Independence

by Shelly Crane

  That little place held a different meaning for me now. I was taking my wife there.

  So I got out and ran to her side. Bella hopped out and Maggie giggled as I took her in my arms, carried her all the way up the stairs and worked with the key to get the door opened. Maggie eventually just turned the lock from the inside with her mind and we went in. Maggie must not have been paying attention, because when I carried her over the threshold, we were greeted by a chorus of, "Surprise!"

  I jolted in surprise and then chuckled as I saw Vic on the forefront.

  "Surprise, my man!" he said laughing. "And since when do you get married and not tell me?"

  "Since we eloped," I told him and put Maggie to her feet. "Who told you?"

  He smirked. "Did you really think Ashley was going to keep that little tidbit to herself?"

  "Oh…right. Well, how did you know when we were coming?"

  "Kyle," he said and laughed at my face. "He said he'd text me once you were on your way."

  I shook my head and looked around. There were five watermelons lined up on my counter. I rolled my eyes, but went with it. They gave us tons of gifts and we ordered about twenty pizzas to feed everyone. They had strung streamers and balloons from the ceiling fan to the lamps. It was kind of hilarious. Maggie got to know all the people that I wound up hanging out with during the school year. The entire swim team was there, and the rest were just sprinkles of random people that I knew.

  Before we knew it, they had pulled up YouTube and were showing her swim meets. I groaned and moaned as they all whooped and laughed at my misery. And then a few hours had passed and I sent everyone home. Vic was the last to leave, and he pulled me out the door, told me he thought I was completely nuts for getting married, asked if she was pregnant. I said no and it took some convincing, but he thought Maggie was adorable and sweet. He was happy for me and that was all that mattered to me at the end of the day.

  When I went back inside, Maggie was cleaning up. Bella was eating someone's pizza that had been left on the stool. She looked up guiltily before slowly lowering her head back down to finish it. I laughed at her. Then I took Maggie's arm and pulled her away from the trash bag. "What are you-"

  "That can wait," I told her, my voice low and dangerous. I tried to breathe, but I was going to go crazy if I didn't get Maggie alone. And we were definitely alone now.

  She smiled as I took her to the bathroom and pulled my shirt off over my head before helping her with hers. I turned the water hot, to soothe and relax her. She'd been through so much, knocking on death's door just yesterday. When I ran my hands over her sides I felt the raised scar where the bullet had tried to take her from me. I fell to my knees and kissed it. She put her hand on my head and waited. When I was satisfied that I was awake and this wasn't a dream, I stood and kissed her mouth like there was nothing else in the world I wanted to do.

  She ran her thumb over the scar on my own stomach and closed her eyes tighter to the memories attached to it. I kneaded my knuckles into the flesh of her back and shoulders, hoping she'd see that even weapons and death couldn't keep her from me. She made a little noise as she turned to putty, relaxed and leaned on me, but then she groaned into my mouth and completely changed the game.

  Her back hit the tile of the shower. I felt her nudge inside my mind. I allowed her, in fact, I rolled out the welcome mat. When the shower door started to rattle I opened my eyes to find us surrounded by ribbons and my bathroom was about to explode like the one in California had. She bit her lip guiltily, but I just laughed.

  "Come on." I pulled her from the shower and wrapped a towel around her as I whispered, "We'll work on that."

  She smiled and giggled when I picked her up and took her to the bed. For the first time I didn't press her arms to the bed above her head as I entered her mind. I let her touch me and begged her to. She plundered my mind happily as we were joined together in every way. And the rumors were right; making love and mutualizing together was a magic all its own. It was unlike anything else, indescribable, but the best thing was how free and calm we were. The place could have gone up in flames, we'd never have known. Consumed, happy, married and together. This was it, what it was like to be real significants.

  Finally.

  Forever.

  Mine.

  Chapter 21

  Maggie

  "Hey, Fiona. Sorry you had to cut your trip short. And sorry we're late." We came inside and Caleb shut the door behind us, letting Bella run in first. I'd spent all morning getting ready and Caleb had spent all morning at his desk with his Grandpa Ray's feather pen scribing all the imprints and ascensions into the record book.

  "It's quite all right," she insisted. "Your dad was worried sick. We'll go back in a while."

  Dad came around the corner and barreled toward me. His hug was so crushing I thought Caleb might protest. "We're OK, Dad."

  "I know. I know." He sighed. "I'm so glad that I called Haddock."

  I nodded slowly. "Me, too."

  He turned to Caleb. "So, you bought Bish a house, huh?"

  Caleb turned red in embarrassment. "Yeah, it was nothing."

  "I'd call a house something." He went to him and hugged Caleb, whose eyes bugged. "Thank you, son. Thank you."

  "You're welcome." Dad leaned back and Caleb continued. "He's a good guy and he loves my sister." He shrugged.

  "That he does." He rubbed his hands together. "Well, who wants to eat before you head off on your secret trip?" He bent and rubbed Bella's head. "I bet you do, don’t you, girl?"

  I smiled at him. We had never owned a dog. Mom hated them and their pet hair, but Dad seemed to be eating up Bella's attention. He stood and swiped a piece of hair back from his head and I saw it. I couldn’t stop my eyes from bulging.

  He took his hand and put it behind his back like that would make me forget what I'd seen. I held my hand out and waited. He sighed, even tacked on a little growl with it, and forked his arm over. I looked at his mark. Fiona's name was written delicately around the small leaf looking tattoo. Her family crest was beautiful. She offered her arm to me as if she knew I was about to ask for it. I felt Caleb's head beside me over my shoulder as he peeked to look at them, too. Hers had my dad's name around it, too, with the infinity symbol in the middle.

  Dad was mortified because he knew that I knew he'd mutualized. I smirked at him. "It's really beautiful, Fiona. I love your family's crest."

  "Thank you," she said softly, her cheeks pink.

  "Dad, it's perfectly natural for Aces."

  He glared. "Are you seriously having this talk with me right now?"

  "An eye for an eye, Dad." I grinned.

  He laughed and shook his head and then nodded. "An eye for an eye," he agreed. "Why don't we eat before it gets cold."

  So we ate and then popped over to Bish and Jen's to see them before we left for Arizona. We weren't flying. We decided to just make a road trip of it. Just us and Bella for the rest of the summer until school started.

  Bish met us on the porch and let us in. Maria squealed and ran in, jumping into Caleb's arms. "Hey, squirt."

  "Hey, sport!" she played back sarcastically. He laughed. Jen was in serious love with the house. It was still empty since they'd had no time to move anything in yet, but they were talking paint samples. That was pretty great in her book. And Maria had already decided that her room was going to be green. Because pink and red were 'so stereotypical' of girls. I bit my lip not to laugh at her.

  When we said our goodbyes and went outside, I noticed Ralph's car in the driveway behind ours. Beck was walking up the walkway to my dad's door. She stopped and we stared at each other. She crossed her arms and moved a tad closer. "I just wanted to say thanks for saving us. Or trying to keep us safe and all. I don't know what happened with that guy...but…whatever. Thanks."

  Caleb put his hands on the tops of my arms and rubbed his thumb across my neck. "OK, Beck," I said. "You're welcome."

  She started to walk back to the car. "That's it? That
's what you came here for?"

  She looked back at me. She looked like she was about to cry. "Are you still a freak?" she asked softly.

  I sighed. "Beck."

  "Look, I want to move past this, I just need some time, OK? I need some space."

  "Well, you're going to get it. We're going to Arizona for the summer."

  "You are?" she asked, intrigued. "What for?"

  "Technically…our honeymoon, I guess. Our other one was kind of interrupted-"

  "Your honeymoon!" she shrieked and charged across the yard at me. "Let me see the rock."

  "I don't have it yet."

  "You got married…without me?"

  "You weren't speaking to me!" I said, though they would never have let her come to the clan wedding anyway.

  "Doesn’t matter. You don’t get married without your best friend, Mags."

  "Oh, so I'm your best friend now?"

  She fought her smile. And then hugged me. "Oh, Mags! I can't believe you got married before me! I was the one who was supposed to pave the way and be the rebel by getting married too quickly." She showed me her hand. There was a ring on her finger.

  "He asked you?" I asked and peeked back at Ralph leaning on his car. He waved and made his way across the yard.

  "Yes," she said and looked at the ring like it was the sun, moon and stars all wrapped into one. "And you've got to be my maid of honor. Though…I apparently wasn't yours."

  I decided to just let her have it. "Look, Beck, you've been rude and horrible to me. You left, just left, after you called me a freak and wouldn't speak to me. I was worried sick about you. How could you do that to me and then just come here and pretend everything is fine just because you find out that I'm married?"

  Her mouth was open and she was stunned. Ralph wrapped and arm around her waist and gave me a sympathetic look. He knew how she could be. "Mags…it was just a lot to handle, OK?"

  "I get that. But I was your friend and at the first sign of trouble, you bailed."

  "I was scared."

  "Of me? What have I ever done to make you scared of me?" I almost yelled. I felt Caleb's fingers rub across my pulse on my wrist, trying to calm me.

  "I wasn't scared of you."

  "Then what?"

  "I was scared that you were moving on without me!" she said and the first set of tears surfaced. "You met this guy," she swung her arm toward Caleb flippantly, "and everything just changed about you. You looked different, you acted different. I just thought you were going to leave me. And when all that stuff happened…you were just so beautiful and powerful, and I just felt so small and insignificant next to you. I knew you'd be breaking up with me sooner or later, so I saw an opportunity and decided to do it first."

  I felt awful. That was how she saw me? As some person who flaunted over her?

  She scoffed. "I can see on your face that you're making this out to be different than it is." She smiled. "Look, I'm only going to say this once. I was…jealous, OK? You and college boy were just so darn happy and you never fight or…whatever. And Maggie, you're so gorgeous. You don't even have to try! And I just assumed that you would eventually think I was beyond you, beneath you, something."

  "Beck," I chastised.

  "And I couldn't handle that, Maggie." She sniffed and wouldn't look at me. "I couldn't handle you finally realizing how much better than me you are."

  I left Caleb's grasp and hugged her to me. She resisted for about eight point nine seconds. "Maggie," she whispered. "I'm sorry. I was being stupid. Ralph even told me I was being stupid, didn't you, Ralph?"

  He smiled and shrugged. "The important thing is that you're here now, right?"

  "I don't know…" she mused. "Is that the important thing?" she asked me. That was Beck's way of asking for forgiveness. Her mind was practically screaming it at me. And though Beck had been wrong, people make mistakes. And my whole new supernatural world was pretty hard to swallow.

  "Yes, Beck, that's the important thing."

  "I love you, Maggie Waggie."

  I smiled, my own eyes filling with tears. "I love you Becky Wecky."

  Her hug turned hard and relentless and we stood there and squeezed each other for a long time. Caleb and Ralph bumped fists and stood off to the side and talked, giving us space and time. Once we were through, we decided to post-pone leaving for our trip until later that night. We went to dinner with Beck and Ralph, and where else could we go but the 25 Hour Skillet.

  When we came back and dropped them off at the car, they left just as Dad ran outside to meet us. "You left this!" he called and sprinted across the yard with my purse.

  "Oh, I didn't even realize."

  "I thought I was going to have to mail it to you." He smiled. "I hope you have a good trip. We'll probably wait until fall when you go to school before we go back to Fiona's clan. I want to see you one more time before we go."

  "That's sounds good, Dad." Dad was thinking about everything that had happened. Even Haddock. "Something on your mind?"

  "No," he insisted. "I'm just glad that you're safe." He hugged me to him. "Have a good, safe trip, all right?"

  I nodded. "Yep. Plan to." He started to walk away. "Dad?" He turned almost reluctantly, like he knew what was coming.

  "Why did you call Haddock to check on us?"

  "The Jacobsons were on lockdown," he reasoned.

  "That's not why. You know if you called Peter he would have come." Dad was staring as he tried really hard not to think about something. I felt a sense of dread come over me. "Dad?"

  "I knew, baby. I knew," he said in defeat.

  I knew exactly what he meant, but I needed him to say it. "You knew what?"

  He sat down on the curb and sighed. "I knew that I wasn't your real father."

  I felt like a ton of bricks had been dumped on me. I stared at my father's back and tried to breath. Caleb moved into my line of sight and held my face in his hands. "It's OK. Breathe, baby." I breathed. He kissed me once. "I'm going to wait in the truck, all right? Take all the time you need."

  He left, and I sat next to Dad on the curb. I didn’t waste any time because I knew that sitting and trying to wrap my head around it wouldn’t work or matter. "How long have you known?"

  "Since your mom got pregnant with you." I cringed. That was why…that was why he was so distant after she left us… "And that wasn't the reason that I went crazy after she left." I jerked my gaze to his. He smiled. "That's my ability. I can't hear your thoughts…but I can tell your intent."

  My lips parted. "That's what Caleb's Grandpa Ray's ability was."

  "I like it," he said and shook his head. "It's useful." He turned to look back at me. "I knew that you weren't mine because your mom and I were always, always careful. When she told me she was pregnant, I was worried about her. She was acting strangely, like she was wearing a mask all the time. So I came home early one day when she wouldn't answer the phone. There they were." He twisted his lips. "I never saw his face, but I knew when she stopped seeing him, which was pretty soon after that. I couldn't leave her. You would have been left without a father because your mom's pride would never have let her go and be with him. She was too consumed with her image and I was just thrilled with the fact that there was going to be a baby in the house." He chuckled. "When you were born, I thought she would love me. I thought we'd be a good family and everything would be fine. And it was for the most part, for a few years. And then when I asked your mom to have another baby, she said no. She wasn't ready to go through that again. It wasn't long after that she came home with a packet showing us how we could adopt from the state. She said she was all for bringing another kid into the house, but she couldn't put her body through having another baby. She was so excited about getting Bish. She told everyone we saw that we were adopting. I see now what that was about, her image, but I really, honestly thought that she wanted to be a family."

  I soaked that in. "How did you know that Haddock was…" I trailed off and had no intention of finishing it.

&
nbsp; "He was strange when he was here waiting for you. He was looking at all the pictures and things in the house. He was fixated on this one photo of you when you were little. I was teaching you to ice skate. And then when you got here, he had this look on this face. The final nail in the coffin was when he said he owned the flower shop." He smiled without any real humor. "Your mom always got fresh flowers for the house, and the days she got them were the days he came over. Thinking back, I thought they were gifts from him, and they were, but it was because that was his business. It was his job." He nodded. "That was when I knew…he was your father."

  "I'm sorry I didn't tell you. I found out that day that Mom came to the house before we went to London. But it didn't matter." I looked him right in the eye. "It didn't matter, Dad. You have always been and always will be my father."

  "And that was why I raised you as my own. Because it didn't matter." He cupped my cheek. "When your mom left, all I could think about was that I'd done something wrong. That I hadn't been the father and husband that I needed to be and so she left. It had nothing to do with you and I beg you to believe me."

  "I do. I'm sorry."

  "No, I'm sorry." He pulled me to him and hugged me. "You will always be my baby girl."

  The ride out of town was quiet. Caleb was patient and waited for me. When I finally climbed into the side, he immediately pulled me to his side and kissed my forehead before we pulled away. Bella slept in the back seat and I kind of envied her. I felt drained, but in a good way. So many things had come to a head and to light the last few days. I just laid my head on his shoulder as he drove, and felt everything flow through me.

  We stayed at a hotel that night, and Caleb just held me. It was the longest I'd ever not spoken a word, but felt so safe and comfortable and at the same time.