Chapter 21

Megan's Chapter

The last few days before Patrick left were hard. I had seen one version of what would happen over there, and I didn't like it one bit. It could be worse, however. My looks at the future were of two different kinds. There was the crystal clear kind. Those were set in stone, and nothing would change them. Even if I told them to the person involved, it would not change anything. The second kind were the ones that were fuzzy and ragged on the edges. Those were not cast in stone. They represented one possible future. Admittedly, they were usually the most likely, but they were still subject to change.

The outcomes I saw in Iraq were the fuzzy kind. There were parts that were clear. Patrick was in grave danger. I thought it almost certain he would be injured. He was alone and worried. Then I smiled; he was worried about us! Bless his little heart.

When it was time for him to go, I did my best not to cry. I didn't succeed, but I did my best. All of us girls cried. I figured he did too as soon as he got out of sight.

I felt guilty for about five seconds after he left. It wasn't a very strong guilt. You see, before he left, he had a meeting with all of us and basically told us the same thing he told Amy; under no circumstances were we to go over there for any reason to rescue him. 'Yes, dear' Victoria and I both agreed. It wasn't hard to see in each other's eyes that we both lied. He's just silly enough to have believed it, however. The slight guilt was about lying to him. I have only lied to him once before, and I promised I would never again. I guess I could rationalize it as 'special circumstances'.

Patrick called everyday he was over there. Why not; it was at government expense! I know; he called because he wanted to talk to us. I could tell in his voice that he missed us tremendously. It could not be as much as we missed him, but I won't argue the point. I could also tell he was worried. Things were not going well from the start. Several times I almost told him to just come home and let them handle it, but I knew he wouldn't and I didn't want to spend our phone call arguing. He had to do what he had to do. There was more to it than that, but I don't think he knew that. He would have worried even more.

I was almost positive he was going to come in contact with the 'Black Energy' over there somehow. I was reasonably sure this whole trip was a setup. Problem was, it had to happen. I still felt it was better to happen over there than over here, where the girls would be in more immediate danger.

All of us were on pins and needles the day it was supposed to happen. Then, Patrick called to tell us that everything had changed, as the location had changed at the last minute. My heart sank. That was not good. Also, it meant he was now going to be traveling in a helicopter. We were on the speaker phone so the girls could talk too. I saw Amy's eyes well up with tears, and then she closed them and just leaned against the wall. She was trying, but I could see the tears leaking out. I reached over and took her hand as I talked and she squeezed it tight. I saw Samantha holding her hand on the other side, and Cindi moved behind her and wrapped her arms around her from behind, hugging her tight. They didn't know exactly what was wrong, but they knew when their sister was upset. My heart leaped for joy as much as it could under the present circumstances as I saw Amy and Samantha holding hands. I loved seeing the two of them growing closer. It was so cute.

Amy did get herself under control before the call was over and talked to her Dad for a while, pretending like everything was ok. Patrick can be pretty clueless sometimes, but I doubt she fooled him for a second.

Patrick called right before he left on the new, updated mission. I was not pleased at how they were winging it, but there was nothing else to do. He assured me that everything would be alright and he would call me in about four hours when he got back. I could tell he was worried and everything was not alright. Sometimes you just had to play the hand that you were dealt. We waited.

It was the longest four hours of my life. Then the longest five hours, then the longest six hours. I was worried, but I was not feeling any worry from Patrick. We were not connected per se, as both of us thought that might be dangerous, but I still thought I would have picked up a feeling if something was drastically wrong. Then Samantha asked to see me alone and showed me how wrong I could be.

"Mommy..." I knew it was bad. Samantha seldom calls me 'Mommy'. "He's in trouble. He's injured and alone." She was trying her best not to cry. Of course, Samantha getting me alone made the other girls suspicious, and we soon had a whole room full of anxious girls, all talking at once. I tried to restore order.

"Samantha thinks something has gone wrong. I can't feel it but I think we need to assume she is right, as he is two hours overdue." I tried to speak calmly; the girls could be excitable about things like this. Of course, Amy reacted first.

"I'll just try to connect with him and see if I can find out what is going on," she stated. She never had the chance.

"NO!" Samantha, Becky and Katie all screamed at once. Amy was suddenly surrounded by rings of yellow, orange and brown. The rings looked funny until I realized that they were pointed inwards, to protect from something coming into her mind, or escaping into the room if it did get in. Becky and Katie looked confused, but Samantha looked like she knew exactly what was happening. Amy looked helpless, as if she was frozen. Samantha started talking to her softly.

"Don't connect with him, Amy. There is a shield around him, preventing connection, and set to follow any connection request to its source. The shield is black, Amy. I am going to unfreeze you now, but don't connect. You could kill us all if you do." Amy slowly relaxed and could move again. She looked at Samantha with big, round eyes, confused and maybe a little frightened.

"I don't understand. What is black? Why can't I connect? Daddy needs us!" She was close to tears again.

"Amy, black is something we ran into when you were kidnapped. It is some evil force similar to us. It would be unwise to let it in here, or even let it know we were here. Your Dad and I considered the possibility that this whole trip was just a ruse to get him over there." I knew as soon as I said it that it was a mistake telling her that. She looked at me in shock.

"And you still let him go? Megan, what the hell is wrong with you? I thought you loved him! If he gets hurt, I swear..." She stopped, unable to continue she was so angry. I looked at her with sympathy.

"If he gets hurt, do you think anything you could do to me would be worse than how I will feel myself, Amy?" I looked at her steadily, and saw the fire drain from her eyes. She looked at me, then hung her head in shame.

"I... I'm sorry, Megan. I didn't mean... I know... I'm sorry," she whispered. I reached over and kissed her on the forehead.

"I know, Amy. I tried to stop him from going, I really did, but he is a grown man that makes his own decisions. Besides, it was the right decision, hard as it seems right now."

"How did you know he was in trouble, Samantha?" Cindi asked. Before Samantha could answer, the telephone rang. It was Patrick's father. I knew right away it was not good, as he didn't joke with me at all. I put him on the speakerphone and he got right to the point.

"I'm sorry, Megan, the raid was a disaster. They were waiting for them, and they flew right into an ambush. There were no survivors." I heard the girls gasp all at once. "The good news is that we did not find Patrick at the scene when we sent the rescue team in. He is either captured or out on his own, which was the plan if things went sour. We were not able to investigate intensively, as the scene is still very hot with terrorist activity. We are trying to establish contact with him now, but so far, no luck." After a few proper remarks of sympathy, he hung up, saying he had to get back to coordinating the rescue attempts.

"Oh God, Megan, what are we going to do? Daddy said we couldn't go over there to rescue him, and he said Grampa agreed! They're not going to let us help!" Amy was sobbing. All the girls were crying. All of them except Samantha. She didn't seem to be upset anymore. She was calm, and her eyes showed she was not worried. What was she up to?

"Amy, calm down. Your Dad isn't here right now, so he has no say in whether we go over there or not. The only person we have to convince is your Grampa." All the girls looked at me in surprise. Amy spoke first.

"You... you're going to ignore Daddy's instructions?" Amy asked, calming somewhat. I nodded. She smiled slightly. "Oh Megan, you are going to be so dead when he finds out! Especially after he chewed me out and threatened me with you locking me in my room if I even thought about it!"

"He is going to be so dead if I don't ignore his instructions," I said seriously. "He cannot possibly be naïve enough to think I was going to leave him over there alone," I said.

"Yes, he can!" Seven voices chorused at once. The ensuing laughter relieved the tension somewhat. Then the girls all started talking at once again. I noticed Samantha as she stood up; I could see in her eyes that she knew the time was right. What was she going to do? She put two fingers into her mouth and whistled shrilly. Everyone stopped talking and looked at her.

"Do you all want to go rescue him?" She asked softly, now that she had everyone's attention. We all looked at her as if she was nuts. Katie answered for us.

"Duh, Samantha!" She stated emphatically. Everyone laughed again. Samantha acted like she hadn't heard her.

"Do you all want to go rescue him?" She asked again. I decided she wanted a clear answer, so I gave it to her.

"Yes, honey, we all want to go get him," I told her clearly. She smiled.

"Then we shall!" Samantha said seriously. Suddenly, Samantha started issuing instructions.

"Megan, call Patrick's Dad. He will see your name on the caller ID and he will answer your call." All the girls laughed as I blushed. "Tell him to get over here, right now. Lie if you have to. Tell him we have Patrick on the phone if you have to. Just get him over here." I smiled slightly; Samantha was in charge! I had been waiting for a long time for her to become a member of this family!

"Amy, Cindi, one of you call the Secretary of State, the other the Secretary of Defense. They gave you their cell phone numbers, remember? They will remember you; you're that cute." They both blushed. "Your numbers will show on their caller ID's. Ask them to be ready for a conference call from the Chairman of Global Security within the hour." We all looked at her, questioningly. She smiled at us. "Grampa. What did you think his job was? Then start packing your bags for a trip to Iraq." She smiled knowingly as we all looked at her. Finally, Victoria asked the inevitable question.

"Samantha, how are we going to convince them to let us go? We need their permission."

"We are not going to convince them to let us go. I am. They don't know it yet, but they have no choice. They aren't going to like it, but they will let us go." Samantha smiled reassuringly.

"And how are you going to do that?" Becky asked. Not unbelievingly, just curious.

"Because I have the one piece of information that they need. They can't rescue Daddy without it." Samantha was almost enjoying this.

"And what is that?" I asked, getting excited, if it was what I thought it was.

"I know where Daddy is. Exactly, down to the square foot. I will only give them that information if they let me go over there and be on the rescue team, and I will only go there if all of you come too!" She smiled at us all. I saw surprised, grateful smiles back from everyone. Then, Amy asked the question.

"How do you know where he is, Samantha?" As soon as Amy asked the question, I saw the light bulb go on in Katie's eyes. The little genius remembered what all of us, including me, had forgotten.

"I can see him!" She explained excitedly. Then she gave a dramatic sigh of exasperation. "Come on, you geniuses! I'm really disappointed in you! Think! How did we track down Amy when she was kidnapped? You guys just ignore everything I do, don't you?" She grinned to show she was kidding. Everyone laughed, even if it was a somewhat embarrassed laugh.

"You can see him?" Amy asked excitedly. She was the only one that hadn't known Samantha could do that, as she had been mostly dead at the time. "What's he doing now?" Samantha turned serious.