A Better Life

by Liza O'Connor

  The irony of her question struck her hard. Was she not doing the same?

  But it wasn’t the same. Derrick’s job was to watch the kids while her job was to find money. If she were allowed to drop the job and focus on her kids, she could do it. If she and Tom shared the job, they could do it and work too. But those options weren’t available, so sending the boys to Tom while keeping Kelly and the baby seemed the best solution. Tom could focus entirely on the boy’s behaviors and straighten out their education.

  With this assuring thought, she undressed and fell asleep with Davenport snoring softly beside her.

  Chapter 18

  Early the next morning, Davenport led her to Director Hamilton’s office. Braddock was there as well, looking calm, which she hoped meant that he’d successfully convinced Hamilton to go along with her plan.

  “Davenport, stay,” the director ordered. He came around his desk and studied the skin around Angel’s mouth. He sighed softly. “Dr. Hanson says the skin will heal better if you don’t talk, so only move your head to answer yes and no. According to Braddock, you wish your boys to go live with Tom until he can return.”

  She nodded.

  “Sir, this has been tried before, and it doesn’t work,” Davenport stated.

  “What do you mean it’s been tried before?” Hamilton challenged.

  “When she was in the other facility. She broke down within a month without her son.”

  Angel shook her head and mimed for pen and paper.

  Hamilton located the required items and watched her write a rather long-winded response. Upon reading it, he handed the tablet to Davenport. “Do you agree with the facts she states.”

  “Yes, I just don’t think this situation is that different.”

  She grabbed the pad and wrote: Huge Difference!!!

  “Well, something’s got to change.” He focused on Angel. “Your team gave up last night soon after you left. Without you, they weren’t making any progress. So, I allowed them to return to their rooms for a good night’s sleep.”

  She wrote: Help me save my boys so I can focus on our problem.

  “We’ll move them over now.”

  “What about the contamination risk?” Davenport challenged.

  Braddock spoke. “Angel gave a sound argument against that possibility. She doesn’t believe Tom was ever contaminated with anything.”

  Davenport stared at Angel. “Are you willing to bet your sons’ lives on it?”

  She nodded. She hadn’t expected Davenport to argue like this before his boss and the director. This wasn’t like him.

  Hamilton frowned at Davenport but then focused on Angel. “There’s only one bit of concern. You told your boys you were doing a project to bring Tom home faster. So, he’s probably going to want to know what you meant. I do not want Tom to know his son’s life is in danger.”

  She wrote on her tablet: I agree.

  “Then if I allow you to visit Tom and the kids via a video link from my office each evening, with me observing, I have your word you won’t mention Toby and his current situation?”

  His question caused her to smile, which hurt like hell. She sobered and nodded as she retrieved her salve and placed it on the places that hurt.

  “Sorry, I hadn’t considered the consequences of giving you good news. Well, since you cannot talk right now, the visits won’t begin until you can. Does that sober you up?”

  With a heavy sigh she nodded. That definitely took the wind out of her happiness.

  She then wrote: Can Tom determine if their teacher is a problem?

  “Yes. He will have to remain out of the camera view, but his assessment will be considered, along with yours, when assessing our options. Trust me, Angel. I want your boys to grow up happy and sound. We are completely on the same side in this matter.”

  Since she didn’t believe that for a minute, she was able to refrain from smiling and just wrote: Thank you!!!

  She then nodded at Braddock to let him know she appreciated his support.

  When Davenport led her to the lab, no one was there. She heard him curse beneath his breath. He called someone and ordered them to get the team to work.

  To set a good example, Angel picked up her manual and continued learning the new code. Knowing her boys would soon be with Tom, while Derrick and his mom were gone from her house, and her new nanny appeared to adore her son, she could finally focus on her work.

  By the time the rest of the team arrived a half hour later, she was nearly through the manual. She set it down upon their arrival and hugged each one as Davenport explained her mishap with tea.

  “Damn, girl, you have the worst luck.”

  She shook her head and wrote on her tablet: I’m feeling lucky today. We are going to kick ass.

  She then focused on Sinclair. Do you have the program ready?

  He laughed. “No, I’m having trouble with the code instructing the program to assess all tables and determine the exact time the entries were made.”

  Leon stepped forward. “I can help you if you want.”

  Angel smiled as she and Leon joined Sinclair at his computer. Pain reminded her not to smile and she applied more salve.

  ***

  Forty-five minutes later, they had the problem solved and needed someone to test their program. Fortunately, Angel had anticipated the need and had exposed the tables of a program she was intimately familiar with. Any problems incurred here would be the data patch.

  She hit a problem right away and wrote about the issue on her pad. Then she walked them through how to fix the issues. When they tried a second time, it went through a hundred tables before it snagged.

  By noon all the problems appeared to be fixed. The team assessed the new data to the old. When it all came back clean, they celebrated with high fives.

  With high anticipation they quickly ate lunch, then returned to the computer room where each worked on their programs. Angel had to help a few expose their tables to the program, but otherwise everything ran like clockwork.

  By eight o’clock that night, they had completed all the familiar programs. They all felt they’d do better if they began fresh tomorrow. To her shock, Hamilton agreed and let everyone go home.

  Well, almost everyone. Angel was returned to Hamilton’s office. “Evidently, I have failed to gain the trust of your sons, or Tom for that matter.”

  She tilted her head in confusion, then wrote on her tablet. Do they want proof of life?

  “Yes.”

  He pointed her to the chair and turned on the monitor. She saw Tom with three boys in his lap. They were quietly listening to whatever he was saying.

  Hamilton flipped a switch and interrupted their favorite bedtime story.

  “Now as I told you, Angel is fine. Only she’s burnt her mouth on a cup of tea and the doctor has warned her that smiling or talking will cause permanent scarring. So, don’t expect this to be a very satisfactory meeting.”

  There was no way in hell she couldn’t smile at her happy boys screaming out her name, and that they’d found Tom for her.

  “No speaking,” Hamilton chided her.

  The boys moved way too close to the camera. “Why is your face so red?” Tommy asked.

  Mr. Hamilton explained about her tea accident again. The boys had all had their own ‘hot liquid’ trials, so they accepted his explanation, but Tom’s furrowed brow implied he didn’t.

  “Angel, you okay?”

  She nodded quickly and tried to look as happy as she dared without actually smiling.

  “Thank you for sending the boys. You’ve no idea what it means to me.” He pressed his lips on Tommy’s head.

  She nodded. She knew exactly what it meant to him. He then kissed the heads of Stevie and Dare.

  “However, there is one issue I need you to resolve. Stevie thinks you might have sent them to me because you were mad at them.”

  She swung her head back and forth emphatically and the pressed her fist to her heart, held up three fingers, an
d then pointed at the camera.

  Tom smiled. “She just said that wasn’t why she sent you guys to me. And that she loves all three of you with all her heart.”

  “Then why did you send us away?” Stevie asked.

  Tom answered for her. “She knew how much I missed you and since she is going to be working hard on my project, she knew I’d have more time to spend with you.”

  “But if it’s your project, why aren’t you working on it?” Dare asked.

  Tom considered that a moment. “Have you ever gotten a tick on your backside?”

  They all nodded, and Angel could attest to their veracity. Still, she had no idea where Tom was going with the story.

  “Could you get it off by yourself?”

  “No, Mommy had to do it.”

  “Well, my project is just like that.”

  Tommy smiled. “Don’t worry, Mommy’s good about removing ticks.”

  Tom agreed. “She’ll fix this as well. Then we can all go home.”

  “That’s the plan,” Hamilton stated. “Sorry to cut this short, but Angel needs to go.

  Her boys all yelled they loved her and threw her kisses. She was overwhelmed with appreciation and before she could reconsider her actions, she hugged Hamilton.

  Hugging the director was like hugging a block of lumber. To say the man was tense was an understatement. Realizing she was making him uncomfortable, she let him go and shook his hand instead.

  “You’re most welcome.” He glanced at Davenport and a second later, she was pulled from the room and led home where she spent an hour playing with her baby and applying salve for smiling too much.

  Chapter 19

  Angel had expected Davenport to scold her about sending her kids to Tom without telling him, but oddly he said no more on the topic, and once again, he remained with her for the rest of the night.

  Dr. Hanson arrived early the next morning to check on her burns. While he completed his examination, he told her of the blood results on her baby.

  “Mrs. Adams evidently used cough syrup to put your child to sleep.”

  Angel’s eyes rounded in outrage. She had clearly told the woman the baby could not have cough syrup until he was two. The woman not only ignored her but gave her child the medicine just to make him sleep.

  Her hands clenched into fists.

  “Stay calm. While it was a serious error, I checked out Johnny before coming in here. He is alert and fine. I also gave Maria a long list of dos and don’ts, written in Spanish, so we won’t have problems in the future.

  She grabbed a pencil and wrote on her pad. Mrs. Adams knew not to give him cough syrup. I told her, myself!

  He sighed and stroked her hair. “Let it go. Mrs. Adams is one of those women who believe they know better than anyone on how to raise children. Had Davenport not moved her out, I would have insisted upon it.”

  She started to smile but stopped herself and hugged him instead. Instead of turning into a rock, he pulled her closed and gently rubbed her back.

  His hug reminded her a bit of Tom’s. She remained in his arms for a long time before he gently set her back. “Are you okay? Not having second thoughts about sending your boys out, are you?”

  She shook her head, then grabbed her pad and asked him his first name.

  “Steve.”

  That was the name of her first and only true love. Her heart ached at the thought of him. If only he hadn’t died. She’d fallen in love twice after Steve, but both those loves had failed to grow stronger with time.

  She studied the doctor’s handsome face. He looked a bit like her Steve, except for the eyes. Steve’s sparkled with mischief and love of life…or seduction, depending on what he was up to.

  This Steve’s eyes were full of concern.

  Why?

  Had Davenport convinced him she’d be going off the deep end soon? Or was it just concern for her injury. Was the chance of scarring greater than he let on?

  Davenport entered before she could write Doctor Steve twenty questions to find the answer.

  She touched her heart then pressed her hand over his heart.

  Davenport frowned at her action. “Ready?”

  She nodded and followed him out.

  ***

  Hamilton turned off the monitor and glanced at Braddock. “I’m concerned about your man.”

  “Because he tried talking you out of sending the boys to Tom?”

  “That began my worry. However, I didn’t care for his look upon discovering Angel is showing interest in the doctor.”

  Braddock stood. “I don’t believe there’s a problem here. To me, both actions fall within his responsibility as her handler.”

  “Well, the issue of the boys might, but right now he just looked like he doesn’t want anyone who isn’t ‘Max’s’ pick near Angel.”

  Braddock frowned. “I’ll talk to him.”

  “No. You’ll just make him hide his true feelings. Let’s see how this plays out. While people may know their actions might be monitored, for some reason they all have moments where they forget.” He then stared at Braddock, eyebrows raised.

  Braddock sighed and shook his head. “I’m far less upset you saw my lapse in judgment than the fact I had it.”

  Hamilton softly laughed. “She is enticing…or was before you asked her to disfigure herself.”

  He ran his hand through his cropped hair. “I tested that water on my arm before she came out. It barely reddened my skin.”

  “I know. You acted in good faith.” He returned to his desk. “Still, I was impressed how quickly she acted for the good of this facility.”

  “So was I. I’ve decided if I just take whatever that profiler said about her and flip it one-eighty I’ll have a decent profile on her.”

  “I can’t wait until we can crush Max Straun once and for all.”

  Braddock nodded. “It’s hard enough to protect this place from terrorists, but I spend a great deal of my time fighting a disturbing clever man who is supposed to be on the same side as us.”

  “Max has most everyone fooled, but in truth, he’s only out for himself.”

  “When are you going to pull that trigger?”

  “After we resolve this Anderson issue. I’m still not a hundred percent certain Max isn’t behind this as well.”

  ***

  Angel found it hard not to smile as she and Leon worked together on the final program. The rest of the team gathered behind them watching.

  “You know, Leon, you could pitch hit for our silent Angel and tell us what the hell this code is doing?” Scott complained.

  Leon tossed him the manual. “Knock yourself out. Truth is, I just focused on the stuff I’d need to know to connect the Sim’s patch.”

  Angel nodded in agreement. She had done the exact same thing.

  Scott opened the manual and started to read. “What does this program do that makes it necessary to write a new programming code? I mean, who are they gonna call if it breaks?”

  Angel thought that an excellent and worrisome question. What does this program do?

  Once they confirmed the data matched the original, Angel hugged all her teammates, then headed off with Davenport to Hamilton’s office where she listened to her happy boys tell her of their day.

  It was impossible not to smile, but thankfully it didn’t hurt as much today when she did.

  Once she mimed her ‘I love you all’ and the monitor shut down, she gave Hamilton a written update on their efforts. We finished the last program today, so tomorrow, we can test the entire system, and if all is good, then we are ready to contact Anderson.

  Hamilton stroked her hair. “Excellent.”

  She then wrote: Do you know what the MSOP.Exe program does?

  “No. I’ll ask Braddock if you like.”

  She nodded.

  “Is there a problem with the program?”

  Only that we don’t know what it does, and it’s written in a program language none of us knows, which is very odd. None of us
had even heard of this program.

  “Hold on, I’ll call Braddock in now.”

  Five minutes later, Braddock studied the manual she’d brought with her.

  “This is a proprietary army code,” Braddock replied. “But I wasn’t aware we had any army programs in our facility programs. And I’ve never heard of MSOP.exe.”

  “No doubt it’s an acronym for something,” Hamilton muttered.

  “I’ll make some calls and see if anyone has heard of it.” He turned to leave with the manual.

  Angel clapped to get his attention and ran to him, tugging at the manual. When he wouldn’t release it, she grabbed her pad and explained she wanted to learn the core code, so she could try and understand what the program was doing.

  “Sorry, but I’ll need it to reference while trying to get intel on this.”

  Angel was not happy about having her manual stolen. She made Davenport take her back to the lab, where she planned to take the other manual, only it was gone.

  Sighing in frustration, she went home where she, Kelly, and Maria played with Johnny until it was bedtime. Instead of his normal moodiness, he was amazingly happy with so much attention.

  As she climbed into bed, a horrible thought crossed her mind. What if Johnny had been a gloomy, stern baby because Mrs. Adams had been constantly drugging him? She hoped Steve intended to visit her in the morning, because she needed to know what the long-term effects of constant cough syrup drugging might be.

  Angel struggled to sleep that night. She was too angry to relax enough to fall asleep. Angry at Mrs. Adams, but even angrier with herself. Why had she shunted Johnny off to Derrick’s mother to begin with? Yes, raising four little boys was overwhelming, but she could have made the time. Only Max had insisted it was too much for her.

  She recalled when Mrs. Adams suggested they move Johnny’s primary crib to “her house”. Angel had refused to allow it, but Max had overridden her decision, declaring it a reasonable solution.

  He had been the one who first suggested letting Mrs. Adams care for their newborn. He said Angel was already overwhelmed with watching over the mobile mob, she couldn’t possibly deal with his baby as well.

  So, Angel had given in, allowed her baby to daily be taken to Derrick’s house where, despite being on her property, Max didn’t like her visiting.