Chapter 4

I remember thinking that I must be crazy. A man was standing behind me, holding a gun to my head, and I was fascinated by my daughter's eyes. Her beautiful green eyes, so expressive, so bright, had suddenly gone flat, and devoid of all expression. It scared me. Not for me, but because I knew, I just knew, that the man holding the gun on me was dead. I didn't know how I knew that, but I was sure of it. I just watched, fascinated, watching to see how it would happen.

There was a role reversal going on here. I was her Daddy, her hero, the man who made the monsters go away, the one that could do anything she needed done. But not this time. It was her turn to take care of me, protect me. I didn't understand it, but I knew it to be true. All I had to do was just stand there, not move, and watch my little girl take care of me, save me. In that instant, I knew she was a killer, maybe the deadliest killer ever known. But I wasn't concerned. I knew she was my little girl, and as soon as she saved me and this danger was past, she would be my little girl again. The killer would be gone, as if it had never existed. I didn't know how I knew all this, but I knew it as well as I knew my own name.

She made it look easy. She moved faster than I had ever seen anyone move before, faster than anyone should ever be able to move. She just reached out, pulled his gun hand up in the air and moved the gun away from my head. No effort, just like she was turning the page of a newspaper. Then she just took the gun out of his hand, kicked him in the groin, turned the gun on him, fired two shots into his belly, and then punched him in the face, driving him back into the wall. She didn't even watch him slide down to the floor. No, she just pointed the gun at the next man, without even looking at him, and fired two shots into his chest. I looked on in fascination, until I heard a noise off to my right. I looked just in time to see that Amy was not the fastest human alive. Not while Megan was around.

Megan took two quick steps to reach the man near her, kicked the gun out of his hand and in the same motion, caught it in mid air as it sailed out of his hand. She punched him in the chest, and he fell like a sack of potatoes, turning blue as he hit the floor. She then fired two shots at the third man. Didn't these girls ever look at what they shot at? I heard two more shots. I looked and saw that Victoria had pulled her gun out of her purse, firing at the same guy Megan had just shot. Megan and Amy looked around the room, looking for others, while Victoria looked over at me, to see if I was all right. I saw all their eyes. Flat, devoid of all expression. But I hadn't seen anything yet.

Out of nowhere, the fourth man came around the corner. The first person he saw was me. I was the only one that didn't have a weapon, but I was the first one he saw, so he fired at me.

I had noticed when I was an FBI agent that I had the ability to see action as it happened in slow motion, with highly acute vision. It didn't help me any; I was always in slow motion too, so it never gave me an advantage. But I could see things that others couldn't. I saw the bullet leave his gun, in slow motion. I could see the rotation of the bullet. I saw both Amy and Megan turn at the movement, and I heard them both fire at the same time as he did. But they didn't fire at him. I couldn't understand what they were doing.

I have thought of this many times afterward, reviewing it in my mind. It always comes out the same. It's what I saw. It makes no sense, it's not possible, but it's what I saw.

Amy and Megan appeared to fire at a point midway between the gunman and me. I suppose it was a trick of the lighting, but one of the bullets seemed to glow purple, and the other glowed green. I watched them slowly spin through the air. They seemed to change directions slightly, like a mini-course correction, and seemed to slow down a little. I watched in fascination as they merged with the bullet the gunman had fired, all three slamming into each other at a combine speed of 1200 mph or so. They all shattered into dozens of pieces and fell to the ground. Wow! Star Wars technology! An anti-bullet bullet! It couldn't happen, but the bullet never hit me either, so I guess it did happen. Then, six shots rang out as they all three fired twice at the last man.

Then everything speeded back up to full speed. I saw Katie standing against the wall by the door, head tilted to the side, seeming to be concentrating. Everyone in the bank was on the floor, where they had dived when the shooting started. Several of them were screaming. Victoria moved quickly over to where Amy and I were, taking our hands and urging us towards the door. Megan grabbed Katie and headed the same way.

"Come on," Victoria urged us. "We have to get out of here, before the cops show up!" No argument there. We scampered out the door and headed for the car. All the girls had their own eyes back. I could read confusion in them, but it was their own eyes again. We piled into the car, and I drove off nice and slow, so as not to attract attention. Cindi, Samantha, Julie, and Becky were wondering what was going on, why we were all breathing so heavily. I was wondering what was going on too. I reached over and turned off that disgusting music, earning me a nasty look and several stuck out tongues. We drove over a bridge, and I stopped on the bridge, to give Amy and Megan time to toss the guns into the river below. The other girl's eyes got real big when they saw that. Then we drove towards home.

On the way home, I realized we had forgotten something. I smacked my hand on the steering wheel in frustration.

"Damn it! The security cameras! They recorded all of us. Shit!" We were going to have a hard time explaining what had happened. Actually, I had the best excuse in the world. From the look of confusion in everyone's eyes, we all had the same excuse.

'I don't know what happened, officer.' Oops. I overlooked something. There was no confusion in Megan's eyes. Clear as a bell. I think it was time me and my cute little friend had a long talk.

"Daddy?" I heard Katie's tiny little voice, like she was afraid she was going to get yelled at. Daddy? When did that start? "It's kinda not a problem. Their security cameras are... um... broken, kinda." So, what is broken, kinda? Is that, like, broken? Or, like, not broken? And when is something kinda not a problem? Oh, wait, these are teenage girls, so it's, like, the same thing only different.

"Now how would you know they are broken, Katie?" I asked. Not that I was expecting an answer that would make a lick of sense. I heard Megan laugh. Now that was a pleasant sound I didn't hear nearly often enough.

"Because you broke them, didn't you, honey?" Megan asked, trying to control her laughter. She was failing miserably. Katie looked down at her toes with an embarrassed little grin, nodded and giggled.

"Well, yeah, kinda. I'm sorry," Katie giggled. "Well, at least, they're not going to see us during that time." I sighed heavily. I seemed to have lost control here somewhere.

"So, what are they going to see, Katie?" I asked. She giggled again.

"Well, they're gonna kinda see episode three of the first season of Gilligan's Island." She giggled again.

"Katie, you don't even know what Gilligan's Island is; you're too young," Megan gently told her.

"I do too! It's the one about the old grandma and the slow hunky guy that has oil shoot out of the ground when he shoots at something and they get rich and all move to Beverly Hills. I've seen it before!" Katie sounded indignant, that we thought she was so dumb.

"That's Beverly Hillbillies!" We all said at once. "Gilligan's Island is the professor and others that get marooned on an island during a storm that wrecks their boat. You know, the professor that can make a radio out of a coconut but can't repair their boat?"

"Oh. I guess I haven't seen that one." She looked embarrassed and giggled again. "Well, I guess maybe they will see a boat with oil shooting up out of it. Hell, I don't know what they will see then, but it won't be us!" Katie seemed so proud of herself. I pulled the car over to the side of the road, I was laughing so hard I was afraid I would wreck it. We all laughed our butts off. Katie looked offended for awhile, but finally started laughing after Becky started tickling her. All the while I was wondering, how did she break a security camera like that? Kinda.

We finally made it home, with me driving like a little old lady all the way. We all sat in the living room, staring at each other. Finally, Amy spoke.

"What the hell was that? What happened?" She whispered. I could see the same question in everyone's eyes. Everyone's except Megan's. Megan is slick, I'll give her that. She derailed me with a question of her own before I could ask, but it was going to lead to the same place anyway.

"So, Patrick, what did you find out about the DNA testing results?" Megan looked a little nervous when she asked that. It wasn't a safe subject either, but it seemed better than the present one to her, I guess.

My blood ran cold when she asked about the testing. I had forgotten about that during all the excitement. I really didn't want to talk about that subject, just as she didn't want to talk about this one. I just didn't know what to say, how to explain what they had found. How Elizabeth could have done that. How could you explain something to your kids about their Mom that you never thought was possible, that you never thought would happen, that just made no sense? I did what any good American male would do; I stalled. Kinda. Like Megan was doing on the other subject.

"Anybody want something to drink? Eat? I'm hungry." Ok, it wasn't that good a stall, but it was the best I had. Cindi wasn't buying it, however.

"Nope. Not hungry. Curious. Knock it off, you two. Talk."

"You first, Patrick," Megan said sweetly. If she wasn't just the world's sweetest person, I could hate her right now.

"Ok, but then you and I are going to have a nice, long talk, Little Missy. Privately." I shot what I figured was big, bad, mean daggers at her with my eyes. Apparently not. She laughed.

"Oooh! Ok! Privately! Yes! Let's do it, big guy! I've been waiting for this!" Then she turned beet red and hid her face in her hands as she realized what she had said. "I... I'm sorry. I didn't mean that. Well, maybe I did, but... Oh shit, I'm sorry, Patrick. I shouldn't be saying that so soon after... Oh God, I'll just shut up now." She was so embarrassed. Poor Megan just didn't know how to act like a real, feeling human being. I laughed at her now. We were all acting a little weird. I guess exploding anti-bullets and things like that will do it to you.

"It's ok, Megan. Really. She's gone and we can't do anything about that. I have to move on. She wouldn't want me to crawl in a hole. Things are going to hurt for awhile, things people say that bring up memories, and I won't really be ready to move on for quite awhile, but I have to try anyway." I realized something. I needed to watch the DVD Elizabeth left me. I wondered if the girls had. I turned serious. Serious subject. The baby. I guess I had to try and explain this. I hope it didn't bother them as much as it bothered me. I didn't see how it couldn't, though.

"Ok, the DNA testing. Girls, you have to understand that your Mom and I had been away from each other for about three and a half months. That's a long time, for adults that are married to each other. Sometimes people get lonely and... well, lonely. You will understand what I mean someday." I heard six snorts of laughter. From six, sweet, innocent, precious little girls that knew nothing about sex. Right. In my dreams, apparently. I didn't even want to know what that snort meant! I'm sure I was turning red, a Dad trying to explain about his sex life to six very interested, very curious, very cute teenagers. How did I get here?

"Anyway. That is the talk I prepared, that I knew I was going to have to tell you. That your Mother had an affair and the baby was somebody else's. Try to explain how your Mother, who you thought the world of, could do that to us. But, there is one small... problem?... with that. The DNA testing says the baby is mine, with a testing accuracy of 99.99%. They never say 100%, because there is a statistical possibility of 1 in 12,000,000,000 that two humans could have the same DNA. Those odds mean that statistically, it has likely never happened in the history of the world. But, it's possible, so 99.99%. There actually are about fourteen more 9's behind that decimal point, but you get the idea. Unfortunately, I did not prepare a little talk to explain to you how a two month old baby that my wife was carrying could belong to me when I hadn't... slept... with her for three and a half months." Giggles. "I don't understand it, it's not possible, but the testing doesn't lie."