Reagan
It has been a week since Simon and Sam’s wedding, and they haven’t been seen since. The family has noticed things missing in the house, though. A loaf of stolen bread gone, a jar of jam from the pantry, leftovers placed in the fridge, eggs, ham. Sue even made homemade spaghetti, Simon’s favorite, two days ago, but that still hadn’t drawn the new couple to the house. The leftovers were missing the next morning from the fridge, though. Cory said he saw Simon in the barn before dawn a few days ago milking one of the dairy cows. Reagan knows Simon is keeping up on his farm chores because he places his pail of milk on the kitchen island every morning but is gone before anyone wakes, apparently after he raids their leftovers to take back to his new home to his new wife. Nobody believed Cory’s story of spotting him. It is joked about now that it was just an urban legend and he didn’t actually see the phantom ghost of Simon at all.
In her arms, Charlotte smiles up at her right before she burps. “Good girl,” Reagan praises.
“Great,” Sue says. “You’re going to make her a heathen like you.”
“Damn right,” she returns.
“Hey!” Hannah scolds from her place at the island where she is holding baby Daniel. He’s getting so big already.
It’s still morning, but the sun is warm and high already, promising actually to be a nice day out. She plans on riding later and then getting Charlotte outside for some fresh air. She also wonders if it’s still too chilly for a baby her size. She wishes so badly Grams was still here to ask her questions like that. Just because she went through med school doesn’t mean she’s an expert when it comes to children.
The kitchen door opens, and Sam walks in.
“Well, lo and behold!” Sue exclaims. “She lives!”
Sam chuckles with embarrassment. “Hi, guys.”
“How’s it going, newlywed?” Reagan asks.
“Um…good,” she remarks and hangs her zip-up sweater on a hook by the door.
“Must be,” Sue comments. “We thought we were going to have to send out a search and rescue team to my house.”
“Oh,” Sam says and chuckles shyly. “No, that won’t be necessary.”
“You two coming up for air today?” Sue asks mischievously.
“Oh, Sue,” Hannah chides with no real judgment.
Sam laughs softly again and says, “Yes.”
“I didn’t think Simon had it in him,” Reagan jokes bawdily.
“Oh, he does. He really, really does,” Sam says, blushing as she remembers something in her mind. Then she purses her lips, grins, and her eyes alight with happiness as she glances off into the distance beside her at nothing in particular.
“Go, Simon!” Reagan cries out with a fist pump into the air and a laugh. She didn’t think he’d have the first clue about women. Maybe he talked to Cory. She can’t imagine that, either. Whatever he did to educate himself, it must’ve worked. Sam seems awfully content.
“Girls!” Hannah scolds more boldly but has a sly smile on her pretty face, too. “Goodness gracious.”
“Now everyone will be nagging you two when you’re having kids,” Sue tells their little sister.
“We want to wait,” Sam tells them and takes Charlotte, cooing to her and smiling down at Reagan’s daughter.
“You should,” Reagan says. “Jesus, you are both kids.”
“No, we’re not,” Sam rejects.
“Reagan,” Hannah warns for taking the Lord’s name.
She pops a piece of carrot into her mouth and says, “My ass you’re not kids.”
It sets Hannie off, and she takes a hard swipe at the back of her head, sending the carrot piece in her mouth flying across the island. Sue laughs. Samantha giggles. Hannah glares, and Reagan just feels a sense of something coming full circle in her life as she remembers back to a time when Grams had done this to her. It was soon after she came home to the farm from college when the country fell. Her eyes fill with unshed tears, and she has to look away. This keeps happening a lot lately. Emotions suck.
“I think it’s a good idea to wait, too,” Sue confirms. “You’ve both been through a lot. Take your time. Just enjoy each other for a while. There’s no rush.”
Sam smiles and nods. Reagan is glad to see it. She and Simon mean so much to her. They deserve to be happy, and she’s so relieved that he found the courage to forgive himself for what happened to her. He has been Reagan’s constant shadow for the last four years, trying so hard to learn as much as he could, to impress them, to earn a place in the family and earn their respect, too. She has news for Simon. Even if he hadn’t become a doctor, they would all still love him just as much as they do. Those two damn kids wormed their ways into the McClane family’s hearts the first week they came to the farm.
“Yeah, try not to get knocked up like me,” Reagan says jokingly. “There’s not a rush to have kids. Just be careful. Take precautions.”
“Yes,” Sam says. “We will. Thanks.”
Sam wraps an arm around Reagan and hugs her tightly to her side while holding her daughter. She absorbs Sam’s offering and returns it. She doesn’t want to be like she used to be, shirking the touches and tenderness of her family. Not ever again. Life is too short. When she forgave her father in that final moment, something within her changed. She felt something snap. It was like a wave of peaceful contentment had transfused slowly through her. She doesn’t want to hold anger in her heart anymore. Someday she may find a way to make peace with what happened to her that night at her college. She’s not totally ready to face it, but with time and John by her side, she will. She also has her children to think of now. Jacob needs a mother. John jumped right into the role as a father, but the little guy needs a woman’s touch, too. She has run from her responsibilities as a mother, a sister, a daughter, and threw herself into work and study. Not anymore. She wants to be better than that. She has more to give than just medical advice.
“Won’t it be strange for all the kids, the next generation growing up here?” Hannah poses.
“What do you mean?” Reagan asks.
“They will all grow up thinking they’re all related. Brothers and sisters and such. Most of them won’t be related at all. It’s just funny.”
Reagan chuffs through her nose. “Yeah, I guess I see what you mean. Bunch of misfits is what we are now.”
“Not misfits,” Sue corrects. “We’re just a different, new kind of family.”
“Yeah,” Reagan says and accepts a kiss on her scarred cheek from Hannah and then her sister’s soft caress in the same spot before she turns back to her task.
Grandpa walks in, causing her to startle out of her daze, and says, “You all better come to the office. Find the men, too.”
“What’s going on, Grandpa?” Sam asks.
“Robert’s man is on the radio. The President is coming. He’s close now.”
“Shit,” Reagan states. “Sam, watch Charlie. I’ll get the men.”
Sue says, “I’ll help. Derek and Kelly are up at the equipment shed.”
They rush to gather everyone and have Huntley and the other older children watch the younger ones. Grandpa calls up the fort again.
Her father’s advisor, she thinks his name might be Ron, says, “Hello, McClane family. Our runners said the President is thirty miles out. He’s heading south now, though. We don’t know if he is planning on coming to Fort Knox or not. It seems his path has changed direction.”
Reagan asks the room, “Where is he headed?”
“Our town?” Derek questions. Then he asks Ron for the exact location of the President and how many men he has with him. Unfortunately, it is just as they’d thought. He has thousands.
They cut the transmission, and the family falls silent. Grandpa sits behind his desk and rests back in his chair.
“We may have to make our stand against him in town,” John says.
“Bring our forces together,” Kelly adds.
“He could be there by morning,” Sue comments more to herself than everyone else.
“We call up K-Dog and Dave,” Derek says. “We need the fort to send as many as they can afford right now.”
Reagan’s heart begins pounding in her chest. This is it. This could be what ends everything. The idea of losing her family, her husband, the farm is all too much.
“What do we do?” Hannah cries with the emotion they are all feeling.
“We’ll make a stand, Hannah,” Kelly says. “We’ve done it before. We’ll do it again. We can handle this.”
It is the first time that Reagan has ever looked at Kelly when he makes a bold statement like that and not actually believe him. There is doubt hiding behind his eyes that she can see. It unnerves her as nothing else can.
They leave the room so Derek and Grandpa can start pulling their resources and call their allies. She joins her sisters in the music room.
“I can’t believe this,” Hannah says, wrapping her arms around her middle. Sue walks over and hugs her.
“Don’t worry, Hannie,” her sister says. “They’ll get this figured out. They won’t let anything happen to us.”
“We should get the hell out of here,” Paige says, her first instinct always to flee. “I just thought to myself the other night how I never wanted to leave the farm, ever. But we could be wiped out. We can’t just think of ourselves. We all have children now. We have to protect them at all costs, even if it means starting over somewhere else.”
“No, we’re not running,” Reagan corrects her. “This is our home, damn it. We aren’t leaving.”
“I agree,” Sam says and Sue repeats.
“Sorry, you’re right,” Paige says. “I just don’t want anything to happen to our children.”
“If Parker already told him of our town’s location and the farm, too, it doesn’t matter anyway,” she tells them, trying to reason this all out and find some sort of logical solution.
“No, it won’t,” Sue says. “He knows where we are.”
“Good God,” Reagan states. “You don’t think he’s coming here, do you?”
Sue’s eyes dart to hers. “I hope not. I don’t think so. I think he’ll head to our town first.”
“Maybe,” Reagan says, unsure if her sister’s theory is right.
They spend the remainder of the day quietly preparing for what is ahead. The men are packing the trucks full of cans of ammo and weaponry. The mortars are even put in. Food rations are packed in case the battle rages for days. Throughout the day, Reagan has to excuse herself to the bathroom where she throws up. She’s definitely not pregnant this time. Her stomach just won’t settle at the thought of what she could lose in the next few days.
Another call comes in from Ron, during which he confirms the President’s location and where he has stopped for the night.
“We should sneak over there and snipe him,” Reagan says.
Others agree, especially Simon, who would probably be the one doing it.
“I don’t agree,” Grandpa states finally. “We can’t kill this man. He was as misled by Parker as my son.”
“Well, he’s not exactly coming here for a sit-down chat with us, Herb,” Derek says. “He’s the enemy. We have to treat him as a hostile adversary. If we don’t, he could crush us.”
“What if he comes here to the farm instead?” Reagan puts forth.
“He won’t,” John says with confidence, something of which she is deplete at the moment. “He knows we’re running a military operation here. He probably knows about us, about Derek, about our abilities to set traps, trip-wires, all of it. Parker would’ve warned him about the farm being a fortress.”
“But the town’s another thing,” Kelly says. “As much as we’ve tried to fortify it, Parker knew of its weak spots.”
“Yes, that’s true,” Sue agrees. “He would’ve.”
“I feel confident he’s going there,” Derek says.
“We’re only going to be a few miles away,” her husband assures them. “We can be back here in minutes.”
Reagan nods unsurely. If they make the wrong decision, it could get many of them, if not all of them, killed.
“I still say we either ambush them or take out the President,” Reagan repeats.
“He is the leader of a lot of men, Reagan,” her grandfather points out. “They would be essentially leaderless.”
“So?” she asks, not caring if it sounds immature. “I don’t care, Grandpa.”
“He has a son, Reagan,” he says. “A young boy. Think of your Jacob. Think of Charlotte. You wouldn’t want either of them growing up without John. He is all his boy has, according to Robert.”
She flinches first at the thought of her children not having their father in their lives and then at the mention of her own father’s name.
“We need to be ready, Herb,” Derek counters. “This man is not coming here to become allies. Robert said he would be angry because so many of his people left with him. Parker only fueled that anger and the hatred and misunderstanding and distrust between the two men.”
Her grandfather hangs his head as if he finds the whole situation too much to handle right now.
“Don’t worry, Grandpa,” she says, trying to alleviate some of his pain. “The guys will get this all worked out.”
“I think we should go, too,” Sam says. “Me, you, Paige, we’re all good shots. We could help.”
“There will be enough volunteers between the Fort Knox communities, K-Dog’s, and Dave’s,” Derek says with confidence. Then turns to his wife. “I would rather take them than you women. If something goes bad, someone has to get the children packed into vehicles, take the horses and whatever supplies you can manage, and get out of the area. Huntley will scout a safe path to take for you. Send him ahead. You all know the emergency plans. Follow them just like you are to do for any other situation like this, Sue.”
Reagan nods. Sue does, as well.
“Everyone should turn in and try to get some rest,” Grandpa says.
“When are you leaving for town?” Sue asks nervously.
“We’ll leave before dawn,” her husband answers. “Don’t worry. We’ll wake everyone and let them know of the plan. We’ll need you all up and ready to defend the place if something were to happen until we can get home or to get the hell out of here if you can’t.”
The meeting ends, and everyone goes to bed. John spends some time reading a story to Jacob, who they allow to sleep with them tonight. She would imagine the other children are spending time with their fathers, as well. The men realize this may be the last time they see them.
Once Jacob and Charlotte are asleep, John leads her to the walk-in closet where he makes love to her on the plush carpeting. John is always attentive and giving in their lovemaking. Tonight, he is intense and lingers a long time before they are finished. Then he carries her to their bed, and instead of putting Jacob between them, he spoons into the back of her and holds her close. Reagan pushes back even more firmly, needing to feel him against her skin. Neither of them sleeps. They simply lie together in the dark, occasionally stroking the other’s fingers or shoulder or arm. She wants to absorb him into her, the feel of him, the taste, his smell, every last bit. If this is the last time she’s going to see her husband alive, she’s not about to sleep and regret it later. She wants every last second to count.