Author's Note: Its holiday time again which means I had another inspiration to write more into Melanie Crane's interesting time. This time I spun an interesting Easter tale. I'd like to thank djkauf for the wonderful editing. Happy Easter everyone and enjoy :)

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The braying of my hounds was the only thing I could hear. They had this distinctive bark, loud and particularly annoying. It drowned out most of the rest of the noise in the forest, including the comm. chatter. I suppose all I had to do was wave my hand and they’d disappear but I kinda needed them at the moment. For the first time, we were sent off alone. It kinda surprised me actually, what with Marcus’ thing about splitting us up into pairs. But unlike the previous missions of Delta Squad, this wasn’t a Pick Up. It was a Seek the Enemy and Bring Him Back Unharmed type of mission. Why Delta and not one of the other teams, like Alpha or even Beta. Well, it was all our fault. Ok, so not our fault per se. It was actually my fault.

A rustle in the nearby bushes snapped me from my thoughts. I turned in the general direction. I thought about bringing one of my hounds back but if it was anything too dangerous, I could always conjure up some protection. Besides, I had a gun. I put my hand on my side holster, slowly creeping toward the bush. My heart was pounding a mile a minute in my chest. Whatever was in there had to be something worth scaring me. I crept closer, wetting my lips. My palms got sweaty and I thought about conjuring a big ass bear just for safety. But I shook that thought away---too much overkill. I nudged the brush with my foot and got the biggest fright of my life. Something brown hopped out, practically landing on my sneaker. I would have screamed if I hadn’t seen it first: it was a bunny. It stared up at me for a second then darted back into the woods. I cracked a smile, it was kinda poetic actually.

A stupid rabbit was half of the reason we were in this mess.

We were about ten miles from Beta site, in the dense wilderness. It had been almost a month since our last mission---a successful pick up---but Kris felt we needed to learn to work as a team some more. So she sent us to Colorado to work on team building. It was Delta plus one---the plus one being Daisy. It hadn’t been our idea to bring the kid along but Vicky didn’t want to leave her, I couldn’t blame her really. So we managed to get permission to bring her along just as long as she stayed out of the way. She was pretty good about it, too. It helped that Mattie agreed to come along as a babysitter. So while the team was out practicing our team building skills, Mattie and Daisy were back at camp braiding each other’s hair---not that Mattie’s was long enough to do much with.

Things didn’t go bad until Daisy started to fidget. It turns out that Kris scheduled our exercise a bit too close to a certain holiday. I’m not one for holidays. I didn’t exactly celebrate them when I was with my father, what with being in a coma for a good portion of the time. Easter was a weird one though too because it never fell on the same day. I think we were all too caught up in other things to notice, but not Daisy. Daisy knew everything. When she found out that the Easter Bunny might not be able to find her out here in the woods she put up quite a little fit.

Marcus came up with a beneficial solution: we were going to have to give Daisy some semblance of Easter. We only had the one truck---a Humvee---but it was enough. We knew from the map that we were about a mile and half from the nearest road, another mile or two from the nearest town. So Marcus, Frankie and Mattie stayed back at camp with Daisy while Thompson took Vicky, Jessica and me into town. The plan was simple: find some candy, maybe some cheap plastic eggs and figure out a way to create a good time for Daisy. We left while Mattie kept the kid preoccupied---if she knew we were going somewhere she’d want to tag along so we snuck off. What is it they say about the best laid plans? Well suffice to say, from the moment we left camp, things didn’t go very well.

_____________________________________

“What’s wrong?” I asked from the back seat as Thompson cursed.

The officer didn’t look too happy but he agreed. He gave Thompson a card. Then promised to come up and check on us as soon as he was done making the rounds down here. Thompson thanked him for allowing us to continue. Then the officer waved us on. I stared at him as we drove off, his face burned into my memory.
_______________________________________

The buzzing of a voice in my ear drew me back to the present.

“Mel, what’s your current position?”

It was Marcus, checking in. It’d been the third time in the last hour. I looked at the GPS indicator on my watch and gave him my coordinates.

“What’s up this time?”

Marcus sighed. “I found the truck.”

The truck in question was the one I saw at the roadblock yesterday. True to his word, after Deputy Meadows---thin mustache guy---made his patrol, he went into the woods to check on us. We knew didn’t know he was missing until Thompson picked it up on the police band. I guess that should have been our first indicator that something was wrong. But none of us were too worried about it back then. I guess we should have been because we might have been prepared.

I sighed. “Is there anyone in it?”

Marcus came back after a few seconds. I could hear him shuffling around. He sighed. “Its clean, his shotgun’s missing too.”

I cursed. It was one thing for the deputy to be missing but he’d been packing some firepower. That was going to complicate things a great deal. I thought about turning back. I looked up into the sky, night was starting to fall. I sighed heavily. If I turned back, now then it was pointless. I closed my eyes and envisioned the face of Meadows in my head. Like I said, it was burned into my memory. When I reopened my eyes I couldn’t help but see another face there too, one that was much closer to me than Deputy Meadows. I made my decision.

“I’m still going, there’s still some daylight left.”

“Me too” said Jessie.

Frank: “Ditto.”

Vicky: “Do you even need to ask?”

Marcus sighed. “Ok guys but the window is closing” There was a long pause. “I’m sorry Vick but you know the odds.”

Vicky said nothing. I wish he’d allowed me to go with her like I wanted. But Marcus insisted we’d cove more ground if we split up. I guess I couldn’t fault him for his logic but Vicky was a wreck right now. I so wanted to be there to comfort her, to reassure her that everything was going to be all right. Especially seeing how excited she was about all this yesterday. The whole thing had been her idea really. She wanted to make it special and she was damn sure to make it right.

__________________________________________

“Why do I have to be the Bunny, again?”

It took us nearly three hours to fill those stupid plastic eggs with candy and hide them. When we were done, all of us practically fell asleep right on the spot. When I finally crawled into my sleeping bag, I had a smile on my face, happy that I’d done something good.

________________________________________

The dogs stopped barking. I’m not sure if that was a good thing or not. I’d designed them specifically to pick up any signs of trouble. They were supposed to bark when they found something. I was so caught up in my own thoughts I didn’t even notice. Now the forest was deathly quiet, I couldn’t even hear the normal sounds. That sent a shiver up my spine. I closed my eyes and concentrated on them. There were three, created from my memories of dogs from the movies. All were bloodhounds but smarter than any real dogs. If they were not barking, it meant something was terribly wrong. I took a deep breath and reached out with my mind.

Though I wouldn’t let Marcus teach me any advanced telekinetic stuff, I did know some things. Of course, I didn’t do those things intentionally. When Becca and the original Delta team hit Section One, I’d been awake for a very short period of time. I was cold and alone and really scared. I had no idea what was going on or where I was. I’d been awake sporadically during my time there, mostly when I first got there. Every time I’d wakened in the past, my father was there waiting for me. When I woke up at that time, he was gone. I didn’t find out until much later that my father was dead, killed by Declan St. James. Whereas Becca had a grudge against that bastard Dekker, Declan was number one on my list. My father may have done something horrible things---putting me in a drug induced coma---but he was the only person who ever cared about me.

My earpiece buzzed to life again, Marcus checking in. “Mel, it’s too quiet.”

I sighed, touching my throat mike. “You noticed too.”

I made the dogs loud enough so even the others could hear them.

Frank piped in: “It was kinda peaceful, you know. I was getting used to the doggies.”

Jessie: “Speak for yourself, Match Head.”

Frank probably would have come back with something but Marcus cut him off. “Not now you two, concentrate.” There was a pair of sighs. Then he spoke to me. “I’m doubling back toward camp to rendezvous with Thompson, he and Mattie were able to get through to the Center finally.”

With all the dense foliage, communication was spotty at best. We knew that coming into this place, it was one of the reasons we chose this area. The earpieces and the throat mikes were low band, able to penetrate the trees because we had a nice transmitter. But to contact base we needed to use our antenna to relay with a satellite. With passing cloud cover and the trees, that wasn’t easy. We had initial contact with them yesterday, Thompson having apprised them of the situation about the bank robber. Luce said she had a team on standby in case things got out of hand. But that was hours ago and we haven’t been able to radio in since.

“Are they sending the team?”

Marcus sighed. “They’re coming but it might be a while. There’s a storm moving in---it’s supposed to be kinda bad. It might be a bit choppy to fly the helicopter so they’re going to have to come in on the ground.”

He didn’t need to finish that sentence. It took us hours to get to this spot on foot. It didn’t take a genius to figure out that we were on our own. But it was nice that they were on the way. The others chimed in on the situation, grumbling a bit. Vicky was really quiet but I knew she was still there because her GPS marker was active and moving. We all had markers, built into our watches. All of us, except Daisy. It was the newest thing that the Center was implementing. Once again, it was all thanks to Becca. After England when she was captured, The Colonel and Kris thought it might be a good idea to keep track of us when we were out in the field. The markers were a good idea. I just wish we’d thought of putting one on Daisy.

Marcus spoke again, switching to another channel. I heard him only in my left ear: “You ok?”

I knew why he was asking. There were only two reasons that the dogs would have stopped barking. The first being they were physically attacked. My dogs were only illusions after all, not tangible like the Santa Claus I created for Daisy. If someone were to say shoot them, they’d disappear quickly enough. The other reason was all on me. They would also disappear if I lost my hold on them.

I sighed. “This is all my fault. If I hadn’t left her alone…”

Marcus cut me off. “No one’s blaming you Mel. She was sitting by that tree when you left. You were only gone for a few minutes; kids have a tendency to wander off.”

I sighed. Easy for him to say, he didn’t lose his best friend’s little sister.

__________________________________

“Sweetie, I’ll be right back,” I told Daisy, letting go of her hand. “You wait right here, I’m going to look for the Easter Bunny.”

I’d just lost my best friend’s sister.

_____________________________________

We’d been searching for her the last four hours.

After I discovered she’d been missing I rushed back to the camp and told the others. It didn’t take us long to scramble a search party. Things were made worse by the fact that Deputy Meadows was missing. That seemed to push us all into rapid motion. I tried to apologize again and again to Vicky but she knew it wasn’t my fault. In fact, Daisy had a tendency to do this. Apparently, she was always wandering off. She used to do it to their parents all the time. Now that I think about it, when Daisy wasn’t in their room, she was always wandering the halls of the Center. It was usually I or one of the other girls who brought her back. But this time was different. We weren’t in a safe place and there wasn’t some nut wandering around out there with a gun.

That’s when I conjured the hounds too, making sure I cued them in with Daisy. She was enough away that neither Marcus nor I could find her telepathically. But I was able to fuse what I remembered of her mind into the hounds, making them able to track her and only her. Then I sent them out, hoping against hope that they’d find her. Now they too had failed. This whole situation sucked. The only thing that would have made it worse is if I’d actually worn the costume to go looking for her. But that was the first thing I stripped out of. I don’t think a bright white suit was the proper thing to be stealthy in. Why stealthy because there’s a guy out there with a gun. Not that I didn’t have one too but I wanted to keep the casualties down to a minimum. Besides I’d never shot anyone before. I’d shot a lot of paper targets and dummies but never a real person. I wasn’t too bad at it now, getting better according to Becca. But I still had a long way to go before actually drawing my gun on anyone.

I closed my eyes. My last conversation with Marcus was about twenty minutes ago. I thought about reconjuring the hounds but he was right: I couldn’t concentrate. I knew this was all my fault. If I hadn’t gotten so carried away with being sexy for him I would have been back there to stop her from wandering. Both Marcus and Vicky said it wasn’t my fault but both of them knew it was. It kinda pissed me off that I could be so fricken stupid. I made a promise to myself when I was redressing that I was never going to allow my personal life get in the way of what was important. So when I was on a mission it was going to be all business and nothing else. Marcus and I could fool around in our rooms but nowhere else.

I pushed on. I was trying to utilize some of the tracking skills that Lara was teaching me and some of the other girls. Kris thought it a good idea that some of us had a wide range of abilities. I was chosen because of my lack of combat skills. Mattie, Clara and several others were in that group too. I was using some of my newfound skills now, keeping low to the ground, trying to think like Daisy. I thought about turning myself into a child but that only worked if there were others around me. Besides, it would have been another distraction. So instead I kept as low to the ground as possible, looking for any signs that someone might have gone this way.

It was pretty pointless because so far I’d found nothing. Three hours of trudging through the forest and I was about to give up too. I almost did when I spotted it. It was one of those things that you don’t normally find in a forest---unless of course it’s Easter. I smiled as I reached into the grass and picked up the yellow jellybean. A few feet away I found another one then another. I smiled. I’m not sure how or why but Daisy was dropping jellybeans. I tried to think if I’d seen anymore but I couldn’t remember. I was so guilt ridden I hadn’t bothered to look.

I tapped my throat. “I have a trail.”

There was a collective sigh of responses.

Marcus was the first to speak. “Did you find her?”

“No but I’ve got a trail of jellybeans.”

“Jellybeans?”

Vicky came on. “Bread crumbs. I’ve been reading her Grimm’s fairy tales at night. Hansel and Gretel left a trail of bread crumbs when they got lost, remember?”

I shook my head. I vaguely remembered the story. But I smiled nonetheless. Daisy was by far one of the smartest children I knew.

So I followed her trail of “breadcrumbs”. I just hoped she wouldn’t run out. But considering how many of those damn things we bought her it was safe to say that her trail would go on for a while. I kept close to the ground as I moved, picking up each one as I went. There was no way I was going to give them back---they were on the ground---but I made a promise to myself to buy her as many jellybeans as she wanted for as long as she lived. I tried to think of how many other kids would have been smart enough to leave something like this behind. I couldn’t think of any. Not that I knew any more kids but it was the thought that counted. But it was the fact that Daisy was clever enough at her age to come up with a way to keep her from getting lost.

I followed the trail to a clearing. At first I was about to run in, half expecting to see her sitting there. I wasn’t too far off because I heard a giggle. When I heard that I wanted to cry. I was definitely about to charge in then. But the giggle was followed by a laugh. It was a deep one, a laugh of a man. I stopped dead in my tracks, my heart hammering in my chest. Please God let it be Deputy Meadows. I crept slowing to the clearing, putting a large tree between myself and it. I peered slowly around the tree and saw the familiar of a tan uniform. I sighed with relief, it was a deputy. I took a deep breath and stepped into the clearing.

“Thank you so much for finding…”

My words caught in my mouth. Deputy Meadows was there all right but he wasn’t the one that laughed. In fact was laying against one of the other trees, the front of his uniform red with blood. Daisy was sitting a few feet away, not seeming to notice. Sitting across from her was a large man in a bunny mask. Daisy was giggling with him, eating jellybeans from her basket. For a second the man and I locked eyes. He and I both looked at the shotgun. It was too far away for each of us to reach but there was a knife in his waistband.

Daisy turned and saw me. Her face lit up. “Mel, look I found the Easter Bunny.”

I smiled and nodded, reaching up to brush my neck gently, turning the mike on. “That’s really good sweetie. Now why don’t you step away from the nice man in the bunny mask and come over here.”

Daisy frowned. “I don’t want too. We’re having fun.”

I frowned. Leave it to her to not want to leave. I smiled bigger. “But everyone is worried about you. You shouldn’t wander away from camp like that.”

I looked at the man in the mask. I could only see his eyes. They were dark and piercing. It was clear that like me, he was trying to figure out what to do. He had two options. I could see those options as well as I could. I just hoped he’d choose the latter and take off. Hell, I’d even give him a head start. Neither of us said a thing for a while. Then I nodded my head toward Meadows.

I cleared my throat. “I won’t tell anyone about that if you just give me the girl now and take off.”

Daisy put a finger to her mouth. “Shhh, the police man is sleeping.”

I smiled and nodded. “Then why don’t you come over to me and we’ll leave him to sleep here with the nice Easter Bunny.”

Daisy looked like he was thinking about it. She made her decision quickly enough. She started to get up and that’s when he made his move. He didn’t choose the latter. He lashed out, grabbing her wrist and pulling her into his chest. He didn’t need to use his knife with her. She was small enough that all he had to do was put his hand on her throat and start to squeeze. It wouldn’t take him long to snuff out her life. Daisy dropped her basket and started crying. Me, I was frozen in fear. He could see my gun; he could see there was no way I was going to let him walk out of her alive. He had the option of running but now that option was off the table.

“Throw the gun away, now,” he said angrily, his gun muffled by the mask.

I nodded and tossed the pistol. “Let her go.”

“You think I’m stupid,” he laughed, taking a step back. “This little lady is my ticket out of here.”

I shook my head. “I’m not the only one here you know. We’re all armed and the others…well, trust me when I saw this, you do not want them after you.”

He laughed again. “I’ve been watching you. Besides the big Army like guy, you’re a bunch of kids. What the hell are you going to do to me, nag me with your annoying teen drama?”

I smirked. Clearly, he hadn’t been watching us long enough.

I took a deep breath and closed my eyes, reaching into his mind. It didn’t take me long to find what I was looking for. I smirked when I saw it. Some people had some really elaborate fears while others were simple things. I liked the simple things so much better, they were much easier to manifest. When I opened my eyes again, I looked up to the tree behind him. At first there was nothing then slowly the biggest snake I’d ever seen started to slither its way down the tree trunk. I didn’t go overboard with it but it was pretty huge.

“Tell me, Mr. Bunny Bandit, what terrifies you more than anything else in the world?”

He looked at me like I was nuts, taking a step away. “What the hell are you talking about?”

I smiled. “What scares you?”

He stuttered. “Going to prison I guess.”

I smirked. “Really, well then I guess that giant snake behind you won’t be a problem.”

I saw the color drain from his face. At that particular moment, my snake chose to wind its way around his ankles. He let go of Daisy in a panic and looked down. As soon as he did, he let out a bloodcurdling scream. I guess I couldn’t really blame him; it was a big snake after all. He kicked and turned, trying to get it off of him. But the snake slowly started to wind its way up his body. I saw the look of sheer terror in his eyes. But I ignored him as he fell to the ground. Instead, I held out my arms as Daisy came running into my outstretched arms. She cried into my chest as I turned away from him. He was screaming and kicking.

I carried her away. Five minutes later---the guy still screaming---I ran into Marcus and Vicky. Both of them were running in a panic, huffing and out of breath. When Vicky saw Daisy in my arms, she broke down. I set Vicky on the ground and she ran to her sister, crying. I gave them their moment and turned to Marcus, pointing over my shoulder.

“He’s back there.”

Marcus raised an eyebrow. “What did you do to make him scream like that?”

I shook my head. “No one messes with my girl.”

He smiled and walked off in the direction of the clearing.

I walked over to where Vicky and Daisy were hugging each other. Daisy was sniffling but she looked better. “That was a bad Easter Bunny.”

Vicky kissed her on the head. “Its ok, he’s not going to hurt you anymore.”

Vicky and I shared a look. It was clear that when she was done he wasn’t going to hurt anyone ever again. I’m sure the world wouldn’t mind one less scumbag. I reached out and took Daisy from her arms. Vicky nodded, her icy blue eyes flashed as she too walked off toward the clearing.

I hefted Daisy, getting her as far away as possible. I’m not sure how far we got before I heard what sounded like a scream abruptly caught off in mid-holler. I pulled her close to my chest, burying her face in it. I wanted to make sure that she didn’t hear what I heard. WE got about halfway to camp when Jessie and Frank showed up. They both looked relieved to see Daisy in my arms. I pointed behind me and they ran off in that direction. I closed my eyes and set Daisy down. There was one thing I still wanted to do for her, one thing I’d failed to do earlier.

When I reopened my eyes, the largest rabbit I’d ever seen was standing before us. I crouched down and let it go off. She was still sniffling. “I’m sorry about before, Daisy; I should have never left you alone.”

She wiped her tears. ‘Its ok, Mel. I thought I could find the Easter Bunny and bring him to meet you.”

I smiled. “I think he’s found you.”

She turned her head and when she saw the big white bunny---complete with yellow bow tie---her eyes bugged out. I let her go and she slowly walked over, patting him on the head. I smiled and stood up. Happy Easter, Daisy.

Author’s note: As I’m sure all of you know, comments are life blood to an author. I’m not begging or demanding, but I certainly would appreciate anything you have to say (or ask). It doesn’t have to be long and involved, just give me your reaction to the story. Thanks in advance...EOF