Chapter 119: Healing Kip

Saturday, June 12, 1971

I was dreaming about what happened with the Old Ones last night, when I sensed a car pulling up beside the train. Odd. I didn’t even realize I was scanning.

Looking at my watch, I was able to make out that it was ten minutes until nine. Seeing as how we didn’t get home until after two this morning, and how Mikeya had then proceeded to further wear me out, it was amazing to me that I would have even sensed the car’s arrival.

“These FBI agents need to get a life! Don’t they know that teenagers never get out of bed this early on a Saturday morning?” I thought.

“I’ll handle it, Michael,” Anna replied. “Go back to sleep. They’re here to get the girls’ statements.”

“What about Serkia, Vie, and Pipiti?” I asked.

“I’ll make sure they stay out of sight until we know what’s going to happen,” Anna said.

“Okay, then. Wake me when it’s time to go to the premiere,” I told her, half serious. Anna laughed at me as I cut the connection.

But I couldn’t get back to sleep. Mikeya was still zonked, so I slipped out of the bed as gently as I could and headed for the shower. I was sad she was leaving. I had grown very fond of her in the last couple of weeks. But I also understood her sense of duty to her nation.

The FBI agent was sitting at a booth with Penny and Anna when I came in. They were discussing how Abby and her sister had come to be in Houston in the first place. It sounded like they had it under control, so I found a seat as far away from them as I could get. I hadn’t even gotten settled when Kip set a cup of coffee in front of me as he slid in the booth across from me.

“Morning boss,” he smiled.

Now, I am normally a morning person. But this morning, my body was trying to tell me it was still the middle of the night. I just grunted.

“I guess I don’t have to ask how YOU’RE feeling this morning!” he laughed.

“Sorry, I’m not really awake,” I told him.

“Well, I just wanted to talk to you about what you did last night,” he said, turning serious. “Penny, Karla, and I discussed it some and we think that overall, you handled yourself pretty good. For a rookie!”

“Yeah? Thanks. I guess,” I replied.

“But we do have a couple of suggestions,” he continued. “Just in case something like this comes up again.”

“O-o-o ... kay...” I said slowly.

“Yeah. We think that maybe we should sit down and talk through a couple of potential scenarios and discuss how you can use these talents of yours more effectively.”

“Okay. I think that’s a good suggestion. What did you have in mind?” I asked.

“I’d like to wait until Penny and the others are here before we go into it, but I know we have another deal tonight where you have to do your thing for them and I just wanted to make sure you left some time in your schedule later, to discuss it before we go,” Kip explained.

“How ‘bout we plan to do it at lunch?” I suggested.

“Sounds good,” Kip said. “That way, Tommy should be here too.”

“Speaking of Tommy, what would you think of sending him to Tapato tomorrow?” I asked.

“Tapato?” Kip replied.

“Yeah. Mikeya has decided she wants to return home early. I was thinking of sending Tommy with her to make sure she arrived safely,” I replied. “Because of the distance, I was thinking of just having him stay and escort her and Kalani when they come back for the State Dinner.”

“We’ll have to see if his passport is current,” Kip said absently as he began to run through the details of the trip in his mind.

As we sat there silently drinking our coffee, I realized I had become comfortable having Kip around. He was low key, yet vigilant. He had meshed well with my extended family. I was finding out that Kip liked to plan for contingencies, making him ideal for my situation. And so far, he had adapted well to working with my talents. He was also doing well working for Penny, and working with Anna as evidenced by his suggestion to wait until they could join us to discuss strategy.

I couldn’t help but wonder how he would fare with the nudity when we got to the ranch. I hadn’t told him about it yet, but I figured that Penny had probably mentioned it to him. I scanned him, but Kip was really good at holding his emotions in check, so I probably couldn’t be sure unless I mentioned it and caused him to think about it. I did notice that he was having some pain in his left shoulder so I took a moment to look around. I was not familiar enough with anatomy to tell exactly what was wrong, but I recognized the swelling.

“What’s with the shoulder?” I asked.

“Moe and Curley slammed me with a sap as I was coming out of the men’s room last night,” he said, embarrassed that I had discovered the injury. I was surprised because I didn’t realize that he had been hurt, but it made sense now because I remembered being a little surprised at not seeing him as I ran out the front door.

Kip turned and I saw the nasty bruise that had formed on his neck, from below his ear to his shoulder. They had bashed Kip and then grabbed Abby and Vickie, who just happened to be standing next to her.

The thugs’ instructions hadn’t included kidnapping Vickie. However, they thought they might earn some brownie points by bringing Mr. Dewey a new toy, in the form of a beautiful redheaded teenager. They knew that when Sam finished with her, he could just sell her into slavery somewhere or they would just get rid of her.

Kip was the most embarrassed I had ever seen him. I scanned and saw he was beating himself up over letting them get the drop on him.

I knew the feeling. The conversation that followed was between men. Men who knew that they had made mistakes. But one of the signs of real men is that they face up to their mistakes, and learn from them. Then do their best.

As we talked, I scanned him again, realizing that I had touched an emotional topic with his injury. I suddenly wished I hadn’t. It was all I could do not to let my face reflect both the surprise at what I found, and the horror. I remember David telling Catherine, after interviewing Kip the first time, that he felt that Kip might be running away from something. I can tell you for sure that he is.

“So. You finally saw it?” Kip asked.

I couldn’t disguise my horror very well. My look was enough to confirm that I had.

“I try not to think about it,” Kip offered. “I guess you can see why?”

“Post-traumatic stress disorder,” I replied. “That’s what it is going to become known as.”

“Huh?”

“Anna,” I thought. “I need you if you’re available. I’m in the Dining Car with Kip.”

“I know. I can see you,” she replied out loud from behind me, where she had been talking with Penny. “It looked like you and Kip were having a serious discussion and I wanted to give you guys some space.”

I smiled at her consideration as I wondered why I didn’t scan for her first, before calling for her. After my last interaction with the old ones, I had a feeling that there was more to my abilities to be able to sense where people were. However, I had not figured it out yet. In order to know, I had to make a conscious effort to scan. But it seemed like there should be a way that I could scan continuously without having to focus my energies on doing it. “I need to think about it some more,” I thought to myself.

“By the way, there’s a group of reporters trying to gain access to the rail yard, but Southern Pacific is keeping them at bay,” she added. “For the moment.”

I quickly scanned and found them outside the yard office. There were at least a dozen reporters. Several of them had television cameras with them. I’d deal with them later.

“Anna, Kip was feeling bad about being surprised last night. He was so embarrassed, he didn’t bother to report a serious injury. I was also embarrassed because I slacked off with my duties as well, so I didn’t spot them either. In the process of discussing this, I discovered that Kip has been living with nightmares from his time in Vietnam. In the future, it will become known as post-traumatic stress disorder. Are you aware of any of this, from a medical perspective?” I asked her.

“Post-traumatic stress disorder?” she echoed. “No, I don’t think I’ve heard it called that before. I know that a lot of returning veterans have had trouble readapting to civilian life. After WWI it was called shell shock, and after WWII it was combat fatigue. Now, I think it’s called stress response syndrome.”

“It won’t be until DSM-III in 1980 and ICD-10 in 1992 that the clinical guidelines will start to acknowledge that these problems could be chronic,” I told her. “And that his problem could be an ‘anxiety disorder’ rather than a short-term adjustment.”

Anna became thoughtful, not saying anything. This wasn’t the first time she had seen me refer to the future like this. However, Kip was a little surprised. I shook my head to indicate he should wait to ask questions.

Finally, she asked, “What are the symptoms?”

“Let me show you,” I said.

“WAIT!” Kip cried out. “You’re not going to show it to HER! She’s a woman!”

“She’s also a doctor, and a head trauma specialist,” I replied calmly. “As well as a CIA operative. She can handle it, and if she’s going to help you, she needs to know what she’s dealing with. Don’t worry. I’ll show you what I’m showing her.”

I connected both of them and quickly gave Anna my memory of Kip’s memories.

“How did you do that so fast?” Kip asked in amazement. “It was so fast, I could hardly follow, and it was my memories!”

Anna’s face didn’t reflect the horror the way I had, but I could sense she abhorred what she saw. She became lost in a deeply meditative state, recalling multiple medical terms as she considered.

Kip and I again remained silent.

“You did something to his neck. But I couldn’t tell what,” she finally said.

I grinned. I didn’t think she would catch that. If I hadn’t been so tired, I would have edited it out of my memory.

“You wanna see?” I asked.

Her medical curiosity piqued, Anna just looked at me as if she would hurt me if I didn’t. So I did.

“Holymotherofgod, Michael!” she exclaimed. “I didn’t know you could do this!”

I started to explain when Anna said, “Kip, can you turn your head?”

Kip tried, but there was obvious pain and he grimaced.

“See all the damaged blood vessels and tissues?” I asked her.

“Oh yeah! This is incredible,” she said. “I can see the contusion/hematoma of the glenohumeral joint!”

“Watch this!” I said, as I began showing off by repairing the small vessels around the edge.

Anna was so fascinated, she didn’t say anything except to warn Kip to remain still, as she watched. When I moved to the muscle tissue, she gasped as she saw the swelling began to shrink before her eyes. “What are you doing to it?” she asked breathlessly.

“I’m not sure how to describe it exactly, but I’m sort of imagining it to be like the muscle further down. The one that looks healthy. And it just happens,” I told her.

“If I wasn’t seeing this with my own eyes, I wouldn’t believe it!” she exclaimed. “Look. You can see the swelling in his neck is going away!”

I kept at it for another few minutes, then broke the connection as I leaned back in the booth with my eyes closed.

“Are you okay?” Kip asked, concerned.

I didn’t reply as I was too drained.

“Karla! Bring some juice, please,” Anna called out. “Hurry!”

It felt like I was sliding into a deep, dark hole and couldn’t stop.

Anna saw my eyes roll back in my head. Hesitating for just a moment, she leaned over to kiss me as she began to think to me how much she loved me. As soon as I felt it, I began to feel the power surge through me. I don’t think I could have run a race or anything, but it was definitely enough to bring me back to the land of the living.

“I hope this is working, Michael. I do love you so much!” she was thinking. I debated whether to allow her to continue. I was certainly enjoying it, but I didn’t like to feel her worry.

“Oh-o-o! You’re not unconscious,” she cried when she saw my eyes open. “You better not have been faking!”

I simply replayed my memory for her.

“So, it worked?” she asked.

I just grinned and picked up the orange juice Karla had set in front of me.

“How’s the neck?” I asked Kip after I had downed the juice. I could feel the sugar recharging me a little.

Kip turned his neck from side to side. “Still a little tender, but a thousand times better than it was,” he said.

“Let me rest a little, and I’ll finish working on it,” I told him.

“Michael, I had no idea. You have got to tell me all about this,” Anna exclaimed excitedly.

“Can we do it later?” I asked. “I am feeling really tired at the moment.”

“Certainly, Sweetheart,” she replied. “In the meantime, I’ve got to call Daddy and have him ship some of my medical books to me.”

“Have him ship them to the ranch,” I suggested. “I think that since Mikeya is leaving, maybe we ought to just head back there. I think it would be safer.”

“Good idea, Michael,” Kip replied, as he excused himself.

“Good morning, General. How did it go last night?” I thought as I connected to him. I figured I would save Anna a trip out to find a payphone.

Before he could say anything, Anna said cheerfully, “Good morning, Daddy.”

“Ask him about the sisters,” I thought to Anna as I left them talking, pushing their conversation to the back of my mind. I went to the galley for another cup of coffee and a cinnamon roll. Tommy arrived by cab as I was starting on my second cup of coffee. I waved him over as he came in.

He was still a little excited about what had happened last night. He had spent six years as an MP and almost three years as a deputy, but this was the first time he had been in on the action from the start, playing a major role. Kip brought him a cup of coffee and sat down with us. Tommy began recapping what happened from his perspective.

When he got to the part about hearing voices in his head, he went right on without making too much of it. I thought it odd until I scanned and saw that he had discussed it with Penny and Kip last night. All indications were that he had accepted it, but didn’t understand. I decided to have Vickie fill him in later.