“Well, you wanted to go to the mall in Chico, so we're going to the North Valley Plaza and maybe to downtown and wander around near Chico State and grab a fast lunch before we go to the big toy store and come home.”

“Wait, like near the University? CSUC?” Brooke asked.

“You know about the University?” Maggie was shocked, none of them seemed to know anything about the area, till now.

“Yeah, there's a wheelchair race up here in a few weeks and I was thinking of entering for the junior races. Is the College near the downtown area?” Brooke stated.

“Yes, it's actually part of downtown.” Maggie replied.

“Could we see a bit of it?”

Editing by Djkuaf

Picking up from where the last one left off, our young ladies enjoy the countryside and progress is made!

February 5th 1983

Larry O'Brien had his suspicions about his son. He knew Billy had been close to his cousins Bruce and Clark. He also suspected that his hair-brained son would have something to do with the picture that had been left at work. He headed across the property to the barn that served as a garage. He had wanted to check it out sooner, but he had promised his wife a nice breakfast, which turned into a shopping trip. He was glad to see his son wasn't home, so that gave him a few minutes to work.

He stepped in and groped for a light switch. There was the usual smell of pot, but it didn't seem fresh this time. He hated them using his property for their drug use. It was just another reason that he was going to use to kick Billy to the streets, no matter how much it hurt his wife to alienate his only son. After a quick search of the barn, his suspicions were confirmed when he found a picture, the same one that had been left in the cafeteria at work. This one had X's over Troy's eyes, knives drawn by the child’s throat and in black ink, the note at the bottom this time read “Die Fag, die!” He turned the picture away in disgust at the pictures and words and lewd pictures drawn over Troy's mother. He looked down and several of the pictures seemed to be drawn on the same way.

“Dammit.” He muttered, then he turned and ran out of the shed and into the house. He was old school, he knew that. He recalled that if someone had been weak, or seemed weak when he was younger, they would beat him up, now he was more of a live and let live person, the war helped see to that. But with the friends his son kept, he thought that murder was a good possibility and that wasn't acceptable by even his older standards. He knew Billy had been pissed when Bruce had been arrested and had made several comments about the snitch needing to be killed but he thought it was Billy just blowing off steam. Now he knew otherwise.

He slid to a stop by the phone and grabbed the phone book. It only took him a few moments to find the number he was after. “Come on.” He said as the phone rang. But after two rings, the operator came on the line. “The number you're trying to reach is no longer in service. Please check the numb...” He put the phone down and then picked it up again. After two rings he got the same answer.

Then he noticed the number above it, with an address right next to William's. He said a silent prayer, in the hopes that Billy hadn't headed there and he tried that one. A few moments later, he heard. “Patterson residence, this is Modine.”

He tried to hold his worry in as he spoke, but he couldn't “Ma'am, you don't know me, but I'm looking for William Patterson, he works at the local mill. I tried the number in the phone-book, but it doesn’t work anymore. Are you related to him? I only ask because your address is next to his.”

“I'm his mother. Can I ask who this is?”

“My name is Larry O’Brien. I work with him at the mill and I got important news for him about the picture he had at work. Can I speak to him please? It’s important.”

“One moment, he's outside.” The old lady replied. The line was silent for several minutes. “Come on...come on.” He started to impatiently say under his breath. “Hurry up, dammit.” Then he heard the phone pick up.

“This is William, is this Larry?”

“Yes, it is, William.”

When he spoke, William found it hard to keep the anger out of his voice. “What do you mean by you have information about those pictures”

“Look, after your speech at work, I noticed my deadbeat son was laughing with one of his friends. I went to the barn we use here as a garage and I found more of those pictures.”

“So your lazy ass, deadbeat son threatened my wife and child?!?” William growled. “He's the one who threatened to rape and murder my wife and children?!?”

“He what?!?” Larry was stunned, he had no clue how bad the threats were.

“That son of a bitch has been calling here and threatening to rape and murder my wife and youngest, then to kill my oldest and me.” William stated, unable to hide the anger in his voice. “That's why I called the cops on Friday!”

“I didn't know.....William, there was a picture of your kid and wife, with all sorts of stuff written on it, none....none of it's good. There's a stack of them. I'm going to call the cops and show them this crap.”

“So why call me? Why not just call the cops?”

“In case he comes that way. I want you to know who left it for you. I'm not” Larry replied. “He's at work, but god knows how his mind works.”

“Okay.” William let out a breath to try and calm himself. He rubbed at his temple with his free hand. “Look, call the Sheriff's department and ask for Deputy Keith Kline, he's been in charge of the investigation so far. Tell them it concerns the Patterson case.”

“I can do that.”

“And Larry? Thanks for the call.” William said. His wife and daughter were headed to the Mall in Chico and he didn't expect to see them back any time soon. But he knew he had to tell them the news when they got home. One main battle in the war was over, but that still left Molly. He was sure that he was doing the right thing by sending his daughter away. He was also aware that Maggie had called Shelly before they left for the mall, to make sure they were ready to get Tracy at the end of the weekend.

But a part of William wasn't ready to relax, not until the fat lady had sung and his family was safe from the town. He just had to stay vigilant until then.

~o~O~o~

“So where are we going?” Rachel asked as Persephone pulled Harvey's truck onto the main highway. She had taken his Suburban because she could get all the girls and Maggie into the vehicle without a problem

“Well, you wanted to go to the mall in Chico, so we're going to the North Valley Plaza and maybe to downtown and wander around near Chico State and grab a fast lunch before we go to the big toy store and come home.”

“Wait, like near the University?” Brooke asked.

“You know about the University?” Maggie was shocked, none of them seemed to know anything about the area, till now.

“Yeah, there's a wheelchair race up here in a few weeks and I was thinking of entering for the junior races. Is the College near the downtown area?” Brooke stated.

“Yes, it's actually part of downtown.” Maggie replied.

“Could we see a bit of it?”

“We'll see. I think we can get near it, but I'd like to stay out of the main part of the campus, the roads are a bit confusing.”

“Okay.” Brooke said.

The truck sped along the highway and Maggie pointed to the mountains. “Sage, there's the mountains you asked about earlier.”

“Wicked! They are flat.” Sage said as she leaned over Stacey to see out the window.

“Yeah and on the back side of them is the backside of the lake where we were. It's actually very big.”

“Cool!” Sage said as they began passing fields of sheep and cows.

“Hey! Another lake!” Stacey said, causing all the girls to look her way.

“That's the Forebay. It's kinda a run off that was turned into a swimming area and the spot past that is saved for boats.”

“And on the way back, I'll take you past the Afterbay, it's where the water from here goes.”

“So it's all safe for swimming? Safer than by the Dam?” Brooke asked.

“Yeah.”

“Oh man, we should come up here for the summer and go swimming. Beats being inside in a pool.”

“You can swim?” Tracy asked. “I thought your legs didn't work?”

“Tracy!” Maggie snapped. “That's not a polite question.”

“It's okay, Mrs. Patterson I get a lot of people who are shocked that I do so much. Heck, I think I'm more active in the wheelchair then I was before the accident.” Brooke replied as she held Tracy's hand to show she wasn't mad. “I swim, not as fast as a lot of people, but I can swim. It really helps with my back, too.”

“We need to teach Tracy how to swim.” Sage said. “That way when Summer hits, we can take her with us to swimming pools and stuff.”

“I....” Tracy looked to the floorboards. “I don't know.”

Sage leaned over and whispered. “We can get a smaller Gaff for you. We got ways to hide you from people. Please, let us help you out.”

“Can I think about it?” Tracy asked.

“Sure. We got a few months.”

~o~O~o~

Frank and Shelly were busy working on the smaller of the two guest bedrooms that they had, preparing it for Tracy's arrival. Frank had been using the closet as a catch-all and now he was paying for that by having to empty out all the boxes of books and magazines he had stored in there.

“Did Maggie say when they'd bring her here?” He asked.

“No, just that she may come with Persephone and the girls.” Shelly was busy cleaning the windows on the inside. The room was usually spotless, but she wanted it to look her best when her Godchild came to stay, no matter how short of a stay it would be.

“And they're moving as soon as they can?”

“Yeah, expect Maggie in a couple of weeks And Vance and William in June, unless something happens and they send Vance, too.” Shelly replied. “I hope you don't mind that I offered Tracy a place.”

Frank shook his head. “Not at all. If this guy is threatening to kill her, plus a group of crazy people trying to run them out of town, I'd rather be ready now. Besides, like you told her, I want living God-children not dead ones.”

“There will have to be a few changes around here. Like no more eating out all the time.”

“It wont kill us to eat at home. Besides, we may save a little money that way.” Franks said in agreement. “We also got to be ready to be part of the sleepover circuit.”

“Yeah.” Shelly nodded. “I was thinking, what if we help William and Maggie get a home when they get down here?”

“You mean buy them one? We have the money, I can't see why not....”

Shelly shook her head and hands to stop him. “No, William wouldn’t go for that. He's too proud. But what if we could help get the down payment and he just payed us back later?”

“Maybe. We'll have to pitch him the idea when we see them next. I wouldn't want someone just handing me stuff either. I'd rather work for it and earn it the hard way.” Frank said.

“Well, then we'll see if one of them come's up with Persephone and we'll play it by ear.”

~o~O~o~

Moonglow, Vance and Jerry Rivers had left the house when they got back, leaving the girls to go to the mall in Harvey's bigger Truck. Moony had borrowed Troy's bike and the three of them sped off towards the little farming town. Conner had given the boys the day off so they could show Moony around the small town they lived near and the different farms. Vance and Jerry led Moony thought their school, which didn't have any gates to speak of.

“I can't believe your school is so small. I thought Rachel and Sage were just kidding around when they said it was tiny.” Moony said as they raced through. “Mine is like twice this size and it's just sixth, seventh and eighth grades.”

“You're in a bigger town.” Jerry replied. “This isn't the smallest school I've been to in the past few years, but it's close.”

After they got to the main street, the one Moony had been on the night before, the boys stopped and Vance pointed to a mini mart across the street. “Hey, want a soda and a candy bar? My treat.”

“Yeah.” Moony replied.

The three boys waited for a break in the traffic and then they headed to the little Ma and Pa store that sold everything from candy and soda to veggies and meat. They left their bikes leaned against the store's front wall, next to another bike and the three boys headed inside.

Moony followed Vance's lead to the back cooler and each boy reached in and pulled out a glass bottle.

“They got a bottle opener here?” Moony asked.

“Yeah, it's by the door, we'll show you on the way out.” Vance replied.

They went to the candy isle and saw Peter there, grabbing a couple of candy bars. The bigger kid looked up and smiled when he saw Vance. “Hey Vance.” Then his mood soured a bit. “Jerry.” He wasn't sure how to treat Jerry, after the attack on Tracy two months earlier. He knew Tracy seemed to trust him, but a part of him still hated the boy.

“Hey Peter. Headed over to my place?”

“Yeah. I figured the afternoon would be better.”

“Yeah, they're in Chico right now, so they should be home later.” He turned to his riding companions. “This is Peter, Tracy's friend.” Mooney nodded in acknowledgment.

“Yeah, I was grabbing some of her favorite candy. Not sure what those friends of hers like.” Peter said

Mooney began counting off with his free hand what each of the girls liked. “Sage likes lemon-heads, Romy likes chocolate of any type, Rachel is all about anything cinnamon, Stacey likes Hershey bars, Casey loves Baby Ruth bars and Brooke likes lifesavers the five fruit one.”

“How do you know that?”

“Peter, this is Moo..” Vance started to say.

Before he could say the name, Moony cut him off. “Marcus or Moony will do.”

“Hey Marcus.” Peter said with a smile, deciding to stay away from the nickname, till he knew the boy better.

Vance hooked a thumb at Moony. “This is Sage's brother. You remember Sage from the start of December, right?”

“Yeah, that red-head you kept drooling over?” Peter asked with a grin, Vance blushed.

“Yeah, that would be her.” Moony said with a chuckle. “You should have seen what they did to him last night.”

“What?” Peter asked with a huge grin on his face.

Moony quickly told them about Sage and the girls running around mostly naked and Peter began to laugh. “It was awesome. When he first went into the house, I thought his jaw would hit the floor.”

“It wasn't that bad.” Vance said, even though he had began to blush.

“They had on swim suits that were mostly skin tones, but the look of shock on his face... At least I think they had them on, would be a bit weird looking at my cousins and sister.”

“That's awesome, so they got him good?” Peter chuckled.

“You should have seen it first hand. I was watching from the side of the house. Funniest thing ever.”

“So you decided to come up with the girls, too?” Peter asked.

“Dad's out of town for the weekend doing something work related and there was no one in town to leave me with, so Mom said I had to come. Besides, we're breaking in my uncle’s trailer. Got to get it ready for the summer.”

“He camp a lot?”

“He tries when he's not working and cause all he has is daughters, I get to go with him.” Moony said with a grin. “He's taken me hunting too. Plus I've been with him on his job a couple of times.”

“Job? What does he do?”

“He's Highway Patrol.”

“You've done a ride along with Highway Patrol?” Peter said in amazement.

“Yeah. They didn't let him do much, because I was with him, but I still got to turn on the siren and we went on a few calls, but only as back up.”

They all went up and paid for their candy and sodas, then as they started to head outside, each of the boys stopped at the door and showed Moony the bottle opener that was attached to the wall, with a trash can under it. As they opened up the bottles, Peter caught each cap. The four boys all went outside and they leaned against the wall by their bikes, watching the main street while they drank their sodas.

“I love a cold soda in a bottle.” Vance said. So much better then in a can.”

“I heard they want to put them into plastic bottles.” Moony stated.

“Plastic? Would they still have the bottle caps? That's the best part, in my mind.” Peter said. “I got an uncle who collects them and he gives me a nickel for each one, a quarter if it’s something he don't have.

“Who knows. Honestly, how would it taste.” Moony asked. “I mean some canned soda just tastes funny to me.”

“It's better in a fountain.” Jerry said. “Like at Seven eleven.”

This caused the other three boys to nod and reply. “Yeah.”

“I like the Slurpee's” Vance stated. Again the boys all agreed.

“I like ice cream from those machines at the buffets. The soft serve stuff?” Peter leaned against the wall. “I also love it when you get to pick the toppings. My mom hates it cause I fill half the bowl with sprinkles.”

“Well they do put it there to be ate.” Moony stated.

~o~O~o~

Maggie walked along side her daughter as the girls all left the restaurant in the downtown part of Chico. They had already gone to the mall and to see some of the stores in downtown Chico, including the toy-store. Plus there had been a quick trip into the College campus. All this time she had noticed that her daughter hadn't smiled much. A part of her wondered if it was because she was in Troy's clothes, or if she was just worried about being in public.

She pulled her daughter away from the group as they got close to Harvey's truck and she put a hand on Tracy's shoulder. “You okay Sweetie?”

“Just thinking.” Tracy replied.

“About? You've been awful quiet.”

Tracy sighed and shrugged. “The move and how much I'd miss you. Then there's a bunch of questions, like can I go to school as Tracy, can I get the hormones if you're not there. And leaving here without you just feels wrong.”

“Maybe I can go. I should anyway, just to make sure we get everything in order. In fact, what if I take a couple days off and take you down on Monday and we see if we can get all the questions answered before I leave? Would that work?”

“Yeah.” Tracy said with a nod of her head. “You and Dad aren't mad at me for this, are you?”

“Tracy, no one knew that someone would see us. I don't blame you and neither does your father.”

“I just keep thinking that all of this is my fault.”

Maggie pulled her daughter into a hug. “Stop. Stop blaming yourself. You didn't take those pictures and you didn't make Bruce attack you. Stop taking the blame for everyone, okay? You are my good girl and not some little trouble maker.”

~o~O~o~

Keith Kline got out of his squad car along with another Deputy and they walked up to the house, but before they could knock, Larry opened up the door and stepped out. It had been a couple of hours since he called and he was getting worried that they wouldn't get there before his son did and the evidence would disappear. The Deputy removed his hat. “Larry O'Brien?”

“Yeah. Are you Deputy Kline?”

“Yes. This is Deputy Larson. You said you had information about the Patterson case?”

“Follow me.” Larry led them across the property to the barn. “We use this barn mostly as storage and a place to work on the vehicles out of the weather. It's my barn but my son has been using it to work on a motor for the cars.”

“Do we have your approval to search the barn?”

“But if the son uses it, isn't it the son’s property?” Deputy Larson asked.

“This is my garage, I let my son use it sometimes, mostly to keep his motor he's working on out of the rain. Other then that, ninety percent of the things in there are mine, except the pictures I found and any drugs you come across. I can't stand drug use.”

“Shared space, he can invite us in to look around.” Keith said. “Plus it's his property and he is the main user of it, so yeah, he can invite us in.”

“I will warn you, you're gonna smell pot. I don't smoke and I hate that he does it here, but it's not mine.”

“Noted.” Deputy Kline said.

Larry opened the door and led them in and over to where he found the pictures. “There they are. I just found them an hour or two ago. If William hadn't said something at work yesterday, I would have never known or thought to look for these.”

“You looked for these?” Deputy Kline asked, sounding slightly skeptical.

“William Patterson told us all off in the lunch-room and I saw my son laughing with his friends and I figured that he was stupid enough to do something stupid.”

“Like what? How would you know that he had something to do about this?”

“See, he has a cousin that goes to school with the Patterson boys. Clark Millet. He's the brother of the kid that attacked the Patterson family in December.” Larry stated. Deputy Kline nodded slowly. He knew in his gut that Clark had been lying, but he needed more then gut instinct to get a warrant. “Well, back in December, Billy kept saying how someone should kill the snitch, meaning William's youngest. He wanted to hurt the boy himself, but I just figured he was being stupid and blowing off steam. So after William yelled at everyone, and mentioned the pictures at the school, I noticed that Billy was mocking him. Call it a gut feeling, but I figured he was connected somehow.”

“Where is your son now?”

“If he really went, he's at work, if not, who knows?” Larry replied.

“If he comes home, call our dispatch and we'll come back for him. But we'll try to get him at his job.”

~o~O~o~

Persephone had pulled up, parking Harvey's truck near his trailer. As the girls started to unload, another truck hauling a trailer pulled up by the house and came to a stop. Sage was busy pulling Brooke's wheelchair out of the back, as Rachel pulled the couple of bags of things they had bought out as well.

“Okay. That's weird. Wonder if they're lost.” Maggie said. Then her eyes went to the license plate. She knew the Wyoming License plate from the picture of the man on the horse and she mental kicked herself for forgetting. “Oh crap. I completely forgot.”

“You know them?” Persephone asked.

Maggie nodded, trying to think of how to handle the situation. “Yeah. Those are my parents.”

Mwa hahaha! A cliff hanger! And with all the parts come screaming together into one massive train-wreck! How will the girls keep Tracy a secret? Will the Grandparents find out? Will Maggie and her family be disowned? Will Billy get caught before he causes any troubles? What about Clark and where is he? How will the writer keep all this going and not go mad in the process? How much wood could a woodchuck chuck?