Chapter 22

I had pretty much figured Katie might faint; that was why I was behind her, with my arms around her. Between Becky's sudden appearance, a perfect image of Katie except for the orange flecks in her eyes, and Katie's fainting, things were pretty chaotic. I laid Katie on the nearest bed and sat next to her, stroking her hair, waiting for her to recover. Everyone crowded into the bedroom to find out what was going on.

"Everyone, let me introduce Becky Thompson, Katie's sister. She also goes by the name of 'Little Orange Person'." Becky laughed at that, while everyone else looked puzzled. "Inside joke," I explained.

I introduced her to everyone. With her sweet personality, lovely looks, and the fact that she was Katie's sister, she was instantly a big hit. I could see that my little teenage genius was just dying to start asking questions. I didn't think it fair that we should hear the story before Katie. When I gave Amy my 'shut your mouth or I am going to paddle your pretty little butt' look, she pouted and stuck her tongue out at me.

While we were waiting for Katie to wake up, Becky sat next to me and gave me a shy little look, smiling nervously. I recognized that look from Katie. She wanted to ask me something. So I beat her to the punch.

"What is it, Becky? You know, I kind of like the name 'Little Orange Person'. I might just keep calling you that."

"I kind of like it too. That would be ok. Um ... I don't know if you noticed or not, but when I released the block in your mind I ... kind of ... left some of that orange stuff behind. I can remove it if you want," she went on hurriedly.

"I like it there. It doesn't bother me. It makes me feel close to you."

She beamed like a million suns. "I like it there, too! Um ... because I don't have anyone's mind to share right now ... since Amy is in Katie's and I might be able to put two in one but I don't know yet ... you could ... um ... be in mine too if you wanted," she whispered in a tiny voice. She looked at me nervously.

I realized how much it cost her to say that. For her, the fear of rejection for something so intense and personal must be great. I was stunned at the ... enormity of what she was offering me.

"Becky, I would be so honored! I'm not worthy of such an offer. Are you sure, honey? What would Katie think? Could you do it?"

I could see her heave a sigh of great relief.

"I think I could do it. You might have to learn to use it. I don't think Katie would mind. I don't think we could undo what she did with Amy anyway. And I might be able to be in yours and Katie's too. With nothing to do for a year but think, I have a lot of ideas. Oh, yeah, I would love to do it! I love you, you know," she proclaimed seriously.

"I love you too, sweetheart. I've always wanted to meet you. You can go ahead and try, but first, I think you need to spend some time with Katie."

Katie was beginning to stir. I sent everyone out of the room except Becky and me, and I had Becky sit over on the other side of the room, out of sight, until Katie had recovered. Katie opened her eyes, saw me and, crying, threw her arms around me in a death grip. I held her, rubbed her back, whispered sweet nothings in her ear. She finally looked at me with big, scared eyes.

"Daddy? Is Becky really back? How can that be? I felt her die. I saw them carry out her body. Did I have a dream? Am I going crazy, Daddy?" She sounded almost hysterical. Becky couldn't take it anymore. She ran over, knelt down by her side, and threw herself into Katie's arms. They hugged and cried for quite awhile. Then Katie pulled away, a puzzled look on her face.

"I can't feel you. Why can't I feel you in my mind?" Katie looked worried and a little scared.

"I know. They blocked me from sending to you. That's partly how they were able to make you think I died. I need your help to reverse that. I can't do it, but I can tell you how." Becky hugged Katie again. I felt like an intruder.

"I'm going to leave you two alone for a few minutes. Take all the time you need to get reacquainted. I'll talk to you later, Becky." I don't think they even heard me. I left the room, closing the door softly behind me, and told everyone to leave them alone until they came out. Then I went to my room to check on Victoria.

I talked to the doctor. He was ready to reverse the drug-induced unconsciousness she was in. I told him to wait a bit, there were some things I needed to do first.

I talked to Captain Jensen. I told him I wanted all evidence that I was anything but a medical professional removed immediately. Victoria didn't know about this part of my life, and I did not want another shock to greet her. Naturally, he protested, not wanting to leave us unguarded, but finally agreed that it would be done straight away. I had no doubts that he would figure out a way to satisfy both requirements. Besides, with Amy around, how much danger could we be in, anyway? I wondered how much of Amy's ability the others might possess in an emergency.

I went back to my room to find the doctor administering the antidote to the medicine he had her on. He said it would take only a few minutes. I asked him to leave so it was just Victoria and me. He didn't like that idea. I guess I was making everyone unhappy today. Except Becky. My one success. Being the boss, I got my way. RHIP. Sometimes. Just not often enough with teenage girls!

I saw Victoria's eyes flutter open. That's when I began to realize that maybe I should have listened to the doctor. I was sitting on the bed, holding her hand, when she screamed.

"No! Leave me alone! No more!" she cried.

I just started to react, to assure her she was ok, when she jerked her hand back, and the next thing I knew I had hit the wall and was sliding down to the floor. Wow, that hurt! I saw Victoria advancing towards me. I could tell by the look in her eyes she had no idea who I was.

I remained very calm and still. I would not defend myself; I would not hurt her. If I was going to die, I could think of worse ways than at Victoria's hands. I watched in fascination as she raised her hand to hit me again. There was a blur of movement, and her hand was held fast by a smaller hand. I hadn't seen that kind of strength since ... Amy! She had grabbed Victoria's hand, then she stepped between us.

"Let me go! I'll kill them!" Victoria screamed. She tried to pull her hand back, but it might as well have been set in concrete.

Amy answered her calmly. "No, Mom. I'll not let you hit Dad again. Don't make me hurt you." Amy might have been discussing the weather, she was so quiet and calm. I found that even scarier than if she had yelled. I heard her call out to Katie in her mind to get the doctor, but to keep everyone else out.

About that time, Victoria's eyes cleared. She looked at Amy in amazement, then looked at me on the floor in horror.

"Oh Patrick, I'm so sorry! I didn't know it was you! Oh God, what have I done?" She dissolved into a puddle of tears as Amy gently led her back over to the bed. I thought about helping her, but the pain in my chest when I started to move convinced me that was not a good idea. When the doctor came in, he moved towards Victoria, but Amy curtly told him to check me out first.

There was not that much wrong with me, just a couple of bruised ribs and some aggravation of the gunshot wound that had not completely healed from before. I had always known that living with my girls was interesting, but lately, it was getting dangerous.

I went over and sat next to Victoria. Amy had been holding her as she cried. I reached out to put my arm around her, to comfort her. I was surprised when she flinched and drew away from me. Amy's eyes widened a little in surprise. Victoria had never done that before. We talked for a while, just the three of us. Victoria seemed her old self mostly, but she showed no interest in talking about what had happened to her. I figured she didn't want to talk in front of Amy.

Later that day, we all got together to hear Becky's story. We were all interested in knowing how a dead person was standing in front of us.

"Well, most of what Katie told you is what happened. After our father attacked me, I lost consciousness. When I awoke, the house was on fire. That's when I contacted Katie and she called the fire department. I lost consciousness again. Later, I woke up in the room where you found me. By overhearing conversations, I deduced that the fire was set deliberately and after I lost consciousness, another body was substituted for mine and I was removed from the scene.

"The interruption of contact between Katie and me was from a combination of loss of consciousness and something they did to interrupt the connection from my end. That's why I was out of contact for so long — I was unable to establish contact. That's all I know.

"I don't know why I was taken. I think it might have something to do with trying to get a particular someone to come and rescue me, by things I overheard. But they seemed to be waiting for something else to happen first. I don't know what."

Of course, we all had a million questions, most of which she could not answer. I noticed after a while that Amy had disappeared and I went looking for her.

The door to her room was closed, so I knocked. When I didn't hear an answer, and I couldn't find her anywhere else, I opened the door, to find her lying on her bed, crying. I sat beside her and asked her what was the matter.

"I'm glad Becky is back, I really am. But what's going to happen to me now? Katie doesn't need me anymore, she has her Becky back. I'm going to be alone again. I don't think I can take it again, Daddy. I've begun to love Katie so much, and I really do want what makes her happy, but I don't want to be alone ever again!" Amy started crying again.

"Amy, there's no way Katie is going to just dump you. You know better than that. She loves you as much as you love her. I don't believe Becky would let her do it, either. Calm down, sweetheart. I'll talk to them, but you know Katie better than that."

"I know, Daddy. I suppose I'm just being stupid. I guess just too much is going on at the same time. I can't be superwoman all the time. I just get terrified when I think of being alone, like I was before." I kissed her, gave her a hug, and then tickled her until she was giggling hysterically and begging me to stop.

I returned to Katie's room, to find Katie and Becky snuggling together, talking quietly.

"Hi girls. We have a small problem I need your help with," I greeted them. Becky was ecstatic. It made her feel like family to be asked to help. "It seems we have a hysterical young lady on our hands. Amy is convinced that with Becky back she is going to be out of the picture with you, Katie, and is going to be all alone again." Katie looked at me in horror. Becky looked shocked.

"I'd never do that!" Katie gasped. "I love Amy. Why would I ditch her? Besides, I don't think I can remove her, but I wouldn't want to anyway. I know what it's like to be alone that way. I don't know how Becky has survived."

"I'd never allow that to happen, Mr. Phillips," Becky stated flatly. "Even if Katie wanted to do that, which she never would, I would leave first. As for surviving, I'm working on alternatives. Maybe three hooking in at once. Or another interesting alternative that I won't mention until I know it might work." She beamed at me.

"Would you two talk to Amy, please? She gets frantic every time she thinks she might be alone again. Reassure her," I asked them.

Later that night, Becky found me downstairs alone, and explained what would be involved with hooking in with me. We decided to try it. After a few minutes of her concentrating, I suddenly felt my mind overflowing with warm, loving feelings. I was filled with orange tendrils everywhere.

"Oops!" Becky giggled. "Got a little carried away there! Let me take some back and build a set spot for them in your mind so they're not just running around everywhere being a nuisance.

"There. How's that?" she asked. I didn't know what it was supposed to be like, but it was fine with me. She had a sweet, wonderful little mind that I just fell in love with right away. No wonder Katie was so distressed when Becky 'died'!

That night, when we went to bed, Victoria wore clothes to bed for the first time ever. She crawled into bed on the opposite side. When I tried to cuddle, she said she was sorry, but she just didn't feel like it. I asked her what was the matter. She started crying, but wouldn't let me hold her.

"I guess there just isn't any way I can talk my way out of this one. You're not going to believe this was a car accident, are you?" She smiled faintly as she peered at me with moist eyes.

"Victoria, it's ok. You don't have to lie. I've known what you do for a living for over two years. I've known exactly whom you work for, and exactly what your job is, for over a year. You don't have to lie.

"I know you can't talk about it, but I am concerned about what happened to you this time. I'm concerned about why you don't want me to touch you. Have I done something wrong?"

"Oh, no, Patrick, you have always been great to me! I love you so much. But they did a lot of awfully bad things to me, and forced me to do some terrible things. I don't deserve you.

"I ... I just need some time. I just can't tell you about it." She started crying again, but she wouldn't let me hold her. She seemed so uncomfortable with me in the bed that I went into the basement and slept on the couch.

Over the next month things really got bad between the two of us. Victoria used every excuse she could to go on trips, even when she didn't have to. I figured something was up the second time her boss called to send her on a trip and she wasn't home. She was supposedly already on one.

When she was home, she moved into the spare bedroom and started sleeping there. There was an underlying tension between Amy and her. No fights, just not as warm and friendly as they had always been.

She refused to talk to me about anything important. She started picking fights with me on stupid little things. The similarities between the way she was acting and the way Cindi had acted after her rape was not lost on me. I refused to be sucked into the fights. I tried to be as sweet as I could, and told her every chance I could that I loved her. A few nights when she was home, I could swear she came home late at night drunk.

I started having nightmares. They didn't have anything to do with her, but it was just another thing piled on top of me. I started dreaming about Julie, a six-year-old girl I had known when I was fourteen. She had been killed one night when I had failed to protect her as I told her I always would. I hadn't thought about her for years. Victoria had gotten me over that. But now, I was having very realistic nightmares where Julie was begging me to help her ... except she wasn't six years old, but twenty-nine years old, the age she currently would be. It was exhausting, as I was getting very little sleep. It all came to a head one night about six weeks after Victoria's rescue.

The girls were gone on a sleepover at Rebecca's house. I think it was a plan to give Victoria and me the house alone together to patch things up. Teenagers can be so naïve sometimes. They had seen things were going downhill fast and were concerned. They didn't want to be children of divorced parents like so many of their friends. About ten o'clock that night, Victoria came up to me and said she wanted to talk. I was hoping she was finally going to open up to me. She did. Both barrels.

"Patrick, I think it's time I left," she said, without preamble. Stupid me, I didn't understand.

"Ok. When's your flight, and when do you think you'll be back?"

She sighed. "No, I mean I'm moving out. I've arranged to stay with a girl at work. She's picking me up in a little while." At least I can say she looked really upset about it. I was shocked. I felt cold all over, and a little dizzy. I closed my eyes. I felt like I was going to faint. I must have looked pretty bad, because Victoria looked concerned. "Are you ok?" she asked.

"Oh, sure, Vickie, I'm fine. Why wouldn't I be? Just because the love of my life is shit-canning our marriage and walking out on me? Shit, who wouldn't be fine with that?" I said bitterly. I could honestly say it was the first time I had ever really been mad at her. Added to that, I was scared to death. I knew I was reacting inappropriately, but I didn't know what to do. I felt like I had been kicked in the chest. I didn't know how to deal with this. The one constant I had always had was that Victoria loved me, that she would always be there in our marriage.

"What marriage?" she asked softly. "We haven't been married for 6 weeks now. I'm no good to you. I can't let you touch me. All I do is hurt you. I hear you crying at night. Why do you think I moved into the spare bedroom? I couldn't stand lying next to you, knowing you were dying to touch me and I couldn't stand the thought. It's not you; it's me. I don't deserve you. I've destroyed our marriage with my lies and the awful things I've done, and I just can't stay around and watch you suffer. I'm sorry," she finished softly.

"You'd rather just walk out and end the whole thing than talk to me and work it out? What sense does that make? You know there's nothing you could've done that's so bad that I would stop loving you. Why can't you talk to me?" I asked desperately. I knew if she walked out, it would be over. I had to try to stop it. Separating to work it out never worked.

"I can't! Can't you understand that? I know you love me and you always will, no matter what. But I don't love me anymore. I want you to just remember me and what we had together as it was, not as it will be if I talk to you, if I stay around hurting you all the time. Things could never be the same again for us, no matter what you think. I'm not the same person. I've let you down and betrayed you and I could never forget or forgive myself for that, even if you could. I deserve to be miserable and miss you for the rest of my life, and you deserve to be free to find someone better."