trouble fighting back the tears in his eyes as the cameras panned behind him to show the devastation at ground zero. He talked of how he loved the city, his second home where he lived as governor for all those years. The camera cut to a picture of the governor’s mansion, now destroyed in the tornado. He pointed to first one collapsed building, then another, describing how he would have lunch there or do business there, and now they were in ruins. He promised the people of Arkansas, that their capital city would once again be the thriving metropolitan it once was. President Robert “Bob” Sherman spoke next, promising financial help to rebuild Little Rock, bigger and better than before.
Everyone in Vicky’s office was subdued for a moment, and then they all began talking at once. Vicky pulled Dakota to the side for some last minute instructions, and Aidan talked with Samantha.
Dakota had to literally hit the ground running, when her first day on the job involved a sudden influx of patients due to the tornado devastation. Just thirty years old, she was responsible for seeing to the day-to-day operations of the hospital, where as her boss, Vicky, oversaw the entire health system. Dakota was in awe of Vicky, the youngest CEO ever of a major health system, having taken over at the age twenty-four. Dakota felt she was falling behind because she was already twenty-eight-years-old.
“Dakota, I want you to remember that there are to be no changes while I’m gone, all right,” Vicky said. “At least not until I return and then we can talk about it together.”
Everyone knew that St. Francis Hospital, the flagship of the health system, was Vicky’s baby. Vicky made sure that the applicants knew during the interviews, that she would always have a hand in the running of that hospital. Dakota was happy to let her have the reins, because she knew she would learn much more that way. That was part of the reason Vicky hired her.
“How are you doing, Sam?” Aidan asked her ex-fiancée.
“Peachy, and you?”
“You’re still pretty sore at me, aren’t you?” Aidan asked curiously.
Samantha was Aidan’s ex-fiancée, not of her choosing, but by circumstances beyond Aidan’s control. She had been engaged to Aidan while they were serving together in the Army, and when Aidan thought Vicky was out of the picture for good, she asked Samantha to marry her. Although the situation had to be accepted, it had yet to be fully rectified.
“What kind of stupid question is that to ask?” Samantha didn’t bother to hide her anger, “I’m not handing out absolution, if that’s what you’re after?” Samantha heard herself being harsher than she really wanted to be, but she couldn’t stop herself. She had made progress in letting go of Aidan, but knowing that her fiancée would soon be leaving on her honeymoon without her, she was finding it difficult not to feel bitter about it.
“It would be nice, but I’ll settle for you getting on with your life and forgetting about me, about us.”
“If it were that simple, Aidan, I wouldn’t be here now, would I?”
“No, I guess not.” Aidan didn’t know what else to say, her guilt was imprisoning her thoughts. She couldn’t know the depth of Samantha’s pain or all the factors that drove that pain. All she knew was that she wanted Samantha to be happy again. She deserved that much. It wasn’t Samantha’s fault that Aidan chose Vicky over her, and in the scheme of things, it wasn’t really Aidan’s fault either. Aidan loved Samantha because she reminded her so much of Vicky, but it took her psychiatrist to point that out to her years later. And it was that same psychiatrist who helped Samantha come to the realization that she loved Aidan only because she wanted someone to love, not because she was in love with her. But Samantha’s pain derived from the fact that she had not yet admitted that to herself.
Aidan stuffed her hands in her jean pockets, nodded at her, and then walked over to Jerry and Yvonne.
“Hey, Jerry,” Aidan slapped him on the shoulder, “you’ll keep me informed if anything breaks in the case, right?”
“Sure, Sarge,” Jerry said, “But don’t worry about work on your honeymoon. Things around here are deadly dull anyway.”
Checking her new, high tech watch that her bride gave her as a wedding gift, Aidan saw that time was growing short, so she shook hands with Jerry and said goodbye, and then walked over to Vicky. “It’s getting late, baby, we need to go. We’ve still got a lot to do before our flight in the morning, not the least of which is pack.”
“Oh!” Yvonne jumped up and ran out of the office, leaving Jerry to wonder why.
Vicky was feeling a giggly kind of excitement in her heart. Finally, they were going on an adventure together that didn’t involve guns, bombs or the police. She hugged her parents and kissed them goodbye. Then she hugged Jerry and said that she would drop Twister by on
the way to the airport in the morning. Twister was a stray kitten that Vicky found in the tornado aftermath and took in. As yet, no one had come forward to claim him after five days, and Vicky was beginning to hope no one would. Then she walked over and squeezed Paul’s arm and asked him to protect their hospital.
When it came time to say goodbye to Alice, Aidan hesitated, trying to decide how best to approach her mother-in-law. They had come to an understanding and acceptance the night Aidan rescued Vicky and her parents from Harold Cassidy, Aidan’s father, and she believed Alice when she said she was family now. It was the greatest feeling on earth to Aidan, but regardless, the woman was now her mother-in-law, and things could change because of it. She extended her hand to shake, but Alice shooed her hand away. She grabbed Aidan up in a motherly hug which put a smile on Vicky’s face.
Finally, with all the goodbyes said, the instructions given, and the excitement mounting, Aidan and Vicky headed to the lobby and the front door.
Everyone spilled out into the hallway, and Dakota maneuvered around the newlyweds and then stopped in front of them just as they reached the lobby. She told them she needed one more thing, and asked them to wait there for just a second. Then she stepped to the side and stood there, as if she were waiting for something.
Vicky couldn’t help but be confused as to why Dakota would ask them to stop and then just stand there saying nothing.
Then Aidan took a step forward and turned to face Vicky, taking her hand in hers, she said, “Vicky, we’ve only just begun to live.”
Suddenly, a patient transport employee, standing at the far end of the lobby, began singing in a lilting baritone, the Carpenter’s song, We’ve Only Just Begun. Vicky looked at him in wonderment, as another employee came out of the gift shop singing, and then another came up from behind them, singing, until eight employees, waltzing about the front lobby as they sang, came together to form two lines, facing each other, their arms stretched out, touching fingers with the other line. Yvonne walked up to Vicky and handed her a tissue, and then walked to the end of the two lines, turned and theatrically swooped her hand from the line of employees to the waiting car behind her.
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