Chapter 12

Reagan spent the rest of the week in the hospital. Millie and Hanna were unusually quiet. All of us were worried about them. Even the normally over exuberant Nancy was quiet. That was when she was seen at all. Most of the time she was hid out somewhere in the Jefferies Tubes with her laptop. That in and of itself was enough to cause worry. Everyone in the family seemed to move through their daily functions by rote.

Monday morning the doctors released Reagan but confined him to bed rest. Nicky begged us to let her stay with her hero, so we moved her in with Reagan. This was actually for the best as it allowed us to keep one person available to them rather than two.

No one had to tell Millie and Hanna that Reagan was home. They were chomping at the bit as soon as Amber got to their classroom to pick them up. But Millie and Hanna weren't the only ones waiting on Amber. The Preacher was there screaming at the top of his lungs how our family had put the girls in danger of not only their lives but their immortal souls. Amber, Janice, and the girls had just managed to barricade themselves up in the classroom and then called for help. The preacher must have thought that he and his followers could get the girls before help arrived.

They were making big strides in destroying the door when the Ft. Stockton police, Pecos County deputies, DPS, and Texas Rangers showed up. The previously slippery preacher found himself between a rock and a hard place, and no way out save through the dozen or so law officers.

Cornered the Right Reverend fought like a wild man. As a last resort he grabbed one of his female followers and was about to put a very nasty looking unpreacher-like knife to her throat. That idea got short circuited along with the rest of his central nervous system when not one but two Tasers hit him. His followers were watching him with a whole new set of eyes. Amber, Janice, and the girls were rescued and the preacher and ten of his followers were handcuffed and led out of the building. The Preacher who up till this time had managed to escape with summons and fines found himself being finger printed.

Apparently he objected to being fingerprinted. It took four of Pecos County's largest deputies to do it. But two all conference linebackers from Angelo State, a defensive tackle from Texas Tech, and an all American guard from Texas A & M managed, not too gently, mind you, to get him fingerprinted and they only broke one of his fingers. The reason for his resistance became clear about twenty minutes after the prints were entered into AFIS, the Automated Fingerprint Identification System.

By the tenth call from a law enforcement agency the four deputies that were so helpful in fingerprinting the not so good, as it turns out, preacher went into his holding cell stripped him naked as a jay bird and shackled him to his bed. His real name? As it turned out that was one bit of information that no one seemed to have. He had been nicknamed the magician for two reasons; the more sinister of those being that he made children disappear. The other being that he had never been kept in custody for longer than ten hours. He was wanted by Interpol, FBI, and more than twenty other federal, state, and local governments. The FBI had ten agents in route to Ft. Stockton to take the preacher to a secure facility. In Pecos County, the magician found himself with three guards armed with shotguns watching his every move. The preacher's arrest ended the excitement for the next couple of months.

Nancy was still struggling with school, but not in the usual way. For the most part, hers was a constant battle with boredom. Her standing with her fellow students hadn't fully recovered from the 'freak' label. But slowly like, tectonic plates moving, a legend was forming. After only three days of school the four students who had competed since first grade for top spot had completely given up on being valedictorian of their class. As one of her classmates said, "She's not just smart, she's scary smart." The legend began.

The programming class where the teacher worried if she could keep up had been the first act in cementing Nancy's legend. At the beginning of the second week of class the teacher had assigned a simple program from their text book. By this point Nancy had already written a quarter of all the programs in the suggested assignments portion of the book. Imagine the teacher's surprise when a window popped up on the teacher's computer interrupting her solitaire game. Inside the window one after another the programs that she would assign over the semester came up and ran. After the last one ran a text came up, "All of the code for the assignments is attached to an email that was sent when the window popped up. May I work on some of my personal projects? Nancy"

The teacher sat stunned. That's when she realised that she had somehow gotten access to the school's network. Taking a chance she tried typing a message into the pop up window, "How did you get on the school network?"

Not surprising she got an answer, "The school's security is terrible and the sysadmin has ignored my three attempts to show him the problems. Over forty five percent of the school's server capacity is being used by someone to store kiddy porn. But that's already being investigated, so mum's the word. I suspect we'll be getting a new sysadmin soon. Ut-oh sooner than soon! I think the feds are here. Yep, gotta jet the network is about to go down." The pop up window collapsed on to itself until it was just a point then winked out of existence. Five minutes later the school's network went down.

When the bell rang the teacher headed to the office to see the principle. She had just reached the office when her, the principle, and five other teachers watched two sheriff deputies, a lady they would later learn was a Texas Ranger, and two men in suits walk the sysadmin out the front door of the High School. News that Nancy had shut down a kiddy porn ring that had been operating off of the school's servers spread like a wind whipped grass fire.

When the first test was given in her Algebra 1 class she blew through it in just over under fifteen minutes. Along with her perfect quiz she gave the teacher a three page essay on why her grade should be exempted from the curve. It took only two days for her fellow students to learn the contents of the essay. Just in her algebra class this would mean that four people would pass rather than fail. Her legend grew.

Rose's pregnancy was progressing smoothly. Don and the girls were getting ready for Samhain. School was out Friday for a teacher's conference. So they would be spending the long weekend at the Miles ranch. Pagans from all over the area would be gathering there for the Saturday celebration. That meant that many of Don and the girl's friends that they hadn't seen since their wedding would be there.

The forecast was for warm days and cool nights, typical West Texas weather. Don and the girls had prepared for just about everything. Since the Feast of Lughnasadh the Grove on the Miles ranch had become a centre for the small community of Pagans. Don expected that there would be a fairly large crowd there that weekend. What he hadn't counted on was the reception that the Grove had decided to put on. When Don and the girls topped the hill that looked down on the Grove they were stunned to say the least.

The Grove had put on its Sunday best. The fall colours were absolutely amazing. They stopped for the longest time and just stared. Millie summed up all of their feelings and revealed one of her secrets, "The Goddess wants us to come here. It's the most beautiful place on Earth."

She'd get no arguments on the last statement, not from anyone. Sebi had seen the flash of the windshield when the Phillips' Topkick topped the hill. She'd called Scott and they had laughed together as they watched yet another group get taken in by the view. Don and the girls would have stayed right there if not for a car horn and a bull frog voice. They shared a laugh and then Don slipped the big truck into gear and they started the descent into the small valley that held the Grove.

"Beautiful isn't it!" Scott yelled to Don as he pulled up.

"I've never seen it like that!" Don was still breathless just thinking about it.

"Well don't feel bad," Scott started, "I've lived here all my life and I've never seen it like this. Did you see the bright pinks and oranges along the creek?" Scott paused knowing he'd been on that hill everyday for a week had seen something new every day, "They're Maples!"

"Outside of the Guadalupes and the Basin?" Don quizzed.

"Yep, I called a botanist at Sul Ross. He left here yesterday, but he sure didn't want to. Did you bring your fishing poles?"

"Why..." Don's question was short circuited by the site of Frankie riding up with a stringer full of trout. "That's the fingerlings that you put in the creek?

"Yeah, pretty amazing isn't it." Scott grinned, "That state fisheries guy said he thought they'd be fine since the water from the spring is so cold. Still my Dad and Granddad would would never believe it could be done.

"Lookie Boss I gotte supper!" Frankie had a megawatt smile on her face.

Scott grinned back at her, "Not if you keep lolly-gagging around here. If you want those for supper you better get them to Magda."

"Yeah, no problem Boss!" Frankie spurred her horse and left at a gallop.

"You two going to stand there and talk while the women do all the work?" Amber asked as she handed off two of the horses that the Phillips had brought.

Don got that impish grin on his face, "Sounds good to me Scott. Don't it to oof." Amber's finger to the ribs interrupted Don's sentence and kept him out of the doghouse if only temporarily.

Scott laughed, "Don't try to get me cross threaded with your wives, there's too many of them."

After that it was pretty much assholes and elbows until everything was unloaded and the yurt was set up where they would be staying.

The folks of the Miles ranch joined the now huge Phillips-O'Daniel clan in a circle around a table piled high with food. Jack's gravelly voice broke the silence, "Bless this food, these families, and this fellowship."

Chaos followed, Magda, Angie, Silvia, and even Silvia's mom Maria had been cooking all week. Scott had made more trips to Ft. Stockton than he wanted to think about, all for this meal. He'd even had to pull out all of the leaves for the hundred year old dining table. Even still the fifty one people that made up the combined extended families of the Miles and Phillips ranches required two additional folding tables.

Scott stood and tapped his fork on the crystal wine glass, "Ladies and gentlemen, I, for one, would like to say Thank you for what has been a wonderful year. You, my friends," Scott looked around the table and then reached down and picked up Angie's hand, "and family, have made me whole again. We have had trials, but together we have overcome. We have grown. Boy howdy have we grown." Everyone around the table laughed. Scott's eyes were misting and his voice was getting choked with emotion. He raised his glass, "To family and friends. May the Goddess bless and keep us."

The toast was echoed and drank to. As Scott took his seat Jason eased his chair back and stood. "Most of you know that Sherry and I have been in love with each other since the second grade. What you may not know is that at Don and the girls' wedding we met two people that we love as much as each other." He urged Sherry, Britney, and Denise to rise, "Just after school started Sherry and I asked Mr. Johnson and his wife, Lindsey for Britney and Denise's hand in marriage. They consented so we will be getting married here next August."

Before Jason or his future brides could sit. Scott stood again, "Mr. and Mrs. Johnson, Ab, Conner, and Sandy if I may?" All nodded smiling, "Health and happiness to you and your brides to be." Once again the toast was echoed and drank to. After that it was just the happy sounds of good friends and good food.

Steve and Lindsey Johnson were there because their daughter had asked them. She had changed so much in the last two months that they hardly knew her. Denise Waters' parents couldn't be bothered to come. Something that had riled Steve to no end. Denise had taken it all with a grain of salt, saying, "They were never very good at the loving parent thing. I have a loving family now. "Meaning Jason, Sherry, and Britney. They had surrounded her when Steve broke the news.