by Jillian Neal
Fitz was guffawing. “Only you, man.”
“Son, I’m going to take your mother home. She’s had quite a day,” Governor Vindico chuckled. “We’ll be back in the morning, and if you need something tonight just call. We’ll come right back.”
“Thanks, Dad. I think we’ll be okay tonight.”
“I know you’ll take care of her, son.” The Governor slapped Dan on the back.
A few minutes later, the ladies poured out of Fionna’s room. Dan handed the keys to his and Fionna’s house to Fitzroy and thanked him again for coming.
After assuring everyone that he’d take care of Fionna that night and being told repeatedly that everyone would be back the next morning, Dan finally edged towards Fionna’s room, worried about how long he’d been gone.
“Dan.” Mrs. Styler stopped him. “Just a quick second, sweetheart.” He nodded as Mrs. Styler offered him an idea that he thought was phenomenal, if he could make it work.
Feeling the endless day tugging at his emotions, Dan finally made it back to Fionna. As long as he focused solely on her and making certain that she had everything she needed, he could continue to force away the haunting imagery of everything that had happened at the Tantra.
Governor Haydenshire had informed Dan that they would talk in the morning, doing nothing to calm him down. Adeline had explained, while Fionna was under anesthesia, that though they’d healed her internal organs fully that she would be in a great deal of pain for the next several days and that she would bleed from the miscarriage for the same length of time.
She’d also explained that Fionna would be understandably emotional from all that had happened and from the hormone fluctuations from being pregnant and losing the baby.
He let all of that replay in his mind as he gazed at her adoringly. He would be there for every tear, for every mood swing, to cast her if she hurt, for each and every thing that she needed for the rest of their lives, if she’d allow it.
“I was just about to text you.” She looked completely exhausted.
“I’m sorry, sweetheart. I was talking to your mom.”
She nodded as a deep yawn overtook her. “I don’t want to sleep by myself.” Tears welled in her eyes again. They came with no provocation.
“I’ll be right here, baby.” He wiped them away.
“No, I want you to hold me in the bed, just like at home.”
Unable to deny her anything at all, Dan tried to determine how he could fit in the hospital bed beside her. “I don’t want you to be uncomfortable, baby doll.”
“I won’t.” She tried so hard to be brave. It was brutal to watch. “But I have this pad thing under me.”
Dan had been right beside her as the pad taped in the bed had been changed numerous times throughout the afternoon and evening. Other than being terrified by the sheer amount of blood and fluid coming out of her, it certainly didn’t bother him. He would make it work.
Adeline had left a pain pill that would help Fionna sleep on the table with a glass of water. Dan helped her back to the bathroom and watched over her obsessively while she brushed her teeth.
She let him run a cool washcloth over her face as her abdomen began hurting to the point that she was cringing. Dan leaned and lifted her as tenderly as he was able. He carried her back to bed.
Handing her the medicine and insisting that she take it, he slid into the bed beside her, lying on top of the blankets he’d swathed her in.
Moving with precise gentleness, Dan helped her roll to her right side and lay on his chest.
She yawned deeply as the medicine began to make her eyes spin.
“Go to sleep, baby. I’m right here. I’m not going anywhere, ever.”
As he pulled the light from the fluorescent bulbs, he kissed her forehead and laid awake, making certain that she slept comfortably.
He refused to think about the day’s events. He shut down the images, the sorrow, all that had been lost, and the things that he had gained. He pulled his phone off of the table beside them.
He searched for the things he would need to give Fionna the time to heal that he knew she desperately needed, that they desperately needed.
When his mind finally crushed his stubborn will, he swallowed back the tears that burned his eyes.
He’d never consciously wanted children until he’d known that the one he’d created with Fionna had been taken from them. Until he’d raced out of the very hospital carrying Abigail Haydenshire, he’d never even held a newborn. Now, suddenly, he wanted very much to hold his own.
Brushing another tender kiss on Fionna’s forehead, he watched her sleep beside him, and he could see what might have been. A relatively quick wedding. Allowing himself a moment of spiteful indignation, Dan pictured his mother’s outrage over his shotgun wedding. Gazing back at Fionna, tears obscured her face. He could see through his mind’s eye. Her, swollen, ripe, and full of his baby. His hands on her protruding stomach, his lips on the swell. His heart ached physically as he thought of the emptiness he knew she must feel.
“I believe she’s going to make a full recovery. You can try again whenever she’s ready.” He’d heard Adeline’s soothing assurances as he’d sobbed and tried desperately to listen to everything he needed to know while Fionna had been unconscious.
The hair on the back of his neck stood, and his stomach churned as the images of Fionna’s fingers wrapped forcefully around his biceps as they’d drained her energy and began removing the bullet before she was fully out assaulted his consciousness.
She’d pled for her mother as she vacillated between life and death. It had simply been more than Dan could endure. He’d broken down completely.
Throwing himself into the task at hand, refusing not to go ahead with his plan, he eased himself upright, keeping Fionna’s skin in contact with his own as he set to work. He had to make her better. He had to fix what he’d done.
~Captain Jean Paul Fitzroy, French Iodex~
“Salut, mon ami. Tu me manques.” He smiled as Maddie sighed.
“How is Fionna, Jean Paul? Tell me she is fine.”
“I haven’t seen her yet, but I think she’s getting there. Dan’s a disaster though.”
“That has been the case for sometime.”
Fitz chuckled. He certainly couldn’t argue with his wife. She was, once again, absolutely correct.
“Are you there with them a la hopital?” Her English was near perfect. He’d been teaching her for years, but when she was tired she flowed in and out of French.
“No, I’m at Dan’s house. I was just calling to check on you before I hit the sack. I’m gonna go out to Governor Haydenshire’s farm early in the morning, plead Dan’s case. I can’t believe that’s how Danny killed him, but I’ll be damned if I let him go down for it.”
Maddie was silent, always contemplating and wondering. He wished he could see her beautiful brown eyes that night. He wished she’d come with him. He didn’t know what to say to Fionna. She was so much better at that kind of thing.
He knew Maddie was sitting in their bedroom, sipping tea, wearing that peach colored, silk robe he’d bought her just because he knew she would be stunning in it. The black lace always made him ache, and it showed off her shapely legs. God, he missed her so much.
“The boys are missing you. They wouldn’t sleep. Kept telling me they saw a man in the garden.” She scoffed, but Fitz’s heart leapt to his throat. He forced himself to breathe.
“I’ll get Malden or Rutherford to come check, Mad. Just let me call them.”
“No, Jean Paul, we are fine. They are just anxious for you to return.”
“Maddie, I’m calling one of my officers out. If you hear anything, it’s them. And I don’t care what time it is, love, if you need me, call me.”
When he ended that call, he phoned the precinct. “I’m hoping you made an endless number of arrests after we got the call.”
“Oui, oui,” Rutherford had answered.
“I’m in America, and I’m exhausted. Speak English.�
�� Fitz had grown up here. It was easier for him.
“Bastion arrested the five he was with. We took in everyone in the safe houses we knew of. Quite a day. It will be remembered, what Vindico did.”
“Yeah, that’s sure as hell true. Listen, get Malden and go by my house. The boys got spooked. Stay in the driveway tonight. I don’t like Maddie being there alone tonight. Too many people far too angry that Uncle Nic will no longer be signing paychecks.”
~Rainer Lawson~
Emily kept Rainer folded in her soothing cast as they laid in their bed that night. Rainer remembered that he’d promised to make love to her there that morning. It felt like that morning had been weeks before. He tried to sort through their endless day.
“Do you want to talk about it?” she whispered in the darkness. Rainer shook his head. He just wanted to hold her.
“Is Fionna okay?” He didn’t want to think about the Tantra, or Logan, or anything that he’d seen that day.
“Kind of.” Emily brushed a kiss across his collarbone. “Mom told her about the miscarriages.”
Rainer had assumed that Mrs. Haydenshire would share that. He hadn’t been alive when the Haydenshires had lost a baby between Garrett and Levi. He’d only been a toddler when she’d lost the one after Emily, so he had no recollection of the events.
“She thinks she got pregnant after the lingerie shower,” Emily lamented.
“That wasn’t your fault.” Rainer’s voice was still haggard and weak.
“I know. I just feel bad. Vindico thought she’d set the cast before they left, and Fi was a little tipsy that night.”
Rainer felt his heart ache as he considered everything Vindico and Fionna had been through.
“I love you.” Emily squeezed him tighter.
“I love you too, Em.”
“Whenever you want to talk, I want to listen.”
Forcing himself to prick the surface of the emotions he’d kept tightly bound for their endless day, Rainer finally let his tears escape as he began to talk.
Not at all certain that he was making any sense, he simply allowed the words to flow freely from his mouth and felt the healing that she afforded him as she listened intently.
Deal With the Devil
~Governor Stephen Haydenshire~
Kissing Lillian on the cheek as she fixed batches of her famous chicken soup, he promised to be back soon. She stood at the stove of her kitchen, one of her favorite places in the world to be.
Though it was nearing midnight and exhaustion plagued him after all he’d dealt with during the endless day, he knew he wouldn’t sleep until he’d taken care of this one last thing.
“Sweetheart, why don’t you go on to bed.” He knew perfectly well that she wouldn’t. Lillian offered him a weary smile. The twins were sound asleep, as was Abigail, all safely upstairs in the serenity of the farmhouse. He knew that their babies, healthy and safe in their beds, drove her.
“They’re going to take that sweet girl off of those fluids tomorrow, and she’s going to have to eat, Stephen. She needs something that will restore her and heal her. Something she can keep down, and the broth they make at that hospital is enough to make her sick again.” Lillian began chopping celery, carrots, and onions and adding them to the stockpots on the stove.
Will and Garrett eased in the side door. Stephen wondered momentarily, after the events of the day, if they should keep the doors locked. Gazing at his sons, solid and strong, he decided that the amount of good that they would be locking out far outweighed the potential bad they might be keeping at bay.
He felt peace and solace wash over him as he allowed himself a moment to listen to the rhythmic tap of Lillian’s favorite kitchen knife against the butcher-block counter tops and of his sons chuckling over something as they opened the refrigerator to grab a cold Dr. Pepper for their journey.
“Please be careful, Stephen,” Lillian pled anxiously.
“We’ll be fine, sweetheart.”
“I made up your old beds, in case you’re too tired to go back home when you’re finished,” she informed Will and Garrett. “Brooke was worried about you driving after this, Will.”
“I’m sure we’ll be taking you up on that, Mom,” Garrett assured her.
Stephen suspected that a night in his childhood bed, surrounded by the home that had raised him, might do Garrett a world of good.
Trying desperately to push away the distinct feeling that he was making a deal with the devil, Stephen pulled his wife close and kissed her fiercely. He needed to cling to his own personal angel before he stepped in front of one on Satan’s demons.
“I love you.” His voice shook.
She gave him that smile, the one that always made everything feel like it would really be all right, as she assured him that she loved him as well.
An hour later, Stephen eased the Suburban slowly over the gravel drive that led to Coriolis prison. Garrett strapped on a holster as Will pushed one of his own pistols in the back of his jeans.
“You’re sure he’s gonna go for this?” Garrett asked again as they stepped out of the car and forced themselves to move towards the underground prison. Will shuddered and drew measured breaths. Garrett was more accustomed to the trip, though the color drained readily from his features.
They reached the first checkpoint, and Stephen felt his knees weaken. The energy drain set in with crushing weight. He couldn’t go on. He felt his age more than he ever had before, and there was still so much more that had to be handled before he could sleep.
Garrett flashed his badge, though the guards knew instantly who was there.
“What are you doing out here Crown Governor?” Lombard asked concernedly.
“Get me Pendergrath,” Stephen ordered. “Senior. Keep him drained, shackled, and cuffed.”
“Yes sir, of course,” Lombard agreed.
“Come on Dad.” Garrett drew a deep breath as he led Will and Stephen back to the gravel top decks where the drain was just slightly less.
Several minutes later, three guards escorted Candor Pendergrath at gun point towards them.
The imprint of Rainer’s boot was bloodied and bruised on Pendergrath’s face. His perfectly capped teeth were chipped and ragged from the force of Rainer’s fury. His nose had been healed, but would always remain at an odd angle.
He scowled, but couldn’t yet manage any of his standard biting remarks. He was a broken man.
“Candor,” Stephen huffed.
“Governor,” Pendergrath spat.
“I assume you know why I’m here.”
His energy began to steady slightly, and he became more himself. “I assume you’d like to work a deal. Like me to forget that your son killed my friend in cold blood.” He managed a half-hearted laugh, but it drained him quickly. “You let me walk, I’ll see what I can forget.”
“No.” Stephen shook his head.
That wasn’t what Pendergrath had expected to hear.
“Whether Logan ever works as an officer again or not, you will spend the rest of your life here.” That was not up for negotiation.
“Then it seems to me that I’ll have many stories to tell when they put me on the stands.” Pendergrath slithered in his own mock triumph.
“Fine,” Stephen allowed. “But just remember this when you’re back in that cell tonight.” He let the memories of Coriolis prison settle firmly in Pendergrath’s mind. “It’s up to me, and me alone, to determine just how long your son stays here with you.” He made his offer.
“Take him back. Let’s go home, boys.” Stephen turned and headed back to the Suburban between his sons.
He’d made it ten paces when he heard the word he’d come to hear.
“Fine,” echoed from Candor Pendergrath’s vile mouth.
Revelations and Receipts
~Dan Vindico~
At five o’clock, there was a timid knock on Fionna’s door. Dan let his eyes open hesitantly. Panicked that he’d fallen asleep somewhere in the night, he made certain that
Fionna was still sleeping peacefully on his chest.
Adeline slipped in the door dressed in fresh scrubs, though she didn’t look like she’d slept any better than Dan.
She smiled at them formed together in the relatively small bed. “I can’t sleep without Logan either.”
Fionna was still out, so Dan debated how to sit up so Adeline could do whatever needed to be done.
“I’m just going to cast her and see if we can’t sort of speed up the process of everything,” Adeline whispered. She didn’t seem to want to elaborate on the fact that she was going to try to force Fionna’s body to move on with the miscarriage. “I came in early. It will work faster if she’s asleep while I do it, and then she won’t have to think about it.”
“Thank you.” Dan was immensely appreciative of all of the thoughtfulness and care that Adeline Haydenshire put into her work. He agreed with Logan’s assessment that his wife was a phenomenal Medio and a phenomenal human being.
Adeline offered another smile as Dan eased out from underneath Fionna and moved to a chair beside the bed. He kept her hand in his.
“The pill I gave her last night will have her out for another few hours.”
Dan watched as a faint blue orb pulsed rhythmically out of Adeline’s hands and onto Fionna’s abdomen. It spun from her lower stomach to the top of her thighs.
He braced, worried Fionna would awaken, but she didn’t even move.
“I’m going to be assigned to her only today. So if you need anything, I’ll be here.” Adeline was still shy around Dan, but seemed to feel that she should talk to him while she was there.
“That will make Fi really happy,” he assured her.
“Since she did so well during the night and it seems everything was relatively healed up from the gunshot wound, other than the pain of her body being injured and then trying to heal, they wanted to move her to the Obstetrics floor since the miscarriage is what’s keeping her from going home.”
“But I think it’s a terrible idea to put women who are having miscarriages up on that floor. There are babies everywhere. It just seems so cruel, so Medio Sawyer and I agreed that she should just stay here. I’m working on changing that hospital policy as quickly as I can.” She talked more freely as she discussed her work.