Lean on Me (44 page)

Her next memory was of a wave of laughter as
Samantha chased Troy’s son, Hermes, through the house. Carrying one
of Samantha’s black Christian Louboutin pumps, Hermes ran as fast
as he could. The beautiful Samantha caught up with him in the main
shared living area where Alex was sitting. Samantha picked him up
and began tickling him. Hermes squealed and laughed.

The next snapshot was of sitting with Max on
a bench next to their chimenea on the upstairs balcony off their
bedrooms. A fire blazed in their chimenea and they were wrapped in
blankets against the cold.

“
There you are!” their
father, Patrick, had said. “Your mother said you wanted to speak
with me.”

Patrick nodded to John, who was adding
another piece of wood to the fire. Their father sat down on one of
the chairs. Nervous, John hovered nearby.

“
What’s going on?” Patrick
asked.

“
Dad,” Max said. He looked
at Alex and she smiled to encourage him. “I’ve met someone
important.”

Patrick nodded.

“
You look like you knew
that,” Max said.

“
No,” Patrick said. “I know
my son. You wouldn’t bring me up here to tell me you’re dating
someone. You want to tell me something else. I want to hear
everything you have to say.”

“
Max wants you to know that
he’s fallen for a man,” Alex said.

Paralyzed with shame, Max stared out across
the backyard.

“
He’s dated men and women,
girls and boys when were kids,” Alex said. “But this is pretty
serious.”

“
Max,” Patrick leaned
forward. He took Max’s hands. “I know.”

“
But…” Max said.

“
No buts,” Patrick said.
“I’ve been around men all my life. It’s never mattered to me if
they were gay or straight. I want you to be happy. And if this man
makes you happy, that’s all I want.”

Max looked at Alex. She nodded her
understanding.

“
I think we’re confused
because you’re so, uh, military,” she said.

“
Listen, gay men have saved
my life more than once,” Patrick said. “Is this why you’ve been so
distant with me?”

Max nodded.

“
He’s felt like he’s not…”
Alex and Max looked at each other for a moment. “Right.”

“
Not right?
My
Max? You mean the
world to me,” Patrick said. “You’ve defined my life since the
moment I met you. But Max…”

Max dared to look at him.

“
You need to know that I
love you and want you to be happy no matter what.”

When Max started to cry, Patrick did
something Alex couldn’t have predicted. He fell to his knees to hug
Max. She heard Patrick’s low voice and Max’s reply but couldn’t
hear what they were saying. When Max sat back, she knew he felt
better.

“
Besides, I always thought
you were with John,” Patrick said as he sat back in his
chair.

“
John?” Max laughed. “Mr.
Straight-arrow?”

“
He is your best friend. He
never fell for any of Samantha’s wiles. Imagine my surprise to find
out that he was married to Alex all this time,” Patrick laughed.
“Did you tell your mother? Ben?”

“
No, we wanted to tell you
first,” Max said.

“
Your opinion matters the
most to us,” Alex said.

Moved by their words, Patrick could only
look at his children for a moment. Recovering himself, he
smiled.

“
So who is it?” Patrick
asked.

“
Dr. Wyatt Klaussen,” Alex
said. “He’s our twin specialist. We met him last year. He finds us
fascinating. Well, Max more than me.”

“
Good choice,” Patrick
said. “Great Ranger. Did you know he…? Oh never mind. That’s a good
choice, Max.”

There was more said and more tears. John
joined them. And she was pretty sure they were out there until
late. But she had surgery for the infection right after that so the
memory ended fairly abruptly. She had a vague recollection of
Thanksgiving and her father’s team moving out of the house next
door, and of course, the Admiral and Colonel Gordon returning to
their posts.

Around the time when Eoin’s wife had their
baby boy, and Eoin stopped hiding out at their house, she was
conscious enough to work. Under her direction, the team turned over
every rock, put pressure on every contact, but found no further
information on the missing soldiers. The pirate Captain’s
information had dried up with the removal of the teams on the
Marshall Islands.

The last missing teams had been moved. She
had a vague memory of someone stomping around saying “How can
anyone disappear in this smartphone, satellite, CCTV world?”, but
she had no idea who that was. She only knew it wasn’t her, because
she wasn’t stomping anywhere.

Near the end of November, Fey wife and child
therapist Jennifer determined that it was time for Troy’s boys to
enter the “real world.” They started with half-days at the private
school Paddie went to. Cian was so worried about his little friends
that he met them after school every day for the first month.

Hector James and Hermes surprised everyone
by taking to school right away. The plan was for them to move to
full days in January. A week after starting school, the boys begged
to go all day. They flourished in school and even dared to go on
play dates with new friends. Shyer than Hermes, Hector James
surprised everyone by trying out the holiday school play. He got
the lead part.

Hector James and Hermes were thriving.

Around the time when Wyatt Klaussen moved in
with Max, her old sensei Steve Pershing appeared. He arrived two
hours after she had been medically cleared to work out. The next
week was like a scar of pain on Alex’s brain. Steve set up brutal
workouts for Colin, Max, Matthew, and Alex. By the beginning of the
second week, Alex could almost walk by herself. The third week, she
and Max ran the stairs at Red Rocks. She was pain free and fit for
duty.

Max’s partner, Wyatt, was a great addition
to their household. Having grown up in a large family, he took to
the flow of people and housework. He encouraged Samantha to join
him in evening walks around the park. He and Fionn came up with a
plan to create garden beds in their backyard next spring. To “catch
up with Max’s better half,” he and Alex began having early morning
coffee together. Cian gave him a long list of weekly chores, which
he did without comment. Much to Alex and Max’s delight, everyone
fell in love with Wyatt.

The next snapshot was more private and
softer. Weaved among the boring work, terrible pain, and family
interactions, Alex remembered John. His kindness was as deep as his
willingness to bully her into health. In these moments of pain and
struggle, Alex felt like she saw her husband with new eyes. He was
handsome, well, gorgeous in her eyes. He was also funny, smart, and
gloriously fit. He loved her. She’d known these things.

In the private, secret moments, she felt
touched by the beauty of his soul. They made love as much as they
could. They laughed more than they probably should have. They
played with the kids, went to movies, read books, and streamed old
television shows until they could repeat the dialogue. Somewhere
along the way, their love deepened.

By the time there was snow on the ground,
Alex knew one thing for sure. She might be good at rescuing
hostages; she hoped she was a kind sister; she was sometimes a
great spy; she worked to be a capable soldier; she tried to be a
loving daughter; but she was placed on this planet to love this
man, and this man alone.

“
Whatcha thinking?” Raz
asked.

“
Nothing,” Alex
smiled.

“
Ready to work?”

“
Let’s find some
hostages.”

FFF

Thursday night

December 24 – 11:47 p.m. MST

The Cathedral Basilica of the Immaculate
Conception

Denver, CO

Alex watched her mother’s mouth move. She
was talking, but Alex wasn’t listening. Everything was good, too
good to listen to her mother’s nagging. Max shifted on her right
side. She turned to smile at him. John slipped his arm around her
and commented on whatever Rebecca was saying. Alex looked toward
the front of the Cathedral. Across the pews, she saw old friends
and a few new faces. At the end of the pew, she noticed Julie slip
in next to Colin. He put his arm around her and kissed her head.
She leaned into him. Alex smiled. She was so focused on watching
people that she didn’t notice when her cell phone buzzed. Max
tapped her shoulder.

“
Your phone’s vibrating
against my leg,” Max said.

“
Makes you hot, doesn’t
it?” Alex asked.

“
Kind of,” Max
said.

“
What are you going to do
about it?” Smiling brightly, Alex raised her eyebrows, daring him
to do something crazy in church.

“
What’s going on over
there?” Wyatt asked from the other side of Max.

“
Don’t ask,” John said.
“It’s best to ignore them.”

Alex and Max laughed.

“
Your phone?” Max
asked.

“
Oh right,” Alex answered
her phone. “Hargreaves.”

“
Alex?” a woman’s
panic-filled voice came through her phone. “Is that
you?”

“
This is Alex Hargreaves,”
Alex looked around the church. If she got up now, she would miss
the service. If she missed the service, she’d hear about it from
her mother. Max grimaced and nodded. He thought she would have to
get to work. He waved.

“
Alex, it’s Dani,” she
said. “You remember that thing we wanted to do, and did, but then
were ordered not to do after it was already done? We tracked it
because we weren’t ordered not to track it, just not to do it, but
we’d already done it, and then it went dark?”

Alex stood up and moved to leave. Concerned,
John grabbed her hand. She gave him a soft smile. She mouthed
“work” and he nodded. She leaned down and kissed his cheek. He
whispered “love you.” She smiled at him and moved toward the
aisle.

“
Dani, I’m in church,” Alex
said. “Can I call you back in…?”

“
No. Don’t you dare hang up
on me,” Dani said. Alex could hear her start a vehicle. “Don’t hang
up. Don’t hang up. Don’t hang up. Don’t hang up.”

“
Okay, okay,” Alex
said.

“
It took me forever to get
your number. I had to threaten to post the night Sergeant’s novel
on Pirate Bay to get this number.”

As Alex moved down the aisle, the music
swelled to signal the beginning of Mass.

“
Aren’t you on maternity
leave?” Alex asked.

“
That’s what I’m trying to
tell you,” Dani said.

She looked up to see Matthew, Zack, and
Colin moving down the aisle with her. Vince stood near the door
waiting for them.

“
What’s going on Dani?”
Alex grimaced at the blast of cold air outside the
church.

“
You remember we did that
thing…” Dani started.

“
I remember,” Alex said.
“But it’s been dark.”

“
It was dark,” Dani said.
“I marked the signal as important. The signal went bright about ten
minutes ago, two minutes before my phone rang. I’ve been called
into Cheyenne Mountain. I wish this stupid car’s heater worked.
It’s freezing cold.”

She heard Dani pound on the car’s
dashboard.

“
Cheyenne Mountain? Why?”
Alex asked. “Where’s the signal?”

“
Some place in North
Dakota. They won’t tell me where,” Dani said. “But Alex, you’d
better get there. It’s brass and they aren’t happy. ‘Get out of
bed. We don’t care that it’s Christmas. Guess you’ll have to get
here fast so your children won’t miss Santa.’ And crap like
that.”

MJ came out of the church.

“
The Jakker’s with me,”
Alex touched Zack’s arm. He nodded and took out his cell phone.
“Most of the team is with their families all over the country for
the holiday, Dani.”

“
You’d better show,” Dani
said. “That’s all I can say.”

“
I’ll be there,” Alex
said.

“
See you under the
mountain,” Dani said.

The phone went dead. Alex tapped the
disposable phone against her top lip. MJ dropped her heavy winter
jacket over her shoulders.

“
I want to remind you that
you still have an infection,” MJ said. “This cold…”

“
We’re going under the
mountain,” Alex said.

“
What?” Vince
asked.

“
I’ve been summoned to
Cheyenne Mountain,” Alex said. “Colin, I order you back inside.
Your wife needs you.”

“
But…” Colin
started.

“
No buts,” Alex said. “Back
inside.”

She waited for him to go back inside before
continuing.

“
I would understand if any
of you would like to go back inside,” Alex said. “This is
Christmas. Given that we’re going to Cheyenne Mountain, we could
end up anywhere in the world. I’m giving you permission to spend
Christmas with your families.”

“
The Fey Team is my highest
priority, sir,” MJ said. “My family’s as well.”

“
I’m in,” Matthew said.
“I’m calling Joseph. He’s going to want to be there.”

“
Where are we going?” Raz
appeared at the bottom of the Cathedral steps. She held out her
hands in “How?“ “The night Sergeant called me to get your cell
number.”