CHAPTER SIXTEEN

 

Two hours later

January 9 — 3:20 P.M. EDT

Friday afternoon

Sheridan Circle Mansion, Washington DC

 

“Marines rush in?” Matthew asked.

Margaret stood in the entry way of the Lamberton mansion. Her right arm was in a sling. She carried a small duffle bag in her left hand. Troy took the bag and set it down near the stairs.

“Sir, our detail heard gunshots. We are Marines.” Margaret held up her wounded arm. “I’m proud to protect the Fey.”

“You’ll have to find him,” Alex said as she came in from the drawing room. “How is your arm?”

“The bullet passed clean through, sir,” Margaret said.

“Breaking the bone,” Matthew added.

“Yes, sir,” Margaret said. “I’ll wear the sling and support until the wound is healed. I’ll receive a cast if the bone hasn’t healed by then. The wound does not in anyway impair my capacity for duty with the Fey Team.”

“And the rest of the men?” Alex asked.

“And woman, sir,” Margaret said. “My friend Casey was shot as well, but she’s going to be all right too. The angle was off since the habib was sitting in the car.”

“Matthew?” Alex asked.

“Now that you’re joining a Fey Team, it’s important to remove pejorative terms such as ‘habib’ from your speech. To be successful, we must be absolutely neutral about everyone.”

“Yes sir,” Margaret said.

“Do you need medical leave?” Alex asked.

“With a contract for the Fey Team on the line?” Margaret’s face lit up. “Not a chance. The ED docs said a medic can follow me.”

Alex and Matthew shared a long look.

“No medic?”

“Not yet,” Alex said. “But we’re in DC until this hearing is over. You’ll be able to make regular doctors visits.”

“Yes sir.”

“Hutchins,” Matthew said.

“Yep,” Vince came into the entry way. “Hey Margaret. How’s the arm?”

“Okay,” Margaret smiled into Vince’s kind face. “It hurts a little.”

“I bet,” Vince said. “Come on, we’ll get you settled.”

“Is Emily coming?” Margaret asked Vince as they went up the ornate spiral stairwell.

“Tonight,” Vince said. “With Amelia.”

“That’s great,” Margaret said.

“When is Joseph arriving?” Alex asked Matthew.

“How did you know?” Matthew laughed.

“Just figured,” she said. “Max and John?”

“Tonight,” he said. “Everyone will be here tonight.”

“And our guards?”

“We are safe and sound,” he said. “Lots of guards inside and outside. Your parent’s security detail has joined the house staff. Steve Pershing’s agents are here. Steve is sleeping in a room next to your parents.”

Alex nodded.

“How long do you think we’ll be here?” Matthew asked.

“I met with our legal team,” Alex said. “No one’s really sure. Right after the assault, they held a hearing about the Fey Special Force Team. I was supposed to go, but I was too ill. It lasted about two weeks. Our council says they want to go into all that crap again.”

“What crap?”

“There’s an idea that we didn’t do all we said we did,” Alex said. “That’s what this hearing is about. Wasted money or whatever.”

“Wasted money? The Fey Team?”

“This Senator says no team could have done as many cases as we did,” Alex said. “We did about three or four times what regular teams did. That’s just because Joseph was so organized and we were so dedicated. Anyway, before we go lie and waste more money, they want to review our old work.”

“What do you want the team to do?”

“We’ll spend the nights sorting through these potential extractions,” Alex said. “You, Joseph and I need to hire another Marine and a Navy.”

“The friend I went through training with lives in DC,” Vince said as he came down the stairwell. “You’ll like her and she’s available.”

“See,” Alex said. “We have work to do.”

“You will have to agree with a constant bodyguard,” Matthew said. “No exceptions.”

“Sure,” Alex nodded.

“We’re free this weekend?”

“Define free,” Alex said. “You, I, and Joseph need to work with our council on this hearing. The team needs to work on their hostage assessments.”

Matthew gave Alex a wry smile.

“Yes, Mattie, we have the weekend free,” she said. “Except for this other crap.”

“Cool.”

FFFFF

Four and a half hours later

January 9 — 8:30 P.M. EDT

Friday night

Sheridan Circle Mansion, Washington DC

 

“I’m not sure what all this fuss is about,” Rebecca said. “I should be down there with our guests.”

Since the incident this morning, Rebecca had been in overdrive. But she needed a change of bandages, so Alex offered to help her mother.

“It’s been a big day, Mom,” Alex said. “It’s all right for the lady of the house to retire a little earlier than her guests.”

“I’m just not sure it…”

“Looks right,” they said together.

“Yes,” Alex said. “Well, I think it looks perfectly fine.”

Rebecca arched a perfect eyebrow to express what they both knew - Alex wasn’t the best judge of what looked right. Alex laughed.

“Come on, Mom,” Alex said. “You can miss the festivities for a little bit to spend time with your daughter.”

“When do Erin and Sami get here?” Rebecca asked.

“Yes, very funny,” Alex said. “This daughter.”

Rebecca smiled at her joke. She followed Alex into the suite’s bathroom. Alex put the toilet seat down and Rebecca sat down. Rebecca lifted her skirt to show her wound.

“This is bad, Mom,” Alex said. She unwound the layers of gauze. “Who bandaged this?”

“I think Steve changed the bandages last time,” Rebecca said.

“Pershing? The head of a deep black ops team?” Alex asked.

“He said he had experience.”

“I bet he does.”

“I notice you’re calling me ‘Mom’ again,” Rebecca said.

Alex continued to unwrap her mother’s bandage.

“I like it,” Rebecca said.

Alex got down to the final layer of stitching and tape. The wound was about six inches long and made a jagged line across the side of her thigh. It was deeper at one end than the other.

“You didn’t get this from kicking a knife,” Alex said.

“No,” Rebecca said. “I told your father that so he wouldn’t worry. The disgusting man stabbed me. I moved backwards and he lost his balance. The knife went in then…”

Alex looked up into her mother’s hazel eyes. Rebecca’s eyes went blank. Her pupils became pin pricks then dilated wide. She blinked.

“Oh my God,” Rebecca said.

Rebecca jumped to her feet. Her leg crumpled with pain. While Alex fumbled to hold her up, Rebecca lifted the lid of the toilet and threw up. Alex held her mother’s long auburn hair. Breathing hard, Rebecca threw up again. Tears burst from her eyes.

Alex grabbed her mother’s shoulders to keep her from collapsing into the toilet. Alex put down the toilet cover and set her broken mother on it. She flushed the toilet and wet a washcloth.

Rebecca began shaking. She snatched the washcloth from Alex and clutched it in her hands. Her wound seeped blood.

Alex lifted her mother from the toilet and negotiated her into the bedroom. She set Rebecca on the bed. Wailing, Rebecca fell backward and began to writhe. Alex held Rebecca’s leg steady and bandaged the wound.

When Alex moved to comfort her mother, Rebecca became combative. She punched at Alex. One at a time, Alex caught her mother’s hands and held on. Alex knew what it was like to have a storm of emotion take over. Rebecca must relieve herself of the pain and fear from her assault. It wouldn’t happen all at once. This moment was the tip of the iceberg.

“Oh Alex,” Rebecca said.

And Alex held her mother close. Daughter comforting mother, Alex held on as her mother let go. Rebecca’s sobs had turned to tears, and the stunned look was moving from her eyes, by the time Patrick looked in on them.

“Becky?”

“Oh Paddie,” Rebecca said.

Alex stepped back to let her father take her place. She knew her father would know exactly what to do. He’d always known what to do for Alex. She was almost out of the room when she heard:

“Let’s take those pills the doctor left,” Patrick said.

“I want to get through this,” Rebecca said.

“You will,” Patrick said. “Alex?”

“Take the meds, Mom,” Alex said. “You’ll heal faster.”

“This is your experience? Or your psychology training?”

“Both,” Alex said. “Take the meds.”

Alex’s brown eyes held her mother’s hazel eyes for a moment, and then she left. Standing outside their door, Alex sighed. Dealing in death always seemed a lot more exciting than it ever turned out to be. No one can easily tolerate the soul crushing pain of killing another human being.

Even with all of her experience, Alex struggled to tolerate it. With every death, a tiny remnant of innocence was snuffed out in her. Her mother had lost her innocence today. She may never be the same.

“Alex!” she heard Trece yell from downstairs. “The Clone and Mooch are here.”

Alex smiled at John’s protest over being called the Mooch. She heard Trece’s predictable, ‘Once a Mooch, always a Mooch.’ And John’s laughter. Her family had arrived from France.

Smiling, Alex jogged down to meet them.

FFFFF

Three days later

January 12 — 8:30 P.M. EDT

Monday night

Sheridan Circle Mansion, Washington DC

 

“How was it?” John asked. He peered into the webcam to look at Alex’s face.

“Awful,” she said.

“You’re still wearing…” he said.

He pointed to the hat on her head. Alex pulled it off her head.

“Where’s your beret?” he asked.

“Girls don’t get berets,” Alex said. “Remember? I’m just a secretary. That Fey guy? He’s too important to attend a hearing.”

“I see,” he said. “And how is that plan going?”

“Fine,” she said. “Joseph is handling most of the questions. He’s amazing. Three days after being shot, he’s in this hearing. But he insisted I take a back seat. He thinks my life is in danger.”

“So does your father,” John said.

“He’s one to talk,” Alex said. “You should see the drama. He’s saying the home invasion won’t stop him from finding the truth. Blah, blah…”

“You sound blue,” John said.

“Bored,” Alex said.

“That’s never a good thing,” John said.

“How’s Mom?” Alex asked.

“She settled in with Erin at the loft,” John said. “She seemed relieved to be back in Denver. She’s going to help Erin remodel their new house. I think it will keep her mind off things. What are you doing tonight?”

“Sleep dep,” she said. “We’re seeing how long everyone can go without sleep. Everyone except Joseph. He’s still on the hot seat.”

“Any sense of how long this thing will go?” John asked.

Alex laughed.

“What?” he asked.

“Oh, my Dad,” Alex said. “The Senator from Nebraska started with this whole, ‘We don’t have any idea what all this money was wasted on.’ And Dad said, ‘Let’s just see.’”

Alex laughed.

“What did he do?”

“He had six interns bring in the file boxes,” Alex said.

“I thought your files were deleted.”

“Oh, they were,” Alex said. “Everything of interest. This is just the paperwork.”

“Paperwork?”

“You remember all the paperwork I was always filling out?”

John nodded.

“They saved every piece of paper pertaining to our team somewhere in the Pentagon. Someone was busy last weekend.”

“More than four thousand people? Must be a lot of files,” he said.

“Most extractions were more than one person, but there are boxes and boxes and boxes of files,” Alex laughed. “Anyway, he had these interns stack the boxes in front of the Senators. By the time they were done the Senators had to stand to see over the stacks. God, Joseph and I were beside ourselves. But…”

She shrugged.

“They asked for it,” she said. “Looks like they want to go through every case. It’s a good thing we sorted out Joseph’s lockers and have the transcriptions from his journals.”

“Why would it matter?”

“He has his notes and can recreate what he was thinking,” Alex said. She laughed. “Here’s the funny thing.”

John raised his eyebrows.

“That jerk wants to meet the people the Fey Special Forces Team is ‘supposed’ to have liberated. He was like, ‘Has anyone met anyone who’s been rescued? I haven’t.’” she said. “There were like fifteen of them in the room. They all looked at him like, ‘What the hell?’”

John laughed.

“Before Joseph could say ‘boo’, I watched one of the guys text a message. By the time we broke for lunch, my Sergeant had talked to two thousand people. The rest phoned in by the end of the day. They are all coming to Washington.”

“Oh God,” John sighed. “You’re going to be there forever.”

Nodding, Alex’s smile fell.

“Can you come home on the weekend?” he asked.

“We have to work most nights and weekends just to keep up with our usual work,” she said. “How is it at home?”

“You’re not here,” he said. “It sucks.”

“How’s Colin?”

“You mean how’s rehab going?” John asked.

“I guess,” she said.

“Did you know Cian and Eoin were drug and alcohol counselors in Northern Ireland?”

“For five or six years,” she nodded.

“They’re good,” John said. “They’ve even got me on the straight and narrow. If I even pick up a dish to put in the dishwasher, Cian says, ‘No enabling, Johnny.’”

“And? How’s Colin?”

“Sober,” John said. “Miraculously sober. Twelve days. It’s longer than he’s had in about five years.”

She nodded. They fell silent. Alex’s eyes reviewed her husband’s gorgeous face.

“I miss you,” he said.

“I miss you,” she said. “Wanna quit your job and follow me around? You haven’t offered this time.”

“I’ve been spurned too many times, Alexandra.” He gave her a sad smile. “I must accept my life as a military husband.”

“You hate it,” she said.

“No, I don’t,” he said. “Being a military husband is a part of being married to you. I don’t regret that or hate that or whatever else. I love being married to you. Period.”

“But?”

“No buts,” he said. “This is an adjustment. That’s all. We went through this every summer after your break. It was brutally hard, but we adjusted. I’ll come to Washington. Will you come home?”

“Any moment I can,” she said. “They are setting up a room for me to work on maps. That’s what I’m going to do while I’m here. I’ll get caught up with all the maps I’m supposed to have finished.”

“And your Homeland contract?” he asked.

“That’s the thing,” Alex said. “This is for Homeland.”

He nodded. His cobalt blue eyes moved off the screen then riveted back to her.

“What?”

“We should meet in the middle,” he said.

“Let’s do it,” she said.

“You’ll pick a city?”

“We should trade off,” she said. “I’ll pick one. You pick the next. Weekend or even just an overnight.”

“At least once a week?”

“Why not?” She beamed. “Can you put your schedule in the common calendar?”

“I’ll do it when we ring off,” he said. “I can go tomorrow night.”

“Tomorrow night it is,” she said. “Should I pick?”

“I will.”

“I have to bring a bodyguard.”

“Andy?” he said.

She nodded.

“I’ll book two tickets. Watch your email in the morning.”

“Will you call me before you go to sleep?” Alex asked.

“Of course. I’ll take the netbook to bed with me. You can see me and Maggie all snuggled up together.”

“Ok,” Alex said.

She held her left hand out to the screen. He held his to match.

“Love you,” they said together.

His screen went dark. Alex sighed. She looked around her. The room was gorgeous with gleaming dark hardwood and plush furnishing. She looked at the small patio for a moment and wondered if she could stand the cold. Then, as if drawn by a thread, she flopped on the bed face down. Reaching out, she grabbed the pillow where John had lain just twenty-four hours ago. She took in a deep breath and smelled her husband, her love.

They had made love before he and Max left for the airport. He’d lain right here talking all kinds of nonsense to keep her laughing. He held her close one last time and jumped up to get dressed. She’d followed him around like a lost puppy.

And then he was gone.

She took another breath in.

“Alex?” Trece asked through the door. “It’s time to eat.”

Getting up, Alex went to the door. She took one final look at the pillow where he’d lain, the computer that held his image just moments ago, and left the room.

Time to work.

F