by Jillian Neal
“I would never share anything you tell me with anyone, honey.” This seemed to soothe Fionna into going on. Dan recalled the last bad storm they’d had, and he did seem to remember Emily calling Rainer numerous times throughout the day. It had irritated Dan at the time.
“They found out about Cal during a really bad storm,” Fionna hesitated as Dan nodded. He remembered as well. He’d never forget the look on Garrett’s face when they lowered that casket.
“Emily was only sixteen. She could feel all of that horrible emotion in the house the day they got the call, and she couldn’t find Rainer. She couldn’t find her Shield. He’d gone to Norfolk, to check on his uncle. She got in her car, convinced she could find him in the storm, and the press chased her down. She was in that horrible wreck.”
“And then, after she got out of the hospital, Rainer took her home in the rain. Then, it was still storming when he left for London. I’m not sure she’ll ever really get over that.”
Fionna could feel Emily’s pain, just from hearing the story.
“He did it because he loves her,” Dan defended Rainer adamantly.
Fionna smiled. “I know that. She knows that, but she feels that terror whenever it storms.”
As Dan had never seen a couple closer than Rainer and Emily, he knew that, if Emily had channeled the energy of her fear and her terror into storms, Rainer felt it as well. He felt everything she gave off. That’s why he was so patient with her when she called repeatedly during a thunderstorm. He blamed himself for making her afraid. Dan knew, because he would blame himself in the same situation.
“He’ll never leave her again.”
Fionna smiled and nodded. “You know, you could let Rainer know how much you like him. He really looks up to you.”
Scoffing, Dan couldn’t fathom why Rainer Lawson, or anyone else, would look up to him.
“I’m serious.”
“Lawson knows I like him,” Dan assured her. “We’re fairly close, as close as I ever get with my officers. The fact that I didn’t chew his ass when he decided to fly down to Brazil without telling me, should be all the assurance he needs.”
Fionna giggled. “That was so sweet. I was really worried about Em. I wasn’t sure she was going to make it two more weeks. She was a mess.”
“I had no issue with him going, but he’s an Elite Iodex officer assigned to the Wretchkinsides’ task force. We do not just charter a flight and leave the country without letting me know.”
“That’s what made it so romantic,” Fionna swooned.
Dan rolled his eyes and chuckled at her. “Yeah, well, I’ll give you this much; I get it now, and I sure as hell didn’t then.” He squeezed her tightly, letting her know why he understood.
Thunder clapped again, and she curled herself up in his embrace. “Anyway, Receivers don’t like storms because we feel all of the violent energy that comes with them. Sometimes people kind of do crazy things in storms.” She brought the story full circle.
“I’m right here, baby. I’ll keep you safe.” He kept his arms wrapped around her as he rubbed her back and kissed her head. It took him over an hour to finally soothe her to sleep. The harrowing storm wouldn’t give her peace. Dan locked his shield over her, until she could no longer be bombarded by the forces outside their bedroom.
By three in the morning, the storm had reached them and was raging, in a violent mix of snow and icy rain. It shattered against the windows in sizzling hisses. The thunder was relentless. Lightning lit the bleached white of the falling snow.
Dan felt sick. He couldn’t do it. He couldn’t let his baby sister stay underground without any access to her powers in a storm like this.
Fionna was morose; the storm had her reeling. Dan was too consumed with fear and worry over Lindley to be of much help.
“Let’s just go get her. She can stay here tonight,” Fionna begged yet again.
Unable to stick to his guns any longer, Dan finally agreed. Fionna clamored out of bed and quickly threw on sweatpants, an Angels t-shirt, and a sweatshirt as well.
Dan piled blankets on the couch to take with them, along with water and other provisions, in case they got stuck. He checked out the window. The streets were mostly clear, as far as he could tell. The temperature wasn’t quite low enough for the ice to stick to the black top yet. He backed away from the window as lightning shook the frame, and Fionna trembled.
Pulling her to him, he took a moment to calm her and assure her that he was right there, and that she was his top priority even if he was worried about Lindley. He located one of his Iodex jackets designed for extremely low temperatures, and swathed Fionna inside of it. He heated the heat syncs sewn in the lining of the jacket, making certain that it would keep her warm.
“Wow,” she reveled in the warmth, which made him smile.
“Now you’re warm and bulletproof. I may make you wear this all the time.”
“But what are you going to wear?”
“I have several, baby.” He shrugged into another jacket. The heat syncs weren’t as large in the one he’d put on, but he certainly wasn’t going to tell her that.
They moved through the garage. Fionna had added more blankets and coats, pointing out that it would be hours before Lindley would be able to warm herself.
They needed the four-wheel drive, so Dan helped Fionna into the Expedition. The Ferrari was certainly not weather-rated for conditions like this. He heated the interior and then backed down the driveway. His cell phone rang, and he glanced at the screen with a knowing grin.
“I’m already on my way,” he assured his father.
“I’ll meet you there,” was the Governor’s response.
The icy rain gathered fury the further and further out into nowhere they drove. Moving by familiarity alone, Dan would occasionally reach over and make certain the syncs in Fionna’s coat were fully loaded with heat energy.
“Dan, I’m fine. Don’t you need to conserve all of that if you’re going down there?” Unable to take his eyes off the road, Dan could still hear the desperation in her plea.
“I’ll be fine, honey. I want you to be warm. I’m going to have to leave you in the car.”
Fionna was unusually quiet. Dan assumed she was exhausted, as it was three in the morning. She hadn’t slept well, and they’d worn each other thoroughly, a few hours before.
Dan slowed the SUV yet again as he edged over the gravel roads towards the prison. He noted his father’s Range Rover just ahead of them. He parked in the closest lot to the prison. It would still be quite a walk through the rain and pelting ice.
Suddenly, Fionna uttered a harrowing, gasping groan. Dan panicked as his head snapped to her.
“What’s wrong, baby?” She was convulsing and shivering, though the joule meters on the heated jacket were fully-loaded.
The Governor moved slowly towards them. Dan could see him bracing in the headlights of the Expedition.
“Dan, I…” she shook her head and curled her body forward.
“Fionna!” He flipped on the interior lights. She was as white as a ghost. Her energy was weak and erratic.
“Can’t be here,” she completed her earlier plea.
“Damn it. I’m so sorry. I’m an idiot.” He started to crank the car, but couldn’t reason through his panic. Of course she couldn’t be there. He lambasted himself. She was one of the strongest Receivers of their day, and he’d brought her to a place saturated with dark energy.
His father had reached the Expedition. Dan flung the door open. “Dad,” he shouted, “quick!”
The Governor sprinted the last few steps, but slipped in the wet gravel. Dan caught his arm before he hit the ground.
“Take her away from here. Just drive until she’s better. What was I thinking?”
“What’s wrong?” Governor Vindico joined in his son’s panic.
“Just drive until she doesn’t look like that anymore. I’ll get Lindley. I’ll find you!” Dan shouted through the driving rain.
G
overnor Vindico handed Dan the keys to the Range Rover, and then set to follow Dan’s order.
“I’m gonna be sick,” Fionna whimpered.
Dan stepped back as she leaned out of the car. He tried not to think about how thoroughly embarrassed she was going to be from vomiting, not only in front of him, but in front of his dad.
“You poor thing,” Governor Vindico’s tender, fatherly nature came out in full force.
“It’s the prison. Just get her away from here,” Dan commanded as he let the cold rain soak through a sweatshirt he’d located in the back of the Expedition. He wiped Fionna’s face with it.
“Go get your sister. I’ll take care of her, son.”
“I’m so sorry, baby,” Dan kissed Fionna’s fevered forehead, and then sprinted away from the vehicle towards Felsink Prison.
He halted at the Range Rover, opened the passenger door, and extracted the flashlight his father kept in the glove box. He needed all of his own energy if he was going to get Lindley, and then help Fionna stabilize when he returned. He couldn’t light his own way.
He raced quickly through the bitter night, gasping in the thin air as he forced himself to go on, though he was consumed with guilt and angst about Fionna. He doubted his ability to really take care of her.
Battling for breath, Dan fumbled with his badge, but managed to get the sliding door to allow him in after he’d waved it over the magnetic reader.
Guards met him with menacing glares.
“It’s me,” Dan flashed his badge and moved into the dimly-lit area.
“What’re you doing out here so late, Dan?” Capshaw queried in disbelief.
“Get my sister out.” He didn’t have time for small talk, and he wasn’t interested in the typical derisive chuckles that came from the Non-Gifted guards. They rather liked the fact that Dan was so weak from the environment of the prison, set up to mute Gifted energies.
“She’s right down there. You get her,” Capshaw threw Dan the keys to the cell. He wasn’t going to help. Dan stumbled as the energy drain set in harshly.
“You okay?” Capshaw chuckled. Dan nodded, but wasn’t able to answer audibly as he held on to the walls and edged towards the first cell.
His heart fissured. He could hear her sobbing. Keeping his feet sliding forward, he let his baby sister’s pleas drive him on.
“Lindley,” he panted as she raised her head from her huddled corner and broke down completely. She sobbed as he opened the cell door. Not certain where the energy to carry her had come from, he lifted her up into his arms. He assumed it was love, despite all that she’d put them through, that gave him the strength to carry her back to the entrance.
Apologies
~Governor Arthur Vindico~
“Better?” Governor Vindico helped Fionna with the water bottle that he’d given her to drink from, now that she’d stopped shaking so violently and seemed able to draw full breaths.
“I’m so sorry.” Her chin trembled again.
“Sweetheart, why do you keep saying that?”
“I’ve never been out here. I didn’t know it would do that. I guess I should have thought of that.”
“Well, I’ll tell you this; Daniel didn’t think of it, either, or he would most certainly not have let you come with him.”
Fionna wiped away more tears that wounded the Governor’s heart, just like when one of his own little girls cried. “Dan probably thinks I’m entirely too much trouble.”
He knew she was desperate for reassurance. Chuckling, he handed her the water bottle again while shaking his head. “Fionna, if my son thinks that, then he isn’t the man I raised or the man you fell in love with.”
He gently touched her forehead to see if her fever was any better. It hadn’t gone down much, unfortunately. “I know that you didn’t really know much about Daniel before you began dating, but I’ve seen such wonderful change in him in just the last few weeks.” He wished he could make her understand that she’d saved his son from himself.
“I cannot believe I puked in front of you and him.” She squeezed her eyes shut tightly.
The Governor couldn’t refrain from laughing. “I raised four children, dear. That’s not the first time I’ve seen someone get sick and, as we’re working on our third grandchild, I doubt it will be the last.”
She gave him a sweet grin, that Governor Vindico was certain she probably reserved for people she cared about.
“I remember, when Dan was eighteen or nineteen, he convinced his mother and me to let him go on a campout with Will and Garrett Haydenshire. I think they dragged Levi along, too. Wes Willow went and a few other boys from the Academy.” The Governor shook his head at the memory. “I don’t know what those boys mixed up out in the Haydenshires’ back fields, but I can tell you that both my and Governor Haydenshire’s liquor bottles were much lighter than they’d been before the boys left. And the next time I went to pour myself some brandy, it tasted distinctly like water,” he chuckled. “Anyway, when Stephen dropped Daniel off, I’d never seen someone so sick.”
Fionna gave a weak laugh. She seemed to enjoy hearing the story.
“He was a mess. His mother wanted to take him to the Medio, but I kind of thought it might be best to let him learn his lesson. And it worked for the most part… until….” He didn’t know what Dan had shared with her. He wasn’t certain he should bring up Amelia.
“I know.” She seemed to understand what he was referring to, so he continued.
“I wasn’t aware his body could hold that much alcohol, but it all came back violently the next day, trust me.
“Feeling any better?” he asked again as he tried to study her in the dim interior light of the Senate Expedition. The headlights bounced in eerie patterns off the translucent snow outside.
Fionna nodded, though the motion seemed to set her back.
“Dan should be along in a minute. I’ll take Lindley, and he can get you home and feeling better.” He was certain that it was Dan who would make her feel safe and secure, not him.
“Truthfully, I can’t take this place myself.” He noted that Fionna seemed to find solace in his voice. “I’m not as young as I once was, I suppose. Every time I have to come out here, it takes me longer and longer to recover.”
“I can’t imagine being in there,” Fionna fussed, before drawing another slow sip of water.
“Well, sweetheart, I can’t think of a single Receiver that I’ve ever sent out here. Sometimes, I think it would be better if we could all feel the energy of the people that we’re hurting or considering hurting. It might make the world a much better place.”
“He’ll be here soon,” Governor Vindico gestured his head towards the headlights edging slowly towards them. The tires were slipping up the graveled hill, but his son knew how to drive in the conditions and was making headway.
“I’m really so sorry, sir.”
“Sweetheart, you have nothing to be sorry for.”
She smiled weakly. “You sound just like Dan.” She was still using most of her energy to draw steadying breaths.
“I’ll consider that a great compliment,” the Governor allowed, “because he really is a great man. I’m so thrilled that he’s letting you see that, Fionna. We’re so thankful that you’ve somehow made him able to recognize himself through all of the hell he’s put himself through.
“Besides, I’m the one who’s sorry. Lindley’s the reason you’re out here on Christmas Eve, sick and miserable, instead of at home and comfortable and, I imagine, tucked up in my son’s arms.”
That brought on a real smile. She seemed to revel in the thought. She touched the necklace lying against her sweatshirt. She’d played with it ever since she’d been able to sit upright.
“Early Christmas present?” The Governor wondered if he could begin to read Fionna the same way he read his girls.
“Yes, sir.” Another weak smile softened her pale features.
Dan eased the Land Rover beside the Expedition and stumbled to the passenge
r side. He flung open her door.
“Are you okay?” he gasped, white as a sheet and panting, as he stood in the driving rain. He only had eyes for Fionna.
“She’s all right, son. Are you?”
“I’m fine, Dad.” Dan never met the Governor’s gaze. “You need to eat, baby.”
“I’m okay, Dan.” Fionna looked thoroughly exhausted. “Your dad took good care of me.” She scooted away from the cold blast of air and let her head fall back against the seat.
“Thank you,” Dan raised his eyes, dark from exhaustion and the energy drain, to his father’s concerned face.
“My pleasure, son. You sure you’re all right to drive?” He tried to gage Dan’s reaction time.
“I’m fine, Dad. I need to get her home.”
Governor Vindico knew better than anyone that arguing with Dan was most often fruitless. “Lindley’s in the back. She’s freezing. I covered her up, but she was a mess in there. She’ll be out for several hours. She downed something hard just before they took her in. I don’t know what it was.”
Feeling helpless, defeat settle on him, a feeling he knew only too well when it came to dealing with Lindley, Governor Vindico sighed.
Sliding out of the SUV, the Governor waved good-bye to Dan and Fionna and leapt back into the Range Rover.
“Daddy,” Lindley’s weak, timid voice shook from the back seat. Feeling his heart shatter, tears burned the Governor’s eyes as he ran his heated hands over the blankets Dan had swathed her in. He brushed her hair away from her face.
“I’m right here, sweetheart. Let’s go home.”
“I’m so sorry, Daddy.” Lindley pled in a forsaken whisper. The Governor had to remind himself to breathe. She’d never ever apologized for all of the wild stunts she’d pulled over the last twenty years.
“Good.” Governor Vindico eased the car out of the parking lot and back down the gravel road.
Not So Merry Christmas
~Dan Vindico~
