The Third Ten

by Jacqueline Druga

  “Ones? As in more than one?”

  “I think it is more than one person.”

  “Funny you should say that. I just made fun of Ellen for suggesting that.”

  “Don’t rule it out.”

  “I won’t.”

  “Thanks, Robbie.” George hung up the phone and no sooner did his eyes travel to the map, his cell phone rang. He looked down, crinkled his brow and spoke out loud, “Speak of the devil,” before answering, “Hello, Ellen, this is a surprise. I was just talking about you.”

  “Good I hope,” Ellen said.

  “More on the lines of great minds think alike.”

  “Good, I’m glad you feel that way. I need to speak to you about great minds.”

  “I’m intrigued,” George said. “What’s up?”

  “I’d rather do it in person and not on the phone. Danny runs the next NSA.”

  George laughed. “Absolutely, I’ll be in Beginnings the second the shutdown is lifted.”

  “I’ll come to you if you don’t mind.”

  “Yes, absolutely. It must be important.”

  “It is. And what we discuss can’t go any further than us. I need your help, George, I really do.”

  “Then I’m here.” George ended his call with Ellen.

  She needed his help.

  George had been trying his hardest to prove himself to Beginnings, to show that he had only the best interest of the country at heart. Even though Joe had begun to trust him, there were a lot of people who were still on the fence. Or so George thought. Ellen coming to him in confidence and for help and for something serious showed him he was making progress.

  <><><><>

  It had been the longest day for Ellen. The night before Elliott had been shot, they worked through until morning. She had gotten a few hours’ sleep but the day hadn’t stopped. She was emotionally beat.

  She was able to go home, get dinner with the kids, but Dean was late. He had taken the Chaka man belt back down to the cryo then he wanted to watch Elliott for a while. Frank was following a lead. She needed to speak to Jenny and was glad her brother Richie was able to come over and sit with the kids. All four of them. Hector had dropped off Nick so he could get some rest. Richie would handle them. Billy would read, Alex would pretend she was sleeping and Joey spent a lot of time playing with the tablet Danny Hoi gave him. Nick was the least of the problems. Hector had him on such a great schedule, he was in bed right after dinner.

  Ellen waited until things were calm and made her way to Jenny’s.

  “So that’s the plan?” Jenny asked.

  “That’s the best one I can come up with.”

  Jenny nodded, her hands firm around a mug as they sat at her dining room table. “It will work.”

  “If George agrees. I haven’t given him details.”

  “But isn’t it also contingent on the future time trip.”

  “No.” Ellen shook her head. “Because when they come back, it could be a rush to take care of things. We don’t want that unless you do and you’re not telling me.”

  “No, I don’t want that.”

  “Then if George agrees, this will go into action before the time trip. We still don’t know when that will be.”

  “Thank you for doing this.”

  “You’re welcome.” Ellen sipped from her mug. “And this is really good coffee.”

  “Todd gave me Bowman Hector blend. It’s amazing, speaking of Bowman. Joe said he’ll get Father Mike out soon. I spoke to him. He is going to have a special Mass for D-Day.”

  “Oh my God,” Ellen whispered. “I can’t believe that’s coming up. May thirtieth.”

  “Four days.”

  “I can’t believe it’s been nine years,” Ellen said. “Nine years. A lot has happened.”

  “In shorter than nine years. Think about it, the first five years was pretty calm.”

  “Oh, I wouldn’t say calm. “Ellen chuckled. “Just different. Remember the first couple years it was only a handful of us.”

  “Now look. There are thousands.”

  “D-Day.” Ellen exhaled. “The day the world died.”

  “Did it?” Jenny asked. ‘I mean a part of us all died that day. But the world didn’t. It just changed. We all changed.”

  “I didn’t want to live, you know,” Ellen said sadly. “When Josh and Taylor died, I wanted to die. I thought having a child would replace that. But I got so scared that they were going to die, too. I wouldn’t give my all. That’s horrible, isn’t it? I was pretty selfish for the longest time. For most of the time. Did I change?”

  “Yes.” Jenny nodded. ‘You did. It took a while. I think what changed you was Bev’s death. After that you were different. Don’t get me wrong, you and I started getting close before that … because of Bev.”

  “We did.”

  “That was the turning point. At least from what I saw.”

  “Nine years.” Ellen reflected. “I can’t believe that much time has passed and all that’s happened.”

  “What about what’s happened in the last two and a half months. Think about it,” Jenny said. “We had a lifetime of things happen.”

  “Wow. Yeah.” Ellen sat back. “I got married.”

  “You never see him.”

  “True.” Ellen smiled, then the smile fell. “Joe died.”

  “And came back.”

  “Frank became president.”

  “And had to give it to Joe,” Jenny snickered.

  “Time machine mishap.” Ellen held out her hand. “Brought the pubes.”

  Jenny raised her eyebrow. “The future LEP, Chaka.”

  “And the guy who thinks he’s Elvis.”

  “Someone tried to kill Frank.”

  “Three times,” Ellen held up her fingers.

  “But shot poor Elliott.”

  “He will live.”

  “Amen.”

  “George is now our ally. And …” Ellen stopped when there was a loud bang. “What the hell?”

  Jenny sipped her coffee and pointed to the wall. “Hector and Henry.

  There were two more bangs followed by screaming voices.

  “It’s every night,” Jenny spoke. “It’s been worse the last couple weeks. It’s always the same. Banging, stomping, screaming, shouting and Henry walks out. The walls in the townhouses are paper thin. I hear everything. Henry may have someone else.”

  “You think?”

  “Oh yeah, because he storms out every night. Starts a fight and leaves. Typical.”

  Ellen stood.

  “What are you doing?”

  “I don’t care that they’re fighting. Tonight isn’t a good night. Hector had a head injury and should be resting.”

  “I didn’t know that.”

  “Yeah.” Ellen jolted at another bang and then listened to the voices.

  “Who is it, Henry?” Hector shouted.

  “Knock it off!” Henry blasted.

  “I saw your phone. Who is it?”

  “Quit looking in my phone.”

  “Don’t be so secretive. Where are you going?”

  “Away from you.”

  Ellen walked to the door.

  “Ellen stay out of it,” Jenny said. “Henry will only be rude to you. I tried.”

  She opened the door after hearing the slam from Henry and Hector’s house.

  Henry was walking down the street, hands in his pockets.

  “Henry?” Ellen called out from Jenny’s porch. “You okay?”

  “Mind your own business, Ellen.” Henry snapped and kept walking.

  She turned to see Hector on the porch next door. “You alright?” she asked Hector.

  “Yeah,” he replied, went back inside and shut off the light.

  Ellen stepped back into Jenny’s house and closed the door. “Wow.”

  “Told you.”

  “Something is going on with Henry and it’s more than an affair. He is so not the same.”

  “Did you expect him to be,” Jenny
said. “He’s not happy. I mean we talked about all that happened, Look at what has happened to Henry since the Bev thing. He betrayed a lot of people, broke our trust. Everyone that was his friend abandoned him. Ostracized, to use a phrase that hasn’t been used since Hal arrived, he was cast out of the Originals Clique. You, me, Joe, Frank, Andrea, Dean. He lost our respect, the respect of a lot of people and his position in this community. He went from being the next leader to the next to leave.”

  “Oh my God.” Ellen gushed in shock. “I didn’t think of it that way.”

  “I did. I have. I also tried to reach out to him. He shuns me. I mean, yes, he has Hector. He has Nick, and he’s made some new friends.”

  “Me and Dean posting the video of his throwing up didn’t help.”

  Jenny shook her head. “Even though you deleted it, it was bad for him. And I am sure at times, like right now, we see him as a joke and don’t talk to him, it’s got to be destroying him.”

  “What do you mean, times like right now?”

  “Last couple months. Joe dying, coming back, Frank president, then not. Someone trying to kill Frank, the future LEP. Danny Hoi being the big guru. I mean, Henry has to hate being out of the loop when he himself was a part of starting that loop nine years ago.”

  “Wow. I don’t mean to keep saying that, but wow.” Ellen walked back into the dining room. “What can we do?”

  “All depends, what do you want to do?”

  “Maybe since you and I are about to go rogue with your baby, maybe we should go rogue with the Henry thing. A break from the mold of the Originals.”

  “D-Day is coming up. Maybe we should use that as a reason to reach out.”

  “At least we can do is try, right.” Ellen finished her coffee. “And while my brother is babysitting, I’m going to do just that.”

  “Where are you going?”

  Ellen walked to the door. “To find Henry. Something is going on with him. It’s been long enough, it’s time to put things aside and help him be who he used to be.”

  She left Jenny’s and had a plan. She’d check the social hall first and if he wasn’t there, she’d head to Mechanics. She’d give it a shot to find Henry. If she didn’t find him in one of those two places, she would try again the next day.

  Surprisingly, when Ellen arrived at the social hall the door opened and she caught glimpse of Henry sitting at the bar when Dan from Security walked out. Part of her expected to see Henry in an intimate encounter with someone else. He looked more like he was sulking at the bar as he sat next to Fort.

  Unless of course, Fort was the other woman.

  That was possible. Ellen didn’t know much about Fort. Nor wanted to. She never liked his arrogance.

  The social hall wasn’t very quiet and Ellen said hello to those she passed as she made her way to Henry at the end of the bar.

  He lifted his head and looked at her as she poured a drink.

  “Fort, can you give me and Henry a minute, please.”

  “Sure.” Fort stood up. “I’ll be over there Henry.”

  Henry nodded.

  Ellen sat down.

  “What do you want, Ellen?”

  “To talk.”

  “My problems with Hector aren’t your business.”

  “I’m not here to talk about those problems. Even though he suffered a pretty bad hit to the head today.” She raised her eyebrows.

  “He’s fine.”

  “Are you?”

  “Why do you care?”

  “You’ve changed. We all have. But you have been so bitter lately.”

  Henry only looked at her.

  “Do you realize in a few days it will be nine years since we met?”

  “I do.” Henry brought his drink to his lips.

  “A lot has happened, Henry. Some things I can’t forget, but I can forgive.”

  Henry scoffed. “What is this the kinder, gentler Ellen.”

  “I’m trying here, Henry.”

  Henry slammed his glass. “Yeah, well I tried, too. I came to you. I begged you to forgive me, to talk to me, to be my friend. You were so wishy washy that one day you were, the next you weren’t until finally … I was nothing.”

  “I know you did. I had to work things through. I want to try now.”

  Henry said nothing.

  “I am sorry, I mean, really sorry for posting that video of you throwing up.”

  “That was mean,” Henry said.

  “It was. I wasn’t thinking and it was wrong.”

  “That was the grossest thing I ever smelled.”

  “Yeah, it was pretty bad.” Ellen sipped her drink.

  “Now Joe’s okay with you having that thing down there.”

  “We have a lot to learn from him.”

  “He’s dangerous.”

  “No,” Ellen spoke softly. “Not really. Not in captivity. He’s just confused and lost and was trying to live the way he did in a world not familiar to him.”

  “I can understand that.”

  “Plus, you know, he brought this huge cool man bag with him. It has stuff in it. All kinds of stuff from the future.”

  Henry finally lifted his eyes to her.

  “Some we could figure out. Some we couldn’t. Like the gadgets. We have no idea.”

  “Why don’t you ask Danny? I’m sure he could figure it out.”

  “Oh, I’m sure he could. But … how about, in honor of D-Day and my reaching out, how about you look at the stuff.”

  Henry sat up a little taller. “For real?”

  “It’s really cool stuff. I think it is. Maybe it isn’t. I just don’t know what it is.”

  “When?”

  “Well, no one’s down in the cryo …”

  “No.” Henry shook his head. “I am not going down there with that.”

  “Oh, come on. He’s a teddy bear. Plus, you don’t need to go near him to look at the stuff. What do you say?”

  “Are you really wanting to include me? Frank is the only one who has …” Henry paused.

  “What?”

  “Nothing.” Henry shook his head, finished his drink and stood. “Let’s go. But only when I figure it out do you tell Dean.”

  Ellen smiled and down hers. “Deal.”

  They walked out of the social hall together and just as they stepped outside, Ellen stopped. “What time is it?”

  “A little after ten, why?”

  Ellen pointed to Frank in the Joe Park. “What the hell is he posting on the board this late?”

  “I don’t know. Do you want to go look.”

  “No. No.” Ellen shook her head. “That can wait. Let’s go to the cryo.”

  They turned and headed to the direction of the cryo entrance. Although Henry still seemed distant, Ellen felt better. Reaching out to Henry was the right thing to do. She believed that. And just like they broke the wall all those years earlier when they discovered the cryo lab, Ellen would eventually break the wall that she and Henry had placed between them.

  NINE

  Whenever Joe had a hectic day ahead of him, he liked to get up early. Not to get a jump on the work but rather to get his head together. And Joe was about to face a hectic day.

  He was awake before Andrea, of course, Joe had gone to bed early. He brewed his own coffee and headed out.

  The first stop was the clinic where he checked on Elliott. Patrick told him he was, “Stable and doing well.”

  Joe was happy to hear that. It was a good start to the day. Better than the day before when Elliott nearly died. After speaking to Patrick, Joe just wanted to peek in on Ryder. To his surprise, Hal was seated at the door.

  “You been here all night?” Joe asked.

  “No, Dan from Security had the shift. I started two hours ago.”

  “So, you didn’t get much sleep.”

  “I actually got plenty of sleep. I went to bed early.”

  “Yeah, me too. You’ll be at the meeting, right?”

  “I will.”

  “Okay, I
just wanted to peek in on him. He looks the same.”

  “He’s in a coma.”

  Joe grumbled. “I’ll see you in a couple hours.”

  “Can we try to keep the meeting moving?”

  “I would love to, Hal, but Frank will be there and …”

  “Say no more.”

  “Yep. That’s why I’m here early. Trying to get my mind clear before dealing with a Frank meeting.” Joe reached out and gave a squeeze to Hal’s arm. “See you in a bit.”

  Just when he turned Robbie was walking up the hall.

  “God Lord,” Joe said. “What the hell are you doing up so early?”

  “I went to bed early. I wanted to check on Elliott before I start working. Do you have a minute to talk?”

  “Is it personal?” Joe asked.

  “No.”

  “An emergency?”

  “No.”

  “Something that can wait until the meeting or after?” Joe asked.

  “Well, yeah.”

  “Most importantly, does it have anything to do with Frank?”

  Robbie pointed his finger. “Yes.”

  “Then save it.” Joe gave a swat to his arm. “We have a meeting with Frank in two hours. I want to have a clear mind.” He winked and walked away. When he hit the main hall way, he saw the lab light on. “Dean?”

  “Morning, Joe.”

  “Dean. You’re up awful early, even for you.”

  “I wanted to do some tests on Elliott, and I slept horribly so I got early. The couch isn’t very comfortable.”

  “You fell asleep on the couch?” Joe asked.

  “At Ellen’s, waiting for her to get back. I wanted to talk to her. Me and Frank got back to the house and she was gone. Richie was with the kids, so I waited. She just got home two hours ago.”

  “Where the hell was she?”

  “She was having a girl’s night with Jenny.”

  “Ellen… was having a girl’s night. With Jenny. Ellen?” Joe asked. “Hmm. Okay. Well, let me know how the Elliott tests go. Right now I’m heading to my office to clear my mind of any and all Frank things.”

  “You got a meeting with him, I take it.”

  “I do.” Joe started to leave but stopped. “Hey, where did you get that latte?”

  “Bakery is open,” Dean said. “Gemma opened it early because she got up early.”