Funeral services will be held at 6710 Burt St. officiated by Father John Dvorak at 4PM. The family requests no flowers but donations made for the benefit of the American Society of Civil Engineers will be gratefully accepted.

PART 24

“Are you planning on breastfeeding?” asked the lactation specialist the next day.

“I…well,” I hesitated while I pondered her question, not something I had ever expected to be asked my first 18 years. “I hadn’t thought about it much in the last few days.”

“As your body is starting to recover from the trauma it’s going to remember what it was supposed to be doing right now and, not to put too fine a point on it, you’re going to start leaking.”

“I’ve actually noticed a bit of that already,” I said looking down at the front of my hospital gown.

“That’s the colostrum, which is one of the most important things you can provide to help build up your babies immune system,” the large matronly woman continued in full lecture mode. “And she needs every little bit of help she can get.”

“I… what did you do mother,” I turned to the other hospital bed and asked.

“I breastfed all five the first few weeks, Anne and Martha I serviced the whole way through. Constance, Abigail and Tommy I took off the teat as soon as I could, it had sort of lost its mystique by that point. But she’s right, Katherine, breast milk is one of the best ways to kick start things in the right direction for little Mary.”

“But how would I even do it? They won’t even let me hold her,” I said trying to fight back another attack of tears.

“We’ll use a pump to express the breast milk,” the specialist nodded at me and smiled at my decision. “A nurse will help you with it and collect and store it for transport to the fifth floor.”

“I can help her too,” my mother chimed in. “The principle can’t have changed much.”

“The nurses in the N.I.C.U. will bottle feed the milk to her for you. But hopefully you will both be healthy enough soon where you can do things without all these officials in the way. And you have a good chance, all the nurses in that department have fallen in love a bit with your daughter. She’s a fighter.”

“She’s half Ryan, bound to be good at fighting,” I said smiling weakly at my mother.

“Half Scott too,” she replied warmly. “And they are no shirkers either!”

***

If this were bad fiction, the hero of the piece, or in this case heroine would be fully recovered from her life threatening wounds in time for next week’s exciting new episode. This is real life, however, and I would be incarcerated in the hospital for some time yet. My mother, who only had mostly superficial wounds and a concussion, was still only allowed out of jail after three days. Leaving aside my months of recovery ahead, I could expect to stay for perhaps two weeks before I even had that opportunity.

Mary might be here even longer.

After mother was discharged, I was upgraded to a private room on the top floor. What the bill would be like when I got home I didn’t want to think about, and resolved to get blind stinking drunk before I viewed it now that I could drink alcohol again. The girls visited me every day and brought little snippets of news and gossip from campus and the neighborhood to keep up my spirits. I didn’t have it in me to tell them I could care less who was dating who and which football player had got VD but meekly participated in the gab fest anyway. Karen showed a bit of natural leadership and organized a rotation watch list where at least one of them would be in or near my hospital room covering all of visiting hours, and I was grateful to have them on call to go after any and everything I might need.

I had other sorts of visitors too, official and otherwise. Police, hospital administrators, and several disreputable newshounds who didn’t seem to have the flowery Mr. Kelley’s decorum. There was a great deal of sudden journalistic interest in me it appeared, and my roommates all reported that they were being pestered with questions. Laura even said she thought she was being followed when she went out to pick up a box of doughnuts, though that might have been the police.

I had anticipated a medical leave from school of course, and had worked ahead in all my classes. So I was actually quite fortunate there. There was one test I had to sit sometime in January but I shouldn’t have any trouble with it. I had registered for 15 hours in the spring semester however and I didn’t know if I was going to be ambulatory by then. The university was wheelchair accessible but there is only so much that can be done retrofitting 80 year old buildings. And getting from one building on campus to another across a frozen Nebraska winter is not something easily undertaken. The governor though had been one of the first people to call once the switchboard turned on the phone in my room. I mentioned my concerns to him and he told me not to worry about it. The University was trying to squeeze another hundred million dollars out of the state for a cancer treatment center and he was pretty sure the chancellor would be accommodating if he asked nicely on my behalf for distance learning.

It’s good to have friends in high places.

On Saturday the 6th of December I woke up from my mid morning nap to see a uniformed Thomas sitting in the chair next to my bed.

“Please tell me you didn’t go AWOL?” I asked only sort of caring at the answer. It was good to see him again.

“Not really,” he leaned over and took my hand. “I’m on special liberty, though I have to be back at the airport at 16:30 in order to be back in Maryland on time.”

“Special… you didn’t TELL them did you?” I asked, surprised.

“Don’t worry about it. They gave the whole academy the day off. As long as there isn’t some last minute air traffic controller strike or EMP attack, I should be back in time no one the wiser. There is even a bit of fudge room if I’m late. The upperclassmen tell us they don’t check the sign in log too carefully tonight”

“Why? What’s so special about today?”

“Second Saturday after Thanksgiving remember? The Army-Navy game in Philadelphia. I’ll check the highlights on the internet before I head in and my buddies will cover for me. No reason for anyone to suspect that I wasn’t in the stands the whole time.”

“I’d completely forgotten about it,” I said a bit dumbstruck by the implications of not remembering.

“Well you have had other things on your mind Katie,” he said looking down at me sadly and wiping away a strand of my hair from my eyes. “I relieved one of your watchdogs, I think it was Laura, she said she was heading out to get us all some lunch, are you on solid foods now?”

“I am, but baby isn’t, I’m going to have to pump her some lunch and dinner in a few minutes,” I said indicating an apparatus on the table next to us.

“Oh,” he said going red-faced. “Do you, do you want me to step out of the room?”

“You’ve seen them before,” I said waving it off flippantly.

“Yea, but never while they were in use, so to speak.”

“Thomas Sullivan Ryan you are blushing,” I giggled not being able to control myself.

“Well mission accomplished I can go home now,” he said a bit defensively. “It looks like your spirits are high.”

“SOMETHING is high, they’ve tapered me off the big narcotics but I still have quite a bit running through me. I promised not to operate any heavy equipment while I’m in here.”

“Like 70’s muscle cars?” he asked me tersely.

“That… was actually mother driving. If it wasn’t so obviously the other persons fault I think she would never stop blaming herself.”

“I know it was her behind the wheel it’s just… when you called and told me, I,” he sighed heavily and stared up at the ceiling for a bit to gather his thoughts. “I went a little crazy angry at you. When you get out of here you are getting a minivan I swear to God. I don’t even want you driving around in that little jeep of yours with the baby. It doesn’t have airbags.”

“Oh, and how were you planning on forcing that?”

“I’ll buy it for you if I have to,” he smirked down at me. “Park it in your driveway with a big red bow. Farmers already cut my check. I had no idea what you had that rust bucket insured for. $25,000 is plenty to pick you up a mommy mobile.”

“You may have a point, but I hold the line at Minivan! We only have the one kid! A bigger SUV or truck will be safe enough for all concerned… we’ll talk about it later.”

“All right, is there any more information on who did this to you?”

“Nothing fresh, I do know th--”

KNOCK KNOCK

“Hello,” said my mother’s voice as she came in followed my father. “I know you’re getting tired of these visits but the General has to head back tonight so… Thomas!”

“Sir!” Thomas shouted out as he stood at attention to his superior since both of them were currently in uniform.

“Shall I be on the lookout for the shore patrol, midshipman?” he asked gruffly.

“Sir no sir, twelve hour liberty…for the game.”

“Played hookey did you?” he asked authoritatively as he squinted his eyes and began to circle around him.

“Sir! I , ah, no excuse sir!”

“And certainly you wouldn’t have… if you had done anything else,” he said resting his hands on his son’s shoulder. “You’ll be back in time, though?”

“I have a confirmed seat on a flight back to Regan in five hours… sir!”

“Let him at ease general,” I said amused at the scene. “All that starch is starting to give me a headache.”

“Stand easy,” he commanded to his son returning his attention to me. “And how are you, girl? your color is looking much better and you…” he said as his own face began to turn beet red.

“What?” I asked at his sudden hesitation.

“You ah, you’re ah…” he said mumbling a bit in obvious discomfort.

“You’re milk has come in dear,” my mother finished for him in a perfectly normal tone of voice.

I looked down and both of my girls had left some not so little dark patches on my hospital gown. I lifted it up to examine myself not caring who was in front of me. The cloth was a bit sticky and gave way only after a little effort both nipples appeared to have a bit of discharge and were more than ready for their intended purpose.

“Would you look at that,” I said my face completely hidden by my now damp gown as I got a better look. “I wonder what ice cream made out of it would taste like? Has to be some way to retrofit the little maker we have at home, though maybe I should buy a second one so they don’t get mixed up?”

“Uh, that sounds,…” said my father, still blushing furiously as I wound him up.

“You’re probably right,” I said nodding at him soberly. “First things first, ‘all hands to the pumps’. If you would bring me that apparatus over there please?”

“What!? I mean, I don’t know how to …”

“Katherine stop toying with your father,” interrupted my mother when she felt he had had enough. “He’s not a young man and his heart might give out. I’ll assist her James, why don’t you and Tommy wait outside.”

“Capital plan!” said the general following the orders of his superior officer. “Come on son, I think we might catch some of the game on the TV in the family waiting room.”

***

I visited Mary every day, and we both made forward progress. If the American government had been smart, they would have replaced the Marine guards at Gitmo with nurses and we would long since have won the war on terror. They made my stay in the hospital hell, but I got better and reasonably fast at that, so I can’t hate them forever, just probably for the rest of my life. I was discharged on the 14th and Karen and mother wheeled me out to the parking lot to an ACTUAL van, not a minivan, which had been retrofitted with a lift for the duration of my recovery. I don’t want to know what the daily rental was and clutched my purse and the prescription for drugs inside a bit tighter in self defense. We stopped by the store for a few things, and pulled up to the street I lived on to see a blockade.

Word had apparently gotten out, about my release from the hospital. And there were news vans from all over blocking the driveway. There were several area television stations and also a national cable news network, plus what I would also assume were several representatives from the more humble newspapers. When we pulled up on the block we probably didn’t look much different from the other news crews at first and one of the two police cars at the back started to wave us off, and didn’t seem to terribly pleased when we didn’t drive away and instead rolled down the passenger window.

“Officer,” mother said as haughtily as possible while still not being rude. A manner of speech created after generations of southern women have put it to the test. “My name is Margaret Ryan, I have Jessica Scott in her wheelchair in the back of this van and we would very much like to get home. However these… people are blocking us out. Is there not some city ordinance against such acts?”

“Yes ma’am there is, but every time I try and tell them that, they quote the first amendment at me. I’ve threatened a tow and indeed have called one in but they all know the city will take hours to get one sent out here.”

A man walked up behind the police officer at our window and tapped him on the shoulder.

“I heard a bit of that if I might interject,” he said as he leaned over to get a good look inside. “I’m Gunnery Sergeant Larry Hastings, USMC… retired. I own D.D. Security.”

“Double D?” I barked out laughing.

“Devil Dog,” he clarified for me, growing a bit stiffer in posture. “All the good names were taken. Is that you Miss Scott? May I open this door to speak to you?... the General sent me.”

“Oh,” I said losing some of my mirth. “Yes, you had better come back, please don’t let them see me.”

“Right,” he said as he opened the sliding door quickly got in followed by the officer and swiftly slammed it shut behind them. The gunny was in his forties judging by his face but had the body of a man in his twenties. If there was an ounce of extra fat on him it was probably the hot dog he had for lunch. He had dark hair going slightly grey but it was hard to tell since the high and tight haircut he had made anything but the stubble hard to identify. You can take the Marine out of the corps…

“So what are you doing here?” I asked as I rearranged my blouse to make sure nothing was showing.

“Little Jimmy contacted me after Big Jimmy vouched for me. I run a nice little mercenary company down in Central America but they waved enough cash in front of me that a tour back in CONUS seemed like a fine change of pace. I’m here to be your protection detail.”

“How much?” I asked not being able to help myself.

“Enough, but I have very specific orders that you are not to be troubled with it. Three months have been paid in advance and if you want to be obnoxious about it and kick me out I can go back to the beach and live it up for a little vacation on someone else’s dime… do you want that?”

“I’m not sure,” I said flippantly. “I haven’t exactly seen you in action yet.”

“Fair enough,” he said turning to the policeman. “Officer, am I fair in assuming ABC and NBC over there are parked illegally?”

“Damn right you are,” the black man said in a deep gravelly voice. “And I’ve issued five citations between the two of them but nothing doing until I can get a tow here. My captain is on the way to see if a little more brass will scare them away but some of these guys are national and don’t give a shit…pardon me ma’am,” he said dipping his hat at my mother at her disapproving look. “Don’t give a care for what the Omaha Police Department tells them.”

“Well I don’t have an actual tow truck. But my Ford Super Duty over there,” he said indicating a white truck parked down the street. “And its winch will probably get the job done. Assuming of course, I receive an official request for assistance from your department.”

“Mr. Hastings,” he said very somberly. “I must implore you to do your civic duty.”

“Always happy to be of service, officer, Miss Scott, Ma’am,” he said nodding at my mother.

They both got out and the policeman made one last attempt to get the reporters to move. Hastings strode powerfully over to his truck and got in the cab to drive it closer to the entrance to my house. He got out, attached the winch hook on the front to the back of the first news van. Gave it two tugs to make sure it was secure and then got back on his vehicle and put it in reverse gunning the engines. Because he couldn’t actually lift it up off the ground the van gave way very reluctantly the tires were locked in place as the they were dragged on the concrete and left a pair of rubber skid marks on the street as it was moved.

Eventually enough room was achieved so that Karen could get past and up the driveway to the house but that wasn’t good enough for the gunny I guess. He kept going even further as the fully extended satellite antenna of the news van caught a low handing branch of maple tree and was sheared off as it passed. A couple sparks of electricity were given off to much dramatic effect. At last he stopped after the van had been dragged across the street and into a little drainage ditch where it lay stopped at an odd angle. One of the inhabitants of the van opened the door and stumbled out when he took a bad step on the incline and fell flat on his ass. Hastings didn’t seem to mind the man’s berating though as he calmly retrieved the winch hook drove back to the second car and was halfway through hooking that one up too when the engine started and it drove away. With a visibly disappointed look he shook his head got in his truck to drive to the top of the hill next to the garage and exited again this time with a bullhorn.

“NOW HEAR THIS!!!” his amplified voice carried out down the hill and across the neighborhood. As every assembled microphone and camera was now directed toward him. “This property is under the protection of D.D. Security Unlimited of Panama. Any unauthorized persons remaining on this property will be fired upon. In accordance with federal and local statues I am required to give notice that deadly force will be used and fire a warning shot. This is your notice,” he said as he pulled out a Colt 1911 and let off two rounds into the turf between him and the news people. “That was your warning. You may remain on public streets and sidewalks to your heart’s content but be aware I have an accurate survey of the property. This house was built while this portion of the city was unincorporated. I know where that property line begins and ends. And I intend to prosecute that line…vigorously. That is all.”

***
“The rest of my team will be arriving over the next few days. I had to pull them off a couple of odd jobs but I decided to come on ahead and get the lay of the land,” said Hastings as he began briefing me in the kitchen later that day.

“How many?” I asked concerned.

“Six of us,” he explained as he handed me a stack of folders which once opened revealed to be their personal files. Including quite a bit that was redacted with black magic marker. “We’ll always have at least two with you at all times.”

“Even when I go to the little girl’s room?” I asked flippantly

“Even then,” Hastings nodded at me severely. “Casey and Watson are female… according to the genetic testing anyway. And one of them will usually be accompanying you when you leave this house. If you have to tinkle in public when neither one of them is there for some reason, you will just have to hold it or one of my guys will just take you into the men’s room. It’s not as bad as the stories make out.”

“I’ll… take your word for it.” I said trying not to smile. “Squeezing another six people in this house is going to take some doing.”

“We only need one room as a command center when your detail is here. I figured we could set up shop in that library you have on the first floor. The team will actually sleep in a house about a mile to the west of here.”

“That must have been some retainer you got,” I said trying not to grimace.

“We’re renting, and hot bunking. But any saving you get on that end will be more than offset I am afraid by the security system I will need to install on your grounds. The current one is incredibly out of date and inadequate.”

“I’m still not at all convinced this is all necessary, the police have still not gathered any evidence that it wasn’t some joy riding kid who got scared and made a run for it.”

“Certainly I would be more comfortable if I had some specific threats to guard against. But even if all that car accident business was some misunderstanding, your potential net worth makes you a significant kidnap and ransom target. The General wants you protected and your lawyer is willing to foot the bill, be a good little girl and don’t fight me on it. I’ve been authorized to take you over my knee and give you a good spanking if you give me too much trouble.”

“I won’t be an invalid forever Gunnery Sergeant,” I said boring into his eyes with my own stare. “And I’ll thank you to remember that.”

“Duly noted,” he granted me. “If a threat doesn’t materialize at the end of my three months we’ll scale things back a bit, leaving behind the security apparatus. Though I think you'll still need a permanent bodyguard or two. I’m not here to end your life as you know it Miss Scott… but to save it.”

“Duly noted,” I said to him and offered him my hand to shake.

***
“It’s amazing you're still alive” said the accident investigator as we took a look at the wreck in the county's impound lot. “That Ford Expedition was going over 60 mph when it clipped you. That big a vehicle going that fast would have totally crushed most modern cars.”

“There were no airbags,” I said sadly as I looked at the wreck of my car.

“Airbags are all well and good,” he said magnanimously. “You won’t hear me say a word against them. But they don’t help much when the engine block is shoved into your backseat which is what happens on a lot of the plastic toy cars that are built THESE days. No you’re quite lucky your boyfriend loaned you his car though he probably won’t thank you for it!”

“I think you’d be surprised at that.”

“Maybe so, maybe so, a girl as pretty as you… at any rate we have collected all the evidence there was to collect and are releasing it into your custody.”

“What am I going to do with her?” I asked looking up at him from my chair.

“I have a brother in law over in Sarpy County; he runs a wrecking business he would probably give you a good quote.”

“Sold for scrap?” I gasped, feeling light in the head.

“Well ah… not all of it, a car like this, with vintage parts. Some of them survived intact and can be sold off to collectors once properly harvested.”

“Rip her guts out!” I asked as I tried to stand up in protest and collapsed back down after a few moments effort.

“Some… look the catalytic converter alone, all that platinum. You’re probably looking at about a thousand bucks in that wreck and that’s after my mercenary brother in law takes his piece of the action.”

“Sergeant Hastings!” I shouted to my guard/driver.

“Yes Ma’am.” He replied as he walked up next to me.

“Call up a flatbed truck, there has to be some to be had in the phone book.”

“Yes Ma’am.”

“A flatbed,” the investigator interjected warily. “Look Miss Scott if you don’t want to use my brother in law that’s fine, I know how it could look. But any company you sell the wreck to will just come and pick it up you don’t need to deliver it yourself.”

“I’m not scrapping her and please do not to utter such obscenities in my presence again,” I said coldly as I closed my mouth tightly against all the insults I wanted to hurl at him. He obviously picked up on my mood though.

“Yes, Ma’am,” he answered with a slight tremor in his voice.

***
It took me three attempts to reach a funeral home that didn’t think I was trying to prank call them. The last one I tried, I could actually hear him shake his head over the phone line and then he quoted me five thousand dollars for a headstone, and I quickly hung up on him.

What a racket.

I eventually found a metal shop that would do the job for me for much less. Once I explain what I wanted written and why, the owner didn’t even charge me for labor just the cost of materials. I decided to do it in steel, stone, after all, would wear away after a few hundred years and I wanted my monument to last forever. I had more trouble with the actual grave, the city didn’t care what I did to my own lawn as long as I didn’t go down far enough to hit the sewer lines. But digging the hole was tough going. Winter proper had only just begun but the ground was already frozen. Most crews who had earth moving equipment on hand had fled south for the season to work in better climates. It just so happened though… I owned a construction company. So one of the first official acts as president of the Scott Company was to have a bulldozer and a five man crew come to my mansion and dig a trench big enough for a Firebird.

I watched it all commandingly from my heavily blanketed wheelchair parked on the cement next to my now empty pool. The neighbors were staring across the tennis court at the show and were no doubt wondering what the madwoman next to them was up to now, but I had long since given up hope for their good opinion. My crew used a crane to lower my girl down into her slumber and I wiped away a tear with my scarf as I heard the thud of her hitting the dirt. It was another hour before all the dirt was repacked and they had to cart away a couple of tons of it afterwards but eventually the whole crew were done and I was left with the upturned earth and my parish priest.

Father John had been working this town a while, and he apparently knew Scott’s had a whim of iron. If he thought my request odd he had the good grace not to let it show on his face. He accepted my honorarium well enough and altered the funeral mass to accommodate metal and not human flesh. Hastings did the honors on the headstone and my whole ‘family’ was there when it was finally put in place.

“You want I should get the boys out here and we fire off a salute?” asked Hastings, not at all sarcastically.

“No, quite enough gunfire in this neighborhood of late,” I answered somberly. “Pretty soon the property values will begin dropping and I don’t need that.”

“Shall we play taps then,” asked Karen as she stamped her feet to keep them warm in the cold.

“I thought about playing ‘East bound and Down,’ over the patio speakers but that would probably get the police called on us faster than the gunshots would… no let's go inside and start the wake. There is a hot chocolate with all our names on it.”

***

We got word that on December 23rd they were finally going to let me take Mary Margaret home and I couldn’t think of a better Christmas present. She would be discharged in the afternoon but I would have to spend the morning in conference with DeGeas at Scott headquarters. The transition was going, forward or backward it was still hard to tell, but certainly there was a lot of action. The news people had been mostly sated with a couple of press conferences and some releases, what few were not satisfied couldn’t get past Hastings' perimeter. So we only had the usual last minute shopping traffic to fight as we headed east to my office. We passed the scene of the accident and I gave off an involuntary shiver even though there was no physical evidence remaining that anything had ever happened there.

DeGeas gave me my briefing. Those partners who could get away with dragging their feet were. Those that couldn’t get away with it, still tried, but didn’t mind any retaliation I could inflict because their dragging feet were headed for the door anyway.

In the last three weeks I had lost 60% of stockholding partners. Some were meekly retiring and they were harmless enough, content to collect with their shares fifty cents out of every dollar I could make. The remainder, however, were going to see to it that a profit would be hard to get. They had either jumped ship for the competition or set up their own shingle and moreover, not content with that, had taken a whole heap of their clients with them. They didn’t have to try very hard, I guess. Eighteen year old single moms probably don’t instill a lot of confidence.

We had contracts and prepayments and we intended to press hard for keeping both but as far as new business goes it was going to be hard to generate, and we needed to expand or die. First National, perhaps being pressed by those former partners, had refused to extend our credit line. The next fifty million dollar installment was due March 1st and we didn’t have it.

“There’s always the man downstairs,” said DeGeas as he sipped his coffee and tossed one more financial statement on the steadily growing pile.

“A deal with the devil?” I asked with a raised eyebrow.

“Not that far downstairs. Unless you are trying to be more insulting than he deserves. He still wants our fiber optic cable.”

“I sort of told him to go to hell,” I said meekly as I scratched as far as I could reach under my leg cast.

“Yeah, but that was just business, not personal. He doesn’t hold a grudge for that sort of thing.”

“You probably know him better than I do, but he only wants it because he thinks it will be worth a shit ton more down the line. If we sell now we could be kicking ourselves in a few years... once I can start kicking again that is.”

“That’s true enough but we have to live that long first, and this will get us enough cash to catch our breath.”

“If you think it’s wise…just try to get as much as you can.”

“Huhg,” he grunted at me in acknowledgement. “We also need to talk about my replacement as C.O.O.”

“Replacement? You only just got here!”

“And I’ll be here for months yet. I’ve only just gotten started, you’re right. But part of that process is finding an actual person with mud under their fingernails to tell all these engineers what to do until you can learn better yourself. I’m just a lawyer remember, and not a young one at that.”

“You’ll live forever,” I said smiling at him and trying to be comforting.

“If I thought that lawsuit would work I’d certainly try it but there are a couple of bad precedents… anyway I’ve been vetting a few candidates and we should set up some interviews after the first of the year.”

“All right, it just seems hard to swallow.”

“They weren’t all malicious malingerers, some of them are even fine engineers they just need a strong hand at the steering wheel which I hope you can provide.”

“I’ll provide it up their ass if they aren’t careful,” I said and didn’t even try to keep the evil grin off my face.

“Indeed, speaking of proctology and related fields I’ve sorted out yours and Mary’s coverage. Full ride, post dated to December 1st.”

“How did you manage that?”

“The contract with BlueCross BlueShield was up for renegotiation this year. The choice was they accept your not insignificant hospital bill or they lose out on three thousand employees and their families to Coventry.”

“It’s nice to have that sort of power, but it’s not a good way to make friends.”

“Katherine, you have enough friends,” he said to me as he grabbed the last file of the day. “And we’re all very happy that you and your family are going to be all right.”

***

I was glad to see the last of the place as I left the hospital. Aside from my own stay in residence I had made daily milk runs and visits to Mary Margaret and when they finally let me take her in a sort of NASA designed child’s stroller I was incredibly grateful to turn my back on that building forever… and then I chanced to turn and see the sign for the Scott Research Center and suspected this place wasn’t done with me yet.

Grace Watson was my primary today, and she and Tony Russell escorted Mary and I to the waiting van for our first ride home. If nothing else the addition of a security detail was freeing up my roommates from chauffeur services, but I wasn’t planning on using them much after the baby was born anyway. They had been sort of secretive of late, my good best friends. Giggling at the worst times and always hushing up when I rolled into view, carrying the conversations upstairs soon thereafter where they knew I couldn’t follow. I was sort of tempted to use Hastings and his team to apply a little extraordinary rendition on them to get to the bottom of it, but self control got the better of me.

Somehow.

Grace hadn’t studied the local maps as well as she should have, it looked like, because we took several wrong turns on the way home. We were even on the interstate and halfway to Iowa before I noticed and told her about it. She apologized profusely, updated Hastings over the radio and turned us around. I didn’t really mind, my mother was still at the house and I knew she would be smothering her namesake with all the love she had to give and I sort of wanted as much time alone with my daughter as I could before the onslaught. It was well after dark before we pulled onto our street and at first I didn’t notice a thing so engrossed was I in my progeny. It wasn’t until we stopped in the middle of the driveway to get the full effect that I was made aware of what had changed.

Person or persons unknown, who apparently loved me a lot, had decorated the large house top to bottom with Christmas decorations as a sort of early present… they sort of went over the top. Use that scene in “National Lampoons Christmas Vacation” except instead of monochrome white lights there was a rainbow of blues reds, greens and whites, still, blinking, zigging and zagging. Big damn sleigh, with twelve tiny reindeer side by side and a solitary one in front with a big red nose that must have been putting out a million candle power red light. What it would do to my electric bill I didn’t want to think about at the time, and for a good while afterwards. I didn’t care, so touched was I by the extravagance.

Not one bit.

“Surprise!” said my assembled household as the lift set down my wheelchair.

“It’s just like what I remember your dad used to do when we were kids,” said Karen as she moved in to hug me. “Rachel found it days ago in the storage shed you have and we all decided to set it up. We started right after you left this morning and everyone pitched in, even your mom and the guards.”

“Don’t pin this on me ma’am,” said Hastings brazenly. “It was obviously enemy action.”

“The first couple of tests actually failed and we had to track down what went bad,” added Karen still grinning ear to ear. “That’s why we had to send Grace around the block a couple times.”

“I KNEW something was wrong!” I said as I returned her hug.

“Oh my god is that Mary!” she asked me as the ramp lowered down my daughter in her carrier. Karen dashed to her side and started to go goo-goo ga-ga over the baby.

“Careful!” I warned her loudly. “She’s very fragile.”

“I will be careful Katie,” she said trying to reassure me. “And I’ll start by bringing her in from out of the cold. Let’s go inside, Caroline made dinner for the entire army its some sort of fried chicken that has been driving me nuts all day.”

We went inside where we all sat down in the formal dining room and preceded to desecrate it by eating all sorts of things without the benefit of utensils. Once we were done with big people food. JoAnne brought Mary Margaret into our converted nursery and I personally provided her own dinner. My friend stayed long enough to make sure that things were situated and then quickly abandoned the scene. I guess this sort of thing was not just a male hang up, or perhaps she just wanted to give me some quality time alone with my child.

I would be spending quite a bit more time than I thought with baby, I would be living in the next room over for the time being. As long as my leg was encased and I was in a wheelchair it would be too much drama and effort to get me up those massive flights of stairs to the master bedroom. So we had put in a little single bed in my office on the first floor and I was living out of a couple of suitcases for the duration. Bathing was a bit of an adventure, there were toilets on this level but no baths or showers. So I had supervised a rigging up of a little hose in the laundry room that… well you don’t need to be provided much description on that visual so let’s all just move on.

It worked out for the best maybe, I’m not sure I could have tolerated being separated by an entire floor for our first few nights together. I hadn’t really intended on being the maternal sort at all, the plan was to push out the kid make sure it was fed and watered and otherwise taken care of and then move on with my goals. But plans are all very well and good but they don’t mean jack when reality intrudes.

“Katie,” said Grace as she knocked on my door and came in.

“Yes,” I said looking up and covering my nursing baby with a blanket using my good hand.

“Hastings is at the main entryway and he would like you to come out. There is a visitor that needs to be cleared through.”

“Another well wisher?" I asked, annoyed. “Or some reporter that needs to be run off?”

“We’re getting pretty good at detecting the fourth estate in disguise. At any rate, she passed the first layer but needs your ok before she can be let in, and we can add her to the list.”

“Now?” I asked exasperated.

“Now is when they arrive, it’s a start up cost. Once people are cleared we won’t need you to do so much back and forth. I’ll take the baby and put her down in her crib,” she said as she extended her arms to accept my daughter.

“Um, I know you are a good guard and all…”

“I know how to care for a baby, which is one of the reasons I was picked for this job, I have two of my own you know.”

“You?” I asked disbelievingly

“Yes me!” she said, affronted. “And they weren’t turkey baster babies either but direct deposit. What, you don’t think a guy would have anything to do with me once, let alone twice?”

“It’s not that, it’s just…” I hesitated trying to come up with the right words.

“I’m a she man with big arms, large shoulders and no tits?”

I looked up at Grace, and even if I had been able to stand I would still be looking up at her. She was a big girl, just past thirty who had been in the military police for three enlistments before punching out for the more lucrative work as a private contractor. She wasn’t pretty, but had a sort of vicious beauty about her. The navy always called their ships ‘she’ and Grace was what I imagine one of those old school battleships would look like in human form. She looked tough and mean, and ready to start some trouble with anyone who got in her way. As a protective mamma bear for when I couldn’t be around I guess I could do worse.

A lot worse.

“I’m sorry if I offended you Miss Watson, I just got her back and I’m not used to giving her up yet. But if you promise to watch over her I’ll force myself to adjust,” I said as I moved to let her grab hold. She laid her down and helped me button up my maternity bra and blouse and then stayed behind after I rolled away, like a sentinel over the king’s treasury, which in a very real sense she was. With one hand still messed up a conventional wheel chair was out of the question so they had given me a battery powered electric one that had quite a bit more horsepower than was strictly necessary. I was still getting used to it. So I took a sharp turn around the corner of the entryway a little too fast and smacked right into several arguing people. Which didn’t help the situation any.

“Oww, watch it you little bitch…oh,” said a strange woman with a light airy voice.

“I’m sorry ma’am ,still haven’t gotten use to this thing. What’s going on Gunny?” I asked my principle guard. And then turned to the stranger.

She was in her late thirties, but it was hard to be precise these days with all the cosmetics and other goods generally available to the upper classes. Of which she was certainly one, judging by her jewelry and designer clothes which could probably had paid enough for some famines to end. She had long dark hair, ice blue eyes and looked like she hadn’t enjoyed her dinner since the late eighties. I pegged her for some sort of big stick in society. They had been coming out of the woodwork the last few days as word had got out of my return and my subsequent recapture of the Scott Company. I just hoped this one wasn’t looking for another charitable donation. The coffers weren’t exactly flush yet.

“I would usually have just turned her away Miss Scott,” Hastings said grimacing a little as he looked at her. “The standing orders are for anyone coming after 7pm that is not on the list to make an appointment for later. She however identified herself, and presented adequate identification, the barcodes all check out so I thought I would ask you first what you want to do?”

“Do about what?” I asked a bit confused.

“Well ah,” he said gesturing to the stranger a bit sheepishly.

“I’m sorry,” I said turning to her. “Who are you again?”

“Jessica,” she said a bit severely after only the merest hesitation. “I know it’s been a little while but don’t you recognize your own mother?”

***