Chapter 10

It had been over twenty minutes since the nurse had told him that the doctor would be in shortly and left him a stack of papers to fill out, but Linc wasn't too worried, these places always took their sweet time. The last thing he wanted to do was attract attention.

Two men walked into the ER waiting area, Ann had been watching for them. She opened the side door and signalled for them to follow her. "He's in room six," she said as she showed them into an empty room where she handed both of them a set of scrubs, "who wants to be the doctor?"

The older of the two men took the white lab coat and stethoscope. The other man pulled out a syringe and a vial of medicine. He expertly filled the syringe and set it aside. The older man turned to Ann, "Let's go," the two of them walked down the hall to the room where Jackson waited.

Ann knocked on the door, "Mr Smith." As Ann and the man walked in, the man introduced himself as Doctor Roberts, matching that on the name tag. If only Jackson knew that the real Dr. Roberts was just down the hall, she had picked this night for her water to break and was now well on her way to giving birth to the son she had been expecting.

The fake Doctor looked at Linc's problem, "Did he have a fever?" he asked Ann.

"Yes, Doctor low grade." Ann responded.

The man wrote something on the clipboard. Ann looked at it and left the room. A few minutes later the other man entered the room, "Need to give you this, it's a special antibiotic." The man put a tourniquet around Linc's upper arm. A few seconds later he was injecting the contents of the syringe in a vein and shortly after that Linc Jackson went to sleep.

The last conscious thought he had was, 'should this be making me feel this way' but he was out before the words could form. Out in the hall the older man handed Ann an envelope, "There's a bonus in there for all your help. Did he fill out any paper work?"

Ann shook her head, "Not officially, I recognised him while the girl that usually checks people in was in the bathroom. I gave him some to fill out to keep him from getting suspicious. Here's a wheelchair you can use to take him out to your car, just leave it at the door."

The two men loaded Jackson into the wheelchair and out to the white van that pulled up to the curb. The wheelchair was returned to the ER and the two men got into the back of the van to prepare Jackson for the last part of his journey.

Don sat in the middle of the guest room bed. Kiesha sat behind him with her legs wrapped loosely around him, Amber was cuddled to his left while Missy was on his right. Sitting in front and to his right was Rose and next to her Kim. They sat as close as they could get and for Don it was like he drew strength from the girls touch. Don took a deep breath and let it out slowly, "Well before I start to tell this Dad isn't there something that you've wanted me to wear for a long time?

Jack Phillips' blinked his eyes and shook his head as if to clear away some unseen fog, "You mean...". His hands went to his neck where any other time that found him awake there would be a silver chain with a medallion on it. Jack jumped up and left the guest house at a dead run.

Beth had neither the hope nor the desire to keep her emotions in check and got up to join with her son and his wives on the bed. Jack returned breathless, wearing his chain and medallion, and carrying a box. After sitting the box on the bed he reached in and pulled out a maroon velvet covered box. The box had J. J.'s Jewellery store's logo on it. Jack paused long enough to hand his wife her chain and medallion. He then opened the velvet box and removed the silver chain and medallion and placed it over his son's head. "Do you promise to honour the Goddess in all things that you say and do?" Jack asked as two tear drops began the journey down the big man's cheeks.

Don took his father's hands in his, "I promise to honour her in all that I say and all that I do." Don looked into the box and noticed that there were six more of the velvet boxes, "What do we do as the girls don't have parents to present them."

Beth got up from the bed and moved to stand beside her husband, "Yes they do." Beth faced the girls, "Do you understand what this means?" Five yeses with accompanying nods indicated that they did, "Scott and Angie, would you like to help?"

Scott and Angie walked over to Jack and Beth, the girls got up off the bed and stood beside it. Scott handed Jack a box, he opened it and removed the chain and medallion, "Rose do you promise to honour the Goddess in all that you say and do?"

Rose, remembering the words that Don had said, repeated, "I promise to honour her in all that I say and all that I do." One after the other the rest of the girls repeated the vow. When Beth had put the next to the last medallion on Kim, Steve Johnson spoke up, "Okay but what does all this have to do with Don burning his hands or his dreams?"

"It has everything to do about my dreams," Don began. The girls moved back to surround Don and hold him as he started telling about his dream. When he finished Scott, Angie, Beth, and Jack moved to help the girls hold Don.

"That's just not possible," Steve complained, "there's no such thing as Gods of Goddesses, it's just superstition."

Don looked at the Ranger captain, "Is that what you think? Is it just my imagination? Did I make it all up?"

John White shook his head, "I don't know. I'm supposed to be a Christian, but I don't conduct myself that way. I never gave it a lot of thought until Jack and Scott got caught in that flash flood. I've listened to both Red Deming's and Dallas' version. Someone or something guided Angie to those two, of that I am sure. It also looks like someone or something has guided these girls to you. If this Ann as you call her has to be rescued from a burning van I won't be surprised." John stopped for a second and then sighed, "There is something there and it's causing me to ask a lot of questions, hard questions, questions that I've been avoiding for a long time." John stretched out a hand towards Don, "You're a fine young man Don and these ladies are very special. You take care of them and they will take care of you. Let me know when you find Ann, I'd like to meet her." John turned to Steve, "Come on Steve, let's go back to bed, we've still got a long day ahead of us."

Steve groaned, "Did you have to remind me?" Steve turned to Don, "Look I don't understand what's going on but I do hope it all works out for you and the girls." Looking towards the girls Steve laughed nervously, "I wish my daughter had what you girls have. Maybe I should pack her up and send her to stay with you, maybe some of it would rub off." Steve turned and he and John left to finish off the rest of the shortened night.

Sunday morning came early for a bunch of people who had been up most of the night listening to Don tell about his dream. For Capt. John White and Steve Johnson it had all been surreal. The idea that someone could get burns from a dream seemed impossible but Don had burns not just on his hands but in other places on his body as well as singed hair and the smell of smoke about him and the girls swore he had not left the bed. After hearing of his other dreams and seeing the drawings he had made it was very hard to deny that there was something very powerful working here.

Jack Rimes had told John about the strange thing that had happened the night of the flash flood that had caused him a crisis of faith of sorts. Now he was beginning to believe that there was more to this life than what he had been taught. He wasn't sure he was ready to convert to the Pagan religion but at the same time he would never again dismiss any of its followers as a bunch of nuts either.

Steve Johnson was not convinced, but he also didn't feel comfortable confronting anyone about their faith especially someone whose vision had led him to find five of six women who would end up for all purposes his wives. Wives, plural; that was another problem that Steve's conservative upbringing would not allow him to accept. Still the girls seemed to be happy and they had something that Steve's sixteen soon to be seventeen year old daughter didn't have. That was confidence, poise, courage; those girls were happy with who they are. After hearing the story of their lives those girls should be anything but confident. His daughter was blown by what ever wind passed her by. She had no idea who she was and after meeting those five girls he realised just how really lost his daughter was. Maybe spending a week with the Phillips' would be good for her. If nothing else it would open her eyes.

Steve shook his head and laughed to himself. Last night, this morning really, he and John had walked into that guest house and there they sat, naked almost all of them. Naked and it didn't bother them a bit, five seventeen year old girls naked in front of people they hardly knew and they sat and listened as Don told about his dream as though it were nothing. When Steve had asked them if it bothered them that he'd seen them naked they just looked at him like he had two heads, but it was their response that had kept him awake for the rest of the night.

They had asked if he had been harmed. The girls were genuinely concerned Steve had taken it that they thought he was offended. That's when Rose said, "You being offended didn't matter. Did our actions cause you harm?" When Steve had told them no it hadn't they had simply said, "Then there's no problem." 'What a strange group of people', he had thought to himself but the more he thought on it the more he knew if anyone could pull his daughter out of her nose dive these people could. The only question was, what did he tell his wife.

Breakfast was subdued that morning when Don walked in with his hands bandaged. Stan, Silvia, Sherry White, Jason Teal, Stan's students all wanted to know what happened. Don looked to Scott for advice, "It's up to you." Scott said, Don reached up and touched the medallion under his shirt. That move was immediately picked up by Stan who looked at Scott questioningly and touched his. Scott simply nodded his head.

"What?" Jason had asked.

Sherry had seen Don touch his chest but she also remembered that the last time she had been around him he had not accepted his father's path, that's when it struck her. Sherry's eyes got big and she squealed with delight, "You confirmed?" Don nodded his head and Sherry launched herself on him, hugging him, patting his back and finally giving him a kiss, "I'm so happy for you."

The girls had watched all this wondering what had got into the girl. She had acknowledged Don yesterday and Don had introduced her to them but she hadn't been that happy. Don smiled as he watched his girls trying to decide if they needed to get their claws out or not. "Rose," Don smiled at her perplexed look, "show her your new jewellery." Rose pulled out the silver medallion out of her chambray shirt and Sherry rushed to Rose and hugged her, "Sherry," Don laughed, "they don't understand why you're so happy."

Sherry blushed reached to her collar and pulled out her medallion. "Jason and I are, the other kids that left yesterday, they're not and some of them can be pretty nasty about it. I'm happy because there aren't many our age." Sherry turned and pointed to Angie, "Angie and Tia Masters, that was it for girls."

Don's Dad walked in about that time, "Are we working stock today or having a social?"

Rose put her hands on her hips and did her best imitation of Jack's bullfrog voice, "We're having a social."

Jack grabbed Rose and threw her over his shoulder, "I'll make you think little lady." And off he went back out the door with Rose squealing and laughing all the way. The rest of the gang followed. Jack gave Rose a playful swat on her bottom and sat her down beside her horse. Rose pulled her father in law down and kissed his cheek, "Thanks for the ride Dad."

Rose took her leggings off the saddle horn where Jack had left them and started putting them on. She carefully went over the cinch and checked to see if it was tight. From there she checked the rest of the rigging just as Don had shown her. When she was sure everything was as it should be she led her horse off away from the others. She paused for a second to go through all the steps Don had taught her about dealing with a strange horse.

Satisfied that she was ready she reached up and grabbed the headstall of the bridle, she put her foot in the stirrup and pulled the horses head to her as she swung up into the saddle. The horse bowed up and started crow hopping Rose tried pulling his head up and when that didn't work she pulled the left rein until the horses head was almost touching her leg. That put a stop to his foolishness then Rose sunk her spurs into him and rode off fifty yards, pulled up hard and spun the horse around, and ran him back sliding him to a stop right beside Don who was smiling from ear to ear. "I did it just like you told me."

"I saw that," Scott said, "that's the first time that horse has ever done anything like that. So you see, that little bit of caution saved you a bruised butt." Rose's face was absolutely glowing.

Scott called everyone over, "Stan and Silvia have ridden the fences in this pasture, he's going to show you how it's laid out."

Stan took a stick and drew a rough map of the five square miles of pasture and explained how they would need to go about gathering the livestock. Once everyone understood they mounted up and started riding towards the other end of the big pasture.

Kiesha reached down and felt the handle of the pistol she was wearing and found it brought her comfort. She wondered where her father was and what he was doing. Since she had learned to shoot she had silently hoped that he would find her. Then she could return some of his charity. "He'll never get near you," Angie's voice startled Kiesha out of her day dream.

"I'm sorry," Kiesha replied.

"Your father he'll never get close enough to hurt you ever again," Angie repeated.