Chapter 15

We all watched in stunned amazement as Amy and Sammi laughed, kissed and hugged each other. The apparent miracle that had brought them both back to life was stunning enough, but it was nothing compared to the miracle of Amy and Sammi hugging and kissing each other. There are some things in life that are just a given, and those two hating each other was one of those givens. Apparently, things could change.

We checked on the guy that had not disintegrated. At least, most of us did. Amy refused to come near him or even look at him. I stopped her just before she blasted him with a ball of green energy, brighter than I had ever seen before. Thank goodness I remembered that she didn't have to look at a target to hit it. She was not happy that I stopped her.

"Damn you, let me kill him! I will not let him live!" She sobbed. Suddenly, Sammi was between us. She took Amy by the arm and led her away.

"I know you are upset, and I'm sure he forgives you, but don't say that to Daddy again. He loves you and wants what's best for you. If that guy is alive, we need information from him that we can't get if you kill him. I will personally help you kill him when we're done with him!" Sammi spoke to her calmly, softly, as she would a traumatized child. She got through to Amy as I walked towards the guy; I saw her face crumple with sorrow as she realized what she had said. Amy looked in my direction with a devastated look on her face as she started crying again. Sammi held her and talked to her some more.

"He knows. He knows you're sorry and you didn't mean it. You can tell him later how much you love him. Right now, he has things he has to do in a hurry." Sammi led a distraught Amy over to Megan and left her there.

When I reached the guy, I found that he was indeed alive. Not by much, but he was. Interesting shields he must have, to survive a blast from Sammi and me. We restrained him exactly as they had Amy, not for revenge but to prevent him from using his powers, then put him in the car and headed for home.

The miracle continued in the car on the way home. Cindi and Sammi sat on either side of Amy in the middle seat. Shortly after we started out, Amy laid her head on Sammi's shoulder and went to sleep. It wasn't long before Sammi laid her head on top of Amy's head and dozed off too. They were both dead tired (Ewww! Yuck!). Cindi just sat there, arm around Amy's shoulders, stroking Sammi's hair, looking amused and amazed. I was concerned at first that Cindi might be upset that her twin had turned to another for comfort, but she seemed to realize that the Amy and Sammi had shared something momentous together.

Once we reached the house and took our guest inside, I turned Megan and Becky loose on him. I knew from the previous cycle that Becky could modify your mind, although not involuntarily, and who knew what abilities Megan had that she had not seen fit to show us yet. Too bad Amy was homicidal right now. I remembered the success she had with the last prisoner she interrogated! I went to spend some time with Amy.

My heart just about broke as I watched the tentative way that Amy approached me, fear and guilt in her eyes. I held my arms out and she flew into them, almost knocking me over as she sobbed and tried to speak at the same time.

"I'm so sorry, Daddy, for what I said to you! I didn't mean it, I promise I didn't! I was just so upset. You know I love you more than I love myself; I would never hurt you like that on purpose. Please forgive me!" I hugged her tightly, kissing her hair.

"It's ok, Amy; there is no need to apologize. I know you didn't mean it. You were beyond upset. I almost let you kill him, I was so upset. You will always be my special little girl; I will always love you." It seemed to be the right thing to say, as she gave me a brilliant smile, surpassed only by the smile Cindi gave me as I fixed things with her sister.

Megan and Becky didn't get very far with our guest. He refused to talk, and his mind revealed little except some references to a 'man in black'. No visual pictures, descriptions, voices or anything. Either he had never had any contact with him, or he was expertly trained in mind control. It was confusing, though, that the reference to 'man in black' also seemed to refer to 'men in black'. Megan was not sure what that meant.

I was not surprised at the lack of information they found. I expected it. We were not experts at that type of thing, but I knew who was. I went into the office and made a phone call.

"Hello?" The voice on the other side answered.

"Hi, Dad. It's Patrick."

"Hello, Son. How are you? It's nice to hear from you again. I was worried about you." Dad sounded just like he always did.

"Worried? Why?"

"Well, I assumed you were involved in the high speed chase today, as well as some other bizarre things reported, when I recognized your car license number in the report." My Dad was amazing. For someone who seemingly took almost no interest in my upbringing, he always seemed to know everything about me. It had happened less than an hour ago. I should have expected it, but I was surprised anyway.

"How did you know about that?" I stammered. He laughed.

"You really don't want me to go into that, do you? As I remember, you are the one that never wanted to know anything about what I do." Smart-ass, as usual! However, now that the preliminaries were over, Dad was done being warm and fuzzy (yeah, that's as much as it ever gets!), and now he prepared to get straight to the point.

"So, what did you hear?" I stalled. I wasn't ready just yet to have to ask my Dad a favor again.

"Oh, you know how reliable eye witnesses are about these things. People being hit by walls of colored energy, multi-colored glowing energy fields surrounding people, dead people coming back to life. The usual. Unfortunately, the security cameras from the parking lot next door were useless." He dismissed it as nonsense.

"Why? Were they pointed in the wrong direction?" I asked. I hoped we had not been seen by something undeniable.

"No, they were pointed in the right direction. Beautiful color and sharpness, too. The best rendition of Beverly Hillbillies, season 1, episode 3 ever seen. Looked digitally re-mastered, too. Funny, there is no digitally re-mastered version of that episode available. That episode isn't even available commercially at all. I checked. Mind you, that is not information I would have on the top of my head. I had to look it up just to see what I was watching; never did watch that stupid show! Oh well, who cares?" Good ol' Katie! Bless her heart! She finally got the shows right! I'm glad someone was thinking during the whole thing, anyway.

"So, I assume you are calling me about that? Not that I'm not glad to hear from you, Son, but we seldom call each other just to chat." Good old Dad, loved to beat around the bush.

"Yeah, I'm afraid so. Amy was kidnapped this afternoon. It's ok, we have her back in one piece and unharmed, but we also have one of the kidnappers. We haven't been able to get anything out of him. For obvious reasons, I can't involve my people in this. I was hoping you could help me out." I held my breath as there was dead silence on the other end of the phone for about five seconds. When Dad spoke again, I recognized for the first time in my life what a quiet, deadly voice really sounded like.

"He kidnapped Amy? And he's still alive? Well, he won't be for long. Hope you don't want him back when I'm done with him. Is Amy ok?" Dad always spoke quietly, but not like this.

"She's shook up and rattled, but she's ok, really, Dad. I'll have her call you later." That was a new one; Dad enquiring about someone's health, but there was the one thing he and I had always agreed on; we both thought the world revolved around Amy. Then he said something that made we wonder just how much he knew about all of us.

"Amy? Shook up and rattled? Must be something else about this you aren't telling me, Son. That little girl could look the end of the world in the face and laugh at it. No matter; if you were going to tell me, you would have already. I don't know why you try and keep these things from me, Son; you know I am going to find out anyway." If only he knew! I smiled to myself; Dad would be upset if I did tell him, and he wouldn't believe me anyway. He would still look into it himself. It was a game we had played for years, and he dearly loved it.

"So where is our little friend?" Dad asked softly. I shivered. I knew he was anything but this guy's friend.

"He's here at the house. Can you have him picked up right away? I'm having a hard time keeping Amy from killing him."

"I bet. I'm surprised you have succeeded. I will have him out of there in fifteen minutes."

"Thanks, Dad. I appreciate it."

"No problem, Son. You should call more often. I'm not the monster you've always thought I was. Not warm and fuzzy, but not a monster either. See you soon."

Dad lied. The boy was picked up in ten minutes, flat.

Once that was over, I moved to the next thing. Something I would rather eat nails than do. I called Megan into our room, and closed the door. She looked a little nervous.

"Megan, I know you will never lie to me, so I won't say stupid things like 'tell me the truth', but I have to know; did you know beforehand what was going to happen to Amy today?" I cringed at the look of sadness on her face. I almost wished I hadn't asked her, but I had to know. Megan turned away and didn't answer me. I can only blame the stress I was under, but I lost it then.

"Damn it, Megan, answer me! Did you know this was going to happen?" I yelled at her. Yeah, I know, I'm not proud of it, but I did. Then she turned around and looked at me.

My heart melted and I felt like a 2 inch idiot as she looked at me with those big, dark eyes. Sad eyes, full of sympathy. How could I yell at that sweet puppy dog of a woman? Amazingly, I saw no anger or accusation in them, no recrimination for having yelled at the love of my life. Just love, sorrow, sympathy. I sat on the bed and put my head in my hands, trying hard not to cry. I hated myself. I wouldn't blame her if she hated me too. I heard a timid knock on the door, but I ignored it. Then I heard Katie's voice.

"Daddy? Is everything ok?" She sounded scared. You could count on one hand and have multiple fingers left over the number of times any of the girls had ever heard me yell. For the first time to be at Megan I am sure shocked all of them. Megan called out to Katie.

"Everything's fine, honey. We'll be out in a minute." Then she walked over and sat down on the bed next to me, taking me in her arms and holding me.

"Megan ... I'm sorry..." She shushed me and then kissed me.

"I know, sweetheart. It's ok. She's your baby girl. Of course you are upset. I understand." She kissed me again. "I need to explain to you how this works, honey. You don't understand." She smiled gently at me. I shut up and listened. I had made a big enough ass of myself already. Old Chinese proverb: 'Better to keep your mouth shut and let everyone think you are a fool, that to open your mouth and remove all doubt.' It was a little late to think about that, but I kept my mouth shut.

"Patrick, when I know things about what is going to happen ahead of time, it is usually only by a short time before it happens. Contrary to popular belief, I don't know everything ahead of time. It just seems that way because the things I do know are so dramatic and stand out. I didn't know Amy was going to be kidnapped. After it happened, I did know that she would survive. I didn't know how, so I was as surprised as you when we found her dead. I was calm about it because I knew she would survive, I just didn't know how. But, honey, even if I had known she was going to be kidnapped, I might not have been able to tell you." She waited for me to look at her in surprise and shock. She was not disappointed.

"Look, honey, you must understand what I do. I am a Scribe, a Historian, among other things. I record things. I know things that others cannot know. I cannot use that to change things. There is some evidence that that is how we all died to start with, and needed the cycles to survive, because someone, not one of us, monkeyed with things and changed what was supposed to happen. Yes, the cycles changed things, but only to get things back where they should have been, and we were very careful not to change things within a cycle, only at the beginning of one. There are times when I may be able to tell you something in advance, and times when I can't." She looked at me with those big sad eyes and put her finger on my lips to silence me before I answered. She continued.

"Don't think it is easy for me. I am a Scribe, who cannot affect history, but I am also a Helper, who must help anyone who needs it. Can you imagine the conflict I would have been in had I known what was going to happen to Amy? Do I record and let it happen, not affecting the outcome, or do I help? We still have no clear idea how things have changed because I couldn't let Victoria die when I was supposed to. I was a Helper instead of a Scribe and your wife and her brother died! Do you know how guilty I still feel about that? But I would have done the same thing today for Amy if I had known, and heaven help us. And now my Julie has to go through these same things!" Her eyes flashed fire at me, and then she smiled.

"Please believe me, and trust me, Patrick. I will never hurt you intentionally. I know how important Amy is to you, how much you love her. Believe me, it would have been no contest as to whether I would have been Scribe or Helper had I known what was going to happen. I could never have let your little girl die without stopping it if I could. I love her too, and just as important, I love you too. I will always be there for you, dear." Megan laid her head on my shoulder and cried softly.

I felt like crap. I couldn't do anything about what I had said; I couldn't take it back and make her feel better. But I could do something about her guilt for Elizabeth and Robert. Something I would have done before when we talked about it if I had known, if I had had my memories restored already. I hugged her, then lifted her head to look her in the eyes.

"Megan, honey, I have something to tell you about Elizabeth and Robert's death. I hope you don't hate me too much for it. You were not responsible for their deaths. I was." I stopped to gather my thoughts, and Megan interrupted.

"I know. We talked about this. You approved it, so you are responsible. But I pushed you into it, forced your hand. Your other alternative was actually the correct one; we are both guilty." This time I shushed her.

"No, sweetheart, there is part of this that you don't know. I actually succeeded in keeping something secret from the Scribe." I saw her eyes open wide in surprise. "Did you ever wonder why Julie and Samantha are part of our family now but were not in the last cycle? Think back, dear; were they ever part of our family in any of the other cycles, or in the time before the cycles?" I watched as Megan's eyes opened even wider in shock and understanding.

"That's right, dear, they weren't. Protocol 14 didn't kill Elizabeth and Robert. Protocol 29 did. Invoked by me, without your knowledge. Because I was selfish and didn't know the consequences." She looked startled as she saw the tears in my eyes. She hugged me close.

"Perhaps you should tell me what this is all about," Megan whispered. I took a deep breath and continued.

"After I discovered that Julie hadn't really died, but had become Rachel Thomas, after I met her again and fell in love with her as an adult, after it was all over and the 'man in white' had merged with me, I was determined that she was not going to become just a nameless, faceless little girl again. I also felt sorry for Samantha. She didn't ask for, didn't do anything to deserve what had happened to her. To just have her die, cease to exist after the cycles ended, didn't seem fair. So I determined to make both of them part of the family. Not just in name, but for real, in every way." I stopped as I watched Megan blink in surprise.

"How is that possible? I don't know of anything that can do that." She looked confused.

"Protocol 29 can," I answered softly. She looked at me, even more confused.

"But ... there is no Protocol 29. I thought you just said the wrong number before. The numbers skip from 28 to 30. Number 29 was always left blank, we don't know why." She looked at me like I was crazy.

"You don't know why number 29 was left blank. I know why. It was never blank. It was merely a protocol that you never had access to, that you never knew existed. It was only for the 'man in white'. It allowed me to make Julie and Samantha members of our family, instilling them with all the powers, abilities, everything that we have. They are us, just as surely as you are us."

Megan looked at me in shock, partially because she didn't know about this, partially because I had not told her about this, and partially about Protocol 29. But Megan is ever the professional. She would kill me later, but right now, there was a story to finish, because she still wasn't seeing the connection.

"Ok. So, how does that kill Elizabeth and Robert?" She looked at me with dread. Somehow, she knew I was right and once I faced it out loud, I was going to be devastated by what I had done to my wife and my wife's brother.

"Don't you see? Protocol 29 created two new members of our family. But we could not leave the cycles with more family members than we started with. It was not allowed, not possible. Protocol 14 was only responsible for their deaths in that it said we could not end with more family members than we began with. If two that were supposed to die lived, and that brought the total number of family members above the original amount, two others had to die. Normally that would never happen, but with two additional members ... Elizabeth and Robert died because I brought Julie and Samantha back with us. Even there, the protocols tried to be as merciful as possible, in that it took the lives of two who were not direct family members. But two had to go. I didn't understand that when I did what I did. You can blame it on ignorance, but I murdered Elizabeth and Robert! The baby would have died anyway."

There. I said it. I told her I was a murderer. I buried my head in my hands again, not wanting to see the look in her eyes. When she turned around and walked out the door without saying a word, I knew my life was over. I buried my face in the pillow and cried. I had finally found the love of my life and now she thought I was a monster and couldn't stand to be in the same room with me.

I must have finally dozed off. I don't know how long I was asleep, but I woke up to a dark room and the wonderful feeling of a backrub by soft little hands. I turned my head to see who was giving the condemned man his last back rub, and as I did, the light by the bed switched on. I looked into the tender, smiling faces of Amy, Cindi, Victoria, Katie, Becky and Megan. Each of them kissed me on the cheek, Cindi having to reach so that she didn't stop my back rub.