by Jillian Neal
There was apparently an article written on natural remedies for hormonal mood swings after a miscarriage, and Mrs. Vindico had taken it upon herself to read it to Fionna. Dan entered the room in time to hear that, according to Women of the Realm, eating broccoli every day and applying a cup of castor oil to the abdomen and female organs would make the patient feel happy as a lark.
With her jaw clenched tightly, Fionna shot Dan glares that said if he didn’t shut his mother up he was going to be on the receiving end of a violent mood swing.
“Mom!” Dan jerked the magazine from her hands. “I think it’s all still a little fresh for us to be discussing it so freely. Now, I’m about to pull off my shirt, put on some ratty sweats, and probably help Fionna change into nothing more than one of my t-shirts. Then I’m going to lay down with her on the couch and cuddle her up under our quilts. I’m going to turn on some movies and cast her. If you all feel the need to stay here for that, then by all means make yourselves at home, as you certainly already have. If not, could you just go, and we’ll call you when we get back from our trip?” Dan sincerely hoped that his bluntness wouldn’t upset Fionna, but he knew that sometimes you had to be brutally curt with his mother for her to listen to you at all.
To his relief, Fionna looked thrilled that he’d laid it all out for his mother. She bit her lips together to keep from guffawing.
“Daniel.” Mrs. Vindico was highly perturbed.
“Yes, Mother?”
“That was unnecessary!”
“Oh, I think it had reached a point of dire necessity.”
“Well, dear, if you need anything at all you just call Arthur, and we’ll be right back over. I have several more of my chicken casseroles at home in the freezer. You could just add some corn flakes on top and have your evening meal already complete if you’re not feeling up to cooking. I put two in Daniel’s refrigerator for when the ham runs out.”
Dan shuddered visibly as Fionna nodded and gave the best smile she was able to force under the circumstances. “Thank you so much, Mrs. Vindico.”
“That’s what I’m here for, dear,” Dan’s mother assured her.
Dan held the front door open impatiently as his parents and sister finally made their exit.
“I am so sorry.” He slammed the front door shut and locked it firmly.
Fionna was giggling hysterically. “I started to point out to her that I really thought it had more to do with the someone rubbing their hands and fingers on your abdomen and va-jay-jay that made the patient happy as a lark. And that I doubted the castor oil had anything to do with it, but I decided against that.” She cracked herself up again. “I also didn’t tell her that I hate broccoli.”
Dan guffawed as he nodded his agreement. “Well, baby doll, if you want me to rub anything at all on your abdomen and va-jay-jay you just say the word, and I already knew you hated broccoli.”
She turned speculative a moment later. Her rhythms were indeed running more erratically than they used to. “Will you really do all that stuff you just announced to your mother that you were gonna do?”
“That was my plan all along,” Dan assured her. He joined her on the sofa. “Is that okay?”
The chasm that had come between them seemed much more apparent back in their home than it had in the hospital. Fionna nodded and sat up. She reached for his hand and pulled him down beside her. She laid her head tenderly on his shoulder as he wrapped his arms around her.
“I’m sorry. I know I was a mess, and I know I shut you out. But please, believe me that not talking to you, not telling you what was going on was harder than anything I’ve ever done in my whole life, even after my mom died,” she choked.
“Fi,” he cradled her closer. He wondered if the ache in his chest would ever improve. “I know, baby. But this was my fault. I should have tried harder to get you to talk to me. I let you shut me out, and I did what I’d always done. I threw myself back into my work, determined that if I ended him you’d feel safe, and you would tell me. I should have made you feel safe enough to tell me, whether I’d ended Wretchkinsides or not.” Dan confessed the pain that had haunted him since he’d heard Pravus’s gunshot.
Fionna shook her head. “No, this is not your fault. Please don’t say that. It only makes me feel so much worse.”
Though he would always feel that everything that had happened was his fault, he would certainly try not to say it out loud and he would have to modulate his emotions. Her strength and her abilities were making a return.
He felt her sadness and her weary dejection take hold of her yet again.
“Hey.” He kissed her forehead. “How about if I go put on some sweats, and I help you change. Then I’ll turn on some movies, and we’ll lay here under your quilt. Let’s just make the rest of the world wait outside for a little while.”
Relief flooded through her rhythms, and her eyes lit. He saw it there in the glimmer of her beautiful eyes. Happiness doing its best to make a return.
She smiled his smile, though the sadness still tortured her. “I know we have to keep talking about everything. I want to build our relationship back even stronger than before, like you said, but right now that sounds really perfect.”
“It’s going to be a lot to work, Fi, but I swear to you, honey, I love you and we will do whatever it takes to make this work.”
“I know, and that makes me happier than anything in the entire world.” She squeezed him tightly, but then grimaced. The force was more than her abdomen could take.
Dan immediately sent soothing pulses back through her abdomen, calming the muscles that were protesting their recent assault. “Tell me what you want to wear, sweetheart. I think the stairs are going to be tough for a day or two, so we’ll just stay down here until tonight, and then I’ll carry you to bed. And apparently my mother did all of your laundry, so whatever you’d like should be clean,” he offered wryly.
“I almost fell off the couch when I saw her pick up that G-string.” She squeezed her eyes closed momentarily.
“Yeah, well, I’m going to try not to think about the fact that my mother’s hands were on those the next time I put my hands on them,” his slight shudder making her laugh again.
She stopped abruptly with a delighted grin. “It doesn’t hurt to laugh anymore!”
Dan grinned. Her excitement over being able to laugh with him soothed his soul. “Adeline is pretty amazing.”
He donned a ragged pair of sweat shorts and brought Fionna down an assortment of t-shirts for her to choose from.
“Will you bring me those black sweatpants with the Angel wings on the booty, the ones that are too big? I’ve really missed wearing pants for the past few days, but these jeans are squeezing me funny.”
Wanting to get her out of any pain first, Dan rushed to the couch. “I know that I’m not allowed to take this any further, but I do consider myself an expert on taking off your jeans.”
The sweet sounds of her laughter had been absent for so long, every time he heard them it mended his fractured heart. She managed to get up off of the couch with just a little help. Each thing she did on her own seemed to thrill her. Dan helped her change into her requested outfit.
He turned up the heat and queued up several of her favorite movies. Positioning himself behind her, he cradled her back to his chest.
Pillow Talk with Doris Day began, and Fionna sighed contentedly.
“Best fiancée ever,” she whispered.
~Governor Stephen Haydenshire~
“How’s Fionna, son?” Stephen was trying to put off the information the men standing in his office had come to tell him.
“She has her moments,” Garrett sighed. “She’s getting there, but it’s gonna take a while. When Dan leaves the room, she panics. I’m not even sure she knows she’s doing it. She’s a little better if I’m there, but not for long. I think it’s going to take several weeks of him staying right by her side for her to really pull through this.”
“Daniel didn’t seem to be fairin
g any better when he was at the diner for a grand total of forty-five minutes yesterday for breakfast,” Stephen sighed.
Fitzroy and Portwood both nodded their agreement.
“Dan’s not okay, and don’t let him tell you that he is. Whatever is going on, I think it would be best if we left Dan and Fionna out of this.” Fitz’s commanding tone bled through his words, though he seemed to try and rein it in for Stephen, something Dan rarely did.
“You’re planning on going by tonight and telling them about the other trial?” he asked Fitzroy.
“Yes, sir, but I’m not planning on sharing anything we’ve noted in the past two days.”
Portwood had been working his chiseled jaw since he’d entered the office. Stephen was certain his molars ached. “I get that we need to let Dan and Fionna heal, sir. But I can’t figure this out, and I swear, Dan probably could. Someone has access to Interfeci accounts. Ones we’ve already frozen. How are they still drawing money? And in odd amounts? It has to be someone with either top level banking credentials, or someone with some serious clout.”
“Don’t doubt your own abilities, Landon.” Stephen appreciated that Landon Portwood was both an outstanding officer and was a deeply humble man, but at that moment he would have preferred Dan’s pompous assurances that he could get anything done.
“We’ll figure it out. Leave Dan alone,” Fitz ordered.
“I agree. You can’t push Dan out and then suck him back in, Dad.” Garrett reminded his father of his decision.
“How much money is missing? And how many men working with the Interfeci in any capacity have we arrested?”
“There were four accounts that whoever this is was pulling from every few hours. He’s was taking small amounts. I shut them down, and another four pop up. I assume he hoped we wouldn’t notice. Just a few thousand dollars at a time. All routed to accounts in Europe. Half of them are fakes. I just shut down another one in Switzerland. It’s so methodic. I honestly wonder if Wretchkinsides set it up to happen if he was killed.” Portwood’s frustration colored his tone.
Fitzroy stepped in, “French Iodex has successfully rescued all of my undercover officers and they’ve arrested everyone with known affiliation. We’re trying to get that done here as well, but we’ve run into a few snags. The press has been reporting on the takedown endlessly which gave anyone with half a brain enough warning to get the hell out of town before we could get to them,” Fitz huffed. “Spain, Italy, and Britain, are working as well. They’re having a little more success, but there weren’t as many operatives there. Only Germany and Belgium have held out on my orders.”
Fitzroy’s Crepes
~Dan Vindico~
Dan awoke several hours later to someone banging on the front door. Rubbing his eyes, he checked his watch as he took in the darkened skies out the window and the blank television screen.
Fionna was sound asleep, clinging to his right arm that he’d cradled underneath her hours before. He didn’t recall them even seeing the end of Pillow Talk, and that was five movies ago.
He gently extracted himself from her grasp and shook his arm, trying to get blood to return to his fingers. Extending his spine and rolling his head side to side he tried to stretch out the crick in his neck.
With a deep yawn, he flung the door open. “Geez, why don’t you just break it down?” he hissed and gestured to Fionna’s sleeping form on the couch.
“Sorry, I’ve been out here for twenty minutes.” Fitz was carrying several file folders and numerous grocery bags. He headed to the kitchen.
“What is all that?”
“This is your dinner that I’m making for you two,” he informed Dan as he began loading things into the refrigerator. “And that is the work slash bad news that I was nominated to come and tell you about. How long has she been asleep?” He peeked in the living room with deep concern already etching his face.
“We got home just before ten this morning. I kicked my parents out a little after that and turned on all of her favorite movies. I think we were out before the opening credits.”
“Yeah, Mad slept a lot for a couple of days after she miscarried.” He choked slightly, which Dan politely ignored. He’d nearly forgotten that Maddie had miscarried a baby. She’d been much further along than Fionna, and it had been horrible for both of them.
Dan had flown out and looked after Alex and Alfred while she was in the hospital.
“Yeah, well, I don’t think either of us really slept much in the hospital,” Dan explained.
They both stared at Fionna sound asleep on the couch making certain that she didn’t appear to be in any pain.
“Your parents were here when you got home?” Fitz went back into the kitchen. He chuckled at Dan’s expression.
“Yes,” Dan sighed.
“So that would be your mother’s famous rubberized ham in the fridge?”
“The one and only.”
Both Dan and Fitzroy laughed quietly, but Fitz seemed to be debating something.
Dan was about to tell him to spill it when he heard Fionna call timidly. He raced back into the living room.
She sat up blinking heavily, trying to get his face to come into focus.
“Hey, baby doll, how are you feeling?”
“I have to go to the bathroom,” she fussed sweetly.
Chuckling, Dan helped her up.
“I can do it. Just stay close by in case I get stuck somewhere.”
“Fitz is here, sweetheart.” He didn’t want her to say anything that might embarrass her.
“Oh.” She rubbed her eyes still trying to fully awaken. “What time is it?”
Time did seem oddly variable.
He glanced at his watch. “Uh, it is six thirty.”
Fionna walked almost normally to the half bath downstairs, and Dan waited right outside the door.
“She okay?” Fitz asked kindly as he joined Dan in the living room.
“That’s the best I’ve seen her walk so far.”
Fionna emerged from the half bath looking very proud of herself. Dan bit his lips together to keep from laughing over how adorable she was. “I’m so proud of you,” he teased.
“Why thank you,” she drawled as he was unable to contain his laughter any longer.
“Hey Fionna,” Fitz goaded.
“Hey Fitz,” Fionna came right back with a broad grin on her face.
“You sit. I’m making you dinner, unless you wanted to eat the shoe leather in your refrigerator.”
Still laughing, Fionna looked impressed. “I didn’t know you cooked.”
Dan rolled his eyes. “He learned to make crepes so he could get Maddie to come back to his flat in Paris.”
Fitz guffawed as he nodded his admittance of that.
“As I recall, he settled on crepes because he could make her crepes for dinner and then again for breakfast.”
“But they’re damn good crepes.”
Fionna was still laughing. She seemed to have missed doing it as much as Dan had missed hearing it.
“Crepes sound amazing,” she assured Fitzroy.
Without warning, Fionna decided to stand up off of the love seat where she’d seated herself after her bathroom trip.
“Whoa.” Dan and Fitz leapt as she wavered. Both of them caught one of her arms and held her upright.
“Sorry,” she whimpered dejectedly. “I wanted to watch you make them. I’ve always wanted to learn how.”
“No problem,” Fitz agreed. “Just maybe learn from a seated position.”
“Here.” Dan reached and hoisted her back into his arms. He settled her on one of the bar stools in their kitchen. “That feel okay? Want me to get you a pillow to sit on?”
“No, I’m all right.”
As Fitzroy began teaching Fionna how to make French crepes, Dan was entranced watching her. Her laughter, her teasing, letting him cradle her for hours on the couch, there being nothing between them that they weren’t discussing, and her eagerness to learn a new cooking technique
had his heart swelling rapidly.
He hadn’t realized how far into the depths of depression she’d sunk until he saw her somewhat closer to normal. He recalled her father’s deciding to move her all the way from Hawaiʻi to Texas on a whim after her mother’s death.
She was Maylea. Dan understood more in that moment than he ever had before. Fionna was a beautiful wildflower capable of taking even the darkest of places and making them bright and beautiful. Her smile lit his entire world. She could find the good in the worst of people or the most awful of situations.
When she could no longer do that, when the depression had nearly engulfed her, her father couldn’t stand to watch her fade away any more than Dan had been able to.
Standing in their kitchen watching her quiz Fitz on the best way to make batter for crepes, Dan vowed to himself to never again let her fall so far. He would either leap with her or reach out and catch her in his arms.
~Jean Paul Fitzroy~
As they ate, Fionna studied Fitzroy. “I’m really feeling a lot better. I can tell you’re worried.” It appeared she not only read him with ease, but that she wasn’t going to hide that fact from him. She didn’t want him to worry over her. Dan grinned, but Fitz felt his face form a scowl.
Dan just had to fall in love with a Receiver. “Well, you got shot on my watch, but that’s not what has me worried.” She may have known he was worried, but even the strongest Receiver of their generation couldn’t name the worry, only the emotion.
“How exactly was that on your watch?” Fionna looked shocked by his statement.
~Dan Vindico~
Dan knew that Fitz would take responsibility for everything that happened. It was Wretchkinsides doing. It was their job to end him. They didn’t work fast enough.
“I’ll let Dan explain that, but here’s the deal. Governor Haydenshire asked if I’d mind hanging out over here for a week or so and helping Iodex tie up all of the loose ends with Wretchkinsides.”